Wednesday – History

Reading – 1 Chronicles 10-12

Highlight Verse:

“The people of Jebus taunted David, saying, “You’ll never get in here!” But David captured the fortress of Zion, which is now called the City of David.”
‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭11‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jebus was an ideally defensible city. It had high walls around it and difficult terrain leading to it on 3 sides.

Even with Mount Moriah rising above the city, attackers from that direction would be exposed and driven away from the wall.

On top of that, the city had a source of water that would help them survive a siege.

The Jebusites had good reason to be confident in their safety.

But that very confidence caused them to overlook the fatal flaw in their defenses.

Their source of water, the Gihon Spring, allowed an advance party to sneak in and break through the defenses at the gate from the inside.

It is so easy to become overconfident as a believer.

We trust in our accomplishments and successes, even moral successes. That overconfidence leads us to let down our guard, allowing the enemy to infiltrate through areas we thought were good.

I’ve seen it in several pastors and ministry leaders.

They built walls of self-righteousness that hid the cracks that temptation and sin crept into.

By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late and their ministries came tumbling down.

A few, through humility and accountability, have been restored.

Most had their reputations crushed along with much of the positive results of their ministry.

No matter how successful or unfailingly moral we are, we would be wise to stay humble, realizing that we need to keep our guard up even when we are doing well.

Have you ever been blindsided by sin creeping in your life where you didn’t expect it?
How did you get through that situation?