Daily Reading
1 Samuel 25-26
Psalm 63
Matthew 9
Scripture
David is offended by Nabal:
21 David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God strike me and kill me[c] if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”
As David is on his way to kill Nabal, he meets Abigail who says,
26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.”
David takes back his rash words:
33 “Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.” (1 Sam 25:21-22, 26, 33)
Observation
As we read through many of the psalms of David, the theme is the similar: “Lord, evil people are out to get me. Please rescue me. My hope is in You. You are my vengeance. I praise You.” He tells the Lord he has been wronged and then leaves it to God to take care of it. So, what is different here? I think David was blind-sighted by the simplicity of it all. By the power of God, he has fought bears and lions and even a giant. He is running from the king of Israel who usually has about 3,000 soldiers with him, but he leaves it in God’s hands. When he asks Nabal for a simple thing, Nabal insults him and refuses. I think because it is such a small thing, David lets his humanity take over and he rashly takes off to solve this problem on his own. He doesn’t think first, and therefore doesn’t ask for God’s help. Luckily, God is a graceful and allows David a way out of his rash decision. David, who truly is a man of God, boldly admits he was wrong and even thanks the person who told him so.
Application
How quickly I am sideswiped by small things. I am a person of integrity in all the big things. I don’t steal or lie or murder. I ask God for help making major decisions in my life. I can gracefully take care of a patient who is verbally abusive because I have asked God in advance to give me grace and empathy. But when I am cut off in traffic, my anger instantly wells. When my kids fight, I yell. When I feel I’ve been insulted by my husband, I get defensive. When the grocery teller is snippy, I get snippy. Why is it that I can land the biggest fish in the ocean, but I struggle bringing up the small throwbacks? Is it because they are throwbacks and so I don’t ask for God’s help? Maybe I don’t think each small encounter with humanity is important to God? Oh, but it is! I need to ask for God’s favor in ALL things! Don’t I feel silly when I am offended by someone because they said something offensive to me and later I find out they’ve just experienced something horrible? If I was asking God for direction in ALL my encounters, I would have not been so self-centered to think that attitude was directed towards me. God’s spirit would have given me empathy and perhaps asked me to encourage that person.
Prayer
God, help me to ask for your directoin in ALL areas of my life. Let each encounter with Your creation be directed by You. Don’t let my emotions make my decisions for me. And help me to be like David, who, when faced with his wrong ways, quickly changed and did not defend his actions.
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