7/16/2010
8:17:07 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: David discovers an Enemy
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 1 Samuel 25:2-13
Message
of the verses: “2 ¶ Now there was a man in Maon whose business
was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a
thousand goats. And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel
3 (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his
wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in
appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a
Calebite), 4 that David heard in the
wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5
So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, "Go
up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him in my name; 6 and thus you shall say, ’Have a long life,
peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
7 ’Now I have heard that you have
shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them,
nor have they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel. 8 ’Ask your young men and they will tell you.
Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a
festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your
son David.’" 9 When David’s young
men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name;
then they waited. 10 But Nabal answered
David’s servants and said, "Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse?
There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. 11
"Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have
slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?"
“12
¶ So David’s young men retraced their
way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words.
13 David said to his men, "Each of
you gird on his sword." So each man girded on his sword. And David also
girded on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David while two
hundred stayed with the baggage.”
The story that unfolds here in
chapter twenty-five of 1 Samuel is one of my favorite stories from the OT story
of David, and the reason is because of Abigail.
She is described in verse three as intelligent and beautiful in
appearance, just the opposite of he husband Nabal. I would suppose that this was an arranged marriage as most of them were
during these times. “Nabal, a descendant
of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.” (NLT)
It is possible that David and Nabal were distant relatives as they were
both from the tribe of Judah. Nabal was
nothing like his relative Caleb whose name means fool, but Caleb was a very
brave man as he was one of the two spies who came back with the true report of
the land and wanted Israel to go and conquer it by the power of the Lord.
It should be noted that this Carmel
was not the Mt. Carmel which is located in the northern part of Israel. And it should be noted also that David and
his men had protected Nabal’s men while they were living there before and it
was common hospitality to take care of them because it was a festive time, the
shearing of the sheep. Nabal was a
disgusting human being who did not deserve the riches and the wife that he had,
for he did not give credit to the Lord for his successful life.
I want to commit on David’s anger
that can be seen in verse thirteen.
David did not think nor did he consult the Lord about going to kill
Nabal and his family, but just reacted in anger. This was certainly sinful and if the Lord had
not used Abigail to stop this, as will be seen later, then David would have
ruined his character and perhaps his opportunity to be king. Warren Wiersbe has written in many of his
commentaries that if God is not allowed to rule in our lives then He will over
rule in our lives, and this is what happened in David’s life at this time. He also wrote in his commentary on this
passage the following, “The best of men are but men at their best.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: “Stay
alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a
roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
This is 1 Peter 5:8 in the NLT, and it is very true as can be seen in
today’s reading from 1Samuel 25.
When temptation comes upon me
quickly like it did in David’s story then I believe that I am most venerable
and need the protection of the Lord most at that time.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Seek the
protection that the Lord offers by putting on the spiritual armor today: The belt of truth, the breastplate of
righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith,
and put on the helmet of salvation, and take up the Sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God.
2.
Continue to learn contentment.
3.
Ask the Lord to guide my path today.
4.
Be angry and sin not.
7/16/2010 8:58:51 AM
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