1 Sam. 24-27
Twice David has Saul’s life in his hands, and twice he spares it. David was content to wait for God to take Saul and deliver the kingdom to him, as promised. It is so tempting to get impatient with God and to try to fulfill His promises on our own. Reference Abram and Sarai, when they decided to “help” God by way of Hagar.
David was steadfast in leaving his enemies to God….except in the case of Nabal. Why did David rise up against Nabal, who was merely rude to him and his men, while being so gracious to Saul, who was trying to kill him? Perhaps because Saul was God’s anointed, and also the father of David’s best friend and former wife, while Nabal was just some wealthy man whose people and property David and his men had evidently helped and protected. There is no indication that Nabal asked for David’s help so I wouldn’t think he owed David anything, but perhaps there is a custom regarding this that I am unaware of.
Maybe Nabal’s action ruffled David because it so directly impacted his men as well as himself. I don’t know. But this passage makes it pretty clear that David’s taking vengeance on Nabal would not have been a good thing for him to do. And I don’t believe he ever tried such a thing again, though his enemies were many. God used Abigail to keep David from “working salvation himself.” I think that is another good thing to keep in mind – that it is not our job to “save ourselves” from our personal enemies. We need to rely on God for that. What is our job is to show them the love of God.
Luke 23:1-25
Luke 23:25b says, “but [Pilate] delivered Jesus over to their will.” This struck me, because it made me think that when we follow our own will, we are crucifying Jesus – that was the will of the people. But Jesus had already turned Himself over to God’s will (“not my will, but yours be done” – Luke 22:24b). God’s will leads to salvation. That is the choice we are faced with daily – our will (leads to death) or God’s will (leads to life). The beauty is that when we, like Jesus, submit our lives to God’s will, then God does as He did in this passage – He used the will of the people to execute His own will. Check mate. God wins. Now our will, though it still leads us astray, cannot destroy us.