The Lord be with you
The other day I was reading the account in 1 Samuel 25 where David planned a rash act against a fool named Nabal but was dissuaded by a wise woman named Abigail. (David eventually marries Abigail.) What caught my attention was David’s description of his change of heart and the acts of Abigail.
David said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as the LORD the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had made haste and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”
Now David certainly gives credit to Abigail for her smart move, but that is not what caught my eye. David claims that God has sent Abigail. This was not her mission first and foremost, but God’s mission. Then David says that it was the Lord who restrained him, not Abigail or her words.
David has come to this conclusion in spite of the fact that no prophet is with him telling him to listen to Abigail, telling him that what she is saying is in harmony with God’s plan. We also have no record of Abigail receiving a vision on how to proceed. She simply acts in accord with her best laid plan. Abigail doesn’t demure, saying, “What is all this God talk. I’m the one who planed this little intervention. I’m the one you should be thanking.”
It seems that both David and Abigail understood life in a much larger context then is common today. Do we, today, see the Lord’s hand in everyday events? Do we see his hand in our plans or the actions of others?
I am reminded of the story about how Saint Paul and his company planned to go to Bithynia (Acts 16). The scriptures tell us that “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” How did the Spirit of Jesus get this message across? Now there might have been some unrecorded vision, but it also might simply have been that their plans fell through. While they sat in Mysia, frustrated, Paul finally gets the vision that summons him to his great Macedonia call.
Perhaps the Lord’s guiding hand is far more prevalent in our lives then we are accustomed to thinking. Perhaps that project that you wanted to do, but actually fell through, really is the Lord sending you in a different direction. Perhaps the job opportunity that brought you here really was given by the Lord and he looks for you to serve him right where he has now placed you. Perhaps, just perhaps, David and Abigail were on to something; something profound.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor