There are so many things I admire about Abigail. She was married to a fool, yet she was willing to defend him. Just imagine, when she had heard that David was on his way to kill Nabal, she could have said, “God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform! Good riddance!” But instead, she chose to defend her foolish husband. She didn’t defend Nabal because he was good and deserved it, she did it because SHE was good and it was the right thing to do.
Sometimes people ask a dying person, “Have you made your peace with God?” I know they mean well, but you and I cannot make peace with God. We don’t have to make peace with God, because Jesus already made it. We only have to accept His terms of peace. Jesus is the world’s greatest peacemaker. The Bible says, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things…by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)
Isn’t it interesting how God can take a mess and turn it into a message? Take the time to read Matthew 2 about the genealogy of Jesus. It says, “David, who was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Uriah’s wife…” Not David’s wife, not even Bathsheba. “Solomon whose mother was the wife of Uriah.” A thousand years later when they wrote it down, God still did not recognize the validity of that marriage, because of the way it began. Even in spite of that God made something beautiful out of a mess. That’s the business God is in. Look at our lives! God is in the business of taking mistakes and using us for his glory!
Each of us has three kings fighting for control (there are probably a lot more). In each of us, there is a King Saul, a spirit of jealousy, a spirit of envy, a spirit of anger that becomes so blinded that this is a true “rage-a-holic.” Thank God, I think in each one of us there is the potential for a King David, a spirit of submission. It is the spirit of Christ of submitting to God’s given authority. And I also think in each one of us there is a “king-to-be” Absalom and he is the spirit of rebellion, the spirit of selfish ambition. Who I can become? What I could do if I were in charge? I could do a whole lot better if I was in charge of this outfit! Be careful, because those three kings are usually fighting for control of your life.
Have you ever bought a product and along with it you receive a guarantee or a warranty that says if anything goes wrong with it, you get your money back? Well Romans 8:28 is “God’s Infallible Guarantee!” He says, “I guarantee if you meet my conditions that you’re going to see all things become a part of his plan to produce good.”
When David heard Goliath’s threat, he knew the enemy was there before him and he said, “We have to do something about this!” Before you ever succeed in battle you have to identify who your giant is. Your giant may be your temper. It may be lust; it may be a financial problem; it may be some personal problem you have. Before you can ever conquer your giant, you have to identify your giant.
It had to be tough on David knowing he was anointed the next king and here was Saul, whom the spirit of God had left. Here was a holy man in the presence of an unholy person, yet he submitted to him and the Bible says he served Saul. God was trying to prepare David. David was out in the field taking care of the sheep and wild beasts came. By killing those wild beasts he knew that when a giant of a beast stood before him he could do it. But he also had to deal with another beast, a human beast named Saul. Throughout his life David was going to have to deal with difficult people sometimes in his own family. God was preparing him for that.
When somebody directs us to do something, before we take the first step, most of us want to know all the details. In fact, if Abraham had been like most of us, and God had spoken to us, we would have said, “Now wait a minute. I need to know who you are, God. What’s your name?” Abraham didn’t ask. We would have asked, “Now, Lord, we want to know exactly where it is you are going to take us. What is the name of the land you are leading us to?” Abraham didn’t ask that. Later on, Abraham just kept on moving by faith until he came to this land that was going to one day be Israel.
