Restraint

April 16, 2024

In 1 Samuel 25 is a story with multiple layers to it. David and his 600 followers, discontents to the last man, are acting as a guerrilla paramilitary operation, offering protection to the locals…for a price. In this story, they are providing protection for a wealthy man named Nabal, who doesn’t appreciate what he considers to be extortion for their uninvited service. He refuses to provide anything for their efforts, prompting David to mount a retaliatory raid upon him and his possessions. 

Nabal’s wife, the beautiful Abigail, learns of David’s intentions, and intervenes, preventing by her bold and wise actions the carnage David had planned. David’s response:

“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.“ —I Samuel 25:32-33 

I’ve often wondered at the mystery of God’s intervention in my life. I’ve watched too many times as people have destroyed in a moment of rage or passion what took years to build. Marriages destroyed, families torn apart, ministries gutted, businesses destroyed…all because someone chased after the latest shiny thing that caused their undoing.

I’m no smarter nor better than any of the people I know who have tossed away a lifetime of hard work in a fit of jealousy, envy, or lust, and known how close to the edge I’ve come at times through my own foolishness. Why God pulled me back and didn’t do the same for someone else is beyond my understanding, but I’m grateful that he has done so. 

Jesus often opened the eyes of the blind, which is a picture of his work in us. Sin blinds us to it’s consequences (we sin when we think we can get away with it), but those consequences are always there. I am so grateful that at those times when I was stumbling along in the dark, God opened my eyes just in time to keep me from taking that one step that would have spelled disaster. Why me and not others I don’t know, but I am so very grateful, as was David, for God’s restraining hand.