Message: In 1 Samuel 25 David went from sparing Saul’s life to almost slaughtering a man along with his family and servants to avenge himself because he was hangry. Fortunately, one of the servants reported to the man’s wife and she was able to speak to David out of wisdom. She was also smart enough to do that with an offering of food! I’ve read this story lots of times and the focus always seems to be on the wisdom of Abigail. What I really picked up on today was that David had been standing his ground, on the run and protecting other people. He was literally being hunted so he was more emotionally vulnerable than ever. We are vulnerable when we are in the fight and this was no ordinary fight! Sometimes we are so faithful and so careful about certain situations that we don’t realize how much the pressure is affecting other areas. When we feel out of control in one area, we often unknowingly take it out in another area. If we’re stressed about finances, we might take it out of the kids or kick the dog. If we’re stressed about work we might do really well in managing our behavior while at work but we might take it out on our spouse or even on a random stranger acting like a jerk. There was no question that the man David was about to kill was a jerk. The wife and the servant referred to him as “worthless” and said that nobody could speak to him. The request that David made was reasonable, but he was unwilling to listen. What I loved the most about this story is that Abigail talked him down by speaking to his future. She referred to him as if he were already king and took his mind back to the state it was in when he chose not to harm Saul. When David chose not to take matters in his own hands, God did something about it. The man had a seizure the next day and he died. God avenged David, and probably the wife and all of those servants. This reminds me of the importance of letting God fight my battles. It’s tempting to avenge ourselves when we feel we have been treated unfairly but God moves on our behalf when we leave it to him.
