1 Samuel 24:1-25:44
John 10:22-42
Psalm 116:1-19
Proverbs 15:20-21
I have never been a man of great restraint. Those who know me know I tend towards impatience, I chafe at the bit, I like to act, to fix things. I feel that if I am not doing something to fix the problem, then I am part of the cause of the problem, and I lose my right to complain about the problem. So it is no surprise I struggle to wait patiently, to listen for God's instructions, and I act precipitously, often without his command.
In that sense (among many, in all honesty) I am so very different from David. Consider: the man he had loved and served loyally, whom he had never given cause for offense, and yet who had irrationally, unreasonably attempted to kill him - that man was standing before David, vulnerable...and David was armed with a sword. He could have struck him down, killed him, removed the threat to his life, and the impediment to his ascension to the throne...the throne God had said would be his. He could have done all this, but he didn't.
Why? Because in Saul, he saw God's anointed one, however much he may have been corrupted by sin. And because God had not given him leave to do so. There was no impulse in David, only a keen awareness of God and His will. And, in doing so, God used David to help Saul recognize, at least one last time, what the righteousness Saul might aspire to looked like. And it is interesting that, immediately after the story of David's obedience, we read that he was hungry, and God, through the sinfulness of Nabal, provided David not only with food to eat, but a wife as well.
I pray God grant me and my family such a relationship with Him as David had, as to seek, to find and to obey His will in all situations, even when circumstances seem to cry out for immediate action.
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