About turning back

About U-turns.

Have you ever read that that you were absolutely sure about something, with plenty of unbeatable arguments to do something, And here someone stands in your way and asks you not to do it and suddenly your heart softens and you already know that what you wanted to do is not good, but it results from your hurt, pride, resentment? Could you turn back? Could you admit your mistake, your bad intentions? Is there a future reflection on how small is the line between what we want and what God wants?

King David is a great figure, if we didn’t know his story, but only heard what God said about him later and how to refers to him – we can say cautiously that he was after God’s heart – we would think that he was such an amazing man of God without blemish and spot. However, I assure you, such people do not exist, they simply do not exist, and if you even heard that someone was like that, believe me, the story is terribly stretched. God loved David, how few people, somewhere in the depths of David’s heart, God noticed an ardent love for himself, which is why God looks at the heart, and not at the appearance or something else, at yours as well.

In David’s adolescence meets an incomprehensible situation, so they call him from the flock to come home, because the prophet has come, such a visit to Jesse’s house, it was indeed a miracle and it foretold either something terrible or great. There Samuel anointed him king of Israel, which neither he nor his family would understand, who would finally understand these freaks of the prophets. However, this day became a turning point in his life. And Sam. 16.7.13. Soon he would be at the side of the ruling king, for whom he was to play and sing for, as this soothed his tortured heart and calmed his nerves.

The next events happened quickly, the fight with Goliath, friendship with Jonathan, his first love for Saul’s daughter and marriage. And suddenly David became more and more in the light of fame. People talked about him, about his feats of war, songs were sung about him, it all made Saul jealous. This jealousy leads him to persecute David, who must have been a fugitive and a wanderer ever since. Could it be imagined that the anointed king is an outcast? What did David think then, was this anointing some kind of fraud, or was the prophet wrong? Or maybe he thought, yes God’s blessing is for me and for Israel, but this Saul is an obstacle, he has to be destroyed and everything will be in its place.

Well that David didn’t have to go through. He took refuge with his spiritual father Samuel, and there he saw miracles, when even his enemies fell into raptures, even Saul, and they could not do anything to him. He had to save his family so that Saul would not take revenge on them, he fed himself on laid bread, for which Saul had the priests from Nob murdered, he pretended to be mad in front of King Gat by drooling his chin and slapping his hands on the gate. Eventually, when about 600 like him were gathered around him, they became the protectors of cities like Keila, whose inhabitants, out of fear of Saul, first accepted him as a hero and later betrayed him. In the end, he meets his oppressor and has the opportunity to kill him, but it is God’s heart in him that does not allow it. Somewhere in his heart he knows that all the things he is going through are in God’s plan for him and that he needs it, although he doesn’t understand it today.

We finally come to the heart of today’s discussion, this is a short story with Nabal and Sam. 25.2-44. Only after meeting the reigning king, who has no intention of abdicating or yet knows what, he receives news of the death of Samuel, the one who anointed him king. Everything became distant, cloudy, his future, which looked so good while he was still at the king’s court. Maybe he thought then, this man of God will hear God’s voice and prepare him for such a serious function as kingship, and here nothing but jealousy, hostility, and that from the Lord’s anointed. And now he, in the wilderness with a band of soldiers, without the support of even the one who was a rock in his life, who told him just in case, the Lord chose you. Is that all true?

David didn’t want much from Nabal, he protected his flocks. Cutting 3,000 sheep is a good job, but also a good income. Today wool is not in the price, but then it was probably 10 times higher. As breeders write, sheep are sheared twice a year and you can get about 5 kg of wool from it, today wool is about 3-5 zlotys per kg. Well, but surcharges are not included here. Anyway, there was a festival at Nabal’s, so David wanted to participate by asking for supplies. Instead, the envoys heard that he was a rebel and would get nothing. And Sam. 25.10. David was so offended that he decided to go to Nabal and kill all the men. As he thought, he did too, his soldiers armed themselves and, for a just cause, they were going to avenge the insult the breeder had inflicted on them.

What a David he is, we do not know him like that, after all, Nabal was a Calebite, of the man who, together with Joshua, once brought there is good news to Israel about the promised land, he was the one who entered this land as one of the two after wandering in the desert. To be from the Kaleb family was obligatory, but also respected. David, who had taken pity on Saul who had pursued him not so long ago, now goes without blinking an eye to murder the men of the house of Nabal. Have you ever had such impulses? Are you able to live unforgiving because of resentment? After all, our Lord Jesus’ unforgiveness is equated with murder, because it results from the judgment of man, which we carry out ourselves, without judgment, without defenders.

God watches over David and with his ferocity, he sends Nabal’s wife, the beautiful and wise Abigail, to keep him. She took the supplies for the army with her and set off in a hurry. A woman stands before David and speaks words of faith and prophecy to him. He takes the blame on himself and speaks straight to his worried and lost heart. “For my lord wages the war of the Lord, and there shall be no evil in you all your days, 1 Sam. 25.28b. And when the Lord has done all good things for my lord that He has spoken about you, He will make you a prince over Israel. It won’t be a stumble for you, my master, and a pang of conscience, as if you had shed innocent blood and saved yourself with your own hand … 1 Sam. 25.30-31. These words pierced the balloon of David’s anger, and suddenly God reminded him of what he had called him to and what pettiness he wanted to be.

Perhaps his spiritual state was not stunning, but the words that the woman said made him hope that God had not forgotten him. That his election is up-to-date, and that his experiences are a preparation for David for the role that God intended for him. This discovery ignited his heart again and he abandoned his destructive intentions, departing from the carnal to the spiritual, which God was saying to him. How much we need God to confirm our calling, our way in Him, especially when everything falls on our heads. As this beautiful plan of God, which had even begun to come to fruition, we thought, turned into something quite the opposite, discouraging. When we think, does God really want this in my life, and it really discourages me from doing it? This is our human thinking, but it is true that when we die, God comes alive in us and can do whatever He wants, this truth begins to live. David, in his helplessness, could do nothing, maybe even his soldiers mocked him, but he humbly returned to himself and relied on the Lord.

After ten days, Nabal died, God struck him. David liked Abigail and her wisdom so much that he sent matchmakers for her and she became his wife. His obedience was rewarded, and suddenly God blessed him out of a hopeless situation. Have you ever experienced the reader that when you put yourself on a shelf and let God work, you saw miracles and a blessing, and when you wanted to do something your way, everything became like sand in your hands?

In short:

The vocation to live with God is not candy-like. God will take you from your affairs to his own. To become a prince, you first need to know rejection. God’s education is full of twists and turns. God rewards trust and faithfulness. From the most difficult situations for you, God can and wants to make them the best.

Yours in Lord KJ.

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