Have you ever felt like God is telling you the same thing over and over again? Without fail we realize the error in our ways, turn from our sin and inevitably we return to it. God rebukes us again and we are almost surprised that we were caught sinning in the same way again.
In today’s reading David spares 2 men’s lives. The first is King Saul. Not only does he spare his life once but also actually he lets him live twice. David also forgives the harsh words of a man named Nabal. David first spares Saul’s life in a cave while “Saul reliefs himself”. (Pause for laughter) After he lets Saul know that he did not kill him, Saul repents and leaves David be. David then sends word to a man named Nabal and asks for food rations. Not only does Nabal refuse to help, he insults David and his men. On the way to kill Nabal, David meets Nabal’s wife Abigail who pleads for her husband’s life. David turns Nabal over to God and returns back to his camp. Right about this time Saul forgets that David spared his life and pursued him again. Once again David prevails as the righteous man and Saul leaves him be.
What does all of this have to do with us? The first thing that we need to see is that we are in a relationship with a forgiving God. We are regularly given second, third, fourth and even hundredth chances to repent and turn from our sin. This may be the case but lets not take advantage of God’s grace and mercy. Secondly we need to see that even if someone is trying to chase us down and kill us, it is not our place to seek revenge. “Vengeance is mine says the Lord.” As easy as it is for us to identify the wrong doings of others, it is not our place to bring them to justice. This may be difficult in some cases but as we see in today’s reading, God will handle the situation and do so fairly.
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