Editor’s Note: AMI Quiet Times from April 6-12 are written by Pastor Peter Yoon of Kairos Church.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
1 Sam. 25:32-33a; 39b
And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you . . .” 39 . . . Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
Interestingly, during the years that David spent fleeing from Saul, he meets a wonderful woman named Abigail and eventually marries her. I know that 1 Samuel 25 was not written to provide the readers with advice on relationships or marriage; rather, it shows the bigger picture of how God is building up David’s family, military forces, and political alliances. Political marriages were common at the time, and by his marriage to Abigail, David was making important ties with influential families in Judah. And David’s kingship would be attributed to the support of the tribe of Judah, not from the existing royal court. The writer does not say so, but he plainly saw David’s marriage to Abigail as part of God’s plan for him. (Carson, D.A, New Bible Commentary)
Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the writer takes time to develop a narrative of how David and Abigail end up getting married. And in the narrative, it’s hard to overlook the quality that is highlighted in Abigail: her sense of “discretion”—this Hebrew word טַ֫עַם (ṭǎʹ·ʿǎm) means “judgment, discretion, discernment.” Concerning the quick thinking actions of Abigail in preventing disaster to her family, commentators of 1 Samuel describe Abigail using words such as: full of wisdom, sensible, prudent, and perceptive. Personally, having been married for 15 years now, I can testify that my wife has often practiced good sensibility in situations and with people, which has helped us in avoiding some negative circumstances in life.
But in contrast, Nabal, Abigail’s husband, behaved as a fool and almost brought about disaster to his family, had it not been for Abigail’s incredible discretion. We all know that we ought to choose the path of Abigail, but if we are honest with ourselves, more often than we’d like we show ourselves to be a Nabal. Due to our sinfulness, we choose anger over patience; slander over silence; lying over truth-telling; and bitterness over forgiveness. No wonder some of our relationships end up in disaster. It can make any of us cynical to relationships.
The good news is that we don’t have to swim in that cynicism, for Jesus offers us both hope and grace. He gets to the root of all relationship disasters, which stems from our hearts, not so much our foolish behaviors. Jesus works in our hearts to make changes that help us display more of Abigail’s “discretion.”Eventually, practicing that godly wisdom helps us bear fruit in our relationships. Ask the Lord for His wisdom because He promises to give it generously to those who ask (James 1:5).
Bible Reading for Today: Jeremiah 48
Two times (1 Sam. 23:5-7; 26:9-11), David is given a golden opportunity to take the life of his nemesis, King Saul, the man who was completely bent on killing David. Yet, on both occasions, not only does David refrain from taking Saul’s life, but he denies his men from harming Saul as well.
Yet both times, he refrains from harming Saul. What would you have done? Of course, we live in a totally different time and a way of life, and so we cringe at the thought of taking anybody’s life, even if the person had all of the traits of King Saul. We’d refrain from taking King Saul’s life as well, but not because of the reason David states. For David, it was clear that as long as Saul remained alive, he was still the Lord’s anointed servant. David may not have agreed with Saul and his ways as a king, yet David knew that God had His own timing, His own way of accomplishing His will, and His own way of displaying His glory.
David and Jonathan shared a deep friendship that was defined by a covenant before the Lord. One can imagine how exhausted and discouraged David must have been as he sought refuge from King Saul. David had to live in caves and the wilderness, fleeing from one place to another, never knowing rest. But on this day, though brief, refreshing encouragement came to David through his friend Jonathan (King Saul’s son). Technically, Jonathan should have been the next rightful heir to the throne and all of its power and wealth. Yet, Jonathan knew that David would be the next king over Israel, and he would be David’s second. Jonathan was a loyal and trustworthy friend—a friend that would stick closer than a brother who would have laid his own life for David. I hardly think that David saw Jonathan’s estimated worth as being $174.17. I’m certain that David truly valued Jonathan.
As soon as I became a father, I made a discovery of a whole line of products that I hadn’t paid much attention to prior to parenthood. For instance, there are numerous products that help parents “child-proof” the house. These include: protection from swallowing deadly chemicals, protection from electricity, protection from falling and bumping into sharp edges, etc. Good parents do their best to provide protection. In the same way, do you believe that God also provides protection for you as His child?
Such brutal edicts may have been perceived somewhat differently back then from the way we might understand them today. Nevertheless, we can readily see that there was something wrong and insidious about this order from Saul, for even the king’s guards had enough sensibility (and probably the fear of God) to refuse the order of slaying the priests. The price of the guards’ disobedience was probably very costly. It was indeed a day of mourning for Nob, David, and Israel.
My two boys will get into a little tiff and eventually one of them (usually the younger) will come running to me making a case about how he had been victimized by his brother: “Dad, he took the controller away from me, and he’s not sharing!” Of course, then his older brother will have to plead his own case that he first had been wronged: “Dad, he’s been playing already for a long time, and I didn’t even get a turn.” Back and forth the arguments will be made, hoping that I would be persuaded to take the side of the ultimate victim.
Suppose you were asked to start up a ministry: it could be a small group, a homeless ministry, a prayer ministry or a hospitality ministry, etc. Where do you begin the team selection? Do you look to the responsible, gifted, personable, team-oriented people? Or do you gather together all who might be “in distress or in debt or discontented”? It’s obvious that we’d prefer to work with those who are emotionally healthy, resourceful, and optimistic. If the team members of a ministry displayed those qualities time and time again—now, that’s a ministry that I would sign up for. But what if the members of the team displayed the kinds of qualities that reflected the type of people that had gathered around David as he fled from King Saul?
Today, we celebrate Easter Sunday—Jesus rose from the dead on this day a few thousand years ago. It was and still is the greatest day in all of history because everything changed as a result of the Christ’s resurrection. Not too long after this glorious day, simple, uneducated men would start sharing this Good News to strangers and even foreigners, where thousands of people started to put their faith in this Jesus. They would help the lame to walk, the sick to be healed, and bring dead back to life, all the while rejoicing as they took on beatings and persecutions. These simple, uneducated men would flip the whole world upside down. All of this could only be possible because that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwelled in them.
Why the miscalculation? Certainly, God had been telling and weaving an intricate story of redemption. It went from the Creation to the Fall, to Abraham and the time of the patriarchs, and the Exodus to the Exile. All throughout Israel’s history, there were prophecies of the Messiah who was to come. But instead of the Prince of Peace, the Israelites, because they had long suffered at the hands of gentile rulers (such as Grecians and Romans) were looking for a triumphant, militant Jesus.
We call this day Good Friday because we remember our loving Savior showing us the full extent of His amazing love for us: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We were the ones who were guilty. We were deserving of this punishment and shame. We should have been lambs led to slaughter. This day is so good because Jesus took the punishment of our guilt upon Himself, and by His sacrifice we were set free. Today is Good Friday because this is Good News, the best news there could ever be – Jesus died on a cross for us so that we could be set free from our sins, given new life, given eternal life with our loving King.