Notice on a slight format change:

Except for July 2012, these are mostly a collection of current devotional notes.

July 2012 is a re-write of old quiet times. My second child was born Nov 11, 1987 with multiple birth defects. I've been re-reading my QT notes from that time in my life, and have included them here. They cover the time before the birth and the few years immediately after the birth. They are tagged "historical." I added new insights and labeled them: ((TODAY, dd mmm yy)).

Friday, January 13, 2023

QT 1/13/2023 1 Sam 26:8-12, Getting around God's command with self-deceptions

1 Samuel 26:8–12 (ESV) —

8 Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” 10 And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. 11 The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.

 

NOTE: The sons of Zeruiah would be known for their violence. They saw opportunity and took it. I would not say that scripture described them as men of faith. They were men of action, but they usually acted on what they saw and not what they trusted God to do. This is a good example. Abishai suggests the same approach to David that David had rejected in the cave and the approach that Abigail had rebuked David on the way to Nabal's home. Fortunately, David (for whatever reason -- maybe it was his new wife Abigail) is now acting as he formerly did, as a man of God. He rejects the advice of Abishai to seize the moment and kill his enemy. Abishai even offers to do the act, a subtle way of getting around David's distaste for raising his hand against God's anointed. But David knows that little self-deceptions do not make an act acceptable that was not acceptable before. That is our problem as well, we attempt to get around truth by telling ourselves half-truths, playing games with words, or re-interpreting God's law to our advantage.

 

PONDER:

  1. I know the right thing to do -- what is it that I am trying to circumvent rather than wait upon God?

 

PRAYER: Father, protect me from speeding things up or bringing about my own justice by my actions. I want to see you act.

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