Deeper Reflection
WHEN DAVID AND ABISHAI came to the camp of Saul by night, they saw “Saul lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. And Abner and the soldiers with him were lying around him” (v.7, NIV). Then they took Saul’s spear and the water jug near Saul’s head (v.12). They accomplished this entire act of bravado in stealth: “No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up” (v.12, NIV). However, credit is not given to human skill or stealth for this achievement. It was God at work on behalf of David: “for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the LORD had fallen on them” (v.12). This was one of the various divine interventions in David’s discipleship journey as a fugitive – a fugitive in the Lord at that (cf. Eph 4:1). When Saul “sought him every day” in the wilderness of Ziph, “God did not deliver him into his hand” (1 Sam 23:14). When Saul was “surrounding” David to seize him in the wilderness of Maon, an urgent message about a Philistine raid on Israel came to Saul, who then reluctantly “returned from pursuing David” (1 Sam 23:26-28). God “sent” the wise Abigail in a timely manner to restrain David from his impulsive folly of hasty bloodshed and vengeance in seeking to kill Nabal and his whole household (1 Sam 25:32-34, 38-39). The infinitely creative God in His sovereign freedom and sovereign wisdom intervenes in our lives in diverse ways. And it is always a divine initiative of grace.
