God, how do you do that?!?!?
Posted by Jonathan Bingham on June 10, 2022 under Blog | 
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I’m in tears praising God for His presence, faithfulness, and kindness.
This morning in my quiet time, I read 1 Samuel 24-30 about a key time of David’s development. His “Biggest Issue” was that Saul and 3000 of his best warriors were chasing him to kill him due to Saul’s misplaced jealousy. And at this point, David had already proven unequivocally that he was not trying to kill Saul and in fact was completely loyal to him, and had received Saul’s assurance he would stop trying to kill him! It’s telling that this period in David’s life was what drove his writing a number of the Psalms.
With David’s “Biggest Issue” in the background, it’s really cool that God designed a little life lesson to remind him that He could and would vindicate him at the right time. 1 Samuel 25 contains the story of David’s interaction with Nabal, a rich man who David and his small band of warriors apparently served as a protective guard for some period of time. When David asked Nabal for food for his companions, Nabal refused. And as David was apt to do in those days, he gathered up his 600 troops and went to kill Nabal and take the food had requested, plus everything else.
Nabal’s wife Abigail (an “intelligent and beautiful” woman) heard what her worthless husband had done and that David was on his way to kill him. She quickly gathered a huge feast worth of food and drink and loaded up her donkeys to try to stop David and his men before they found Nabal. She found him, and her excellent persuasive speech and demeanor turned David’s anger, and even prompted him to bless her for her wise behavior and her stopping him from the mistake of taking the matter into his own hand.
Abigail left David and found her husband, who was hosting (and fully participating in) a big party. The next morning she told him what had happened, and the impact of what Abigail had saved him from stunned him into unconsciousness. Ten days later, he died.
In the bigger flow of David’s story, this could be seen as an irrelevant sideshow. But as you read David’s response in verse 39, you see that David saw God’s hand in his life, protecting him, vindicating him, and teaching him.
In reading this story in the bigger context, I realized that God was showing / reminding David that He was present with him, helping him, and could handle David’s concerns without him taking them into his own hands. And David learned the lesson, as evidenced in his next encounter with Saul’s army in the following chapter.
God used this smaller issue to help David deal with his “Biggest Issue”!
It’s not often that God not only gives me some sort of insight into His Word in my quiet time, but then nearly immediately plays it out in my own life. Today he did.
Like David, I have a “Biggest Issue”, as we probably all do. It feels incessant, intractable, and interminable. I often wonder if God will ever intervene, even for a moment of relief. Sometimes there is little hope it will ever go away.
Well, a little while after my quiet time, within four minutes of each other, I received a phone call and a text that instantly resolved two separate big issues I have been struggling with for over 1.5 years in one case, and two months in the other.
My immediate response to God was, “God, how do you do this?” He is so amazing in His power – and His timing! Even to the point that as I was beginning to praise God out loud for these two miracles, the song “Egypt” that happened to be playing on my computer confirmed, “You’re the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” I can’t express my joy and gratitude!
And then God brought it home for me like he did for David. “I’m here! I’m able! If I can handle these matters in a moment as if they were nothing, I can handle your ‘Biggest Issue’, too. It’s just not time yet.”