Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Authority
- Authority: Our calling. This comes from God as king. Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
I think this chapter contains one of my favorite stories about
David. Here is a king who has just lost
his kingdom. One of Saul’s kinsmen comes
out to verbally abuse David as David goes by.
This man believes that David lost his kingdom as God’s righteous
judgment upon David. David needs to
respond.
Some of David’s men come to David and offer to go kill the man and
silence them. Who could blame David if
he had allowed them to do so? Had you
just been ousted by your own son and be running away with your tail tucked
between your legs, wouldn’t it be easy to lash out at people who would just come
and pile it on?
But look at what David does here.
I love David’s spiritual example.
David reminds himself that he is a human and cannot know God’s
will. It could be that this kinsman of
Saul is actually correct. And if he is
correct, then what good will it do to go and hurt someone who is properly
acting upon the will of God? Or it could
be that this man is wrong. If he is
wrong, then wouldn’t it be better to let God deal with it than to take matters
into our own hands?
You see, people will always come up against us. People will always think they know God’s will
when it comes to our life. The high
spiritual road that David shows us is that we should let vengeance be to the
Lord. The Lord is the only righteous
judge. If I get caught up in some sort
of vengeance and I turn out to be wrong, then I am putting God in a position to
be my judge. And let’s be honest with
ourselves. God’s already got enough on
me. I don’t need to add to the pile!
David knows where true authority comes from: the King, our God and
Father. David doesn’t need to wrest God’s
authority out of his hand. David is
content letting God be king, letting God be in charge, and letting God be
judge. David will simply follow the path
that God seems to be putting in front of him – even when it doesn’t make any
sense such as losing the kingdom to your worldly son. But even then, David doesn’t usurp God’s authority. His example is very good here.
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