Lessons in Providence (Part 1)

0:56David refuses to raise a hand against the king, forbids his men to harm him, and later even regrets stealing up and cutting off the corner of his robe. And yet, after Saul exits the cave, David puts himself at great risk by revealing himself to the king to show the king that he is really a faithful servant. He's not a criminal, and he's not there ready. To take the king's life. One chapter later, the chapter that Chris just read, David loses his temper because he is insulted by a fool. David is ready not only to kill the fool, but every male in the fool's household.

1:54It is only when a wise woman who at her own risk acts in a way that actually spares her husband and keeps David from acting foolishly. It is this story that will be the foundation of the two-week study on lessons in Providence. But in order for us to proceed this morning, we have to establish a working understanding of providence. So I think the best way for us to understand providence is to contrast it with sovereignty. That is, the theological terms of sovereignty and providence do not have the same understanding. They differ. Sovereignty is a characteristic or an attribute of God.

2:55It refers to his dominion. It refers to his. Legal claim over all things. It refers to his absolute control over everything. Sovereignty is who God is over his creation. Providence, on the other hand, is an action of God. It refers to his sovereign plan or purpose. It refers to what he establishes and ordains to come to pass. It refers to how he executes his decrees. Providence is what he does for his creation. So, in other words, sovereignty refers, means that God is in control of everything. Providence is the things he does to affect his control and sustain the world.

3:59One is something he is, one is something that he does. So, with those kind of preliminary thoughts aside, let's look at 1 Samuel 25. And this morning, we're going to highlight, using the story as the backdrop, five lessons in Providence: providential loss, providential injustice, providential intervention, providential restraint. And providential instruction. So, the first lesson is that God may call upon us to accept loss. Verse 1. Now Samuel died. All Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

4:55Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. Samuel died. Samuel was the one who designated and anointed Saul to be Israel's first king. Samuel was the prophet who informed Saul that his kingship was going to be taken away. Samuel was the prophet who anointed David as Saul's replacement. Samuel was the man to whom David fled when he was being pursued by Saul. And now Samuel is dead. But this was not David's only loss.

5:47Just back in chapter 22, his parents had been placed in the care of Moab. In chapter 23, he meets with his beloved friend, Jonathan, for the last time. Time. He will learn in chapter 25 that his wife, Michael, has been given to another man for that man's wife. The loss of Samuel is just one more loss in a string of losses. I have the privilege of knowing my wife, Debbie's aunt. In all of my life, I truly have never been around an individual who has experienced as much loss as Aunt Patty.

6:42She lost her husband to a heart attack when he was but 54 years old. She lost her oldest son to a massive heart attack when he was 34. She lost her second oldest son to a massive heart attack when he was but 35. In addition to those two losses, she's gone through two rounds of cancer, lost one breast to cancer. She lost her family for a period of decades because of inheritance squabbles, and saw her youngest son return from the Middle East and serving the military with PTSD.

7:30And became an alcoholic and remains an alcoholic to this day. In the 37 years in which all of this loss took place, Debbie and I cannot remember a single time of bitterness, not a single time of complaint. And yet, just last week, when we visited with her in Jacksonville, all she could tell us was how good God was and how good God had been. Brothers and sisters, why are Patty, Job, and David called upon by God to suffer providential losses?

8:15I do not have an absolute answer for you, but I can give you two partial answers. Number one, nowhere in the scriptures did God ever promise that we would be immune from the effects of the fall, especially death. In fact, we are told in the scriptures we will die. Sooner or later, all of us are going to experience the death of our parents, or our spouse, or other family members, or friends, or even our children. It is inevitable.

8:56But, number two, partial answer. often introduces providential losses so that we can show the world the surpassing value or worth of God. That is, he desires that we would show others that he, not our parents, not our spouse, not even our children, are our greatest possession. He is our greatest possession, and he is our greatest treasure. That is the first lesson in Providence that we can see from this chapter. The second lesson in Providence is that God may call upon us to accept injustice.

9:46Verse 2, now there was a man in Melon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. Now he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the man of the name was Nabal and the name of his wife, Abigail. The man was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved. He was a Calebite. So who is this Nabal? Nabal is a very wealthy man. You may remember in the book of Job at the front end, Job was one of the richest men of the East, and he owned 7,000 sheep.

10:28This man owns half that. So he is wealthy, and he keeps his livestock in Carmel, where David and his men have been hiding for some time. That's part of the story. So, what opportunity does Nabal give to David? Excuse me, that David gives to Nabal. In verses 4 through 9, if we were to look at those again, David learns that Nabal is shearing his sheep, and he sends 10 of his young men to Nabal. The entourage greets Nabal in David's name, pronounces a blessing upon him and his household, calls attention to Nabal that this is shearing time. And if you understand in the Old Testament, shearing time was always a time of great celebration and of feasting. And the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 14, Deuteronomy 26, state that during these times of shearing, you were to show generosity to the poor and to the needy. So David's delegation calls attention to the fact it's shearing time. And no one has harmed your sheep. We've protected your sheep for you. And you're in a good state. And we kind of encourage you to even check with your servants to see how nice we were and to verify this. And then they politely say to Nabal, Would you like to give us a gift? And they wait patiently and expectantly. Okay? So Nabal has four options here, right? Option number one, Nabal can give them a generous gift and a word of thanks. And number two, he can give them kind of a cheap gift and just kind of say, okay, thank you very much. Or he can send them back with no gift and apologize. Or he can send them back with no gift and an insult.

12:24Clearly, Nabal opts for option number four. Verse 10, and Nabal answered David's servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Now, notice this emphasis in 11. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my servants and give it to men who come from I do not know where? Now, at first look, you're saying, does Nabal not know who David is? It kind of applies that here. That's not the case. He knows who David is. How do we know this? Number one, he says, David's the son of Jesse. So he knows who he's related to. He knows he's a fellow member of the tribe of Judah. Second, he's aware of the tension between Saul and David because he says David was a servant of Saul who's breaking away. From his master.

13:33He knows this. He chooses to insult. So David's men return to him, to David, empty-handed. They repeat Nabal's response, and David completely loses his cool. Verse 13: Every man strap on the sword. And every one of them strapped on the sword, and David strapped on his sword, and 400 men went up after David. David comes to make Nabal pay. He wasn't going to give me any money. I'm going to make him pay with his life and the life of all of his men.

14:10Why is David so angry? Verse 21. Now David said, Surely in vain, I have guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. And yet he has returned me evil for good. From David's point of view, he has dealt kindly with Nabal. And it's now time for Nabal to deal kindly with him. But instead, Nabal insults David and sends David away empty-handed. If Nabal is going to return evil for good, David justifies in his mind, it's okay for me to return evil for evil.

15:04Why would God, in his providence, call upon David or us to endure injustice? If you were to turn back, and it would be behind me in the screen, back to Genesis 50, which we read earlier today. Do you realize Joseph's soaring statement in chapter 50? But Joseph said to his brothers, who had done evil to him, selling him into slavery, ignoring him, never coming to his rescue. Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil for and against me. But God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive.

15:58What gave Joseph this grace, the grace to make this remarkable reply? I will answer with three parts. Number one, Joseph knew God is sovereign. He knows that nothing comes into our life or the life of any of God's children that God has not approved first. Joseph II knew that God is sovereign. Wise, God always has a plan, and that plan was to rescue the very people of Israel, even when it didn't make any sense, and he's a slave in prison. He knew God is wise, but last of all, he knew that God is good. That the things that come into our lives by God's providence are ultimately for our benefit and the benefit of others. It's not for our harm. What Joseph saw and spoke of is no different, brothers and sisters, and actually much less than what Christ endured on the cross for our sake.

17:18As long as we look at the cross in history, remembering that this is the greatest example of evil in all history, producing the greatest amount of good, the salvation of a host and of a multitude. As long as the cross stands in history, no one knows the meaning and will be able to produce a limit, pronounce a limitation on God's providence. Christians must never say, I am aware that most things are controlled by God and that are good for me in some way. Way, but I'm just not sure how.

18:02No, Christians should say we know that all things God works for good for those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. And that includes accepting providential injustice. The third lesson from this chapter is that God may have to send others to providentially intervene on behalf of us. God frequently orders His providential care through human instruments. And 1 Samuel 25 is a textbook example, not an exception, but a textbook example of this.

18:50There's no question that Abigail is the primary agent God uses to arrest David from an impetuous disaster. Clearly, Abigail is the Lord's stop sign, mercifully placed in David's path. But however, I would propose for you this morning that there is another human instrument of God's providential intervention in this story. I refer, of course, to the unnamed servant in verse 13. Know who this aim is, but look at this. Verse 14. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, David, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us by day and by night, and all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now, therefore, Abigail, know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is a worthless man that no one can speak about.

20:18On January 6th, 1850, 15-year-old Charles Haddon Spurgeon was on his way to church, and I'm reading now from his autobiography. I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair even now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning when I was going to a place of worship. When I could go no farther, because the storm was so terrible, I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel, there might have been. A dozen people. The minister wasn't even able to make it to church that morning. So a poor man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, goes up into the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason he had absolutely nothing else to say. The text was Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. He didn't even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter because this is what he said. My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, look.

21:48Now, it doesn't really take a great amount of effort to look. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It says, just look. Well, a man need not go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. Anyone can look. A child can look. That's what the text says. Then it says, look unto me. Many of you are looking to yourselves. No use looking there. You'll never find comfort in yourselves. Look unto me. I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me. I am hanging on the cross. Look unto me. I am dead and buried. Look unto me. I rise again. Look unto me. I ascend and sit at the Father's right hand. Look to me.

22:49Then the lay preacher looked at Spurgeon underneath the gallery. And he said, Young man, you look miserable. And you will always be miserable. Miserable in life, miserable in death, if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Then he shouted, Young man, look to Jesus Christ. And if you were to read Spurgeon's autobiography, that is when he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Let me pause briefly for anyone here in the audience. You need to understand that God is holy and he hates sin. You need, second of all, to understand that you are a sinner, incapable of pleasing a holy God.

23:47And yet, this holy God lovingly sent his one and only son to die on the cross, to live a perfect life, to pay for the sins of those who will place their faith in him. And then, number four, all that you are required to do is to look unto Christ and place your faith in His work. That is how you can be saved. Like God's use of this simple lay preacher in Spurgeon's conversion, everything in our story today depends on this unnamed servant and his conversation with Abigail. Abigail's intervention depends upon the servant's information, he is a minor character of major significance. His role is small but essential. It is easy to want to press for more information about this unnamed servant. Don't just marvel at the God who, in his kindness and wisdom, leaves no detail untended in his work of providentially intervening on our behalf.

25:08The fourth lesson is that God may have to providentially restrain us. The fact that the dominant tone of this chapter is one of providential restraint. God providentially restrains his chosen king, David, from David's own impulsive folly. And wrong. Four times the story calls out God's restraining action. Look at Abigail's counsel in verse 26. Now then, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from harm of losing or saving your own soul or killing at your own hand. Clearly, she interprets her intercepting David as God's deed to prevent him from hasty bloodshed and vengeance. David agrees with that and confesses that God, through Abigail, kept him from doing wrong. Verse 33, Blessed be your discretion, Abigail, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand. Verse 34, for as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet with me. In verse 39, after he learns that Nabal is dead, he says, Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing.

26:53This story teaches us how God rescues his servants from their own sin. Stupidity, how he restrains them from executing their sinful purposes, and how he intercepts us on the road to folly. The fifth and final lesson is that God may have to providentially instruct us. Verse 30: And when the Lord has done to my Lord, Abigail speaking, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, my Lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my Lord working salvation himself. Abigail must instruct David that to slaughter Nabal and his household would be shedding blood without cause. In fact, Abigail's words in verses 30 through 31 say that David's vendetta would be both wrong and foolish against precept and policy. God, she assures David, will certainly bring David into kingship, but he must not leave that matter in, he must leave that matter in God's hands. He cannot mar God's work with his own folly. But, you know, David's just a little slow, brothers and sisters. Sisters. I mean, he is. He does not make the connection between the situation with Saul and the situation with Nabal.

28:43But haven't we been caught in the same net many times? Can we not recall times in which we saw God's way quite clearly in one dilemma, but miss it completely in a fresh situation when the same principles apply? We clearly see that we must be obedient in some dilemma, but change the time, the actors, the circumstances, the background, and we simply don't see the connection. How often does God have to stoop down and provide us with providential instruction? So, this morning we have seen, using 1 Samuel 25 as a backdrop, five lessons in providence. We've seen how the sovereign God providentially can use loss, injustice, intervention, restraint, and instruction for his glory and our benefit. So, in closing, let me briefly point out four other possible practical applications we can walk away from this morning from this text. The first is David's willingness to learn from a subordinate. David is the man designated to be Israel's next king. He has 600 men with him, including Abiathar the priest. He even has the Ephed, which is how they determine God's will. And in spite of all of these means of divine guidance, David is willing to listen to this woman, Abigail. And we'll speak about her at length next week. David seems to understand that truth does not always follow the chain of command. Some will only listen to people in authority over them. They think that they can't learn from a subordinate.

30:53Let us recognize that wisdom and spiritual gifts do not necessarily correspond with one's office or place in the chain of command. Let us learn to recognize wisdom and to receive it from whatever source God uses, even if it comes from a subordinate. Second, all of us sense promptings of the Holy Spirit. But are you aware As much of the Lord restraining you by holding you back as you are of I'm led or prompted by the Holy Spirit. Third, the unnamed servant had a small but essential role. Is it possible that this can apply to our prayers for others?

31:58And finally, let me pause and ask a penetrating question. We touched on it, but let me close on it. Why is David willing to deal with Saul's treatment, but not with the insults of Nabal? A.W. Pink makes this suggestion. David had been on his guard against anger and revenge when most badly used by Saul. But he did not expect such reproachful language and insolent treatment from Nabal. He was therefore wholly put off his guard. Lay this well to heart, dear reader. A small temptation is likely to prevail after a greater has been resisted. Why?

32:58Because we are less conscious. Of our need of God's delivering grace. Let me repeat that. Why? Small ones catch us? Because we are less conscious of our need of God's delivering grace. Continuing on with Pink. Peter was bold before the soldiers in the garden, but became fearful in the presence of a maid. Let us close in prayer. Lord, we are grateful for this text. It is rich. There is so much in this text that we can learn about you, your character, your sovereignty, your providence.

33:54There is much that we learn about ourselves and how woefully we are in need of your grace. Lord, there are many in this room who have suffered real intense loss. Grieving is appropriate. But may you grant them the grace to understand. That this is still coming from the hands of a loving God. There are those of us who are in the midst of enduring injustice. May those who are suffering injustice again recognize that you are in control. And while we can't see it, there is a purpose that will yet be revealed in time if we but have faith to trust in your providential care.

35:08There are others who are resisting the restraint that God is placing on them. May we not. May we realize, just as we might be prompted to action, that we may also be called to be restrained from taking action because it's folly, because it's stupidity. And may we recognize that you will intervene on our behalf and that you will provide us instruction, not for our own demise, but because you love us, you care for us, and you know better than what we know of ourselves.

36:00Lord, this chapter is rich. May we meditate upon these lessons. Some will apply to us and some will not. But may there be at least one that applies to each one of us this morning, so that we will not only bow before your sovereignty, we will embrace your providential care. We pray this for your glory and our good. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.