| Date | Version | Reading Plan |
|---|---|---|
| September 1, 2024 | ESV (2016) | M’Cheyne Plan 2024 |
1 Samuel 25
1 Samuel 25:32-39 (ESV) 32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 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 me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” … 39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
Abigail, the wife of Nabal (a harsh and worthless man), intervened on her husband’s behalf and stopped David from killing him and his household. David spoke a blessing over Abigail for her discretion and for keeping him from the bloodguilt of working salvation with his own hand. David also ascribed to the LORD his restraint from hurting her and killing Nabal and his kinsmen. Later, we read that the LORD struck Nabal and he died. When David heard of his death, he blessed the LORD for keeping him from wrongdoing and acknowledged that the LORD had returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.
Nabal was set to die, but it was to be by the LORD’s doing and not by David’s. We see in this God extending His gracious hand in sending Abigail and David faithfully responding to her as an agent of divine intercession rather than moving forward in killing Nabal on his own accord. David’s strong recognition of the LORD’s work throughout these events is admirable and provides for us a wonderful example of the type of Spirit sensitivity to which we should long to obtain.
1 Corinthians 6
1 Corinthians 6:5–8 (ESV) 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
Paul speaks intense rebuke against the brothers who were disputing between and against each other. To make matters worse, they were bringing these disputes before unbelievers for adjudication rather than keeping them within the domain of the church. The CSB Notes provides helpful insight:
Paul called the church to an awareness of their own authority as a judicial body. He argued their competency to judge cases by drawing from two greater-to-lesser analogies: (1) being qualified to judge the world (i.e., nonbelievers) at the end of the age qualified them to judge church members in this age, and (2) being qualified to judge angels at the end of the age qualified them to judge matters of this life.
Paul calls out how these lawsuits are already a defeat for them. Regardless of who wins the dispute, the mere fact that they are having a dispute is a loss in itself. Instead, Paul exhorts them to suffer wrong and be defrauded, to absorb wrongdoing among each other rather than cause more division through retaliation. How much more peace and relational health we would have within the church if abided in Paul’s words and his admonition seriously.
Ezekiel 4
Ezekiel 4:14–15 (ESV) 14 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”
Ezekiel responds to the LORD’s command by saying that he had never defiled himself with eating tainted meat. This sentiment is also reflected by the apostle Peter many years later in his objection to God’s command to eat unclean animals in Acts 10:14. The LORD then told Ezekiel that the fire to cook the meat could be fueled with the more customary cow dung rather than human dung. It seems worth noting that the LORD did not remove the overall command to eat, but instead changed the means by which is was to be cooked. As the BBC provides a succinct summary of this chapter by saying, “The chapter is a picture of siege, discomfort, hunger, and defilement—all the result of Judah’s sin and departure from God.”
Psalms 40–41
Psalm 40:5 (ESV) 5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
David reflects on the wondrous deeds of the LORD and His thoughts toward the people. None can compare to the God of all creation. Despite of His wonderful works being more than can be told, David will proclaim and tell of them. How true this should be of us. Our finite inability to fully understand the LORD or quantify His majesty should in now wise hold us back from declaring what we do know. The LORD may be incomprehensible but He is knowable and it is the truth of His gospel as given to us by His Word that were are to proclaim and tell.