The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

# 357 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 25:39a, “So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head." (1 Sam 25:39a) Remind me not to have David give the eulogy at my funeral! I mean, this is just not the sort of thing we say about people when they die! Think about what David is really saying here. “Thank You Lord for giving that rich old fool Nabal what he deserves for insulting me and my heritage!” This is not something that you or I have license to say about anyone, because the fact is, we are all sinners. We are all, like Nabal, rich fools who have constantly insulted the richness of God's grace with sin. We justly deserve what Nabal got. It is only by God's mercy that we have been spared. With that said, let's look a little deeper here at this eulogy of David's. David says that God has “pleaded the cause of my reproach.” In a legal sense, the phrase means to wrestle with, to grab by the hair. The picture is this: God has wrestled with Nabal, justly found him guilty of reproach, and tossed him out of the ring of life. His crime was his “reproach” of David. The word means, harsh treatment arising from haughtiness or contempt. This contempt was spewed out in 1 Sam 25:10, when Nabal said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse?” Nabal should have paid more attention to David's family tree and he would've known who David, the Son of Jesse was, and who would one day come forth from his loins! Had he really known, he wouldn't have spoken so contemptuously. You see, in reproaching David, Nabal was “speaking evil” of the lineage of Jesus, and that is blasphemy. Jesus said in Mt 12:31 "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. I know of fewer verses in all of Scripture that cause believers to wonder and tremble, “Have I committed this unpardonable sin?” But hear me. If you have any concern that you have somehow committed this sin in an irreversible way.......you haven't. Your very concern speaks of spiritual life in your soul. Father, console Your people with this truth today.