1 Samuel 25:1-44 CSB
1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled to mourn for him, and they buried him by his home in Ramah. David then went down to the Wilderness of [Maon].
The era of the judges is over
The prophet Samuel dies right after Saul confesses David as future king.
2 A man in Maon had a business in Carmel; he was a very rich man with three thousand sheep and one thousand goats and was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name, Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.
The name Abigail sounds like ‘my father rejoices’
Nabal sounds like a few words relating to foolishness or folly
Nabal is a fool.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep, 5 so David sent ten young men instructing them, “Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him in my name. 6 Then say this: ‘Long life to you, and peace to you, peace to your family, and peace to all that is yours.
Three times ‘peace’
7 I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
David is humble
David is respectful
Shearing time was cause for celebration!
Perhaps generosity?
2 lbs of wool per sheep x 3,000 sheep = 3 tons of wool
Bountiful harvest of wool
9 David’s young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David’s behalf, and they waited. 10 Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters. 11 Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t know where they are from.”
Nabal rejects & insults David
Foolish
He is acting & sounding like Saul.
He is acting like Saul, but Nabal is NOT the LORD’s anointed.
He is acting like Saul, but Nabal does NOT get the same response from David that Saul did.
12 David’s young men retraced their steps. When they returned to him [David], they reported all these words. 13 He said to his men, “All of you, put on your swords!” So each man put on his sword, and David also put on his sword.
Three times ‘swords’
About four hundred men followed David while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of Nabal’s young men [servants] informed Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed at them. 15 The men treated us very well. When we were in the field, we weren’t harassed and nothing of ours was missing the whole time we were living among them. 16 They were a wall around us, both day and night, the entire time we were with them herding the sheep. 17 Now consider carefully what you should do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”
Nabal is a fool.
Unapproachable.
Abigail is wise.
She will listen & act.
18 Abigail hurried,
She wastes no time
18 Abigail hurried, taking two hundred loaves of bread, two clay jars of wine, five butchered sheep, a bushel [five seahs = 200 liters] of roasted grain,
Abigail wastes no time. Urgency.
NOTE: A seah is about 40 liters (5 seahs = 200 liters)
one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she said to her male servants, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal.
Abigail is generous.
She is reciprocating the kindness & generosity of David & his men.
She does NOT tell Nabal.
20 As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she saw David and his men coming toward her and met them. 21 David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.
Nabal is being inserted here by YHWH as a Saul-like character
We are meant to compare the characters
What is the same?
What is different?
1 Samuel 24:16-17 ESV
…And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17 He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.
What is similar & different about David’s responses to both of these characters?
What will this reveal to us about the character of David?
How has God been good to you?
Psalm 34:8 CSB
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good.
How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 62:5-8 CSB
5 Rest in God alone, my soul,
for my hope comes from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock.
My refuge is in God.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts before him.
God is our refuge.
[David continued with his speech to his men…]
22 May God punish me and do so severely if I let any of his males survive until morning.”
David is a soldier. A warrior.
David is going to completely wipe out Nabal’s entire family
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey and knelt down with her face to the ground and paid homage to David. 24 She knelt at his feet and said, “The guilt is mine, my lord, but please let your servant speak to you directly. Listen to the words of your servant.
Such humility…honor…respect…reverence.
Why is Abigail guilty?
25 My lord should pay no attention to this worthless fool Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means ‘stupid,’ and stupidity is all he knows.
Sounds like Saul.
I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent. 26 Now my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live—it is the LORD who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself by your own hand—may your enemies and those who intend to harm my lord be like Nabal. 27 Let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive your servant’s [Abigail’s] offense, for the LORD is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights the LORD’s battles. Throughout your life, may evil [trouble] not be found in you.”
29 “Someone [Saul] is pursuing you and intends to take your life. My lord’s life is tucked safely in the place where the LORD your God protects the living, but he is flinging away your enemies’ lives like stones from a sling. 30 When the LORD does for my lord all the good he promised you and appoints you ruler over Israel, 31 there will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when the LORD does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant.”
Abigail understands the political & the spiritual
She grasps YHWH’s plan for David as future king
32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!
David gives glory to YHWH for sending Abigail.
33 May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand.
David immediately relents & has a change of heart.
Fear of the LORD
Humility
Self-awareness
Spiritual sensitivity
34 Otherwise, as surely as the LORD God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males left by morning light.” 35 Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request.”
The LORD’s anointed king was wronged.
Abigail intercedes.
A mediator.
Peace is made.
Blessing.
And he promises to “remember her”
[Jesus speaking to the church in Sardis in the book of Revelation…]
Revelation 3:5 CSB
…the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.
36 Then Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was in his house, holding a feast fit for a king. Nabal’s heart was cheerful, and he was very drunk, so she didn’t say anything to him until morning light.
Nabal is no king. Though he wants to pretend that he is.
Do we not do the same?
Nabal could’ve been feasting with the future king of Israel!
Luke 12:35-37 CSB
35 “Be ready for service and have your lamps lit. 36 You are to be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. 37 Blessed will be those servants the master finds alert when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will get ready, have them recline at the table, then come and serve them.
37 In the morning when Nabal sobered up, his wife told him about these events. His heart died [within him] and he became a stone. 38 About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead.
Vengeance is for God alone
He will see justice done.
We must often leave things in God’s sovereign hand.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained his servant from doing evil. The LORD brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head.”
David learns, yet again, that God can be trusted.
Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him. 40 When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.”
David keeps his word & he remembers her
41 She stood up, paid homage with her face to the ground, and said, “Here I am, your servant, a slave to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.
David almost played the fool
YHWH sent Abigail to protect David from his own folly
Proverbs 12:15-16 CSB
15 A fool’s way is right in his own eyes,
but whoever listens to counsel is wise.
16 A fool’s displeasure is known at once,
but whoever ignores an insult is sensible.
This shepherd king [David] goes to a fellow shepherd…
Nabal, this very foolish, rich shepherd
A shepherd of shepherds!
And David asks him for help.
John 10:11 CSB
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:14 CSB
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again.
I have received this command from my Father.”
We have been given all we need in the gift of God’s son.
Philippians 4:19 CSB
19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 9:8 CSB
8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.
Psalm 90:12 CSB
12 Teach us to number our days carefully
so that we may [develop a heart of wisdom].
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives. 44 But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.