I invite you to turn with me in your copy of
God's Word to the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel 25.
1 Samuel 25, we're continuing to study the life
of David. And we're gonna look at another episode
in David's life that is very true to life. David's
story in so many ways is our story. as well.
It shines light onto the world in which we live
and calls us to live for the Lord as well. First
Samuel 25, this is a long passage so hang in
there and it'll be helpful to you if you have
your copy of God's word open in front of you.
Beginning at verse one, first Samuel 25, now
Samuel died and all Israel assembled and mourned
for him. And they buried him in his house at
Rama. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness
of Peran. And there was a man in Maon whose business
was in Carmel. The man was very rich, and he
had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats,
and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now
the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of
his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and
beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved.
He was a calabite. David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent
ten young men, and David said to the young men,
Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him
in my name, and thus you shall greet him. Peace
be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace
be to all that you have. I hear that you have
shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us,
and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing
all the time that they were in Carmel. Ask your
young men, and they will tell you. Therefore,
let my young men find favor in your eyes, for
we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever
you have at hand to your servants and to your
son David." When David's young men came, they
said all this to Nabal in the name of David,
and then they waited. And Nabal answered David's
servants, who is David? Who is this son of Jesse?
There are many servants these days who are breaking
away from their masters. Shall I take my bread
and my water and my meat that I have killed for
my shears and give it to men who come from I
do not know where?" So David's young men turned
away and came back and told him all this. And
David said to his men, every man strap on his
sword, and every man of them strapped on his
sword. And David also strapped on his sword.
And about 400 men went up after David, while
200 remained with the baggage. But one of the
young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, 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 both by night and by day
all the while we were with them keeping the sheep
Now therefore know this and consider What you
should do for harm is determined against our
master and against all his house And he is such
a worthless man that no one can that one cannot
speak with him then Abigail made haste and took
200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep
already prepared and five sias of parched grain
and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred
cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys. And she
said to her young men, Go on before me. Behold,
I come after you. But she did not tell her husband,
Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came
down under cover of the mountain, behold, David
and his men came down towards her and she met
them. Now David had 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 he has returned me evil for good.
God do so to the enemies of David and more so
if by morning I leave so much as one male of
all who belonged to him. When Abigail saw David
she hurried and got down from the donkey and
fell before David on her face and bowed to the
ground. She fell at his feet and said, On me
alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your
servant speak in your ears, and hear the words
of your servant. Let not my lord regard this
worthless fellow, Nabal. For as his name is,
so is he. Nabal is his name, and Folly is with
him. But I, your servant, did not see the young
men of my lord whom you sent. than my Lord as
the Lord lives and as your soul lives because
the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt
and from saving with your own hand. Now then
let your enemies and those who seek to do evil
to my Lord be as navel and now let this present
that your servant has brought to my Lord be given
to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive
the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will
certainly make my Lord a sure house, because
my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord.
And evil shall not be found in you so long as
you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to
seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be
bound in the bundle of the living and the care
of the Lord your God. the lives of your enemies,
he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
And when the Lord has done to my Lord according
to all the good that he has spoken concerning
you and has appointed you Prince over Israel,
my Lord shall have no cause for grief or pangs
of conscience for having shed blood without cause
or for my Lord working salvation himself. And
when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then
remember your servant." And David said to Abigail,
blessed be the Lord God of Israel who sent you
this day to me. Blessed be your discretion and
blessed be you who have kept me this day from
blood guilt and from working salvation with my
own hand. 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 enable
such so much as one male then David received
from her hand what she had brought him and she
and he said to her go up in peace to your house
see I have obeyed your voice and I have granted
your petition And Abigail came to Nabal and behold
he was holding a feast in his house like the
feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry
within him for he was very drunk. So she told
him nothing at all until morning light. In the
morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal his
wife told him these things and his heart died
within him and he became as stone. About ten
days later the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
Well, this week we had that very famous holiday
that many of us forget. I don't even know if
it's a holiday, but it's called April Fool's
Day. Was anybody fooled on April Fool's Day this
year? I see a couple smiles. You don't have to
admit if you were fooled on April Fool's Day,
but the first of April, April Fool's Day, it's
a little ironic that the first Sunday... of April
we are studying a man named Nabal whose name
literally means fool. And there's not just one
person acting foolishly in this passage. We see
two men, both Nabal and David behaving very foolishly
on a collision course for disaster. Aren't you
glad though as you read this passage and you
see the actions and the reactions of these men?
You see how true to life scriptures really are.
We see in the characters here ordinary problems,
ordinary sin patterns of pride, of anger, of
fear. And so this passage is showing us many
things, our need to be on guard against temptation,
to anger. It shows us also though, how to develop
the gospel informed hearts of peacemakers. So
how do you respond when you are wronged? The
man after God's own heart, even David himself
is captivated by this attitude of sinful, vengeful
anger. He responds in foolishness to an unbeliever
of even greater foolishness. But what we see
in this passage today and the thing we need to
draw from this text is that God's gracious provision,
what we see here is that God's gracious provision,
saves us from ourselves and shows us how to respond
when we are wronged. God's gracious provision
saves us from ourselves and it shows us how to
respond when we are wronged. We see firstly the
reality that people in this world will wrong
us. We understand this by experience, but we
see here in scripture that there are nables in
this world. There are fools. The reality is that
there are fools in this world who will not treat
us well when we treat them kindly. You see this
in David's life beginning in verse 1 and following
in verse 1. We see the death of Samuel. It's
been pointed out. We don't have time to dive
into this, but this is a great moment of transition.
This is an epochal moment of change from the
age of the judges to the age of the kings right
here at the death of Samuel. But then after verse
one, we hear the description of David's journey
into the wilderness and the description of this
man, verse two, from in Mahon, a man by the name
of Nabal. He's not named it first, he's described.
The description of his name, the fool, Nabal,
is given first. He is ungrateful. He has a total
disregard for others. He's harsh. He has a lack
of self -awareness. He's a drunkard. He has tons
of money, but he doesn't have a whole lot up
here. His servants and his wife describe him
as worthless. He is bullheaded, so bullheaded
that people don't even speak to him about issues
you see in verse 17 because they know that he's
not going to listen anyway. biblical terms, Nabal
is a fool. Now if you want to see the description
of a fool sort of systematically laid out in
the Old Testament, just turn to Proverbs because
there's a contrast between the ways of the wise
and what the fool is and how to relate to the
fool. Now David's young men who have been watching
Nabal's flocks, mind you, verse four through
nine, they go with this legitimate request for
food to Nabal. It's a legitimate request because
David's men have been protecting all of Nabal's
assets in the wilderness at their own risk. taking
care of and protecting Nabal's sheep and flocks.
Verse 15 and 16, they were a wall of protection
to Nabal, protecting the sheep from things like
robbers and thieves and such. Nabal greatly benefited
and prospered due to David's kindness. And so
customarily, it would have been polite and assumed
that Nabal would return some sort of um, remuneration
in the form of care and food to David and his
men. But you see and you heard how Nabal responded
in verse 10. Nabal responds with the utmost contempt
for David's request. He basically says that David
is a no -good runaway slave. And why should I
give him all my things? How many times his pronoun
I and my was used in that one verse? It's all
mine, mine, mine. It's all about me. That's who
Nabal is. It's all about me. He is a quintessential
fool and a jerk. His rejection is the height
of disrespect for David's kindness. He spurns
David and so David's servants turn and go away.
Maybe you've come across someone like a navel
in your life, someone who is so obstinate, so
sarcastic, so rebellious, refuses to listen to
reason. You know they won't listen to you anyway
if you try to persuade them, just as navel servants
knew about navel. Proverbs says that this kind
of person is a fool. And it says in Proverbs
26 verse 4, not to answer a fool according to
his folly because your words will be wasted.
At times as well we see from this portion of
the passage at the beginning that in this world
when we as Christians display kindness to someone,
We're not always going to be rewarded with the
same kindness displayed to us. Many times people
will return kindness for kindness, but there
will be times when people respond harshly and
unjustly, demeaning you in the face of your kindness.
And so we should not expect to always receive
kindness from this world. There will be those
like Nabal, who treat us with contempt even when
we are kind, even when we are winsome, even when
we are speaking, especially when we are speaking
the words of life, the gospel to them. So we
see firstly just the simple reality of Nabal.
The simple reality that there are those who will
respond to, just like David and Nabal, respond
negatively and get under our skin, which is exactly
what happens to David here. in this knee -jerk
reaction. What do you think of David's response?
Is this in any way relatable? Have you ever been
triggered in any way by anything that somebody
has said to you? Let's look at this response
from David in verses 12 and 13. Now David in
chapter 24, well you didn't read chapter 24,
but David in chapter 24 had the opportunity to
take Saul's life. And he exercises great restraint
there. But you don't see any of that same restraint
here when it comes to this sort of lower person
on the totem pole. David, who had been so patient
and self -restrained with Saul, instantly, when
he hears this report from his servants in verse
12 and 13, instantly flies into a rage that this
petty man would dare rebuff him for his kindness.
David takes about 400 men, they all put on their
weapons and they go, it would seem to do what?
To kill Nabal and all of his people. David flies
off the rails and we see his ruminating on that
anger and the continued anger developing in David
in verses 21 and 22, his thought process towards
vengeance. The problem here is with David's knee
-jerk reaction. And in our immaturity, often
our knee -jerk reactions are what? Not the best,
are they, would we say? Is David's anger justified?
Well, no, not at all. His pride has been wounded,
and now he's not thinking clearly, and so he's
driven by his selfish, sinful flesh as he seeks
vengeance. Well, one of the great problems with
David's unrighteous anger is that in order to
deal with Nabal, he's become just like Nabal
in his foolish, darkened thinking. Proverbs 12
verse 16 says, the vexation of a fool is known
at once, but the prudent ignores insult. Oh,
how David needed to appropriate that truth. He
lets the insult go deep down. David is not acting
wisely. Why is he not acting wisely? Well, he's
not prepared. He's not prepared for the fiery
darts of the evil one. He's not prepared for
the aggravation of his own flesh. He's not prepared
for this attack from the worldliness of the world.
He's lost the instinct to to respond to Nabal
with wisdom. And so he quickly falls for this.
He quickly falls into sin. And how easily at
times we fall. How quickly we fall at times,
don't we? For the trap of anger. David here demonstrates
the necessity of keeping in step with the Spirit,
as Paul talks about in Galatians chapter five,
verse 25. It's as we keep in step with the Spirit,
day by day, putting on the spiritual armor of
God, storing up God's Word in our heart, not
just reading the Word, but storing it up in our
heart that we are equipped to not sin against
God. David doesn't seem here in this moment to
be meditating on God and His goodness and God
and His mercy and His tenderness. No, David is
very proud and very entitled. He doesn't seem
to be feasting on God's Word, engaging with God
in prayer. And so if we are not standing firm
in prayer and in the Word, bearing spiritual
fruit likewise, Like David, we will quickly fall
to all kinds of temptation. David was not ready.
And so David quickly falls here. And I think
if we look at David's life and we see how quickly
David, the man after God's own heart, fell and
we see in our own lives how prone we are to certain
sins. Anger is probably one of the big ones for
many of us, many of all of us. we recognize how
weak we are. And so we need to see hope in this
passage and that hope comes from the God who
is greater than ourselves and the God who protects
us even from ourselves. And that's what you see
in this passage, God protecting David and David's
kingdom even from David the King. So there's
another thread in this story. In contrast to
Nabal's folly and David's sinful anger, there's
another side of this story. There is a servant
in verse 14 through 17 who goes to Abigail, Nabal's
wife, and he is wise and he is brave and he informs...
Abigail of all that David had requested and the
way that Nabal had responded so foolishly. And
he says to Abigail, you've got to do something
because David is about to kill Nabal and everything
is going to be bad. So Abigail, who is the picture
of a Proverbs 31 woman, she does good to her
husband, even though her husband is kind of a
curse to her. She is wise. And she goes about
quickly employing biblical peacemaking principles,
biblical peacemaking principles to pursue David
and to bring reconciliation. She is wise, the
scripture says in this passage that she's beautiful
inside and out. And then she responds to the
foolishness of Nabal. with wisdom that is pure
and peaceable. Rick Phillips points out the biblical
wisdom that she models in peacemaking. And I
think this is very, it's immensely practical.
If you're in the middle of a spat with someone
or you're dealing with a conflict or you've got
some sort of reconciliation that needs to happen
between you and someone else, Abigail is a picture
and a model of biblical peace -making principles
that you and I ought to employ in our relationships.
First thing, note what she does in verses 23
through 31. You can read in depth later. I'm
gonna comment on that briefly here. She humbles
herself by going to David and bowing down to
him. First thing she does is she humbles herself.
She has a Christ -like attitude of humility.
Second thing she does, she confesses her own
guilt in verse 24. So she is one flesh would
enable her husband. And we don't know all of
the ways that she was involved with Nabal's decision
here, but she confesses her own guilt in this
situation. So she's humble and she confesses
her guilt. The third thing she does is she offers
restitution. And you see that list of food that
she brings in verse 18. She brings restitution.
This is the food that was rightly owed to David
for his service rendered. So she humbles herself,
she confesses her guilt, she brings, she makes
restitution. And you see this elsewhere in scripture,
remember Zacchaeus? Remember what he did after
he, as part of his repentance, he offered to
restore, was it fourfold from those he had defrauded?
So humility, confession, restitution, four things
she does in verse 28 as she pleads. for forgiveness.
You see that posture and those actions of Abigail
and how God uses that. God is with her in that
and touches David's heart. And David acknowledges
that this is a holy moment. Look with me in verse
32. David says to Abigail, blessed be the Lord,
the God of Israel, who sent you this day to me.
Who is really saving David here? It's not Abigail,
it's the Lord. The Lord has intervened and has
turned David's heart back to himself. Make no
mistake here, David may be a man after God's
own heart, but it's only because the Lord continually
brings David's heart back to him. At times he's
doing well spiritually and at times he falls
for this sinful anger. He is up and he is down
spiritually. But God is more interested in preserving
David's honor. God is more interested in preserving
David's kingdom than even David is. God intervenes
in his life to prevent David from falling to
the foolishness of his own decision making. How
gracious is our God and how relatable is this
story? How many times in your life has God spared
you the full consequences of foolish decisions?
How many times has God been so kind to not allow
us to experience the full weight of the consequences
of foolish actions? Oh, he does that for David.
He does that for us. And he shows here in verses
36 through 39 that God truly does bring justice
justice for his people and justice upon those
who insult and malign and seek to harm his people.
Vengeance belongs to who? Deuteronomy chapter
32. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. He will make
things right. David sees here and we see in this
passage that Nabal dies very quickly here. The
Lord handles this situation. A few things today.
a few things today to see how this passage helps
us. Now we already see ourselves in this passage,
we already see our problem, our need, but how
else does this passage help us? Well the passage
teaches us to be grateful for God's intervention.
David is expressing gratitude to Abigail, but
he's really expressing gratitude to God for his
intervention in his life. Abigail is is God's
divine stop sign. Abigail is God's divine stoplight
in David's life. You know, when God sees his
children running out in the road, so to speak,
about to be hit by a car, of their own foolishness,
a situation of their own making, because of their
ungodly decisions, times he will turn us right
around. At times he does allow us to experience
consequences, but here he is so gracious to turn
David around. Be grateful for those moments where
God halts you in your tracks. Second, be vigilant
lest you fall. Be vigilant over your own life.
Guard yourself against the deceitfulness of sin.
Galatians says, walk by the Spirit. so that you
will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Are
you walking by the Spirit? Are you in the Word?
Are you surrounding yourself with godly people?
Do you have people in your life who can both
speak comfort to you and candidly speak the truth
and love to you? And so thirdly, receive that
counsel confronted by sin. Don't rebuff someone
when they come to you in in love with who you
really are in the way that your offenses have
hurt someone. Don't rebuff someone when they
come to you with your sin because they love you.
In Christ, in the household of faith, when we
speak the truth in love to one another, it's
because we want to see one another restored.
Receive that. Fourthly, be your brother's keeper.
Be willing to be like Abigail and do the hard
thing. Galatians 6 .1 says, if anyone is caught
in a transgression, you who are spiritual should
restore him in a spirit of gentleness, but keep
watch on yourself lest you be tempted. Dear ones,
be willing to be like Abigail and speak hard
life -giving truths as well as receive hard life
-giving truths, leaving justice to God as well.
Lastly, I want to say, if you look at this passage
in today, you recognize that you actually identify
not with Abigail or David as much as you identify
with Nabal. It could be today that God is waking
you up to the fact that you have acted like Nabal
your whole life, earned his goodness and his
love and his people, and you have lived as an
island to yourself as if it's all about me, mine,
and I. I have good news for you. If you wake
up today and you realize you're not a believer
and you've lived only for yourself, you've never
trusted Christ, today is the day of salvation
for you. Repent of your folly and trust in Christ
and you will be saved. And you will not be living
in foolishness and in darkness anymore, but in
light and in wisdom. And he will give you a new
spirit and cause you to walk in his ways. There's
so much in this passage today, but we need to
conclude not with King David, the King to be,
but the Lord Jesus, the King, the greater Son
of David who has come from David's line. It's
not David or any other friend or any other person
or ourselves that can deliver us from our sinful
anger, but it's only David's greater Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. While we're yet sinners, While
we were yet in rebellion and in anger, Christ
died for us. Though we were like Nabal, worthless,
though we were swift to shed blood like David,
Christ Jesus, the true King, shed his blood to
cover all of our sins and ransom us from a multitude
of sins. So the true solution to our problem
of anger and our responses is not even our own
efforts, but the good news of the gospel that
redeems us from our sin, the Father and the Son,
who send His Spirit to all those whom Christ
has redeemed. And by His power, we can make peace
because God has made peace through the blood
of His Son with us. Let's keep seeking Him and
let's keep remembering the gospel of grace that
empowers us to live at peace with others because
God in Christ has made peace with the Father
through His own blood. Let's pray.