Preserving Providence
1 Samuel 25, Remsen Bible Fellowship, 04/25/2021
Introduction:
That great late 20th century theologian, Garth Brooks, sings in one of his songs that, “some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” And while I don’t generally recommend heading to the country station on the radio, or any part of the iTunes music store, for developing your theology, there is a lot of truth in his statement. We often pray and ask God for things through our limited little view of the world. And God, in his wisdom and kindness, ignores our requests and does something better than we could ever imagine. Likewise, there are times in life when we set our minds to an action, perhaps deliberately or perhaps impulsively, and God -again in a display of his kindness- totally thwarts our plans. We precisely such a text before us this morning in 1 Samuel 25.
This chapter opens with what seems a historical footnote: Now Samuel died. But of course, if we remember the way this book moves, this is hardly a piece of small or insignificant information. This is Samuel, the center of the story in 1 Samuel for the first 7 or 8 chapters, the last of Israel’s Judges. He is a pivotal figure in the biblical narrative as a whole - and now he is dead. But the text just drops us with this information, tells us everyone was sad and they buried him, and then keeps moving. It has often been noted that when one of his servants dies God doesn’t go into a panic. He simply says, “next.” And so our narrative turns back to the man who is next - David.
Of course, the death of Samuel is relevant to David as well. As Robert Vannoy points out in his commentary, “This notice is not a piece of irrelevant information; it is a notice telling us that David was particularly vulnerable to the onslaughts of the evil one because he had lost his most important counselor.”
In the past, when David had experienced hardship and needed counsel, he could flee to Samuel (see 19:18). Those days are over.
As we turn to the meat of this story, one of the things we notice is that though this is a long chapter, there isn’t a lot of narration of events. Instead, the majority of the chapter is carried by sections of dialog. And within these dialogs we find certain words repeated. One helpful thing to do when you’re reading your Bible is to try and notice when something like that happens. Why do the Beatitudes say “blessed” so many times? Why is God called “holy, holy, holy”? There are several three fold repetitions in this chapter, so as we necessarily move with some speed over the text, we’ll slow down and focus on these repetitions each in turn. But let’s turn to our first section of the story.
A Fool's Selfish Response to a Peaceful Request, v1-11
As we leave Samuel’s grave and come back into the Judian wilderness, we meet a very rich man. He has three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and so he has obviously done quite well for himself. Further, we find out in verse three that he is a Calebite, a descendant of the great spy in the time of Moses and Joshua, who was of the tribe of Judah. In other words, this fellow and David are kinfolk. But before we ever get into the story, the Hebrew reader of this story would be curious about something: this fellow’s Momma gave him an awful mean name. Nabal means “fool.” Imagine if your mother had named you Fool. Or Stupid, or Idiot, or some other english synonym. Maybe this guy is scarred.
Whether he was scarred or not we don’t know, but the text does tell us he was harsh and badly behaved, or as the NIV puts it, surly and mean. This stands in sharp contrast to his wife Abigail, a woman discerning and beautiful.
Now a man of Nabal’s welath would have shepherds all over the mountains leading his sheep from pasture to pasture, and we find out through David’s messengers and the witness of Nabal’s servants that during the time the two groups had intermingled, not only had David and company not stolen anything (as they might be expected to do in the wilderness with no means of provision!), they furthermore acted as a positive wall around the servants of Nabal. Reasonably, then, when David heard that Nabal had brought in shearers and thus was going to have his big spring feast, he sent some servants to ask for a gift in return for the services he had provided. Notice the tone of David’s request in verse 6: Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I wonder what message David is trying to convey? Friendship, peace, respectfulness - note the end of verse 8, please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David. Some commentators construe David’s ploy here as an attempt to start a protection racket, but that seems to totally miss the tone of his words, as well as the testimony of Nabal’s own servants later on. Rather, David and his men have acted righteously toward this man and his property, and are hoping to be the beneficiaries of kindness during a festive season.
But here is where Nabal earns his name. In verses 10 and 11 we read, 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. 11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” He reminds me of a character in one of our kids’ poetry books, which walks through the alphabet examining different characters and when you get to the letter “I” the character is Ivan-I-I-Me-Me-Mine. And in verse 11 this is precisely Nabal’s attitude, my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers. Nabal-I-I-Me-Me-Mine.
It’s obvious to us as the readers that annoying a man of war like David might now be the wisest move, but the foolishness of Nabal goes deeper down and touches on the biblical definition of foolishness. Dale Ralph Davis comments, “Perhaps there is some variety among fools, but Nabal is (in low-level American parlance) a thick-headed clod. Biblically, however, he is worse: Isaiah 32:6 shows that a nābāl does not merely lack manners—he is a spiritual, moral, and social disaster.”
Davis cites Isaiah 32:6, let me read it for us: For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
Throughout the Bible, foolishness is not merely a category of intellect. It is a category of moral standing. The fool is contrasted not only with the wise, but with the righteous. And in this Isaiah passage what is said to be folly, iniquity, and ungodliness is to fail to feed the hungry. Nabal is the worst kind of fool.
It’s worth pondering at this juncture: are you that kind of fool? When you see someone in need and look at your capacity to meet that need, is your heart a reflection of the generous heart of God toward the ungrateful and ungodly-or do you think of my money in my account made by my labor and saved by my diligence? Do you have a generous heart, or are you a Nabal-I-I-Me-Me-Mine?
The Sinful Swords of Vengeance, v12-13, v21-22
If you’re reading through 1 Samuel, coming fresh off of chapter 24 where we see David’s remarkable restraint in regard to Saul, we might expect in this chapter to find him brushing off or laughing away the insults of a mere fool such as Nabal. However, the insults toward David (Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?) are apparently taken personally, and David responds with a call to arms. And thus in stunning contrast to the three-fold peace of verse 6, we encounter a three-fold repetition of the word sword in verse 13. And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. It’s as if he is saying, “Who is David? I’ll show him who David is!” David’s anger is such that, in the words of Joyce Baldwin, “Though he had spared Saul and had repaid him good for evil (1 Sam. 24:17), David on this occasion has no second thought about incurring blood-guilt.”
To what extent is David seeking to exact vengeance? Is he just going to go mano a mano with Nabal himself? No, he intends to wipe out his whole family and work crew. We read in verses 21 and 22, Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I 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. 22 God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
He’s going to wipe out all of the men connected to Nabal. And just to drive that point home, rather than simply using the Hebrew word for male or man in this passage, what the Hebrew has is an idiom, which the King James translates quite literally as, any that pisseth against the wall. This is a derogatory description used in the books of Samuel and Kings only in the contexts of, “I’m going to kill all of those worthless peeing-against-the-wall good-for-nothings.”
One of the big takeaways in this chapter is that David is not the hero of his own story. The story centers on David, he is the important figure in biblical history here. But he is not the hero. He is about to pull a stunt not so different from what Saul did to the priests at Nob by wiping out their town. He may feel as if this is justified by the slight he has received. But God sees this as wickedness, a point made later on in the chapter by Abigail and then by David himself. Rather than trusting in God to vindicate him, David seeks his own vengeance. To again quote Vannoy, ‘In this connection we encounter another expression, also highlighted by its threefold repetition, namely “delivering oneself by one’s own hand,” which is translated as taking or carrying out vengeance (25:26, 31, 33).’
What should be David’s response? To trust in the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:35 says, Vengeance is mine, and recompense, and the beginning of verse 36, For the LORD will vindicate his people. We will come back and dwell on this theme next week. But suffice it to say, David’s desires and intentions in this circumstance do not reflect a man after God’s own heart.
Blessings for and from the Providential Heroine, 14-44
Now we find the true heroine of this chapter. And if I might be allowed to rant for a moment - for the people who view the Bible as a patriarchal book which suppresses women, I just want to point them to this story (or the story of Ruth, or Esther, or Mary, etc) and say, what now? This is a woman who indeed lives in a patriarchal society, but she still seems fully capable of using her discretion and beauty to influence the situation around profoundly for the benefit of all involved.
And Nabal’s servants know where to turn for help. When they realize Nabal has made a huge mistake, we find them turning to Abigail in verses 14-17. They say in v17, Now therefore know this and consider what you should do. Please, please, please think of something or we’re all going to die. Now the stereotypical movie character breaks down into hysterics at this point. But Abigail? She gets to work. 18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.
She makes haste, and prepares an enormous amount of food and sends it ahead of her. If the way to soften a man’s heart is through a good meal, she’s off on the right foot. She then meets David and falls down before him to pay homage before launching into this plea for mercy.
There are several parts of this plea which highlight the discretion of Abigail, but I’ll just point out a couple. In verse 24, she immediately moves the focus off of Nabal and onto herself: On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. She’s going to be a lot harder for David to take his anger out on than that foolish man Nabal, which she also points out in v25, Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. She also addresses our earlier point that through her intervention, God is preventing David from incurring bloodguilt (v26). Then in v27 she makes mention of the gift sent ahead. To quote Joyce Baldwin, “Casually, in the middle of her masterly presentation of her case, Abigail makes passing reference to this present, which she had sent on ahead of her to ‘disarm’ David. Though she speaks as a ‘handmaid’ to her lord, Abigail is master of the situation.”
She continues on to ask for mercy, and to remind David that God will vindicate him and that he would be much better off to not have the guilty conscience that a slaughter of largely innocent people would incur.
And then the important part of the story is this: David heeds her voice. Rather than railing against her and screaming as Nabal had at David’s servants (v14), David lets loose with a three fold-blessing in verses 32 and following, 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.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
Abigail’s discretion saves the day. But in the end, even though she is the human hero of the story, the bigger picture behind what’s happening is that God himself was using Abigail to protect David from himself.
I want to read a rather lengthy quote here from Dale Ralph Davis who sums this truth up exceedingly well: ‘The text then teaches us how Yahweh rescues his servants from their own stupidity, how he restrains them from executing their sinful purposes, how sometimes he graciously and firmly intercepts us on the road to folly. In the text, of course, Yahweh does this for his anointed king. But Yahweh is not bound up in the biblical text, his mercy is not confined to his special servants, his vigilance over his erring people is not restricted to 1020 B.C. (or whenever). What loving hands construct the roadblocks to our foolishness!
What mercy sends frustration to our purposes! What kindness builds hindrances in our path! It is important that, like David, we respond rightly to such episodes of Yahweh’s restraining providence. We could hardly do better than to worship with David’s own words: “Blessed be Yahweh who … has held back his servant from evil” (v. 39).’
Conclusion
In the tail end of this chapter we find Abigail returning home to a husband so drunk it isn’t even worth speaking to him. In the morning, when he finally has sobered up enough to talk, she tells him what she’s done. And whether due to anger, or fear, or horror at how much she spent, he suffers what seems to be a massive stroke and goes into a comatose state for three days, and then he dies. That simple David thought he needed to ride down and use his sword to wreak vengeance. But God can handle it, and he doesn’t need David’s puny sword.
When David hears of this, he again blesses the Lord, both for avenging his enemies, and for holding back his hand from bloodguilt. He then sends in v39 and following, to take Abigail as his wife. Which, though it seems like a happy ending to the story, actually takes us back to the warning of Samuel in 1 Samuel 8, where he warns that the king will amass things to himself. Though David is not yet king, he has begun to amass wives for himself; taking Abigail, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and though he loses Michal for a time, he’ll get her back. So we don’t have quite the happy resolution we want.
But before we conclude, I want to just ponder for a moment how we can trust God to fight our battles for us. This seems so counter intuitive, especially in our day. Longsuffering, patience when being mistreated, these are not the sort of values promoted by either “side” our politics or our culture. Even many churches are concered with “fighting” for social justice on the one hand or “fighting” for religious liberty on the other. Incidentally, I think we should want to live in a just society, and a just society will be one where religious liberty is respected. But what should be our basic posture towards those times when we are mistreated? We should trust that the Lord is a shield about us. That he is our glory, and the lifter of our head. We don’t have to fight for ourselves in this world, we can simply live lives dedicated to faithfulness and love. Does that sound like a recipe for being a doormat? I want to point what Peter wrote about Jesus:
1 Peter 2:22-23, 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
It is always tempting to revile in return and hurl insults and slander at those who hurt, offend, or mistreat us. But Jesus bore the weight of our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to the sin of retaliation and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. You can know that if you’re in Christ, those accusations, those pains, those injustices: they’re all temporary. If you’re safe in the eternal hands of God, you can be free to love even your enemies. God protected David from his impulse to avenge himself. Plead for his mercy to protect you in the same way.
Luke 6:35-36, But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
