6. David meets Abigail (1 Samuel 25)

so Samuel died this remarkable and highly influential character for whom two books are named and yet he dies halfway through the first one you know but in his honor we continue to denominator story under the rubric of Samuel and so this man now passes from the scene the Israelites mourned him probably the custom was for thirty days of mourning for this most important character about the same time we hear that David arose and went down to the wilderness that's called here the wilderness of paran the death of Samuel were told by Josephus was eighteen years into the 40-year reign of Saul so making it just about half way through if you travel in that region and go to the region that is called Hara the Rama where Samuel lived you'll find this particular shrine really in memory of him it's his supposed burial place it may very well be there's a obituary there it's fairly brief but rather weighty it says that Moses had given the law but Samuel established the schools of the prophets we've mentioned that before the sons of the prophets or the schools of the prophets continued centuries into the future and by all accounts it was established by Samuel and David himself apparently was a student at that school where he got the substance of his education we also hear that he United the squabbling tribes into a more united nation that could finally rally around a king he was a force for uniting these these disparate tribes who in many cases were attacking each other the book of Judges gives us some evidence of that you know in our own American history before we had the Constitution we had what are called the Articles of Confederation which was really a very loose Association people didn't say they belonged to the United States they said they belonged to Virginia or they are Rhode Islander or a New Yorker the people identified themselves by their tribe by their state by their colony but it was really after the Constitution that we formed a more perfect union as the preamble says in some ways that was the impact that Samuel had as well he began to help these people see themselves as a more cohesive political body rather than these various tribes here and there throughout the region one said it would be hard to imagine a more strategic character whose legacy has a lasting tribute here in this particular location well about the same time maybe not necessarily related to that event but about that time David moves south he goes to a place that's called in the text the wilderness of paran some such location may be out there but the Septuagint version actually renders that the wilderness of ma own and that is a known location and that seems more probable to be the place where David wound up so he was we saw last week in in Getty he goes south still on the west side of the Dead Sea to this region that is a little bit further away from the action and apparently at this time given what had happened last week and his appeal to Saul and the positive response from Saul we get a feeling that things settle down and that David is not now quite as harried as he has been and this does seem to be a little bit more of a quieter region where he can hang out you might say somewhat less molested than he had been in his earlier experiences now we hear that there was a man there in my own whose business was in Carmel the man was very rich he had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats and it was the season of shearing Carmel is north of the my own wilderness it's south of Ziff north of the other area that seems to be where David now settles for a time with those who are travelling with him several hundred people this character we encounter is said to be rich the riches the wealth is based largely on livestock and so he has thousands of head of various kinds of livestock as we just heard and that happens to be the time of shearing this is something like harvest it's a time in which now the fruit of your labor is going to be collected and it's going to be a time of considerable revenue and he of course is gathering in through this shearing process wool which had a huge positive value and was part of where his wealth came from will was considered so important not only for clothing but for a variety of other purposes that it was actually regarded as a gift from God and thus this was a very important moment for him at a time of some festivity so it was expected at this time kind of like a holiday season that owners of sheep and the shearing process would give rise to a kind of levity a sort of generosity a kind of open handed willingness to be generous and to meet the needs of others and that's the general setting kind of the mood of the story as it unfolds we already saw that the man's name was Nepal his wife's name Abigail we're told that she was a woman of good understanding beautiful countenance he on the other hand probably the husband in an arranged marriage which was the most common way in which marriages were transacted then was harsh and evil and his doings but he was of the house of Caleb so NAB all the the word the hebrew word literally means flat or vapid death so you don't know what mood his parents were in the day he was born or some of thought maybe it was a nickname that was intended to match his character but one way or another that's the name that seems to have stuck and so that's the name by which he goes abigail on the other hand is a word that means one who gives joy I was thinking about this preparing I've met quite a few Abigail's in my life including one of my granddaughters I've never met an Abigail that wasn't delightful I think there is something to that name is how many Abigail's are there in here any no okay well just think about that the Abigail's in the world do seem to be lovely people and she was no exception we hear that that nough ball was of the house of caleb now that's just a little throwaway comment it seems but it has some weight because caleb was a famous person he was regarded as a great hero in the history of Israel he was one of the two spies who had brought a positive report and for that he was richly blessed by God and to be of the house of Caleb was a way of kind of being quasi nobility in ancient Israel now we feel like with this particular man named Baal maybe it took a wrong direction he was too pumped up to that sort of puffed up you know with his own importance that does seem to come through a little bit but anyway he had that family association and it seems to have some bearing on the way that he conducted himself here although in a kind of inverse form well David heard in the wilderness that Nepal was sharing his sheep so David sent ten young men and David said to the young men go to Carmel go to Nepal greet him in my name now David is asking for a gratuity for services rendered but not requested so the problem that Nepal had was with all of those thousands of head of livestock to graze them you had to send them out pretty far afield and that was just one of the occupational hazards of the day you couldn't keep them all underfoot you had to send them out where there was sufficient grazing land and that always meant that there was a certain degree of peril in so doing because this was a time when law enforcement was not necessarily consistently enforced in which we have raiding parties Philistine raiding parties were not uncommon the Amalekites would come up from the south others would come swooping in sort of almost in a kind of criminal behavior grabbing a few sheep here and there grabbing a few goats making off into the wilderness and it almost became a line item in your budget you see there's going to be a certain amount of loss that's just part of the you know the cost of doing business it's just the way it is you're not gonna lose it everything which are gonna have to at least deal with some of that as you go along David himself could have been one of those Raiders he was reputed to be by official public sources a criminal a fugitive he was living out there on the land he's the kind of guy you might have thought of you believe what was in the press that he would come swooping in and grab a few animals to feed the mouths that were depending on him so he could have been one of the bad guys here against whom netball was going to protect himself or try to but as it turns out David is just the opposite David actually rather than being a Raider or rather than being indifferent to the situation actually volunteers to go and provide protection now the cynics would say therefore David is asking for protection money and that doesn't have necessarily a very positive ring but it is something like that David is offering his services although uninvited he did provide this great benefit he saved Nabal's some money certainly he gave the men who were responsible for tending these sheep a kind of peace and security in the setting but they wouldn't have otherwise had and so there was some value to what David had provided here and on that basis now David makes his request and the request is formulated in the following short speech thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity Shalom peace be to you peace to your house peace to all that you have now I've heard that you have Shearer's your shepherds were with us we didn't hurt them we weren't one of those raiding parties we didn't hurt them nor was anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel ask your young men they'll tell you therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we've come on a feast day this festival time of sharing please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David so we have David now appearing and are not appearing but through his emissaries appearing and greeting this man who is evidently doing well kind of congratulating him on the happy circumstances of his life reminding him that all the time that he was out there with his livestock kind of in a vulnerable situation there was not any harm that came but strategically the actual term that's used here in Hebrew is we didn't we didn't embarrass them it's the idea of protecting them and giving them a kind of dignity in the setting in which they found themselves so for services rendered David asking what we might call protection money although in a more positive sense than that term is often used he says you can confirm my story by asking your young men they would certainly agree that that was what took place and David concludes this little presentation in a very humble sort of way as an appeal from your son your son David to Nepal so David's young men came they spoke to Nepal according to those words they waited the sense of the word waited as they sat down they were expecting something how much was perfectly within the discretion of Nepal the worst that they thought might happen was he would just dust them off or only give them a little token they weren't giving him a bill they weren't saying here's how much you always they were just waiting for as I say kind of a gratuity they probably weren't quite respecting the response they actually got 'no ball responds and answered david servants as following who's David who's the son of Jesse you know nowadays there's many servants who break away he's one from his master should I take my bread and water and meat that I've from my own Shearer's and give them to people I don't even know where they're from well who is David it's an insult it's not as if Nepal didn't know who David was or you know the most one of the most famous men in Israel his reputation was well known but you almost get the feeling that the message here is this nobody surrounded by a bunch of other renegade nobodies people that don't deserve any respect from an important descendant of Caleb like me or should I say like I which is it I thank you so thank you like I am there you are perfect so this is the response an insult insults were considered almost a worst injury then than breaking a bone this was this was a slap in the face in the most egregious sort of way now it's doubtful that Nepal would have been quite so rude had David actually been standing there because he's known as quite the warrior and a man who is a force to be reckoned with but David wasn't around at the moment and Nepal is feeling pretty full of himself and so he gives this retort this casual dismissal as if he's dealing with riffraff and doesn't really need to take them very seriously at all he's not going to offer them he says bread and water that would be the common colloquialism for meat and wine a bread and water would be common enough but this would be something a little better and that's actually the way it's rendered in the Septuagint version all right well there's two sides to this one commentator said you can kind of see it from Nepal's point of view his actions were understandable as there were protection rackets around then as now and he might also a feared reprisals from Saul he probably knew about 85 priests who had been put to the sword because of allegedly helping David and so you can at least imagine that Nepal is a little bit cautious about extending help to this rather controversial character David so if we see this in the light most favorable to Nepal we can at least give them a little bit of breathing room for this report however this commentator continues on the other hand abigail sees deeper into the situation and recognizes that David is blessed by God is no ordinary bandit and that the smart money should be placed on him so we have two perspectives Nepal is a little over the top and his reaction but we at least can see arguably that he would have such a response abigail on the other hand sees to be seems to be able to assess this more clearly well David's young men don't argue the point they turned on their heels went back they came and told David all these words then David said to his men well guys you know we're supposed to love our enemies we do good to those that treat us despicably we'll pray for his soul oh I know right son huh so David said to his men okay guys soldier up put on your swords and they all obeyed then David girded his own sword and about four hundred men went with David two hundred stayed behind to guard the supplies you have to say this is now David not the cool head but the hot head do you know this is not the response of the man after God's own heart that we've kind of gotten used to seeing this is more a response of someone who has a violent streak who can be given to anger in a flash who is acting at this point a bit more like a outlaw or a gangster than someone ultimately become one of the most famous men celebrated for his virtue in all the Old Testament so here they go meantime back at the ranch the young men told Abigail one of the young men goes to Nepal's wife and says now look David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master and he reviled them but the men were very good to us and we were not hurt we didn't miss anything as long as we accompanied them when we were in the fields they were a wall to us both night and day all the time we were with them keeping the Sheep now I'm telling you think about what David could do I think harm is probably determined against our master and against all of us because that nabe all husband of yours is such a scoundrel no one can speak peaceably to him so there's a little inside information delivered to Abigail this was a man who apparently was a witness of the whole thing he was obviously out there with these sheep with the herds the livestock he'd probably formed some friendship with a couple of these guys that were acting on behalf of David he knew that they were acting in a way that was certainly to the benefit of the shepherds there and tuna ball himself now he probably witnesses what took place here he might have Aiden seen one of these guys that he was acquainted with who came among those who were sent by David and so he has inside information he indicates that the speech given by these men was responsible reviled them the literal meaning of the word is flew on them kind of like a bird of prey it was this outrageous over-the-top reaction that was way beyond anything that you could possibly imagine even if Nepal had said oh sorry I'm a little short today you know that would have been less offensive than what he actually did this insulting response was the kind of thing that any person who had self-respect in that culture at that time could not simply allow it to pass it was a kind of code of nobility you might say you don't take that sort of insult without responding to it in a way that is commensurate with the insult that suspend delivered and so it was almost calculate it was almost predictable that David would respond in some way that could very well be violent whether it's justified or not is a different question but certainly in the culture of the day it would became became highly predictable that that would be the outcome the interesting thing and he spins the irony here just perfectly he's saying we were not put to shame by David he could have he had the firepower he could have embarrassed us we were the vulnerable ones we had no position to defend but he treated us with respect they treated us like we had special value and so on and now what what does your husband do he turns around and gives exactly the opposite to these guys just making the crime even more egregious given the fact that David had treated them so well David had provided a wall of protection from Philistine raiding parties Amalekites wild beasts and others and finally with this rather powerful concluding comment your husband is such a son of Belial that was a common epithet for a man that is a worthless bad person and so that's what Abigail hears and she doesn't argue the point you'll notice well abigail made haste took 200 loaves of bread two skins of wine five sheep already dress five Sia's of roasted grain 100 clusters of raisins 200 cakes of figs loaded them on donkey's said to her servants you go before me I'm coming behind you she didn't mention to her husband of all what was going on and so it was as she wrote on the donkey that she went down under cover of the hill and there were David and his men coming toward her down a shallow ravine I assume into the area there in the middle most of that is selfic the grocery list there is self-explanatory 5c as if you're not familiar with that would amount to about 10 gallons of roasted grain that was considered a delicacy the raisin cakes were also kind of a delicacy though this was a pretty substantial gift probably more than they were expecting so she's going over the top you see to do what she can now to try to settle things down at least in terms of this gift that she's put together they meet this phrase under cover of the hill means kind of in a shallow Valley or ravine as we said well David on at the same time as approaching from the other way and he's doing the kind of typical self-talk have you ever done this I kind of guess he's doing this under his breath with the people closest to him can overhear it turn in vain I protected this fellow yeah nothing was missed of all that he had and he's repaid me evil free I'm in other words I tone you may God do so and more also to the enemies of David if I leave one man alive by morning light and you know how we do this we know we're on a mission that is not quite justifiable we know that at our better moments this is not exactly what we'd be proud of later but we're just kind of full of a head of steam and you know how you kind of talk to yourself well this person I'll tell you what you play the tape over and over and you know they deserve this and I'm younger and you can kind of see it can't you this is David and he's kind of riling up the men who are with them getting them to join him in this rather malevolent attitude so David is justifying his anger and yet even now you get a little hint that he knows he's on a bit of thin ice it's a very subtle point but notice the epithet the curse that David gives here which is kind of a standard formula you'll run into in the Old Testament may God do so and more also to the enemies of David if I leave one mail of all those who belong to him well the normal way that stated is may God do so and more to David you know already David's feeling a little superstitious about this deal a little bit uneasy and so he's wanting to deflect any curses that might be out there in this moment but it's a subtle point but I think you sense even David at this moment knows that this isn't really quite the trajectory he should be pursuing now when abigail saw David she dismounted quickly from the donkey fell on her face before David bowed down to the ground displaying humility but listen to me she is now going to give the longest single recorded speech of any woman in the Bible period and what a speech norman vincent peale could not do better this was a masterpiece of persuasion of subtle pressure and yet at the same time avoiding giving any offence it is a model of how we can approach hard conversations fact I was thinking we might write a book based on Abigail's speech I'm not sure what to call it but I think something like a soft approach to a hard conversation something like that might do well here it goes she fell at his feet and said on me my lord on me let this iniquity be and please let your maidservant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maidservant please let not my lord regard this scoundrel nabe all for as his name is so is he nee ball is his name folly is his game but I your maidservant did not see the young man whom my lord sent what should we call the first chapter of our book I suggest acknowledging your own mistakes before criticizing the other person we've all had to have hard conversations we've all had moments when we had to sit down and talk to someone and it was not going to be necessarily an enjoyable moment at least as we anticipated it but one of the first things to do that Abigail certainly does is come in not blaming right off the bat but owning her part whatever it might be and we know it's a pretty limited part but she owns it fully as if she were responsible for more than actually she was taking some of the blame first to defuse the situation so on me she says taking full responsibility let the iniquity fall on me that's a way of saying punish me rather than smiting these others you can smite me that's what she's doing putting herself in a quite vulnerable situation here she refers to her husband as a son of Belial we saw that earlier a worthless guy but you see she's in a sense acting in on his behalf she's owning responsibility for this jerk she's married to not distancing or excusing herself but actually saying you know I'm responsible for this character and so even here she's owning something of the responsibility she says she didn't know about the young men but the implication is she should have if I'd been paying attention I would have seen this coming you see and so all of this entire first little chapter of our book is Abigail finding a way to deflect the blame from others to herself it's a remarkable thing then she continues here's Chapter two now therefore my lord as the Lord lives and as your soul lives since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand now then let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as nob all we're gonna call this chapter acknowledged but minimize the mistakes of the other person this is not sugar coating but have you ever noticed I'm maybe I'm the only one I probably am you're all much better people but you know when I'm in a little conflict with someone my first impulse is to totally excuse myself this wasn't my fault and then to exaggerate them you always do that you will always say you know well you're forever doing they know I went how many times do we hear that kind of thing just blowing way off out of proportion the fault of the other person well at the same time we look like you know just coming out smelling like a rose well how unreal is that and here Abigail does just the opposite she over owns her own responsibility and just minimizes without ignoring the fault of David so notice what she says the Lord has held you back as if to say look David you haven't done anything wrong yet just because you're loaded for bear just because you've got 400 guys who are about to you know slaughter that a whole household of navall and leave a bloodbath there you really haven't done anything yet that's all that bad it's okay you know and she kind of puts a lid on this thing and then she says this let your enemies be as no ball this is really just saying something like you know don't stoop to the level of your enemies David you're better than this you're a better man than this you you it's a little bit of a tiny lapse here but but don't become like your enemies like that idiot that I'm married to neva don't become like him you're better than that so chapter 2 acknowledged but minimize the mistakes of the other person chapter 3 now let this present which your maidservant is brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord please forgive the trespass of your maidservant chapter 3 offer a reasonable solution to the misunderstanding it always helps to come with a practical resolution of the problem something that can be done in this case it's giving and accepting a gift in the ancient world to give and receive a gift became a foundation typically of an accord you may recall that when Jacob was coming back from paid an a rom and was looking forward to meeting his brother Esau who had been angry with him for twenty years Jacob prepares a gift he begs his brother Esau to accept the gift because he knows if Esau will take the gift and the cord has been achieved and that's what Abigail is wanting to do here she also asks forgiveness even though we would say and the great scheme of things it doesn't seem she has a whole lot to ask forgiveness for the very fact of asking forgiveness for anything any fault you have does tend to diffuse the situation as well it don't do it as a manipulation certainly but a sincere request for forgiveness goes a long way in building up a little goodwill in a tough conversation abigail continues the Lord will certainly make for my Lord and enduring house because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord and evil is not found in you throughout your days chapter 4 point out that the other person is better than this you're a better person than this you are responsible for much more important good things in your history you are an important valued person and you are in doing important and valued work it's true of all of us and if we go into a hard conversation recognizing legitimately the truth of that in connection with the person that we're dealing with it on and not only will help them see things a little bit more clearly but it'll help us see them a little more clearly as well to see the good and the person with whom we have may have this difficult relationship can go a long way abigail says a man has arisen to pursue you and seek your life but the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the pocket of a sling Abigail reminds David that's reminding the other person that the good effects that good effects inevitably follow good actions she is in effect reminding David that he has been hunted by Saul this is the man she's referring to who's pursuing David without any justification and David has conducted himself so virtuously in this and that's well known in the country the David is being falsely accused hunted down and yet he has been so much a man of dignity in this really outrageous and unjustifiable attack on him at this point nopal for what he's done as bad as it is isn't even a fraction of what saul has done saul was bred to go out and just turn the man into a grease spot 'no ball well we can't really justify what he did but please not nearly as bad as saul and yet here's David reacting to new ball infinitely worse than he did as he treats all with respect it's the anointed of the Lord how could I lay my hand against us he's filled with that kind of dignity and respect for Saul and now with no ball who's just this you know kind of worthless character a son of Belial David's is completely out of control so Abigail wants to remind David the corollary of what David himself had said to Saul David had said to Saul wicked deeds flow from wicked people you may remember that from last week well in the sense the corollary is as you could do good deeds you show you're a good person and God Himself will acknowledge that in your life and in the consequences of it so referring here to this man who has arisen David's virtue has been protected from Saul making a kind of subtle allusion to David slinging a stone and destroying Goliath David has been slinging his enemies right and left because God has blessed him and David will continue to have that kind of career unless he lets this moment besmirched his reputation and become a lifelong black eye that he has to carry with him so she concludes and it shall come to pass when the Lord has done for my Lord according to all the good that he spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel that this will be no grief to you nor offensive heart to my Lord either that you have shed blood without cause or that my Lord has avenged himself but when you when the Lord has dealt well with you then remember your maidservant so finally remind the other of the most valued benefit of the proposal you're making a clear conscience it's nice to go through life with a clear conscience and you want to help this person with whom you have some tension maintain that very valuable benefit so what is David gonna do you can imagine he's seething he's angry you know holding a sword he's got these men with him they're all loaded for bear ready to shed blood and all of a sudden this woman comes she falls down David could have just brushed her aside get out of my way woman it wouldn't have been the least bit unusual for the culture of the day but he stops she gives this speech he stands there maybe in stony silence and then there's this pregnant pause when she's done the men are wandering fidgeting a bit what's he going to do what's he gonna do you could hear a pin drop in that little ravine as a few moments pass and then David speaks blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me blessed is your advise blessed are you because you've kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and avenging myself with my own hand if our book has a chapter 7 it's going to be make the other person happy at what you have suggested that's what happens here David says as the Lord God of Israel lives who has kept me from hurting you unless you would hurried and come to meet me surely by morning light not a man would be left to Neb all so David received from her hand which she had brought him and said to her go in peace to your house look I've heeded your voice I've respected your person well catastrophe averted Abigail goes home and there she finds her husband holding a feast in the house like the feast of a king Nabal's heart was merry with an m4 he was very drunk therefore she told him nothing little or much until morning light a little hungover the next day I suppose so it was in the morning when the wine had gone from Nepal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him he became like a stone then it happened after about 10 days that the Lord struck neigh ball and he died knee ball was drunk but he was drunk on self-importance on wealth on power before he was drunk on wine that was just the final little expression of an intoxicated view of life drinking of course in ancient Israel drinking wine was taken for granted that point I don't think needs to be seriously debated but drunkenness was viewed with disdain and certainly Nepal was a very bad example of the use of wine we don't know what happened to him maybe it was a natural result apoplectic seizure a stroke was this a direct judgment of God it certainly was in the end because we hear that the Lord struck him 10 days later but one way or another Nepal was at this point neutralized when David heard that Nepal was dead he said blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nepal and kept his servant from evil for the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nepal on his own head and David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as his wife David recognizes once again something he certainly had in mind earlier that vengeance is the Lord's I will repay that's the promise of God unless we get in the way so we are not to avenge ourselves we are to believe that there's actually a God in heaven who worries about these things and thus we don't need to and at this point the proof once again is in the evidence of the situation he proposed to Abigail probably moved both by her sensible conduct here also by news that McCall his first wife had been given by her father Saul to another and so at this point David is technically single it also seems to suggest that David has a rising sense of security about his situation that he's willing to bring women into the circumstance to accompany them there this wilderness experience it may still strike us as a little odd that he proved that he proposes to Abigail quite so suddenly one commentator offers the following the remarriage of the widow soon after the death of her first husband is common in the East so that the proprieties were not violated by David's haste it's easy to read contemporary standards into the story but it must be borne in mind that women were not much more than chattel at the time and most marriages were loveless and arranged of which this was probably exhibit a and evolved Abigail was shrewd and sight 'fl and played the situation well not knowing what the outcome would be but knowing the outcome would most likely vindicate David as it turns out David gets Abigail but loses McCall who was given by Saul to another when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel they spoke to her save and saying David has sent us to you to ask you to become his wife then she arose bowed her face to the earth and said here is your maidservant a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord you couldn't possibly express a more humble response to that proposal so Abigail rose in haste rode on a donkey attended by five of her maidens and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife nopal was wealthy but in the inheritance rules of the day that didn't necessarily devolve to her as I say this status of women generally especially at that time in history was much less secure and so even though she was married to a wealthy man she wasn't necessarily coming out of his death with any degree of respectable wealth herself and so she brings five who have been her attendants and that's about it and she goes in response to this request and becomes the wife of David interestingly we don't hear a whole lot about Abigail anymore obviously the biblical history is fairly selective we assume that she had some ongoing positive influence in David's career we hear her mention we hear something of her children but that's about it this is her moment of really having a very significant impact on the career of David then we scratch our heads a bit because the chapter ends David also took a hen oh I am of Jezreel and so those of them were his wives but Saul had given me call his daughter David's wife to Paul T the son of Laie SH who was from Gollum so we have a second wife then there's the picture without any introduction whatsoever it's reported to us neither with approval nor with sanction which is often the case in the Old Testament the Bible doesn't always comment on the actions of its players it just reports them like Joe Friday just the facts ma'am and in this case it's just the facts so I'm gonna leave it to your own assessment how you want to judge that particular action on David's part but it is worth noting that family squabbles were going to play an increasingly critical role in David's career why would any man want more than one wife I don't get that I don't understand it you know but anyway you know in the ancient world that was quite common and was almost taken for granted alright I'll leave you with this we are called to do good deeds as Christian people and as God's people have been all through history but a truly good deed should be performed with no thought of repayment or even recognition we know of course that David read the Sermon on the Mount he would have been up to speed on this point if you're going to do good deeds that's good if you're doing them for public approval for notice for a claim for compensation for recognition then that means already there's a little bit of fuzziness surrounding the motives that lie behind these good deeds and so Jesus warns us don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing do these deeds discreetly preferably anonymously what you do anonymously what you do knowing only God sees it means you're doing it truly in faith if you really believe that only God sees the good deed you're doing then it means you really do have faith that God is actually up there and noticing what you're doing you see and when we want to make sure somebody else saw it it just means we don't quite have that confidence we think God may be sleeping we just may not be so sure so a true good deed is done so under the radar nobody knows about it except you and God and Jesus promise is that what the father sees in secret he will reward openly so David needed to read that I think maybe in the very first instance he should have done what he did but trusted God that God would repay him for his good deed rather than going exacting payment as it were from navall I'll leave that to your judgment but that's kind of my thought about where this thing started going wrong second we are warned not to keep score of wrongs but to trust God who is more concerned and more competent to keep score than we are we have great scorecards in our heads don't we is it is it just me I keep a pretty good score of the wrongs that have been done to me I kind of lose track of the wrongs I've done to others I don't know those good lost somewhere I also keep a pretty good score of the good things I've done for others well I can list them off you know like that God is a better score keeper than you are we should do our good deeds and forget him God will notice David of course at this point was not only keeping score of wrongs but keeping score of good deeds and he had a tally sheet and it was off that that he was working at this point I think that got him a little further off track as the story unfolds finally we are provided good counsel sometimes from unlikely sources and do well to listen for the voice of God in all who cross our paths now we listen to the voice of God in the scriptures the Word of God is the word of God but God can sometimes speak to us from unlikely sources sometimes it's a casual conversation at the checkout stand at the grocery store some it's can be on and we're always called to be listening for wisdom of God that may come from very unexpected places I doubt that David was expecting the wife of the man he was about to murder to show up on his doorstep at this point but one of the most eloquent presentations in all the bible came courtesy of this woman so let's always be listening for the voice of god coming through unlikely sources that we may encounter along the way [Music] you

Channel: Bruce Gore

Views: 7,308

Rating: 4.7931032 out of 5

Keywords: King David, David, David and Abigail, Nabal, David and Nabal, Bruce Gore

Id: ZWYewMM9EsE

Length: 50min 0sec (3000 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018