1Samuel, chapter 25, comments

 

1Samuel 25:1 ¶  And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

 

Samuel, the prophet and judge over Israel who was instrumental in instituting the monarchy, dies. For this great man of God there was naturally a very great mourning. David and his assembly now move to the wilderness of Paran as they try to elude the king and his men.

 

1Samuel 25:2 ¶  And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3  Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. 4  And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. 5  And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: 6  And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. 7  And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. 8  Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. 9  And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. 10  And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. 11  Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

David now encounters a wicked man named Nabal and a woman who will become a wife named Abigail. Nabal is one of those people who have great wealth in spite of the fact that they are churlish and evil in their doings. A churlish person is rude and stubborn and quite mean-spirited.

 

Certainly, the property did belong to Nabal but just as certainly he didn’t use good judgment in his dealing with David’s men. On principal Nabal was perfectly justified in denying these, what he would think of as brigands or runaway servants, of the sustenance provided for his own servants but it was not well-advised considering that there are hundreds of armed men out there.

 

1Samuel 25:12 ¶  So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings. 13  And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff. 14  But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. 15  But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: 16  They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17  Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

 

David is furious and Nabal and his servants and household are on the verge of a very tragic encounter with hundreds of armed men. However, one of Nabal’s servants, apparently familiar with Nabal’s wife’s Abigail’s temper of mind, told her the truth. David’s servants had been a help not hindrance or a threat to them. Most likely the danger was from Philistine raids or even just ordinary brigands and robbers who would have been a danger to the servants abiding Nabal’s flocks. The perjorative son of Belial is a reference to a worthless and wicked man or men. When from a Hebrew word it indicates worthlessness and from a Greek word it signifies Satan. It is like saying he’s, “a son of the devil.”

 

1Samuel 25:18 ¶  Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. 19  And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. 20  And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them. 21  Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. 22  So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. 23  And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, 24  And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. 25  Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. 26  Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. 27  And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. 28  I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. 29  Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. 30  And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; 31  That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

 

Abigail, having more wisdom than her husband, does something that should disturb most Fundamental Baptists. She takes of her husband’s store of goods and gives to David and his men without even telling him. I bet that is a shocker for some of you. She even badmouths her wicked husband as she honors David. Let every prideful husband, every drunken husband, every husband who runs his family’s finances into the ground with get-rich-quick schemes, or is mean-spirited beware lest you have an Abigail who will save you in spite of your stupidity and arrogance and hot temper.

 

Abigail also acknowledges that it is the LORD Jehovah who has prevented David from shedding blood and avenging the disrespect shown David and his men. Abigail knows that David will be king, that God is going to use him as David fights the battles of the LORD. She is very prophetic in speaking thus for David and against Saul who is pursuing him. She only asks that David forgive her impertinence and that when God has rewarded David that he remember her. This is a very smart woman.

 

As an aside, here the phrase, the bundle of life, is used. Life is a rare thing in the universe, I should think. Biological life defies all common sense in a cold, dead universe and I also presume that it takes a lot to maintain conditions in the universe for life to exist here on earth. Maybe at some time we will find biological life on other planets but I suspect we will not.

 

1Samuel 25:32 ¶  And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: 33  And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. 34  For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. 35  So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

 

David blesses God and Abigail. Due to Abigail’s prudent and courageous behavior David promises that Nabal’s house will be spared any retribution. The phrase in verse 22 suggests that David was prepared to execute Nabal and all of the men of his household.

 

1Samuel 25:36 ¶  And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 37  But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38  And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died. 39  And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. 40  And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. 41  And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42  And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43  David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives. 44  But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.

 

Foolish and wicked Nabal dies of probably heart failure that took ten days to kill him, an act of God. Abigail was destined to become a wife of David. God had originally spoke of marriage as a contract between one man and one woman.

 

Genesis 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

 

However, as culture and civilization developed men of wealth could afford to take on more than one wife and we see in the Bible that they often did. This does not mean that it was in God’s perfect will but it is clear that He will use man’s failure to reach the mark He sets as part of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself. Abigail will bare David a son as will Ahinoam.

 

1Chronicles 3:1  Now these were the sons of David, which were born unto him in Hebron; the firstborn Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; the second Daniel, of Abigail the Carmelitess:

 

Saul, though, has given his daughter, Michal, David’s wife, to another man while David was on the run.