Let God take care of your Nabal's

1 Samuel 25:32-43

Yesterday, we left the story of Abigail being used by God to keep David from avenging an insult from her husband, Nabal.  Now let us continue the story in verses 32-36, “And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt 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 Nabal so much as one male.” 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.”

A man who does not understand God’s ways would have ignored Abigail, her small token of food and meat would not come close to what was waiting for David and his men if they killed Nabal and his family.  But David understood something many of us miss, it is not the hours or the skill we have that provides wealth it is God.  David understood Abigail was God’s messenger and he granted her appeal. 

Now the story gets interesting, David returns to his people, and Abigail returns home to find a drunk Nabal who has had a party fit for a king.  This foolish man did not know the danger he and his men were in, until the next day when he was recovering from his hangover.  When Abigail told Nabal about what she had done and how close he had come to being killed, he had a stroke.  And for ten days he was in a coma and then he died.

Now if you like a happy ending read the rest of the story, but remember their customs were very different from ours.  “When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the Lord who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained His servant from doing evil. The Lord brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head.”
Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him. When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.”
She stood up, then bowed her face to the ground and said, “Here I am, your servant, to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife.
David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives. But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti, son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice