September 13, 2017
1 Samuel 25:14-35
Yesterday, we left
off where David and four hundred armed men are going to Nabal’s camp to kill
him and all his people. But God, I’m so thankful that God put in the
heart of a young man in Nabal’s camp to go and share with Abigail what took
place when David’s ten men arrived at Nabal’s camp. One of the young men
under Nabal realized the foolishness of Nabal’s actions and reported it to
Abigail.
Verse 17 gives a lot of information about the kind
of man Nabal was and the shallow opinions his servants had of him. Verse
17, “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 one cannot speak to him.” One
might read between the lines and know that this was not the first time this
servant had come to Abigail to bail out her husband from harm.
Shall we look at
this very wise and beautiful lady and see the actions she took to save her
family and household. Picking up the story in verses 18-31: “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. 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 toward her, and she met them. 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. 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.”
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. Now then, my lord, as the Lord
lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord
has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then
let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 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 in the care of the Lord your God. And 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 of 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.”
Now it is necessary
for us to understand this, Abigail treated David as superior and humbled herself
before him. She called her husband a worthless man yet she interceded
with David to save his life. She also suggested she was the LORD’s agent
in keeping David from needless bloodshed. She took responsibility for
Nabal’s sin against David and his men and talked about David’s future as a
lasting dynasty. And it seems strange that Abigail would tell David to
remember her in that she was a married woman, but time proves she was
correct. Tomorrow we will explore David’s response to Abigail.
From the Back
Porch,
Bob Rice
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