Prayer Challenges
Current Challenge from Doug Knox.
January
Man Builders, Part 35
1 Samuel 25:23-43
David—Forged Masterpiece, Part 17
THE END OF FOOLISHNESS
Wisdom and Respect
David’s confrontation with Nabal’s servants, along with the appeal that Nabal’s wife Abigail sends to David, is a study in intelligent respect pitted against foolish insubordination. In the broader context of the narrative, Saul has recognized David’s rightful place as king of Israel (1 Samuel 24:20). His words stand as a decree to which the nation is subject. Meanwhile, Samuel the prophet and final judge of Israel dies (1 Samuel 25:1). The two events stand as the affirmation of David’s rightful ownership of the throne. The king for whom God promised dynastic influence (Deuteronomy 17:20) is about to step up to his position. Therefore, when Nabal refuses to assist David’s men and dismisses David with the slur, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?” he pits himself not only against the king but also against the God who has set David on the throne. Nabal’s name, probably a nickname that he earned, rightly means Fool. Meanwhile, his wife Abigail hears about her husband’s slur and David’s consequent vow to destroy everyone associated with him. As we saw previously, she secretly prepares a substantial offering for David’s men. Her generous offering, not to mention her beauty, gains her a personal audience with David. Her speech, a three-part appeal to David’s integrity and discernment, appears in verses 23-31. It is one of the most masterful persuasive speeches in Scripture.
The Opening: Abigail’s Presentation Before the King
She introduces herself and states her request to speak from a base of integrity rather than folly:
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….”
--1 Samuel 25:23-25
This section of her speech consists of a three-pronged appeal to advocate for the situation. She begins by declaring her willingness to assume responsibility. “On me alone, my Lord, be the guilt.” She does not try to make excuses. Her first appeal is to ask David to allow her to right her husband’s selfish actions. Given the severity of Nabal’s criticism, this is a weighty request that proves her seriousness. Following this, she addresses the low value that accompanies her husband’s low character. “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.” It is important to realize that she does not demonize her husband to advance her agenda. Rather, she asks David to recognize his declared enemy’s insignificance as a foe. A worthy enemy would acknowledge him and challenge him on a battlefield. Nabal’s dismissiveness toward God’s chosen king shows how small a man that he is. Abigail will leverage this point in the second section of her speech. Finally, she requests leniency based on her circumstances. “But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.” This is her first request for lenience. She says in effect, “Please give us a chance to make up for what we did not know.”
The Middle Section: An Appeal to the King’s Discrimination
The middle, and shortest, section of the speech speaks to David’s character. She recognizes that he will be a just king who will be able to discern between substantive abuse and frivolous criticism.
“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….”
--1 Samuel 25:26-27
Abigail’s statement on the LORD restraining David from incurring unnecessary bloodguilt reflects her earlier statement, “Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow.” Had David and his men carried out their vow against Nabal, they would have sunk to Nabal’s level of pettiness. She reminds David in a very nice way that he has dodged the bullet. In return, his acceptance of her food and provisions signals recognition of her appeal.
The Final Section: A Plea Based on the Righteousness of David’s Coming Rule
The final section of her speech stands both as a recognition of David’s right to occupy his office and an entreaty for the LORD to continue to vindicate his reign.
“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.”
--1 Samuel 25:28-31
Abigail’s speech closes with two pleas—one to forgive and one to remember. These flank affirmations about God’s promise to David and the moral integrity that he will pursue as a mark of his position as a dynastic king.
- “Please forgive…”: A direct appeal for lenience, based on her willingness to carry her husband’s guilt, which she has confessed to the king.
- “For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house…”: A reminder that David’s participation in the LORD’s battles calls for his personal honor.
- “When the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good…”: David’s pursuit of moral integrity in this present moment will reward him with righteous rule when he ascends the throne.
- “And when the LORD has dealt well…then remember…”: A final and most personal appeal. She reminds David that she is a victim in an abusive marriage.
Abigail’s discernment runs deep within her. She does not try to tame or shame the warrior. She understands that he needs to remain untamable in his office as king. Instead, she appeals to him to remember the difference between vengeance and justice. Yes, Nabal has earned David’s ire, but greater issues stand before David. The righteous king not only must be able to exercise self-control in his rule. He also must be able to weigh the significant against the petty. Should David carry out his vow against such a penny-ante foe, he would degenerate into a tyrant.
David’s Response
The close of the incident contains three brief scenes that lead us in stages from the immediate picture back to the larger narrative. The first involves David’s response to Abigail:
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.”
--1 Samuel 25:32-35
Clearly, David understands what Abigail has done on his behalf. His final statement, “See I have obeyed your voice,” does not signify subordination as much as recognition of the truth that she has borne. In the original language, the verb is sha-mah, which can mean to hear, to listen, or to obey. David has listened to her appeal and respected it. The second scene shifts to Abigail and Nabal and shows how self-centered Nabal is:
And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
--1 Samuel 25:36-38
The book of Proverbs speaks highly about industriousness, as it should. The Lord honors hard work. At the same time, there are those who gather wealth selfishly, as if it defined life’s meaning. Such is Nabal. Here, we witness a breathtaking picture of a man who has defined himself so entirely by his personal success that he hemorrhages over a pin prick. The final scene, told through David’s eyes, is the longest:
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.”
Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.”
And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Galim.
--1 Samuel 25:39-44
The first thing that David does is to acknowledge the LORD’s active protection insofar as he “kept his servant from wrongdoing.” He also declares that Nabal’s refusal to grant aid was evil and that the LORD returned it on his own head. His declaration demonstrates the essence of Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.’”
It is noteworthy that the Romans passage recognizes God’s justice as more than the last alternative after everything else fails. God glorifies himself in wrath. It is an indispensable part of justice. Finally, David woos Abigail and takes her as his wife. This is his answer to her single personal plea, “And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant” (1 Samuel 25:31). She brings Nabal’s holdings into the marriage. “[C]considerable wealth, territory and influence” becomes his.[1] Sadly, she never achieves the honor that we would have expected from one of such solemn insight. In one pastor’s words, “She would have made a worthy queen.” David also takes Ahinoam of Jezreel (verse 43). And here we learn that Saul had taken David’s wife Michal to give her to Palu the son of Laish. This chapter marks a decisive achievement in David’s ascent to the throne, but he will face further hurdles before the kingdom becomes his.
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[1] Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel, 181.
Doug Knox