David and Abigail

Chapter 25 opens by announcing, in verse 1, the death of Samuel. Samuel, who anointed Saul and David as kings as God commanded, and who led the people to God in place of Eli, who had been idle and lax, was called by God and left the world. To the people of Israel, Samuel was a great prophet, like a father. Even the great prophets who heard the Word directly from God and obeyed it were human, so they all left the world, as Samuel did. What differs is the choices a person makes while they live and the kind of life they lead as a result. No human being can live in this world forever, and so the moment we put off the flesh, life is over.

Even today, people who were respected by others are leaving the world, and many people are mourning their deaths. However many times the wheel of the years turns, the way people live does not change. It is not much different from the way the people of Israel gathered together and mourned for Samuel when he died. Whether people live by faith in God or live in the world for themselves, life ends this way for everyone, in death.

Everyone is running toward death, and only those who care what kind of life they will live after death will be able to live this life preparing for what comes after. You who know what kind of place waits after death must therefore live all the more with patient faith, giving thanks in everything. Even if the world does not believe that Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life, you who know that truth must live only for Christ; only then will your death be beautiful, like Samuel’s. Those who had gained the hope of heaven through Samuel would have shed many tears as they watched him die. And when God saw Samuel, who had devoted himself to giving people the hope of heaven, running toward his embrace, God would have opened both arms and held him. Samuel, receiving such a blessing, would not have been afraid of death. Because he had fulfilled his mission, he would have had no lingering attachment to the world, and because he was looking at the bright face of God, his steps as he ran toward heaven would have been light. You should pray that your last moments will be this beautiful.

But rather than devoting ourselves as Samuel did, we have far too many excuses. We do not devote ourselves, because we are too busy with the world’s work to have time for it, and we feel no need to be faithful to the point of sacrificing ourselves. We are firmly convinced that knowing the Word moderately well and going to church means we believe in God, and so we cannot break down that wall. Because we live our life of faith within a line we have drawn ourselves, we give no more of our time, cannot give more of our material things, and are not faithful beyond our strength. Of course, in a way, this behavior may seem rational and clear-headed. But God put his Son to death for such people, and so he does not grant grace to those who keep themselves at the center and cannot devote themselves.

Think about it: while the sea is calm, you cannot clearly tell the difference in performance between a ship built well with skill and craft and a ship thrown together with neither. But when they meet a great storm, the well-built ship shows its true worth. When the storms of the world blow hard, those who have grown well in God’s word and in faith will surely shine like jewels. Just as God had Noah build the ark, we must make the effort every day to coat the ship of faith with wild honey, so that we can carry many souls on it.

Wisdom is not something that can be gained through the world’s knowledge. Understanding cannot be displayed through worldly knowledge; it shines only when we strive, with faith and patience, to show in our lives the wisdom God has given. A person who has received wisdom but lacks understanding is no different from one who has no wisdom. You will have received wisdom from God. If so, you must know how to use that wisdom with understanding; only then will God receive glory through you, and your life, too, will be at peace.

There is a woman who, when her household was facing ruin because of her husband’s foolish behavior, saved it with wisdom and understanding, like a well-built ship that came through the storm. She is Abigail, who later became David’s wife.

In verse 14, one of the young men came hurriedly to Abigail, Nabal’s wife. He told her that David had sent messengers to greet her husband Nabal, but Nabal had insulted them and driven them away. Nabal was one of the wealthiest men of his day, keeping three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. In Israel it was the custom to make the day of sheep-shearing a festival day, when many people gathered to share wine, meat and bread and enjoy themselves. Nabal, too, prepared plenty of bread and meat on his shearing day and held a feast. In those days, those who kept sheep sometimes suffered having their sheep and goats taken by wicked men, and had their grain taken as well. But Nabal went on piling up wealth through days that were strangely peaceful, without losing a single sheep.

It was on this feast day that the men David sent came to Nabal. When they asked him to share some bread and meat, Nabal flew into a rage and sent them back with a roar, demanding who David was to ask him for bread and meat. Because David, who was being chased by Saul, was camped near Nabal, the Philistines could not attack Nabal even if they wanted to. Nabal clearly knew that he was safe because David was camped nearby, and yet he refused David’s request. In Nabal’s mind, David was camped nearby only because he had fled from Saul, and the benefit Nabal gained from it was not help David had given on purpose, so he had no reason to be thankful.

This judgment of Nabal’s shows plainly how lacking in wisdom he was. There is no telling how many fools like Nabal there are in the world. Far too many people fail to give thanks, not because they do not know the grace they have received, but because giving thanks would mean sharing what is theirs. If Nabal shared his food with David, the blessing he would receive would be far greater; but because he looked only at the small thing he had to give up right then, he ended up losing everything. Having been assured of a peaceful life, safe from the savage Philistines, he ought naturally to have repaid David. But Nabal flatly refused, because to him it was only natural that David had held off the Philistines, and what he owned was his alone. This picture of Nabal is a picture of us. The Lord sacrificed himself for us until he had poured out all his water and blood; he protects us from the savage Satan and keeps and leads us by the Holy Spirit; yet, like Nabal, we are not thankful. If the Lord were not with us, Satan would attack us at once, just as the Philistines would attack Nabal.

Just as Nabal told David that he would never give him his bread, his water, or his sheep, we too are telling the Lord that we cannot give him our ability, our time, or our material things. Just as Nabal did not want to admit that his possessions had grown thanks to David, we do not want to admit that our life is peaceful now because the Lord has blessed us. It is not that we deny what Jesus has done, but we refuse to devote ourselves, saying that we are doing well because we worked hard and because we are capable. Our faith, not yet born again, looks exactly like Nabal. While David was keeping his property safe, Nabal did not mind having him nearby; but when David asked for help, he suddenly became a burden, and Nabal belittled and mocked him as a runaway servant.

We too are deeply moved and glad at the word that Jesus, after preparing a place for his children to live, will come again and bless them to live with God forever. But when he asks for our time, our devotion and our material things for God’s sake, we flatly refuse, asking when the Lord ever helped us and saying we can never share any of it with him. Do not begrudge what you give to God. For the Bible records that when God’s people devote themselves, he blesses not only their whole lives but even their life after death.

Proverbs 3:5-10 says that if you trust in Yahweh with all your heart, do not lean on human understanding, and acknowledge Yahweh in all your ways, he will lead you onto a safe path on the dark road of the world. If you are not wise in your own eyes, but have the faith that fears Yahweh and departs from evil, he will make your life flourish. Honor Yahweh with your substance and with the first fruits of your increase. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing. This is not my word to you; it is God’s promise. For God has promised that if you give with a thankful heart, he will fill you to overflowing. When people get what they have longed for, greed rises up in them to keep all of it. When they have a problem, they vow to God that they will serve him well if only he solves this one thing, but once their prayer is actually answered, they break their own promise. So only those who give true thanks can give God their first fruits. That is why I keep telling you to give thanks in everything.

If Nabal had acknowledged that it was David’s protection that kept the Philistines from attacking him, and had helped David to get by, he would have received far more help later, when David became king. Because people see only what is right in front of them like this, they suffer greater hardship. Had Nabal known that David, whom he mocked and despised as a runaway servant, would one day become a great king, he probably would not have acted this way. If God had not put Nabal to death, he would have knelt, like the servile Shimei, before David on his way to the palace and begged for his life.

When David heard that Nabal had mocked him and said he could not share his food, he was furious. In his anger he armed four hundred of his men with swords and set out to attack the stingy Nabal. Now, the moment David arrived, Nabal’s household would all die; not one of them would survive. If Nabal had had a thankful heart, David would have repaid that small thanks with greater thanks, and would have protected not only his property but his whole family. Hard-hearted people like Nabal are judged because they cannot share even a small thing. Have you ever counted the blessings God has given you? You will find that tremendous grace, which money cannot buy, fills your life. Always look for reasons to give thanks, and give your heart to God.

Abigail used spiritual wisdom to save her household from the mistake Nabal had made. She wisely held off the trouble that had come upon her house and escaped the crisis, and later she became the wife of King David. From what Abigail says, we learn how a single word from someone who knows true thankfulness can fill their life with great blessing. Abigail had not known of Nabal’s foolish behavior. Just then she heard from a servant that David, in a rage, was coming to kill Nabal, and she hurried to prepare food without her husband knowing, loaded it on donkeys at once, and sent it to David. She knew that David had been a fence around them, keeping the Gentiles from attacking, so she prepared it with great care. Then she knelt humbly before David as he came rushing on in his anger, spoke of her husband’s wrong and of how thankful she was, and sought David’s favor.

1 Samuel 25:28

28Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights Yahweh’s battles. Evil will not be found in you all your days.

She said that the blame for not having met the men David sent was hers. Abigail moved David’s heart with an argument of faith that he could not refute. She was a wise woman who calmed David’s anger by shedding light on David as God saw him. Abigail showed quick wit in handling an emergency in which her whole family could have been wiped out, and her wisdom saved the lives of all of them.

In verses 28-30 Abigail said something very important. She prophesied that God would make David a sure house, so that it would never fall; that God would protect David, bound in the bundle of life, so that his enemies could not harm him; and that he would become the leader of Israel. By seeing through spiritual power what God would do far in the future, and speaking of it, Abigail moved David’s heart. This is clear evidence that Abigail was a woman of prayer, and evidence that she was always filled with the Holy Spirit and rightly understood God’s word. People who are full of the Holy Spirit do not stand out much in ordinary times, but when trouble comes on their family, their church or their nation, they stand at the center of solving the problem. If you too, like Abigail, look at God’s work with spiritual eyes and in humility, God will have you save lives with greater wisdom.

When David had heard all that Abigail said, he blessed Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had sent her that day to meet him. When God’s children live wisely like Abigail, people will exalt God and give him glory. Living as Nabal’s wife until then would have been spiritually painful for her. Watching her husband cast aside God’s grace and live chasing only worldly gain, Abigail would have been deeply hurt. But God sent Abigail into Nabal’s household for just such a day as this. For if Abigail had not been there, Nabal’s household would have been wiped out. Because she had kept her household through prayer, God helped her handle the emergency wisely. If there is just one person like Abigail who relies on God alone and prays, that family, church and nation can gain opportunities for blessing in abundance.

There is something I very much want to say to you. If you are worried about your family, your church and your nation, you must first stand upright in faith yourself. If you, as one person, stand upright, God will not abandon the family, church and nation you belong to, and through your prayers he will protect your family, church and nation. If one who has received such a weighty mission does not pray, but worries and complains and is spiritually lazy, that family, church and nation will face hardship.

When one man, Moses, stood upright, Israel was saved; and when one man, Jesus, bore the cross, all humanity could stand on the road to salvation. If you, one person, stand upright before God, the family, church and nation you are worried about will receive blessing. Look at yourself and ask whether, when God entrusts you with a problem like Abigail’s, you could resolve it with spiritual wisdom as she did.

After calming David’s heart, Abigail returned to Nabal. At that moment Nabal was holding a great feast, like a king, and was drunk. Seeing her husband drunk, she said nothing and waited until morning. Only in the morning did Nabal, who had drunk strong drink and been drunk, learn all that had happened. He probably thought he would always live like a king, but when God took his life, everything he owned became someone else’s. We must keep in mind that the end of those who belong to the flesh is death. After Nabal died, David sent for Abigail, who was wise and discerning, and took her as his wife. She was no longer the wife of proud, greedy Nabal; she had become the rightful wife of King David, a queen. As David’s wife, Abigail came to be respected by all the people, and with a husband who honored God she built a whole and complete home.

Believers, too, have become the wife of Christ, the King of kings, just as Abigail became a queen: Satan, who had acted as their husband, has died in their hearts, and they now serve Christ as their bridegroom. At this very hour the Lord is proposing to every soul, asking them to become his bride, just as David proposed to Abigail. He is asking them to live together with him in heaven, giving and receiving a love that will never change. How magnificent will the King’s wedding feast be? Believers who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will hold the wedding feast with the Lord when he returns, attended by the heavenly host and the angels.

Let us stop and think for a moment. Chapter 24 records Saul trying to kill David, and chapter 26 again records Saul pursuing David. So why is Abigail suddenly recorded in chapter 25, between them? It tells us that even in a harsh world that, like Saul, pursues God’s people and tries to kill them, there are children of faith everywhere who, like Abigail, know God’s will and live it out. Do not forget that in a world full of people like Nabal, who ignored and despised David, there are fellow workers with precious faith who help. God places a companion in faith like Abigail beside the faithful, so that they work together for good; in this way he has made your faithfulness lead to reward.

All of us must live with patience until the day the Lord calls us. The Lord will keep proposing until you give him your whole heart, and he will be waiting, having prepared eternal blessing and a dwelling place.

May you always pray with faithful belief for your nation, your church and your family. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.