1 Samuel 25:32-44

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 1 Samuel chapter 25. We're going to be in the second half of the chapter. We're going to talk about the foolish dude Nabal and what happens to him after his wife Abigail saves his life from David. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. No? No coffee? OK. More for me.
Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for time that even though we may feel pressured or under the gun, there may be responsibilities that weigh heavy on us. Lord, we thank you for the privilege it is to stop to read your word. to learn from you. God, we pray that you would please help us. We pray that we would know who you are and know our righteous King in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. First Samuel chapter 25. And, you know, we're just going to go ahead and start at verse 36 or no, 32, and then we'll go through the end of the chapter. Yeah. So 25, 32.
Then David said to Abigail, blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed is your advice, and blessed are you because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, it is the Lord God of Israel lives who has kept me back from hurting you unless you had prayed and come to me meet me. Surely by morning light no mails would have been left to Nabal. So David received her hand, what she had brought him, and said, O go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and inspected your person. All right, so what's that part about? No idea, because I don't have any idea. OK.
So David and his men have been guarding Nabal sheep and goats. The dude's super rich. And it comes to be the time for shearing, which means it's like a huge feast and festival. And David said some of his guys are like, hey, go see if he can get in on the party, right? Like, we've been protecting this guy's sheep. We've been doing this stuff. You know, will he repay kindness for kindness? And Abel's like, who in the world is Jesse? Everybody's walking around saying there's somebody these days.
Go tell him to chew rocks. David gets pretty mad and he's like, boys, get your swords. We're going to go kill him. All of them. And Nabal's servants go to Abigail, his wife, and they say, they are actually really safe. They're like a wall around us. We love to have them protect us. And Abigail's like, oh, crud.
So she packs her donkeys, and she gets all this food, like a huge feast, takes it out to David to meet him. Like, literally, they're in battle array, ready to go kill everyone, which is a pretty impetuous type thing for David. And she says, his name is Nabal, and he is a Nabal.
His name means fool, and he is a fool. I'm so sorry. Here's this food. Please be pacified, my Lord. And that's David's response here. Like, OK, gotcha. You've done a smart thing. He receives the food from her hand. I've heeded your voice and respected your person. I was about to kill everyone, take their lives in my own hand, but you stopped me.
Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there 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. Therefore she told him nothing, little or much. until morning light. So it was in the morning when the wine had gone from Nabal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became like a stone. Then it happened after about 10 days that the Lord struck Nabal and he died. So what was that about? Nabal scared out of his pants.
Yeah. That's what he did. Isn't it interesting? She doesn't tell him while he's drunk. She waits until he's sober the next day, and it sounds like he had like some type of stroke or something, and then just 10 days later, the Lord takes his life. Yeah. I don't know if it was a stroke. I'm just saying that seems there's some type of physical malady that happens to him. So, all right. You want to pick up on that? Yeah. You want to go on verse 39?
So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach for the hand of Nabal and has and has kept his servant from evil. The Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head, and David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife. Okay, so what was 39 about there? David thinks that Nabal deserves what Nabal deserves.
Yeah, but it's interesting. So there's two parts, right? Blessed be Yehovah who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, right? So he's saying, I'm glad the Lord's heard me, but then he goes on and he says, and the Lord has kept his servant from evil or disaster. How did he do that?
David was just about to kill everybody in Nabal's household. And Abigail stopped him, and the Lord still took vengeance. Okay, now then there's something wrong that happens here. What does David do? He asks Abigail to be his wife. Why would that be wrong? He has a wife. He's already married to Michael, Saul's daughter.
So David starts doing the thing that is going to cause all sorts of problems in his life, especially in his son's life. He starts taking multiple wives, something specifically forbidden of kings in Deuteronomy chapter 17. There's a law about kings there in the book of Deuteronomy. So, principles governing kings. Deuteronomy 17 beginning at verse 14, when you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you and possess it and dwell in it and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me. You shall surely set a king over you whom Jehovah your God chooses from among one of your brethren. It keeps on going about that.
Verse 16, but he shall not multiply for himself horses. nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. For Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Verse 17. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. Nor shall he greatly multiply silver or gold for himself.
And so we see here that David is a complicated dude. Think about all the rumors that would come up from something like this, too. The guy's adversary dies after he's just met with his wife. You can imagine the speculation that people might have. I bet David had Abigail, like, poison her husband or something. Like, this is the type of stuff that happens with things like this. Now, you can't avoid all rumors, right? But the point is, that type of stuff happens. Alright, so let's go ahead and keep on going.
Then she rose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of your servants of my Lord. So Abigail arose in haste, and rode on a donkey, attended by five of our maidens. And she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel. And so both of them were his wives. But Saul had given Michael, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Raish, who was from Galen.
All right. Well, let's see. Now we're saying, wow, hold on. David's really multiplying wives, right? He's got, so Abigail essentially accepts the proposal. Yeah sure, I'll get married to you. But then the writer of First Samuel tells us what else had David done. He just got married to another. Yeah so now he's got technically three wives even though Saul back at home has given Michael to be the wife of somebody else. Even that's a wicked thing. So it's a clearly seen, you know, he thought it was just like this political marriage and or Saul thought it was just a political marriage.
All right, so what's this whole section about? Yeah, you got seven words or less or nine. I'll give you ten words or less. What's this section about? God avenges David and David gets married to Abigail. Okay. Yeah. I would say God is merciful to David, though David is breaking God's commands. Maybe I'd do something like that. What would you underline as the best verse to summarize this section? Probably 39. Yeah, that's what I would do, too. I would do 39, but then I would also underline 43. Just because it's very clear why that's there.
So what do you think you're called to do? Wait for God to destroy your enemies as you've protected his sheep? No, I think... Oh, get married to the widow of your enemy? Oh, I know multiply wives. No, I think it's about David was supposed to Was supposed to try to solve God and We show that even though David doesn't obey God God still blesses him. I Why would God bless somebody who's going against his law? Because he said he would. So God doesn't care about his law? He cares about his law.
David still has consequences. This is going to end up good for him. But God still blesses David because he said he would. Now it doesn't excuse what David did, but he's still going to get natural consequences from this. Sometimes he would get supernatural consequences for his sins. Sometimes other people, even the people in his life, would suffer because of his sins. So it does not excuse what David did, but God still loves David and is caring for David.
Yeah, that's a tough thing, right? Because we might want to look down our nose at David with a bunch of pride, like, oh, you stupid guy, I can't believe you would do this, blah, blah, blah. And yet, at the same time, what would we do if we were in that same position in that culture, when the multiplying of wives is one of these status symbols and alliances and wealth gathering thing, right? I mean, now he inherits all of Nabal's sheep and servants, his wife, everything. There's a lot that goes on here with something like this that we could look down our nose and yeah, if we were in the same position, maybe we'd be tempted to do something similar.
And it sounds like in Deuteronomy, the king wasn't supposed to be like this super rich guy. He was supposed to be just the average dude who was called the king. So, I think this points me to Christ, thinking like David's not perfect in any of this, and yet every single one of these things we find fulfilled in Jesus. The king from amongst his brethren, the king who's not multiplying silver and gold, the king who's not taking multiple wives, the king who's not trusting in the horses and the princes of Egypt. He's the king who fulfills all of these things perfectly. where David was a failing type.
He's kind of a model, but he's a prototype. He's not the real thing yet. That's what points us to Jesus. And thanks be to God, we can see David in ourselves sometimes when we go, I can't judge David, because sometimes I act like Nabal and sometimes I act like David. And so I hope that the Lord might still care for me. So, yeah. You good? Or anything else you want to contribute? No? Alright. Do you want to pray for us? Or would you like me to? I'd like you to. Okay. God, thank you so much for giving us time in your word. Lord, we thank you for giving us a perfect king in Jesus Christ.
Lord, we pray that you would please help us to not be fools. Lord, we pray that we would not avenge ourselves, for we know the vengeance is yours. Lord, we pray that you would please help us. Lord, do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And Lord, we know that the temptations that have overcome us are that which are common to humankind, to man, and yet Lord, we know that by the power of your spirit, you are able to sanctify us and change us and warn us and correct us and rebuke us and turn us and train us for righteousness. Lord, we pray where there are things that we should learn to live, we pray that we would put those into action by your spirit. Lord, please do not let us take pride in our own righteousness. for our boast is in Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the peace of Jesus Christ. We'll see you next time. Bye.