David and Abigail

As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.

Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.

1 Samuel 25:18-22

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.
19 And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 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.
21 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.
22 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.”

Abigail exercised wisdom quickly. She had the means and the methods required. Not only did she have access to bunches of food on hand, food that was available at a moments notice, but it seems Nabal’s inventory was such that this removal of these mass quantities of food didn’t set off any alarm for Nabal.

Now of course those who may have been assigned to the accounting of Nabal’s assets may have understood the situation, and covered for Abigail, but this only speaks of the wisdom of the servants in combination with respect towards Abigail.

Either Nabal had so much stockpiled food that this large removal didn’t impact his balance sheet appreciably, or there was a coverup, in order to protect Nabal, and his entire house. After all, the servants understood that harm was coming to get them!

1 Samuel 25:17 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.”

Abigail jumped on this situation, short circuiting the obvious request from Nabal, for she knew her husband, that he would not allow any asset to leave his inventory.

Abigail was in rescue mode. David was in retaliation mode. He was looking for blood.

Even before Abigail approached him, David seemed to be reiterating the wrong that Nabal had inflicted on him. I suppose for David,it was an unwritten agreement, or a socially accepted manner of helping those who needed help, that would result in some type of reward, even creating an obligation.

Of course, a man of Nabal’s stature was able to ignore obligations without any serious social impact. So what if people looked at him with a glare. He was filthy rich! And still breathing.

But maybe not for long, for though the socially accepted manner of renumeration was rejected, David seemed a fall back response was to wreak havoc and inflict vengeance on Nabal. He seemed to go dark fast, thinking Nabal’s response warranted extreme blood letting violence. After all, it could be argued, this is simply justice working itself out!

That is a problem!

Revenge is off limits to God’s people, and just yesterday I wrote a short post on it. Kind of providential, but if you are interested, please check out Let Me Tell You a Story – Revenge and Justice. Revenge and justice only relate to one another when the justice is based on our own fickle law system that favors our condition and provides no mercy to any one else.

David was in the wrong in this instance, and he seemed to be revelling in it.

But not to worry – some woman on a donkey was coming to straighten him out in a most unexpected manner.

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