1 Samuel 25, How Do You React?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

So 1st Samuel chapter 25 beginning in the second part of verse 1 to the end of the chapter here the word of the

Lord Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran and there was a man a maon whose business was in Carmel The man was very rich.

He had 3 ,000 sheep and a thousand goats He was sharing his sheep and Carmel now the name of the man was

Nabal in the name of his wife Abigail The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved

He was a Caleb ite David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men and David said to the young men

Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name and thus you shall greet him.

Peace be to you and Peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have

I hear that you have shearers now your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm and they missed nothing all the

Time they were in Carmel ask your young men and they will tell you therefore Let my young men find favor in your eyes for we come on a feast day

Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David when

David's young men came they said all this to day ball in that name of David and then they waited and Nabal answered

David's servants Who is David who is the son of Jesse there are many servants these days who are breaking away from their master

Shall I take my bread and my water my meat that I have killed for my shears and give it to men who come from?

I do not know where so David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this and David said to his men every man strapped on a sword and every man of them strapped on a sword and David also

Strapped on a sword and about 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage

But one of the young men told Abigail Nabal's wife bald David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master and he railed at them yet The men were very good to us and we suffered no harm and we did not miss anything

When we were in the fields as long as we went with them They were a wall to us both by night and by day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep now therefore

No this and consider What you shall 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 then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five

SIA's of perch a parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and Laid them on donkeys and she said to a young man 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 the 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 belonged to him

When Abigail saw David she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell toward David 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 at your ears and her and here are 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 It is your soul lives because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt 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 as 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 had spoken Concerning you and as 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 taking vengeance himself and when the

Lord has dealt well with my lord then remember your servant 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 blood guilt and from avenging myself 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 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

And so she told him nothing at all until the morning light and the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal his wife told him all these things and his heart died within him and he became as a stone and About five days later the

Lord struck Nabal and he died 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 his servant from wrongdoing

The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal in his own head and 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 a know him of Jezreel and both of them became his wives

Saul had given McCall his daughter David's wife to Palty the son of Laish who was of Gollum May the

Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word When Thomas Jefferson was elected president in 1800

Baptists in America were generally Very happy about that. They reacted with relief and joy and Support because although he was by his own admission not in Orthodox Christian Jefferson advocated for religious liberty.

So the ladies of a Baptist Church in Cheshire, Massachusetts Where Baptists have been persecuted put together a huge block of cheese as a gift to Jefferson The cheese was about four feet wide if you can imagine over 1 ,200 pounds but 1 ,200 pounds of cheese

It came to be called the mammoth cheese I mean they gave it a name the mammoth cheese and they made it according to the newspaper at the time

Quote as a mark of the exalted esteem they had of Jefferson as a man of virtue benevolence and a real sincere friend to all

Christian denominations and They inscribed on the rind or the casing of the cheese Jefferson's motto rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God Jefferson reacted to the gift of the mammoth cheese with great delight announcing upon its arrival in Washington DC and 1801 that it was an expression of quote the passion of republicanism in a state meaning,

Massachusetts Where it has been under heavy persecution Jefferson had his special frame built just to hold the mammoth cheese block together and would often show it off to visitors to the

White House, here's here's the mammoth cheese personally, I would react to a mammoth block of cheese by Gradually eating it

How would you react? People react differently to elections to regimes to takeovers

Liberations or invasions depending on whether they welcome or they fear Whoever is taking over when

American forces in World War two would come into some French or Dutch Belgian or kind of town like that the local people generally would greet them as liberators.

They would come out They would be jubilant and waving their national flags and sharing whatever food or drink they had with the

American soldiers I recently read the book band of brothers and in it the author reports how the u .s.

paratroopers had a hard time getting through a town and getting to their destination there was what goes sees a bridge and they had a

Difficult town time getting through the town the Dutch town Because the civilians there that local people were so happy to see them

They came out and gave them food and drink and hugged them and you know kiss them and all that But the officers had to tell we got to keep moving

The people there reacted to the Americans with great joy and celebration

And but when the US Army came into Germany The welcome was not as friendly the locals might put out white flags meaning they surrender

But they reacted to the Americans as invaders not as liberators, although that would change with time upon the 50th anniversary of the end of World War two in Europe Mary and I Visited a

German Lutheran Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a German pastor there Translating himself from German speaking

German and he translated himself into English talked about how the war was the liberation of Germany now in this country in the

Civil War the US Army was reacted to as Invaders in much of the south by the white population they're afraid the

US soldiers would burn down their houses or loot their property while much of the black population reacted the

US Army as Liberators abandoning their slave plantations and following in great trains as these huge columns

Trailing behind or sometimes just right in the middle of them with the US Army as it marched when

General Sherman marched from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia about 10 ,000 freed slaves are rallied to his army and they were they freed themselves

You know They otherwise they ran away from their plantations and they came to the US Army Trailing behind it once they arrived in Savannah an additional 8 ,000 escaped slaves from the area

Joined him their reaction to the news that the US Army was nearby was to flee to it for freedom people react differently

How do you react specifically how do you react to The kingdom of God the

Lord Jesus told us to seek it first but some people react to it by Not seeking at all or even avoiding it.

They seek wealth or they seek pleasure or thrills or things But not the rule of God.

That's what the kingdom of God is the rule of God over them And we see that here in 1st

Samuel chapter 25 in four parts First the supplication second the reactions then the intercession and finally the vindication

Well first we have David's supplication as his request David and his men retreat much further south into the wilderness of Paran remember last week

They were got the name of the place, but it was by the Dead Sea now They're going much further south down in the Sinai Peninsula And so he's trying to get further away from Saul But of course he needs sustenance for himself and for his army and he hears about a wealthy man in May on up in Judah Whose herds his men have protected earlier and he was very rich in verse 2

He had 3 ,000 sheep and a thousand goats He's sharing his sheep and that's a time of a feasting.

It's sharing the abundance like harvest time. I mean for us payday The reward for months of caring for the herds has now paid off It's time to cash in and enjoy the fruits of one's labor

Now, of course any decent person is going to share the blessings with all those who made it possible right the shepherds who helped did the work the hands who helped in whatever ways and security

The man's name was Nabal. Although that was probably a nickname given to him that he earned because the name means in Hebrew fool

Now I can't imagine parents giving their kid the name fool like from birth His wife's name was

Abigail which means my father's joy now They were a very odd couple because she is in verse 3 quote discerning and beautiful In other words she had good sense and good looks but he was harsh and Badly behaved he was surly.

He's difficult. He's severe. He's fierce It's kind of a hothead and he's unreasonable.

He was the descendant of Caleb one of the two men with a lot with Joshua who determined to believe

God's promise and Wanted Israel to attack Canaan immediately a few generations later by Nabal's time that determination

Had degenerated into just a nasty obstinance Caleb wouldn't listen to others who doubted

God's promises Nabal just wouldn't listen to others and David hears that from his hideout in the wilderness.

He probably doesn't know this about Nabal yet He's about to find out but he hears in his hideout in verse 4 that Nabal is having his sheep sheared

Complete with all the feasting and sharing that's supposed to go along with it And so in verse 5 he sends a contingent of 10 men who bring a polite supplication to Nabal notice how courteous

David's supplication is Greet him in my name David says and say in verse 6 peace

It's Hebrew. Shalom. He's blessing Prosperity wholeness.

It's a blessing, you know for all your life a full piece of an abundance be to you and Peace Shalom Be to your house.

That is your family and peace third. Shalom be to all that you have a blessing of triple peace in verse 7

I hear you have shearers and we all know what that means. I mean just feasting time

It's sharing time. It's giving time now your shepherds have been with us. I And we did them no harm and they missed nothing all the time that they were in Carmel in other words we provided security

We defended you against attackers from abroad and from criminals at home

We didn't loot you David taught his men not to be corrupt not to just take what they wanted.

Therefore because of our service to you David says let my young men. That's my soldiers find favor in your eyes treat them

Well be generous with them, please for we come on a feast day.

Just reminding him of that It's a day to share and then just to make the supplication explicit

Just please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son

David and by calling himself Your son David is appealing not just for a business transaction with Nabal.

Oh as we provide security now It's time for you to pay the bill Right. We didn't do that for free. You have to pay

But for a covenant relationship, that's what he's asking for with Nabal I'll serve you and my calling is

King and you serve me and your calling as a businessman. We share it's not just quid pro quo this for that like someone comes into your shop and orders general chow chicken or Cappuccino or the video game or software written, but you provide the product they pay the bill, right?

That's business David doesn't want just that he wants a covenant relationship like a family.

I'll provide what I can for you But here they for David security and you provide what you can for me, which for Nabal is this food now understand?

David is being extra gracious to put his supplication like this. He could put it as a bill

Like the government sending you what taxes are due taxes are due pay up He is the anointed

King after all and he has been defending Israel in particular He's been providing a service of security to Nabal as the proper

King doing the work of defending the nation He has a right to be supported. He can tax the

Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 13 verse 7 pay taxes to whom Taxes are due now if David was the rightful king then taxes are due him

Nabal actually owes David But David didn't put it as a bill That's owed he didn't put it as something you owe me now pay up now he says, please

Give whatever you have at hand to your son David not just a contract.

Let's have a covenant Now we owe the Lord we have Christ the Christ everything he could send us a bill

For services do here's services rendered. Here's what is due in red ink at the bottom your whole life

You live your life as a living sacrifice. It's do me now pay up But instead he sends us a supplication

Come into relationship with him an invitation call him Abba father. Not just boss

Invites us take my yoke upon you and learn from me For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls

In other words come into a covenant He sends an invitation instead of a bill if God has given us a new heart then we respond to that invitation with joy and with love

If he hasn't Then we don't How do you respond?

The anointed one has come bringing in the kingdom of God. How do you respond to it? Do you flock to it?

Do you look to it for safety do you seek it first you see in it your liberation or Do you fear it you're afraid of what it might take away

Or you even Scorn it insult it revile it

Here from verse 9 we see five different reactions first Nabal's. How does a fool respond to the kingdom of God?

Well with reviling? David's been bringing David's gracious invitation to Nabal and then

They waited it says In other words Nabal left him waiting for a time. He didn't immediately react

So his response here is not like something off the top of his head just losing his temper He considered his response and his considered response was in verse 10

Who is David? And that's not a question. He knows David is the son of Jesse He's probably heard all about David and Goliath and all that kind of thing and is being anointed.

It's just meant to be demeaning He's saying David is a nobody David's not worth me paying any attention to David referred to himself as your son

Respecting Nabal who apparently is older and implying that he wants a covenant relationship being a covenant with him

But Nabal reacts with scorn There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters

That's what David is to Nabal a rebellious servant. He's insulting

David Nabal is what first Corinthians chapter 6 verse 10 calls a reviler it's a verbally abusive person someone who reacts with with insults who disrespects people who deserve respect a punk

First Corinthians chapter 6 says that such people do not Inherit the kingdom of God that is when the kingdom of God comes they get excluded

They go to hell They go to hell along with first Corinthians 6 s along with the sexually immoral idolaters adulterers practicing homosexuals thieves the greedy drunkards and swindlers

It's a sin on that level and this we need to understand because in this country

We have freedom of speech and many Americans choose to use their freedom of speech to revile to be revilers to spout insults

To respect those who deserve respect and they think well, I have freedom of speech. I can do it And so they may think it's it's okay.

It's right and some professed Christians think well because it's legal then it's okay God's not mad at it. No, it's not

Nabal reacts with reviling Because he's a fool and he will not inherit the kingdom of God The assassination attempt we saw yesterday was probably

I think the result of a lot of reviling If you constantly claim that someone is a whatever this is this monster

There's a Nazi or whatever. He's a threat to our future our nation Don't be surprised if some people take that seriously and act on it reviling has consequences next

David reacts to reviling with wrath David's men returned to him and convey

Nabal's message David reacts furiously in verse 13 every man strap on a sword.

That's David's immediate response In other words get your weapons on And so all

David's been strapped on their swords David also strapped on a sword notice that That repetition strapped on their swords and it's on purpose gives a sense of vigor action

He's reacting angrily and he's out for blood He's not just sending a strongly worded memo

So insulted by you. No, he's coming armed He takes 400 men living 200 behind to guard their things and he takes out off after Nabal David's reaction to reviling is wrath, which is also we saw in 1st

Corinthians 6 God's response to it Next is a servant's reaction

His reaction was to report Remember that David is far in the south of Israel So it's going to take him some time for him to come back up to central

Israel and pour out his wrath on Nabal and during that time a servant one of the young men in verse 14

Reports to Abigail and he reports behold. Otherwise, this is important news

Abigail Davis sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our Master and he

Nabal he railed at them. He reviled them. He insulted David and Then he reports about David's men in verse 15.

They were very good to us We suffered no harm and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went with them

We didn't go with them. Maybe got robbed, but we went with them. They kept us safe. They weren't corrupt They weren't using their force to loot or just to take whatever they wanted

They felt like having lamb chops. They would just take one of our sheep. No, they respected us and he says they were a wall

To us both by day by night and by day. Otherwise, they were like they were protectors. They kept out

Hostile forces all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. They fulfilled the purpose of Government, they protected us from harm from invaders from outside from criminals from inside And then the young man urges

Abigail over 17 now therefore know this the report and Consider what you should do

You better do something. He says because harm is Determined against our master

Nabal and against all his house very astute Servant here.

He's provoked Nabal has provoked wrath He's such a worthless man

The servant says and literally in Hebrew it says that means a son of Belial We've seen that phrase before and for Samuel son of a lot worthless fellows

Here is Nabal is one that no one could speak to him. Can't reason with him He doesn't listen to reason the servants response was to report to the wise woman

Then comes Abigail's response in verses 18 to 20. Her response was

Propitiation she made haste She knew the clock was ticking Wrath was coming

It can't be appeased but just nice words in an apology. And so she took 200 loaves of bread

Two skins of wine. It must have been big there enough to go along with 200 loaves of bread five prepared sheep and almost nine gallons of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs

There's no mammoth cheese here, but it's still it's a lot of food And she put all that on donkeys and told the young man driving the donkeys to go on before her

She wants David to see the gift before she beats him She's seeking to appease wrath and the formal word for that is

Propitiation turning away wrath into goodwill Abigail reacted with propitiation then is

David's continuing reaction in verses 21 to 22, which was overkill

The time he's had to think over and what's happened in this insult. He got on his way up from the south

Has not calmed him down He's gotten angrier. He's thinking to himself surely in vain is for nothing

Have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness? We guarded his flocks when he was here.

We protected him and This is what he does to us we protected him when he was hurting the sheep in the wilderness

This is how he pays us back with insults He's with reviling and what nothing was missed of all that belonged to him.

We weren't corrupt We didn't help ourselves to his livestock or to his things. He has returned me

David thinks to himself evil For good. He's just boiling now dwelling on that insult and on the on the kind of reviler the punk

Who would say it so in verse 22 He resolves God do so to the enemies of David and more

Also, if by mourning I leave so much as one male of all that belonged to him he's planning on killing

Nabal and every one of his men and boys now that's Overkill it's a violation of God's regulation on punishment

It's called the Lex Talonis with the law of retaliation an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth and that gets commonly

Scorned today often by revilers It gets scorned as excessive brutal barbaric

But it was actually a just restraint on how much punishment could be meted out

The punishment must fit the crime. You don't just punish out of anger Just because you get furious at somebody but it should be according to the offense

Now here Nabal hasn't killed any of David's men. So killing him Would be wrong it'd be excessive

Nabal's men certainly didn't harm David so wiping them out would be far Excessive and itself a crime but David's reaction to wrath

Has this consumed him? So he's been provoked to overkill then third part comes the intercession

Starting in verse 22 now, we're not we're not told what impact the gifts from Abigail had on David Maybe it cooled him down a little bit and when

Abigail sees David she hurried again second time She's hurried. She understood the urgency of this situation

She got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground where she paid Objescence to David treating him like a king.

That's how she reacts to David like he's a king It's like David himself who reacted to Saul in the previous chapter and then comes it's wonderfully gracious respectful appeasing

Intercession to David for eight verses beginning of verse 23 She begins on me alone my lord

Be the guilt She's asking you for the guilt of the offense, which she did not commit

Be attributed to her and then she asked for permission to speak doesn't even presume that and Humbly calls herself

David's servant Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow against son of Belial of Nabal fool

For as his name is so is he fool is his name and he should his name notice by the way

Reviling is disrespecting those who deserve respect. It's not disrespecting

People who deserve no respect. It's not calling a fool a fool Don't take him seriously.

She's appealing Abigail says, you know, she didn't see the guys that David sent

Now then my master there was David as the Lord lives, which is certainly as your soul

Lives, which is certainly Because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt.

She's being hopeful now Trying to put that idea hurt his head Hopefully the

Lord's gonna restrain you from killing everybody The Lord has restrained you from saving or avenging or here it's in this

ESV It translated as avenging that could be translated saving with your own hand Here me saving himself from being insulted rather than leaving

The saving to the Lord let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord to David be as Nabal left to the

Lord's wrath and she points to the present all that food and pleads for forgiveness Please forgive the trespass of your servant

Even though she hasn't sinned against him But she appealed that all the guilt be on her and then she pleads that she be forgiven of all that guilt

She should be forgiven because She professes her faith in Christ in a

Christ David Small C Christ that is fulfilled by the Christ and verse 28 notice this in verse 28 for the

Lord. That's God will certainly make My Lord small l

David a sure house Now the house is the dynasty the line of Kings and the word sure there is

Aman where we get a man from it. We use it all the time. It's an affirmation of certainty.

The Lord is certain to give you David a dynasty a house

Amen That dynasty is fulfilled by the

Christ Who gathers all his people? Into his house the church

Abigail says It's sure It's certain she believes it that's why because of her faith

She is forgiven and her works her gift is a fruit of her faith

My Lord David she says is fighting the battles of the Lord that is God's battles not just his own

So evil shall not be found in you So long as you live and this is not just flattering that we know that David will commit evil

But in the end God will not find evil in him

Because it will be imputed to someone else like here where Abigail says to impute the sin to her and Then pleads to be forgiven of it

Then in verse 29 she reaches the peak of this this wonderful Intercession if men rise up to pursue you and your life to seek your life

Saul like Saul did Then the life of my Lord, that's

David Shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the

Lord your God What a wonderful phrase I'm sure I've read this chapter many times before but only now preparing to preach it that that I see that That why we have songs based on this

This should be you should be him just from this alone this phrase here He'll be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the

Lord your God If David was still angry up until this point, you know, the anger had had to melt away with that Even if you're in danger, she said, you know, your your life is at stake

Your life will be will be bound in the bundle of the living Under the care of the

Lord your God Now Abigail is interceding remember with David and his men are all soldiers with a sword strapped on and almost certainly you have to imagine a pack a bundle of some kind their equipment, whatever they take with us to Probably bound to them maybe on their backs trapped on dr.

Swords She's saying the Lord has your soul in his pack

God's promise to David the small see Christ means that God has bound David's life or soul in the bundle of The living where he keeps the living in his pack.

God has a collection of the living and David is in it She's saying that no one can snatch you

David you believer No one can snatch you out of God's bundle

No one can take you out of his pack God is keeping his anointed one and all who trust in this anointed one the anointed one who are seen in Christ He's keeping them bundled with the living for eternal life

With the Lord our God What a wonderful promise from the wise woman

Still speaking to us today The lives of your enemies he God shall sling out of the hollow of a sling here

She's alluding to David's victory over Goliath. The enemies of Christ are slung out

With an away from me. I never knew you Cast into outer darkness but David and those made alive by God are

Bound by God To God Then she professes her faith in Christ again in verse 30 professing when not if David is appointed

Prince or it could be ruler over Israel according to God's good promise. Then David will be glad That he hadn't shed innocent blood

Shed blood without just cause Violated the law by killing in response to an insult and then when he's established

He won't be sorry won't have pangs in his conscience that he had worked salvation

Himself or the word could be avenged himself, but the conclusion is the same salvation eventually brings vengeance on all the effects of sin

Everything sin has taken away from us Will be avenged we will eventually be saved from it all

After October 7th last year I started regularly watching news for a while from Israel on YouTube.

It's great what you can do these days on TV 7 news It's called you can watch it yourself. The news would end with the host saying

Conclude the news presentation with pray for the peace of Jerusalem I thought okay

Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 says the church is the new Jerusalem But we can pray for the peace of the physical

Jerusalem too and pray for the salvation Pray for the salvation of Israel Okay, that's good.

Yeah, we should pray for the salvation of Israel and now we Christians tend to think of salvation is just narrowly

I'm being saved from God's wrath and our sin from being alienated with God being saved from hell

So we don't have to go to hell and that's the heart of it. That's the foundation of it all But TV 7 news is right

To suggest that salvation means rescue from all the effects of sin

The plots of our enemies. Well first is the world the flesh of the devil. There's our real enemies, but there's revilers or terrorists assassins the decline and the death of our bodies

Not having cartilage in your left knee kovat Everything we lost because of sin

We will be safe from even bad things like insults that we declined for now to save ourselves from So finally

Abigail's wonderful intercession into verse 31 with a plea When notice is not if not if the

Lord deals well with you and you become King No, it's when I know for sure David the Lord has dealt well with my lord you

David then when he's put you on the throne then Remember your servant or me remember me

It turns out he didn't have to wait very long to remember her and After that intercession, he could never

Have forgotten her But that was her reaction to David his reaction to her in verse 20 and verse 32 is

Blessing a threefold blessing Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel who sent you to me this day

To meet me blessed be your discretion or your discernment your advice your good sense your wisdom and blessed

Be you Abigail? What a wonderful Woman and she and he admits

David admits Abigail you have kept me this day just now from blood guilt for me guilty of excessive punishment and from working salvation

Our vengeance salvation with my own hand He'll leave it to the

Lord now after her intercession He had missed it If she hadn't hurried and appeased his wrath

David would have killed Nabal and all his men and boys and instead of that overreaction

Abigail's intercession caused David to react to her With forgiveness blessing he declares go up in peace peace again

Shalom to your house Which he had just earlier been determined to destroy now peace

See I have obeyed or listened or heeded your voice your intercession and have granted your petition her petition for forgiveness when the kingdom of God comes believers like Abigail react with professions of faith and Please for mercy and the

Christ reacts to them with forgiveness and blessings a peace

How do you react Finally from verse 36 is vindication

Abigail goes back home to where Nabal is holding a feast fit for King He was mean and stingy toward others but indulgent toward himself

Abigail wisest ever wait until he sobered up the next day to tell him About David how he was storming toward us with 400 men with a sword strapped on Determined to kill all the men and boys and take everything

Nabal reacted to that Verse 37 says his heart died within him probably meaning the other stroke or a heart attack

He lingered for ten more days until finally he died. The Lord struck him meaning that God's hand was behind his heart failure

David sees it as vindication Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult.

I received at the hand of Nabal Vengeance is mine God says in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 35 and David declares the

Lord has kept back his servant Get back me from wrongdoing from the overkill that I had planned to have been consumed by in my anger

The Lord has returned the evil on Nabal's head own head. The Lord has saved him instead of him trying to save himself

Then to make the vindication complete and obvious David remembers

Abigail. She has to be remembered and boy, does he remember her? She has to be remembered and that's what he does

David sends his men to convey the proposal David has sent us to you. Here's the proposal

Doesn't sound like it's a choice David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife and she reacts to that with graciousness humility

Maybe some high fives with her maids. Yes and behold Your handmaid is a servant

To wash the feet of the servants of my Lord Well, she not a speak

She has five maids which showed how wealthy she is and now David inherits all that wealth

This is a vindication not only against Nabal But against Saul who had taken away his wife

McCall Saul's daughter Giving her away to another man as a way to punish David, but David is vindicated shown to be right

Right with God blessed by God by now having two wives Saul took one away God gives him two now, that's not a model for you to follow in case you get any weird ideas

It's a sign of vindication He's proven right To leave salvation to God How do you react to the kingdom of God We owe the

Lord everything But he didn't send us a bill He sends us a gracious invitation worship him with your whole life

Be a living sacrifice Call him Abba father take up his yoke for it's easy and learn of him for he's meek and lowly in heart and You will find rest for your souls be in a

Covenant with him that's the invitation

If we still have our old dead hearts like Nabal's We react with scorn with reviling

But if God has given us a new heart We respond to the invitation with joy and love