1 Samuel 25:1-22 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 25:1-22. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Samuel 25:1 (NIV)
1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon.
On verse 1: Chapter 25 begins with the death of Samuel. It was fitting that all Israel assembled and mourned for their leader Samuel, whom they bury in his hometown of Ramah.
1 Samuel 25:2-11 (NIV)
2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.
3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
4 While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.
5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.
6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7 “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.
8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.'”
9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.
11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
On verses 2-11: Previously David had treated a rich landowner Nabal extremely well. He protected Nabal’s shepherds and livestock from attacks and also did not steal anything from Nabal (v7). After greeting Nabal and blessing him (v5-6), David now humbly asks Nabal for a small favour: that Nabal would provide him and his men with any food or supplies Nabal could find (v8-9). Yet Nabal scoffs at David’s request, arrogantly rejecting David, belittling him, and completely forgetting about the grace David had shown him before (v10-12).
What can we learn from this? Just as David had shown great grace and kindness to Nabal, Jesus the Son of David has shown us incredible grace and kindness. Just as Nabal owed a debt to David for all he had done for him, so we owe a tremendous debt to Jesus for all that He has done for us. Yet how many times have we treated Jesus the Son of David the same way Nabal treated David? How many times have we, like Nabal, rejected Jesus, belittled Jesus, scoffed at Jesus’ words, and completely forgot about the grace Jesus has shown to us? While it’s easy to look down on Nabal and what he did to David, let’s be careful that we’re not doing the same thing to the Son of David Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 25:13 (NIV)
13 David said to his men, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords, and David put on his. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
On verse 13: Has this ever happened to you before? You’re going through a stressful and difficult time. You’re doing your best to be loving, calm and patient. But then a new and relatively small problem presents itself and you lose it (your temper, your composure, your self-control)! It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back. This is what happened with David. David had been under tremendous stress — trying to honour God while running for his life from Saul, leading 600 people, and mourning the death of Samuel, all at the same time. He had done a masterful job before of controlling his anger and vengeance toward Saul. Yet when Nabal mistreats David in a relatively smaller way compared to how Saul mistreated David, David’s emotional dam breaks and David loses it. David morphs from merciful, patient and self-controlled David to rageful, offended, “I’ve had enough of this” David. He tells 400 of his men to put on their swords (v13) and plots to wipe Nabal and his men off the face of the earth (v21-22).
What can we learn from this? Even the best of us have our “lose it” moments. Only Jesus is perfectly patient, merciful and self-controlled.
Also, just as Nabal’s contemptuous response toward David incited David’s wrath, God’s wrath is stirred and His Spirit is grieved when we treat God with contempt — when we take His grace for granted, refuse to give back to Him even a small portion of what He has given to us, and respond to His kindness with a closed heart.
1 Samuel 25:14-22 (NIV)
14 One of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail: “David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.
15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.
16 Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them.
17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.
21 David had just said, “It’s been useless–all my watching over this fellow’s property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.
22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
On verses 14-22: Fortunately for Nabal and for David, there was Abigail, Nabal’s wife. Verse 3 describes Abigail as “an intelligent and beautiful woman”. Whereas “no one could talk to [Nabal]” (v17), Nabal’s servants could talk to Abigail. Nabal’s servants alert Abigail to what happened — how David had treated Nabal well (v15-16) while Nabal treated David contemptuously (v14). They warn her that disaster is looming for their household if no one does anything (v17).
Wisely, Abigail “lost no time” (v18). (Compare this to Nabal who may have made David wait for a response in verse 9.) She acted quickly and resourcefully. She sent a train of donkeys with enough supplies for every one of David’s armed men to get a loaf of bread and other food (v18). She also followed behind on her own donkey (v19).
By the time Abigail met David, Abigail was on her donkey at the bottom of a ravine and David was descending with his men toward her (v20). Facing this uphill battle, Abigail showed great resourcefulness, courage and wisdom.
What can we learn from this? When there is strife in your relationships, do not delay to resolve it. For if you let bitterness and unresolved anger linger, the effects can be disastrous. Resolve conflicts quickly so as to avoid unnecessary pain and damage. As I tell couples whom I marry: Be quick to admit when you’re wrong. Be quick to forgive when you’re wronged. And be quick to move on when it has nothing to do with right and wrong.
Father, I pray that I would not be like Nabal, treating Your grace toward me with contempt. I pray I would be like Abigail, quick and wise in how I resolve conflict. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
