PAUL TRIPP MINISTRIES, INC. David and Abigail November 30, 2008 1 Samuel 25:4-35 Well, it was a bit of a Beauty and the Beast story. We lived in a twin home. Our landlady and her daughter lived next to us. And in the most inappropriate time, in the most inappropriate way, she made life extremely difficult for us. I was not a happy man. I was very hurt and very angry. I would like to tell you that I immediately sought God's help, but I can't. I thought of what I'd like to say to her. I thought of things that I would like to do. I won t tell you them. But God is a God of grace, and God put a woman of wisdom in my life - she happened to be my wife. She was making baked goods at that time, and she suggested that rather than making war with our neighbor, we would take her a plate of nice, fresh baked goods. That's exactly what I was thinking! I knew it was right; I knew it was what God wanted me to do immediately. She suggested that I write a note expressing my love, and affection, and desire for peace for this lady - maybe one of the hardest notes I've ever written. I was a beast; I admit it, in need of God's rescue. I'm impressed this evening that this story that may appear to be unusual is remarkably usual. It is an amazing picture of life in a fallen world. It's an accurate picture of our struggle, our susceptibility to sin, our susceptibility to temptation. I have concern this evening that, in the sort of dissonance of historical detail, that you would miss what a wonderful mirror this passage is on you, on your God, on His grace. This is a very usual story of life in a fallen world. We find David still in hiding, in exile. He s still seeking to escape the jealous vengeance of King Saul. And although he s the anointed king of Israel, he doesn't live like a king. He lives in the wilderness with 600 followers, that's a lot of mouths to feed. And the custom of the day was, when a lord would be in an area, he would protect the farmers and the shepherds in that area. David's men provided that kind of protection for Nabal and Abigail. Their presence meant that the shepherds would be safe, and their flocks would not be plundered. And the custom was that in exchange for that service of protection, when the harvest time would come, or when the time of shearing and slaughter would come, that protecting army would be given provisions. There's where we pick up the story in verse 4, if you look there.
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. (ESV) It's a humble, respectful request. It's not out of order. This is not a man bringing troops down and making a threat and making a demand. David had the power to do that - he did not do that. His followers had not stolen sheep and taken things out of the field. This was a proper request done in a proper way; you would expect a proper response, but hear this; this is a fallen world. The man receiving that request was a fool; his name even means that, Nabal, the fool. And he greets this request with insult and accusation. Think of how you would've responded. I would encourage you tonight, don't be self-righteous in the way you think about David in this moment; be humble. What would've been your mind, having provided this protection, having made the respectful and customary request, to be slapped with insult? What would you have felt? What would you have said? What would you have done? Listen to the words of Nabal, verse 10, And Nabal answered David s servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Trust me, he knew. This is not a request for information. This is an insult. It's maybe said like this, Who does David think he is? And, notice what he says next, There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. This is not a slave who has escaped his master and has no way to provide for himself. This is a good and loyal man, loyal even to the king who is out to murder him, who has been forced to flee for his life. Shall I take my bread and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from where I do not know where? This is Nabal saying, Now, let me get this right, like you're really wanting me to take my stuff that belongs to my guys and give it to you and your guys. You can almost hear him saying, Oh, like that s going to happen. That's the tenor of this passage, and I would welcome you again, as your pastor, put yourself in this moment. The moment I mentioned to you that I faced was small in comparison to this, and I will confess to you, I lost my way. I would ask you this evening, as you face the harsh realities of life in a fallen world, as you face that boss who accuses you of something you didn't do, as you face that
professor who seems intent on making your life hard, that roommate who seems so accusatory and so selfish, so hard to live with, a husband or wife who doesn't seem to care for you as much as you would expect your spouse to care, an extended family member who gossips about you behind your back. What happens inside of you? How do you respond? What do you think? What do you desire? When you're suddenly hit with the unexpected insult, unexpected trial, unexpected accusation, what do you do? Now hear this, you live in the human community, and you do; and you live in relationship to other people, and you do - are you listening to me? You will be sinned against. David s story is your story. People don't always treat you with love. They don t always treat you with respect. They re not always happy to meet your needs. And I must say this; you are both victim and victimizer because you re not always loving to others, you re not always considering other needs. Sometimes your peace, comfort, happiness, joy, pleasure, and satisfaction are much more important than the people around you. This is life in the real world. I love the honesty of Scripture putting us right in the moments that we face every day. Last week, how did you respond? Last month, how did you respond? Well, we see David's response. The swiftness is shocking, look at verse 13, And David said to his men, Every man strap on his sword! Now that's a good idea. And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David. I like this aside, while two hundred men remained with the baggage (lots of luggage). Wow. The suddenness of temptation, the susceptibility to temptation that you see in David is written in Scripture as a warning to us all. Listen, you are more like this man then unlike him. And as long as sin lives inside of us, brothers and sisters, we are susceptible to temptation. We are easily ensnared. This wasn't a declaration of war; this was a selfish insult and an unwillingness to provide, and David is immediately filled with murderous vengeance, and he's on his way to do something that would have been horrible. Don't sit there and let yourself think you can't relate. You ve wanted evil for another person; you ve wanted to see them hurt; in some way, you've cursed them in your heart-- we all have. And it comes so suddenly. You can be going along quite well, and the suddenness is shocking as the emotional temperature changes and now ruled, not by the call of God, ruled by passions and ruled by desires, you're out to do something that you shouldn t do. Maybe that's a burst of gossip, or a low-grade act of vengeance, or a word of insult, or a refusal to help. Listen, that problem is not first a problem of behavior; that problem was first a problem of the heart. It reveals how deep our continuing need is for God's grace.
How evil and fickle our hearts are, and listen to this truth: temptation is all about forgetting, it's about forgetting who God is. You don't need to take vengeance; your God will take care of that. You don't need to panic in the face of lack of provision; your God is an ultimate Provider. You don't need to worry about your reputation; you have acceptance with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It s not just about forgetting who God is; it's about forgetting who you are you. You are His covenant child. You're the object of His love. You're a sinner in need of His grace. How quickly we forget who God is and who we are. This is David as an amnesiac. He s forgotten his God; he s forgotten his identity; he s forgotten his calling, and he s on a mission of murder. Beauty and the beast - this is a beast of a man at this point, like a ravenous lion that cannot be stopped until he s made the kill. This is the anointed King of Israel. How shocking. But God is a God of remarkable grace. Look at verse 14, and this dramatic turn in the story. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal s wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men 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. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 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. (ESV) Servants make that report; Abigail assembles provisions; you can see them there, verse 18 and following, quite an assembly of provisions, and she rides out to meet David. Notice David s grieving; you can see how taken this man is, how caught up verse 21, Surely in vain I have 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 belong to him. That's an angry man! And Abigail speaks to David with such remarkable wisdom. I'm reminded again as I read this passage, something I said to you before, listen, your walk with God is a community project. You need the instrumentality of others in your life. You need their wisdom when you don't have any. You need their courage when you don't have any. You need their warning when you aren t able to warn yourself. You need their strength when you are weak. And God raises up a woman of true beauty, not beauty that's physical, but beauty of character, and she speaks with David with such remarkable wisdom. Notice verse 28, the three things that that Abigail does. First she asked for forgiveness, surely a way to soften the heart of this angry man. Then she blesses David:
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 so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and 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. (Sweet words!) 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 has spoken concerning you and has 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 working salvation (taking vengeance) himself. (ESV) She does three things. She asks for forgiveness. She blesses David and reminds him of the blessing of the Lord that has been promised to him. She does a third thing; she appeals to David's conscience. You don't want this blood on your hands. You don't want to go to the throne with this guilt on your hands. I can't think of a wiser response than this one: forgiveness, encouragement, appeal to conscience. Now what does that tell you? It tells you that David was not, in any way, alone in this moment. The King of Kings, who had appointed David the future king, was sovereign over every piece of this experience. He was tempering this king for his future kingship. This was a trial of grace. And because it was a trial of grace, God would not turn His back on this man in this moment. And God raises up this godly woman so that David would see his need, and his heart would turn. I would propose to you this is the kind of grace that you and I don't often pray for. We pray for the grace of relief. We pray for the grace of release. I don't know how often we pray for the grace of refinement. How often do we prize the uncomfortable grace of trial that exposes our need that drives us beyond ourselves, that brings us, once again, to our knees, seeking God's help? Hear this; David was a man in deep need of rescue. But David didn't first need to be rescued from Nabal; David needed to be rescued from David, because, brothers and sisters, it's only ever the evil inside of us that hooks us to the evil outside of us. We can't be spiritual environmentalists. Yes, we live in a fallen world; yes, we live near flawed people; yes, we will be sinned against, but our greatest, deepest, most abiding problem exists inside of us, not outside of us. And so it was with David. Notice the turning of David's heart in verse 32: And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! (David understands it's God's mission of rescue.) Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation (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've obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition. (ESV)
It s a God of grace, who by His grace, raises up instruments of grace that have the power to be used by the Spirit of grace to radically turn our hearts. God sends His servant to rescue David from David. I would ask you this evening: where, right here, right now, are you in need of that rescue? Where is temptation powerfully on you right now? Where are you tempted to forget who God is and who you are? You can't read this passage without hearing the familiar strains of the Gospel. God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, on the ultimate mission of rescue, because our deepest, greatest problem could not be solved by us. We do not have the ability to escape the thing that holds us most powerfully and most deeply - our own sin. And so, God did a radical thing; He sent His one and only Son to take on human flesh, to suffer the ravages of life in a fallen world, to live a perfect life, to take on our sin in His death, to rise from the dead, conquering sin and death, so that, at our point of need, there would be rescue available to us. Listen, that rescue is not just your past forgiveness; that rescue is not just your future eternity; that rescue is for the here and now. There is grace for what you face. Now the question is, are you seeking the rescue that is yours, or would you rather follow the sovereignty of your emotions and the sovereignty of your desires? Say, think, seek, do, what you know is wrong in the eyes of your Redeemer for temporary fulfillment, or would you say, My God is Lord of heaven and earth. I am His blood-bought child. I've been called to His service. He is the Ultimate Provider; I will stand; I will not give in. I will resist by His grace. Let s Pray: Thank you, Lord, for this story of the fallen world, the temptation of sin, the rescue of a Redeemer, the turning of a heart. May it be a mirror to us. May we look into it and see You, and see our worlds, and see ourselves, and seek the grace that has been purchased for us by Your blood. In Jesus s name, Amen. 2008 Paul Tripp Ministries www.paultripp.com