Remaining secure in the Lord

Remaining secure in the Lord 1 Samuel 25 When we looked last week at David’s and Saul’s meeting in the Desert of En Gedi, when David spared the kings life, and whilst he was explaining his actions to Saul, he told him that he was leaving any revenge that he might have felt he was due, to God, saying, in Ch.24 v.12, “May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, “From evildoers come evil deeds”, so my hand will not touch you. In our passage today, however, we find David’s commitment to this point of view being severely tested. After he and Saul separated at the end of chapter 24, having, it seemed, been reconciled, David obviously didn’t place much faith in Saul’s word. And so he and his men continued to remain hidden away in protected places; in order that the King wouldn’t be able to come upon them unawares. Firstly they returned to the cave where the incident that we looked at last week took place; and then, after the death of Samuel, David led them into the nearby desert of Maon; perhaps feeling that with Samuel no longer there, this would mean that Saul would be more likely to attack. Now, Maon wasn’t all desert. There was grazing land there and so, in order to get enough food to feed themselves, David and his men were able to act as defenders of the local shepherds; protecting them from attacks by wild animals and thieves. This way of behaving wasn’t usual ... in those days contracts would be entered into between herdsmen and sheep owners with the herdsmen receiving a fee or commission on the sheep and goats that were delivered safely at the shearing. And so David it seems, in return for helping the herdsmen to protect the flocks, looked to the owners of the animals to show their gratitude by providing him and his men with a portion of that commission; and presumably this scheme was working. That was until David heard that the wealthy sheep and goat owner, Nabal, was shearing sheep, so that he sent ten young men to go to Nabal and to ask if he might not be generous towards them, as they had been to him by protecting his animals. (You see shearing time was a time of great celebration; a time when hospitality would have been expected to be offered; when owners would rightly repay those who had played their part in bringing in the harvest.) However we’re told that Nabal, though he had a very fine wife Abigail, was himself surly and mean in his dealings with people, an unpleasant bully of a man. So that when the young men got to him, and passed on the message that David had told them to give to him, he showed no generosity, no gratitude; in effect he told them to go away and get lost, pouring scorn on David, “David? Who’s he? I’ve never heard of him! No, he’s just another one of these servants who’s broken away from his master”, he said, in a barbed reference to David’s relationship with Saul. “No, why should I give my bread, water and meat to people who I know nothing about?” Well obviously he did know who David was, but it seems as though Nabal may well have been a supporter of Saul. And considering that back in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel we’re told that Saul had driven the Amalekites out of that region, presumably making Nabal’s life much easier, this would hardly be surprising. However David was God’s choice as the next King, something that even Saul had acknowledged, not to mention the fact that Nabal had benefited greatly from David and his men’s protection; so that his behaviour was unacceptably rude and insulting, and in a land where courtesy was highly valued this was just not on. He was also of course going against the will of God ... Hardly surprising then that he should be given the name Nabal, meaning fool. So David’s men returned to David and reported what Nabal had said and suddenly we see a different side to David; he was immediately all for revenge. “Put on your swords”, he said. And then along with four hundred of his six hundred men he set off with the intention of destroying Nabal and all that belonged to him. You could argue of course that he was justified; he’d be concerned that his followers were going to be short of food, he’d reckoned on Nabal’s contribution and now they weren’t getting it. But then how much was his reaction due to bruised pride? Because his response to Nabal’s rejection of him in many ways seems to be not so much what we’d have expected of David as what we’d have expected of Saul ... Saul who was headstrong, who feared any form of opposition, and who was determined to crush any that might arise. Up until now David, on the other hand, had refused to seek revenge, despite having been constantly chased and harried by the King. In fact he’d shown an extraordinary degree of patience and restraint. But now for some reason, when he heard of Nabal’s reaction, he totally lost his composure, seeing red, wanting revenge. In other words reacting in a way that was totally out of proportion to the offence done to him. Yes you could understand him being angry but then he took his anger too far. Perhaps this comes as a surprise to us, but then should it. If we’re honest don’t we recognise this sort of behaviour in ourselves at those times when we feel we’re being stretched to breaking point and then beyond, so that we do or say something that we later regret? Perhaps it’s a warning against priding ourselves on our own placid nature, or of placing people on pedestals and then being distraught and confused when they fall off them. Because we, and they, will fail at some point … especially so when we feel certain that we won’t. Maybe David had become complacent. His speech to Saul concerning his self-restraint in favour of God’s judgement, as well as his whole attitude to Saul, would no doubt have won him many admirers ... perhaps he’d begun to believe his own press. Or perhaps he was overtired … he’d been running for so long, working so hard at keeping going that it had all become too much for him. Or maybe, as we all sometimes do, he’d left God out of the equation. His life was so taken up with the routine of ensuring the provision of enough food and supplies that his thoughts had for a while drifted away from the spiritual, being taken up instead with the basic, temporal, issues of life. Whatever was the case, David was in grave danger of making a very big mistake. But then God’s mind hadn’t drifted from him and so he sent his word to him from a very unexpected direction. Now not using a prophet, nor any of his usual spiritual advisors, but rather the wife of Nabal himself, Abigail. Abigail who, as we’ve noted, was a very different kettle of fish to her husband. So that whilst he was foolish she was wise and while he was self-centred and arrogant she was caring and humble. A remarkable parallel, in fact, to King Saul and the old David. And just like Saul and David, whilst Nabal repelled people, being a wicked man that no-one could talk to, she won their confidence. As a result Nabal’s servants went to her with the news that disaster loomed because David and his men were marching against them. And what did Abigail do? We’ll verse 18 tells us that she lost no time; she quickly understood the situation and took the steps that were needed to deal with it. She got together lots of provisions and loaded them all on to some donkeys and then she sent these on ahead of her with the servants in order to placate David before she arrived ... rather in the same way that Jacob had sent gifts ahead of himself to his brother Esau in Genesis chapter 32. And so Abigail met up with David when he was still full of anger, breathing out murderous threats against her husband and saying rashly “May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him” ... once again mirroring the attitude and actions of Saul in the past. But into this caldron of emotions Abigail brought words of wisdom, words of calm, words that were from God. And just like David when he’d prostrated himself before Saul at the entrance to the cave in the previous chapter, so she now bowed down before him in all humility; even asking that she might take the blame for the insults that had been done to him. And she reminded David that the Lord had kept him in the past from bloodshed and from avenging himself with his own hands; and that although David had been pursued by someone who wanted to take his life, God had protected him and had taken care of his needs, and it followed therefore that he’d continue to do so. Abigail also reminded him that the Lord had chosen him for a purpose, to be King over Israel, and that to act in such a way by brutally killing Nabal and all the men who belonged to him, would be to besmirch his reign before it even began … just the error, it so happens, that he’d avoided with Saul And as David listened to her you can almost feel his anger draining away, and sense returning to his thinking. It’s interesting that the sentiments that she was expressing to him were ones that he himself would have naturally held to, that he himself may well have given voice to on many occasions when encouraging his men, as well as himself, to keep on going. God has provided; God will continue to provide; He is faithful to his promises; look to Him. Indeed this wasn’t new thinking for David, rather he was given back the right perspective, brought back into line as it were … what a blessing Abigail was! And isn’t it the case that we ourselves need to be reminded at times of truths that we’ve always held to but that perhaps we’ve forgotten for a while? Isn’t this one of the great advantages of Christian fellowship, that we are able to mutually encourage each other? And isn’t this something that we should be looking for in each other, expecting of each other even, that we care enough to utter words of gentle correction where necessary? In which case what does this say to us about the need for humility in our dealings with each other if we are led by God to speak words of correction, or on those occasions when we ourselves are brought into line by others at God’s initiative? Because we’ve already noticed Abigail’s humility in bringing the Lord’s words to David, and we see now how David received those words. He was so close to going the way of Saul … he could have brushed her aside with the words, “it’s too late, the man has got it coming to him”. Or else his anger might have been inflamed even further: “how dare you, a mere woman, presume to lecture me, the future king of Israel?” But no, instead he listened and his heart was softened as he said (from verse 32 of our passage): “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgement and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.” You know it can be difficult at times to take correction from others, especially when we realise that it’s deserved. What a difference if we’re able to see that it’s loving correction, perhaps timely correction, from God himself, as he protects us from ourselves. So David stopped his advance on Nabal, and Abigail returned to her husband who knew nothing of these events and was busy feasting and getting drunk. When she told him the next day what she’d done, it seems as though his anger caused him to have a seizure and he died just over a week later. And that was the sad end of a fool! As for David he now realised afresh just how God does keep his promises, how he does protect and judge justly, and also, once again, how he was blessed by Abigail’s timely arrival. Abigail herself being blessed for her faithfulness when she was brought into the future royal household as David’s wife. What else can we learn from our passage? Well firstly we’re reminded that just because we pass through a time of testing and learn lessons in the process, that doesn’t mean to say that we can sit back and rest on our laurels. God knows us far better than we know ourselves; knows the kind of person we are as well as the person he intends us to be. Therefore he may have to teach us the same lessons over and over at different times and in different situations until the attitudes and behaviour learned become a permanent part of our new, Holy Spirit enabled, nature. David was being moulded by God to take on responsibilities which as yet he couldn’t begin to rightly grasp. But the Lord knew what he’d face and was preparing him. The same is true for us when we’re His, and He’s teaching us all the time so that we might be enabled for ever greater steps of faith. Secondly we can learn from David’s behaviour that sometimes our feelings of the rightness of our cause can lead us to react in a self- righteous manner; in ways that appear to be right, but which are actually potentially damaging to ourselves and to our relationship with God. That time, for example, when we hit back at someone for what we feel is an unkind remark. Or when we try to teach someone a lesson that we’re confident will do them good. When instead we should surely remember our own position before God, that if we’re a Christian then we’re but a sinner saved by grace, and act in humility trusting Him to continue to defend us if necessary and provide for our needs … just as he’s always done. We also learn of course how God can use the most unlikely people to bring about his will for us. So that we should always be ready to receive Godly advice wherever it comes from, because it may well come from the most unexpected of sources. And who knows but we ourselves might be asked by God to give such advice to someone who we’d never otherwise dream of approaching. So to sum up there are lots of warnings in this passage: it’s so easy to find ourselves losing the plot; succumbing to our baser nature when we begin to take our attention away from the Lord who’s brought us to where we are; falling into old habits of behaviour or thought that we felt we’d conquered. But there’s much to encourage us too. Yes we all make mistakes, and sadly we always will. But praise God that our destiny isn’t dependent on our own efforts, our own abilities, not even our destiny as a body of Christ in the community in which he’s placed us. The Lord is ever patient, ever merciful towards us, and like a shepherd he will by his Spirit correct us and bring us in to line so that we go the way that he’s planned out for us. Only let us be humble, and always open to his leading of us. Amen