David: He Has Paid Me Back Evil for Good.
Notes
Transcript
Last week we talked about how David repaid Saul good for the evil that Saul had paid David. Saul has been chasing David down and trying to kill him, and when David had the chance he did not avenge himself. He repaid good for evil.
Well, today, we see David is still running from Saul and where David and his men have settled shepherds were watching over their flocks. So, David and his men protected the shepherds from robbers, wild animals, and all sorts of other pitfalls that go along with shepherding.
The man who owned the sheep of these shepherds, Nabal, was very wealthy, and David had a request when it came time to shear the sheep. Sheep were a big part of the economy in David’s time, we still use sheep’s wool to make clothes out of. And because Nabal was so wealthy, David sent his men to ask for food and supplies as a thank you for David and his men protecting Nabal’s investment until it was time to shear the sheep.
It would have been unbelievable for Nabal to pretend like he didn’t have any supplies or act like he didn’t have enough to share with David and his men.
Well, David’s men go and do exactly what David asks them to do and here is what Nabal had to say...
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?”
Nabal refuses to help David, he even accuses David of abandoning Saul! The only reason David is on the run is because Saul is chasing him. He didn’t desert Saul, he was run off by Saul.
David is furious when he hears the report.
13 David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
David is upset and his response is vengeful. His pride is probably hurt, he feels cheated because he and his men guarded Nabal’s wealth and he won’t even share from his abundance with them. Think about it, when a sheep dies, they don’t just loose his wool for that year, but they lose all the future wool from that sheep. So David and his men were responsible for ensuring Nabal’s continued wealth and he wouldn’t even feed them for their trouble.
In the meantime, some servants go to Nabal’s wife, Abigail, and explain what has happened. She rushes to make it right with David, she understands what her husband has done and how offensive it is. So she gathers up a small feast and heads to David’s camp.
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 wilderness 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!”
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.
24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.
25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.
26 And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.
27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.
29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.
30 When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,
31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.
33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.
34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
Abigail reminds David of the lesson he learned in the cave with Saul, David lets his anger control him and he almost goes too far. David and his men are warriors, it would have been dishonorable for a small army of well trained soldiers to annihilate a rich guy and all of his servants.
And Abigail speaks truth to David and reminds him that there is something much bigger going on here, David isn’t some random solider with a chip on his shoulder, he is the next king of Israel. If he doesn’t learn to allow God to lead him in all of his actions, he will not be good king. If he doesn’t learn to allow God to avenge him, he will not be a good king.
If you read the story of the kings of Israel it’s obvious that the bad ones do what is right in their own eyes and do not follow what the Lord says to do.
Nabal is a wicked man, that no one can even reason with because he is so corrupt, if David doesn’t learn to let God avenge him, he could end up exactly like Nabal. But, he doesn’t. Abigail talks some sense into David and he relents.
And about 10 days later, Nabal is dead. David didn’t kill him, but he allowed God to seek vengeance for Nabal’s evil, and in the end God takes care of David and his men. They get food, David doesn’t tarnish his legacy by taking out a rich guy and his hired help, and Israel will get a king who has spent a long time learning how to conduct himself and how to trust God and leave the details up to Him.