Vengeance is the Lord's
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: Welcome/Prayer
Open up to 1 Samuel 25
This week we’re going to look at a request made by David which was denied and David’s response to this denial.
With this event in David’s life we will consider how we respond in regard to our requests that get denied or are left unsatisfied.
Recognizing that through it all, God is sovereign, and ultimately, and revenge, any payback is the Lord’s.
Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.
Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. 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 Nabal in the 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 masters. 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 I do not know where?” So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this.
A Request
A Request
(1-12) Nabal refuses assistance
What we know of Nabal
Wealthy man, 3000 sheep (Job had 7000)
Married to Abigail (discerning & beautiful) “my father was delighted”
Lived in Carmel (same place Saul built his monument)
A Calebite, like David.
David requests provision from Nabal
Blesses Nabal with peace...
Reminds Nabal the of the treatment and protection afforded to his men
Seeks whatever he may have on hand for food
Nabal answers insolently
Insults David (v. 10) “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?”
Refuses to grant David’s request
How does David respond? Let’s read verse 13...
And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
(13) David becomes angry for not getting what he thought he was owed
Along with the disrespect shown to him by Nabal’s response...
David had acted generously and graciously towards Nabal’s men… Nabal should respond in kind...
David takes 400 men with swords to Nabal… leaving 200 with the equipment
While David has his plans God has His own… let’s read about how Abigail is sent by God to calm David’s anger… we’ll start with verses 14-17
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, 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 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.”
(14-17) Abigail is made aware of the situation
One of Nabal’s young men tells her of David’s request and Nabal’s response
He even defends David’s request showing it’s reasonable
Warns her of the harm that is coming...
For no one can speak to Nabal, for he is a worthless man
Consider this description of Nabal… “worthless man” why?
B/c he doesn’t listen, he doesn’t care, he’s a fool, he’s an angry man… are you viewed this way by others? Are you a Nabal?
Now, let us read 18-31 and see how Abigail responds to the news
Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, “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 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 belong to him.”
When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell 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 in your ears, and hear 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, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt 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 so 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 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 himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”
(18-31) Abigail acts
She prepares an offering for David
200 loaves
2 skins of win
5 prepared sheep
5 seahs (7 quarts per seah) of parched grain
100 clusters of raisins
200 cakes of figs
Heads out to meet David
Meets him under the cover of a mountain… the mountain’s shadow, probably in a ravine...
Upon arriving, the author reminds us of David’s anger… the intensity of it… v. 21
Is Abigail heading for a slaughter?
Abigail bows before David and begins a long petition (longest speech in the OT by a woman)
Let the guilt be on her
Let your “servant” speak
Let “my lord” (equal to saying “my husband”) not regard this “worthless fellow”
She wasn’t aware of his messengers… yet she still offers to bear the guilt
Let Nabal be dealt with as your other enemies, let Yahweh who has restrained your hand now, deal with him
Let this offering be yours
Forgive me… v. 28
Consider the promises of Yahweh to you
You will be established as prince, as king of Israel
You will be given victory in your battles by Yahweh
He will deliver you from your enemies
And you will arrive with a clean conscience… there will be no blood guilt upon you...
Remember me when that day does come...
Notice, that in this petition by Abigail, as much as she is pleading for mercy, and encouraging David, she is softly rebuking him as well… if you ever need to correct a person, encourage them as much as possible, if possible, by reminding them why they shouldn’t act a certain way...
Now let’s look at verses 32-35 to hear David’s response
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 bloodguilt and from working salvation 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.”
(32-35) (David responds)
He praises God for sending Abigail
Blesses her for her wisdom, her discretion
Keeping David from bloodguilt
Working out his own salvation/deliverance...
David would have slaughtered all of them… if God did not send Abigail to intervene
Accepts the offering, sends her in peace
David, though a sinner like Nabal…
Acts opposite of Nabal
No one was able to talk to Nabal about his foolishness
David on the other hand, was willing to listen… and as such was able to act rightly in the eyes of God
Now, Abigail has to tell Nabal the news… verses 336-38
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. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
(36-38)
Nabal is drunk… acting and eating like a king so she waits until morning
When Nabal hears the news, he becomes like stone (a stroke?)
10 days later God kills him
Let’s finish our chapter with the remaining verses to see how David reacts to this news and what is to become of Abigail
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 back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then 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 Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
(39-44) Wives of David
David hears the news… and blesses God...
Recognizing any vengeance belongs to God, and is for Him to deal with… so David blesses God for Nabal’s death
David then takes Abigail as his wife
She humbly accepts his offer
We’re then told about another lady who David took as a wife as well,
Ahinoam of Jezreel, she is the mother of David’s firstborn Amnon...
Michal, meanwhile had been given to a new marriage by Saul
Our Requests
Our Requests
What requests do we make that we feel we are owed?
Some common and simple examples would be
Food orders at restaurants
A specific type of haircut
Maybe a regular raise at work
Respect at home, from our spouse, or children
Respect from customers...
Respect from the gov’t… or maybe even some type of benefit
What do we do when we don’t get it?
Do we respond like David?
With violent intentions?
With anger?
Bitterness?
Maybe we become like Nabal, a fool, and we can’t even be talked to about the situation...
That tomato on your sandwich, after you specifically requested no tomatoes… has ruined your day...
Rather than respectfully engaging in conversation about it you demand your money back...
Or maybe, you’re more reasonable, and you simply ignore it, go oh well, and eat it anyway (granted that you’re not allergic to tomatoes)
What is the right response?
Let’s go to Paul in Galatians 5 and look at the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
How do we live this way? Sure by the Spirit… but what’s the key here? What was the key for David?
Who are we in the eyes of God?
If David, relented by being reminded of the promises of God for his life…
Should we not consider the same?
What are those promises? And it’s not just the promises but the reality of our nature.
For it is because of the new creation of our nature that we are heirs to such great promises.
What is this nature?
A new creation 2 Cor 5:17, Rom 6:4
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
A crucified flesh Gal 2:20 Gal 5:24, Rom 6.6
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Not our own… we belong to God… Rom 6.22, 1 Cor 6.20, 1 Peter 2.16
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
What are the promises to come because we have this new nature?
2 Cor 5:18 - we are reconciled
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
Rom 6:5, 6.8 - we will be raised
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 8:16-17 - The Spirit bears witness (if we bear His fruit) then we are co-heirs
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
In light of them, what then should be our response when we do not get what desire? What we feel we deserve? What we feel we are entitled to?
There is nothing here for us to gain… whatever we have we ought to count it lost...
For what is to come is far greater than anything that can be gained here… even if we were to gain the whole world and all its wealth...
Some of you want peace in your home… but that might not happen… but your response ought to be the same...
One of humility, of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...
And it’s not some of these… it’s all of them.
You can claim faithfulness and lack love or kindness...
Or claim patience but lack joy…
Is this hard? Yes.
But this is why we have God’s Word… and the body of Christ…
Just as Abigail intervened for David… God’s Spirit will intervened for us if we keep our ears open and listen to Him speak to us through His Word and through His people...
But if we allow our anger to be such that we become deaf to wisdom we act more like Nabal than we do David.
Let us this morning, as we come to the table, open our ears so the Spirit can do just that...