Wisdom and Folly
Notes
Transcript
Claim - Disciples learn, change and grow in godliness (a man after God’s own heart) in response to God’s word
Focus - A disicple responds and changes to Gods word (Negatively - a Disciple does not remian unchanged by God’s word)
Function - To reassess how we listen to God’s word so that they choose growth not pride or laziness
Pray
You’re ment to start a good sermon with an anecdote or a story.
You’ll have noticed I don’t always bother - might say something about my sermons!
But
I’ve been working on an original story this week. I think you’ll like it.
There were these 2 guy who needed a house.
The first man made the effort to look for some solid rock to build his house on and got to work.
It was a simple and humble house when he’d finished - for he’d made the effort to build his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose up, and the wind blew and beat against the house,
yet it did not fall becasue it had it’s foundation on the rock.
Let’s call that guy wisdom.
The other guy put his effort into make his house look great.
It had a firemans pole to get downstairs, and everything.
But he didn’t take the time to find a rock foundation, he wanted his house now and his way.
So he built his house on the sand.
The New International Version Chapter 7
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
We’ll call that guy Folly.
Of course this story isn’t new to anyone.
In fact, as you begin to think through the bible,
the names Wisdom and Folly could be applied to so many events and teachings that you have to wonder why?
Proverbs dedicates much of the book to these 2 people.
It seems in fact that we
in life
are faced with these 2 options before us basically everyday!
So while the story may be old,
the question is ever fresh,
And I wonder if we don’t realise how often we choose folly!
And that is the choice before David in this chapter today.
He comes across a man called Fool,
and his wife who is wise!
The question is, which is David going to chose?
Wisdom or folly?
The Rock or the Sand?
It begins with the announced death of the great prophet Samuel.
The end of an era - quite literally.
The last ruling prophet of Israel has died
and Israel is now firmly in the hands of it’s King instead.
Given the rather mixed - but mostly ‘taking’ nature of King Saul,
it’s not suprosing that ‘all Israel’ turned up at Samuel’s funeral in v1.
There is likely a national anxiety about what will happen now!
But our narrative follows David, not the funeral.
You see while David had spared Saul’s life in the cave in chapter 24,
and Saul had aknowldeged his mercy and God’s plan that David would one day rule as King,
David has returned to his stronghold in Engedi,
Because Saul is not finished yet!
The death of Samuel perhaps casues David’s next move to travel even further away from Saul in the desert of Paran, where he meets Wisdom and Folly.
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. His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
This guy Nabel, is seriously wealthy!
4000 goats and sheep is a huge number!
He lived like and enjoyed being like a King we’re told in v36.
But, he also lives up to his name’s sake..middle of v25.
The New International Version Chapter 25
He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him.
Clearly his doating wife thinks highly of him as she explain this to David!
The facts of this chapter are revealed as you read it all through,
but basically,
David and his 600 desperate men, have been protecting Nabel’s shepherds and sheep while they have been in the hills gracing.
Most of you will know Leanna and I spent 3 years leading a team of missionaries who live amoung the shepherds in Lesotho.
The deal we made with them was that if they teach our guys to be shepherds, we’ll teach them about Jesus.
Many of you have met or heard interviews with Caleb.
They would be left sometimes with perhaps 80 to 100 sheep and goats in the mountains to keep an eye.
To protect from jackels, theives, dangerous precipices, flooded rivers,
They would have to find enough gracing and water,
bind up any injuries,
carry the weak,
let alone feed themsleves and try to sleep.
At shearing time they might drive 2 or 3 flocks down together so that 2 or 3 herd boys could help with the 200-300 stupid animals!
Through out the year, however careful and diligent the herd boys or our team were - some sheep or goats would die, be stolen or just get lost.
The herd boys were only too happy to let our guys live and work with them,
becasue life was tough,
dangerous at times, lonely and even scary.
An extra man or 2 about was a welcome sight.
Now relay that over to this guy Nabel, who’s herd boys were keeping watch over 4000 animals!
In a region with preditors much bigger than jackels - we know David when he was a shephgerd had to fight of lions.
and not 200 animals but 4000!
If a group of 600 men led by David the great warrior,
took it upon themselevs to protect the shepherds and animals so that not one animal was lost,
they have earned atleast a small share of the difference they have made to the stock owners wealth.
Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
and it’s shearing time - a huge payout is coming Nabels way as he sells all that wool.
Even when I or our team in Lesotho visited a stock owner in a village we would be welcomed and fed with whatever they had.
So, what does Nabel say as he comes out to Carmel to see his wealth
and David’s servant approaches him with a request for whatever he can spare
for David and his men who have served him so generously?
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.
Huh - what do I care - I’ve got what I want.
Notice he even uses the name ‘son of Jesse’ as King Saul did in previous chpaters to show his lack of respect for David’s name.
Interestingly there is no doubt Nabel knows exactly who Daivd really is - as his wife displays great knowldege of David’s situation later on.
But The Fool offers a foolish response by any cultural or moral standard.
As the news gets back to David he’s not happy.
David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 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.
Revenge is sweet as they say - and David will have it.
He’s so mad he even vows before God that he will kill every man in Nabel’s company!
It’s the type of reaction we have when we are treated badly isn’t it?
We might not grab our swords,
but we would certainly use our toungues to cut people open,
sometimes to them,
sometimes behind their backs.
Or perhaps we fight fire with fire,
and we make deliberate decisions that we think will annoy the annoyer as much as they annoyed us!
Of course, the English amoungst us will be very subtle about our revenge
- and it will be hard to know who is meaning or thinking what,
but we know, they know, behind the unsaid is a mask of revenge or even hatred,
when what we think is right doesn’t happen.
What we all need, what Daivd needs then,
before he has unnesscery blood on his hands is to meet Wisdom.
They say that opposites attract,
it certainly seems to be the case here - it’s was made clear from the onset..
His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
Nabel has done well for himself (as have I of course) in securing a beautiful and intelligent wife in one!
And so this impressive woman hearing what her foolish husband has done - I’m trying hards not to look at any one inparticualr,
swings into action.
Abigail acted quickly. 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.
Not only is she inteliigent and beautiful, Abigail can even cook and prepare a huge feast in not time at all!
She sets out with all this to intercept David
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. 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. 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. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
Here we see the key to Abigails wisdom.
It is in calling others - and presumably herself, to being responsive and obedient to the word of God.
She recalls the song of Moses where he sings:
The Lord says:
It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them.”
Paul of course echos the same verse in the NT:
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
revenge is the Lord’s our job is to infact love our enemy.
Put your violent tougnes and swords away.
Abigail isn’t finished with reminding David of God’s commands,
she also reminds him of God’s promises.
“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. 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. When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,
And so, she concludes her wisdom by showing David the wise way forward
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.”
In short, don’t sin, obey God,
For his promises are good!
What will David do?
He has the choice to follow the way of foolishness, or wisdom.
Nabel or Abigail.
The rock or the sand?
and David, the man after God’s own heart,
chooses wisdom.
David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.
David chooses wisdom.
he chooses obedience to God’s word and promises!
And so he should,
he is the annointed one of God,
the man after God’s own heart.
the King who will point us towards Jesus.
What do we choose when faced with enemies or fools?
Selfish foolishness in return?
Or God trusting, God obeying, Wisdom?
Well.
Abigail, returns to Nabel who is drunk,
once he sobers up she tells him what she has done
and he suffers some form of stroke or heart attack and then dies from it 10 days later at the hands of the Lord.,
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.
wow - wait a minute.
Things were going so well,
but
Isn’t David already married - infact twice!
His first wife Michal, had to remian with Saul when David escpaed,
and probably as punishement, we here find out that Saul gave her to another man.
We also learn here
David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.
It seems odd doesn’t it,
that having chosen wisdom just previously,
Daivd now seems to choose folly when it comes to women.
But perhaps in a chapter of wisdom and folly, this is exactly the point.
Even God’s annointed David,
while a man after God’s own heart,
will ultimately also need a perfectly wise saviour.
We all know where David’s lack of restraint towards women eventually gets him later in his life
with adultary with Bathsheba and then the murder of her husband.
We too, if we are followers of Jesus,
having had our hearts of stone replaced with a heart from God,
will not always choose wisdom.
We too need a perfect saviour.
We absolutely need strive to choose wisdom not folly,
to not do so is to stand against the will and commands of God.
It is sin.
It is foolsihness
But when we do fail,
it leads us back to the mercy of Jesus,
who in his perfect wisdom never failed to obey,
in his perfection he gives us his righteousnes in exchange for our folly.
In David’s own words in Psa 51
The New International Version Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
We are saved by Jesus to be like him and choose wisdom - obedicene to God’s word, trusting in his pormises.
as David did,
and yet until Jesus returns the very nature of us also chooing folly at other times brings us back to the joy of our salavtion in Jesus to.
Of course the ultimate folly in ilfe is to reject Jesus in the first place,
our only hope of rescue from God’s right judgement.
and a worse fate than Nabel’s awaits those that do reject Jesus.
So to close,
folly in this chapter and our lives
is driven by selfish gain,
Pride,
money,
status,
power,
revenge,
sexual desire.
But Building on the rock, choosing wosdom,
is to be driven by Jesus and His word.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
tomorrow when that annoying colluge,
or school friend
or a teacher doesn’t do exactly what your precious jonny likes,
will you draw the sword of the toungue -
Or you see an attractive woman (or man) or are tempted by the internet
will you to enagge in that fantasy..
That’s folly. - It’s a rejection of Jesus.
So repent and know that we need Jesus again.
BUt better still,
choose the wisdom of Jesus.
Love your enemy,
control your desires,
Choose obedicen to Jesus’ word.
Read it each morning instead of facebook, or doing a work out - if it’s one or the other.
Get yourself and your famliy to church to hear the word.
and then choose wisdom
The rain came down, the streams rose up, and the wind blew and beat against the house,
yet it did not fall becasue it had it’s foundation on the rock.
Pray