Two Funerals and a Wedding
Some people’s egos are so huge that they have to be either the bride at the wedding or the corpse at the funeral. They think other people exist only to serve them in some way or another. Adolf Hitler was like that. According to Robert Waite, when Hitler was searching for a chauffeur, he interviewed thirty candidates for the job. He selected the shortest man in the group and kept him as his personal driver for the rest of his life; even though the man required special blocks under the driver’s seat so that he could see over the steering wheel. Hitler used others to make himself appear bigger and better than he really was. A person consumed with himself never considers spending time raising others up.
buried him in his house at Ramah—that is, his own mausoleum. The Hebrews took as great care to provide sepulchers anciently as people do in the East still, where every respectable family has its own house of the dead. Often this is in a little detached garden, containing a small stone building (where there is no rock), resembling a house, which is called the sepulcher of the family—it has neither door nor window.
Nabal’s place of business was in Carmel (not the Mount Carmel near Galilee, but a place seven mi., or 11 km, S of Hebron), though his home was actually in Maon, a mile (1.6 km) farther S.
When the Lord isn’t allowed to rule in our lives, then He steps in and overrules. He saw that David was about to act rashly and foolishly, so He arranged for a wise and courageous woman to stop him.
Abigail put together enough food for David’s men but said nothing to her husband. She was the mistress of the house and could dispose of the family provisions as she saw fit, even to the extent of sharing it with others. Nabal would have opposed her even though she was doing it for his own good. She wasn’t stealing from her husband; she was paying a debt that he refused to pay. In order to save a little money, Nabal was foolishly jeopardizing the lives of everybody in his household, especially his own.