Introduction:

David and Nabal

The Story of a Peacemaker (Part 1)

1 Samuel 25:1-22 NLT
The Death of Samuel
^25:1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah.
Nabal Angers David
Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon. ² There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. ³ This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.
⁴ When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, ⁵ he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal: ⁶ “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own! ⁷ I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. ⁸ Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.” ⁹ David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply.
¹⁰ “Who is this fellow David?” Nabal sneered to the young men. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. ¹¹ Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”
¹² So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said. ¹³ “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.
¹⁴ Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. ¹⁵ These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us. ¹⁶ In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep. ¹⁷ You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!”
¹⁸ Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys ¹⁹ and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
²⁰ As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her. ²¹ David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. ²² May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”

Examine the Scriptures
1 Samuel 25:1-22 NLT
The Death of Samuel 

^25:1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. 

“all Israel assembled and mourned for him;” NIV

1 and 2 Samuel are named after the person God used to transition Israel from a federation of tribes to a centralized kingdom.

• This was a critical period of history for Israel. God’s chosen people were transitioning from judgeship to monarchy, from loose tribal affiliation to strong central government.

Samuel was the last of the Judges.

This was the end of an era for Israel.

What had happened up to this point?  How had God used Samuel?

The Lord had called Samuel.

Samuel had served as a priest, prophet, and judge.

God reopened the lines of communication with Israel through Samuel.

In those days messages from the Lordwere very rare, but God did speak to Samuel.

Samuel was God’s spokesman for all of Israel.

Samuel was recognized as a leader of national prominence.

The Lord had turned away from Saul. (1 Samuel 18:12)

God commissioned Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel. (1 Samuel 16:12-13)

God’s plans haven’t changed. It was always God’s intention for David to become king and for Jesus to come from the line of David.

David was a descendent of Judah.

Saul recognized that David was going to be the next king of Israel and that the kingdom would flourish under David’s rule. (1 Samuel 24:20)

David took his place as God’s major channel of blessing to the nation.

David was about to become the next king of Israel.

Samuel’s work on earth was completed.

Nabal Angers David

This story comes between two accounts of Saul pursuing David.

• David is not the hero of this chapter. A woman named Abigail is the hero of this story. Once again God used a woman to avert a tragedy in Israel’s history. 

Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon. (refer to a map)

• David is still on the run, hiding from Saul.

Again, David is on the move.

Think about the fact that it takes a lot of provisions to sustain 600 men.

David was in dire need for provisions.

Life for David and his men was hard.

Psalm 63, a psalm of David, talking about a time when David was in the wilderness of Judah, says in verse one: 

¹ O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.

It would be easy to understand why David and his men could become discouraged.

This could account for the fact that David did not conduct himself completely honorably at this time.

• It takes a lot of provisions to sustain 600 men. 

² There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town (village) of Carmel.

What do we already know about Carmel?

1 Samuel 15:12 NLT
¹² Early the next morning Samuel went to find Saul. Someone told him, “Saul went to the town of Carmel to set up a monument to himself; then he went on to Gilgal.”

7 miles south of Hebron.

Saul was giving himself, not God, credit for the military victories over the surrounding nations.

Pride

Self-centered.

Saul commemorated his own accomplishments by erecting a monument to himself. 

Later when Samuel found Saul.

1 Samuel 15:26 NLT
²⁶ But Samuel replied, “I will not go back with you! Since you have rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel.”

Here God has rejected Saul as king of Israel.

He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. ³ This man’s name was Nabal, 

• The scriptures tell us that Nabal was a wealthy man.

Nabal clearly had more resources than he needed for himself. 

and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. 

More about Nabal’s wife, Abigail, later in the story. 

But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings. 

Nabal’s name must have been a nickname, since it means “Fool” or “boorish” in Hebrew.

Nabal was a descendant of Caleb, one of the 12 spies, who had received Hebron and the surrounding area as his inheritance from Joshua (Josh. 15:13).

Nabal was unlike his ancestor in many ways.

He was foolish, but Caleb was wise.

Nabal did not take God into account, but Caleb counted on God’s promises.

Nabal opposed God’s purposes and died prematurely, but Caleb cooperated with God and lived long.

Nabal did not possess the spiritual qualities of his illustrious forefather.

**Note: Our offspring do not automatically possess the faith we have.

• Nabal was crude and mean in all his dealings.

Simply put, Nabal was a nasty person.

⁴ When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 

Sheep-shearing time for herdsman was like harvest time for farmers.

Sheep-shearing was a festive occasion, (see verse 8) a time of celebration, feasting, and thankfulness. 

⁵ he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal: 

⁶ “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own! ⁷ I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. ⁸ Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.” 

whatever you can find for them NIV

whatever you have at hand ESV

whatever you have on hand CEB

Asking for “any provisions you might have on hand” implies that David was not expecting something from Nabal that he was unable to give.

However, sending ten young men suggests that David was asking for a substantial handout.
We did say earlier that it takes a lot of provisions to sustain 600 men.

It is likely that, from time to time, other farmers and shepherds contributed supplies to David and his men.  David and his men may have also raided Philistine communities to obtain supplies.

• David asked Nabal to share any provisions he might have on hand with himself and his men.

This is certainly a reasonable request. 

⁹ David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply. 

¹⁰ “Who is this fellow David?” Nabal sneered to the young men. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. ¹¹ Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”

Nabal, for no good reason, refuses David’s request and he treats David’s men with contempt.

Nabal almost certainly would have known who David was, but he refused to recognize God’s anointed servant.

On the other hand, Nabal’s servant had a lot of good to say about David (verses 14-16).

• Nabal refused David’s request and treated David and his men with contempt.

¹² So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said. ¹³ “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.

David overreacted to Nabal’s insulting rebuff. He prepared to attack and kill every male in Nabal’s household that very night (vv. 22, 34).

When Nabal refused to comply with David’s request for food, David decided to take what he needed by force.

Pride?? Ego??   Anxious??

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT (This may be difficult to do.)
⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

• David overreacted to Nabal’s insulting rebuff. 

¹⁴ Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. ¹⁵ These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us. ¹⁶ In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep. 

David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds and flocks from pillage.

David’s armed followers had been patrolling the wilderness where Nabal’s shepherds had been tending his flocks. They had made that area safe from raiding Amalekites, Philistines, and occasional wild animals that might have harassed Nabal’s shepherds. It was only common courtesy that wealthy Nabal would have expressed his appreciation to David by providing some food for David’s men.

¹⁷ You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. 

• One of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail asking her to intervene.

He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!”

Nabal was a wicked man.  His unwillingness to seek the counsel of others ultimately led to his demise.

Proverbs 22:24 NLT
²⁴ Don’t befriend angry people
or associate with hot-tempered people,

Proverbs 15:18 NLT
¹⁸ A hot-tempered person starts fights;
a cool-tempered person stops them.

Proverbs 14:17 NLT
¹⁷ Short-tempered people do foolish things, … 

¹⁸ Abigail wasted no time.

Abigail – my father rejoices or my father was delighted.

She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys ¹⁹ and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.

• When Abigail learned of Nabal’s response to David she decided to intervene.

Abigail choose to do the right thing.

Acts 5:29 NLT
²⁹ But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.

The contrast between Nabal and Abigail could not be clearer.

Nabal was foolish; Abigail was wise.
He was evil; she was good.
He was repulsive; she was attractive.
He was arrogant; she was humble.
He was ungodly; she was godly.
He was antagonistic; she was peacemaking.
They were a mismatched couple but there are other mismatched couples in scripture as well as in our lives today. 

²⁰ As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.  

²¹ David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good.  

David’s thinking is off track.

Luke 6:35 NLT
³⁵ “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

Galatians 6:10 NLT
¹⁰ Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. 

²² May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!” 

David invokes a curse on himself.

This comment is a bit extreme but was a conditional curse that we heard previously. (Which doesn’t make it right.)

1 Samuel 3:15-18 NLT
¹⁵ Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. ¹⁶ But Eli called out to him, “Samuel, my son.”
“Here I am,” Samuel replied.
¹⁷ “What did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God strike you and even kill you if you hide anything from me!” ¹⁸ So Samuel told Eli everything; he didn’t hold anything back. “It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied. “Let him do what he thinks best.”

1 Samuel 14:43-44 NLT
⁴³ “Tell me what you have done,” Saul demanded of Jonathan.
“I tasted a little honey,” Jonathan admitted. “It was only a little bit on the end of my stick. Does that deserve death?”
⁴⁴ “Yes, Jonathan,” Saul said, “you must die! May God strike me and even kill me if you do not die for this.”

• David’s vengeful attitude toward Nabal displays his natural tendency.

This story magnifies David’s restraint toward Saul, the Lord’s anointed.

 

To be continued.