April 17: 1 Samuel 25-27

April 17, 1 Samuel 25-27

1 Samuel 25 Now that we have been reading some of the Psalms about what David was feeling in his exile, we return to the narratives in 1 Samuel. Samuel had just died and all Israel mourned for him. 

After mourning for Samuel, David goes to the wilderness to hide. There was a man, Nabal, who was extremely wealthy. He was harsh and rude and he was married to a beautiful discerning wife, Abigail. David sent ten of his young servants to go inquire of Nabal since it was a feast day for the Lord, they wanted to prepare and needed food and supplies, in return David mentions that he and his men had protected his servants when they were caring for their sheep near David’s camp. Nabal, being true to the definition of his name - folly - replied to the servants request for supplies for David and his men, with a resounding no, and stating that he didn't know David, yet somehow Nabal seems to know who Davids father is... When David hears Nabal's response, David was furious and told 400 of his men to strap on their swords and vowed to wipe out Nabal and all of his men. David felt that he had wasted his time protecting the servants of Nabal, if the rich man Nabal wouldn't honor them back. Meanwhile, the servants tell Nabal's wife, what had happened and she quickly starts putting things together for David and his men to celebrate the Feast to the Lord. On David's way there, Abigail was heading Davids direction with  a bunch of food and supplies for David. She fell before David and explained that her husband was an idiot and that if anybody should die it should be her for not hearing about it sooner. However, she convinced David to restrain from killing Nabal, his men, and all he owned (including her) so that there would be no guilt on him. God used Abigail that day to help make David a better King than Saul - David had to rescind his vow to kill. God doesn't want us to make vows of sin. He would rather we went against that and did not sin. 

Abigail came home and Nabal was really drunk having a party. She waited till the morning and then went and told him what had transpired. When Nabal heard it, he turned like stone. Commentators say that he either had a stroke or a heart attack from it. Ten days later, God killed Nabal after God struck him.

When David heard about Nabal’s timely death, he sent for Abigail to be his wife. She agreed and immediately joined him. He also took Ahimoam to be his wife while he was traveling. 

1 Samuel 26 Again, we have another episode where David spares Saul’s life. Saul came after David again, and David was hiding. Saul was with 3,000 of his men and they were sleeping at night. David goes with his willing servant, Abishai. When they got to where Saul was, everyone of the army was sleeping, from a deep sleep that the Lord put them into, on the ground with Saul in the middle, next to his main commander, Abner. Saul’s spear was right next to him. Abishai wanted to take the spear and kill Saul instantly, because it seemed that God had given Saul into their hands. Again, David refused to touch the Lord’s anointed. Instead, David and Abishai took Saul’s spear and water jug and went up the hill. Again, God had caused the entire army to fall into a deep sleep! Imagine that. Then David mocked Abner for not protecting the King and Saul heard David’s voice. Again, Saul realized his sin and David’s greatness. Saul apologized again and blessed David. History keeps repeating itself without true repentance on Saul's side. 

1 Samuel 27 This is an interesting chapter. It starts out with David realizing that Saul wasn't going to stop pursuing David until he was dead. So David and his men flee to live with the enemy of Israel, the Philistines. While he is there serving their king, he goes out and pillages many towns killing all people and taking the plunder. David would go out pursuing and ambushing towns that didn't have Israelites in them, and killed everybody in there and all the towns he did this to were plundered by David and his men. David always made sure that no body was left alive to tell who really did this. When David came back from these ambushes, the King of Philistines asked where they have been, and David always responded with a lie, that he was out ambushing and plundering towns of Israelites or those that were friendly to Israel. That is why the King, thought that David had made himself a "stench to the people of Israel" by David turning on the Israelites like that. But it wasn't really true. David lived there and did this for almost a year and a half. Achish, the Philistine King, felt that David would always be his servant because he thought that David was Israel's enemy, not their ally. But it was a secret that David really was for the Israelites, and lied to the King of the Philistines, destroying the enemies of Israel while living in enemy territory. 

To sum it all up:

• God doesn't want us to pursue sin in His name. If you think about it - that would not make any sense. David was going to go on a personal vendetta against Nabal - but thanks to an obedient wife to God, God had supernatural ways of stopping that for His purposes. You might be like Abigail and be an unlikely person to help out. But if you trust in God and do what is right, God will be blessed by you and your obedience. 
• History keeps repeating itself without true repentance. Let us not be like that, instead let us learn from our mistakes and take God seriously, as He knows the heart. 
• Always know that God is there for you. Trust him and pursue Him not, sin