1 Samuel 25 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: 1 Sam 25:1-17
1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.
2 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. 3 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.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, ‘Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 Say to him: “Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7 ‘“Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not ill-treat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favourable towards my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.”’
9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 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. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?’
12 David’s men turned round and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 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.
14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, ‘David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not ill-treat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.’
A. Find Out:
- How were Nabal and Abigail described? v.2,3
- How would you describe David’s words to Nabal? v.6-8
- How would you describe Nabal’s words back? v.10,11
- What appeared to be David’s response? v.13
- How did Abigail’s servants say David had treated them? v.15,16
- What did they obviously think was going to happen? v.17
B. Think:
- How MIGHT an army commander acted when he needed food?
- How did David act in comparison?
- What have we learnt about David and his men from this passage?
C. Comment:
Hospitality is a grace to be developed. Nabal certainly needed to develop it! David and his men were at a time when food was needed, especially to celebrate a festival and so they turn to the obvious man in the district who could help them, for two reasons. First, Nabal had plentiful supplies, he was rich. Second, they had been looking after Nabal’s shepherds whenever they were near and so hopefully Nabal would be appreciative of that fact. So David sends some of his men with gracious words to speak to Nabal. There is a lesson here on gracious speaking.
It is then that we find a classic example of how not to win friends and influence people! Nabal, first of all, derides David as a runaway servant, and then dismisses David’s request in a very high-handed way. There is a lesson here on ungracious speaking!
David’s response is somewhat understandable. We are not sure of his intentions but at the very least he is going to show Nabal that he is a man to be reckoned with. The response of Nabal’s servants is also worth noting. They go to Abigail; she is obviously approachable and wise (see more next study). Philip (John 12:21) was obviously such a person. Are we approachable and wise in this way?
D. Application:
- Gracious speaking is an art to be learned.
- Approachability comes with grace. Do we have it?
Passage: 1 Sam 25:18-35
18 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. 19 Then she told her servants, ‘Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.’ But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending towards her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, ‘It’s been useless – all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!’
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28 ‘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. 29 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. 30 When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31 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.’
32 David said to Abigail, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.’
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought to him and said, ‘Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.’
A. Find Out:
- What did Abigail take with her? v.18
- What was David intending to do? v.22
- What was Abigail’s first means of approach? v.24
- What did she ask? v.28a
- What did she declare? v.28b-30
- What else did she appeal against? v.28c,31
B. Think:
- What was the strategy that Abigail used to stop David?
- How may we translate that into today’s terms?
C. Comment:
A careful consideration of Abigail’s approach to David, who feels wronged, will bear much fruit!
First she comes to him and takes the blame for what has happened. Saying “It was my fault, I was wrong” frequently takes the sting out of an explosive situation.
Second, she declares her intention is in line with David’s; she wants to see him blessed and triumphant over his enemies. When offended people see that we understand and want what they want, that again helps defuse the situation.
Third, she provides food, she provides a clear intent of her desire to bless David. Other people need to know that it is our desire to bless them.
Fourth, she asks his forgiveness. So far he has simply been on the receiving end of her good wishes, but now he is required to respond with grace. Requesting such an act of grace from others also helps cement peace.
Finally, as a seal she gently points out that what he had intended to do by way of revenge for having been wronged, would have had no purpose but to put him in the wrong with God. To point out the wrong course to the other is perhaps the most difficult part. Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) especially when they might have been at least a part of the cause of upset. Being a peacemaker is a gift the church very much needs.
D. Application:
- Am I able to say, “It was my fault, I was wrong, please forgive me”?
- Is my intention clearly for the good of the other person who I may have inadvertently wronged? Can I convey that to them?
Passage: 1 Sam 25:36-44
36 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39 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. 40 His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, ‘David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.’
41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, ‘I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.’ 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. 44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
A. Find Out:
- Until when did Abigail wait to tell Nabal what had happened? v.37
- Why did Nabal die? v.38
- What does David say Nabal had done to him? v.39a
- What does David say the Lord has stopped him doing? v.39b
- What did David then do? v.39c
- What was Abigail’s response? v.41
B. Think:
- David is the Lord’s anointed. What is his understanding of how the Lord’s anointed should act towards others?
- Jesus was the Christ (which means “anointed one”). How did he act in the same way?
C. Comment:
Consider the three people in this passage. First, there is Abigail who wisely waits until Nabal is sober before telling him what she has done. Later she graciously consents to marry David. She is clearly a lady of wisdom and humility.
Second, there is Nabal who, as the Bible describes him, is a foolish man. Here we first see him full of pride at the banquet but then in the morning his pride comes crashing down and his feelings collapsed so that he became hard and cold towards Abigail. Some commentators believe he had a stroke and died ten days later. Whatever the truth, it was of the Lord’s doing!
Finally, there is David who gratefully acknowledges that the Lord has upheld his name by dealing with Nabal, and in so doing has stopped David himself doing wrong. David sees that it would have been wrong for him to strike down Nabal in revenge for his harsh words, but it is something else for the Lord to do it in judgement. David’s attitude towards those who wrong him is the same as he speaks about Saul (see 26:9-11) God will deal with him, not me!
D. Application:
- Do we obey Jesus and follow his example in the same manner as David? (See Matthew 5:44 & Luke 23:34 )
- Are we able to take correction – unlike Nabal!