I often, when we're reading the
scriptures, it's so, so, so important that we look for the Lord Jesus,
and I often think that when we're reading a passage of scripture,
and especially the Old Testament, that we actually take ourselves
back to that walk that those two disciples had on the way
to Emmaus. and just imagine what that message
was like. The impact it had on them was
amazing, isn't it? Their hearts burned within them
while he talked with us by the way and he opened to us the scriptures. So anytime you read any passage
in the Old Testament, the question is, if you were on the road to
a maze, and your heart was burning, and He opened the scriptures
to you, what would He have said? Paul makes it really abundantly
clear, doesn't he, that it's all about Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That's all it is. And whatever
these things were written aforetime were written for our learning
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope. We might have hope. And they're
examples, according to 1 Corinthians 10, they're examples to us. with the intent that we should
not last after evil things as they did. They are written as
examples, they are written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come. Now in 1st Samuel we have, as
I read it to you, 1st Samuel 25, you will no doubt see many
things, and I'm probably going to spend this week and next week
on it, and it's just full of the most beautiful pictures.
They are pictures of us in our fallen nature, captive to sin
and to Satan. They are pictures of our great
redeeming Saviour. They are pictures of God's covenant
love and covenant purposes. They are pictures, of course,
and especially of the Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter begins with a death.
And it finishes with a death, a death that was lamented and
a death that was honoured, a death of Samuel. Samuel's name means
gift from God, and you can remember that for all of his life he was
now an old man. He probably served in Israel
for 70-something years as God's gift to Israel. And, of course,
with his death finishes that period of the judges, as it were,
and begins in a real way the period of the kingdom, and especially
the kingdom under David. Verse 1, And Samuel died, and
all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and
buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down
to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man of Maon whose
possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great. He had
three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his
sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal. and the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding
and of beautiful countenance. But the man was churlish and
evil in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb. And David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David sent out ten young
men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel,
and go unto Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus shall
ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be unto thee,
and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou
hast. And now I have heard that thou
hast shearers, and now thy shepherds which were with us. We heard
them not, neither was there aught missing unto them, all the while
they were in Carmel. And ask thy young men, and they
will show you Therefore, let the young men find favour in
thine eyes, for we come in a good day. Give, I pray thee, whatsoever
cometh to thine hand unto thy servants and to thy son David. And when David's young men came,
they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name
of David, and ceased. And Nabal answered David's servants
and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays
that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take
my bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have killed for
my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they
be? So David's young men turned their
way and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man
his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And there went
up after David four hundred men, and two hundred abode by the
staff. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying,
Behold, David sent messages out of the wilderness to salute our
Master, and he railed on them. He spoke evilly of them and abused
them. But the men were very good unto
us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as
we were conversant with them when we were in the fields. They
were a wall unto us. both night and day, all the while
we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and
consider what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our
master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Bedil
that a man cannot speak to him.' Then Abagar made haste, took
two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready
dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters
of roses, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses,
And she said unto her servants, Go on before me, behold, I come
after you. But she told not her husband
Mabel. And so it was, as she rode on
the ash, that she came down by the covert of the hill. And behold,
David and his men came down against her, and she met them. David
said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the
wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained
unto him, and he has requited me evil for good. So and more also do God, unto
the enemies of David, if I live, of all that pertain unto him
by the morning light, any that pisses against the wall. And
when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ash, and
fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.
and fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my Lord, upon me let
this iniquity be, and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak
in thine audience and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let
not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not
the young men of my Lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore,
my Lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing
the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and
from avenging thyself in thine own hand, now let thine enemies,
and they that seek evil to my Lord, be as nable. And now this blessing, which
thine hand made, hath brought unto my Lord, let it be even
be given unto the young men that follow my Lord. I pray thee,
forgive the trespass of thy handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles
of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue
thee, and to seek thy soul, But the soul of my Lord shall be
bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God, and the souls
of thine enemies, them shall he sling out as out of the middle
of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when
the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good
he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee
ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee,
nor offence of heart unto my Lord, either that thou hast shed
blood causeless, or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when
the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine
handmaid. And David said to Abigail, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me. And blessed be thy advice, and
blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed
blood and from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very
deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back
from hurting thee, except thou hast hasted and come to meet
me, surely there had not been left under no bough by the morning
light any that pisseth against the wall. So David received of
her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go in
peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy
voice, and have accepted thy person. And Abigail came to Nabal,
and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of
a king, and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was
very drunken. Wherefore she told him nothing,
less or more, until the morning light. But it came to pass in
the morning, that when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his
wife told him these things, that his heart died within him, and
he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten
days after that the Lord smoked Nabal that he died. And when David heard that Nabal
was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that has pleaded the
cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept his
servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the
wickedness of Nabal upon his own head, and David sent him
communed with Abigail to take her to him to wife. And when the servants of David
were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke unto her, saying,
David sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wife. And she arose and bowed herself
on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thine handmaid
be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. And
Abigail hasted and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels
of hers that went after her. And she went after the messengers
of David and became his wife." David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel,
and they were both of them his wives. But Saul had given Michael
his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, which
was of Galen." What a remarkable story. No doubt as you followed
along you saw many emblems of our Lord Jesus. of his bride
and his rescue of his bride from the hand of the enemies. As you
well know, at this time in David's life he had been chosen as a
young man after God had rejected Saul, Saul the king that the
people wanted, Saul the king who was a foot taller than all
other men in Israel, Saul the king who lived in such remarkable
blessing of God, and then turned from God and sought his own ways,
sought his own way of worshipping God. And God took his spirit
from Saul, and an evil spirit came from God to Saul, and Saul
became as a madman. So there was this extraordinary
situation when they asked for a king. They were asking for
a king in disobedience and Samuel said, you can have a king, but
they haven't rejected you Samuel, they've rejected me. And they
were warned what the king would be like. But this king was chosen
and this king was anointed and this king had God's Spirit for
a while and he had it taken from him and an evil spirit came to
him. But David probably just as a young man, maybe in his
teenage, still in his teenage years, was chosen and you know
that story. There was man looking at the
flesh, even Samuel looking at the outside and looking at these
magnificent sons of Jesse. And he says, there's got to be
one more. God sent me here, there's got to be one more. Where is
he? And there is just this boy, this shepherd. And David is anointed
and you know the story of David after his anointing going down
and slaying Goliath. and David becoming a hero in
Israel, rescuing Israel from the Philistines, and the more
famous and popular and more successful David became, and the more The
more the Lord's hand was evidently upon him, the more and more wicked
Saul became. And he became completely irrational. In the previous chapter, and
even in the following chapter, we'll see that Saul was in a
cave in chapter 24, and David is in this cave with all of his
men. And they say, now is the opportunity. Now is your opportunity,
David. You can kill him. You are the
anointed king. You have the right to be king.
But David wouldn't touch the Lord's anointed, but he cut the
hem of Saul's garment and then went out. and said to Saul, you
can see, here's the evidence before you that I haven't come
to do you evil. I've had the opportunity to slay
you. And he says in verse 17, Saul
says of him, he says, you are more righteous than I, for you
have rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded you evil. And
Saul knew in verse 20 of chapter 24, he
says, And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be
king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in
thine hand. And he pleads for his family
that his family name will be not cut off. And hence we find,
as Samuel dies, that David is in the wilderness, the wilderness
of Paran. And in that place, there he is
with his band of 600 men, and there he is, as verse 16 says,
he was like a wall, both day and night to Nabal, with his
3,000 sheep and his 1,000 goats. In those days, people not only
had shepherds looking after the goats, but you actually needed
a small army to look after the sheep and the goats from other
people who would come and take them. And David provided that
protection for him. And at this time of shearing,
he says it's a good time. He says he's come in a good day.
The sheep are in, they have been shorn, and Nabal is there feasting,
and David is saying, It's a right and proper thing. We have protected
you. David has personally saved Nabal
and all of his wealth from the Philistines and all sorts of
others. Think of all the victories that David's won. But now he's
done this personal work for Nabal. He's protected Nabal's property. And it's just a right thing.
It's a good day for Nabal. Nabal has been, in a sense, materially
blessed. And so David says, here we are,
we're in a wilderness. My men have done this service.
It's a good day. Your harvest has come in. You
are feasting. Can we just have what seems right
to you to give us? Nothing more than what is right. Nabal, what an extraordinary
man he is. Nabal, of course, means fool. That's the word, that's what
it means. And Mabel is married to this
remarkable woman we read about here called Abigail, who is the
joy of her father, that's what her name means. She's a woman
of good understanding and beautiful countenance. See, Abigail is
married to a fool. Nabil, of course, is a picture,
and he's more than just a picture really, isn't he? He's said to
be a son of Belial. The son of Belial, which means
to be worthless, to be a slanderer in 2 Corinthians 6. It's another
name for Satan. What a picture, brothers and
sisters. What a picture of what we did
in the garden. What happened in the garden. We, in our father Adam, and we
were there as well, sold ourselves to Satan. We accepted his promises. We accepted his reward. We were given, in Adam, rulership
of this entire world. Think of what a man Adam was.
A genius. A brilliant, brilliant man who
walked with God and talked with God and had the counsel of God,
and he owned the whole world, and it was his. And he sold himself,
and we did as well. We cannot separate what Adam
did from what we are, and we did. We did it as much as if
we were very well there in the garden. What a captivity. What a captivity man has come
into. We keep trying to rationalise
human behaviour. We keep trying to say that if
this reasonable thing plus this reasonable thing are put together,
then out will come this reasonable activity. If this bit of evidence
plus this bit of evidence is given to people, then out will
come all sorts of things. Out will come good moral behaviour. Out will come acceptance and
acknowledgement of who God is. That's what this whole modern
Gospel is about, isn't it? You could present to a seemingly
rational human being the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ upon
them, upon their eternal souls, and out of that rationality will
come a rational response. The problem is that the problem
is much deeper. It's in our hearts and Nabal
shows us what is in the heart of man. We walked according to
Ephesians chapter 2. We were dead. You see, people
are dead, completely dead. They're dead in trespasses and
they're dead in sins. They're twice dead. And not only
are they dead in those sins, but they walk according to the
course of this world, Ephesians 2.2. According to the prince
of the power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience." So it's not a neutral spirit. It's powerful. and it works in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." The very next words are delightful
words, but God. but God. So here we have Abigail,
this picture of someone who ends up in covenant relationship with
David, who typifies the Lord Jesus. But she is, at this stage,
she's in this relationship, this covenant relationship with Nabal. What a fall, what a fall we had. Nabal, it says, was of the house,
verse 3, he was of the house of Caleb. Caleb was one, what
an extraordinary heritage he had, what an extraordinary heritage
man had. He wholly, according to Numbers,
it says, he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. He was one
of two men out of 600,000 that died and he went into the Promised
Land, he and Joshua. They went in because they believed
God. Nabal was a rich man. that Nabal was a man who was
ungrateful. He was an ungracious man. It
says that he was a man who was churlish and evil in his doings. He was a man who was spiteful. He was a man who did evil and thought evil
and acted in evil ways. What a fool. He had no thankfulness
to man. He had no thankfulness to God. He had no acknowledgement of
God's promises. He had no acknowledgement of
God's provision. And he had no acknowledgement
of God's judgment. You see, when he's told, when
these men come, these men come with graciousness, he sends,
David sends ten men to honour him. And he comes, and in verse
6, comes to one that lives in prosperity and he comes, these
men come with peace. They have provided peace for
Nabal and prosperity for him. And he says, peace be to thee
and peace be to thine house and peace be to all that thou hast. And he asks, they just ask a
simple thing in verse 8, I pray Thee, whatever comes into Thine
hand unto Thy servants, just give what you have, give of your
abundance. And how does he respond? Nabal
answered David's servants. You've got to remember, he's
had all of this history before him. Years and years of this
history. This wasn't hidden. He was living
in countryside where he was prospering because of the success of David.
And what does he say? Who is David? Who is he? What's he matter?
And who is this son of Jesse? So he actually knows who he is. And then He lies about him, doesn't
he? You see, David had never broken
away from his master. Never once had he broken away.
David was driven away. He was made to live like an outcast
in Israel. He was hunted like a dog by Saul. He was a liar. And he was a self-righteous
man. Read it in verse 11. Listen to
the personal pronouns. Shall I then take my bread and
my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and give
it unto them, people that he doesn't know, even though these
people had provided for him and protected him and been the reason
for his prosperity? Self-righteousness brings in
gratitude, doesn't he? David had done so much and protected
him. As verse 16 says, David was like
a wall unto him. He's the son of Belial, it says,
which means, as I said earlier, worthless and a slanderer. In verse 17, and he's the one,
it says, who no man can speak to. Proverbs says that the way
of a fool is right in his own eyes. Nabil means fool. The way of a fool is right in
his own eyes. The way of a fool will always
find a way to justify his activities. but he that hearkeneth unto counsel
is wise. Navel couldn't be spoken to. Every prudent man deals with
knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly. As a dog returns to his vomit,
so a fool returns to his folly. People say these days that they
want to follow their own heart. According to the wise man, he
that trusts in his own heart is a fool. If you follow your
own heart, you are following a fool. But whosoever walketh
wisely, he shall be delivered. Such is the man that this remarkable
woman Abigail is in covenant marriage to. He wouldn't listen
to counsel. He wouldn't receive instruction. Hear counsel and receive instruction
that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. He's a son of Belial. For as his name is, so he is. His name means foolish, verse
25, and folly is with him. You see, in his foolishness,
in his self-righteousness, in his ingratitude, he brings judgment
upon his family, all that he has, and his end. We see where Nabal
goes. Nabal was there in verse 36,
like the rich man in Luke 16. He's having a feast, he's having
a party, and he's got all his friends around. Verse 26, and
he held a feast, a feast of a king, and his heart was merry within
him, for he was very drunken. and she told him nothing. Judgment
was falling and she told him nothing. But in the morning,
when the wine was gone out of Nabil and his wife, told him
what had happened. Told him how she, by her activities,
had stayed the hand of David. Nabil died. He died before his
death. and he became as a stone and
the Lord killed him. Drunk and feasting with his friends
and then struck down. Is that just a description, a
remarkably accurate description of man in this world? Ungrateful, ungracious, self-righteous,
blind to where the remarkable provision had come from. Where
had the feast, who had laid the feast before Nabal? It had come from the hand of
God. It had come from the hand of
David. And when he comes, when he is
reminded of who David is, he says, what is he? When we remind
people of who God is and what he's done, they so often use
the words at navel, don't they? Who is he? What is he? What's he done? What's he worth? Let's go and look at the joy
of the Father briefly. I just like the picture of Abigail. There she is in covenant marriage
to this man, this wicked man, who like all of those who are
held captive in his hand, They are drunk, they are blind, they
have no idea of the sort of judgment that is about to fall on them.
They are completely insensitive to it. But Abigail's heart is
moved. And Abigail is a picture, isn't
it? God will not destroy the elect
with the wicked. God will not allow His chosen,
redeemed children to suffer the consequences that the wicked
will suffer. He took Lot and those children
out of Sodom before he destroyed it. He takes his people out and
rescues them. He took Noah and his family out
and put them in the ark and then the judgment of God fell. See,
Abigail is a remarkable picture, isn't it? She's the joy of her
father. She sees this judgment coming
and she knows that it is righteous judgment. In verse 14, she is
a lady who heard about these things.
This young man comes and he tells her, and it's extraordinary the
boldness of this young man. He told Abigail, Nabal's wife,
Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute
our Master, and he railed on them. Then he says, These were
good. They were good to us. They were,
verse 16, a wall to us. And in 17 he counsels her, now
therefore know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined
against our master and all his household. And this is remarkable
words from this young man who was in the company of Nabal and
Abigail, for he is such a son of Belial that man cannot speak
to him. You see, when Abigail hears of
judgment, And she hears of righteous judgment. She does the wisest
thing of all. Just listen to it there. Just
read it with me. Abigail made haste. Abigail made haste. In verse 23, she hasted. And when she had her marriage,
she came, in verse 42, she hasted again. What a great picture. When you know that judgment is
about to fall, make haste, brothers and sisters. How many people
say to us, I'll consider that another day. I'll think about
how serious these things you are saying about the Lord Jesus
and about His Gospel. I'll think about them and I'll
get back to you. How long have we had to wait,
brothers and sisters? How long do people wait? Abigail, a picture of those in
covenant relationship with David, she made haste. And she sent
gifts, and she sent her servants ahead to make haste, and she
said, you go down there before him. In verse 20, she rode on
an ass, and she did the one thing that all of God's children will
do in these situations. She came down. She came down
from that mountain. She came down to a valley and
she met him there. In verse 23, she saw David and
she hasted and she lighted off the ash. What did she do? And
she fell down before him on her face and she bowed to the ground. She'd come to David knowing that
he was set on judgment on her family. In verse 24, she fell
at his feet and then she pleads this wonderful prayer. She pleads
that prayer that the man at the temple pleaded, isn't it? I am the sinner. She said, upon
me, my lord, let this iniquity be. She pleaded as the sinner. And then she acknowledges his
lordship. Again and again in this text
we find that she says that she is thine handmaid. She acknowledges that David was
the rightful king. that he had rightful rule of
Israel and it was only a matter of time. She fell at his feet,
she acknowledged his lordship and she asked to speak. What
a great thing for sinners to do, to come down, to bow down,
to fall at his feet, to not plead their righteousness, but plead
them as sinners, to acknowledge His sovereign hand of Lordship
and ask to speak." And she says in verse 25 that she wasn't aware
of this particular sin. And she wants to be distanced. from that one who she was married
to. Let not my Lord, I pray thee,
regard this man of Belial, even Nabal. His name is Folly, and
Folly is with him. But I was not personally responsible
for that crime." See, she looks to the Lord, doesn't she? She
sees David, but she looks beyond David, and she looks to the Lord. She says, now therefore, my Lord,
as The Lord, and when it's in capitalised letters, it means
Jehovah. As Jehovah lives, this is Jehovah's
world. He lives, he rules. And she claims His hand upon
her activities. As I, soul, ever seeing the Lord,
has withholden Thee from coming to shed blood. She looks to Him
who rules. She looks to Him who alone can
restrain evil. She looks to him who is going
to avenge his own. David doesn't need to defend
himself. It's very evident from the scriptures
that David was like me and no doubt several of the Lord's saints
throughout time. Often we are hasty and often
we are rash. This is a great picture of not
only of preserving grace for Abigail, but the grace that prevents,
the grace that restrains the natural wickedness in the hearts
of God's people. God's grace is an active grace. It's a grace that reigns. It's
a grace that restrains. It's a grace that preserves and
protects. And she acknowledges, she acknowledges
that David who is a rightful king, a type of our Lord Jesus,
has enemies and they seek evil to my Lord. Nabal is just one
who seeks evil. Saul and all those with him sought
his evil and she was aware of the history that was going on
around her. And again she calls herself his
handmaid. And then she prays, doesn't she? She says, pray, oh pray. Forgive the trespass of thine
handmaid. And then she acknowledges the
sovereign covenantal promises. We'll look at a couple of them
and then we'll finish. And Lord willing we might look
again at some of this next week. She says, for the Lord will certainly make
my Lord, the Lord Jehovah will certainly make my Lord, David,
a sure house, a sure house, because my Lord
fights the battles of the Lord. He fights the battles in the
name of the Lord. He fights the battles for the
glory of the Lord. That's what provoked him with
Goliath, was the fact that Goliath was mocking God and mocking God's
people. And then in verse 29, she says
these remarkable words. Yet a man has risen. See, there's no evil in David,
found in David. The Lord has promised to make
David a sure house. The Lord fights the battles,
and yet when there is a man who does those things, yet. And it's always been the case
ever since Cain slew his brother Abel. When God does a work, in
someone's life there rises up enmity, completely irrational
and mad enmity that cannot be understood by anything rational. Yet a man has risen up to pursue
Thee and to seek Thy soul. Saul pursued Him. He threw spears
at Him. He hunted Him like a dog. And what does she say? These
remarkable words. We go home with these, my brothers
and sisters. He says, But the soul of my Lord
shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God. And the souls of thy enemies,
them shall they sling out as out of the middle of the sea,
as that stone was slung out to slay Goliath." That's how they'll
be slung out. That's how far they'll be removed
from God's people. But listen to this, isn't this
wonderful? She's about to enter into covenant relationship with
this David, to be married to him, to be free of Nabal's bonds
upon her. And she says, but the soul of
my Lord shall be bound, shall be wrapped up securely and tightly
in the bundle of life. It means like a bag that you
put treasures in, a bag that you put jewels and precious things
in. It's securely wrapped up and
bound up in that bundle of life. with the Lord thy God." What
an amazing picture of the covenant that God has made with his David,
with that great David, the Lord Jesus Christ. But all of God's
covenant children, they have their lives bound up, wrapped
up secure and tight in a treasured and precious possession in a
bundle of life, life everlasting, life eternal, life here and life
forever. And what did the Lord Jesus say
just before He died? He said, because I live, you
also shall live." Is he living now? He sure is. If you'd been there, you could
have walked with him on that road to Emmaus, you could have
talked with him, you could have eaten with him, you could have
drunk with him. He's alive. And what did the angel say in
Acts 1, verse 11? When he went up to heaven, that
resurrected man that you could eat with and have fellowship
with, that this same Jesus, according to Revelation 1, is coming back
now. What a remarkable place to be,
to be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God. Rescued from Nabal's dominion
from the covenant with Nabal to enter into a new covenant
with the Lord Jesus.