Evening, let's turn if you would
for a text to 1st Samuel chapter 25 We're gonna spend most of our time
in this chapter this evening So it's about 40 verses and I'm
just gonna read through it and kind of get out of the way and
let the story tell itself Our subject for this evening I entitled
it A Fool and His Wife. And while there's much could
be said of me on this matter, our subject tonight is going
to be in the ball, Abigail and David. And so first, there are
three things in this chapter that jumped out at me. And these
are the three points of my message. Very simple. One, is that there's
a need for a Savior. Two, the work of the Savior And
three, the results of the work of the Savior. And so in Chapter
25 here, I'll give you a little background as to where we're
at. This is right after the incident with David in the cave where
he cut off Saul's skirt and then came out of the cave and revealed
himself to Saul and got upset. And Saul announced to him that
he knows that the Lord's hand is upon David, not upon him,
and that David one day will be king. And so Saul at this point
had left. In David's face. Samuel has died
at this point. The prophet Samuel we heard about
last Sunday night. He's died and all of Israel is
mourning. And Saul's gone back with the
rest of Israel to go to the funeral for him. But David can't go. David stays. David stays because
David still can't trust Saul. Even though this incident just
happened, even later events will see with Ian Saul that he doesn't
feel he can trust Saul, so he has to mourn in the wilderness.
He and his men that were with him. And so we'll pick up in
verse one and read the first three verses here. 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 in
May on whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very
great. And he had three thousand sheep
and a thousand goats. And he was sharing 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 a beautiful countenance. But the man was
churlish and evil in his doings. And he was at the house of Caleb.
So Nabal, if you look at his name, I think on the next page
in my margin, it finds his name, it means fool. So I kind of thought
to myself, some of these names that we read in the Bible here,
you know, you know, Mephibosheth being the shameful thing. You
wonder, were they given these names at their birth or were
these names that they earned throughout their life? So Nabal,
we'll see, stays true to the name that he's given. Nabal was
very rich. He had great possessions. And
what we read in Nabal here is his family was at the house of
Caleb. He was actually inherited all this. Nabal didn't work and
build this up and have these riches. He was given it. And
as many men are who are given great um responsibility and possession
they aren't necessarily given grace and wisdom to wield it
and the ball falls into that however his wife abigail we're
told is a woman of good understanding and a beautiful countenance she's
very wise and her name actually means the joy of her father and
thinking on that a little bit you know in this time you know
a man would give his daughter in marriage to the man and the
man would You know, in turn, get something in return from
the husband. And how much joy did her father really see in
her if he was willing to unite her with a man as foolish and
as evil as the ball? His love for money, I think,
was greater than his love for his daughter by the you can see
from his actions by uniting her with a man like that. Yet we
read in verse four, David said he heard in the wilderness than
the ball did shear his sheep. So Basically, the way this worked
is that they went out into the wilderness and took all these
sheep. And this took, you know, you see that it said he had 3,000
sheep. So this is no thing that you're going to do in a day or
two. This took actually at least a week or more, they said. You'd
have to have many men come out there and, you know, organize
the sheep, get them together, and some would shear and they
would take them afterward. And so this was a big, long thing
that they were involved with. So they had to feed all these
men and have provisions. So this was no small undertaking,
this shearing of the sheep. And the reason David is interested
in this is he and his men are still out in the wilderness at
this point. So they don't have any provisions. They don't have
water at this point. They're looking, they're hungry.
They need something. And so they, at this point, verse
five, David says, sent out 10 men. And David said unto these
young men, get you up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him
in my name. David is appealing to the abundance
that in the ball house. So he knows that he's going to
have all this food and provisions there. And he's at this point
going to say, well, you know, maybe you can help me out and
I'm going to send these men. But he says, greet greet him
in my name. And why would we ask in someone
else's name? Well, I believe it's for the
same reason that when we pray, we ask in Christ's name when
we come before the Lord. I can't come before the Lord
myself. I have to come through Christ and in his name. And so
because I can't be heard of him, I'm not worthy to do just as
these servants that David sent and to Nebal, he knew that Nebal
wouldn't have any respect for them. So he said to ask in my
name and. In verse five, again, goes in
the ball or greet him in my name. In verse six, he says that you
say to him that live within prosperity. So David's kind of really getting
buttered up at this point. He wants to really appeal to
Nebal's sense of self. Say to him to live in prosperity.
Peace be both unto thee. Peace be to thine house and peace
be to all thou hast. So this is a very nice greeting
from David and to Neval. And I think we have to remember
at this time who David is. David is not just some man with
some men that's asking for some food. David is wed to one of
the daughters of the king of Israel Saul at this time. He's
part of the king's house. He's also the leader of the army
of Israel. He has led battles, you know, they sung songs about
him. David's, you know, Saul's killed his thousands, David his
ten thousands. And so David was a great, you
know, battle hero for Israel at this time. He's also the anointed
of the Lord. You know, he knew that the Lord's
hand was upon him and it made evident to him that he was one
day going to rule Israel. So, this was no just mere man
that was coming to Namal and sending his men in his name.
This was a very important person. And so, in verse 7, he says,
And now I've heard that thou hast shears. And so, when he
starts speaking here, this now thy shepherds which were with
us, this is something that happened in the past. We heard them not,
neither was there ought anything missing unto them, all the while
they were in Carmel. Asked I young men and they will
show the wherefore let the young men find favor in their eyes
for we come in a good day. Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh
to thine hand and to thy servants and to thy son David. And so
David if you look at this he's asking. He's asking for help
but he's also saying you know you owe me for this. There was
a time when Nebal had some shepherds that were in Carmel and David
sent his troops to go guard them because evidently from reading
some of the history there were roving bands of some of the Philistines
and some of the neighboring countries that would come around and loot
a lot of the villages. And so David's men stood guard
against them and they watched over them, didn't take anything
from them, even though kind of army, you think they can kind
of take things from the people that they're around. But he said
they didn't take anything from them. He left them alone. And
he's saying, look, you kind of owe me for this. So I'm asking
for this favor. You know, I need some provisions.
But any time we deal with men, even the best of men, the flesh
is always present. And so How is David approaching
the ball? Is he asking for a favor merited
or is he asking for an unmerited favor? And so David believes
at this point he's owed something. But he greets him really nice
and then he ends up really nice in the end. So he's saying, you
know, peace be unto you. You owe me. But, you know, he
ends up saying, I'm coming in the name of my son, David, even
showing him respect, saying you're an elder to me and you can call
me your son. Um, and he also says, I come
on a good day. So it's, he's coming on this,
this, what they call this good day was the feast. So whenever
they, they first had the sheep shearing and then ended it up
on the last day, they would have a great feast. They, you know,
they're done with the sheep shearing. They're going to cook all these
sheep and have a big, basically a big party. And so David knows
they'll have tons of stuff left there. And he's going to say,
you know, maybe I can, you know, capitalize on that and get some
of it. You're going to have extra to spare. and he says let my
young men find favor in your eyes thy son david and so let's
say that you're in a ball at this point you have all this
extra stuff you're having a big party for your people that you
you all went together and then somebody comes and asks a great
favor of you to ask for some of the things that you've provided
and even I think just dealing with other people, you expect
even out of inconvenience to say, you know, okay, I'll, you
know, help you out, even though he didn't really want to. But
he would at least save face and say, okay, you know, reluctantly,
okay, I'll help you out. Or he could even say, I'm sorry,
we just don't have enough. I can't spare it. I'll give you
what I have, but I don't have enough. But neither of these
things really happened at this point. So we're going to read
right now the rest of this and see what's in the ball. The response is to David's request. Verse nine. And when David's
young men came, they spoke to the ball, according to all those
words in the name of David. And so they waited to hear what
he had to say before us. actually read here what Nepal's
response is, I wanted to look up a little bit about what the
scripture actually had to say about what a fool was. So what
does the scripture tell us what a fool is? I have my idea what
it might be, but I took about six or seven verses out of the
Proverbs, which primarily deal with, you know, what a fool is.
I'll read them to you. You don't have to turn to them
all, but I kind of condensed it down. So Proverbs 11, 29 says,
the fool, he troubles his own house. So I don't know about
you, but my house is kind of my safe place. It's the place
where I go, where I know I can get away from my job, the things
that are going on out in the world. It's the one place I need
peace. But it says the fool, he travels his own home. He won't
even have peace in his own home because of who he is. And Proverbs
12, 15 says the way of the fool is right in his own eyes. So
he's going to justify whatever it is that he decides that is
going to benefit him. So he may know what's wrong,
but the way in his eyes is, well, it's OK. It's, you know, I'm
going to justify it. But the scripture that came to
my mind on that is that this there is a way which seemeth
right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. So a fool
may justify his ways and it may be right in his own eyes and
he may get away with it a long time, but eventually the Lord
will deal with him because he's the one who is truly the one
who it's either right or not in his eyes. And verse in Proverbs
12, 16 says a fool's wrath is presently known. He's not. He's not going to conceal it.
You know, he's not going to consider. Consider what the ramifications
are for him for showing his wrath and dealing harshly with someone.
He says it's going to be presently known. You've made me mad. Proverbs
13, 16 says, The prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a
fool layeth open his folly. He's got no shame. He deals wickedly,
he lives wickedly, and he's going to make it known he doesn't care.
He's going to lay it open for all to see. Proverbs 14 16 says
the wise man fear it and departed from evil, but the fool rages
and is confident. So there's nothing that's going
to sway him. He's confident in himself. He finds no no reason
not to be angry and be confident in himself. He that is sent in
the next verse, here's another one on anger. He that is soon
angry, dealeth foolishly. So there's something to this
thing on anger and dealing with anger quickly. It doesn't say
that you can't be angry because, you know, God's angry at the
wicked every day. But it said it's he that is soon angry. So I believe it's there's something
to this quickness of anger and not considering the ramifications
of that. In Proverbs 18, it says fool
has no delight in understanding, but that its heart may discover
itself and. There's a commercial, I think,
for California with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where they go through all these
things people are doing in California. And then the last thing says,
come discover yourself or says, discover yourself. And so I thought,
you know, that's that, you know, the fool has no delight in understanding
that his heart may discover itself. I'm going to do whatever makes
me happy, you know, whether it's right or wrong. It's this is
who I am. So therefore, it's OK. It justifies
actions. And so the three things that
kind of really summed it up for me, for what a fool was, was
this sense of self, covetousness, obsession with self, and fulfilling
the lusts thereof of the fool. His anger, being angry quickly,
and what is a fool without his folly? So those were the three
things that kind of Keep those in mind when we read about Nabal's
response here. So, can these things be said
of me? Am I someone who gets angry quickly? Am I someone who
deals with situations foolishly? If I'm honest with myself, I
actually am. I'm ashamed of it, but that's
how we are. We're sinful men and women. We're
going to be prone to having these, and we should strive not to,
but we fall every day in the flesh. So let's look at our full
response in verses 10 and 11. So David's young men spoke their
piece into him, asking for help. And of all I answered them, David
service and said, Who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
And 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've killed from my shears and give
it unto men whom I know not whence they be? So, Nabal, at this point,
not only kind of blew it out of the water, but he had every
chance to attack David on all fronts. He is, one, insulted
his heritage. He's saying, who is the son of
Jesse? Who is David? He's saying, I
don't recognize who you are. You didn't come from any, you
know, wealthy house like I did. I'm Nabal. You know, people know
who I am. I've got all these servants and all these things.
Who are you? He insults his service to his country, David. David
was a soldier and he was respected the people. He's saying, Who
are you? He had served and insulted service to Saul when he says
at the end of 10 verse 10 there, he says, There'd be many servants
nowadays that break away every man from his master. So what
he was referring to is David being kind of separated from
Saul. He was not following his master around. He's saying, Look,
You know, you'd have been OK if you just stuck with Saul.
But he's saying now I should give my bread and my water and
my sheep that I've shared and all the things that I have and
give them to men who I don't know. He's saying, you know,
if you just stuck with him, you'd have been all right. Now I'm
supposed to give this to you. And so obviously this is he's
attacked David on every front that he can. And David, how does
David to respond? He obviously shows he has no
fear or respect for David or his men. And he has no fear of
God. David is the Lord's anointed
king right now. And the fool has said in his
heart, no God. And so Nabal is showing that
he has no respect for God or David. This offended Nabal's
sense of pride by these men asking for something from him. He thought
he was a great man. And often we see a very hard
side of men in this case that had many possessions. who are
very able to give, and he shows a very covetous side of him that
he's very offended that they would even ask. And I kind of
made this note to myself that there's some people that we deal
with who will always be offended, even if given the choice whether
or not to be in any situation. And Nabal is evidently one of
these people, and this is burdensome. Because I work with people like
this. You get a situation where somebody
comes to me and says, let me tell you about something I'm
upset about. And I'll say, oh, OK, well, tell me about it. And
then basically what they're wanting you to do is to agree with them
that they should be offended. They want to be offended and
want you to give your seal of approval on it that it's OK.
And so this is who the ball is. And, you know, we can't be this
way. It's so burdensome to one another.
When you deal with people like this, when I'm this way, you
know, we should be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another. That's
what we're told. You know, I want to thank the best of people and
not look on the things that would cause me to be offended or angry
with them. And so when we are offended, all this shows is that
we have a much too high view of ourselves. We have really
no reason to be offended and every reason to give them the
benefit of the doubt. And this shows the ball, who
is a very greedy and heartless man and the way that he's dealt
very roughly with one of the Lord's people. And so if you'll
turn over to Psalm 109, I want us to look at. Psalm that David
wrote. You know, and he wrote this under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he did. He also wrote this
very, if you'll see from the language he uses in it, how he
feels towards these people who have wronged him. So I'm going
to read the first, well, most of it. Yeah. Let's start in verse
one. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise, for the mouth of
the wicked and the mouth of deceitful are opened against me. They've
spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compass me about
also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause
for my love. Are they my adversaries? But
I will give myself into prayer. They've rewarded me evil for
good and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him
and let Satan stand at his right hand. And when he shall be judged,
let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his
days be few, and let another take his office. Let his children
be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually
vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also
out of the desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all
that he hath, and let the strangers spoil all his labor. Let there
be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let any be any favor
to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off
and in the generation following, let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord and
let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before
the Lord continually, that he may cut them off the memory of
them from the earth. So David says, you know, some
very strong language here, but the reasoning behind it, the
reasoning he felt this way is in the next verse 16. So why does he say all this?
Because he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the
poor and needy man. That stopped me right there,
that he remembered not to show mercy. I hope that's something
that we ask ourselves every day. Am I someone who's merciful?
I want to be. I can look at what I am and what
I do and say in many ways, I'm not, but I want to be. After reading that and seeing
that verse 16 is really kind of the reason why David felt
that way and so the Lord feels that way. You know, he remembered
not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man that he
might even slay the broken apart. As he loved cursing, so let it
come unto him. As he delighted not in blessing,
so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing,
like as with a garment, so let it come into his bowels like
water and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment
which covereth him, and a girl wherewith he is girded continually.
and let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord
and of them speak evil against my soul. So we can see the. See how the Lord speaks through
David here and regarding these men who would speak evil against
the Lord's people and do evil against them and not show mercy.
So the ball obviously didn't give Lord, any glory in this
had no respect unto him. My bread, my water, my sheep,
my, my, my, and I. And that's all he had to say
was about himself. It's an obsession with himself. It's one of the
things we read about in the Proverbs of the Fool. So David's servants
here in the next verse, David's young men, verse 12 in our text. turned their way and went again
and came and told all those things. So they kept silent. They could
have spoken against him and say, said, you know, buddy, you have
no idea, you know, what's coming to you, because you've now spoken
to the leader of this group of, you know, our men of the army
and, you know, really offended him and said, you know, how unwise
it was he dealt with them that they didn't. They turned and
were silent, went their way to tell their master, David. Verses
12 and 13 so they turned their way and came and told all the
sayings and David said into this man after he'd heard what they
just told Gurgi on every man his sword and they girded on
every man his sword and David also girded on his sword and
there it went up after David about 400 men and about 200 abode
by the stuff so David's very offended now, so we've gone from
David asking in a Not-so-nice way saying you owe me, but help
me and to offending the ball and now the ball is going to
return the favor to David and say well I'm going to insult
you and then this is how David responds so I encourage you on
every man his sword so he's saying we're going to go up there and
we're going to kill these people and because you've offended me and
insulted me and so you know I constantly ask myself what questions as
I'm preparing the message you know would I act this way you
know I'd like to say that I wouldn't but I don't know I mean apart
from the Lord restraining me I believe so Um, we put on pretty
well for each other. You know, we try to be who we
want to be in front of people, but flesh is really close to
the surface. And it's just as soon as I let
down, down my guard and something catches me the wrong way, the
old man comes out really fast. And I'm reminded very soon of
who he is and that my constant, uh, constant being a bond slave
to him. I'm constantly, he's constantly
chained to me. My flesh so close to the surface.
And it goes against contrary to what I would say, I believe,
but yet yet it's still there. So verse 14, so after this, the
servants had told David they're on their way there. But one of
the young men told Abigail and the ball's wife. So this is a
wise servant. So he goes and says, you know,
we got to do something about this. We got to tell somebody
because this guy has really created a situation. Behold, David sent
messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he
railed on them. But the men were very good and
us and we were not hurt. Neither miss we anything as long
as we were conversant with them when we were in the field. This
is the incident in the past and they were a wall and us both
by night and day and all the while we were with them keeping
the sheep. And so I was thinking this wall unto us, when I was
reading some of the commentary on it and some of the verses
that are referred to, this has to do with something of the hedge
the Lord creates around his children. And so this wall unto us, both
day and night, made me think of the verse in Psalms where
he says, He'll give his angels charge over thee to keep thee
in all thy ways, that they'll bear thee up in thy arms, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone. So these angels, the Lord's hedge
about his people. And so that made me think of
that verse of the wall unto us, both day and night, while we
were with them. So verse 17 now therefore know
and consider what that will do. For evil is determined against
our master and against all his household for he is such a son
of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. So he's saying that Nabal
is so far gone, we can't do anything, and you've got to do something.
So right now, this is what, you know, up to this point has been,
now we have the need for a Savior created. So right now, there's
been a great transgression committed against David, and he is coming,
and destruction is coming with him. He's going to wipe out everybody
when he gets there, these soldiers. And he's appealing to one of
his masters, his master's wife, Abigail, saying, You've got to
do something. We have this need, and we're all going to die unless
something's done. And so now starts my second point,
the work of the Savior. So only the Savior knows and
is able to provide us with exactly what we need. So we'll start
in verse 18. Then Abigail made haste. And
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 raisins, 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 of all. So if we look here, you know,
she knows that there's four to six hundred men out here in the
wilderness that David's asked for them to come feed. And she's
going to have to do all this behind her husband's back. So
what's the easiest way to do it? To provide for all these
people? Maybe send some bread and water, you know, something
just to, you know, pacify this. But she doesn't do that. So these
provisions that she's provided here are the best in their house.
So, you know, you think bread and water, but she seems since
wine, sheep are already ready to be cooked and eaten, loaves
of bread, raisins, figs, cakes, all this. She sends everything
that they had that was good in that house and just send it out
there. But go before me. She's saying
you need to take this before me before I get there. And this
is this, I believe, has to do with what the work of Christ
is. So the work of Christ has to go before me. So Abigail produced
the Abigail here represents who the Lord Jesus Christ is providing
these provisions. His work goes before because
I can't come on my own, but the Lord sends his work before him.
Pick up in verse 20 here. And it was so as she wrote on
the ass that she came down by the covert of the hill and behold,
David and his men came down against her and she met them. Now, David
had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath
in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained
unto him, and he hath required me evil for good. So and more
do also God unto the enemies of David, if I live all that
pertain unto him by morning light any that pisseth against the
wall. And so what David is saying here is he's going to come, David's
very, he's fueling his anger. When you get angry about something,
you're feeling offended and you're going to go deal with it later
at some point. You don't have an immediate chance
to deal with it. You have time to kind of stew on your anger.
So he and all these men, they're marching up there and he's really
getting himself, Where he says, surely in vain have I kept all
of this fellow half in the building. If I was doing him a favor, I
should have just took it in the first place. He's on his way
there with all these men. And this is wrong, what David's
doing. Having this attitude, I'm going
to get revenge on him and slaughter him and all the males in his
house. And, you know, he even drags God into it. He says so. So and more also do God into
the enemy and to the enemies of David. So he's even dragged
God into this. So, you know, it's it's all wrong
about the way he's going about this. But this is you don't know
who you're messing with. That's that's what David's saying
at this point. So verse twenty three. And when
Abigail saw David, she hasted. And lighted off the ass and fell
before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground.
And this is what a picture of Christ. 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 thy handmaid. So Abigail, who is what a picture
of the substitutionary act of Christ for his people. She's
saying, you know, she had nothing to do with this, but yet she's
saying, let the iniquity be upon me. She's saying, don't don't
hold them responsible. You hold me responsible. This
is my iniquity. I'm claiming it. And so this
is the same as Christ taking my sin and making it his own.
He stood as a surety and as a substitute for all his people and those
that the sense of his people became his and he was in charge
with it. And so Abigail willingly offers
herself to what an unworthy of all. I mean, it would have been
just the same if she had stepped aside and let him go in and deal
with it. He deserved it. But no, she we
see what a character we see in her. She steps in, willingly
offers herself. As Christ does for what an unworthy me and you
know, the Lord's people, what we were not, we're not worthy
for the Lord to take it, take, take our place. But yet he did.
And so that's that would be one of the wonders in eternity that
one day we'll know as to what the Father's will was in in selecting
his people and and having Christ stand assured for them. And what
love, what kindness and what a sacrifice that she would that
she would do this for her household and for her husband and all that
her house was in it. So what a wonder that our Lord
does it for us. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. That's
out of John 15. And that pictures who our Lord
is. He's laid down his life for He
calls us his friends. We're not just, you know, the
people that he came and we had to do this for. He calls us his
friends. So this is something that he very willingly and wants
to do. And even in the end of verse
24, she says, I pray that she wants to speak in thine audience
and hear the words of thine handmaid. So you can also say in that case,
only for Christ's sake will it be heard. So she's saying, don't
hear for any other cause, but for Christ's sake, hear the words. And so only that way will the
Father hear is for Christ's sake. So we'll pick back up in verse
25. Let not my Lord I pray thee regard this man of Belial even
the ball for as his name is so is he a fool and the ball is
his name and follies with him. But I thy handmaid saw him that
I then handmaid saw not the young men of my Lord and now since
then now therefore my Lord is the Lord live it and if I so
live it seeing the Lord I would have withholding me from commit
coming to shed blood and from avenging myself I know hand now
that I'm enemies. Now let thine enemies and they
that seek evil to my Lord be is no ball. So she's coming to
him saying, Look, don't don't waste your time on this guy.
He is a fool. He is what he is. Don't waste
your time on him. Don't don't use your hand to
take revenge on what he did. She's trying to prevent him at
this point. So In verse 27, she says, And now this blessing,
so that the provisions which she sent the best, the work of
Christ, which done handmade, have brought unto my Lord, let
it even be given to the young men that follow my Lord. So as
Christ presents his work to me for the father. So here Abigail
is presenting the provisions that were provided the best unto
David and his men saying, accept these as as as the work instead
of instead of what they did. And so, verse 28, and this is
amazing here, she's still owning the trespass. She says, I pray
thee, forgive the trespass of my handmaid. So she really believes
this to be hers. For the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fights the battles of
the Lord, and evil has not been found in me in all thy days.
So this is, I think it's amazing how she's still on trespassing
there. It's not just something she said. She's now said it a
second time. She's saying, I'm still guilty
and hold me responsible for this. But even though I believe myself
to be guilty and hold me responsible, yet she praises his name. And
she says, You're going to have your house, your house. You're
going to fight the battles for the Lord. And evil is not going
to be found in the all the days. So it's just amazing how she
both finds herself guilty and yet praises him. Twenty first
twenty nine. Yet a man is risen to pursue
thee and to seek thy soul. She's speaking of Saul. But the
soul of our Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the
Lord, thy God and the soul of thine enemies. Them shall be
slain out as of the middle of a sling. And so She's saying
here at this point, you know, this man's pursuing you, but
speaking of Saul, but God's going to deal with him. You don't have
to try to take advantage, you know, take revenge on these things.
The Lord's going to deal with the new zone time. You've got
God's favor and he's going to sling all your enemies out from
you. And brought the scripture to my mind, if God be for us,
then who can be against us? There's no one that can stand
against us if the Lord be on our side. And so that's what
she's saying to David here to remember that. In verse 30, and
it shall come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord,
according to all the good that he has spoken concerning me and
shall have appointed the ruler over Israel, that this shall
be no grief to the more offensive part of my Lord, either that
thou shed blood costless or that my Lord had avenged himself.
But when the Lord had dwelt well with my Lord, then remember that
handmaid. And so, you know, she's saying,
don't avenge your anger. You're going to regret it. Don't
let your foolish pride get in the way and allow you to commit
this great transgression. And so she also says at the end,
remember thine handmaid. She's saying remember thine handmaid
because she's saying that this is the reason by which the wrath
is being for forbeared. She's saying for my sake, remember
me at the end of it. And so that's that's the same
way that the work of the Savior is now complete. So, as the Lord
presents his work on my behalf to God the Father and his payment
for sin, it allows me to be found not guilty. And so we come claiming
the merits of Christ, just as you say, remember that handmade.
So this is the reason by which the wrath has been been quelled. And so. Verse 32, this is now
starts the results of the Savior's work. 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 thou
has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging
myself with my own hand. And so how sweet and how thankful
we are for the mercies that prevent us from great sin. And there
are many mercies that prevent us that we don't see, but how
sweet it is when it's the ones that we do see. And that's really
what David is relishing in here. He's saying, blessed be you,
blessed be the hour in which you've come unto me this day,
because if you hadn't have come, it'd have been over. I would
have come and done this. This change David, she is she had
a very profound effect on David in verse thirty four for in very
deep is the Lord God of Israel, which have kept me back from
hurting the except has tasted to come and meet me. Surely they
had not been left in a ball by the morning light and even pissed
up against the wall. So he's saying if you'd awaited. And it shows some of the great
wisdom of Abigail as a wife and what grace the Lord had given
her to hasten the meeting. And so I think the same is true
in our experience in this life and coming to Christ. We can't wait. If we wait, as
here, destruction is coming. We can't wait. We have to come
to Christ. I think the scripture I wrote in my marching here was,
if the good man had known what hour the thief would have come,
he would have watched, so he could keep his house from being
broken into. And so, David is telling her, if she hadn't have
hastened and come here, it would have been over. So, we're to
come to Christ now, not to wait to come to Christ. And so, back
into verse 35, So David received of her hand that which she had
brought unto him. It said unto her, Go in peace
to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy
voice and accepted thy person. Go in peace. There's no more
offense to be had. I said, I've accepted thy person.
I said, I found you worthy and accepted thy person. And so this
is what God the Father says to us when he looks at us in Christ. We don't have any reason to fear
or to come before him as long as we come in Christ, because
Christ is accepted. The person working Christ has
been accepted. And if I'm found in him, then
I can have claim to that as well. And so that's that's what he's
saying to her is in this picture of Christ here. Our story doesn't
end there. In verse 36, now that David David's
gone back to his house and so is Abigail in the ball, little
does he know all this transpired. It says, 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. this is wise you can't
you know to give to give words of advice with them especially
when someone you know is drunk and she's she's wise not to even
tell him this happened and but i noticed it said that he had
a feast like the feast of the king so it was clear that he
had more than he needed there you can imagine what the feast
of the king would be like and yet he you know is drunk and
all the opulence all the stuff that he's got and he's you know
his men and having a good old time but little does he know
all this stuff's happened Verse 37, but it came to pass in the
morning when the wine was gone out of Nepal and his wife had
told him these things, basically what she had done and his heart
died within him and became a stone. And so a lot of the commentary
on this verse is Nepal's reaction to what his wife told him. was
saying that Nabal was so scared that, you know, that David and
his men were basically at his front door ready to come in and
slaughter everybody. It scared him so bad that he
basically had a stroke and got stuck in that state. I don't
believe it. I'm not quite sure that that's what that is saying
here. I think Nabal was so angry that his wife and his servants,
neither of which whom he respected or had any regard for, had gone
around him to prevent all this and go against his word. And
so he said his heart died within him and he became a stone. It
came to pass about 10 days after that the Lord smote the ball
that he died. So in the Lord's own time, he dealt with the ball.
David didn't have to come in to slaughter anyone or deal with
that. The Lord dealt with him himself.
And you can bet that after this experience that David kept close
tabs on Abigail. She profoundly affected him.
And it says that after he died and David heard that the ball
was dead, And said, Blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded my
cause of their approach from the hand of the ball and have
kept his servant from evil. For the Lord had returned the
wickedness of the ball upon his own head. And David sent and
communed with Abigail to take her for him to wife. And so this
is, you know, you find this very sweet that now David has, you
know, this woman who was very profoundly affected by she's
been now been. her husband's died and he's come
to her to take her to be his wife and so she becomes um one
of david's one of the wives of david and what brought this to
my mind was you know on this earth we were going to be we're
bound to this this old man our nabal all the days that we're
going to be here there's going to come a day when When the old
man's going to die, the Lord's going to take him. And if I want
a price, he's going to come and he's going to take me to be united
to him. I'm no longer going to be united
to that old man. I'm going to be united to Christ. And this is David taking Abigail
to be his wife. And so the next two verses just
tell us a little bit about that. When the servants of David were
come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David,
send us to take thee unto him to wife. And she rose and bowed
her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be
a servant to wash the feet of my servants of my Lord. And Abigail
hasted and arose and wrote upon an ass of five damsels to hers
that went after her. And she came after the messengers
of David and became his wife. And so what humility, wisdom
and a tender heart this woman had and to be David's wife, what
a what someone to have to be close to you and to have with
you. So this chosen by David to be
his wife shows I need a savior. Necessitate. So this story shows
my need for a savior. This necessitates the work of
the savior, because without that, I'd have nothing. I'd be lost
and destroyed. And then the results of the work of the Savior are,
I'm accepted, there's peace, and that I've been redeemed,
I've been bought back. So I don't have to worry about any of that
stuff that happened, it's already been taken care of for me, and
I didn't have to do anything. So, I'll let you go.