Let's open our Bibles this evening
to 1 Samuel chapter 25. After reading the first verse
in this chapter, which tells of the death and burial of Samuel,
Then for the rest of the chapter, there are only three other names
which are mentioned, Nabal, Abigail, and David. And I want us to look
at some things that we read about these three individuals tonight.
A real lesson to all of us in God preventing sin. God preventing sin. First, Nabal. And I have five things that I've
jotted down here that I read about him. First of all, in verse
two, we read that he was very great. There was a man in Maon
whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great. Men, we know, are called great
and very great for different reasons, but as in this case,
It is generally true that men are called great because of their
wealth, because of the riches which they possess. He was not
great in the sense that we might say of Samuel, who we read about
in the first verse, who died and was buried and was laminated. Samuel, from a child we know,
had served God and had served the nation of Israel, He was
great, but he was not great in the sense that Nabal was great. Nabal was very great, had to
do with his wealth. But we notice about Samuel that
when he died, people lamented, people wept over his death because
he had been such a faithful prophet of God. I don't think anyone
lamented when Nabal died because he had been such a person as
we read further on in this chapter. So first of all, Nabal was very
great. The second thing that we read
about him is he had a name which fit his character. That's pretty
common in the Old Testament. Many of the names that men were
given revealed their character. And that was certainly true of
this man. The Hebrew name Nabal literally
means dolt, dolt, D-O-L-T, dolt. And I looked that up in the dictionary,
which means foolish or stupid, a dolt. That's what his name
means, Nabal, a dolt, foolish or stupid. And if you look down,
In verse 25, we see that his wife said this about him. Verse 25, let not my Lord, I
pray thee, regard this man of Bilal, even Nabal, for as his
name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly,
foolishness, is with him. This man had a name which fit
his character. One of the writers said this
man, Nabal, he could have set for the painting of the fool. In our Lord's parable in the
New Testament, the man who said, I'll tear down my barns and build
bigger barns, and he said to his soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. I like that. One man said he
could have sat for the painting of the fool our Lord spoke about
in that parable. His name fit his character. The third thing that I see about
him, again in verse three, he was churlish. He was churlish and evil in his
doings. 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 a beautiful countenance, but the man, Nabal, the man was
churlish and evil in his doings. One of the definitions for churlish
is selfish. Selfish. And we're going to see
in a few minutes that that was certainly true of this man. He
was a selfish man. The fourth thing that stands
out to me as I read this is that he was of the house of Caleb.
Notice that at the last of verse three, and he was of the house
of Caleb. Now we all know who Caleb was. Caleb was one of those 12 spies
along with Joshua that Moses sent to spy out the land of Canaan. And Caleb was like Joshua, a
man of faith who encouraged the Israelites, believing in God. Yes, the cities are walled up
to heaven and the people are like giants, but God will give
us the land. God will give us the land. But of course they believed the
10 spies and suffered 40 years in the wilderness because of
their unbelief. But Caleb, it is said of him
that he followed, he wholly followed the Lord. He's the only person
I believe in the scripture that that is said about, he wholly
followed the Lord. And it seems like I remember
his name actually has something to do with a dog. And it's just
like a dog that follows its master, you know. A good dog just follows
his master. And Caleb wholly followed the
Lord. He served the Lord. But he was
of the house of Caleb. But he did not have the grace,
he did not have the faith. And again, this reminds us that
God's grace is sovereign, isn't it? It doesn't flow through the
bloodlines. A man of God may have a son,
may have a daughter who despises God. Samuel did. I mentioned
him just a few minutes ago. Samuel was a man of God. He served
God. But remember, he had two sons
who were wicked, who were wicked. Grace is sovereign, isn't it?
We know that. God's sovereign grace. People
like to talk about God's sovereignty, and most people will admit that
God is sovereign in creation and sovereign in providence,
but will balk when they hear that God is sovereign in grace
also, in dispensing his grace. But he is, according to the word
of God, he is. And the last thing, the fifth
thing that I read about this man Nabal is he was blessed,
now listen, he was blessed with a great helpmeet, Abigail. The scripture says about her,
a woman of great understanding. God had given him a faithful
wife. So that's five things that I
read here about Nabal. Now second, Abigail. And as you
read through this chapter, we won't take the time to read all
the way through it, but it gives us such a beautiful picture,
a beautiful picture of intercession. I was so impressed as I read
through the chapter a couple of times in preparing the message,
the intercession of Abigail, how it pictures the intercession
of Christ for you and I, for us tonight. Just to know while
we're sitting here this evening and tomorrow through the day
and for the rest of our lives, he ever liveth to make intercession
for us. And yes, when we fail, and we
do, and when we sin, yet he's always there. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation
for our sins. Now, when we think about Abigail,
I want us to see the setting here. I thought, you know, we
might think of this like a movie. And you have three characters. And one main character, and the
main character in this movie would be Abigail, as far as I'm
concerned. And we would see the setting,
and that's what I want to bring to us. The setting. The time was the shearing of
sheep. The shearing of sheep. Notice
that in verse two. And he was shearing his sheep
in Carmel. Now these sheep were raised to
produce wool. They were shearing the sheep.
Harvesting, if you please, the wool. It was a time of harvest. Now, do you remember in the story
of Ruth how that Boaz, the night Ruth presented herself to Boaz
to be his wife, you remember that he was there with his workers. It was the end of the harvest,
and it was a time of celebration. I'm saying this because this
was generally true among the Jews, the Israelites. When it
came time to harvest, they had a celebration, and that's what
was happening here at the shearing of the sheep, the time of the
harvest, and it was a time of celebration, It was a time of
joy, and especially it was a time of sharing, of sharing with others
for God's great bounty upon a person, a time of sharing. Now, David,
we see in this chapter, he had 600 men. We've read that before,
but that's pointed out to us again in this chapter. He has 600 men. And they are
existing in the wilderness, in caves and, you know, fleeing
from Saul, hiding from Saul. Well, those men had to be fed.
They had to live off the land. And these men had protected Nabal's
shepherds. They had not taken one sheep.
It would have been easy for these men to just go among the flock
of Nabal and help themselves. I mean, they could overpower
them for sure, these shepherds. But they didn't do it. In fact,
David pointed out that they had served like a wall around Nabal
and his property so that no one else No one else stole any sheep
or took anything from Nabal. They had been their protectors,
if you please. So David sends some of his men,
young men, we are told, and they very courteously asked Nabal
to give them, and he had the freedom to give them anything
he wanted to. He could have given them much,
he could have given them less, but to share. God had blessed
him to share with David and his men. And how does Nabal respond? Who is David? Who is David? And no one believes that he didn't
know who David was. David had killed the giant. David
had led the armies of Israel out against the Philistines many
times. And in a sense, you can say that
much of what Nabal had, he had received because of the war,
the fighting of David, protecting Israel from the Philistines.
But he showed his selfishness. Who's David? He'd benefited. You've got to see this. This
man had benefited by David and his men. And yet when they come
to him and very courteously, respectfully ask for something,
and David must have been in pretty dire straits to do that, you
know, to send and ask. And this man says, who's David?
I don't owe him anything. But I believe, as I read this,
look in verse 11, I believe this really shows how selfish this
man was. Look at the word my as we read
this verse. Shall I then take my bread and
my water? Whose water is this? Don't we all drink God's water?
and breathe God's air as we live in this world. But you see this
man, my bread, my water, my flesh, these animals, my flesh that
I have killed for my shares and give it unto men whom I know
not whence they are. Don't you see his selfishness
there? You know, all that any of us
have, every one of us here tonight, everything we have, your bank
account, your IRA, your savings, your house, all the material
that we have, we have been given. We have been given and we are
stewards of what God has given us. And this man had been blessed
by God Almighty. He was a steward. But he was
selfish. He was a selfish man. He was
a foolish man. Then one of his servants, one
of his servants who witnessed this, witnessed what Nabal had
said to those men, he told Abigail, how Nabal had treated David's
men, and he told him what the result is going to be. Notice
beginning in verse 14. But one of the young men told
Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers
out of the wilderness to salute our master. Notice that salute
him. They had come with a sword in
their hand demanding They came to salute Nabal respectfully,
and he, that is Nabal, he railed on them. Who's David? 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 by night and day. All this while we were
with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider
what thou will do for evil is determined against our master
and against all his household. For he is such a son of Bilal,
that is a devil, that a man cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made
haste and took 200 loaves and two bottles of wine. And don't
think of those like we see in the store, a bottle of wine.
What would two bottles like that be to 600 men? No, these were
skins, weren't they? They didn't have glass to begin
with at this time, I don't think, but these were skins that were
filled with wine. But anyway, she took a large
quantity of things that she could gather up there. Two bottles of wine, five sheep
ready dressed, five measures of parched corn, and 100 clusters
of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. You see, this man was a wealthy
man. God had blessed him. God had blessed him for her to
be able to take that and him to continue on with his banquet
as we see later in the chapter that he did. And I want you to
notice especially in verse 17 that the servant told Abigail
that Nabal will not listen. He will not listen. For he is
such a son of Bilal that a man cannot speak to him. He's stubborn,
you know that. You can't talk with him. You
can't reason with him. And I point this out to us because
what Abigail had to do, she had to do quickly. And I point this
out because some people find fault with Abigail's actions,
her going behind her back, some say. What I see here, and we
see it in verse 18 and verse 34, if she had not acted immediately, David would have killed, his
men would have killed all of Nabal and his workers and taken
everything Nabal had. You notice in verse 18, it says,
then Abigail made haste You can't try to talk to him.
You can't waste time trying to talk to him. You know how he
is, he's not gonna listen. And then down to verse 34, when
she met David, David said, for in very deed, as the Lord God
of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee,
notice, except thou hadest hasted. except you had hasted and come
to meet me. Surely there had not been left
unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the
wall." He would have killed all the young men of Nabal. She had to do it hurriedly, is
the point I'm making. If she was going to deliver David,
which she does, and deliver her family as well, she had to do
it immediately. She had to make haste. But notice
her intercession, how beautiful it is when we think of how the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, intercedes for us. Notice in verse 24, she came
to David, she fell at his feet, and notice he said unto me, my
Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be. In other words, charge me. Charge me with this iniquity. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did for you and did for me, isn't it? It makes
me want to thank God right now and pray and bless him just to
think it makes my eyes water. Just to think, this is what he
said for me and for you. Put his sins to my account, like
Paul told Philemon, right? Put onesimus, whatever he owes
you, put that to my account. I will repay you. And that's
what she says here to David. Whatever his iniquity, the iniquity
of Nabal, just put, lay that on me. Just put that on me. He takes our iniquity, our sins,
and then he answers for them. Notice also she presents a gift
or offering, verse 27. And now this blessing which thine
handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let it even be given unto
the young men that follow my Lord. Isn't that what the Lord
Jesus Christ did? He gave himself. First of all,
he took our iniquities and then he gave himself the offering
as she gave an offering to David and his young men. The Lord Jesus
Christ gave himself, offered himself rather a sacrifice unto
God for our sins. And then notice the third thing
about her intercession. She asked and receives forgiveness,
verse 28. I pray thee, forgive the trespass
of thine 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, Saul,
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 that he has spoken concerning thee
and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel. Now David said to Abigail in
verse 32, blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee
this day to meet me. In other words, the three things
I point out about her intercession, she asked that the sin be placed
upon her, the iniquity be laid upon her, she presents an offering,
and third, she asked and received forgiveness. And the Lord, when
he intercedes for us, when we sin, he asks that we be forgiven,
put that on my account, and we are forgiven. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth. Not just cleanse, but cleanseth
us. It's ongoing, isn't it? It's
ongoing. Through our life, he forgives
us. Now I see that her intercession
was beautiful. And we also read that she personally
was of a beautiful countenance. And I think of the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as our intercessor is described in the Song of Solomon
as altogether lovely. I'm sure Abigail was a beautiful
lady, but she cannot compare with our Savior, who is altogether
lovely. Fairer than 10,000, fairer than
all the children of men. Now let's look a few minutes
here at David. Now last week we saw, let me
remind us, David and his men were in the cave and Saul comes
in the cave and goes to sleep and David had the opportunity
and his men, I believe, encouraged him to avenge himself to kill
Saul. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't
do it. But now, what's he doing? He's going to avenge himself. He's going to kill Nabal and
all of his seed. He was on his way to commit this
sin, which would, as Abigail advised him, and she's so wise,
her wisdom here is so wise, she advised him that if he followed
through with what he was On the way to do, when he came to the
throne, and surely you're going to come to the throne. She knew
that. She knew God, through Samuel,
had anointed him to be king. But when you come to the throne,
if you follow through with this, it's going to be a grief to you
for the rest of your life. It's going to lay heavy on your
conscience. Thou shalt, the law of God, and
David loved the law of God, the law said thou shalt not avenge
thyself, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. David here, as I
said, he wouldn't avenge himself against Saul, but he's at the
point, he's on the way, he's got 400 men with him, and they're
going to, They're going to take care of Nabal and all of his
people. I want you to notice that David
immediately recognized God's hand in delivering him from committing
this sin, verse 32 and 33. 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 has kept
me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself
with mine own hand. He immediately recognized, yes,
God used Abigail. God used Abigail. It was God. It was God. John Brown said,
the first thought that occurred to David's mind was, what a blessing
he had received in the prevention of this sin. That was his first
thought, John Brown said. What a blessing he had received
in the prevention of this sin. And the second was, his second
thought was, that he had received it from God. And his third thought
is to him, that is to God, be all the glory, blessed be the
Lord God of Israel. John Brown went on to say this,
and I wanted to give us this in closing, that God is the author
of the prevention of sin in two ways. Think about this in your
life, my life, how he has prevented us from committing sin, some
sins. Brown said he does this two ways,
and we see both here in this place. First, it is by the arrangement
of his providence that those events take place by which sin
is prevented. And in this case, that would
be Abigail's quick action, immediately springing into action, God's
providence. And secondly, it is by the influence
of his spirit that these events are rendered effectual for the
purposes they were intended to serve. God works in us both to
will and to do of his good pleasure. And then he said this, and I'll
close with this, I promise. This is so good. These remarks
throw a new light on human life. These remarks that he had made
throw a new light on human life. This means that some of the most
unimportant events in our life become the most important, something
that seems so trivial, so mundane, so every day. And yet, how important
some little thing is. We've all, I'm sure most all
of us here tonight, we've thought you get in your car maybe and
it doesn't start and you think, well, Maybe if it had started,
I'd be at a certain place and I'd be in an accident, I'd be
in a wreck or something, you know. And that's true, isn't
it? And we need to thank God and
realize God's providence in everything. He works everything after the
counsel of His own will. So first of all, this means that
some of the most unimportant events in our life become the
most important. I thought about Charles Spurgeon
when I read that. Remember he had an interview
to become a student in a college and he had an interview at a
house and the servant let him in and set him in one room, a
parlor, and the man he was to have the interview the head of
the college with, that same servant set him in a different room. And they both sat there for some
time until one of them decided he's not coming and got up and
walked out. And how God used that in his
life. How the most unimportant events
in our life become the most important. And the last thing, then some
of the most disastrous events, the greatest blessing that could
ever have befallen us. Think about that. Some of the
most disastrous events that could ever have happened to us. become
one of the greatest blessings that we could ever have received. I like this chapter. Chapter
25. Do you? I think it is so, so
beautiful. The intercession of Abigail.
Let's sing a hymn before we're dismissed.