Good morning Green Hills!  If we haven’t met yet.  I’m Steve Muncherian, one of the Elders here at Green Hills, and it is my privilege to share God’s word with us this morning.

We are continuing our series “Bible Stories Revisited.”  Stories – not in the sense of myths – but familiar stories – real accounts of real people in real places doing real life with the real God - accounts that are here to help us do life with God.

Before we get into the Bible let me pray for us.

Today we’re in 1 Samuel 25.  We’re looking at David and Abigail and Nabal and specifically the anger in David’s heart – anger that almost destroys David.  The big picture for us to hang onto in all that is how God deals with David’s anger – and ultimately, our anger.

Which may be a stretch for some of us – this whole concept of anger.  Probably many of us have never really experienced being angry.  Can you say amen to that? 

Ever felt like this?

Or, like this?

Anger gets leveled against us – or something gets done to us – and we struggle to not to push back.  Anger effects our relationships with other people.

Anger effects our health.  We can find ourselves pushing down anger at what we’re going through – trying to keep the lid on it.  Depression is often suppressed anger.  

It is amazing how quickly we can tap into that inner reservoir of anger and say and do things that – if we’d maintained some modicum of sanity – we’d never have said or done those things. 

Someone said, “Speak when you’re angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”

Reality check…  Anger is very much a part of our lives. 

We’re together? 

That is what we’re looking at here with David – coming to 1 Samuel 25 – and seeing – real time – how God – emphasis God – is at work dealing with David’s anger.  Which is an example for us of how God desires to work in our hearts to get us to where we need to be – heart-level – with God when we struggle with anger.

1 Samuel 25 – starting at the end of verse 1: “Then Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him at his house in Ramah.  And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.”

Let’s pause there for some context.

David’s mentor Samuel has just died.  Which is a huge loss for David and the nation.  Which comes at a point in David’s life when David’s life is going from worse to worser.

David has gone from the pinnacle of success – national hero status – with everything going for him – and in a very short period of time – David has lost his position in the king’s court – he’s lost his wife Michal – he’s lost his friend Jonathan – he’s on the run from Saul – and he’s lost his self-respect.  Meaning – in a lot of ways, David has hit bottom. 

Between all that and where we’re picking things up today David has become the leader of a band of outlaws.  Kind of like Robin Hood and his Merry Men.  They’re doing good but on the wrong side of the law. 

Going on – 1 Samuel 25 – verse 2:  Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats.  And it came about while he was sheering sheep in Carmel (now – backstory – the man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail.  And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite) that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was sheering his sheep – in Carmel.  So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him in my name; and thus you shall say, ‘Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.’ 

Pausing there – up front we’re introduced to THE CHARACTERS in the account.

Verse 2 introduces us to a man from Maon.  Which is this place – south of Jerusalem and north of Paran.  Which is probably where he has his ranch and ranch hands and grazes his 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. 

But he has business in Carmel.  Which is the small Judean town that you can almost make out on the top of the ridge there. 

Carmel is at crossroads.  It’s a place of business. 

We’re also told that this man is rich.  How rich?  Very rich.  Meaning he’s loaded.

So, Carmel is where this man from Maon is up sheering sheep and selling wool and getting richer.

Then – verse 3 – we’re given the man’s name which is… Nabal.  Which, in Hebrew, means… “fool”.  In the Bible a fool is a person who says there’s no God.  Someone who is his own God.

Can you imagine parents naming their child that?  “Cute kid.  What’s his name?”  “Fool.”   Probably it’s a nickname that Nabal got labeled with because as we’re going to see – Nabal is living for Nabal.

We’re also told that Nabal is a Calebite – which distinguishes him from the mosquito bites.  Which means he’s descended from… Caleb.  Caleb was… one of the 12 spies Moses sent into the Promised Land to spy out the land before Israel was supposed to go take it.

We remember this.  10 spies came back and said… “No way.”  Joshua and Caleb came back said, “Trust God.  Let’s do it”. 

Caleb is a national hero and Nabal is descended from Caleb – meaning Nabal has honored status in the community.  But Nabal is nothing like Caleb.

Verse 3 describes Nabal as harsh – the Hebrew word means… harsh – meaning stubborn – belligerent.  He was evil in his dealings – meaning really dishonest. 

So – bottom line – Nabal is rich – he’s honored – and yet he doesn’t give a rip about anybody else – not even God.  Because Nabal is all about… Nabal.

Second – we’re introduced to Abigail.  Whatever Nabal is, Abigail is the opposite. 

She’s intelligent.    She had a good understanding of things.  She makes wise and well thought out decisions. 

And she’s beautiful in form.  Meaning she was lovely within and without.

Probably her marriage with Nabal was an arranged marriage.  Meaning this is one mismatched match.  And as we read further that becomes painfully more evident because Nabal is all about… Nabal.

Our third main character is David – and his Merry Men.

Nabal has his ranch down in Maon.  While Nabal’s shepherds and goatherds are out in the fields down by Maon shepherding and goating – the way things were done back then – David and his Merry Men – based in Paran – probably were acting like a kind of private security.  Defending the ranch – protecting the shepherds and flocks – against wild animals and sheep stealers – and marauding bands of Philistines.

So – coming to verse 5 – according to the way things were done – David and his Merry Men – if they’d done a good job of protecting the shepherds and sheep – at sheep shearing time – up in Carmel – which was a festive shearing the sheep celebration and pay day for everyone – David and his Merry Men – if they’d protected well – they could expect their share of the sheep shearing profits. 

So, when word reaches David that it’s sheep shearing time David sends 10 young men with the customary greetings to Nabal to remind Nabal that it’s time to pay up.

Notice that it’s not David and his 600 men demanding payment.  But,10 men because – according to custom – probably David knew what the customary payment would be – probably provisions – food – and 10 men was all that was needed to bring it back.  It’s just the way things are done.  

Going on verse 7 – we’re introduced to THE CONFLICT.

David going on telling these 10 men what to tell Nabal: “Now I have heard that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything in the days they were in Carmel.  Ask your young men and they will tell you – meaning your own men can testify that my men and I have been faithfully protecting your shepherds and flocks – Therefore let my – 10 – young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day.  Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.”  When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name; then they waited…  for the expected payment.

Verse 10:  But Nabal – who’s all about… Nabal – answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David?  And who is the son of Jesse?  There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.  Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?”

Notice how many times Nabal says “I” and “my.”  3 “I’s” and “4 “my’s” in his one terse sentence.  Nabal is about…  Nabal.

Meanwhile David is back at camp.  His men are hungry.  The fire is going.  He can taste the kebob – the pilaf – the humus – the pocket bread – leeks – onions – baklava.  Payment’s coming.

Verse 12:  So David’s young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words.  David said to his men, “Each of you gird his sword.” 

“Saddle up boys.  We’re gonna go kill us a fool.” 

So each man girded on his sword.  And David also girded on his sword, and about 400 hundred men went up behind David while two hundred stayed behind with the baggage.

The swords are not meant to enhance the discussion.  400 men to take out one Nabal is a statement.  David is not to be messed with.  David is gonna take Nabal and chop him into little itsy bitsy pieces.

Someone said, “Anger is only one letter short of danger.”

Alan Redpath – who was a British evangelist and pastor – captures where David is coming from here.  Redpath wrote: “David, what’s the matter?  “I’m justified in doing this,” David would reply.  “There is no reason why Nabal should treat me as he has.  He has repaid all my kindness with insults.  I will show him he can’t trifle with me.  It is one thing to take it from Saul, who is my superior at this point, but this sort of man - this highhanded individual must be taught a lesson!” (1)

Ever felt like that?  I’ve been wronged.  My anger is justified. 

There is a whole lot of conflict going on here that’s leading to a whole lot of anger coming from David.

Nabal and Abigail – the mismatched match.  Probably not a whole lot of romance there. 

And Nabal and David – employer and employee in a really messed up contract negotiation.

Then there’s David… verses David.  Who’s ticked – enraged and out of control.  Charging off to murder Nabal because at the root of David’s anger is David who is about… David.

We’re together?  The root of all that conflict is… self.  The root of all of David’s anger is… self.

Verse 14 brings us to how all that conflict and anger gets responded to. 

First we’re going to see Abigail’s Response.

Verse 14:  But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them.  Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields.   They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep.  Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household – you and us – and he – Nabal – is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

Notice that the servants come to Abigail.  Even the servants know that Nabal is a fool – and Abigail isn’t. 

Verse 18:  Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.  She said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.”  But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

There is no way to reason with unreasonable people – especially a nabal like Nabal.  There’s no time to waste trying to get Nabal to see the light.  So Abigail takes charge. 

We’re told Abigail acted hurriedly – that means swiftly – efficiently and effectively – to save Nabal’s life and everybody else’s.  Abigail takes food already prepared for the celebration with the sheep shearers and sends it on ahead to David.  

David – who with 400 of his not so merry men – are charging full tilt – hooves pounding – swords swording – stomachs growling – who are getting hungrier and angrier as they come.

Verse 20:  It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good.  May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him.”

Notice that David has gone from, “I’m gonna take out Nabal.” to “I’m gonna kill em all.”  Each time David reviews how he’s been wronged – “in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness” – his anger grows.  Not that any of us have ever done that.

A tactic of our Adversary – Satan – is to get us spiraling down into where we’ve been wronged – how unfair we’ve been treated – how we’ve been wounded – how alone we are in our suffering – dialoging within ourselves and anyone who’ll listen to us – rehearsing all of that – our messed up by sin and self, perspective of our lives.  The more we spiral down into ourselves the more we spiral away from God.

So what’s going on in David’s heart now is just pure vengeance.  This is personal.

Let’s be clear.  There is a significant difference between God aligned – God focused – anger – Jesus flipping over tables in the Temple and chasing out the money-changers – and our self-aligned – self-focused – spiraling away from God anger.

“May God do so” isn’t a prayer of blessing.  It’s a curse.  God is nowhere in David’s reasoning.

Like none of us have ever been there? 

Someplace – as Abigail is sneaking down the mountain from Carmel – she and David meet.

Verse 23:  When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground.  She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the blame.  And please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant.  Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he.  Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

Notice Abigail’s tact – saying and doing exactly the right thing. 

On the donkey ride down she’s thought very carefully about what she’s going to say – spiraling into God. 

She knows her husband is a fool.  Everyone knows her husband is a fool. 

This is the perfect opportunity to divest herself of her fool of a husband.  David’s fuse is short.  Nabal’s life hangs by a thread.  Let David give Nabal what’s coming to him.  Nobody would have blamed her.

But while she points out what David already knows notice that she takes the responsibility on herself.  When she sees David she falls on her face – bows before David. 

“Blame me.  I should have been there.  Your men would have heard something different.  Your men were treated unjustly.  I’m here now.  Let me take care of this.”

As we continue reading down through Abigail’s response – we’re going to notice that 6 times she calls herself David’s maidservant – 8 times she calls David “my lord.”  She’s humbling herself as an advocate for her husband – and everyone else.

Because anything less would have gotten all of them killed.

Tact – saying and doing exactly the right thing. 

Then verse 26 – notice her faith:  Now therefore, my lord – notice lower case “l” – as the Lord – upper case “L” – lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord – upper case “L” – has restrained you from shedding blood, and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord – lower case “l” – be as Nabal.

6 times Abigail refers to the Lord – which has a capital “L” in our English Bibles.  In Hebrew it’s Yahweh.  Which is the name of the eternal – all powerful God – Who is intimately involved in the lives of His people.  Intimately involved in David’s life.

In verse 26 Abigail ties all that together in a theologically solid – she gets God – God focused statement.  She tells David that Yahweh has kept him – David – back from vengeance – from murder – from slaughtering Nabal and the shepherds.  She tells David to leave Nabal to God.  Yahweh – who cares for you – Yahweh will take care of Nabal.

Remember Goliath, the stones and the sling?  Pastor Martin 2 Sundays back.  Yahweh did that David.  Not you.  This isn’t about you.  You’re fighting the Lord’s battles.  The battle is Who’s?  The Lord’s.  Let Yahweh fight for you.  Its Yahweh who’s going to establish you in your reign over His – Yahweh’s – people.

Verse 30:  And when the Lord – Yahweh – does for my lord – David – according to all the good that He – Yahweh – has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel this – slaughtering of Nabal – will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself – anger that is about David and nowhere near aligned with God’s will – When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your… maidservant.”

David – you don’t want murder on your record.  You don’t need that.  Killing Nabal – that’s vengeance – that’s murder – because David – what you’re doing here isn’t about Yahweh – and what He’s doing in your life.  It’s about you.  You’re messed up by your self-focused angry heart.  You need to let God deal with Nabal – the conflict – and the anger in your heart.

Point being:  David – who is now all about… David – David may have lost sight of God at work in his life.  But Abigail has not.  She’s tactfully bringing him back to where he should have been in the first place.  Back to faith in God – focusing on God.  Yahweh at work in and through David. 

Let’s be clear – Abigail is so the heroine of this story.  So much an example for us.  In her response she’s demonstrated self-less tact.  She’s shown a wise awareness of God at work and a willingness to trust God.  She’s respected her fool of a husband – shown undeserved loyalty to him – even at her own expense.  She works to rescue everyone – including the future king of Israel.  

It wouldn’t be stretch to think of her riding down that hill – thinking this through – praying – asking God for wisdom.

We’re together?  This is one wise godly woman.  We need people like Abigail in our lives.  Amen?  People who will pull us back to God.

Which brings us to David’s Response

Verse 32: Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand. 

Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male.”  So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “Go up to your house in peace.  See, I have listened to you and granted your request.”

David – sword ready to slice and dice – he’s confronted by this woman he’s probably never met – listens to her without interruption – as she points him back to God – his entire heart-level attitude changes.

He listens and he gets it.  What’s going on here isn’t about you, David.  This is about God.  David chooses to turn his heart back to God.

Verse 36 brings us to Nabal’s Response.

Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. – Nothing is too good for Nabal.  Because Nabal is all about… Nabal. 

And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk –totally wasted – so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light.

Verse 37:  But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone.

Can you picture this?  Nabal has one throbbing hangover.  Abigail tells him, “I’ve got to tell you something.”  And as Abagail unfolds what she did – 401 guys on the way to cut off Nabal’s head – as she’s talking he’s getting really quiet – really still – really pale – he becomes like a stone.  He’s really not feeling good now.  Literally – the guy had a stroke. 

Verse 38 – brings us to God’s Response.

About ten days later, the Lord – capital L – struck Nabal and he died. 

Who struck Nabal?  The Lord – Yahweh.

Verse 39:  When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord – Yahweh – who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil.  The Lord – Yahweh – has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.”  Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife.

Jump down to verse 42:  Then Abigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who attended her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife. 

Can everyone say “Awww.”  Isn’t that a happy ending?

Who took out Nabal?  The Lord.  Who pleads the cause of David?  The Lord.  Who returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head?  The Lord.  Who blesses David with a wife who is intelligent – lovely and godly?  The Lord.  Who blesses Abigail with a godly husband who knows when to listen to her?  The Lord.  Yahweh – the Almighty Sovereign God who is personally – intimately – involved with His people – even us.

The battle is who’s?  God’s.  Not ours.  When we make it ours – with our expectations and our focus on ourselves and how we’ve been wronged – we get ticked – we spiral into ourselves.

The big picture that we’re hanging onto in this whole account is how God deals with David’s anger – and ultimately to see how God wants to deal with us – getting us to focus where we need to be focused – when we get into conflict and our hide gets chapped.

What we’re seeing here, in God’s response, is God demonstrating in real time His sovereignty – His total mastery – His total control over all what’s going on here – to bring about justice and resolution as only He – Yahweh – can.  To God alone be the glory.

And, the vital – crucial – essential – necessity – of our need to trust God with whatever we’re going through – to focus on Him and not ourselves.

We’re together?

Thinking about what this can mean for us as we’re challenged with situations and people that drive us to anger – how do we respond to all that? 

Hold onto this:  Anger is a choice. 

Let’s say that together.  “Anger is a choice.” 

We have a choice in how we respond to the things that chap our hide.

Two suggestions coming out of what we’re seeing here.

First:  We need to choose to trust that God is at work.  Because He is.

Over and over we see this – here in this account – Genesis to Revelation.  God’s track record in our own lives.  God really does take care of what needs being taken care of.

There is no situation – no person – no grievance – no inequity – no wrong – that we experience – that God cannot handle.  And since it involves His people – us – we can be confident that our Lord – Yahweh – is deeply concerned and already involved. 

He may not handle things the way we think they should be handled.  We probably won’t see how He is handling it until we’re looking back on it and praising Him for what He’s done.  But, He is handling it.

We need to – up front – choose to trust Him that He is.

Second – we need to choose to trust God to work – which may be harder.

Knowing God is at work intellectually is maybe easier than actually responding by trusting God in real time.  In what we do, do we really believe that God will work?

David reflecting on God’s past mercy towards him – David writes in Psalm 40:1,2:  I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon the rock making my footsteps firm. 

When David chooses – heart-level – at the core of who he is – God focused trust over self-focused anger – he opens himself up to God’s, God glorifying – working of God’s plan and purposes and resolution. 

We need to put on the brakes – to restrain from doing something hasty – to take a breath – to wait patiently for God to act because He is and He will. 

So, when our hide gets chapped this week – and it will – we need to ask ourselves – what am I marinating on?  How I’ve been wronged or on the sovereign God and where He’s going in all this?  And maybe crying out to God to help us to let go of ourselves and actually trust Him.

_________________________

1. Alan Redpath, The Making of the Man of God

I used as a general reference for this sermon and I highly recommend the book by Charles Swindoll, David:  A Man of Passion and Destiny, as a tremondus study on the life of David.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.