To Encourage You

1 Samuel 25:1-3 “Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite.”

Have you ever been in a situation where the actions of a foolish or wicked person were adversely affecting your life through no fault of your own, but you had no way out?  What do you do in such a case?  What’s the answer to such unjust suffering?  Well, as with any other difficult trial in life, there is an answer for the Christian if we have the wisdom to look to God’s Word while those around us may so foolishly pay no attention to it.  

We see such an example in the account above.  It’s the story of Nabal and his wife Abigail as they found their lives intersecting with David, the fugitive anointed King of Israel.  The name “Nabal” means “fool,” and foolish was an apt description of what he was.  As we read through this account in 1 Samuel 25, we find that Nabal was someone who was a know-it-all. No one could ever talk any sense into him. He was very wealthy and saw himself as a “self-made man.”  He owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, which in that agrarian society was a sign of great wealth.  Well, it just so happened that as David was running from the persecution of King Saul, he and his men found themselves in the same area in the wilderness of Paran as Nabal’s shepherds. In kindness, they watched over these shepherds and protected them from the threats of others, such as the Philistines, who were harassing the Israelites in that day. Of David and his men’s protection, Nabal’s shepherds said, “They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.”  Yet, David was still a fugitive and he needed help to feed his men.  When David sent 10 of his men to Nabal to ask for help in return for the goodness they had shown him, this was Nabal’s reply: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”  David, in a rage because of this harsh and ungrateful reply, tells his men to strap on their swords. He takes 400 of his 600 men and sets out to destroy Nabal, his entire family, and everyone that worked for him. 

It is here that Abigail, Nabal’s wife, enters the story. In contrast to foolish Nabal, Abigail is described as “discerning and beautiful.” When she learns about the foolish actions of her husband she rushes to intervene. She sends great quantities of food to David and his men and goes to meet David to plead for mercy and forgiveness for her husband’s wickedness. In her request she makes no excuse for Nabal’s actions. Rather, she agrees that he’s a fool.  But she appeals to David’s position as the Lord’s anointed and, as such, one for whom God would fulfill his every need.  She appeals to him with these words: “the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.” Then she warns him that if he, rather than the Lord, were to take vengeance on Nabal, it would be a sin that he would later regret.   In response, David relents, and blesses Abigail for her wise intervention.  Later, after Nabal had worn off his hangover from his drinking and partying the night before (in oblivion to the fact that David and 400 men had been on the way to take his life), Abigail informs him of the danger he had been in until she had intervened.  Nabal is shocked into a stupor, and 10 days later he is dead. 

So, is there any lesson in all this for you and me?  Perhaps many, but one in particular. And that is that we need not be a helpless victim to the foolishness of others in our life. It could be a godless boss, an unsaved spouse, or a foolish and grating neighbor – people whose godless actions and attitudes can make life miserable for us. It could be a government that we are subject to but that constantly acts in opposition to the Word of God. But although we may be victimized by them, we need not live life as a victim to them.  No matter how they live, we can still serve the Lord.  Just as Abigail intervened on Nabal’s behalf, so we can pray for unbelievers that affect our life.  To those who have an ungodly boss, the Bible tells us that “servants, (are to) be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly” (1 Peter 2:18-19). Similarly, wives are commanded to “be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct” (1 Peter 3:1).  Regarding the government, we are to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” (1 Timothy 2:2), words written, by the way, when Nero was the emperor of Rome under whose authority the writer of these words lived.  In the end, we should know that God’s eyes “are toward the righteous” (Psalm 34:15), even when the righteous live amid fools. Furthermore, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 3:9).  We can be assured that the Lord will make it right in the end, and He will bless the righteous even in the face of the trouble they may have to endure from the ungodly for a time.

Which brings us to the last thing.  After Nabal died we are told that David came to Abigail and she became his wife.  What a picture this is of how, in the end, the Lord will take His own into an eternal relationship as a groom with His bride, while every difficult relationship any believer has to endure in this life will, one day, end. 

May God give those who know Him the wisdom to live a life of obedience and trust, and to endure the difficult relationships in life, no matter how much disobedience and ungodliness may surround them on every side. May He help us to not follow the example of the ungodly, but to be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom (we) shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).