1 Samuel 25

We're in 1 Samuel, but I'm going to have you open your Bibles first to James chapter 1 in the New Testament, because I have a verse here, actually a few verses, that I want to read as a springboard to what we're going to be dealing with here tonight in 1 Samuel. James chapter 1, please, in the New Testament. And then once you're there, skip down to verse 13. Goes like this.

All right, now turn over to 1 Samuel, chapter 25, and as we get into our study tonight, I'm trusting that the Lord will make clear what we have started off here with here in James, because, we're going to be dealing a lot with temptation. And not temptation the way you might think. I mean, when we think of temptation, and particularly when we think of it as it relates to how James set it up here, we think of temptation to do things that maybe are besetting sins in our life. Or, those things that we're really trying to overcome. But we're going to be looking at some temptations tonight here in 1 Samuel that are maybe a little bit off your radar, but are something that need to be on your radar because they can pop up at any time, and they can grab you by the juggler, and they can really wreck your life. And we're going to see how that all plays out here tonight so here we go. 1 Samuel chapter 25, beginning in verse 1 and verse 1 is really a, I call it a little bit of a side note because we're dealing with David and Saul and their issues. But it just tells us here that,

This the last of the judges. Samuel is that the very last one to live and to go to be with the Lord.

And God used this man from his earliest days. I mean, he was raised, remember, by Eli, the high priest who wasn't that great of a dad anyway but yet his mother, Hannah committed little Samuel to the house of the Lord when he was a very small boy. So he was raised in the priestly family. He became a prophet to the people and he also served as judge for the people as well. But now you'll remember that during the time of Samuel, the people clamored for a king. We want a king, just like the other nations. And God said, fine, they want a king, give them a king. So He brought Saul and made him king over the people. And we've seen over the last several weeks how badly that has gone. And Saul has been literally eaten up with jealousy over David because he knows that David is going to be king one day. And he is jealously guarding his position as king and so forth. And David has now been on the run against all for probably close to 10 years by this time. It's been a long time. There's a lot, a long period of David's running from Saul that we don't even really hear about necessarily, but we're getting toward the end of it now. And we're told in verse 2, if you look with me there that, “…there was a man…” Had a lot of money, but money back in those days was determined by… And it even says, “he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats.” And that was the, that was wealth back in those days, to have a lot of animals. All right. And now it says, “He was shearing his sheep in Carmel.” Now, the time of sheep shearing was hugely celebratory. It was very festive because this was to the rancher what harvest was to the farmer. When you bring your harvest in, it's a great time of rejoicing because this is when all of your labors are going to pay off. And that's why this man who lives in Carmel is at a very festive time. And we're told in verse 3 that, “…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.” He was of the descendants of Caleb. Once again we know that David has been living in the area of the wilderness of Ziff, and that's where the descendants of Caleb went to go live. And this man and we've bad things about them. Here's another descendant of Caleb that hasn't turned out too good. He's a mean man. He's just, he's wealthy. He's rich in a lot of worldly ways. There's a lot of ways that you can be rich. I suppose you can be rich in money. You can be rich in intellect. You can be rich in character.

Well, this man is rich in material things. We don't really know about his intellect, but character wise, he's not wealthy at all. He's a pauper. In fact, we're going to find out that his name essentially means, fool. I don't know who would name their child fool but that's essentially what his name means. And he has lived up to his name or down to his name, whichever, you think about. But Abigail, his wife is an interesting character for us in the Bible because it says about her that she “was discerning and (she was) beautiful.” So she was an absolute knockout to look at, but she also had this amazing discernment. She was an intelligent woman. Abigail is only one of three women in the Bible of whom that description is given. And so she takes a rather auspicious place along with Esther and Rachel, the two other women in the scripture who are described that way. Now, I'm sure there were many other women that had those characteristics too. For example, we know that Sarah was a very, very beautiful woman even into her old age. Abraham was concerned about people killing him and taking his wife for themselves, even when she was, well past childbearing years. So she must have been incredibly gorgeous. Obviously, Bathsheba was a stunner. There's a lot of women in the Bible who we know were beautiful, particularly beautiful, but would to say that she was not only beautiful, but she was smart. She was discerning again, one of three women in the Bible where these words are used to describe this woman. Which makes you think to yourself, what in the world is Abigail doing with a man named Nabal, who's just a cruel, surly old codger. It's like, what in the world, why did she get with this guy? Well, she was living in those days when most marriages were arranged by the father and here you got a rich man. And chances are Abigail's father looked at the situation and said, well, here's a man who's going to be able to provide for my little girl. And yeah, he might not be, the pick of the litter in terms of his personality, but she's never going to, she'll want for nothing for the rest of her life, and just went ahead and arranged the marriage. So here's this very beautiful discerning woman who's married to this, this guy who is not the kind of guy you want to bring home to meet mom and dad. He's not a good guy to be around. And so we have these two character sketches that are given to us here just to help us understand the story that's going to be unfolding for us here tonight.

Verse 4, we continue reading and it says,

Notice they said, he said, greet them in my name. This is an interesting thing. What does that mean? It simply means that the young men are going to go to Nabal and say, we are coming to you in the name of David. Does that make sense? That's not hard to understand, is it? We come to you in David's name. We come representing David. Why is it so difficult for Christians to understand what it means to go to the Father and pray in the name of Jesus? Do you know what's funny? We can read passages like this and we, it's like, okay, sent 10 guys. He said, okay, go greet Nabal in my name. Do it in my name. In other words, Nabal is going to receive your greeting as if it were coming from me. That's what prayer is all about you guys. We go to the Father and we pray, we speak to the Father and your words are coming as if they're coming from the Son. Do you understand that we are coming in the name of Jesus. That helps you understand maybe a little bit about that's a little bit of a side note, but hopefully that helps unlock some of that mystery. Sometimes I think we Christians think that, in the name of Jesus is just something we tack on there with amen, because it's just what we do. And we never really think about what the purpose or the meaning we're coming in His authority. We're coming with His permission to address the Father and we're coming to him and saying, Father, I'm coming in the authority of Your Son. I'm coming in the name of Your Son, the One in whom You are well pleased. If that helps a little bit. So here's what he's telling him to do. And he says, verse 6,

Starting off the very good greeting, peace.

In other words, there weren't any of the flock that were missing.

“8 ‘Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’” Stop there for a minute. What is David doing? He's asking Nabal to be generous. This might sound a little weird to you and I, because it almost sounds a little bit like begging. But don't think of it that way. Sheep shearing time, like harvest time, was not just a time to get the payoff from all of your labors. It was a time to be generous, and particularly to be generous to those who had blessed, and helped in the process of getting you to this day. And David is saying to Nabal, listen we've been out in the wilderness along with your shepherds. And what you and I may not know from reading just so thus far is that to have flocks out in the open fields back in those days was a dangerous thing. There were raiders. We know that there were Philistine raiders who would come and they would pounce upon the threshing floors, right? Right when the farmers had brought their wheat into thresh, they'd come and they'd take it by force. And they would do the same from time to time, when the flocks were ready to be sheared. And they would come and they would steal people's flocks. It was, it happened fairly frequently back in that time. So what David is saying to Nabal is we've been out in the wilderness along, right alongside your shepherds, and we've been watching. And whenever any raiders came against your flock, we chased them off. In other words, Nabal, we've been out there protecting your investment. We've been out giving your shepherds a sense of security because we are able to defend your flock, and we've been doing that, and I wanted you to know that. Now, this is not new. This is not new information to Nabal. Please understand that. Nabal isn't receiving this information for the very first time. He's not going what—David? David, he's pretty hard to miss a guy out in the fields with 600 men, first of all. But second of all, certainly the shepherds have been coming and going during the course of the months while the sheep are out there at pasture, and they're bringing word back, how are the sheep doing out there? And we're doing great, actually. David and his men have been camped out there right alongside us and they've been taking care of us right along. I mean, it's just amazing. We haven't seen hide nor hair of any raiders during this season of time, because David has really been keeping an eye on our stuff. No question about the fact that Nabal is well aware of what's going on. David is simply going through the courtesy of reminding him, we've been investing in you so that your investment can come to fruition. And so he's explaining this situation. And so verse 9 says, “When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited.” And of course they're waiting for Nabal to respond in some sort of benevolent, gracious, generous way. But “10 …Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David?”” Now, again, that doesn't mean David, David who? He knows exactly who David is. Remember, David is the one they've been singing about or they did sing about in years past anyway. He knows exactly who David is. What he means by this is, who is David, to think that he can come and ask for a piece of the pie, if you will. In other words, who does he think he is? That's what essentially he's saying. He says, ““Who is David?” Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters.”” And look what he says here, verse 11: “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?”” Do you understand? Do you get the gist of the emphasis of his statement right here? He says, again, “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 don't know) I do not know where?” He's playing the whole my and mine sort of a thing pretty strongly, isn't he? This is not a generous man. This is a very, this is a very stingy man. He holds things that he has with a tight grip. I don't know. I'm not going to be giving my hard earned stuff to David and I don't know where these guys come from. You know, there's a lot of people that are rebelling against their masters. I don't know what's going on with David. And I, so I'm not, going to help him. Who's he that he would ask me for such a thing. “12 So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. 13 And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. (that's 600 men, at least at this, at last count) David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.”

He figures, okay, I could probably get this done with just about 400 of the guys. What's he going to do? Well, we're going to find out what he's going to do here in just a minute. But let me just say, this is not David's shining moment. It says in verse 14, “But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them.” Now, you got to know that very thing that he's telling Abigail now is the same information that came to Nabal before. That's the same thing. Because this guy is speaking from experience. He was out there with the shepherds. He's one of the shepherds, apparently. And he talks, he says we, we were safe while his men were out there with us. Verse 16. “They were (in fact he says, There were) a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” Now this shepherd knows Nabal well. He knows that he's a fool. And he even says to Abigail, I would go to Nabal and I would warn him about this thing, but you can't even talk to the man. This is a man who can't be reasoned with. I don't know if you've ever met that individual. They're not fun to talk to because they can't be corrected. They can't be told anything. They never apologize. They're mean to everybody and they have an incompletely unteachable heart. Right? No instruction is even possible. And he even says this to Abigail, your husband, it's not very respectful what he's saying here necessarily, but he's saying, you the guy and nobody can talk to him. It says in verse 18, “Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.” Mercy. This is a big catering sort of outfit thingy that we've got going on here. This is a lot of food. She's going to do for David and his men what Nabal should have done, right? But she, it says she's hurrying because she knows that her husband has riled up David and as we're going to find out as we continue in the chapter, she is very familiar with David. Knows what's going on between him and Saul. Knows that David is innocent and will say as much. And knows the kind of a man her husband can be so she is not wasting any time. Verse 19 says, “And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” So she's sending them on with all these provisions, and then she's going to bring up the rear. Smart lady. And by the way, let me just say something. We're going to hear a little speech by Abigail in just a little bit. And I want to tell you, this is one of the smartest speeches you're ever going to read in your life. It is absolutely, this lady has more on the ball than just about, I mean, she's amazing. So she's going to bring up the rear and after all of these provisions have come before David, and she's going to bring an appeal to him in a way that is going to be just perfect. We'll see it. It goes on to say, and this is the very end of verse 19. “But she did not tell her husband Nabal.” I wouldn’t have either. “20 And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.” Now, keep in mind, all the provisions have gotten there before her, so they're already wondering, what's this all about? Because Nabal spurned us. And yet all these things are coming up without explanation. Right? So now she finally meets them. And we're told now, in verse 21 and 22, what David had been saying before this meeting took place. So we're going back in time with just these two verses. And it says, “Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.”” And here's what David says, “22 God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.” Stop there. Like I told you, this is not David's shining moment, but you'll notice here in, in David's little talk that he's been having with his guys, David now is taking his turn to play the I, my game, just a little bit, right? And Nabal has successfully done something. He's drawn David down to his own level. And that's often what happens, when we allow anger to rise up in our hearts. David, it's funny. We've been tracking about 10 years of David's life. Obviously, there's big chunks that we're not told about. How would you say he's been doing against Saul up to this point? Wouldn't you say he's been doing incredible? Saul has given him how many opportunities and reasons to well up with anger, and bitterness, and rage, and vengeance. And already once, Saul was literally given into David's hands. He could have done with him whatever he wanted. Remember, we dealt with it last Wednesday when Saul went into a cave to go to the bathroom. And David and his men were hiding in the back of the cave. And even David's men came to him and said, this is it. This is it. This is the chance. God has done this, David. Remember? David could have killed Saul right there, but he didn't. And we're all blown away. We think about ourselves in similar circumstances if we can possibly even imagine it. And we think, wow, that's pretty incredible. David has just done famously with this whole thing. And we consider it an example. But look at this. Look at this. One man, one man who acts like a fool and David decides that he's not just going to bring vengeance upon Nabal. Did you hear what he said he’s going to do? He's going to kill every man in his home. And that would include servants you name. It doesn't have to be relatives. He basically is saying, every male I find in his home, I'm going to slaughter them. He's going to kill them. And so like I said what Nabal has managed to do Is to bring David down to his level and, largely that's what anger does. Pastor Damien Kyle said, and I love this quote, he says, “I've never known anger in my life to raise me above the level of the person that is making me angry.” Never had that happen once where my anger raised me above the level of the person to whom I was angry. It always brings you down to that level. And now, David is ready to destroy an entire family because of one fool. Let's see what happens. “23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant.” Did you see how Abigail came at this situation? Do you recognize the importance of what she is doing versus what she's not doing? She doesn't get off her donkey with some sort of an attitude of superiority or corrective sort of thing. Like, hey, Buster, where do you think you're going? Or don't you think this is a little hasty, David? She could have probably done that, but remember, Abigail is a very smart lady. And again, you're going to hear things in this speech that she makes to David that I think we all can learn from. But it says that she literally falls at his feet and the first thing she says is, let it be on me. Let the guilt be on me. Now remember, she's a beautiful woman and she certainly knows it, but she falls down… And David was going to kill all the men, but he wasn't going to kill any of the ladies. And yet this beautiful woman falls at his feet and says, if you're going to exact vengeance against the family, let it be upon me. Well, that immediately, you know what that's going to do. That's immediately going to take the air out of his tires on this whole score. She says, let it be on me, let it rest on me. So what she's doing is she's standing in the gap. She's literally laying herself down, sacrificially. Go ahead and take my life. If you're going to kill somebody, kill me. It's essentially what she's saying. But she quickly adds to that, but hear my words. Let me speak to you, right? “Please let your servant speak…” Verse 25. “Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. (in other words, his name is fool, and he acts it out to the T. She says) But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26 Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, because the LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.” Stop there for just a moment. This is very interesting. Now this is the smart lady doing her incredible stuff. She says to David, did you notice that she speaks to him about how, now that the Lord has restrained you, has David said anything about not going through with what he was going to do? She's speaking to him as if he has already made a determination in his heart to change course. Oh, this is a smart, ladies take note. I'm serious. To go to a man who is determined, and yet to go with wisdom to the contrary of his path, and to go to him, and to speak in these sorts of ways, this is absolutely masterful. And she begins to say, now that the Lord has restrained you from going on this reckless path that you're on. Reckless. Yeah, yeah, I guess it was a little reckless. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, I'm listening to what she has to say here, and so forth. And she says, now then let your enemies and all who seek to come against you be like Nabal. Verse 27. “And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.” What an interesting statement this is in verse 27. She is saying, because remember all of her young men came before her with all this bread, and all this food, and wine, and stuff like that. And she says to him, let these be given to your young men. What is she saying here? She's essentially saying, listen David, I'm not trying to buy you off. She didn't say this stuff is for you. She said, let this be given to your young men. I know that they took care of us and I know that, and I came to do right, but please don't think that in any way, shape, or form, I'm trying to buy you off with this situation. Because I understand that you have been wronged, and I understand that you've been offended by my husband, and I am not trying to stuff a few dollar bills into your hand to pacify you and to say, okay, there, you've been paid off, now go away. I know that what has happened is more serious than that and just some loaves of bread, and skins of wine, and fig things, fig newtons, aren't going to, take care of the issue, right? She's expressing to him the seriousness of the problem and at the same time saying, I understand that this is not going to take care of the issue right here. I'm not trying to pay you off. She goes on here, verse 28.

I tell you if what she has said up to this point has not said anything, verse 28 should have sealed the deal. Because what she says here in verse 28 is, first of all, please forgive. David knows what it is to forgive and to be forgiven. And to go to someone in humility and say, please forgive your servant. Remember, she has already taken all the responsibility of this thing onto herself. She said, if you're going to kill somebody, kill me. But then she says, please forgive. When you're dealing with somebody who is operating under a head of steam like David is doing. He's a very passionate man. His passions can certainly work for him and they can certainly work against him. We saw, here's one example where his passions are working against him. We'll have a story later on that involves a woman by the name of Bathsheba, where it certainly worked against him. Otherwise his passions often worked for him because he was very passionate about God. But in a situation like this where he has this emotional head of steam built up and he's been… And his guys are certainly along with him. They're in agreement with him Let's go get this Nabal character sort of a guy. And this woman comes along and says listen, if you're going to kill somebody kill me, but I beg of you, please forgive, please forgive. Now remember, she has nothing for which to from which to be forgiven. How many times do you and I think about that and we think well, what do I have to be forgiven for? If somebody even suggests, well, why don't you call him up and ask him to forgive you? Well, why? I didn't do anything wrong. Where's that attitude really get you? It doesn't get you anywhere. Abigail is so smart, and she understands that in order to diffuse this very sensitive situation, she's got to come to this man, and appeal to his greater sense. And look at what she says to him after, please forgive the trespass of your servant. She says, you know what? Because the Lord is going to make you a sure house. In other words, what she's saying is, God is going to establish your home. You will be king over Israel. And she says, because I know that “my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD.” Let me ask you a question. Is he fighting the battles of the Lord right now? What's he doing? He's exacting vengeance on his own, isn't he? He is being tempted to fix his own problems. He's been doing so good up to this point. Saul has been just absolutely just harassing him for all these years. And he keeps saying, you know what, I'm not going to take Saul's life, I'm not going to do it. He'll either die in battle, he'll die of a disease, or whatever. It's God's business. I'm not going to take this matter into my own hands. Although he was sorely tempted to do so. But now, when the situation with Nabal comes up, he absolutely caves, and he's literally running to go and take this matter into his own hands. That's what the temptation is all about, and that's what I wanted to convey to you. It's interesting. David, as I said, has been doing so well. But temptation is one of those things that can just come out of nowhere. And right about the time you

--- and I think that maybe we're doing okay, and maybe this temptation isn't controlling me as much as I thought it was, all of a sudden, boom, comes your Nabal, and does something that is absolutely just riles you. And I mean just, you know what I'm saying? Just absolutely just, bleurgh! And you just, and you flesh out. You just give in to the thing, just like David. Strap on your swords, boys, it's payback day. And you're riding to Nabal's house, and you're just going to have a day of the flesh. And here, and he's been doing so good. And so Abigail comes along in her incredible wisdom, and says to him, I know that you have been fighting the battles of the Lord. But what she is saying, but is not coming out in words, is, this isn't one. And you and I both know it, David. This is not a battle of the Lord. This is David's battle. You're good to do to fight the battles of the Lord, but this is not a battle of the Lord. This is David's battle and better than to take the sword in your hand to fight your own fights, because is not, does not the battle belong to the Lord. And are you not to trust the Lord in the battles of life? And every time we've seen David come up against the situation, hasn't he always inquired of the Lord? Do we read of him inquiring of the Lord here? God, should I go down and kill all the guys in Nabal's house? No, I'm not going to ask that because I'm pretty sure God would say no. And I don't want to hear that today because I've got a head of steam and I just, I'm ready to blow off. And then look at the end of verse 28 after she says, I know “my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD,…” And she says, and I know something else about you, David. I know that “evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.” And what she's saying without saying it again, this is just this beautiful wisdom and discernment of this lady. She is telling him in no uncertain terms, the path you are on is evil. This is evil, and I know it, and you know it. And you know this is not what you should be doing. And so I want you to turn from this. Verse 29, she says, “If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, (like Saul's been doing, and she'll even make reference to that) the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the LORD your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.” This is great! Are you taking notes? She says, listen, I know that your life is bound up in the goodness of God, and the protection and the providence of the Lord almighty. And what she's saying without saying it is, you don't have to fight your own battles David, because God fights for you. ---

And I know that your life is bound up in the Lord and He is going to come against your enemies. He will sling them out as from the hollow of a sling. Oh, what does that remind me of? David and Goliath. What a lady. David, I'm not going to say to you… And she could have said this, she could have said, David, remember the lesson of Goliath? Come on! But that wouldn't have been respectful, would it? And that would have only made him madder. She says, I know that the Lord takes care of you and he will cast your enemies away like a stone coming out of a sling. Oh man, is this man busted or what? Right? “30 And when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, (she’s like, you know what, I know that it’s happening) 31 my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. (look at that, for my lord working salvation himself.) And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.” In this last verse 31, she says, I know that when you're king, because you've been restrained this day, you aren't going to have to think back on that time that you walked in hot anger into the house of Nabal, and you murdered every one of the males in his house. Even though it was just one man, one fool who upset you and offended you. And I know that you're not going to have to labor under that tremendous load of guilt. Again, there's always two ways to say things, isn't there? She could have said, David, you want to be guilty all your life? Is that what you want? You want to live under this young man? Oh, she wouldn't have said young man. I pray were probably about the same age, but you know what I'm saying? It's like that look down on you sort of an attitude. And we can do that, can't we? We can talk to people that way and we can say things to them that demean them, and make them small, and beat them down. But she's not doing that. She's in wisdom and discernment speaking of the positive elements of this thing, and saying, David, aren't you glad that you're being restrained this day so that you won't have to deal with the blood guilt of this situation. And you know that when you become king, you won't have to look back on this and say, well, there was that one time I worked deliverance on my own.

It's not a good thing for you and I to work deliverance on our own. It's just not a good thing. We do it all the time, but it's not a good thing. It's a very, very bad habit to get into, but we do it. We get into trouble. We try to get ourselves out of trouble. We work our own deliverance rather than going to the Lord. Rather than saying Father… And here's what people will say to me sometimes, I feel guilty going to God and asking me to help or asking to help me because I got myself into this. Seriously. Did you think there was ever a time God got you into trouble? Didn't you always pretty much get yourself into trouble? Even if it's from someone that you knew, and because of that connection, you got into trouble. Doesn't matter. You think God's sitting around, with that a petty attitude, you got yourself into this. You're just going to have to get yourself out. You think He's really talking like that to His children? It's ridiculous. God doesn't treat his children that way. He is so desirous for you and I to come to Him and just confess our situation and say, Father, I need help. I need help getting out of this thing. And I totally got myself into this and I cannot deliver myself. I could try, but you know what? That's not going to help. It's probably only going to make it worse. And if I get any a temporary reprieve, all I will have done in the end is started a habitual behavior of fixing it myself. And some of you are locked into a habitual behavior of fixing your own problems. You're in your own mode of self-deliverance. You get yourself in a problem, you get yourself out. And that's a real dangerous thing and you need to… Some of you hear me saying this right now and you're not even aware of the areas where you've tried to self-deliver. You're not even aware of them. It's so second nature to you. You think of it as responsibility or something like that. And God looks upon it and says, you're just fixing it yourself. You're fixing it in your own strength, sort of a thing. Okay. Abigail is doing this masterful job of advising David without acting like an advisor. Speaking to him of all the positive aspects of choosing the right path without telling him to choose the right path. What she's doing is she's drawing David, and this is important you guys, she is drawing David back to an eternal perspective. Do you understand that? He has been totally focused on the here and the now. I'm getting Nabal. But he has lost sight of what the effect of his actions are going to do in the long term and in the larger scope of his relationship with God. Right?

He's been maintaining that perspective when it comes to Saul, but with Nabal, lost. Just absolutely lost. So she's drawing him back to lifting his eyes off Nabal. Isn't that what the New Testament tells you and I to do? We're told not to fix our eyes on things below, but on things above. (Colossians 3:2) That's where we're to keep our perspective, because that's what gives us perspective. And it says in verse 32, here's David's response. “And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!” I want you to stop there for just a minute, and I want to encourage all of the men in this room, and within the sound of my voice, to just meditate on that statement for just a few minutes. Because you know what? This is the sign of a godly man. This is the sign of a humble man. This is the sign of a man who is able to be broken before the Lord, even by a woman. When I, and don't get me wrong when I say even by a woman, I'm talking about the context of when this was spoken. This was spoken in a day and age when women were just above personal property and for a woman to address a man like Abigail has done was unheard of. And especially a man who's angry and on the war path against her husband. Most of the men who Abigail would have confronted would have said, woman, stand to the side or lest you die along with your husband because I am, will not be stopped. But I want you guys particularly to see the response of David here because this is the thing I love about David. And people, this is what makes David a man after God's own heart. When Saul is confronted, he hardens his heart. When David is confronted with his sin, he breaks his heart. And that's exactly what God's looking for out of us. A broken and contrite spirit God will not, despise, the Word says. (Psalm 51:17) So, I can't say this enough. But I want you to notice too in verse 32 that David does something else here. He recognizes that Abigail has been sent by God. He recognizes that Abigail has been the advisor of the Lord because he says, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you…” This is a man who is responding to a woman, but responding to her in such a way as to say, God sent you to me, lady. I've never met you before today, but God sent you to me. How much more should a man listen to his wife? I think when a man cultivates, when a husband cultivates a relationship with his wife as advisor. I think that a woman grows in grace and discernment. And, it's unfortunately too often we, guys, let's just admit it, we can shut our wives down, when they are coming with the wisdom and the and the counsel of the Lord. And we have to be so careful about that. So careful. I got to finish this up here. Verse 33, “Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working (oh this is good, working) salvation with my own hand!” That is the key of the passage right there, you guys. It was the temptation to work salvation on my own. Okay. “34 For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.” 36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.” Yeah, she waited until he was good and hungover. Like I said, she's a smart lady. “37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, (and all of the joy and happiness and stuff that, artificially came with it) his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.” And that is a picture of his life and his attitude toward the things of the Lord. He was a hard hearted, stone faced, cruel rock of a man. And his final physical condition was a picture of that. And it says, “38 And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.” It sounds like a stroke to me. But what here's what's interesting, here he was getting all liquored up. I mean, all just blasted and he had absolutely no idea David was on his way with 400 men to wipe out his home. He had no idea. Had it not been for his wife, he would have died earlier. Wow! And Nabal then for you and I is also a picture, an interesting picture of the person who rejects God and yet is completely unaware of the coming judgment, judgement is coming. “39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.” Like I said, David is no dummy either. “40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41 And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.” And then the chapter ends with David doing another dumb thing. It says, “43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. (that was the dumb part) 44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.” That's where it ends. Before we close, I want to show one verse to you on the screen. James 1, verse 20.

…the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. That is a great verse to remember as, in conjunction with this study because David got good man, but it wasn't the righteousness of God that he was portraying in that anger. It was simply David's own emotional fervor and his own personal offense. But I want to convey to you once again, the whole idea that temptation. We think of temptation as temptation to do this or to do that. We don't often think about the temptation that life brings us to fix our own problems. The temptation to step out and say, oh, I'm in trouble. I got to do something about this. Rather than say, Lord, what would You have me do? Lord, I need You. I need You to deliver me. I need Your grace. I need Your power. I need to trust in You to take care of the situation. Let's face it. We don't do it because we don't trust Him. If we really truly trusted Him, we would. We'd put those things in His hands, so the Lord teach me to trust.