Word of Salvation – Vol.26b No.51 – September 1981
David: Kept From Avenging Himself
Sermon by Rev. D. K. Baird on 1Samuel 25:28–33
Scripture Reading: 1Samuel 25:1-42.
Psalter Hymnal: 115; 379; 105; 424
Often when we think of David we think of that great hero of David and Goliath fame. The young man of impeccable and unwavering faith: “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.” Such inspiring courage! So daring!
He seems rather larger than life when compared to the struggles of our own. Christian existence. Our concern for the Lord’s kingdom doesn’t seem so single minded as was his. Our Christian progress often seems rather stop-and-go. The kids still fight together. As parents we don’t always show the patient firmness we should. In the way we use our time and money we do not always put the kingdom first. Our lives often seemed to be lived out in another world of fairly ordinary half-baked success: a different world to the great characters of the Bible. In this unusual account from 1Samuel 25, however, David appears more as a human being than a hero. David, the Lord’s anointed, went through a torrid time of preparation before he became king. He was a fugitive under pressure, on the run from Saul. At times the pressure was too much, and he made mistakes, which in turn caused distress. Yet in it all the Lord redeemed him from all that distress.
This trying period, when Saul the rejected king tried to kill David because he saw him as a threat to his position, is reflected in a number of the Psalms. David, under pressure, poured out his needs before the Lord. Notice the title, and first verse, of one or two of these psalms:-
Psalm 57: “A Mikhtam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.”
“Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
For my soul takes refuge in Thee;
And in the shadow of Thy wings I will take refuge,
Until destruction passes by.”
Psalm 56: “A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.”
“Be gracious, O God, for man has trampled upon me;
Fighting all day long he oppresses me.”
This was a time of learning to trust the Lord when under pressure; it was a time of waiting for the Lord’s timing to be king. This period lasted for some years, and as an example from this period we see the somewhat strange story of Nabal.
David was living with his men in the wilderness of Paran, south of Judah. This move south may have been made to get farther away from Saul, who could be expected to be more vicious after Samuel’s death. Nabal was a man who lived in the hill country of Judah. He lived in a place called Maon, while his business interests were in Carmel. This Carmel is not Mount Carmel where Elijah later defeated the prophets of Baal, but it is another place in the hill country of Judah. Nabal was rich, with 3000 sheep and 1000 goats, but he was a fool. Hence his name – no doubt his nickname – which means “fool”. Actually Nabal and his wife, Abigail, are quite an interesting and fascinating couple:
“The woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings.” (verse 3)
A man with flocks such as Nabal had would be susceptible to raids from marauding Arabs, Amalekites, or whoever, and it appears David and his men had been protecting those flocks of Nabal’s. David, with all those men, needed to eat, and so his request was quite reasonable:-
“Let my young men find favour in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you find on hand to your servants and to your son David.” (verse 8).
However, Nabal rejected the request out of hand:-
“Who is David? And who is the son of Jesus? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.” (verse 10).
When David was told of Nabal’s response he was very angry, and he even decided to take matters into his own hand. He did not ask for the Lord’s guidance through the priest who was with him; rather he got carried away in his own anger. It might have been understandable, but it was wrong. Sure, he was under pressure. Samuel had anointed him king but where is the kingdom? Here he was on the run – declared an outlaw by Saul. What was happening to the promises of the Lord? He had to find food for his men from somewhere. Understandable, but wrong: his faith faltered, and he started to run ahead of the Lord and his timing. One could also mention other instances from this period where David temporarily faltered in a similar way. Where he did not wait for the Lord: for the Lord’s time and the Lord’s way to be appointed king.
To some extent David was a type of Christ during this period, although not of course in his failures. David as the exile was a picture of Jesus living his life of humiliation on earth.
“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect He became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation.” (Heb.5:8-9).
Christ was a King and more so than David having been anointed with the Spirit at His baptism; having announced Himself that the Kingdom was at hand; but not crowned as King until He ascended into heaven. During the time of his humiliation on earth opposition mounted until finally he was put to death on the cross. The great difference between David and Jesus, the Son of David is that Jesus’ faith did not once falter. He perfectly trusted and obeyed his Father at every point.
The wonderfully encouraging thing in this period – and we can see this in the Psalms of this period too – is that although David did falter a number of times in his faith, the LORD graciously rescued him from the predicaments he got himself into. We too, as we walk the way of the cross in this world, being strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and as we falter in our faith at times, should particularly note this, that the Lord is there upholding and rescuing us from our own predicaments and enabling us to continue on with him. David, at the end of his life, was able to speak of…
“The Lord, who has redeemed my life from all distress”. (1Kings 1:29).
What an encouragement that should be to us! In this account, the Lord used Abigail, Nabal’s wife, to rescue him.
We have already seen that Nabal was a fool, while Abigail was intelligent. Even more, Abigail had the perception of faith, while Nabal was spiritually blind. This man, and his wife, came to totally different conclusions as to who David was. Nabal declared that David was merely a servant who had broken away from his master. Abigail, on the other hand, assessed David to be the Lord’s anointed king.
When she prepared a gift to calm David’s anger, she did so not merely because she was scared that David would wipe everyone out. Rather, as a woman of faith, she recognised David to be the Lord’s new king, and she was concerned that David should not do anything which would have marred his calling as the Lord’s anointed. Thus she said,
“The Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you all your days…..!” And it shall come about when the Lord shall do for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and shall appoint you ruler over Israel, that this 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.” (verses 28,30,31).
With the eye of faith she discerned who David was, just as we need the eye of faith to discern that Jesus of Nazareth is no-one less than the Christ, the Son of God. Through her words of exhortation, she checked David from going through with his hot-headed plan. David came to realise that the Lord had used her to check him:-
“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.” (verses 32-33).
So the Lord preserved His anointed from a stupidity that would have marred his rule as the Lord’s anointed king.
At that time only some recognised David as the Lord’s anointed, as indeed today only some recognise Jesus as the Lord’s anointed Christ. And only some recognise us as the Lord’s anointed children, as we walk the obscure way of the cross in this world. However, we are anointed, being linked to Christ our Saviour and Lord. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, (Question 32):-
“Why are you called a Christian?”
“Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with him over all creation for all eternity.”
Abigail recognised David to be the anointed. We should be recognising each other as those who do share in Christ’s anointing. We are not just friends who have a few things in common. We should regard each other as having this anointing in common, and so, like Abigail, should help each other to consistently confess the name of Christ, and live lives that bring honour to him. How each of us serves the Lord is of concern to all of us. We are to be concerned for the kingdom of God and its manifestation. So we are to help each other in that calling we have received from the Lord.
At times the Lord would send us to each other to say,
“You’ll not only cause yourself much .distress and misery if you do that, but you will mar your Christian growth; you will ruin your usefulness and influence as a Christian, and you will bring shame on the name of the Lord.”
That is the sort of encouragement and admonition we are to bring to each other as part of our concern that the name of the Lord be glorified.
David had been much earlier anointed king. But as time went on he found himself a fugitive cooling his heels in the political wilderness. He must have often been tempted, as year after year passed by, to try to engineer his own rise to power. Sometimes we may think too that if we are ever going to be an elder we had better “start our run” or “open our campaign”. Waiting for the Lord’s leading, and the Lord’s timing can be hard. Even David faltered once or twice. But in the end he proved that the Lord was a God who delivered him from all distress, and who is the God of providence who appoints and raises up in his good time. As his servants, we are to submit ourselves to him.
Did it matter that Nabal, the fool, did not recognise David as the Lord’s anointed king? It did. The Lord himself intervened and brought about Nabal’s death. He, although among the Lord’s people, did not recognise the Lord’s anointed. It would be even worse if any of us did not recognise Jesus of Nazareth to be the Lord’s anointed king. For that would mean at fate worse than Nabal’s.
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36).
“When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.”
That may sound a little harsh, or even a case of, “I told you so!”
However we must remember he is not speaking personally, but as King of the Lord’s kingdom.
He is acknowledging the Lord’s intervention in stopping him taking vengeance, and the Lord’s judgement against Nabal. Let’s remember again what the Lord Jesus said, “He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Amen.