40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 1 Samuel 25:1-31 (Episode 251)

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

David provides protection to a foolish man's flocks without being asked. The fool isn't interested in rewarding David for this unrequested service, putting everyone who pees standing up in danger. But a woman named Abigail asks quickly to stop bloodshed. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network HWSS Northwest Arkansas 1517 YouTube

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that we've got over there. And while you're over there, make sure that you check out the Northwest Arkansas Regional Event, April 16th and 17th. It's $65 for a two-day event. Chad will be there. I'll be there.

A whole bunch of other people will be there. If you are able, we would love to see you. There's a link in the show notes that you can click on to see that as well. Chad, we are in 1 Samuel chapter 25 today. Yeah, I was mentioning before we started, this is a chapter that's full of drama. It was a lot of fun to work my way through it. I learned a few things along the way, so it's going to be a pretty cool story to cover. It's kind of a strange story, only because it's sandwiched between two accounts of David and Saul, so it's just kind of seemingly thrown in there. and some people say, well, it's placed here because, of course, David ends up marrying the

woman who's the subject of this chapter, or it's placed here because this happens while David is in the wilderness on the run from Saul, all of which is true. But I think another reason that we have chapter 25 between the two stories about David and Saul is because the bad character in this chapter, Nabal, or Nabal, however you want to say his name, is kind of a, he's a Saul-like character. Let me put it that way. His personality, and not just personality, but some of the things he says, and the way that he treats David, and even David's initial deference to him, all seem to be very much like Saul. So I think that's another reason that we have a pretty long chapter actually uh devoted to this guy that we've never really heard about before just kind of

jumps into the jumps into the narrative i think sometimes the if you if you look at the way that the story is going sometimes there's uh they give you a little break just to have a break in the because otherwise you'd have like this david spare saw david spare saw like back to back to back and And I think it's a good move to make you look at something else before going and looking at something that's very similar to what you just looked at. Yeah, yeah, that is true. It's kind of one of those meanwhile back at the farm kind of stories. Yeah, that is true. Another thing I like about it, just apart from the whole narrative side of how it functions, is it does reveal a different side of David.

In many ways, it's almost a prophetic glimpse into who David could become if he's not careful, if you know what I mean. Because we'll see at one point he reacts or is about to react very much in anger. In fact, he's going to act almost like Saul does. so you have this you have this glimpse into a side of david that we really haven't seen before and how he can he can uh react to just kind of without giving thought to what the repercussions of his actions are going are going to be so you know we've we've kind of had this one-sided picture of david so far we meet him when he's uh he's a just a young shepherd and the next next thing you know he's out on the field killing goliath showing this

courage and then the next thing you know he's just all of a sudden the leader of all of saul's forces and then while saul chases him he's he's always wanting to be on the side of innocence and righteousness so we've we've really kind of seen one side of david this narrative is going to reveal a different side of david which as he becomes king later on and then we get into second samuel we'll see that that side of david is still there and uh just kind of waiting for an opportunity to present itself yeah i think that is you kind of realize that we don't know that much about david at this point other than uh he kills philistines really well and he runs from saul really well Saul hates his guts. There's not a lot of parts of the story so far that reveal anything other

than those things about David, right? I mean, he breaks on the scene with Samuel anointing him king, and then immediately we're giant slain. And then from that point on, like you said, It's just like this rise in military status, and then you have Saul's suspicion, and now he's running from Saul and that kind of stuff. But there's not like some story in there about where David is doing something. We haven't seen him engage with very many people. We don't even really know how he does engage with people. The only people he engages with are Philistines to kill him and Saul. And the most human sort of regular interactions we see him have has been with Jonathan, but those have been pretty brief.

And so I think stories like this sort of paint a fuller picture for you when you're dealing with someone like David, as opposed to just a highlight reel of victories and crazy situations where he's in caves and Saul's in there and that kind of stuff. yeah yeah yeah so for all those reasons i think it's a it's a good chapter it's a good chapter of study of course but also kind of a chapter to to tuck away in the pocket of your memory as it were to think oh yeah remember that remember that side of that side of david from back in in first name of 25 so let's get into it before we actually get into the the story proper there is there's a one verse announcement about the the death of samuel that's the way the chapter starts and it really is. It's just one verse. It says, Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together

and mourned for him and buried him at his house in Ramah. So not really anything else has told us about that. There's nothing really else to say about that. We've heard plenty about Samuel up to really the last couple of chapters. So we know about him and his youth. We know about who he became, and now we hear about his death. We will have one more very weird encounter with Samuel uh much much later on we'll uh we'll get to that a few chapters then the verse concludes by saying david arose and went down to the wilderness of haran and this is where we re-enter this this episode in david's life we're first of all introduced to one of the main characters of this chapter but the funny thing is just as far as the way he is introduced is we're not told his

name until after we're told about all his possessions, which when you read the rest of the story is quite purposeful. The way it starts out is by describing basically where he lives and how much money he had. There was a man in Ma'on whose business was in Carmel. Now Ma'on is west of the Dead Sea. And Carmel is in that same area. So this is not Mount Carmel, the one that's a mountain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This is a different place. So don't get those two confused. This is south, south of Jerusalem, and just a little ways to the west of the Dead Sea. We'll get to Mount Carmel in good time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we will. We will get there another another story for another day we're told that this guy was very rich and he was rich

in livestock primarily he had 3 000 sheep and a thousand goats that's a that's a lot of livestock so the reason we're introduced to him in this sort of way the reason we're told he is wealthy is because we will it's his his stinginess with his wealth that's going to become part of part of the story but that's the way that's why he's introduced the way he is and we're also told that he was shearing his sheep in in carmel evidently sheep shearing was a time for parties uh we know some from other biblical narratives that when you sheared your sheep it was just a time of course you were working but also it's kind of like a harvest you know it's it's also time for rejoicing for for for partying because of the the gifts that god has given so in this case it's sheep

instead of agriculture and they're shearing their sheep and they're going to be having this feast in which they rejoice over god's god's bounty to them so all of that is is is presented first it's it's fronted in the narrative and only after that do we hear anything about who this guy is and anything else about his character and his and his wife so verse three says the guy's name was was nabal and his wife's name was abigail and then we have a description of the two of them and It's pretty hard to imagine a more opposing description of two people. The woman, well, she was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, and the man was harsh and evil in his dealings.

And then we have one more phrase. It says he was a Calebite. So a couple things about this. first of all, it's a little bit ambiguous as to how we should understand this guy's name. So in Hebrew, it would be pronounced Naval, and Naval is the exact same word that's used throughout the biblical narrative for fool. So a fool is a Naval. Now, some people think maybe this was a nickname that was given to him, that his real name was something else, and this just happens to be the nickname that the biblical narrative chooses to describe him. Other people

think that Naval is maybe based upon a different Hebrew root that means something positive instead of fool, because it's kind of hard to imagine. I mean, it'd be like a mom and dad having a baby boy these days and naming him stupid. I mean, no, who would do that? But we're, so we're not exactly sure. Is it a nickname? Is it a Hebrew root that has some positive meaning, but whatever, whatever the situation might be it is for sure that this guy's name uh is paralleled with fool and and rightly so because he will act very foolishly perhaps this is just uh god being merciful as he inspires the scriptures to be written and uh he will he will give this man a different name and spare him the shame of being a fool so he will just call him fool so that he

for all of for all of history his name is not uh associated with this and we'll just call you something different yeah maybe so maybe that's what's going on uh so we we're we're told about his personality and then we're told of course about his wife and both of these descriptions are of course uh a very obvious foreshadowing of what's going to happen later i mean anytime you're introduced to someone in this sort of way you know oh okay we know where this story we know where this story is going. It's going to go well for the woman, and it's not going to go well for the man. So you don't even need to know what happens to know what, in essence, is going to happen as it goes on. You probably need someone to intervene in such a story. That's how these

things are usually written. Right, right. By the way, fun little fact about Calebites. So So we know Caleb, of course, from back in the book of Joshua, one of the heroes of that time, one of the few heroes of that time, good guy. Now, this fellow was evidently a descendant of Caleb's line, but there may even be kind of a play on words here because Calebite can also in Hebrew mean dog-like, which we love our dogs today. but in the old testament dogs had a very bad reputation so uh it's not not a good thing to be dog-like in the uh in the old testament so anyway what maybe that's a pun on a pun on his name well what's the situation why are we why are we told about these people well david's in the wilderness and he and he hears about this sheep shearing that nabal is engaged in so he takes advantage of the opportunity to send some of his uh some of his soldiers to nabal basically in order

to kind of pay up. We'll find out about the situation as we read on. So David picks out 10 guys and says to them, here's what I want you to do. Go up to Carmel and visit Nabal and greet him in my name, and this is what you're to say to him. Have a long life. Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. So peace, peace, peace. And then he goes on. Now I've heard that you have shearers, and your shepherds have been with us, and we have not insulted them, haven't abused them, nor have they missed anything all the days that they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let my 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. So this seems to be the situation that David and his men have been out in the wilderness. Of course, there's a bunch of them. There's 600 of them. So David's got quite the crew. And they find these shepherds, these shepherds who happen to work for this rich guy.

And they more or less just kind of, you know, keep an eye out. They make sure that, you know, nobody's mistreating them. Nobody's stealing into their sheep. Nobody's doing any kind of harm to them. So they've just sort of volunteered to be their protectors while these guys are out in the wilderness. Now, was this done from completely selfless reasons? Probably not, because, you know, David is pretty shrewd. He's probably thinking, yeah, you know, if I keep an eye on these shepherds and maybe I can ask for something in return from the guy that they work for.

Which exactly, of course, is what's going on here. David knows they're having this huge party. He knows Nabal is rich and he probably realizes that his men are hungry, if not getting hangry at this point, because it's a lot of mouths to feed. So he sends this delegation with, you know, I think a very diplomatic, a very kind request, more or less. hey, you know, we know that you're having this party. We've been doing good for you. So, you know, whatever seems right to you, then please do that to us.

You know, they don't come demanding, hey, we want you to give us 10 donkeys full of supplies. They just say, whatever you find at hand to give to your servants, please give it. That's my reading of it. Yeah, David's an interesting mind. because this this seems like if i'm looking at it from uh one vantage point from the ball's vantage point i would be like well i didn't ask you to do this

it'd be like if i like was having a party and some people showed up they're like hey man uh we've been uh out here and we made sure that no one touched any of your cars So we didn't scratch them. We didn't steal them. I mean, we could have took your cars. We have a lot of guys here. But we didn't. Instead, what we did is we made sure that nobody messed with your stuff.

So, you know, if you got anything for us, that would be great. This is an awkward situation to be in. It is very awkward. Because you're providing a service that I didn't think I needed or else i would have i would have taken care of it but then you're also not really demanding anything you're you're just sort of stating this is this is the case but it does seem like sort of implied in there as well is hey we're good guys uh you know that not because like we really helped you in this like way because obviously you don't think you need this particular help but i think i

think implied in there is that we could have been bad guys yeah it does something different right Definitely, definitely. I think it's implied in sort of this triple peace, right? Peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have. And there will continue to be peace as long as you respect our request. I don't know if it's too strong to call it a veiled threat, but there certainly is a hint of that kind of tone to this particular language. So, yeah, I mean, it kind of depends on whose perspective you look at it from. I mean, if you're looking at it from from from Nabal's perspective, he might think, well, we're going to hear his perspective very shortly. He's thinking, listen, I don't I don't care who you are. I didn't ask you to do this. I'm not giving you anything. if you look at it from the perspective of the shepherds and we will hear their perspective in a minute they're like our boss is an idiot these guys were like a wall of protection to us the whole time we were out there so they're like of course you should give david and his men what they need yeah and could have been a wall of something else yeah i mean they could have

there's 600 guys if they wanted to butcher two or three sheep every night they didn't have to ask they didn't have to ask you know what are the shepherds going to say no uh so you have david's perspective you get the shepherd's perspective you got navel's perspective and of course it is a little bit like uh walking into mcdonald's like cleaning all the tables and asking for a paycheck yeah yeah yeah so some commentators have likened this to like you know protection money this is the mafia showing up hey we've got your back here i work here now i work here now so so pay up well anyway what well let's see what happens they uh david jungman verse nine david jungman they they came and they uh they delivered the message more or less uh according to all these words in

david's name that's repeated so david wants to make sure he knows these aren't just like 10 guys showing up they are the delegation sent from sent from david and then i love the uh there's there's a three-word phrase at the end of in the verse nine and they wait then they waited i don't know if that's uh in the esv or not yeah it's almost like there's a there's a gap i'm like i don't know any other reason why the biblical narrative would have included that phrase then they waited unless it was like they gave their speech and then this kind of standing there there's like a pregnant tension yes right right like there's a there's this pause like they give their speech and you just kind of see the scene they're standing there navel's listening they

give their speech and he doesn't respond so they're like okay it's what what's happening so then they wait and then the speech oh my goodness the speech wow you you you almost find out everything you need to know about this guy from these two or three verses i love the way he starts out he answered and said who is david and who is the son of jesse and then he has this insult there he's already insulted but goes on There are many servants today who are breaking away from their master. And then verse 11. Verse 11 is impressive only because within a span of one verse,

Nabal manages to include not three or four, but eight first-person pronouns. So I, I, I, my, my, my. This is a, if there is, if there ever is an ego verse in the Bible, this is it. Verse 11, he goes on, he says, shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and I give it to the men whose origin I do not know. So in the Hebrew, there are eight my's or I's there. so this guy is well needless to say all about himself listen this is my stuff i i own it and i'm not going to be just giving my stuff to these guys i don't know where they came from so yeah i think no yeah i think it's kind of a important to point out that he is most likely

lying here uh because first of all he says who is david david is not somebody at this point that people don't know about if you're some rich powerful guy it's it's very unlikely that you haven't heard of david and he does know who david is because he says who is david who is the son of jesse the son of jesse is not part of the speech right yeah yeah he obviously knows who this guy is they didn't say give whatever you have to your son david the son of jesse this is not part of the so not only does he know who david is he knows who his dad is i mean he like he knows his he knows his lineage so he does know who that is and uh this sort of uh and the esv uh i do like the way it says it that as he goes through this i thing it says you know i shall i take my bread

and my water and my meat that i have killed for my shears and give it to men who come from i don't know where yeah which is actually the literal hebrew there come from i don't know where yeah so uh and isn't there something to apply to this is that there are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters basically implying that he knows that day like he's like david's on the run from his king oh yeah yeah absolutely yeah it's a not so subtle reference to the fact that oh yeah david you know the one yeah that one that broke away from his master who's rebelled against the king yes yeah that's uh that's a not so uh not so subtle reference to to david's situation so he well it seems like what is happening here is david's

meant to show up be like hey we've been giving you to your shepherds this protection you didn't ask for you may have to give it to them could have just taken what we wanted and uh but we didn't so you know whatever you could spare it'd be great it seems that he's coming back with look how about i just report you to saul right this is true like a lot of other people were doing yeah i I mean, there's this sort of, you know, if there's a little bit of, like, strong arming by David being like, you know, be cool if you acted cool, man, because, you know, we did act, we treated you right out there. He's saying, like, yeah, don't come in with, like, a veiled threat or anything, because I know, I actually do know who you are, and I do also know that someone's looking for you. Yeah, exactly. So that's his speech.

Let's see what David's reaction is going to be. Well, the delegation, they go back and they report to David everything that Nabal said to them. And David's response is instantaneous and violent. He says to his men, each of you put on your sword. So each man put on his sword and David put on his sword and about 400 men went up behind David while 200 stayed with the baggage. so you don't you don't need to know exactly what the plan is of david when you have three it's kind of a cool thing here too so david said peace peace peace three times uh and uh in the speech that he gave to his men to repeat and now we have a threefold reference to sword so we go from peace

peace peace to sword sword sword it seems that one of two things or both are happening here one that this request was not just a hey if you want to give us something cool if you don't that's cool that there was this not so veiled you need to give us something we had 600 dudes out here there's either that because this response is quick like that david feels like okay well i guess there's not going to be peace then because uh we'll we'll have to do it we'll do it the hard way there's that or is this or this or in it or this as well that this sort of the statement by nabal that hey a lot of servants have left their masters uh basically like i'm about i'm about to sell you out like i'm about to tell i'm about to tell your location is that so i tend to think

this is not uh oh it's one of those things but it's both of those things that david's plan probably always was look if this guy is going to act uh like a fool then we'll just we gotta go we got i got i got 600 mouths to feed here so i'm trying not to go do it this way and then this other not so veiled threat on top of it makes it be like okay we're everyone's strapped on a sword we're doing this right now yeah yeah i think yeah i think you're right it's a it's both i mean he's reacting he's gonna take what he wants but also he realizes that this guy could very well turn him over to Saul. Yeah. And this also tells you that I think that David doesn't quite believe that him and Saul are just fine, even though we left them and it seemed like things were like

getting better. But I don't think David knows Saul well enough to know that he shouldn't put too much faith in that change of disposition that he temporarily saw. Right. Yeah. There's there's very little trust that's lost between those two. So now we're introduced to the actions of Abigail, verse 14. One of the young men goes and tells Abigail what happened. They say, look, 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 that we were with them tending the sheep. So we have, yeah, this semester basically saying, hey, you

know, David's a good guy. And they did good things for us while we were out there. And then he has verse 17. Nobody likes Nabal. Verse 17, he goes on. Now, therefore, no one consider what you should do for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak can speak to him this worthless man translation by the way we've seen it before this is the son of baliel that we encountered multiple times so far this guy's a everybody knows he's such a he's such a son of baliel that nobody can have any kind of discussion with him uh so the servants don't like their master they know he's a worthless guy and They're extremely concerned, as well they should be, because they realize that this refusal on Nabal's part to help David is going to do nothing but bring about a massacre when David shows up with his men.

So this is the report, and now we're going to hear how Abigail responds to this. This chapter could be entitled, How a Wise Woman Stopped an Angry Man from Doing a Stupid Thing. Yeah, and then in parentheses it can say, Always have a crap ton of bread on hand. Yeah, right. yeah she's gonna she's gonna make sure these these angry guys who are probably also hungry are going to be pacified in more than one way there's a lot of bread there's a lot of bread

a lot of bread so she hurried and took 200 loaves of bread i get you know i suppose they were getting ready for this big feast at the sheep shearing time so they take she's she's grabbing the bread uh two jugs of wine smart lady you know get some get some alcohol in there as well five sheep who had already been prepared so you know maybe they're they're roasted or whatever and then uh five measures of roasted grain and then a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and loaded them on donkeys that that's that's a lot of donkeys that's a lot of food that's a lot of food that's a if that's all the food uh you were getting ready for a huge party yeah like if that's not i mean i don't know if that's all of it or just part of it but

just part of it yeah that's a lot of that's a lot of food to have on hand for a party yeah yeah so she's she's raiding the pantry she's loading the donkeys she's getting uh she's getting ready for uh for quite a gift that she's going to give to david and to his men she says in verse 19 to her to the young man her servants go on before me and i'm coming after you and then we have this loaded phrase verse 19 but she did not tell her husband navel so she's you know again a wise woman same same phrase by the way that she used earlier chapter 14 when jonathan did not tell his father saul what he was engaged in when he was about to do that uh that heroic attack upon the philistine garrison he didn't tell his dad what he was about to do and here naomi does not

tell her husband what she's about to do. So she sends the young men ahead, and she comes riding on her donkey, coming down on one side of the mountain, the hidden side of the mountain, and then David and his men were coming toward her. So it's kind of, they're converging on this mountain side when she meets them. And before this, this is sort of a back speech. So this, David isn't saying this like right at this moment so david had said so earlier presumably this is a speech maybe he gave after they he told his men to strap their swords on their thighs 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 or repaid 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. A couple things of interest here in the Hebrew. At the end of verse 21, this returning evil for good, repaying evil for good, I checked, and that same, well, the first time it occurs is in Genesis chapter 44. But David, in three of his psalms, uses that same expression. So Psalm 35, 12, 38, 21 and 105.9, that same expression is used in those Davidic Psalms to describe how his enemies have treated him. So I'm thinking this is probably a favorite expression of David's, and he includes it here in this prose narrative. Secondly, and somewhat comically, it says, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him. Hebrew has a strange expression. Perhaps

you, if you grew up with a KJV or the King James version, maybe you're familiar with this. I think the King James translated this at one who pisses against a wall. Yeah. Yeah. So in fact, my English translation, the New American Standard has that as a footnote. I think this, you know, almost vulgar expression is included here because I checked, I think it occurs five or six times. It's all in the books of Samuel and Kings, and every single occurrence is in a situation kind of like this, like when you're pronouncing a curse or a threat of destruction on some group, and it says that every male will perish, every single time that same expression is used to describe it.

So it's sort of a pejorative way of referring to men. You're saying everybody who pees standing up. Yeah, everybody who pees standing up is going to be cut down, more or less. But it's not like, in other words, it's not an expression you probably use in everyday speech. It's something you use when you're threatening to basically mow down all the men of a place. You're the Hebrew scholar here, Chad. But it does seem like the implication is that you would pee standing up, but you are going to be cut down. And it's the standing up versus cut down.

There's a contract, and the Hebrew is like that. I mean, Hebrew likes to do that sort of stuff, right? It does, yeah. I think that's what's implied there, yeah. So, oh, you usually stand up? Well, you're not going to be standing up for long. Right. You're going to be laying prone on the ground.

Okay, so that's the speech that David had delivered. Now let's return to Abigail. Abigail sees David. She hurries, gets down from her donkey, falls on her face before David, and bows to the ground. So she's wanting to make it obvious just by her actions. that she has come to beg for his mercy. She falls at his feet and here's her speech.

She says, 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 is his name, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him. but i your maid servant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent now therefore my lord as

the lord lives and as your soul lives since the lord has restrained you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself or saving yourself as another translation by your own hand now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord be as nabal pause there just for for a second And this is a long speech on her part. She's a smart lady. She starts out right away by, as it were, directing David's attention away from her husband and toward herself. So he's probably taken aback at first, like, what do you mean? How could this be your fault?

So she probably throws David off a little bit. She says, her opening words are, on me alone, my Lord, be the blame. Well, of course, David blames Nabal. So he's probably thinking, what does she have to do with this? And then she goes on multiple times to call him Lord, Adon, Adon, Adon. In fact, 18 times in this chapter, that particular word is used for Lord or for master. So she is humbling herself before him, and she's begging him to listen to her. And then she makes this subtle shift.

She's talking about her husband, and she says, don't pay any attention to him. because he's basically living down to his name his name is is folly uh it's not exactly naval in the hebrew it's naval law which is uh folly foolishness it can also mean an outrageous act but she's more or less saying yeah you know that's his name and that's the kind of character that that he has but then she makes this shift in verse 25 she she wants to it's very clever she starts out by, as it were, taking the blame, but then she very quickly wants to make sure that David knows that she's not the same kind of person her husband is. She's like, oh yeah, yeah, my husband, I know he's a fool, but listen, I didn't know that these young men came from you. I had

absolutely no idea that this was going on. So she wants to separate herself from her husband as well. And then she goes on to say that God is more or less working through her to restrain David from bringing blood guilt upon himself. Yeah, I think this is a really wise move. The initial statement of, hey, it's my fault, let the blame be with me, this is a good move because it means that you have a pause because once you say this david now has to listen to what you're about to say because what you just said is reason to give you reason to listen if she just came and rode up and said please don't do this thing uh i will i'll give you food he might just be like too late out of the way we're going in but when you say it's all my fault you're gonna listen to that person

And so it buys her David's ear. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, she's a, I mean, I don't know that we encountered one far that is quite as wise, as clever, as shrewd as Abigail is. I mean, this speech is just, is gold. Let me finish it out

because she goes on for a while. She said, now she refers to the gift, all this food. Now let this gift, which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord please forgive the transgression of your maidservant again she's done nothing wrong but she says please yeah please forgive me for the lord will certainly make good for my lord an enduring house in other words she knows what is in store for david she knows that god is about

to place him on the throne goes on because my lord is fighting the battles of the lord and evil shall not be found in you all your days and then verse 29 has got to be one of the most poetic expressions we have in really in the whole bible should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life then the life of my lord meaning the life of david shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the lord your god but the lives of your enemies he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling. This is such an image. So the bound and the bundle, there's various ways this has been understood, but it seems to be that you have like a little sack or something and you're tying it up, right? You have a bundle of something, whatever it is, maybe it's coins,

maybe it's something else, and you're tying it up. And she's saying, may your life be like that, bound in this bundle of the living with God, which is, you know, an amazing metaphor to use. It's safe, it's tied up, it's bound. Then she makes the contrast. So may your life be like that, but anybody else who's against you, may they be like a stone that's placed in the hollow of a sling that's about to be thrown away from uh from the lord i mean i can't think of a more i feel like she knows who she's talking to yeah exactly yeah there is no doubt in my mind that the story of what david did with goliath is is well known to abigail and she's she's thinking you know what i think the best way that i speak to david is uh is like this i'm gonna i'm gonna draw from his

own life in order to describe what should happen to his enemies. Let me just quickly finish this up because we're out of time. Verse 30 and 31, she says, when the Lord accomplishes for you everything that he's spoken and he makes you ruler over Israel, then I don't want there to be any grief or trouble because of bloodshed that you have done in the past. And then when the Lord has dealt well with you, then remember your maidservant. In other words, I don't want you to do something now that you're going to regret. It's going to, this trail of blood that's going to follow you to the throne. So don't do that. Don't kill every male. Instead, just leave off. And then she throws us in. When you become king, well, remember me as well. Yeah. Which of

course, David, I don't know, maybe, maybe he doesn't have to wait that long to remember, but it seems to me like what she's asking him to do here is she's like my husband he's a fool uh don't be like that this is like this isn't the this is not the wisest thing to do because i mean in truth david's very angry in this situation it does seem that going and killing every male uh in this at this in this house or this party or whatever whatever he's planning to you that that does not seem just uh no no it's a very in fact it's a very saul-like thing to do like all the the priest at knob yeah so this is she's saying look she and she says like i'm trying to save you from blood guilt which is uh is another way of saying that you you will be

guilty of something here this is not a justified action that you're about to undertake and i guess we'll have to wait until next week to see how david responds it's a pretty compelling speech i think uh i think it's as good as someone can do so we'll see if so too we'll see if david what happens the rest of the rest of the chapter yeah we'll see if david heeds the words of abigail or not all right chad i will see you then all right see you then I'll see you next time.