Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Wise Woman | David's Life in 22 Stories | 1 Samuel 24

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through the story of David's life found in First and Second Samuel. Who do you trust? Who do you listen to? How do you determine what's right and what's wrong? What's wise?

Starting point is 00:00:28 I read a Gallup study that interviewed people in their 20s mostly, and it said that people, at least in their 20s, tend to just trust their gut. Most people think that we come pre-equipped with pretty decent moral compasses. Left to my own devices, I usually make wise choices. Sometimes in our world saying, I feel this way is really all you need to say to make something right or make something wrong. But the Bible couldn't disagree more. According to the Bible, every single one of us, We are all mixed bags of right and wrong, wise and unwise. And that means that we all come equipped with faulty moral compasses. It also means that wisdom isn't something that we are born with. Wisdom is something that we have to cultivate. It's something we have to seek out, something that we

Starting point is 00:01:19 have to listen to. This is one of the major themes in the book of Proverbs. We read in Proverbs 4 verses 7 and 8, the beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom. I love that. How do you get wisdom? Well, first, get it. It's not something that you have. Though it cost you all you have, get understanding, cherish her, and she will exalt you, embrace her, and she will honor you. 1st Samuel 25 is a living illustration of this exact proverb. In it, we meet a woman whose name is Abigail, and she's cultivated wisdom in her life. She's cultivated understanding in her life. We also meet two men who are caught in the snare of foolishness. One is David, and the other is a man named Navel. And his name in Hebrew, it literally means fool. Navel is Abigail's husband.

Starting point is 00:02:15 In the story, Navel is extraordinarily rich. He's got over 3,000 goats and sheep. While Navel's shepherds were pasturing the flock, David and his men, they were actively protecting Nable's goods, the sheep, from outside threats. And so you fast forward, and David, he asks Nable for rations for his men. They're living as hungry vagabonds, and obviously Nabil's got more than enough to offer. And in the culture that they lived in, that wouldn't be very strange. It would have been expected that Nable would be generous with his food, that he would give David what he needed, of what David had done for him. But Nable not only refuses to feed David, he ends up talking trash on him. And so when Nable's servants hear this whole thing go down, they go running to Abigail because they

Starting point is 00:03:03 know she's wise. And this is what they say to her in verse 14. One of the servants told Abigail, Navel's wife, David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us. And the whole time they were with us out in the fields near us, nothing went missing. Night and day, they were a wall around us. The whole time we were hurting our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do because disaster is hanging over our master in his whole household. Now catch this. This is what they say about him. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him. Nable is such a wicked man that no one can even talk to him about what's happening.

Starting point is 00:03:56 Naples a fool that much is obvious, but he's the worst kind of fool. He's the kind who can't listen when he's challenged, the kind who gets self-defensive. And it's actually not tough to imagine Naples' self-defense. He probably said, look, I never asked David to watch my flocks. That was his choice. I didn't tell him to do it. He can't come around and and just start demanding help from me, start demanding my stuff. I mean, it's my stuff, it's my money, it's my food. He's got no right to it. Isn't that always our temptation when someone wise confronts us to defend ourselves?

Starting point is 00:04:32 It's true of me, you can just ask my wife, I can be a really defensive person. Do you know what makes our self-defense is tricky? There's always some legitimacy to them. They're usually partial truths, which actually tricks us into thinking that they're really right. The problem only gets worse if we think that we come preloaded with a decent gut level moral compass. Because when our gut gets self-defensive and says, be in sense, defend yourself, we just assume that our gut's right. We become blinded to how blind we really are. The story continues. And Abigail, she gets going. Remember,

Starting point is 00:05:12 she's described as having understanding. That's a synonym for wisdom in the Bible. And because she's wise, she does what her husband didn't do. She prepares food for David. Meanwhile, David's exercising his own bit of foolishness. Just think about this. So far in 1 Samuel, David has refused to take his future into his hands, right? He doesn't get violent. He doesn't try to kill Saul. But that's about to change. He's about to violently take his future into his hands. He's so incensed by the insults that Navel throws at him that he straps on his sword and he sets out to murder Nabel and his whole household. This is bad. This is morally bad.

Starting point is 00:05:56 This is wrong. This is incredibly unwise. But thankfully, Abigail ends up intercepting David on the way. Now, Abigail gives a long speech and it's worth reading in its entirety. But let me just pick up her final words. She begs David to stop this stupid, foolish, murderous rampage so that when he becomes king, verse 31, my Lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or having avenged himself.

Starting point is 00:06:30 Abigail gives wisdom to David. She says, look, David, don't trust your gut. Don't be controlled by the present moment. live in light of the future. If you do this, you will regret it forever. And if you've been genuinely wronged, then trust God to take care of it. Don't go and avenge yourself. How does David respond?

Starting point is 00:06:54 Is he going to be a fool who refuses to listen? David said to Abigail, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to me today. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for God. keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. David listens. He stops this craziness. And I got to tell you, I don't think it was easy to listen because David had a self-defense. We all got our self-defense. But David listened to wisdom. In the book of Proverbs, wisdom is ultimately seen as a gift from God. And I think David

Starting point is 00:07:34 basically sees it the same way here. That's why he thanks God for Abigail. She's a living gift of God's grace to him in the midst of his own foolishness. Do you have an Abigail in your life? Someone that God uses to cultivate wisdom in your life? Someone God speaks through when you're walking down the wrong path? Or do you trust your own gut? Have you turned a deaf, defensive ear towards the Abigail's in your life so that those people, they just stopped trying. They stop trying. talking because you never listen. Today, ask God to give you the gift of wisdom. Ask him to give you the gift of an Abigail, someone who can call you out, who can help you cultivate wisdom in your life. Before you go to bed, try to think of who that person could be and then reach out to that person.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Give them permission to speak wisdom into your life. And when they do it, just create a rule. Tell yourself, I won't be defensive. I'll listen, I'll hear, I'll consider. If you do that, you'll get the grace of God's wisdom in your life. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with?

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - A Wise Woman | David's Life in 22 Stories | 1 Samuel 24

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