Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Might Be a Rich Fool | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 25:1-3

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Do you show special treatment to the rich? Do you look down on the poor? Are you a rich fool? In today's episode, Patrick shares how 1 Samuel 25:1-35 encourages us to listen closely to the wise voice of God. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 25:1-35

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. Can I be honest with you? Sometimes it feels like a part-time job telling my kids to stop calling each other names. So maybe I should pray that they never read 1st Samuel 25 because in this little passage, it has more than a little bit of savage name calling. And the question is whether the name calling in this passage is a joke or if it's a real name or if it's something else entirely. So let's just pick it up in verse two. A certain man and

Mayan, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing at Carmel. His name was Nabel, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings. He was a Calebite. While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Navel was shearing sheep. And so he sent 10 young men and said to them, go up to Nable at Carmel and greet him in my name, say to him, long life to you, good health to you and your household, and good health to all that are yours. Now, I hear it that it is sheep-shearing time, and when your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own

servants, and they will tell you, therefore be favorable toward my men since we came at a festive time. please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them. When David's men arrived, they gave Nabel this message in David's name. Then they waited. Nabel answered David's servants. Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.

Why should I take my bread and my water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shears and give it to men coming from who knows where? David's men turned back around and went back. and when they arrived, they reported every word. So, that was a long passage. Did you hear all the name calling happening? Well, the answer is probably no. In fact, you were probably confused the whole time.

Unless you speak Hebrew, you probably missed it. The antagonist in this story, his name is Nable. And the Hebrew word, Nable means foolish. In fact, it's closely related to the word for stupidity. So the funny question is whether Nabel's mom and dad literally named him fool, or if the biblical author has given this name to him to make it crystal clear that he's not a wise man, that he is stupid. We don't really know, but it's quite possible that it wasn't his real name, that this is a bit of a joke, but the problem was that most people in Naples Day, they had no

idea that he was a fool. Why? Well, it's because Navel was a really rich man. In those days, people assume that if you had wealth, you must be wise, you must be intelligent, you must be a superior sort of person to get so much. And so to their mind, a rich fool is something of an oxymoron. They don't really exist. Of course, in our culture, we have plenty of stories of rich fools, but in real life, it tends to be a bit more complicated. The reality is we tend to show more deference towards the wealthy. We tend to assume that maybe they've figured out something that we have been figured out. They have speaking opportunities or the kinds of people that everybody he wants to listen to. And that's part of why we might, just like ancient people, assume that

someone who's wealthy isn't a fool at all. But it's always possible that they are. James warns us in chapter 2, my brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man and filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, oh, you go stand over there or sit on the floor by my feet. Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Of course, we're all kind of grossed out by this kind of behavior, aren't we? But what I've found is that even if we're bothered by favoritism towards the rich and the abstract,

like a story in the book of James, most of us still kind of tend to show favoritism towards those who are wealthy or be more favorable towards those who have more than those who have less. And what about ourselves? I mean, have you often found yourself assuming that you must be smarter, wiser, more hardworking than someone who has much less than you? Can I just confess how guilty of this I am myself? When I see someone who's homeless or someone who's struggling, I often assume that I'm the one who could help that person, that I'm the one with the wisdom and the intelligence and the know-how to make a successful light. So they obviously need to learn from me. I'm in the driver's seat there in the back seat. But again, James warns us in verse five, listen, my dear brothers and sisters,

has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised for those who love him? Of course, I know what you're thinking. You're like, well, that's all fine, but I'm not rich. No, no, no, no, no. If you're listening to this on an iPhone, If you're listening to this in a car, if you have a place to live and food on the table every night, then you are, by the standards of the world, by most people in the world, you are quite rich. And one consequence of our wealth is that we begin to assume that we are masters of the universe. I mean, yeah, we know we can't control everything. But we still think that we're wise enough to kind of control our lives, to protect what we have,

to get whatever we want. I mean, after all, we're rich and intelligent and wise and successful. But again, James warns, But the rich should take pride In their humiliation, since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat And withers the plant,

Its blossom falls, and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away, even while they go about their business. You see, this is the truth. It's easy to be a rich fool. It's easy to be a nable, like the one we read about in this story. Someone who's so wise in their own eyes,

someone who thinks that he has the answers for everyone because he's done so well in life, someone who quietly looks down on others with less than them, as merely people to be helped, but certainly not someone to learn something from. Have we become walking Naples, rich fools? If I'm being honest, at least about myself, the answer is oftentimes yes. I can be so proud, so lofty, so full of ego. And when I am, I'm a Navel. You see, Navel's story doesn't turn out well. He looks down on the man with less, David, who we all know is the wise man compared to Navel, but Navel thinks I have more, so I must be the one who has something to offer him. I could learn nothing from this guy. He can't help me at all. And David, when he

finds out how poorly Navel is treating him, after David had taken care of his own shepherds, David almost becomes a Navel in response. He gets so angry that he almost murders all of Naples' household. But Naples' wife, Abigail, is described as an intelligent and wise woman and she actually stops David right before he gets there and she stops him from becoming a Nable she teaches him to walk in the path of righteousness and he chooses to obey her he listens to the voice of wisdom

and therefore he doesn't become a fool Nabel he ends up having a heart attack when he hears that David almost killed him and the author writes quote the Lord struck Nabel and he died you see this is the ultimate destination of every fool we refuse to fear God we rebel against God

God. We trust in ourselves. And eventually, God says, if you want to trust in yourself, if you think you've got this all figured out, if you think you're so much better than everybody else, that's fine. You go and try it on your own. And without him, there is no life. The consequence of being enable is death. David later marries Abigail for her wisdom, and he becomes wise by following her voice. Do you know that we can all step into the shoes of David? We may be tottering on the edge of becoming enable a fool, a rich fool. But the voice of wisdom, the voice of God's spirit, often intercedes to warn us and to protect us. The question is whether we'll listen to the quiet voice of God's spirit or the loud voice of the proud spirit in our own hearts. Listen to wisdom. Don't let your

riches or successes make you grow proud. Don't lick down on the poor whom God has made rich in wisdom. receive the gracious power of the Spirit whom you don't deserve. Cast yourself into the Spirit's hands and let him guide you.