Alrighty, so a Middle Eastern “battle of honor” was about to erupt between David and Naval.
Or to put it another way.
David was going to head up to Carmel and murder Naval and anyone else who got in his way.
This is what we’d call an “honor killing” in tribalistic, Middle Eastern culture.
Thankfully, a wiser head prevailed in the form of a wise and virtuous woman named Avigayil.
She wasn’t about to let a massacre occur over some food and rude words foolishly spoken.
Behind her husband’s back, she immediately began preparing a peace offering for David.
It was quite an impressive package consisting of “200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already prepared, six quarts of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 fig cakes.”
She had everything loaded up on some donkeys and told her young servants to go ahead of her to meet David.
Aviyagil knew when her husband saw David approaching with his men, their egos would spiral out of control, and bloodshed would be inevitable.
So she had to intervene.
Now on a practical level, Aviyagil simply didn’t wanna see her household get destroyed.
However, on a spiritual level, she intuitively sensed there was more to this David character than met the eye.
Somehow she knew this man would play a special role in Israel’s future.
Now, there are a couple of points we shouldn’t overlook.
First, from a Torah perspective, Naval hadn’t committed any sin.
Unless you wanna say he broke the commandment to not love his neighbor as himself.
Basically, this situation boils down to David getting ticked off because he felt he deserved hospitality from Naval but didn’t get it.
That’s it homies.
That’s all this situation boils down to.
To appease his wounded ego, David was ready to rise in violence and commit murder.
Such an act would have ruined him and disqualified him from becoming the next king of Israel.
Ironically, this story follows right after David’s righteous decision not to kill Saul in the cave.
If ever a man had a justifiable reason to slay a man, this was it.
But in that case, David heeded the Spirit, refused to listen to his men, and spared the life of King Saul.
However, here in 1st Samuel 25, we see a completely different aspect of David’s character emerge.
Here we have a picture of a man who was ready to shed blood simply because he was insulted.
There’s a lesson here for all of us.
No matter how Godly, righteous, and free of sin we think we are, the YETSER HARAH (evil inclination) that lurks inside of all men can rear its ugly head and take control of our minds and attitudes at any time.
Heck, the other day, during an idle moment, I was looking at some pornography.
So this is a story about how a merciful God stopped an atrocity from happening not so much for the sake of the parties involved…
But for the sake of God’s plan of salvation.
Ya, feel me here?
Our bad choices can seriously impede our relationship with God.
It’s not always about committing some great evil…
It can be as simple as picking a different path than the one God wants for us.
Sure, you might do okay.
But think of all the blessings God’s Kingdom will miss out on because you decided to walk in the flesh instead of the spirit.
There’s another huge takeaway here we’d be remiss to overlook.
You don’t always know it, but God is always guiding you.
If He didn’t, we’d all be lost and forget our purpose for living in the first place.
You didn’t get that job or gig you wanted so badly?
God was probably protecting you from a situation that would’ve failed.
Looking back on your life, you didn’t amass the Bill Gates level of wealth your greedy little heart had lusted for all of its life?
God probably knew you couldn’t handle that kind of money without falling into a world of unlimited whores and drug addiction (most men can’t handle big money without falling into big sin).
Was your heart broken into a million pieces because that girl you proposed to said “no”?
Maybe God foresaw that marriage would end in divorce…
Or maybe He didn’t want you to get married in the first place…
Trust me, marriage ain’t the bed of roses a lot of folks make it out to be.
Otherwise, the divorce rate wouldn’t be over 50%…
And by the way, the divorce rate in the church ain’t that much different than in the secular world…
Or think about how this professional escort answered the question “How many of your clients are married men?”
She said…
“Almost all of my clients are married. I would say easily over 90 percent. I’m not trying to justify this business, but these are men looking for companionship. They are generally not men who couldn’t have an affair (if they wanted to), but men who want this tryst with no strings attached. They’re men who want to keep their lives at home intact.”
Well, there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth.
If marriage was as glorious as everyone makes it out to be, why are all these married men going to whores regularly?
And again, it ain’t that much difference whether these married men are churchgoers or not.
Ravi Zacharias is a perfect case in point.
Anyway, I’m getting off track here.
The bottom line is that David was on his way to committing blood guilt.
Without God’s intervention, his reputation and witness would have been destroyed, disqualifying him from becoming the next anointed king of Israel.
So thank God the Lord intervenes in our lives when He does!
See ya all next time.
Following.
Psalm 124 King James Version 124 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
Amen.