Let’s press the pause button today and get our bearings on where we’re at in our study of 1st Samuel Chapter 25.
So yesterday we left off with a picture of a man who seemed to be anything but God’s anointed king.
David, because he was insulted by a rich fool, had let blind rage get the better of him.
And now he was about to start a war because his ego was bruised.
When I say “rich fool”, I’m not kidding or exaggerating.
In Hebrew, Naval literally means “fool.”
In other words, Naval was not the person’s real name.
This was a nickname describing the man’s foolish and dumb character.
No parent in their right mind would’ve given their child such a name.
David and his men had taken care of Nabal’s large flocks in the Paran and Ma’on deserts.
Because of this, David felt justified in asking Naval to provide some food for his men.
But Nabal not only said no, he was so rude, there wasn’t a person in the Middle East who would’ve taken his insulting behavior lying down.
However, there’s another side to this coin.
David had made his request respectfully
But the truth is his request was a mobster-style offer that didn’t leave any room for refusal.
I mean is a request you can’t say no to really a request?
A powerful man of Naval’s stature didn’t like being strong-armed like this.
So he reacted harshly.
Well, one harsh response led to another.
Once David caught wind of Naval’s rude reply, he gathered up two-thirds of his men and set off to teach Naval a lesson.
He intended to slay every male member of Naval’s family, which would’ve been a lot of people.
Luckily, Naval had a wise and kind wife named Abiyagil.
One of the servants who overheard Naval’s rude reply went to Abiyagil in secret and told her everything that happened.
He begged her to do something lest a full-blown war broke out.
Not one to waste time, Abigail quickly loaded up a donkey with a “peace offering” to give to David in the hopes of calming him down, and she did all this behind her husband’s back.
The takeaway for today is that in the person of David, it’s apparent we’re dealing with a very complicated personality.
Here we have a man who is after God’s heart and always tries to do the right thing.
Yet at the same time, we see someone who overreacts and lets his temper get the better of him when insulted.
In other words, David is a normal human being like the rest of us.
And that’s why the Scripture is so trustworthy.
It depicts even the heroes of the Bible most accurately with their warts and all.
Some believe David was a flawless man who never sinned.
However, as we take a closer look at David’s life, we’re gonna see that’s just not the case.
See you all next time.
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