Rev. David Holwick F The Life of David, #6
First Baptist Church Valentine Sunday
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 9, 2014
1 Samuel 25:2-3
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I. The battle of the sexes.
A. The Bible's view gets a lot of flack these days.
1) Men are supposed to rule over women.
Several years before the first Gulf War, Barbara Walters
did a story on gender roles in Kuwait.
She observed that women traditionally walked about 10 feet
behind their husbands.
Walters returned to Kuwait after the war and discovered
men were now walking several yards behind their wives.
Always the dogged investigator, Walters approached a woman
on the street and asked for an explanation.
"This is marvelous," she said. "What enabled women here to
achieve this reversal of roles?"
The woman replied, "Land mines!"
#5560
2) There's some truth to our impression of the Bible's teaching.
a) It does have the principles of headship and submission.
b) But many passages in the Bible are far more nuanced.
B. Abigail is the kind of girl you want.
1) She is not your stereotypical mild and meek push-over.
2) She is an expert at manipulating men, but in a good way.
a) Many men need to be manipulated for their own benefit.
b) She stayed within her gender role and was still a big
success.
3) Above all, Abigail followed God above all else.
a) She never compromised her principles and was a godly
influence on powerful men.
b) Women, and men, would do well to emulate her.
II. An irresistible force and an immovable object.
A. David is living on the margins.
1) He and his men scrounge an existence in a desolate region.
2) They are well-behaved and honor their neighbors.
3) But they have plenty of firepower if they need it.
B. Nabal is the local head honcho.
1) Lots of possessions, mostly in livestock.
a) They are listed before his name is given to us.
b) Money came first with him.
c) Nabal is the best illustration of Jesus' parable of
the rich farmer. Luke 12:15-20
1> When he has a big surplus, his only solution is
to build bigger barns.
2> All he thinks about is how to increase his stuff.
3> Then he dies that night.
2) Nabal is surly and mean in his dealings.
a) Everyone in the story has the same assessment of his
character - his servant, his wife, his enemy (David).
3) He is lacking an essential element.
a) His name means "fool."
b) He is not an idiot, but morally deficient.
1> Foolishness and wisdom in the Bible are always
religious values.
2> Isaiah 32:6 gives a good description:
"For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil:
He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning
the LORD; the hungry he leaves empty and from the
thirsty he withholds water."
c) Nabal's priorities in life are all wrong.
1> He thinks only of himself.
III. The confrontation.
A. It is shearing time and the living is easy, or supposed to be.
1) It was traditional to celebrate with a big banquet.
2) It should be a time of generosity to the needy.
B. David sends a delegation of ten men to ask for some food.
1) They are to be courteous and complimentary. 25:6
a) They make no demands, no threats.
2) They are to mention how helpful they have been to Nabal.
a) Much of his prosperity is due to them.
b) They do not ask for a specific amount, let alone enough
to feed 600 men.
c) They leave the response up to Nabal.
d) Since David sent 10 men, he must have had high hopes
for what he would receive. Twenty arms' worth!
3) Some see this as an ancient Mafia shakedown.
a) David is said to be running a "protection racket."
b) But no one is armed and no harm is threatened.
c) Until Nabal opens his mouth....
C. Nabal shows his hard heart.
1) He insults David. 25:10
a) He acts like he has never heard of the young warrior
who killed Goliath.
b) He insinuates David is nothing but a runaway slave.
2) Nabal refuses them any food.
a) He does it in a mean and hurtful way.
b) Later on in the story, his heart seizes up, but it
has already been frozen.
D. David reacts very humanly.
1) They go for their guns (note how "sword" is mentioned
three times in verse 13). 25:13
2) His response goes beyond simple vengeance. 25:22
a) He makes a spiritual vow to slaughter them.
1> This is just what King Saul did to the town of Nob.
2> Isn't David supposed to be better than Saul?
b) It is really his ego that is speaking.
IV. A woman's touch makes all the difference.
A. Abigail enters the picture.
1) She is said to be intelligent and beautiful.
2) Nabal probably didn't choose her for these qualities - most
marriages were arranged by parents back then.
3) She had power because she was married to a rich guy.
a) But she didn't let it go to her head.
b) When a servant tells her how David was treated, she
accepts it as true.
B. She is a woman of action. 25:18
1) Immediately she prepares a huge amount of food.
2) She heads straight for angry David's lair.
C. She is tactful and humble. 25:23
1) She agrees with David that her husband is a jerk. 25:25
a) This puts her on David's good side.
2) She takes the responsibility for the fiasco.
a) She didn't see the men coming. 25:25
b) She is deflecting from Nabal to herself.
1> Back then, vengeance was usually targeted at men.
2> Nobody touched a woman so she is safe.
D. She focuses on God. 25:26
1) God is the one who has kept David from acting rashly.
a) Actually, she is assuming David won't seek vengeance
because of her intervention.
b) Like a woman, her assumption becomes a concrete fact.
c) But in doing this, she helps David evaluate the
consequences of his intended actions.
2) Her plea for forgiveness is tied to God's promises.
a) God is going to make David king. 25:28
1> She doesn't view him as a renegade but a regent.
2> This required faith on her part.
3> It also requires David to let God be in charge.
A> God should take care of this situation,
not David. 25:30
b) Because he's going to be king, he needs to keep his
hands clean. (Let no wrongdoing be found in you.)
1> Abigail is calling David to a higher morality.
2> David must not be as violent as Saul, the king
God has rejected.
c) God will deal with Nabal in his own time.
V. God brings about justice his own way.
A. Nabal was oblivious to his danger.
1) Instead, he parties hardy all night.
a) In the morning, when he is sober, she informs him.
b) Nabal has a stroke.
2) We are not told what he was thinking.
a) Was he startled at the closeness of death at the hands
of a band of renegades?
b) Did he have apoplexy because his wife gave away a
train-load of raisins?
3) All we know is he dies ten days later.
B. David moves quickly to marry this astounding woman.
1) He gains a smart, good-looking woman.
a) It doesn't hurt that she probably had political clout,
and was now very rich.
2) Note what David avoided:
a) No need for him to kill Nabal and many others.
b) No need for him to get Abigail behind Nabal's back,
like he did with Bathsheba.
3) He learned some important spiritual truths:
a) God can provide for him.
b) God can restrain him.
c) God can give him wisdom, perhaps through other people.
VI. Is Abigail a good Christian wife?
A. The question is deliberately anachronistic.
1) She was, of course, a Jew.
2) But Christians can learn from these Old Testament heroes.
B. Abigail was a force for peace.
1) In reality she was trying to save two men.
2) David recognized this, but Nabal did not.
C. She was submissive to God.
1) She represents very high moral and spiritual ideals.
a) She brings out the best in David and steers him to God.
2) Some feel she was going behind Nabal's back so wasn't really
a submissive wife.
3) I prefer to think she worked within the limits of his
character.
a) She gives Nabal more than he deserves.
b) God honors her by giving her a better husband.
D. It often takes a woman to bring out the best in a man.
There's a story that Thomas Wheeler, CEO of the Massachusetts
Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells on himself:
He and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when
he noticed that their car was low on gas.
Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found
a rundown gas station with just one gas pump.
He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil,
then went for a little walk around the station to stretch
his legs.
As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant
and his wife were having an animated conversation.
The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant.
But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant
wave to her and heard him say, "It was great talking to you."
As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she
knew the guy.
She did - they had gone to high school together and had dated
steadily for almost a year.
"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged Wheeler.
"If you had married him, you'd be the wife of a gas station
attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer."
"My dear," replied his wife, "if I had married him, he'd be
the chief executive officer and you'd be pumping gas."
#17694
I am married to an Abigail.
Here is a story that you cannot share with Celeste or she will
kill me.
As you know, she is the kind of person who burns the candle
on three ends.
She juggles a full schedule at work, online college courses,
housework, and she leads our high school youth group.
Her big project in the winter is putting on the high school
ski retreat at Spruce Lake in Pennsylvania.
She rents a big house there and fills the weekend with Bible
studies and fun activities.
It usually happens in early March, even though she often tells
them she would love to have it earlier.
Apparently this year they granted her wish but it didn't sink
in with her - she still thought it was in March.
Friday night as we were eating in a restaurant she got a call
from Spruce Lake.
They wanted to know where she was.
Celeste almost did a "Nabal" on me.
She froze up, promised them she would be good for the payment,
apologized profusely, and closed her cell phone.
She had a big project due at work this week but she is an
Abigail.
Within four hours she called every kid in the youth group and
told them the new plan.
She purchased all the food for the (abbreviated) weekend,
arranged adult help and transportation, organized some
Bible studies, and guided the caravan to Spruce Lake the
next morning.
How many of you could plan a youth retreat in four hours?
Like I said, don't tell her I told you this because she may
take King David's route and take divine vengeance on me.
But I am blessed to have a spouse who doesn't make excuses
but makes a way and always does it well.
What kind of person are you?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 5560 “Reversing Gender Roles,” Rev. John Gillmartin, Gillmartin's
Sermon-illustrations-each-week (SIEW), May 29, 2000.
#17694 “He Was Lucky He Married Her,” Thomas Wheeler, Rev. Brett Blair's
Illustrations by Email, www.sermonillustrations.com,
July 28, 2002.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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