The passage in front of us today reads like a romance novel with a twist of action-packed drama. It is kind of like a Hallmark romance movie meets a good old fashioned Clint Eastwood revenge western.

If there was a trailer to entice you to go to the theater and see this movie, it would begin with the announcement of the death of a famous world leader. Then it would move on to a clip of an ugly, evil man with his beautiful wife before cutting over to a brief shot or two of the hero bravely protecting the evil man’s kingdom. Then it would conclude with snap shots of the evil man treating the hero poorly, and the hero poised to inflict revenge on the evil man as the beautiful woman enters the frame and falls madly in love with the hero after the evil man dies tragically.

Sounds like a Hallmark romance movie meeting a good old-fashioned revenge western, right? Who doesn’t love romance laced with a plot of revenge and redemption? Stories like this are meant to awaken something in us. Namely our longing for someone to not only set things right once and for all, but it also points to our longing to be wanted and loved as we were designed to be. Look at the text with me…

1Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. 4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

9When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. 10And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. 11Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where? 12So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this. 13And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred men remained with the baggage.

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

18Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal. 20And she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. 21Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. 22God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

23When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. 25Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. 26Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. 27And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. 29If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. 30And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, 31my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”

32And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33Blessed be your secretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 34For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

36And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So, she told him nothing at all until the morning light. 37In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. 44Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

#1: DAVID’S REQUEST (VV. 1 – 8)

Our story begins with David requesting some help from a man named Nabal in verses 1 – 8. In these verses we learn that Samuel has died and has been buried in his home, so David leaves his stronghold in Engedi – possibly fearing that Saul will unleash his rage against him once again with Samuel out of the picture – and he lands in a wilderness among some shepherds who were shepherding the flocks of a very powerful and wealthy man named, Nabal (vv. 1 – 2).

Nabal has a wife who is stunningly attractive and super wise in contrast to her husband who is “harsh and badly behaved” not to mention that he is from the family tree of Caleb the faithful spy from Israel’s past – obviously this man Nabal is nothing like Caleb (v. 3).

This Nabal seems to be poised to multiply his wealth as he shears his sheep. So David sends some his men in his name, on his behalf, to bless Nabal, to inform him of the aid that David has rendered to his shepherds and his flocks and to ask for some help in return because David and his men are apparently running low on food (vv. 4 – 8).

This entire first scene seems to be very reasonable. David has helped a very powerful and wealthy man without being asked to do so. The powerful and wealthy man is about to become even more powerful and even more wealthy. David and his men are in need of some help.

It seems reasonable to make the request that David has made. But the problem is that we all know that Nabal is a wicked and foolish man who cares little about returning a favor to anyone who helped him get to where he is at in life. The point here is that wicked fools only care about their own self-interests.

#2: NABAL’S FOOLISHNESS (VV. 9 – 13)

And of course, this truth, that wicked fools only care about themselves, becomes painfully obvious as we look at Nabal’s foolishness in verses 9 – 13. The text tells us that David’s men meetup with Nabal and pass along his request (v. 9) and Nabal responds as a wicked fool would respond (vv. 10 – 11). 

Nabal responds with a series of sarcastic questions regarding the identity of David, even though all Israel knows who David is at this point, and he essentially refuses to help David and his men out (vv. 10 – 11). 

Nabal is so consumed with his own self-interests that he literally says, “Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” (v. 11). Can you hear Nabal’s selfishness with his use of the word “my” in regard to his wealth?

If I was in the shoes of David’s men, I might have been tempted to argue with Nabal to make him see that his wealth was in his possession partly because of David and his men. But they do not do this. They do not try arguing with a fool.

David’s men return to David and fill him in on Nabal’s response and the tension builds (v. 12). David of course is enraged by the injustice of the situation, so he straps on his word and tells his men to do the same (v. 13).

Moral of the story, it is never a good idea to disrespect a man with an army who has protected you, and helped you get wealthier, even if you are the wealthiest and most powerful man around. You should not bite the hand that feeds you!

Not Nabal though; he is an idiot! Vengeance and justice are in the air. If you are like me, if you love justice, then you cannot wait for this story to unfold so you can taste the sweet buttery richness of justice being served!

#3: ABIGAIL’S WISDOM (VV. 14 – 22)

Enter Abigail on the center stage! In verses 14 – 22, we get to observe Abigail’s wisdom as she responds to her husband’s wicked foolishness. One of Nabal’s young shepherds has seen everything that has taken place, and instead of confronting Nabal – because that would be useless – he tracks down Abigail and gets her up to speed on the situation at hand.

This young shepherd essentially recounts everything we already know but he adds a few interesting details when he says that David and his men “were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were like a wall to us both by night and by day” (vv. 15 – 16), and he also mentions that talking to Nabal about this would be useless because “he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him” (v. 17). Nabal is so useless that he is not even worth trying to reason with – he is unreasonable.

After hearing everything the young shepherd had to say, Abigail, in all her wisdom, and unbeknownst to her husband, she gathers up a bunch of supplies and sends them on ahead of her with some of the young shepherds while she trails behind them to intercept David and his men before any damage can be done (vv. 18 – 20).

You have to notice the way this meeting plays out. It seems like David cannot see Abigail immediately because she is “under cover of the mountain” as “David and his men came down toward her” (v. 20). And as David and his men are coming toward her, David is full of rage, and his vengeance filled plans are echoing off the walls of the mountain as he vents his anger (vv. 21 – 22).

As Abigail prepares to meet David for the first time, her ears are filled with his angry threats to leave not even a single man alive when he unleashes his vengeance against her foolish and wicked husband. Notice that she does not retreat. She stays the course. 

Maybe she hopes that everything she has heard about this incoming king is true. Maybe he is wise, unlike her foolish husband. Maybe he will listen to reason. Maybe he will accept her gift and listen to her words in a few moments.

Either way, Abigail is a picture of pure wisdom – knowledge in action – as opposed to her foolish husband who trampled on the knowledge of this incoming king named David. The point here is that foolishness and wisdom can both be seen in the way we respond reasonably or unreasonably to circumstances in our lives.

#4: DAVID AND ABIGAIL MEET (VV. 23 – 35)

The next portion of our text, verses 23 – 35, is a considerable chunk of Scripture that describes David and Abigail’s conversation when they first meet. What we have here is Abigail’s courageous and wise plea for David to change his course of vengeance, and David’s humility as he listens to her and changes his course.

The text tells us that “when Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground” at his feet, and then from this position of respect, she began to make her plea (vv. 23 – 24). Abigail is not trying to scold David, and she is not attempting to assert her authority as the wife of a very powerful man. She knows how to carefully step into conflict.

In her plea, Abigail humbly accepts the guilt of her husband, begs to be heard, highlights her husband’s foolishness, asks David to consider not pursuing vengeance and to trust the Lord to handle David’s enemies as he has always done, and then she asks him to receive the gifts she has brought for him (vv. 24 – 27).

Then in verses 28 – 31, she presses her point even further as she asks David to forgive the offense of her foolish husband, to trust that the Lord will establish David’s lineage and kingdom, to rest in the fact that the Lord will “sling out as from the hollow of a sling” – like the stone from David’s sling that took down Goliath – every enemy who stands in his way, so that he can sleep easy at night, knowing that he never took vengeance into his own hand.

After all of this, her final plea is to “remember your servant” Abigail, when the Lord has his hay-day with her foolish husband (v. 31). Abigail’s wise plea pays off, and she gets what she hoped for when David responds in verses 32 – 35. David’s response is basically one of gratitude to the Lord and blessing to Abigail (vv. 32 – 33). David recognizes that the Lord has used Abigail to keep David from shedding useless blood and from bringing any harm to Abigail herself (v. 34). And then David receives Abigail’s gift, sends her home, and assures her that he has listened to her and will obey her counsel (v. 35).

Abigail’s courage and wisdom have been rewarded, and David has proven to be the man she hoped he would be. Abigail has done what Nabal did not do – she blessed and protected the incoming king. David has done what Nabal could never do as he responded reasonably and graciously to Abigail.

So up until this point in the story, we have themes of foolishness contrasted with wisdom, we have courage and sound reasoning amidst deadly conflict, and we have this notion that maybe Nabal and Abigail represent how people typically respond to the Lord – one responds foolishly and the other responds wisely.

But the story is not over yet! Justice needs to be served, and the budding romance needs to be consummated. The bad guy must get what he deserves. The hero must win the heart of the damsel! This is exactly how our story concludes… sort of!

#5: JUSTICE AND ROMANCE COLLIDE (VV. 36 – 44)

In verses 36 – 44, justice and romance collide. Abigail informs her foolish husband of all that has taken place after his hangover wears off and within ten days, we learn that “the Lord struck Nabal, and he died” (vv. 36 – 38). “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord!” (Deut. 32:35; Rom. 12:19).

It does not take long for the news to reach David about Nabal’s death. His response to the news is exactly what you expect as he gives thanks to the Lord for avenging him and protecting him “from wrongdoing” (v. 39). And of course, he does not forget the promise he made to remember Abigail once justice was served, so he sends for her hand in marriage, and she gladly accepts (vv. 39 – 42).

Vengeance has met romance and the story is complete, except for the final credits. In the final credits, we learn that this story is not all unicorns and rainbows! The credit for the final credits of this story goes to my friend, Justin in Sidney, NE. who reminded me that even though David shines as one who extends mercy in chapter 24 and does so again here in this story, he still falls into sin – namely sexual sin as he takes Abigail to be his wife along with another woman named Ahinoam even though he is still technically married to Saul’s daughter, Michal (vv. 43 – 44).

The bottom line here is that even though we are all built to long for a good romance story, the world’s version of romance is tragically broken by sin. God never condones sexual sin even though some of the greatest characters in Bible indulge themselves in it. 

Even though David resists the urge to meet out vengeance, he still falls or runs headlong into sexual sin – a sin so great that it will affect his entire family and the nation of Israel for many years to come. Sin is never the answer to our longing for romance and vengeance!

KEY TAKE AWAYS & APPLICATION…

So, what are we to do with this story? What are some key take ways and how do we apply this story to our lives? If you boil this story down, it really is a story about foolishness versus wisdom, victory and defeat in the face of our greatest enemies, and our posture towards the benevolent King of kings, Christ Jesus.

  • WISDOM VERSUS FOOLISHNESS…

Abigail’s wisdom is starkly contrasted with Nabal’s foolishness. You might remember that her wisdom was full of reason while her foolish husband was unreasonable. You may also remember that Abigail’s wisdom was proven in how she put her knowledge into right action, while Nabal’s foolishness was proven in how he trampled over knowledge to protect his own perceived self-made interests.

You can either be an unreasonable fool who tramples the knowledge of God, or you can be a reasonable person who listens to the knowledge of the things of God and then lives rightly and wisely in light of those truths. A fool does what is right in his own eyes, but a wise person lives in reverent, obedient, awe of the Lord (Proverbs). Which one are you? Where do you need to begin practicing godly wisdom rather than wicked foolishness?

  • VICTORY & DEFEAT AGAINST OUR ENEMIES…

We must remember that the back side of our greatest victories are also the most dangerous moments where sin lurks in the shadows. David has these shining moments as God’s chosen king, but he also has some really deep sin issues on the backside of his victories.

Our enemies, Satan-Sin-Death, are constantly lurking in the shadows, especially after our greatest victories. We must be vigilant in our fight against sin’s temptation especially as the voices of Satan and Death condemn and taunt us. What do you need to do to fight sin better? Who do you need to draw into your corner to watch your back? Every one of us needs an Abigail to help guide us in our fight against Satan, Sin, and Death.

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, we need to think about our posture towards the King of kings. We can either be a Nabal or an Abigail in our posture towards Jesus. Nabal was a fool who thought he was a self-made man, and he was consumed with his own self-interests. Abigail was a wise woman who realized that her good fortune was due to the invisible (to her) helping hand of a benevolent king in the making.

In our posture toward Jesus, we are either like Nabal or we are like Abigail. At the end of the day, the very breathe you and I breathe is a gift from the Lord. His offer of salvation is available apart from anything we do. His provision, grace, love, forgiveness, and mercy are all because of his patience and his kindness.

Christ’s work at that cross of Calvary, his work in leaving that tomb empty, and his offer of eternal life with him, are all evidence of his kindness towards us even though we do not deserve it.

In Christ, the greatest romance ever told comes to life. In Christ, the hero bravely sacrifices himself for his run-away bride and he never leaves her, forsakes her, or cheats on her. At the same time, Jesus is the person where pure justice prevails against the wicked. The only question left is: “Is your posture towards Jesus more like Nabal or more like Abigail?”2

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 471 – 484.