Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; for the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil will not be found in you all your days... And when the Lord does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel, this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself. When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.(1 Samuel 25:28,30-31).

I find something fascinating here. Abigail knew that God had appointed David to be king over Israel. Certainly by this time news must have reached over all the land that King Saul was after David. Even Nabal may have known that David had broken away from Saul (1 Samuel 25:9). Therefore, what we find here is no simple situation but perhaps a highly political one. Do you side with Saul or David?

Nabal may have thought that it was a safer bet to side with King Saul, because he had shown himself to be the more ruthless of the two. After all, hadn't Saul killed all the priests of Nob, along with their families and livestock for presumably helping David? If he were to supply David and his men with provisions, would he not be risking that same kind of carnage upon himself? 

What he did not anticipate was that David could be just as ruthless.

Abigail showed the greater discernment (cf. 1 Samuel 25:33). There was no Doeg the Edomite there to inform King Saul of what they had done for David. What is more, she believed that the LORD was with David rather than Saul, and David would be the next king. Even more immediate, David and his men were right there at their doorstep and could inflict immediate harm if they chose to do so. These were not the days of law and order, as if some police force could protect Nabal from harm, especially since the main judge over the land, Samuel, had died with no one to replace him (1 Samuel 25:1).

Now, I believe the wisdom of Abigail was not in her being simply politically astute but also being spiritually discerning. She discerned that the LORD was with David and not with Saul. Even Saul acknowledged his folly in seeking David's life:

"Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error" (1 Samuel 26:21).

Friends, there are some people that always try to live the middle ground, so as not to offend anyone. The only thing they confront is confrontation. Their primary objective is to keep the peace.

As noble as this may at first sound, it often leads to compromise and complacency. From the beginning of time, God has always created a clear dichotomy between good and evil, between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, between things designated as clean and unclean, between what is holy and unholy. He demands people choose. Therefore, to choose some middle ground or to abstain from important, though controversial, discussion is often to go against what God wills. 

Discernment means to judge between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, and even between what is good, better and best. It does not mean sitting on the sidelines or never rocking the boat.

Nabal thought he could simply ignore David's request. After all, he didn't ask for David's help. King Saul kept on pursuing David even though he knew that the LORD had already selected David to be king. Both were fools. Not choosing was foolish. And choosing wrong was also foolish. Joshua's challenge comes to mind:

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve theLord (Joshua 24:15).

Friends, I have argued that while we choose God by faith, we only do so because He first chose us according to His sovereign will from the foundation of the world. But this does not mean that we have no real choices to make from day to day. While salvation is by sovereign election through God's predestination, our daily choices are, for the most part, our own. While these choices do not affect our final destination, they do impact the quality of our worship in this life, as well as what rewards are in store for us in the life to come.

What is more, our day-to-day choices also reflect the reality or unreality of God's choice of us in salvation. If we are merely going through the motions of church and spirituality, Jesus may very well say in that day, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Matthew 7:21-23).

Now, we know that we must follow the LORD. But some choose to do so with a non-confronting, play-it-safe, find a balance, try to live the middle-of-the-road kind of faith. But God is not pleased with this either, so why not fully commit yourself?

Get to know His will through the Scriptures as best as you can, and then put your heart, soul, mind, and strength into diligently applying the truths you understand from His Word to your life. Don't settle for fifteen minutes of reading to get in your token spiritual discipline for the day. Do you really think this pleases the LORD? Was God pleased just because Cain made a sacrifice to Him?

And will you merely listen to God's Word an hour every week at church and not speak of it at fellowship, at home, in your workplace, and with your children?

Is God pleased with you giving a tithe that He has never commanded of Christians, so that churches can build bigger and nicer buildings, entrench its members into greater comfort and complacency, and only give token gestures of charity and outreach, which is done institutionally rather than individually, as God commanded? I am convinced that these days people give to assuage their conscience rather than to further the work of God. They want to counter-balance the guilt they feel over the toys and luxuries they give themselves. But little do they realize that in thinking this way and doing these things they are, in fact, searing their conscience and quenching the Spirit within them.

It is good to give, and to give generously, but we should do this with wisdom and involvement, so that we understand both where the money goes and how it is furthering the work of God. Why would you give to an institution that is failing to rightly or fully preach the Word, or that is hardly reaching anyone for Christ, or merely shuffling Christians from one church to another? Didn't Jesus say to invite people to dinner at your home who could not return the favor? In other words, give purposefully.

This principle also applies to prayer and fasting. Don't simply pray to pray. Don't make it a laundry list of every problem, sick person, personal issue that you can imagine. Didn't Jesus say that God already knows what you need before you ask Him? As I have argued elsewhere, the primary purpose of prayer should be to align our wills with God's will. 

And don't simply fast because it's the annual occasion for it. Follow the lesson of Isaiah 58. If you fast a meal, give that meal to someone who needs it. Are you fasting to tell God that He's more important than a meal, tv, internet, etc? But you only do this for a week, and then you indulge the very same out-of-whack priorities that you had before. How would you feel if someone loaned you a nice projection TV, only to take it back after a week? It would have been better if they did not loan it to you in the first place. I'm not saying that we should not fast, but we should always do it purposefully and not simply because a pastor commands it or because a church scheduled it. 

All these are matters of discernment. And our discernment must be shaped by the Word of God. If anything I have written here resonates with you, and you want to know where to begin to think differently about your life and service of worship to the Lord, this is what I recommend. Make more time to meditate on God's Word. There is no other place to begin. And there is nothing more important. 

David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.” (1 Samuel 25:32-34 TNIV)

Sometimes we read these accounts too quickly. David and his men were intent to go and kill Nabal and his entire household. Now, these were not Canaanites, who God commanded Israel to annihilate. These were fellow Hebrews. As reserved and noble as David was in withholding his hand from harming Saul because he was the LORD's anointed king, David was quick in his intent to destroy the innocent with the guilty in his anger with respect to Nabal. And it was only God's grace and the wisdom of Abigail that kept him from this sin.

Now, we later read that God struck Nabal dead  (1 Samuel 25:38), but would David have been justified in murdering Nabal? By David's comment in 1 Samuel 25:39, it appears that David himself acknowledged that it would have been wrong. It would have been an inauspicious way to begin his rule. But God kept David from this sin.

But why didn't God intervene in saving Ahimelek, the priest, and the city of Nob? Were they not more innocent than David? But God preserved David, who lied to Ahimelek to get food for himself and his men, and allowed the innocent to die.

I bring these matters up because I feel that we are normally conditioned to ignore such irregularities of justice. I bring this up not to malign the ways of God but rather to reiterate the sovereignty of God. He does as He pleases and to fulfill His purposes. Biblical history is filled with examples of the innocent suffering and the guilty being blessed; however, we are meant to understand that the issue is not the fate of one or the other but rather God's glory and the fulfillment of His purposes. And as those who trust in His grace for our eternal hope, it behooves us to do our utmost to align our wills with God's will with "fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). 

Friends, I encourage you to read the Bible with discernment and not rose-colored glasses. Meditate on both the clear and the confusing, the easy and the hard sayings, famous texts as well as those pastors seem never to preach. Use both a telescope (wide view) and a microsope (narrow view) when you study the Scriptures, because both perspectives are necessary for an accurate undertsanding of the truth. Feel free to listen to this or that speaker, or to read this or that text, but be sure to examine everything carefully for yourselves. You should be most wary of "gifted" speakers, who can command your emotions and attention, because you can more easily be swayed by them, whether for good or for evil. What is more, even though having right content is important, I feel having discernment is even more critical, because while hearing a good and right message is helpful in the moment, it is discernment that will guide you aways. And discernment comes only by consistent and extensive reading, study, and meditation on God's Word.

David's action speaks loudly that how strong his conviction is that the Lord is in control.  He could've easily thought (even his followers) that killing Saul was a God-given mission to him, but he not only believed that God would vindicate him and avenge his mistreatment but also acted according to his immovable conviction even though it may mean more persecution and ultimately even death.  I know that David knew that he will be the next king for Israel, but I still think that David wouldn't have killed Saul even though he were to perish because he was more interested in obedience than becoming a king.  How about me?  I tend to act heavily depending upon the outcome of my decision.  If the outcome is favorable to me, there's no hesitation whatsoever to launch a given task, but if I anticipate less than perfect consequence, my morality gets muffled by the self-preservation which is mostly made up of selfishness.  Obedient heart!  Better than 1000 worship services, more valuable than monetary offerings, more pious than 1000 hours of prayer, more spiritual than any gifts of Holy Spirit!  Let us strive to have king David's heart which was after God's heart!
 

In 1 Samuel 25:10-11 we read, "Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”

Now this is an interesting passage because it speaks of both Nabal's knowledge and ignorance. He was aware of servants breaking away from their masters, and he knew enough to know that David was the son of Jesse, but unlike Abigail he did not have enough sense to understand the kind of danger David and his men posed to him. It is true that Nabal did not officially hire David, and Nabal probably thought that since there was no contract, he could get free service. What he did not count on was David's anger. It would have been wrong for David to exact vengeance, but sometimes hot emotion supersedes cool reason. Nabal, as his name suggests, acts the fool here, and throughout history this is how he is known. One lesson I draw from this story has to do with being shrewd. Yes, he could have legally saved some money, but what is that compared to his life?

I have been in situations where I had to weigh costs and benefits, where I took some loss to avoid the prospect of a greater loss. This is wisdom. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:19, "Wisdom Is proved right by her deeds." In that context, Jesus was arguing that his ministry and John the Baptist's ministry would be proven right by the outcome of sinners coming to repentance. So also, shrewdness in decision making is also confirmed by the outcome.

The verses 1 Sam 26:9-11 made me think about capital punishment.  Although our penal law allows this act under certain authorities, I reflected on this passage as it pertains to killing others for the wrong they have done.  Other thoughts were about the towns of refuge, where one could flee their avenging foe (as mentioned throughout the book of Numbers), as well as, the phrase an eye for an eye (Ex. 21:24).  Then apply the NT truth of loving others it makes for an interesting debate as to how we show our love.  Some may say people on death row should be accountable to the choices they make.  I'm sure we all will when we meet our maker.  Some say to turn the other check (Mt. 5:39 & Lk. 6:29).  And yet there are other argument in between.

These verses really helped me to see what I believe God wants us to do.  It's not necessarily our job to pour out judgment on others even if their actions significantly affected our lives.  Rather we should live in a state of grace and love toward others that reflects God's love for us.  This is not an easy straight forward act of obedience.  It takes understanding, patience, wisdom, perseverance and a relationship with God to do this.

Bottom line: we may suffer, be persecuted, hurt, avenged, lied to and even mistreated to the greatest extend of the word even by loved ones but our response should always be one of love.