1 Samuel 25

 

1 Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together, mourned for him, and buried him at his home at Ramah. And David rose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2 Now there was a man in Maon, whose business was in Carmel; the man was very great: he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal and the name of his wife Abigail: she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful appearance: but the man was hard and evil in his dealings; he was a Calebite.

 

  • Remember the source of evil is Satan.
  • Each person on earth is listening to the voice of God, his own heart, or the whisper of the serpent.
  • This verse tells us that Nabal was evil, his actions were based on the whisper of the serpent.

 

4 Now David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent out ten young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and ask him of his welfare in my name: 6 Say this to him that lives in prosperity, Peace be both to you, peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

 

  • God is the Source of peace.
  • Isaiah 57:21 There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.
  • Judges. 5:8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates…
  • John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, do not let it be afraid.

 

7 I have heard that you have shearers: and when your shepherds were with us,we did not hurt them, and nothing of theirs missing all the time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will show you. Therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes: for we come a good day: please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants, and to your son David. 9 And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal all those words in the name of David, and waited.

 

  • David’s men had done guard duty over Nabal’s servants and flocks. He protected both man and animal.
  • He asked Nabal for a little food in return.
  • We find favor in God’s eyes because we are in Christ.

 

10 And Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today that break away from their master. 11 Am I to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men from who knows where? 12 So David’s young men turned their way, returned, and came and told him all those words. 13 And David said to his men, Every man strap on his sword. So every man strapped on his sword; and David also strapped on his sword: and about 400 men followed David; and two hundred stayed with the supplies. 14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he screamed at them. 15 But the men were very good to us. We were not hurt, nothing was missing as long as we were near them when we were in the fields: 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.

 

  • Zechariah 2:5 I will be a wall of fire around her, and will be glory in the midst of her, says the LORD,

 

17 So, know this and consider what you will do; evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of worthlessness that no man can speak to him. 18 Then Abigail hurried, took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched corn, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. 19 And she said to her servants, Go ahead of me; look, I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 And while she was riding on the ass, she came down by the cover of the mountain, and behold, David and his men came down opposite her; and she met them. 21 Now David had said, Surely in vain I have kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing of all that belonged to him: and he has repaid me evil for good. 22 So may God do and more to the enemies of David, if I leave any of all that belongs to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall. 23 And when Abigail saw David, she hurried, got down off the ass, fell before David on her face, bowed herself to the ground, 24 and fell at his feet and said, Let this iniquity be on me, my lord,: please let your handmaid speak in your hearing, and listen to the words of your handmaid.

 

  • Jesus took our iniquity on Himself.
  • Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 

25 Please my lord, do not regard this worthless man, Nabal: he is just like his name; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I, your handmaid, did not see your young men that you sent. 26 Now, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, since the LORD has withheld you from coming to shed blood, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and those that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

 

  • God withheld David from avenging himself and shedding innocent blood.
  • Nabal was wrong.
  • But all the men in Nabal’s service would have been killed.
  • What wrong had they done?
  • Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.

 

27 And now, this blessing that your handmaid has brought to my lord, let it even be given to the young men that follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a secure dynasty; because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in you all your days. 29 Yet a man has risen to pursue you, to seek you soul: but the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God; and he will sling out the souls of your enemies, as out of the middle of a sling.

 

  • God would make David a sure house, a lasting dynasty.
  • David did not listen to the whispers of evil like Saul and Nabal.
  • He listened to the Lord who binds our souls with Him in the bundle of life.
  • Genesis 4:7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? and if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. Its desire is toward you, and you are to rule over him.
  • John 17:21 That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in me, I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent me.

 

God appoints rulers

 

30 And it will come to pass, when the LORD has done to my lord according what he has spoken, all the good concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel; 31 That this not be a cause of staggering or stumbling to my lord, and you will not have shed causeless blood, or that my lord has avenged himself: but when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.

 

  • Daniel 2:21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom to the wise…

 

32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today: 33 Blessed be your discernment, and you be blessed, who has kept me today from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light any that piss against the wall. 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, Go to your house in peace; see, I have listened to you voice, and have accepted your face. 36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held 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, less or more, until the morning light. 37 But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. 38 And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal so that he died.

 

  • God gives life. He does not sustain evil indefinitely but allows time to repent.

 

The LORD turns wickedness back on itself

 

39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead he said, Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept his servant from evil: for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head, And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him as a wife.

 

  • God is not unfair to give us to reap what we sow.
  • He created us, gave us every breath we took.
  • If we do wrong, He is perfectly just to bring the results back upon us.
  • It teaches us the harm of our ways and gives an opportunity to stop doing those things.
  • Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that is what he will reap.

 

40 And when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, David sent us to you, to take you to him for a wife. 41 So she rose, bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42 And Abigail hurried, got up, rode on an ass with five ladies of hers that went after her; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and both of them were his wives. 44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.

 

  • Verse 3 said Abigail had good understanding. Her words to stop David show her wisdom.
  • Matthew 23:11 But he that is greatest among you will be your servant.

 

                                          1 Samuel 26

 

1 And the Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah saying, David is hiding himself in the hill of Hachilah, before Jeshimon. 2 Then Saul got up and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3 And Saul camped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David dwelt in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul followed him into the wilderness. 4 Then David sent out spies, and knew that Saul had come to Nachon.

 

  • Saul came to kill David and all the Israelites with David just like he killed the priests and all the people of Nob in 1 Samuel 22.
  • Saul was just like Satan.
  • Satan turned from God and is trying to steal the kingdom of heaven.
  • Saul turned from God and was trying to keep the kingdom of Israel for himself without God.

 

5 And David got up and came to the place where Saul had camped: and David watched the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army: Saul lay inside the barricade, and the people were camped around him. 6 Then answering, David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you.

 

  • David found out exactly where Saul was located in the camp and then asked for a volunteer to go with him.

 

God is sovereign over life and death

 

7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the barricade with his spear stuck in the ground at his head and Abner and the people lay all around him. 8 Then Abishai said to David, God has delivered your enemy into your hand today: please let me strike him to the ground right now with the spear, with one stroke, and I will not repeat striking him. 9 And David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him; who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless? 10 David said furthermore, As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his day will come to die; or he will descend into battle and perish. 11 The LORD forbid that I stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed: now please take the spear that is at his headrest and the cruse of water, and let’s go.

 

  • God had anointed Saul as king.
  • It was God’s place to remove him from being king.
  • Job 1 and 2 show us that Satan has to get permission from God for everything.
  • Daniel 2:21 he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
  • Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
  • Revelation 1:18 I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

 

12 So David took the spear and the skin of water from Saul’s head; and they went away, and no man saw it, knew it, or woke up: they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them. 13 Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill far off with a great space between them: 14 And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner saying, Do you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who are you that calls to the king? 15 And David said to Abner, Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why have you not guarded your lord the king? Someone of the people came to destroy the king, your lord. 16 This thing is not good that you have done. As the LORD lives, you are worthy to die because you have not guarded your master, the LORD’s anointed. Now see where the king’s spear is, and the skin of water that was at his head. 17 Saul recognized David’s voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king. 18 And he said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant like this? What have I done? What evil is in my hand? 19 Now, I beg you, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it is the children of men, they are cursed before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from clinging to the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.

 

  • In the Old Testament when a man offended God, the man brought the designated offering and was forgiven.
  • Since Christ died on the cross for all sin, we may acknowledge that sin to God, but it has already been judged in Christ (1 John 1:9).


20 Now therefore, do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, like one hunting a partridge in the mountains.

 

  • All life is before the face of the Lord.
  • Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
  • Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being…

 

21 Then Saul said, I have sinned: return, my son David: I will not do you evil any more because my soul was precious in your eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. 22 And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! Let one of the young men cross over and take it. 23 The LORD will repay every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the LORD delivered you into my hand today, but I was not willing to stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed.

 

  • God gives every man according to his deeds. But those who seek Him are give what Christ deserves, not what they deserve.

  • Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

 

God delivers out of all tribulation

 

24 And behold, as your life was valued in my eyes today, let my life be valued in the eyes of the LORD, that He may rescue me from all adversity. 25 Then Saul said to David, Bless you, my son David: you will do great things, and still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

 

  • Psalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
  • Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

 

                                         1 Samuel 27

 

God was David’s shepherd

 

1 And David said in his heart, I will perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than to quickly escape into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will despair of searching for me in all of Israel: so I will escape out of his hand. 2 And David got up and crossed over, he and the six hundred men that were with him to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household: David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 4 Saul was told that David fled to Gath: and he sought him no more.

 

  • In 1 Samuel 16:12 God had Samuel anoint David king over Israel.
  • Whatever David did, God was not going to let anything happen to him.
  • David had been on Saul’s most wanted list for a long time.
  • Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn.

 

5 And David said to Achish, Please, if I have found grace in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there: why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day: therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 The time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. 8 David and his men went up and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: those nations were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt. 9 And David struck the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, the oxen, the asses, the camels, and the clothing, and returned, and came to Achish. 10 And Achish said, Where have you made a raid today? And David said, Against the south of Judah, against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. 11 And David did not keep alive man or woman to bring news to Gath saying, So they not tell on us saying, This is what David has done, and this is what he’s been doing all the time he lived in the country of the Philistines. 12 And Achish believed David saying, He has made his people, Israel, utterly to abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.

 

  • God had put all the old inhabitants of the land under a death curse for the fullness of their iniquity and idolatry.
  • David wasn’t just out slaughtering innocents, but destroying those still under this curse; He was cutting out the cancer of evil that leads mankind to eternal death.
  • But David was living a lie.
  • Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

 

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SUMMARY: 1 Samuel 25-27

 

  • The LORD binds us up in the bundle of life with Him
  • He appoints rulers
  • He turns wickedness back on itself
  • He is sovereign over life and death
  • He delivers out of all tribulation
  • He is our shepherd