We finally get to meet Abigail, the wife of the fool who nearly brought about the death of his entire household.

We finally get to meet someone who doesn’t overreact, and who isn’t a complete idiot.

What a breath of fresh air…

^23-25 As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, “My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don’t dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him.

^25-27 “I wasn’t there when the young men my master sent arrived. I didn’t see them. And now, my master, as God lives and as you live, God has kept you from this avenging murder—and may your enemies, all who seek my master’s harm, end up like Nabal! Now take this gift that I, your servant girl, have brought to my master, and give it to the young men who follow in the steps of my master.

1 Samuel 25 – The Message

Nabal let his mouth run away with him and David let his pride force his hand in anger – and that combination was about to turn deadly.  Fortunately Abigail enters the scene at this point and makes it all better.  But how does she do it?

Well, there is a bit of ego stroking going on, and there is a bit of smoothing over of an offended pride.  But there is also a show of major humility.

This was a woman who understood the way a man’s mind worked.  She had to have – after all, look who she was married to!  I’m sure that she had cleaned up the mess left by him running off at the mouth before.  And this time she is met by 400 armed men of war intent on avenging a wounded pride.

Abject humility was the order of the day.  1 Samuel says that she immediately fell to her knees before David – on her face there on the dusty trail.  She took all of the blame for her husband’s foolishness and reached out with hospitality to David and his men.

Then she takes it a step further:

^28-29 “Forgive my presumption! But God is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights God’s battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you.
If anyone stands in your way,
if anyone tries to get you out of the way,
Know this: Your God-honored life is tightly bound
in the bundle of God-protected life;
But the lives of your enemies will be hurled aside
as a stone is thrown from a sling.

^30-31 “When God completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder. And when God has worked things for good for my master, remember me.”

She is risking her own neck here.  She is presuming to tell David that he’s being an idiot.  She is shining a light on the fact that he is intent on the death of an entire household – murdering them – over an insult to his pride.  She is reminding him that God is in control of his life, and that he needs to honor God with his actions… and avenging his pride through murder is not God-honoring.

And he has 400 men with their swords standing behind him, ready to go to battle – or slaughter.  400 men that he could look very foolish in front of because of the words of this woman.

This is a huge risk.

But the reward is her life and the lives of her entire household if he heeds her warning.

Have you ever had to risk everything on the chance of opening someone’s eyes to what they are doing?  Have you ever had to be the lone voice of reason in a sea of fools?  It takes a great deal of courage to stand up and speak the truth when you don’t know how it will be accepted, but the reward is always worth it.

We’ve all been there.

You do something nice for someone else and they blow you off.  Or worse, they blame you or ridicule you for it.

You have been wronged.

How do you react?

Hopefully better than David did…

^12-13 David’s men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, “Strap on your swords!” They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them. Two hundred stayed behind to guard the camp.

^20-22 As she was riding her donkey, descending into a ravine, David and his men were descending from the other end, so they met there on the road. David had just said, “That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood aren’t dead meat by morning!”

-1 Samuel 25 – The Message

Hmmm…

Nabal said some pretty harsh things about David, and refused to acknowledge the assistance that David and his men offered.  It was an insult and a slap in the face – true – but was it worth his reaction?

David is fuming.  He is raging.  He is beyond sense as he hears what Nabal said about him, and it sends him into a fury that will only be stopped by bloodshed.

Apparently he is still a hot-headed young man who isn’t quite ready to be king.

But how different are we?

No, we don’t generally set our hearts upon bloodshed, but the bible does say that what we ponder in our hearts is as much a sin as following through with the action.

When we are wronged or insulted our first reaction is often to “get even.”  Sometimes we even consider acts of violence (not that we would ever follow through of course.  *note the sarcasm*) but that is not how we are called to react.

ruh-roh.

Nope, we are called to forgive. To be humble.  to turn the other cheek and – above all else – to love.

What?!!?!?

But God, You don’t know what they said!  You don’t know what they did!  They need to pay!

Well, actually, He does.  The bible also reminds us that vengence is not ours to give.  Justice is not ours to meter out.  Those belong to God alone.  He will judge our hearts and He will act where vengence is needed.

We are to be humble, forgiving souls that love those around us – even when they hurt us.  We are to give to those in need no matter if we like them or not.

I must admit that this is an area that I need to work on.  My initial reaction still takes a loooooooong time to get past.  I fall into the “get-even” trap all too easily, and it is hard to pull out of that.  In my own strength, well, let’s just say I can have some violent tendencies.  In my own strength I can work myself up to be rather, um, well, not very nice.

But in God’s strength I can learn not only to forgive, but to seek reconciliation.

How about you?  How do you react when you are wronged?  Do tell…

This week we are learning about David, Nabal and Abigail.  The passage is found in 1 Samuel 25:1-35.  Today, however, we will be focusing on Nabal.

^4-8 David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: “Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it’s sheep-shearing time. Here’s the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn’t take advantage of them. They didn’t lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they’ll tell you. What I’m asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.’”

^9-11 David’s young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? The country is full of runaway servants these days. Do you think I’m going to take good bread and wine and meat freshly butchered for my sheepshearers and give it to men I’ve never laid eyes on? Who knows where they’ve come from?”

David and his men had been hanging out in the wilderness of Moan.  All Summer long they had been in the area where Nabal’s men were herding his sheep & goats.  All Summer long they had been offering protection to the sheep and the shepherds.  No animals had gone missing, no men were harmed in any way.  No other roaming bands or wild animals had been allowed to harm Nabal’s livestock or men either – because David and his men were protecting them.

So, David sends some guys over while the party is getting started and asks if they can join in.  Nabal is setting up a big celebration, and David is merely asking if they can come, and perhaps get some payment for the protection they offered all season long.

David’s men come to Nabal and make this request, and the are met with… resistance.

Nabal, foolish Nabal.  He offers ridicule and insult on top of not showing any gratitude for the protection they offered.  He pretends that he doesn’t know who David is, even while fully acknowledging who he is.  He sneers at David for being on the run from King Saul.  He ridicules them in a variety of ways and refuses to even acknowledge that they helped him out.

David and his men could have easily fed themselves throughout the season on roasted lamb.  They could have borrowed a ewe or ten to get fresh milk and fed themselves with fresh cheese and butter – but they didn’t.  Not only did they abstain from taking some of the herds for themselves, but they kept everything else from taking any of the livestock as well.

How often has it happened that you offer help to someone else and they throw it back in your face.

How often has someone else offered help to you, and you were the less-than-gracious recipient of that assistance?

Watching my own children I get to see this played out regularly.  Child #1 will be doing a chore.  Child #2 will come along and help her so that it is finished more quickly and they can play sooner.  When it comes time for the roles to be swapped, child #1 refuses to help out because “I didn’t want her to help in the first place!  I never asked her to help, she just did it!”

This is obviously not the correct response.

When others help us out, how should we respond?

We should react with gratitude and thankfulness – even when it means taking a notch off of our pride to do so.  We need to recognize the blessing of assistance – even when it wasn’t asked for – and express gratitude.

And we should never react with ridicule and distain.  That only leads to greater levels of conflict.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” – 2 Timothy 2:13

I couldn’t resist this photograph.  To me, this screams out a lifelong faithfulness – and a couple that are still very much in love.

David has just walked down the hillside from the Israelite camp.  He has no armor, he has no shield-bearer.  He is young and untried.

But he walks forward with the strength and courage that can only come from God.

⁴¹The Philistine came on and drew near to David, the man who bore the shield going before him.⁴²And when the Philistine looked around and saw David, he scorned and despised him, for he was but an adolescent, with a healthy reddish color and a fair face.

⁴³And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you should come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

Goliath, it seems, had a bit of a big mouth.  He was a veteran of battle.  He was fully armed and ready to face anyone Israel would send down… and they send this… this kid carrying nothing but a stick. It was an insult!

And Goliath called it the insult it was – “am I a dog?” which is what the Israelites called everyone else.  Dogs.  Apparently Goliath knew of this and threw the insult back at them.

But apparently he doesn’t care too much.  You see, he’s sure that he won’t even have to break a sweat to win.

Then David responds:

⁴⁵Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, Whom you have defied.

David Brought God into the equation immediately.  He walked forward in the power of the Lord.  He went into battle to defend the name of the Lord.  He went in full confidence of God’s deliverance.

His boast was not of himself… but of the God of Israel.

⁴⁶This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will smite you and cut off your head. And I will give the corpses of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

⁴⁷And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.

Ooh – it just keeps getting better!  Here he is, a young, untrained guy, standing up to a well-armed, strong, huge warrior whose sole desire is to cut his head off.  And he calls him to the mat.

He brings all the swagger that he didn’t use with Saul – all the confidence and defiance he can muster to tell Goliath – and the Philistines behind him – that the God of Israel will not allow His children to be enslaved.  That he will win this battle without any armor, and without any sword.

He is giving the credit to God before he even starts.

Now that the insults have been hurled, it’s go time.

⁴⁸When the Philistine came forward to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹David put his hand into his bag and took out a stone and slung it, and it struck the Philistine, sinking into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

⁵⁰So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck down the Philistine and slew him. But no sword was in David’s hand.

How can a tiny little rock kill a man?

Well, it may not have been a pebble.  Historians say that the stones that were often used in slings were a little bit larger than a baseball, and that in the hands of someone that knew how to use a sling properly they could be flung at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

Basically Goliath was taken down by a very solid fast ball between the eyes.

Ouch.

My daughter was hit in the head with a softball over the weekend – not anything to sneeze at.  Thankfully that ball wasn’t going anywhere near 100 mph, and it wasn’t aimed at her face.  There was little to no damage done.  However another woman at the tournament was not so lucky.  She was hit in the face with a ball.  It knocked her out cold.  There was blood – lots of blood, and she was having trouble remembering things.  A softball is much more forgiving than a rock… but even that can do some serious damage.

I’m sure David knew he would get one, maybe two shots off with the sling before Goliath was on top of him, and he took every advantage he could.  It says he was running towards Goliath – adding momentum to the rock he threw.  He didn’t hesitate either.  He started running, loaded the sling and flung it with all his might, and the rock struck home.

And with the power of the Most High God behind that rock, Goliath didn’t stand a chance.

When it’s go time for us, do we run headlong into the fray, taking advantage of any momentum God had given us?  Or do we hesitate and consider turning tail and hiding out until it’s over?

God will provide the weapons that we need for any battles that He has called us to.  We just need to trust the outcome to Him and give it our all.

We need to move forward in faith and trust that His strength will see us through.

Today we are going to take a look at David.  He has come to bring some food to his brothers, and – more importantly – to get word on how they are doing for his father.  Imagine his excitement!  He gets to be away from the sheep for a day and gets to go to the front lines of the battle!  He gets to go hang with the warriors.  What young man wouldn’t think that was cool?

He gets there, and it’s not quite what he expected to find.  There is no battle, the warriors are just milling around on their hillside… talking.

David hears snatches of the conversation and his interest is peaked.  Apparently King Saul has made some pretty big promises to the man who will go out and face this Philistine from Gath.  Really big promises.  Like make him part of the family promises.

David is intrigued.  He is asking questions.  He is thinking about things…

²⁶Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”

Eliab – David’s oldest brother – hears him asking questions and gets a little huffy.  David feigns innocence, but people have already heard what he was saying.

He actually seemed interested in fighting Goliath – and no one else had even considered it.

³¹When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him.³²David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

³³Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.”

First, I would like to point out the attitude with which David goes before King Saul.  It is an attitude of humility.  David already knew enough about Saul to know that if he came in arrogance, he would fail.  If he walked in full of himself, he would be ignored.  But he came in with humility – “Your servant” is how he referenced himself to Saul.

And he didn’t call anyone else a coward… especially Saul.

Saul looked at the oung man standing before him and was a bit confused.  David was probably in the range of 16-22 now – having reached his full height, but I’m sure he hadn’t filled out much yet.  He was handsome, but he was not a trained warrior – far from it!  He was a shepherd.  A musician.  How could he fight against this man of war?  This GIANT man of war!

But David had a good argument.

³⁴But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,

³⁵I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.

³⁶“Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.”

³⁷And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine ” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.”

Wow – this kid is claiming to have killed bears and lions with his bare hands.  Defending sheep is apparently a bit more challenging than I thought.  It’s not just sitting around all day playing the lyre and enjoying the idyllic countryside.  You actually do have to do things.  You actually have to fight against large animals.

Apparently it was a convincing argument.

Of course, he also claimed that the Lord would protect him.  That is the most important part of his claim – God was with him.  I’m sure Saul remembered what it felt like to have God’s presence with him, after all, the Spirit of God had been with Saul for some time – leading & guiding him as be began his rule.

So, Saul took young David at his word.

³⁴And David said to Saul, Your servant kept his father’s sheep. And when there came a lion or again a bear and took a lamb out of the flock,

³⁵I went out after it and smote it and delivered the lamb out of its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and smote it and killed it.

³⁶Your servant killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God!

³⁷David said, The Lord Who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you!

³⁸Then Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail.

³⁹And David girded his sword over his armor. Then he tried to go, but could not, for he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them. And David took them off.

⁴⁰Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in his shepherd’s [lunch] bag [a whole kid's skin slung from his shoulder], in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near the Philistine.

Saul set out to make David go to battle looking like he wanted him to look – and like everyone around him looked.  He put his own armor on David (which tells me that David must have been somewhat tall, as Saul was head & shoulders above most of Israel) and girded him for battle as a soldier.

But David was not a soldier, he was a shepherd.

David put on the armor and tried to walk around, but he couldn’t.  He knew that if he were to go out and attempt to fight Goliath in something that was so foreign to Him it would be nearly impossible.  So he took it off.

Instead he took the staff that he had come with and the sling that he used to fight off wild animals.  Along the way he stopped at the brook and chose five smooth stones to use.

He trusted God to be his shield.

He went with what he knew, he played to his strengths.

He was familiar with the staff and the sling.  They were weapons he had wielded before with success.  I’m sure he has played at swords as a child, but he was not trained in hand-to-hand combat with one.  And given Goliath’s size, well, hand-to-hand combat most likely would not go well for him.  I mean the guy was nearly twice his size!  His head was at the perfect height to be cleaved from his shoulders… not exactly a pleasant thought.

So he walked forward with the tools God had given him in the past, and trusted God to provide the rest.  He didn’t even have the stones when he headed down, but he knew that God would provide those too.

He had no armor, he had no shield bearer.  He had no sword.  But he did have God – and that made all the difference.

He walked forward with certainty and purpose and full of faith that God would prevail… and those who taunt God would be destroyed.

We are backing up today to take a closer look at Goliath – and just why it was that he was so intimidating.

⁴Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.⁵He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.

⁶He also had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.

⁷The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him.

Six cubits and a span.  That is what we are told is Goliath’s height (before or after his head was removed though?  sorry, bad joke)

So just how long is a cubit?

The research I did this morning points to the average cubit being about 18 inches long – although accounts vary from 12 inches to 24 inches.  A span is from the tip of your thumb to the top of your pinkie, fully extended – averaging about 9 inches.

So, if you multiply 18×6, you get 9 feet.  Plus 9 inches, that puts Goliath at 9’9″ tall.  Not exactly a small fry.

Then you add in all of that bronze armor.  Historians estimate that the scale-armor alone weighed about 155 lbs. – and that is before you add the weight of the helmet, sword and greaves and Goliath starts hefting that javelin around to toss it. This guy had to be more than just a tall skinny whisp of a man.  He had to be strong too.

Oh, and keep in mind that the Israelites weren’t exactly known as a tall group of people to begin with.  If David was in his late teens or early twenties, he could have been around 5’9″ in height – not exactly short, but not a towering presence either.  Or he could have been even shorter – around 5’3″.  The bible doesn’t share that information. But when you are up against someone who is almost 10 feet tall, what difference will a few inches make?

That’s certainly enough height difference to create a bit of an impression.  Then you add in the fact that Goliath was covered from head to toe in bronze armor – not the lightest to be sure – and was hefting around some heavy weaponry and you begin to understand the Israelite’s fear.

This was one big, strong dude.

This massive guy was calling someone out to stand toe-to-toe with him on the field of battle, and the fate of an entire country would be resting on their shoulders – the fate of their family would be in their hands.

No one was willing to take that risk – they were just too afraid.

They were looking at the physical presence and it looked impossible.  They were listening to his taunts and believed the lies that they would never measure up.  None of the men in the Israelite army could get past their fear long enough to take the step to faith that God would fight this battle for them.

Except David.

This week we will be studying the story of David and Goliath.  I am hopeful that we will be able to pull a variety of ideas from this passage to discuss.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

⁸He [Goliath] stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel and said to them, “Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

⁹“If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us.”

¹⁰Again the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.”

Wow.  That sure was a mouthful.  Israel comes to defend their land against the Philistines (again), and they are taunted for even showing up!  Basically this guy is standing there asking them why the even bothered coming out – after all, they are just going to lose anyway.

Do you ever feel like that?

It doesn’t matter if I try to overcome _____________ (fill in your own blank), it’s bigger than me.  It’s more than I can handle.  I can try to fight, but I will just end up losing parts of me in the process.

But you show up.  You recognize the battle for what it is.  Then the taunts really start in.  “You can’t do this.”  “Don’t you see the opponent over there?  They are more powerful than you.”  “You are too weak to even enter into battle, why did you even show up?”

Ouch.

But I want to make sure you notice something hiding in the middle of verse 8.

“Am I not the Philistine and you servants of Saul?”

Um…

Well, not exactly.

After all, they were the children of Israel – servants of GOD, not Saul.

So not only is this guy berating them for even showing up, but he is ignoring God.  He is ignoring the fact that he is ragging on God’s chosen people, and thereby dissing God.

Stand back – lightning could strike at any time!

Here is an entire army worth of men who are under the protection of God, and they are letting the physical override the spiritual.

They are trusting their eyes instead of their faith.

This goes on for 40 days – they suffer through this large specimin of a man hurling insults to them day after day after day, and it’s beginning to take it’s toll.

They are discouraged.

They are afraid.

They are hiding from this giant of a man and believing the lies he is cursing them with.  Even Saul is cowering before Goliath.  He could order someone to go out and fight, but everyone is sure that it would mean certain death for whomever walks into that field.

They are not trusting God to protect them.  Instead, they have put their faith in Saul – and he seems terrified.  More than that, God has already left him.  God has already chosen a new king to replace him because Saul doesn’t trust in Him.  Saul trusts only in himself.

When we trust only in ourselves or those around us, we miss out on the blessing that comes through faith.  The blessing of God’s peace in the midst of trials, and the chance to lean into His strength and know that we are safe in His very capable hands.

The best part though?  Each time we trust in God, our faith grows stronger and we are quicker to trust in Him next time.

And there will be a next time.  There always is.

But God is always there.