Navigating Anger and Wisdom- The Story of Nabal and Abigail: 1 Samuel 25:23-44

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Hey, good morning everybody. My name is Chris. This is

Jeff Forrester Man.

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keep on saying watch, but.

Yeah, hey, I wonder. So we averaged like twenty five

minutes an episode ish times five hundred divided by sixty,

it's two hundred and eight and a half hours.

Wow, two hundred and eight hours. Yeah, that's a lot

of hours.

That's a lot of hours. That's like ten straight days

and divided by eight hours. Let's say if you listen

to eight hours a day, you go twenty six days.

That means twenty six days eight hours a day.

That means I've sat here and listened to you talk

just go on and on for what. I wonder a

percentage of those two hundred eight hours that you were

talking versus me. It's really funny to think about if

you add up the minutes, like what would it be?

What we should do is take all of the episodes

and drop them into AI and ask them a bunch

of questions like that, how many words Jeff say versus?

How many words did Chris say?

That would be interesting?

Actually, how many meaningful things did Jeff say versus? How

many meaningful things?

AI is going to discurbine what is meaningful? I don't

think so, because.

How many movie references that are about.

Make versus that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

That would be great?

Well, you know, like yesterday I said no, two days

ago I said on the podcast, I go in the world,

and then I just went on, right, that's a movie reference.

And yet nobody would know A I know.

That AI knows everything.

No AI does. I'm not you're right, this is not okay,

This is not what I robot.

Yeah not yet.

This is not all those other ones the age of Ultron.

These are We've not arrived there. So if you are

a new listener today and this is your first time.

It doesn't get any better than what just happened there.

So if you're looking for something.

Better, right, we have some other good podcasts.

You've hit the peak, Ladies and Gentlemen goes down from there.

But it is fun. We've got people all around the

world that listen, thousands and thousands of people and what

is it now, eighty ninety country something like that. But

it's really fun to find out where our listeners are from.

And so Desiree, she's the one that really does most

of the work on this podcast. By the way, she

every once in a while will do one of these

segments saying, where are our listeners from? Because it's fun

to see where the listeners are from.

Hey, I just.

Yawned, and did you know that somebody approached me in

the lobby at our church on Sunday? She goes, Hey,

I just want to let you know I love the

Bibble guys, And she said, and I want to let

you know also I count your yawns.

Yeah, well there was one yep.

And by the way, I've said this a couple of times,

but why do I yawn all the time?

Because you're bored? No, because it's dark.

Low lighting.

Low lighting makes you tells me.

To yawn immediately, Yes, immediately. If I go into a

low lighting environment, I yawn immediately.

Yes.

Go ahead.

So today we're going to highlight a whole country, is

what she says. But I think I think she meant

a whole city.

Yeah, because the answer down here is a city.

That's correct. So the first one, hey, it will give

you four clues. The first one German chocolate cake originated

here in nineteen fifty seven. That's all I need to

know to love the city.

It sounds like Germany.

German chocolate cake.

Yeah, but so if it's not Germany, then I call farce.

It's not. But I know there's a lot of Germans

that live in this city. Wow, yeah, totally cake. And

there were a lot of German cowboys back in the day.

Were not sure there were no they were not sure.

There were all right, bunch of a bunch of cattlemen

out out in that part of the country where German.

Guy walks up, you know, chi ching ch ching, chit

chink with his little six shoes and he.

Goes Venus Knitzer.

I don't think so anyway. Number two, it is the

birthplace of seven eleven.

What yeah, so German chocolate cake and big gulps.

What more do you need big gulps? Huh yeah, Well

see you.

Later, Okay, Varney, our favorite big purple dinosaur was created here.

I don't know about our favorite.

Yeah. I don't know about that one either. I love you.

Yeah, he was big back in the day.

Yes.

And then finally number four. It holds the largest state

fair in the United States, drawing over two million visitors

every year.

What. This is great because state fairs are amazing. You

know what? Because you can get anything to eat on

a stick. It's right, you can, man, That's why state Hey,

I'm not joking. Well, we should say where it's at

and then I'll tell you my yes state first, and it.

Is Dallas, Texas.

Hey, everybody in Dallas. We are so glad that you're here. Yes, listening? Thanks,

y'all tuning in? Yep? So, hey, let us know where

you're from, Yes, tell let us know where you're listening from.

You can send us an email info at the Bible

Guides dot com, or you can leave a comment on

the if you're watching on YouTube, or you can how

else can they I guess send up a bat signal.

Yes, yeah, well.

I mean they could always email us directly. It's we're

not hard to find if you go to Heritage Church

dot com. Uh, that is our church, and then our

emails are you know, on those things too. So yeah,

by the way, my brother lives in Plano.

Texas, not sorry from Dallas, not.

Far at all.

So I have been to Plano several times and been

to Dallas several times. And I got to tell yeah,

I love Texas and I love Dallas.

Yeah, and I love playing.

We lived in Texas for a few years and so

served as a church down there, my my wife and

my my two sons Tyler. We lived near Beaumont, Texas. Yeah,

so right down on the Louisiana border, right on the

Gulf of Mexico. Yeah.

Wow.

It was just a big swamp. There were more alligators

in our county than there were people. So but I

loved it, loved Texas and been all over the whole

state so many times. But what I was telling you

about state fairs and fairs in general. In Texas, everything's

on a stick and you can eat it and then

it's fried. You get fried. Uh. Maybe the best single

greatest thing I ever put in my mouth for food

at a fair was a fried twinkie on a stick. Wow,

and it sounds horrible. It was amazing, And went back

I got another one. I've had fried alligator on a stick.

Of course, you get chicken and pork. And I had

ribs on a stick one time there where they ran

a stick between each rib all the way up.

You know.

Oh yeah, all kinds of everything. You get everything to

eat on a stick, and a lot of it's.

Fried donuts on a stick.

Yeah. Yeah, I've had donuts on a stick.

Yeah, that's really great.

So man, go to Texas for the state fair. Now

that we know that the biggest state fairs in Dallas,

that's a million visitors. That's incredible.

Holy Christmas, I know that's amazing.

So there you go, Dallas. You're represented the day. Yes,

And I think you have the second best football team.

Do that second fourth best? In twenty two.

I was going to say yeah, I was going to

say they're they're definitely.

I always have. I always have so much hope for

the Cowboys and then they just underperform every year.

I have not liked the Cowboys ever since they beat

us in our playoff game.

The loss back in nineteen ninety yeah whatever, it was

ninety seven, ninety three.

No, no, no, were we taking off on the one playoff game?

Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Dallas was the one that

took us out.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, and I mean obviously not last year. Lines were

actually good last year. Yeah, I'm talking about previous.

Year back in the nineties. No, no, not that one,

because we lost to We lost to the Cowboys in

the nineties too, back and Bass Andanders.

Was playing, well, the Cowboys are a cursed then, yes,

for the lines.

Right, well, we hate the Cowboys when we bring that up,

just ruin the whole podcast. Okay, well we've been We

started off yesterday telling the story of David and his men.

He has got six hundred men and they ask for

food from Neyball, a very wealthy man, and he has

a really bad temper. He starts talking. He's all kinds

of smack about David and about his people, and he

doesn't want to share. Abigail Nabel's wife is like, man,

we're about ready to get wiped out because of David,

and she packs up a whole bunch of she picks

up the whole entry.

I love we didn't talk about it yesterday, but I

love how she's referred to as sensible, kind and then beautiful. Yes, yes,

that's right, right, because because we have to picture her

in our minds.

Right.

So, here's this woman who's who's who's riding down? Here

comes these four hundred men. They're like, nobody's going to

be left live. And then you got this really beautiful, kind,

sensible woman who has decided to clean up the pantry

and take you know, two hundred packs of raisins and

all these different you know, donkey's loaded up with food

for these men.

That's right. So and David literally says, get all of

your stuff. We're gonna go wipe this guy out. That's

what he tells his men. And so then in First Samuel,

chapter twenty five, verse twenty three, Abigail is riding her

donkey towards David and says, when Abigail saw David, she

quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.

She fell at his feet and said, I accept all

blame in this matter, my lord, Please listen to what

I have to say. I know Nabel is a wicked

and ill tempered man. Please don't pay any attention to him.

He's a fool, just as his name suggests, which, by

the way, Nabel literally means fool.

Wow.

I don't know who names their kid that, but right,

but I never even saw the young men. You now

my Lord, as surely as the Lord lives, and you

yourself lives. Since the Lord has kept you from murdering

and taking vengeance into your own hands, Let all your

enemies and those who try to harm you be as

cursed as Nabal is. And here is a present that I,

your servant, have brought to you and your young men.

Please forgive me if I've offended you in any way.

The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty,

for you are fighting the Lord's battles, and you've not

done wrong throughout your entire life. Even when you are

chased by those who seek to kill you. Your life

is safe in the care of the Lord, your God,

secure in his treasure pouch. But the lives of your

enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling when

the Lord has done all he promised and has made

you leader of Israel. Don't let this be a blemish

on your record. Then your conscience won't have to bear

the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when

the Lord has done these great things for you, please

remember me, your servant. Davy replied to Abigail. Praise the Lord,

the God of Israel, has sent you to meet me

this day. Thank God for your good sense. Bless you

for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance

with my own hands. For I swear by the Lord,

the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you,

that if you had not hurried out to meet me,

not one of Nabel's men would still be alive tomorrow morning.

That's a strong statement. Then David accepted her present and

told her return home in peace. I've heard what you said.

We will not kill your husband. When Abigail arrived home,

she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and

was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so

she didn't tell him anything about her meeting with David

until dawn the next day. In the morning, when Nabal

was sober, his wife told him what had happened, and

as a result, he had a stroke and he laid

paralyzed on his bed like a stone. About ten days later,

the Lord struck him and he died. When David heard

that Nabal was dead, he said, praise the Lord whos

avenged the insult. I wascerived from Nabal and has kept

me from doing it myself. Nabal has received the punishment

for his sin. Then David sent his messengers to Abigail

to ask her to become his wife. When the messengers

arrived at Carmel, they told Abigail, David has sent us

to take you back to marry him. She bowed low

to the ground and responded, I, your servant would be

happy to marry David. I would even be willing to

become a slave. Watching the feet of his servants, quickly

getting ready, she took along five of her servant girls

as attendants, mounted a donkey and went with David's messengers,

and so she became his wife. David also married a

Hannoem from Jezreel, making both of them his wives. It's all. Meanwhile,

had given his daughter Michael, David's wife, to a man

from a Galum named Pulti, son of Leish. Well Yeah,

what is that?

Yeah?

Well, I mean, you know, can we just before we

get to the awesome story. That was a thing back then, ye,

marrying multiple wives, and everybody of every nation did it.

But God never in the Bible, not once has God ever,

God told him not to right, God did not approve

of multiple wives. And yet it seems like everybody in

power decided to exercise that right.

Not a right. I guess legally it's a right, isn't it.

Right, Yeah, as they decided to exercise their legal right

to have multiple wives.

And it was a cultural thing, and they were embracing

the culture rather than doing what God had said was appropriate. Right.

The only time, like we read about Boaz with Ruth, right,

there was this thing that take care of your brothers

or your relative's wife if she's a widow. Right, So

if your brother your relative dies, you're supposed to take

care of her. That would be a different kind of

a situation usually than this idea of just go out

and hey, there's a pretty woman, I'm going to make

her my wife, and there's another one, I'm going to

make her my wife. Just go around collecting women. It

was a very different thing. So that was inappropriate on

David's part. But the rest of this story is pretty incredible,

the fact that Abigail had the courage to come and

deflect David's anger by saying, hey, blame me.

Do you know that I actually teared up when you

were reading that story?

I actually did, which is so crazy.

He said, what an obscure story from the Old Testament

to have so much emotion. But but I was actually

just thinking, like, you know, first of all, she gets

off her donkey and she uh, you know, goes down,

and I think I just found it so beautiful that

she took responsibility in such a way. And you know,

and again she's you know, saying, hey, he should be cursed,

because you know, she recognizes the weight of his insults.

She's like, listen, he's an idiot, right.

His name suggests.

But but the point is is, though check her out, man,

she is she is filled with so much nobility and

wisdom and uh and think about the uh you know,

just as she said, she says, do not let this

be a blemish on your record. And then David says,

thank God for you that God sent you here, because

let me tell you what we almost did. And yet

you know, not only me as the commander, but then

the four hundred people that are behind me, and then

my reputation for the rest of my life. This would

have been this thing. I would have murdered him and

everybody else in my anger. And thank God for you

that you have shown so much wisdom.

That's what he.

Said, her wisdom right. And it reminds me of how

many times in my life that somebody has come up

to me and given me fair warning, hey, you're not

acting correctly. And it could be in a small way,

or it could be in a large way, you know,

like a life changing decisions, you know, or the huge

mistakes that have the potential to, you know, derail you

in a big way.

I've had those moments.

But more so it's been in small ways where people have,

you know, said hey, let me pull you aside.

You know what, you're wrong.

She's right, and you're acting this way, but you don't

realize it, and all of a sudden you sort of

have this lightning moment, you know, this light bulb moment

that says, oh, my goodness, yeah, you know they're correct.

Well, David was remember a few weeks ago? Was it

last week? We had the question, you know about the

law says don't kill tank commandments? I shall not kill.

Oh that was a while back.

Yeah, when was that? This was a couple weeks ago? Yeah,

it was some weeks last week or a couple weeks ago.

The question was, you know, the law says thou shalt

not kill? But why why is there so much killing

in the Bible? And we talked about the fact the

pastor yeah, the stump the pastor that was last week's week,

that was last week you were talking about Exodus twenty Yeah, yeah, no,

I was like wow. And so the question was why

is there so much killing in the Bible? And we

differentiated between your individual right to get revenge meditated premeditated

murder and the idea of God establishing the government to

bring judgment on wicked people. Right, so God establishes the

death penalty for murder. If somebody commits intentional murder, then

the government is supposed to execute that person right now.

A life for a life is what God says in

the law, those kind of things. So there's all these

established things, and so in a war environment, in a

battle kind of situation, God allows this kind of you know,

the you're allowed to protect your nation, you're allowed to

protect your your property, you're allowed to protect your family,

even if it means the death of the other person.

You're allowed to protect those things. In this situation, David

acknowledges that his bad attitude towards an the ball was

purely revenge r and David acknowledged this would have been murder.

Isn't it amazing? So David killed Goliath in a battle.

Everybody's like woo hoo, and God celebrates the fact that

David kills this, this wicked man that was, you know,

mocking the people of Israel and the God and bringing

war against pillaging against the people of Israel. They're allowed

to protect their land, They're allowed to protect their resources

and their assets. But in this situation, David is just

ticked off and goes, boys, we're going to go wipe

this guy out. We're going to kill him and everybody

that works for him. And Abigail comes and goes, hey,

if you do this, his blood will be on your

hands and on your conscience the rest of your life

because you're a good man. Right, Your reputation is you're

a good man. The Bible calls David a man after

God's own heart, right right, Nobody has that kind of

accolade about David's general heart for God is so great

that he's always pursuing God, which, by the wayhole Bible.

Just as a side note, it's wonderful that David still

has that, you know, that sentence set about him by God,

right about him by God. And yet we also know

David was not perfect.

Oh well, he gets ticked off here. He's going to

go wipe out in an entire community, right, and it's.

Big failure, you know, later on in life with best

sheep and everything else. It's you know, it's it's good

to know that God still uses broken people for great things. Sure,

and all the way throughout the Bible, you know, we

we we sometimes refer to them where we hear about

them as saints and you know, Saint Paul, Sat Saint

Peter and and you know that's fine, but we have

to recognize they were all broken people. Every single one

of them had their faults, and yet God chose them

and hand selected them.

And guess what he hand selects you.

He chooses you and all your imperfections to do great

things because God can still use you as an imperfect person.

Yeah, David's greatest accomplishments were prior to his greatest failures,

right for sure. So the more you're pursuing God, the

more God has to use of you. After David's great failures,

it was, I mean, we're going to look at this

pretty soon. Absolom is coming after him. As household starts collapsing.

The only really good thing that happens out of it

is he writes a couple of repentance psalms that are

really really meaningful to us, and he writes those in

his brokenness, and he raises up Solomon to take his place,

you know, and Solomon early in his life is pursuing God.

But there is this sense that God doesn't give up

on people, even David, who's hot headed here and is

ready to wipe out Nebal God sends Abigail, and I

think God does that for us, that he's a young

man after God's own heart. Of course, he's you know,

he's living on this the edge of morality all the

time because he's in a war kind of environment. And now, hey,

I've got the assets, I'm going to go wipe out

in Abel. But this was a revenge moment. It would

have been blood on his hands, It would have been

blood on his conscience. And instead she God sends her

to him and he goes, you're right, And I think

that we have to recognize in the heat of the moment,

if there's somebody coming to intervene, we needed to catch

our breath and pause and accept that that's a message

from God to slow it down. You know, Hey, if

David decided later on, know, I think God wants me

to wipe out Abel. He could have done it the

next day too. He still had the bigger army, He

still had the tough guys. So there is a lot

of wisdom and pausing and listening to, you know, the

the other side of the story in this situation, listening

to Abigail and.

Thing, remember the dad joke. Yesterday we talked about the

irony joke.

Yes, you want to know the irony of.

This story is that Ball was so concerned about sharing

just a little bit of his resources with David, not

really knowing that a month later he'd be dead and

David would own all of his resources. That's right, So

David inherited all of Naball's wealth by marrying Abigail.

Right, Perhaps it would have depended on the law a

lot of times. It'd be the men in Nabel's family

and unless that was her dowry. Remember they had the

dowry thing. Okay, Okay, I'm just saying, David, they certainly

had the ability to go take it, taking.

The western world, right, maybe not the eastern world. Okay,

well that's fine either way. His wife's now his exactly.

I don't want to share.

Any with you.

The next day, I mean this, this is just a

couple of days later he winds up having a stroke.

He's having a party celebrating his own successes and has

a stroke and die ten days after that. That, Yeah,

I'm crazy.

Yeah, I just said a month later, because you know,

I sometimes wonder how like how many days journey was

Abigail traveling before she found David, and then how many

days journey did she take to go home, you know?

And then after that, how many how many weeks later

after his death did David send for her.

So that's why I said a.

Month later, sure, but within a month, within a month probably,

But holy cow, who could have ever predicted those turn

of events?

And so this is a true reminder again both out

of Deuteronomy, and then God reminds us in the Book

of Romans, chapter twelve. You know, don't repay evil with

evil because vengeance's mind says the Lord I will repay.

And David totally acknowledges in this situation that God got

the revenge and David didn't have to. So David's mind

and conscience in his hands are clean and God said, hey,

I'm going to get rid of this fool.

And by the way, that's what we read three days

ago in sam chapter what was that twenty four where

he said, God, you'll take care of my enemies, right,

My enemies around me will fall because I have confidence

in you. So God's hand is on David. And it

says that God was the one that you know struck

Neyball and God hit him, and what it says the

Lord struck him and he died Holy Cavin. So yeah,

so hey, that's pretty good. We have anything else to

learn from this? I like your story.

I like it too.

I like it too.

It was very emotional for me.

Yeah, yeah, it really was.

Love.

I love when people stand up and they have virtue

and responsibility, and the things that she said about him

were just wonderful and I just got emotional just reading it.

So there's a note in life application study Bible all

about Abigail down in the corner, and it says she

was sensible and capable, she was persuasive, she was able

to see beyond herself, and when life's tough, situations oftentimes

bring out the best in people. And that's what you

see in her. That she had an oppressive jerk of

a husband, she lived in a culture that tended to

minimize women, and she grabbed a hold of what she

had the resources and asked that she had and she said, hey,

I'm not going to let my culture in my situation

hold me down. I'm going to go out and make

the best negotiation I can. Otherwise we're all going to

get wiped out. And God used her to spare both

the life of all of her servants and her household,

and to spare David from doing the wrong thing.

And it's also no wonder why she was thrilled to

marry David. She's been married to that jerk for so

many years.

She's like, I just hit the watery.

And it says David was good looking too, yeah, yeah, right,

So now she's found a guy who's, you know, not

ugly on the outside or inside.

Right, All right, well, hey, that's our

Time, so hopefully we'll see you next time on the

Babble Guys.