Recognizing Foolishness: 1 Samuel 25:2-22

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways.

Two three four, good, good morning, good morning. We talk home, not.

Through good morning, good morning to two four.

Hey, we want to welcome me to the Bible guys.

I think that would have made that better is if

you would have done like a dance step right then too.

Hey, my name is Chris, this is Jeff Forrester, and

we are two guys who work at the church in

Michigan who are talking about the Bible today.

In fun and practical ways.

I'm pretty not in practical ways.

Fun and and.

Practical ways, yes, very good. Hey, we're gonna start off

with my favorite. I think I think this is my

favorite as long as as long as they're good, as

long as they're good jokes.

But this is a dad Joe competition, okay.

And and when they're super big, awful groaners, it is

obviously not my favorite.

But usually they're pretty decent. Okay, don't you agree they're

pretty decent? Usually?

All right? You want to start A broken drum is

the best present you can gift. Nobody can beat that. Yeah, Okay, Okay,

there broken drum. Nobody can beat it, Yes, nobody can

beat it.

How about this one?

I was going to cook alligator for dinner, but I

realized I only had one crock butt.

Okay, all right, hey, not bad, not bad. It's a groan,

all right. What do priests say to get rid of

insects in the church? What let us spray?

Oh?

Wow, wow, let us spray between the three?

I like that one the best.

Okay, okay, good.

How about this one?

I noticed that my ironing board cover was wrinkles. What

was rings?

How about wrinkled?

Yeah?

Okay, I noticed that my ironing board cover had wrinkles

and laughed at the irony. But then I laughed because

the word was irony.

Okay, that's rough. That that was a rough one. Nose

jokes stink, but eye jokes are cornea. Oh no, that's

that's rough.

That was rough.

Okay, I'm going to go back to the priest one.

How about this?

People are usually shocked when they find out I'm not

a very good electrician.

That's a good one. A good one. That's a good one.

People get shocked.

Okay, why are toilets so good at poker? What we're

telling toilet jokes now, why because they always get a flush.

Oh that's a rough.

It is rough that. It'd be great to get a

fresh every time. Talk about stinking. There's another put How

about this one?

What happens when a microscope crashes into a telescope?

I don't know, a kaleidoscope.

Okay, that's a good one. It is really clever. That's clever.

I like this one. Kaleidoscope. You get it? Two scope,

a microscope and a telescope. They yeah, I get it. Okay,

this one's clever. I love the way the earth rotates.

It just makes my day.

That is good.

That's a clever one, makes my clever one. It literally

literally makes my day.

How about this one? This is the last one for me?

Oh that was your last one? Yes, okay, how about

this one? Felt uncomfortable driving into the cemetery? The GP.

This is really good.

Let me start over. Felt uncomfortable driving into the cemetery.

The GPS blurted out that you have reached your final destination.

I really liked that one.

Along reached your final destination.

You've reached your final destination.

That is really really clever.

That's funny.

Oh, boy Mercy.

All right, so we're jumping back Jeff into First Samuel

chapter twenty five.

Yes, and David is still running from King Saul.

Yes.

At this point he is in an area called Mayon,

which is in the area of what is modern day Hebron,

just south of Jerusalem. This would still be in the

West Bank portion of Palestine, so it says then David

moved down to the wilderness of Mayon, and there was

a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the

town of Carmel. He had three thousand sheep and a

thousand goats, and it was sheep shearing time. This man's

name was Nabel, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible

and beautiful woman. But Nebel, a descendant of Caleb, was

crude and mean in all his dealings. When David heard

that Naball was shearing his sheep, he sent ten of

his young men to Carmel with this message for Naball,

peace and prosperity to you and your family and everything

you own. I'm told that it's sheep sharing time. While

your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them,

and nothing was ever stolen from them. Ask your own men,

and they'll tell you this is true. So would you

be kind to us, since we have come at a

time celebration, Please share any provisions you might have on

hand with us and with your friend David. David's young

men gave this message to Nab in David's name, and

they waited for a reply. Who is this fellow David?

Nabal sneered to the young men, who does this son

of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants

these days who run away from their masters. Should I

take my bread and my water and my meat and

that I've slaughtered for my shearers and give it to

a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?

So David's young men returned and told him what Nabel

had said. Get your swords was David's why as he

strapped on his own. Four hundred men started off with David,

and two hundred remained behind to guard their equipment. Meanwhile,

one of Nayball's servants went to Abigail and told her

David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master,

but he screamed insults at them. These men have been

very good to us, and we never suffered any harm

from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time

they were with us. In fact, day and night, they

were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep.

You need to know this and figure out what to do,

for there is going to be trouble for our master

and his whole family. He's so ill tempered that no

one can even talk to him. Abigail wasted no time

as she quickly gathered two hundred loaves of bread and

two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered,

nearly a bushel of roasted grain, hundred clusters or raisins,

and two hundred fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys

and said to her servants, go on ahead, I'll follow

you shortly. But she didn't tell her husband, Nabel, what

she was doing. As she was riding her donkey on

a mountain ravine, she saw David and his army coming

toward her. David had just been saying a lot of

good it did to help this fellow. We protected his

flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was stolen

or lost. But he has repaid me evil for good.

May God strike me and kill me if even one

man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning. Where

are we reading through verse twenty two? Okay, well that's it.

Well, what's the end of the story?

I can't tell you. No, So his wife comes. Do

we read the rest of the story. We read the

rest of the story tomorrow. Don't don't don't ruin it?

Oh is that what happens?

Yeah? Yeah, okay, all right, all right, well then let's

let's not talk about the ending, and let's talk about

the fact that Nayball is kind of a jerk.

Yeah, kind of a jerk. All right, well we got that.

Thank you for tuning in today, join us tomorrow, and so.

Don't be a jerk. Don't be a jerk, like yep,

you know, it's it's interesting.

How don't poke the bear either, Yeah, David come out

a warpath.

Yeah, that's right. But here's the thing.

We may hear that, and we may sympathize perhaps with

maybel you know, we may think, well, you know, Nabel

was within his right.

The law was on his side.

Because technically the king, oh everybody knew, you know, probably.

Most likely in the kingdom they sort of knew.

The few, you know, the jealousy of Saul, and you know,

Saul's slain in his thousands, David and his tens.

And thousands and things like this.

But the law was on Nayball's side. They technically were outlaws, right,

and so he was within his right to say, this

is my personal property, and I don't have to feed

you if I don't want to. So we may sympathize,

but we have to also understand that people in this

region number one knew and understood which God that they

served as a nation, right, and so they understood that

David was a man of God. They understood everything that

David had done. You know, he knew, he knew his

father was Jesse.

Right, he's acting like he doesn't know who David is.

Who's his son of Jesse?

Right?

Yeah, yeah, he knows who he is.

He knows everything about him. He knows his exploits, he

knows the songs, he knows everything and all that. But

you know, why would you ever bite the hand that

feeds you? Why would you be ungrateful for somebody who

was actually responsible for your pross parity? So here is

well known that his men protected his his sheep and

in his goats. They were like a wall of protection,

they said. And yet ball is just going to be selfish.

That's really what comes down to is looking for a reason.

I'm going to use the law on my side to

be selfish with my riches.

Yeah, because social custom in the Middle East, even still

to this day, is when travelers come, you feed them.

It's demanded, right, you feed all of them, you have to.

And was rich. This guy was rich. I mean three

thousand sheep and a thousand goats. Typically in pastoral places

like that, one goat is worth a month's bless you

excuse me, you did you develop suddenly an allergy to me.

I'm allergic to goats, to goats, and just mentioned goats.

He sneezes.

That's more clever than you, all of those fathers are.

Yeah, that's exactly right, his dad jokes. But one goat,

typically in a pastoralist type of society, is valued at

about a month's income. Sheep are worth a little more.

So he's got a thousand months worth of goats and

three thousands.

Of years twelve years of income.

No, a thousand months, yeah, so twenty years, yeah, earned

twenty years, eighty three eighty three years.

Well, math is math.

Yeah, math helps. I got this little I got this

little machine I carry my pocket sometimes and you can

do math right on it. There's nothing wrong, isn't it?

Trying to be independent of machines. I was trying to

do math in my head.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's okay, it's okay. So he's got

eighty something right there, and then three thousand sheep and

sheep usually would be considered a little bit more valuable

than goats because you know, you can share them, which

is sharing time now, and you don't have to eat

the goats, eat the sheep. So the sheep will produce

milk and meat if you want it, but they'll produce

wool every year, and you can sell the wolf, so

they were worth a little bit more. So you're talking

this guy had more wealth than he could ever spend

in his lifetime, right right. That's really where So we're

not talking about David rolling in with six hundred men

on a poor guy. We're talking about the richest guy

in the area. The other thing is this the fact

that he's been able to prosper out on the plains.

He's not inside of walled city. You have to remember,

back in those days, they had walls around their cities

because it's roving bandits outside the cities. It's just it's

the wild wild West. It's you know, Butch Cassidy and

the Sundance Kids, it's you know, all the bad guys.

You get Wieter kind of world, right, whereas it's gun

slinging and fighting that they didn't have guns. But you

know what I'm saying, you had to fight in order

to protect your stuff.

I'm just curious as to how many more fifty year

old references.

One hundred and fifty years old.

I'm just saying people our agel like, yeah, whi yeah,

would you say American history?

It's American history.

Yeah, that's hilarious.

Okay, So again you're thinking movies, Well it's a book.

Butch, Cassie and Sundance kids, they're.

Real guys in history, right, Yeah.

Great, we read about them in books and then it

became movies. I'm not just thinking about Boes, I get it.

But you were thinking, you know, Paul Newman is a movie. Yeah,

he was a real guy too, but it was also

books history. Before he was a book, he was a

real person.

Wow. I know.

So anyways, uh, that's what it was back then, is

they were just if you weren't inside a walled city,

you better be capable. This is you know that you

oftentimes build your own own fortress, you'd have a lot

of servants that can protect your animals. And then the

servants were saying David's six hundred men were like a

wall for us, literally saying, we were always protected when

we were around, When we wereround David's men, we'd never

lost a sheep. They were always respectful, They protected us.

And so David's rolling in and going, hey, we protected you,

you know, quid pro quote kind of an idea here, Hey,

we took care of your stuff. You're wealthy. It's sharing time.

The only reason why you're able to shear all three

thousand of these sheep is because we made sure that

nobody stole any of them, right right, So, hey, if

you could share a meal with us.

And we also have to realize as well, we have

to put ourselves in that culture and realize that to

say no to them is in some ways to condemn

them to starvation. So they're out in the middle of nowhere,

they go to Naball for help because you know, they're saying, hey,

we're in the middle of the wilderness. Our men are hungry.

You know. Again, we don't want to impose greatly on you,

but you know, you know, the things that she packed

up was a fraction, right. I mean they only took

what five slaughtered sheep, right, five out of a thousand.

Now they had three thousand sheep, right, and so five sheep.

So it's just a fraction of the wealth.

And so to say no is to say go out

to the wilderness and die. So we have to understand too,

from David's point of view, that this was in some

ways an active war, not of aggression, but rather just

of you know, just throwing out every single custom out

the window. It's disrespectful to David, disrespectful to him the

fact that he's the next the Norty king. It's also

saying we would rather you die than for me to

help you. It's just an insult on the highest levels.

So we may think, wow, they're going to go and

not leave a single person alive, or you're kidding me, right,

But that's really it was. We have to understand back then,

we don't live in the wild well West. That was

an active war. It was an insult upon him and

his men. So you know, we may not understand it,

but you know.

Well, yeah name ball was is sentencing him to death,

not only him, but as six hundred men. Right, there's

the other side. I made a joke about it at

the beginning, but don't poke the bear. There is having

an awareness of your power versus the power the people

that you're squaring off with. There's a lot of wisdom

in that in negotiating. If you're in your job, you

wind up him. To negotiate, you have to understand where

the power sits and how to shift the power you're

in your way. But then also to respect the you know,

give respect to where respect should be given, or honor

to whom honor is due. And in this situation, you've

got a farmer who has some servants, and you've got

a warrior who killed a giant and has six hundred

warriors with him. And just to put it in perspective, Saul,

when Saul went hunting, this is in chapter twenty four,

When Saul went hunting David, he had three thousand men

to go after David's six hundred, right, So in Saul's

my and I need five for everyone, David has right,

that's that's the quality of the fighters that followed David. David.

Later on we'll read about David's mighty Men, and these

guys are are elite, the elite of the elite of

the elite. These guys are unbelievably tough guys and so and.

Why wouldn't they be attracted to David, the only one

who is willing to stand up to the giant.

That's right, that's right.

So I don't know if you know this this answer,

but I know you know the first answer this question.

But how many Giant Killers were in Saul's army? Uh?

In Saul's army?

Yes, just David, but he wasn't in Saul's army.

It's a trick, yeah, right, So the answer is technically

zero because nobody stood up to Goliath, and David wasn't

even technically in Saul's army.

He was immediately after he killed Goliath.

Yeah, okay, all right, because he was put in charge.

So technically you could argue and say.

It depends on when you didn't specify whens Okay, but

here's another question.

How many Giant Killers were in David's army?

Yeah? Multiple? So he had a couple of giant killers

in the answer six six, Yeah.

And the exploits of them are exactly the exploits that

you're talking about. So you can go back and read

the exploits of the Mighty Men and the three. The

three were among them, but there were six giant killers.

And why because like attracts like, that's right, right, And

so if you're an exceptional leader, you're going to be

you know, you're going to attract exceptional leaders.

If if you're a person.

Of excellence that has the high you know, bar raised Listen,

if you're in a work environment and you don't do

anything right and you're not you know, you're how should

I say, like morally flexible? Right, then the people who

are who have high morals are not going to stay

around you, that's right, right, They're going to leave because

like attracts like. And so you know, if you want

to be an exceptional person, you know, then be around

people who are.

More exceptional than you. Right, That's just the way it is.

If you want to be a better ping pong player,

guess what, don't play with people who are worse than you.

Play with people who are better than you. Right, And

you're going to become better and sharper. And so that's

a good moral of the story, right there. Like attracts like,

which is why David's army was so exceptional, because David

was exceptional.

Right, that's right. So now Solomon, later on, David's son

writes about the idea of you know, being careful how

you negotiate understanding. Hey, sometimes the best thing is going

to make peace. Jesus talks about it. Hey, you better

count the cost before you go to war. What king

doesn't sit down and consider does he have enough to

go up against this bigger army or not? Right, So,

in this situation, Nayball's temper just him being selfish, and

his temper get him to the point where he grossly

overestimates his own power and grossly underestimates David's. And so

David's like, all right, that's it. You just imagine, man,

He's brushing the dust off and going, come on, boys,

grab your swords. And not only that, he decides he

only needs to take two thirds of his army. He's

leaving a third of his army back just to watch

the stuff. Right, we don't need all you guys come on,

And not a single person is going to stand, and

so he grossly over Nabel, grossly overestimated his abilities and

underestimated David's. But even Jesus talks about, hey, you need

to be wise, you need to consider a wise person

considers what's the cost going to be if we go

to war, and should we make peace. Jesus not multiple

times talks about you should run out and make peace,

Go make peace in this situation, and he doesn't. This

was a simple thing for Nabel to do, except for

the fact that he thought that this was all his

rather than a gift from God. And he decided he

was going to go against social customs and social norms,

and he was going to reject the service that David

and his men provided. All those things, and the only

one in the whole house that had any intelligence center

at all. The servants came and they skipped they skipped

Nabel because he's kind of a jerk, and they go

straight to Abigail and say, Abigail, hey, we're all gonna

get wiped out unless we do something, and she she

goes to the pantry and cleans the pantry out and

starts heading towards David, which tomorrow we'll we'll pick up

the rest of that story. It's great, she's the only

one with any wisdom in the house.

Yeah.

And you know what, this is a great lesson which

is pretty much waited in my house too.

Is it? Yeah, right right, your wife, My wife is

the better part of me too. This is a great

lesson to not be Likenabel and to be like Jesus

taught us, which is like, what would it have cost

Nebel to be kind?

What would have really.

Cost him to you know, share his uh, you know,

his wealth. You know, when you're that blessed and you

can't afford to throw you know, some beggars some crumbs,

then what kind of person are you? So Jesus says,

you know, in essence, he didn't say these exact words,

not in the Bible, but like what.

Goes around comes around? Yeah, right, So what is the

Old Testament?

But the book of Psalm says, you know, rollerstone get

hit with it, did get pit fall in it. That's

sort of like what goes around comes Proverbs. Proverbs has that,

and there's a there's a.

Way cast your bread upon the water and do season

will come back.

That's right? And so what is that what's the sort

I'm looking for?

Reciprocity, right, So there's a reciprocity sort of idea that

Jesus says, do unto others as you would have them

do unto you. Treat your neighbors, Love your neighbors as yourself.

What you plant is what you harvest.

What you plant, that's right. What you reap, you're you're

going to sew uh what you sew is Yeah, yeah,

I get that backwards Willy Wonka.

You know, he always says, gene wat goes strike that

reverse it.

That was me right there.

So anyway, I just think that it's a great lesson

for us to you know, say, you know, a person

who doesn't believe in God would say, put it out

in the universe, you know, and it'll come back to you. Well,

that's just a person who doesn't believe that. They just

instinctively know that that's one of God's values. Right to

treat others as you would be treated. There's a reciprocity

factor about what goes around does come around. So why

not why why would Nabel do the things that he did,

because you know, he's going his his circumstances are gonna

they're he's gonna find himself against David type armies all

the time, right, and that's no way to live, right, right,

So just be kind, be generous. It doesn't take that

much effort to be kind.

That's the lesson of the day, really it is. And

it's on the verge of costing him anything, right, everything

kindness would have just David would have moved on him.

Choosing not to be kind. Him choosing not to be

generous put everything that Nabel considered important at risk.

Yeah, and God calls us to live with open hands. Yes,

he doesn't call us that live with clenched fists, you know,

as God receives, you know, or as God gives, we receive.

Do you want to know?

The cool thing about closed hands versus open hands is

that when we hang on to all of our stuff,

we now have posted ourselves.

We're not in a position also to receive from God.

So we open up to give, and we also have

the same posture to receive from God. And so God

calls us not to live like this, but to live

like this. And so when we live like that, then

we're able to, you know, understand how God wants us

to live. So that's all right, well, hey, that's our

time and we will see you hopefully next time on

the Baba Guys.