Abide – 1 Samuel 25
Welcome everyone, welcome to Abide. A time to pray, a time to pull away into our own quiet spaces and to be with the Lord. The Lord is our creator, He made us. He also sustains us and loves us. And so, as you come into this prayer time, maybe you come stressed out or in a rush? Maybe you come bored or not sure what to do in this day. Possibly you are holding some sorrow, some disappointment. Maybe you're feeling light and open and free; however you come today. This is a time to pause, to notice where you are and to allow God, your Creator, your Sustainer, to shine His light upon you. For the warmth of His glow to radiate and enfold you.
So, let's just take a nice inhale and exhale together to just get more planted in this space. You might want to make this prayer time a little more sacred or set apart from regular time in your day by maybe lighting a candle, or bring a prayer shawl, or a blanket to lay on your lap, or round your shoulders or you might find it helpful to bring a journal to write down some things, or even to wrap your hands around a cup of tea. Whatever might help to create this space with God to be special and to be set apart. And you might like to sit up straight in a chair for these times of prayer or be lying down. However you come, may this be a space that your body feels relaxed and yet alert and awake open to what God might be ready to share with you.
And so, as we get settled in this present moment. Let's just notice our bodies from our heads all the way down to our shoulders. Our hips down to the feet and notice if you're carrying any tension in the muscles or the joints of the body. Now is a really good time to just notice where those spaces are and to soften, to release and to let go. If you can allow your body to relax, your body then can help your mind and your heart to relax as well.
I'm going to read a phrase aloud from a Psalm. And it would be nice for you just to repeat this after me. Be still and know I am God. Be still and know I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be.
Let's take another gentle breath in and out. And as we settle into this space, knowing Jesus is here attending to us with his gaze, with his love, we'd like to offer a gratitude practice to God. And today we're going to just look over the last few days and notice where and when you might have needed some help. Maybe you've had a week like me where I've needed a lot of help. I needed help with my car. I needed help with my phone. I needed help with my computer. I needed help to navigate my emotions and my feelings in the day. I needed help at the grocery store. So, I just invite us all to look over our last few days. When did you need some help? And who were those people that came to your aid?
You know God is attending to us at every moment of every day, with each one of those people that came to your aid. Using their gifts, their talents. Big gestures and small. They are all the hands, the feet, the eyes, and the voice of Jesus attending to you. So, may we all just sit in gratitude for how kind, how caring, our God is to every one of our needs.
Today's scripture is from 1 Samuel 25. And today we get to spend time with David once again and these two beautiful people. We hear a quite interesting story. And the story is just over 40 verses, so it's going to take a bit to listen. But I hope you can just sit back and relax and allow the words of this narrative to enter your imagination and imagine the characters in the scene. And allow it to rest on you in this time.
1 Samuel 25, starting at verse 1. “Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon.
A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was herding in Carmel. His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!’
“’Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missed. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore, be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festival time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”
When David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name. And then they waited.
Nabal answered David's servants “Who? Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and my water, and my meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
So David's men turned around and went back. When they reported every word, David said to his men, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords and David put on his. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
One of the servants told Nabal's wife, Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to give our masters his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us at all times we were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
Well, Abigail, she lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I'll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
As she came riding her donkey into the mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. David had just said, “It's been useless – all my watching over this fellow’s property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and she bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: “My Lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name, his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent. Now, since the Lord has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the Lord lives, and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you.
“Please forgive your servant’s offence. For the Lord will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the Lord's battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the Lord has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him leader over Israel, my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord has brought my master's success, remember your servant.”
David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day, from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told them nothing until daybreak. And then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head.”
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”
She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “Here is your maid servant, ready to serve and wash the feet of my master’s servants.” Abigail quickly got on a donkey and attended by her five maids, went with David's messengers and became his wife.
Hear these words and this story and this narrative. We see here that David is in the wilderness and he and his men are like good Samaritans and they take care and keep watch. And David and his men were taking care of Nabal’s riches, being a servant and a kind helper. And so David and his men feel comfortable to go to Nabal and ask for some gifts from the bounty of their festival time. And Nabal is upset and angry and does not want to give any of the gifts. And David responds being upset and angry as well. And begins to collect an army to fight this man Nabal, this fool.
And then Abigail comes on the scene. A woman grounded, a woman of peace. Her presence disarms David. David's able to listen, he's able to soften and let go of his frustrations. And he makes a wise choice and takes the peace offering from Abigail. And later Abigail becomes his wife. It is a longer story and yet a good story. One that I think we can all learn some things from.
We all know that David is a man with God's own heart. He exudes goodness and grace and generosity. And yet in a moment where he is offended, he flares up and begins to collect an army to fight. I wonder if this happens to you sometimes. I know what happens to me. We find that we are loving servants in our jobs or with our friends or in our places of work or volunteering. But then someone cuts us off in traffic or we get offended by a comment by someone and we snap. And all that kindness and generosity, and unity changes, and we get angry and selfish. And so, I give us this time to notice in our lives where there is an inconsistency in our love and our service and our generosity. Where does that happen for you? Out on the road or maybe it's even in your family or with certain friends. Where does your temper shift? Offer those spaces those times, those instances to God now.
And in David's flare up of anger, God in His attention and His care, brings a helper. He brings Abigail. A humble, peacemaking, kneeling-down, human being full of gifts, and David is disarmed. It's almost like he's reminded again of God's goodness and kindness, and he returns back to his abiding love of God, back to his generous spirit. Abigail is a helper, sent by God, for David.
Where do you have an Abigail in your life? Maybe it's in a friendship where they just remind you of who you truly are and how you truly want to be. Or maybe it's just seeing something beautiful in nature that disarms you and quiets you and reminds you, of how you want to bring unity to life and not disunity. Or maybe you yourself would like to exude these characteristics of Abigail. She's creative, she's kind, she brings peace. Maybe take this time to notice the Abigails around us that help us and may we also be able to activate and access that Abigail within ourselves? May our presence bring peace, reconciliation, another way.
And lastly, after Abigail offers this, David listens, he listens. and humbles himself, and he changes, and his actions, and his attitude change. And so I invite us all now to ask God to help us to listen well, to have teachable spirits to grow and learn from the Abigails around us. David is able to do this with Samuel, with Jonathan, with Abigail, with Nathan, he listens. May we to be able to listen, to humble ourselves.
I'm going to read this passage one more time in a shortened version and may you be able to think of the things we've considered for ourselves in our own lives as we read this story.
There was a man in Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean David sent ten young men. "Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. ‘Peace be to you. I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. Let my young men find favour in your sight; for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David."
When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal. But Nabal answered, "Who is David? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat and give it to men who come from I do not know where?" So David's young men told him all this. David said, "Every man strap on his sword!" and about four hundred men went up after David.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he shouted insults at them. Yet the men were very good to us; they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore consider what you should do; for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him."
Then Abigail hurried and took loaves, wine, sheep, grain, raisins, and figs. She loaded them on donkeys and said to her young men, "Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
When Abigail saw David she fell at his feet and said, “My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow, Nabal; for his name is, so he is; Nabal is his name. Please forgive the trespasses of your servant. The life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living under the care of the LORD your God. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant."
David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! Then David said to her, "Go up to your house in peace; I have granted your petition."
Abigail came to Nabal; he was holding a feast in his house. He was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light. When the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him. About ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he sent and wooed Abigail, to make her his wife.
Blessed be the reading of the scriptures here. May we all be blessed as we learn from David and his short temper. We learn from Abigail to be humble, to be peacemaking. We learn from David to listen, and that we can change and make amends. Thank you for this time, Lord, in your word and with your presence. Go with us now into our days and our lives. To listen, to come to others’ aid, and to allow others to come to our aid, knowing that all of these gestures come from your loving hands. And so, we say glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Spirit, as it was in the beginning, as it is now today and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Go in peace, my friends.
