1Samuel 25:1-19
Loose Cannons
David’s life is starting to perk up. He still lives in the caves and forests,
but God has given him a group of men who can fight long the side of him as well as
some victories of various degrees. Then Samuel dies.
No doubt, Samuel’s death \\#1\\ was very hard on David.
1. Samuel was both David’s spiritual friend and spiritual teacher.
2. He was actually the last of the judges of Israel.
3. He must have died at an old age since Israel felt that his days to rule
were over almost 40 years ago. (That is when they demanded a king like
all the other nations had.)
4. All of Israel comes to remember Samuel at his death. (I imagine they were
wishing they had not asked for a king! These people were probably
longing for the good old days.)
However, life must go on and David continues to go from wilderness to wilderness.
The area that David goes into is south and to the west of Jerusalem. Here, David
must fight a battle from without and within.
I. People
A. David
1. We know a good bit about David since he is the object of our study
in this section.
2. It is important to remind ourselves that David showed amazing self
control and self restraint in the last chapter.
a. David had Saul, his enemy, in a cave alone.
b. Saul was not aware of David’s presence and had the advantage.
c. David’s men were in the cave too and urged David to kill Saul.
d. However, David refused.
(1) Instead, David trusted that if God could make Saul a king,
God could remove him.
(2) This is remarkable restraint.
3. Unfortunately for David, he was about to have to battle himself
again.
a. Isn’t it interesting how Satan won’t leave us alone?
b. You’d think if you’d just defeated him, he go somewhere and
lick his wounds, but Satan is a quick healer.
c. David showed self-restraint in one trying situation and now
Satan is going to test him again.
d. This demonstrates to us that Satan never gets discourage and
he never gives up.
B. Nabal
1. \\#1Sam 25:2\\ Nabal was a very wealthy man.
a, The Bible says he was "very great" in matters of wealth.
b. He had 3,000 sheep and a 1,000 goats.
2. \\#1Sam 25:3\\ Nabal "was churlish and evil in his doings."
a. Churlish means hard, cruel, severe, obstinate.
b. Evil means wicked, mischievous, disagreeable, unpleasant.
3. \\#17\\ Nabal was a son of Beliah.
1Sam 17:17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is
determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is
such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.
a. Beliah means ungodly, wicked, or good for nothing.
b. It basically meant that the person referred to was a son of
the devil.
c. It meant he was a godless man who had no use for God.
4. \\#25\\ NABAL meant FOOL.
1Sam 25:25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal:
for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him….
a. Nabal’s name means FOOL.
b. It would have been nice if this was one of those cases where
someone has a name that means the opposite of who they are
(i.e. the big guy being called Tiny).
c. Whether that was his real name or a nick name, it was one that
Nabal worked hard to live DOWN to.
d. God help us to have a reputation we can live UP to not DOWN to.
5. \\#17\\ This verse gives one additional detail about this man.
a. It comes out of the mouth of those who worked under him.
b. "a man cannot speak to him."
c. He was unreasonable and nobody could not talk to him.
d. Now some of you are certain you are married to him, right?
6. You can tell that this fellow was a real prince.
a. He had probably gotten his wealth on the backs of others.
b. He was hard-nosed, mean, and over bearing.
c. The Scripture doesn’t give one good quality about this man at
all.
d. How would you like to be married to this man?
C. Abigail
1. It was Abigail’s misfortune to be married to Nabal.
1Sam 25:3 "…she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful
countenance…."
2. She was a woman of understanding and of a beautiful countenance.
a. This woman was the complete package.
b. She had beauty, but she was also wise and understanding.
c. I can’t help but notice which one the Scripture lists first.
3. If you feel like you have gotten a raw deal in marriage, you have
the patron saint of Abigail to console you.
a. No doubt this marriage was an arranged marriage.
b. However, this was a situation of beauty marries beast.
c. Given what the Scripture says about this man, you can bet she
was treated well. Nabal would have been as mean to her as
everyone else.
d. This was the kind of man that would be easy to hate.
II. Situation
A. From the account we have read, it is obvious that David and his men,
while hiding from Saul, helped others.
1. They had found the flocks of this wealthy man feeding on the
mountains and had protected them.
2. We know from other Scriptures that the Philistines kept invading
the land, taking whatever they wanted.
3. We also know that Saul is too busy chasing David to protect the
people.
4. Here we see that David and his men did some moonlighting.
B. There was no formal agreement between David and Nabal.
1. Nabal probably didn’t even know David was protecting his flocks
until told so by the servants.
2. We have the record of them telling Abigail.
1Sam 25:15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither
missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the
fields:
16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with
them keeping the sheep.
3. So the bottom line was that Nabal was under no contract to pay
David anything; however, I am pretty certain that it would have
been customary to show a little gratitude in such a situation.
(a) \\#2\\ It was sheep shearing time - that would be the time
of profit for sheepherders.
(b) David was not asking for a set payment.
1Sam 25:6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both
to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.
7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were
with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the
while they were in Carmel.
8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find
favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever
cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.
(1) David was not using strong-arm tactics.
(2) David is not attempting to extort or even to bill Nabal.
(3) David was asking for an act of kindness and appreciation
C. The problem was not that Nabal said no, but that Nabal insulted David.
1Sam 25:10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who
is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man
from his master.
11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed
for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
1. I am not certain that David would have liked it if Nabal had said
NO to him, but I don’t think David would have gone looking to
kill Nabal if he had just said NO.
2. What upset David so was the way Nabal said NO.
3. Nabal slandered David by calling him a run-away slave!
(a) I mentioned before that Saul had probably spread some vicious
rumors about David.
(b) Maybe Nabal repeated one of those lies or maybe Nabal created
one of his own.
(c) Regardless, Nabal, whose name means fool, had a loose cannon
for a mouth.
(d) This time, he pressed the button of someone who was able to
close down the cannon!
4. There are very few things in this world that will set a person off
quicker than a mouth!
James 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our
members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of
nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
(a) Nabal was a bully and the king of his hill, but he just fired
off a salvo at a man who packs an army behind him!
(b) If you are one who is prone to run off at the mouth, you
better have a big army to back you up, because sooner or
later you are going to meet someone who is going to shut you
up.
(c) He was a pretty big fish in his pond of Maon, but he just
stepped out of his pond into David’s pond.
D. David takes 400 of his men to execute Nabal and all of his house.
1Sam 25:13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And
they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and
there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the
stuff.
21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in
the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and
he hath requited me evil for good.
22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that
pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
1. David didn’t mean to just kill Nabal. David meant to kill him
DEAD and to kill every man that was part of his establishment.
2. The problem here was not so much that David might kill a man.
(a) David had killed men before.
(b) To a large extent, Nabal had brought this on to himself.
3. The problems were:
(a) Nabal was a Jew.
(1) David was supposed to be the king of the Jews.
(2) When leaders start killing their own people, they have
a serious problem.
(3) Can you imagine how Saul could have used this against
David?
(b) David was going to kill every man associated with Nabal.
(1) David took 400 men with him!
(2) This wasn’t to be a fight. It was to be an extermination
of a house and all of his servants.
(3) It sounds a little bit like the rage of Saul when he
killed everyone associated with the priest Ahimelech
at Nob (1Sam 21-22).
(c) All of this was over an insult.
(1) If you are at war with a people and looking for an excuse
to attack, an insult might be sufficient.
(2) But to attack and slay everyone in an Israeli settlement
for an insult is extreme in anyone’s book.
4. David was enraged!
(a) Here the man who had allowed Saul to live (Saul who attempted
many times to kill David), was now going to kill this sheep-
herder who had just spoken bad about him.
(b) That doesn’t make any sense! David has become a loose cannon.
(c) And worse, he is following Saul’s example and that is not
right!
(d) Wrath seldom make sense and even less often accomplishes right.
James 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
(e) We have two loose cannons.
(1) Nabal is a little cannon badly out of align and David is
a big cannon a little out of align.
(2) David was about to make a serious mistake. A mistake that
would put him on the same path as Saul.
(3) I also note here, David didn’t pray before he left, did
he?
(4) We remember what happened the last time David tried to
fix a problem without God! He got 85 people killed.
III. Solution
A. It is interesting that the men created a problem so big that they
needed a woman to settle it.
1. \\#1Sam 25:14-17\\ Nabal’s servants tell Abigail what has happened.
2. This woman’s wisdom shines through.
1Sam 25:18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles
of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an
hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
B. She perceived what was going to happen next.
1. The Bible doesn’t say that but you can tell she does because she
immediately started to work.
2. She knew David would come to deal with her husband.
3. That indicates two things:
(a) David’s reaction was not unique for this kind of situation.
(b) It also indicates she had more understanding that her husband.
C. She worked to protect her husband.
1. If any wife has ever wondered if she would be better off without her
husband, Abigail had cause to wonder it.
2. However, if that was her thought, she put it out of her mind and
worked to save him.
3. I have only met a few who really understand what the marriage
commitment is all about, but I have met a whole lot who did not.
a. I’ve seen some who want to break up a home because they "don’t
love him or her anymore."
b. Then I have seen some who have been treated shamefully for
decades who would still give their all for their marriages.
c. Abigail was one of those.
D. \\#18\\ She provided a gift for David and his men.
1. This was a woman of action.
a. She did not have a lot of time to spend in thinking.
b. If she hesitated, all would perish.
c. So she moved.
2. Not only was she a woman of action but she had been a woman of
action.
a. She went to the cupboard and pulled out enough food to feed
a good sized gathering.
b. This is the virtuous woman of Proverbs who works willingly
with her hands, brings food from afar, and giveth meat to her
handmaids.
E. She positioned herself between David and her husband.
1Sam 25:20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the
covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and
she met them.
1. This was not a lady to sit on the sidelines.
2. she positioned herself in the middle of the danger.
F. \\#1Sam 25:23-31\\ She plead for her husband’s life. What a case this
woman makes!
1. She must have prayed before she spoke.
a. Typically, women did not interfere in the men’s business.
b. This was and is a violation of the roles God has given.
c. Because of this, Abigail must be very wise in how she
approaches David.
2. \\#1Sam 25:23-24\\ She placed herself on the ground for her husband.
This showed humility.
3. \\#1Sam 25:24\\ She petitioned to be heard. It does no good to
speak of no one wants to listen.
4. \\#1Sam 25:24\\ She put herself in her husband’s stead.
a. This showed responsibility.
b. Even though she did not know anything of what her husband had
done until after the fact, she took complete responsibility.
5. \\#1Sam 25:25\\ She proclaimed the truth.
a. Her husband had been foolish and wrong.
b. Whitewashing a wrong will not make it go away.
6. \\#1Sam 25:28\\ She plead for mercy. What else can the guilty
ask for?
7. \\#1Sam 25:28-31\\ She made some powerful points.
a. \\#1Sam 25:28\\ She pointed out that David was the Lord’s
servant.
b. She pointed out that David had been blameless in his behavior
so far.
c. \\#1Sam 25:29\\ She pointed out that David’s enemy would not
be victorious.
d. \\#1Sam 25:30\\ She pointed out that God would fulfill his
promises to David.
e. \\#1Sam 25:31\\ She pointed out that David would not want
Nabal’s murder or death to be on his record when that
happened.
G. This woman was giving her all for her husband!
1. Was he worth it? No.
2. Did she love him? Probably not.
3. Would he appreciate it? I doubt it.
4. Why do it? Because she had made a commitment before God and she
was going to keep it.
5. That is first and foremost what marriage is about!
a. Does God want a woman to be abused? NO.
b. Would I counsel a woman to stay in an abusive situation? NO.
c. Separation is sometimes required.
d. However, Abigail demonstrated that a marriage is something to
work to preserve!
IV. Conclusion
A. \\#1Sam 25:32-35\\ The end of the matter is that David took Abigail’s
counsel.
1. I imagine David was disarmed first by this woman’s beauty and then
by her character.
2. He took her counsel as if it had been sent by God—and it was.
3. So David spared Nabal’s life.
B. \\#1Sam 25:36-38\\ God, however, did not.
1. Abigail told Nabal what his foolishness had almost caused to happen.
2. (Every mate should tell their other as there should be no secrets).
3. At which time, God gave Nabal a heart problem which eventually
killed him.
C. This story reminds us that God is the Avenger of the wronged.
1. However, that is not the real message of this account.
2. The real message is that we must take responsibility for our
actions, regardless of whether we are the fools starting the
problem or the angry reacting to them.
3. God’s people do not have the luxury of being a loose cannon.
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