Samuel dies, and all Israel mourns. Out in the wilderness David’s men have guarded the flocks of a rich man named Nabal; at shearing time David sends ten young men to ask, courteously, for a share of the feast. Nabal sneers: “Who is David?” David straps on his sword and rides out to kill every male in the household — and Nabal’s wife Abigail meets him in the ravine with food and with the truth, and talks him down: blessed be thy advice, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood.
A study in 1 Samuel 25 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Who Is David?
“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. 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 Samuel 25:10-11
Nabal’s name means “fool,” and the chapter agrees with it. David had asked as a guest, not a bandit — his men had been “a wall unto us both by night and day.” Nabal answers as though David were a runaway slave. It is not merely stinginess; it is contempt for the anointed of God, dressed up as good sense about one’s own property.
Gird Ye On Every Man His Sword
“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. 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 Samuel 25:21-22
This is David at his worst, and it is the very spirit that ruined Saul. “Gird ye on every man his sword,” he tells four hundred men, over an insult. The man who would not lift a finger against Saul — who was actually trying to kill him — is ready to wipe out a household for a rude word. Wounded pride is no respecter of persons, and David has not yet finished learning patience in the school of affliction.
“He commanded his men to equip themselves for an encounter; for he had determined to punish the man who had denied him what was his right, and had added insult to injury. This impulsive movement was more in harmony with the character of Saul than with that of David, but the son of Jesse had yet to learn of patience in the school of affliction.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 665
The LORD Hath Withholden Thee From Shedding Blood
“And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.”
1 Samuel 25:32-33
Abigail does three things at once. She feeds the men. She takes blame she does not owe — “upon me let this iniquity be.” And she tells David the truth: vengeance belongs to God, not to him, and one day he will be glad his hands are clean of it. David hears it. He blesses God for sending her, blesses her counsel, blesses her. A wise word, well timed, stopped a massacre.
“These words could have come only from the lips of one who had partaken of the wisdom from above… Better impulses came to David, and he trembled as he thought what might have been the consequences of his rash purpose.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 667
His Heart Died Within Him
“And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king… But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.”
1 Samuel 25:36-38
While David was being talked out of murder, Nabal was drunk at his own feast, knowing nothing. The reckoning David was forbidden to bring, God brought Himself — ten days later. David’s restraint cost him nothing in the end; it never does. He goes on to marry Abigail. The narrator notes, without a word of approval, that he already had another wife — a thread of trouble that will run through the rest of his reign.
