David and Abigail.

From: The Evangelist: Volume 2 (1868)

1 Samuel 25

1 Samuel 25.

SANUFS, had died, and David was now the hope of the faithful in Israel. Born at Bethlehem, the youngest of his family, the eighth child, ruddy, of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look at, the king of God’s providing, the keeper of the sheep, and anointed of the Lord, he had waited, as it were, at the backside of the desert, where, by the way, he slew the lion and the bear (1 Samuel 17:34, 35³⁴And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: ³⁵And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. (1 Samuel 17:34‑35)), until the time came for his manifestation to Israel.

The opportunity came: the hosts of the Philistines were ranged on one side of the valley of Elah under Goliath, the hosts of Israel on the other under Saul. Death apparently stared Israel in the face under the threatening’s of the giant (17); “they were dismayed and greatly afraid,” when David comes forth, goes in advance of the hosts of Israel into the valley, and then and there slays Goliath with his own sword—with his own weapon he destroys “him that had the power of death.”

But his very victory makes those who should be his friends his enemies. From that moment Saul becomes his foe, and seeks his life; he leaves the court, becomes a wanderer, the anointed one still, but “hunted like a partridge on the mountains.” He is not, however, alone; for gathered to him (22) are four hundred of the discontented, distressed, and insolvent, who gladly chose “the cave Adullam” in preference to the world’s court with all its accompaniments of ceremonial, pomp, and vanity. David, Gad, and Abiathar, as prophet, priest, and king, have greater charms for them than those who in a carnal way occupied their place in Israel. And now in this chapter (25) we find the anointed one of God, the heir to the throne, from the scene of his rejection, sending forth a message to a man called “Nebel,” who was living in prosperity,― “Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nebel, and greet him in my name,... and say, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast..... We come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand.”

Nabal’s answer is short and surly. The hope of Israel has no claims on him, satiated as he is with this world’s luxuries and plenty. A runaway slave is all that he can see in the anointed heir to the throne.

The message of peace is followed by the message of judgment. “Gird ye every man his sword upon his thigh.... So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave by the morning light one of all that pertain to Him.” “But Abigail made haste.”

She had heard of her husband’s churlish railing, she recognized and was thankful for all the protection afforded to her shepherds; she saw in David something more than a servant broken away from his master; she perceived that judgment was near, and therefore, without conferring with flesh and blood (verse 19), she falls at the feet of David, and owns how she believes that the Lord will certainly make him a sure house, and how that although “a man” (she has no other name for Saul) has risen to pursue and seek him, yet his soul should be found in the bundle of life with the Lord his God, and those of his enemies should he sling out as out of the middle of a sling; and that, since this is so, will he when appointed ruler over his Israel then remember his handmaid?

David’s answer is beautiful: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou.... Go up in peace to thy house: see I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.” Nabal dies under the judgment of God. Abigail becomes the wife of the rejected king.

Surely, dear reader, we may learn a lesson from this. Christ has been born at Bethlehem, the king of God’s providing, “the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely,” the good, the chief, the great Shepherd; not, humanly speaking, the firstborn, but yet “the firstborn of every creature;” anointed of God in the midst of his brethren. He has bound the strong man that would have spoiled his father’s sheep; He has gone down into the valley of death, and destroyed him that through death had the power of death, that is the devil. (Hebrews 2:14¹⁴Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14).) He has risen from the dead; “His life has been taken from the earth,” and now from the glory, rejected of man, but chosen of God and precious, He has gathered around Him a little band of living stones, once discontented but now satisfied in Him; once distressed but now at rest at His feet; once in debt but now rich through Him; and just as the names of David’s mighty men were not forgotten when the kingdom came (2 Samuel 23), neither will these be without honorable mention at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:5⁵Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)); and these He now sends forth as His heralds of peace to the world at large, and who can say there is no message for him?

Dear reader, there is a message of peace for you even as your eye rests on this paper. As God puts it by the mouth of His servant Peter, “He anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good (‘preaching peace,’ verse 36), and healing all that were oppressed of the devil... whom they slew and hanged on a tree; Him God raised up, and sheaved Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10:38-43³⁸How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. ³⁹And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: ⁴⁰Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly; ⁴¹Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. ⁴³To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:38‑43).)

Dear reader, this is now the message of peace to you, ―a present instantaneous pardon of your sins through believing on the One whom man slew, but whom God raised up. Mark the stress Peter lays upon the resurrection, how livingly he brings it before us: who did eat and drink with Him (Luke 24:42, 43⁴²And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. ⁴³And he took it, and did eat before them. (Luke 24:42‑43); John 21:13¹³Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. (John 21:13)) after He rose from the dead; and why so? because, as the Holy Ghost says in 1 Corinthians 15:17,¹⁷And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17) “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” Surely, then, any believer may say, “Since Christ is raised, of which I have abundant testimony (verses 5-8), my faith is not in vain; I am not in my sins.” No, dear reader, if you believe on the Lord Jesus, you may know that your sins were laid on Him (1 Peter 2:24²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)), were buried in His grave. The thought of your sins need now no more trouble you; for God has said, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17¹⁷And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17).) God will not remember them, why then recall them? “Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” (verse 18); for “by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (verse 14.)

But more than this. Should you receive this full testimony of the grace of our God, the gift of the Holy Ghost is yours; for “while Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” (Acts 10:44⁴⁴While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. (Acts 10:44).) God sets His seal on His own perfected work, and links us by an indissoluble bond to His Son in heaven―the Head of His body, the Church. Abigail obtained present acceptance, and the hand and heart of the king, and, when the kingdom was set up (2 Samuel 2:2²So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal's wife the Carmelite. (2 Samuel 2:2)), a place on the throne.

You, dear reader, on believing, receive remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, “the earnest of your inheritance until the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 1:14¹⁴Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:14).) You are nourished and cherished now by the One of whose body, flesh, and bones, you have been made a member; and when all things are put under His feet, when God has “gathered together in one all things in Him, both which are in heaven and which are in earth” (Ephesians 1:10¹⁰That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)), then you shall enjoy your inheritance, predestinated to you according to God’s purpose, to the praise of whose glory you shall be manifested. (vv. 11, 12.)

Surely, then, it becomes you to obey the gospel, to listen to His invitation. Let not husband, wife, or children hinder; but at once identify yourself heart and soul with the Christ whom man has rejected, but whom God has glorified. Make Him your end, your aim, your everything.

The world will meet the fate of Nabal. Drunken, it will yet meet the judgment of God. While they are actually saying, “Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3³For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3).)

Of the two malefactors, one, like Abigail, asked for a place in the kingdom, and, like her, obtained a portion, not in proportion to her faith, but to the heart of the One who gave it; the other, like Nabal, railed on the Lord’s anointed, and went from this world to pass eternity in the awful flames of the lake of fire.