32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. 37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38 And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. – 1 Samuel 25:32-38 ESV
David recognized the hand of God when he saw it. As he and his men stood there with their weapons at the ready, prepared to wipe out Nabal and every male in his household, Abigail showed up with a gift of food and a word of wise counsel. She bowed before David and begged his forgiveness, and she appealed to David to refrain from doing something he would later regret. Nabal was a fool. He was insignificant and not worth the time and effort it would take to enact revenge. She wisely warned David, “When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance” (1 Samuel 25:30-31 NLT).
Her words struck a chord with David. They were like a cold glass of water thrown in his face, awakening him to the reality and danger of what he was about to do. And he was grateful, not only to her but to God for having sent her.
“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today!” – 1 Samuel 25:32 NLT
He knew his encounter with Abigail had been God-ordained and clearly sensed that she had been sent to prevent him from doing something he would later regret. Killing Nabal would have been an act of vengeance, but not an act of God. David had not sought out or received permission from God to take the life of Nabal or anyone else. But the temptation for self-salvation and taking revenge on those who offend us always lingers within us. David had been offended by a rich fool and was man enough to do something about it. But a man after God’s own heart would leave vengeance up to the Lord, and that was exactly Abigai’s point. God had bigger plans for David; he was going to be the next king of Israel. Nabal was just a bump in the road to the throne room, and David would be better off letting God deal with him.
It’s important to recall that when David had been given the opportunity to kill Saul, he refrained from doing so. He even told Saul, “May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you” (1 Samuel 24:12 ESV). At that point, David was willing to leave the judgment of Saul in God’s hands. But when it came to Nabal, David had suddenly decided to take matters into his own hands. Only the words of Abigail prevented David from doing the unthinkable and committing an act of fratricide against his fellow Jews.
When David heard the words of Abigail, he immediately recognized the gravity of his intended actions. He said to her, “Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands” (1 Samuel 25:33 NLT). This is the key to understanding the exchange between Abigail and David. His sin was not that he was angry with Nabal, but his desire to seek vengeance with his own hands. What he was about to do was an act of self-salvation, but not self-preservation. Nabal was no threat to David. All he had done was offend David by treating him with contempt and disrespect. He had hurt David’s pride, and David was willing to slaughter Nabal and everyone associated with him in a needless act of revenge.
Years later, when David was king, he had another opportunity to take revenge on someone who treated him with disdain and disrespect. On this occasion, it was his son, Absalom, who had taken over Jerusalem and forced David to flee for his life. On his way out of town, David was confronted by a man named Shimei, a member of the clan of Saul. As David and his men made their way out of the city, Shemei threw stones at them and loudly cursed David.
“Get out of here, you murderer, you scoundrel!” he shouted at David. “The Lord is paying you back for all the bloodshed in Saul’s clan. You stole his throne, and now the Lord has given it to your son Absalom. At last you will taste some of your own medicine, for you are a murderer!” – 2 Samuel 16:7-8 NLT
David’s men offered to kill Shimei, but David restrained them, saying:
“My own son is trying to kill me. Doesn’t this relative of Saul have even more reason to do so? Leave him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to do it. And perhaps the Lord will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today.” – 2 Samuel 16:11-12 NLT
David’s encounter with Abigail had taught him a valuable lesson: To leave vengeance in the hands of God. He was to do nothing without God’s expressed permission. Taking Nabal’s life might have assuaged David’s damaged pride, but it would have done far more damage to his reputation.
It would appear from studying the life of David, that he was a man prone to impulsive behavior. He had a penchant for giving in to his inner desires and failing to think things through. His affair with Bathsheba is a case in point. He let his physical passions override his reasoning. He saw her and he wanted her, so he took her. He didn’t think it through. When his actions got him in trouble and Bathsheba became pregnant, he threw reason to the wind and went into self-preservation mode. He attempted to cover up his indiscretion with a carefully crafted plan to order Bathesheba’s husband Uriah to return from the front. The hope was that Bathsheba’s reunion with her husband would convince everyone that the baby was actually his. When his plan failed, David’s self-preservation efforts escalated and he arranged to have Uriah returned to the front and exposed to enemy fire. Uriah’s death would allow David to take Bathsheba as his wife.
Self-salvation is tempting, but it rarely turns out as expected. Taking matters into one’s own hands may provide temporary relief, but the repercussions can be devastating. Too often, the desire for revenge is based on nothing more than damaged pride. There is no real threat to our safety, but we find ourselves offended by something someone has said to us or about us. Perhaps it’s a rumor that someone has spread that falsely represents us. It could be a simple case of someone showing us disrespect or treating us dismissively. Our first impulse is to get even; to teach them a lesson. But what would God have us do? What response would He prefer?
For David, the best course of action was no action at all. He was to leave Nabal in God’s hands. Rather than seeking revenge, he was to rest in the sovereign will of God.
Jesus gave us some similar advice in the Beatitudes.
“You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.” – Matthew 5:38-42 NLT
We’re to be driven by a bigger purpose than our own self-salvation and preservation. God has greater plans for us than worrying about what others think and wasting time attempting to preserve our reputations. God had more important plans for David than the elimination of a fool who happened to have offended him. There were more dangerous enemies to worry about and far more significant wars for David to wage. He was to leave Nabal in God’s hands, and when he did, David would see God deal with Nabal as only God could.
When Abigail told Nabal all that had happened and how David had been planning to destroy him, “he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck him, and he died” (1 Samuel 25:37-38 NLT).
God avenged David by dealing with Nabal and, in doing so, He taught the invaluable lesson that His salvation is preferable to self-salvation every time. Jesus supported this view when He told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26 ESV).
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.