I wrote a few days ago that the challenge in David’s ordeal between being anointed the next king and becoming the next king is twofold: God must protect David’s life AND his reputation. 1 Samuel 25 is about protecting the reputation.

There was a wealthy rancher, Nabal, in the wilderness of Maon where David was, and David sent men to ask if Nabal might share some of his bounty with David and his men. After all, the men had been providing Nabal protection. Nabal refused, and David, perhaps tired of living as an outcast in desolate places, lost his cool:

David’s men got out of there and went back and told David what he had said. David said, “Strap on your swords!” They all strapped on their swords, David and his men, and set out, four hundred of them… “That sure was a waste, guarding everything this man had out in the wild so that nothing he had was lost—and now he rewards me with insults. A real slap in the face! May God do his worst to me if Nabal and every cur in his misbegotten brood isn’t dead meat by morning!” (1 Samuel 25.12, 13, 21, 22, MSG)

Not a good decision by David! You don’t build a good reputation by slaughtering wealthy Jewish ranchers. Fortunately, even though Nabal was a fool, his wife Abigail was not. She was not only wise, but she also was quick-acting:

Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, what had happened: “David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well…They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us…Abigail flew into action. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep dressed out and ready for cooking, a bushel of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she had it all loaded on some donkeys.” (1 Samuel 25.14 – 18, MSG)

When Abigail meets David, we get a lesson in the art of persuasion. She explains why killing Nabal and everyone associated with him is not good…for David.

As soon as Abigail saw David, she got off her donkey and fell on her knees at his feet, her face to the ground in homage, saying, “My master, let me take the blame! Let me speak to you. Listen to what I have to say. Don’t dwell on what that brute Nabal did. He acts out the meaning of his name: Nabal, Fool. Foolishness oozes from him…And now, my master, as GOD lives and as you live, GOD has kept you from this avenging murder…Forgive my presumption! But GOD is at work in my master, developing a rule solid and dependable. My master fights GOD’s battles! As long as you live no evil will stick to you…When GOD completes all the goodness he has promised my master and sets you up as prince over Israel, my master will not have this dead weight in his heart, the guilt of an avenging murder…” (Snippets of 1 Samuel 25.23 – 31, MSG)

Kudos to Abigail: wise and quick-acting. Kudos also to David, who accepts correction…from a woman. Not everyone in that time would have.

And David said, “Blessed be GOD, the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As GOD lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat.” (1 Samuel 25.32 – 34, MSG)

A happy ending for David, and a temporary step-down for Abigail. She leaves life as the wife of a wealthy rancher to marry David, who, don’t forget, is still in the wilderness.

When Abigail got home she found Nabal presiding over a huge banquet. He was in high spirits—and very, very drunk. So she didn’t tell him anything of what she’d done until morning. But in the morning, after Nabal had sobered up, she told him the whole story. Right then and there he had a heart attack and fell into a coma. About ten days later GOD finished him off and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, “Blessed be GOD who has stood up for me against Nabal’s insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal’s evil boomerang back on him.” Then David sent for Abigail to tell her that he wanted her for his wife. (1 Samuel 25.36 – 39, MSG)

As always, David records his thoughts in a psalm.

A David psalm, when he was out in the Judean wilderness.

God—you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you! I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts…I hold on to you for dear life, and you hold me steady as a post. Those who are out to get me are marked for doom, marked for death, bound for hell. (Psalm 63.Intro, 1, 8, 9, MSG)