Year 1, Day 311: 1 Samuel 25

Humbleness in Death

I love the opening of 1 Samuel 25.  If that isn’t a humbling opening verse I don’t know what is.  Note that I am not saying that it is humbling because Samuel dies.  What I am saying is humbling is that Samuel was a judge over the Hebrew people, he led them faithfully, he was the one who anointed Saul and David – and all the pomp and circumstance that his death warrants is a single verse in this chapter!  In fact, his death doesn’t even get a whole verse.  His death gets 2/3 of a verse!

Where is the justice, you might ask?  Actually, this is just!  Samuel lived his life with God at the center.  Samuel lived his life understanding his security was in God’s hands.  Samuel wasn’t about this world.  He wasn’t about his name, his ego, his legacy.  He was about God’s name, God’s ways, and God’s legacy.  So what is the best way to honor his death?  Let him go into death with a small note of his dying but with no attention drawn to it.  I think that when I die I should like to be honored with a small little footnote simply stating that I have died.  I don’t want a big obituary singing my praises (or the praises of my surviving family) in the newspaper.  I don’t want a big funeral of weepy people.  But that may just be me.

David Slides Into Sin

After this short mention of Samuel’s death we hear the story of David acquiring his second wife.  Of course, we’ll get to that aspect of the story in a moment.  For now, let’s focus on David once more sliding into a sinful pattern of behavior.

David makes a request of Nabal, and given Nabal’s wealth the request is really quite reasonable.  After all, David’s men had seemed to help protect Nabal’s men when the flocks were near to David as one of Nabal’s servants tells Abigail in verses 15-16.  David is making a simple request for food knowing that his services were beneficial to keeping Nabal’s wealth intact while the flocks were away from home.  Yet, Nabal refuses the request.

Of course David has a right to be angry.  His anger towards the refusal of Nabal is certainly understandable.  His response is even understandable.  How many of us get angry and go out to “do something about it” when we make a reasonable request and don’t get our way?  Certainly David’s response here is understandable.

However, While David’s actions are understandable, that does not mean they are justified.  They are not righteous, even if they are understandable.  This is an important distinction to make.  Actions that are rooted in logic may be reasonable but that does not make them right or justified.  Only those actions which are in line with the will of God are justified.  David’s anger and plan to bring harm to Nabal is not the will of God.  David has taken justice into his own hands and injustice nearly occurs.

Abigail Intercedes

Thankfully Abigail is there to intercede.  David sinned in his heart when he planned to bring harm to Nabal, but Abigail is there to make sure that David’s internal sin does not become an external communal sin.  Abigail gives David wise council to think how his planned action might cause the Hebrew people to consider him a rash man – and how that might affect him when he is king.  In the end, Abigail persuades David to let vengeance rest in God’s hands – where it belongs in the first place.  We can all use the council of the wise, especially when we are in the midst of our anger.

David’s Marriage

Finally, let’s turn to David’s marriage to Abigail.  David finds out that the Lord does indeed bring Nabal into justice and he claims Abigail for a wife.  Remember that David is already married to Michal, whom Saul has apparently given to another man since David has become an outlaw in the kingdom.  The question that we have to face is this: is this right?  Is not God’s plan for marriage to be between a single woman and a single man?

The answers to these questions are: no, this is not right; and yes, God’s plan is for marriage to be between a single man and a single woman.  The fact that this story occurs in the Bible to a “man after God’s own heart” does not automatically imply that God endorses the action. In fact, throughout his lifetime David acquired at least eight wives (2 Samuel 3:2–5, 14–16; 1 Chronicles 3:1–5) and 10 concubines (2 Samuel 15:16), in addition to Saul’s harem (2 Samuel 12:8).  So David not only breaks God’s plan of family, he absolutely shatters the plan!

What can we make of this, then?  Well, let’s not forget that it will have destructive consequences when rivalries develop between the women (1 Kings 1:1–4; 2:17–25) and families (2 Samuel 13:1–32; 1 Kings 2:24–25) within David’s harem.  The Bible is clear that the effects of polygamy are dangerous and often disastrous.

This leaves us with a fairly simple understanding.  God gives human beings free will.  We have the capacity to follow God or to disobey Him.  It is really that simple of a choice.  In this instance David chooses to disobey God’s will – it won’t be the first or the last time, that’s for sure!  God allows David to make the choice and then deal with the consequences to follow.  God is not afraid of using the consequences of sin to His advantage.  God will teach David this lesson and if nothing else God uses David’s choice to allow us to learn this lesson from David’s life!  God does not will David to do what he does; but neither does God prevent it.

In the end, it’s really a good thing that God can still call David a “man after His own heart” even after David seems to be backsliding once more.  Really, how many of us aren’t guilty of backsliding?  The same grace that God bestows upon David’s oft-wrong but oft-repentant heart is the same grace that we are welcome to receive.  It’s not about accomplishing perfection.  It is all about accomplishing true humble repentance in the presence of God.

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