Year 4, Day 311: 1 Samuel 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

In this chapter we see three people act upon their power.  The first two, David and Nabal, give us a negative perspective of power.  David makes a reasonable request of Nabal for food because his soldiers helped protect Nabal’s flocks and shepherds in the field.  The request is reasonable, but when Nabal refuses then David takes things into his own hands.  David grabs human power and orders his men to come up and attack Nabal.  David is acting out of his own power in this story rather than acting out of God’s power.

For the record, so is Nabal.  David’s human response to Nabal is a reaction to Nabal’s human greed.  Nabal doesn’t want to share.  He believes that all that he has is his.  Since it is his, there is no reason to give anything to David.  He says so himself.  “Who is David?”  Since there is nothing in it for Nabal to give to David and his men, he acts out of his own power and refuses David’s request.

Fortunately, there is a righteous person among the men: Abigail.  Abail is discerning.  She knows that Nabal is being rash in his own demonstration of power.  She also knows that David’s rashness could come back to hurt his reputation once he becomes king.  Abail argues of out a position of God’s power, allowing God to deal with Nabal.  In this circumstance, it is Abigail who understands God’s power and how to act righteously.  Righteousness always comes when we understand that true power comes from God.

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