Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah.
Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon. A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. So he sent ten young men and said to them, "Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. Say to him: 'Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
" 'Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.' "
When David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name. Then they waited. Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?"
David's men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. David said to his men, "Put on your swords!" So they put on their swords, and David put on his. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
One of the servants told Nabal's wife Abigail: "David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him."
Abigail lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants, "Go on ahead; I'll follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. David had just said, "It's been useless—all my watching over this fellow's property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!"
When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: "My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.
"Now since the Lord has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you. Please forgive your servant's offense, for the Lord will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the Lord’s battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the Lord has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him leader over Israel, my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord has brought my master success, remember your servant."
David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak."
Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, "Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request."
When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until daybreak. Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head."
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, "David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife."
She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, "Here is your maidservant, ready to serve you and wash the feet of my master's servants." Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five maids, went with David's messengers and became his wife. David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel, son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
1 Samuel 25
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever found yourself about to do something wrong only to have someone step in at a time when you needed help and rescue you?
I don’t think we can say enough about the importance of intervention in life…accepting intervention when it comes our way…and intervening when we see someone in need. Today’s scripture served to show us first hand.
The chapter begins sadly with the death of Samuel. Hannah’s son, who was granted as a gift of God and then presented to Him at the age of three, had lived a life of faithful service…garnering the respect of all for his spiritual wisdom and leadership. We read where “all Israel assembled and mourned for him” as he was “buried him at his home in Ramah”.
Following Samuel’s death, David “moved down into the Desert of Maon” where he encountered a wealthy man “who had property there at Carmel”…property that included “a thousand goats and three thousand sheep” which he sheared. We learn that the man’s name was Nabal and he was “surly and mean in his dealings”. Nabal was married and his wife Abigail was described as being “an intelligent and beautiful woman”.
So David, interested in establishing relationship with Nabal and getting some supplies, “sent ten young men” to him while he was shearing sheep. David instructed the young men to greet Nabal and then say the following:
“Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!”
“Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my young men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them."
And so David’s men went to Nabal and gave him David’s message, surely expecting to receive some amount of hospitality. They would find out that Nabal’s reputation proceeded him.
For we read where Nabal said:
“Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?"
And so David’s servants returned to David empty-handed and “reported every word” Nabal spoke to him.
As we see, David became enraged at Nabal’s action and told his men, “Put on your swords!" and they did. And David took “about four hundred men” and headed toward Nabal where he intended to kill him and his men for the disrespect he showed David.
Nabal and his men were sure as dead at the hands of David…unless, of course, there was some sort of intervention. And the Lord was about to provide just that in the way of Nabal’s intelligent and beautiful wife, Abigail.
We read where “one of the servants told Nabal's wife Abigail” that David had “sent messengers from the desert” to greet Nabal but only received hurled insults. The servant tells Abigail that David and his men didn’t deserve that treatment because they “were very good” to the servants, not mistreating them nor stealing from them for “the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing”. In other words, David and their men had been good and trustworthy neighbors, never starting any conflict. But now things were different because of what Nabal, the “wicked man”, had done and the servant sensed the coming danger telling Abigail that “disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household”
And so Abigail went into action…losing no time in gathering “two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs” which she loaded on donkeys. She then told her servants to go ahead of her so she could follow and decided to “not tell…Nabal”.
Scripture tells us that as Abigail “came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine”, she saw “David and his men descending toward her” and so she went to meet them. And as she went to meet David, we see why her actions were so important. For David has just said:
"It's been useless—all my watching over this fellow's property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!"
So angered was David…not just at Nabal’s disrespect and lack of hospitality but also his lack of gratitude…that he was ready to kill him and all his men. But there was one thing that David didn’t factor in. He didn’t factor in the possibility of intervention and resolution as a result of that intervention.
When David reached Abigail, we read where “she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before (him) with her face to the ground”, saying:
“My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name — his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.”
"Now since the Lord has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you. Please forgive your servant's offense, for the Lord will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the Lord’s battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the Lord has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him leader over Israel, my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord has brought my master success, remember your servant."
Note Abigail’s words to David. For she just wasn’t speaking on behalf of herself and her people. No…she was speaking on behalf of the Lord. Abigail, in a time when intervention was needed, not only used the Lord’s name but was used by the Lord to soften David’s angry heart and prevent the pending bloodshed.
In fact, we sense relief in David as he says to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak."
In other words, Abigail and her actions saved her husband and his men. They all would live because she was willing to intervene for them.
Well, as the chapter ends, we see where the Lord took care of Nabal Himself for “his heart failed him and he died after Abigail told her about what she had done. And after David praised the Lord for upholding his honor by dealing with Nabal, he sent for the now widowed Abigail and made her his wife. She would ultimately be rewarded for her wonderful act of intervention and service to the Lord.
As we examine the deeds of Abigail and the saving impact that had on her husband and the rest of her servants, we can’t help but remember the blessed, saving intervention we all experienced through Jesus Christ.
For we were in danger of death for our sinfulness for there needed to be a heavy price paid. But we, like Nabal and his servants, were spared because of Jesus who stepped in and intervened, giving His life up in place of ours on the cross. Friends, Jesus died in our place…He paid the price for us in full. And He has never stopped intervening ever since. For those who know and trust Him will not be condemned or thrust into hell but find their way to eternal life…just as Jesus did at His resurrection. Thus, death is not the end but only the blessed beginning…and it’s because of this we have a hope and inheritance that no one will ever be able to take from us…a hope and inheritance that was only possible because of Jesus’ intervention for us.
Question: Are you in a circumstance that is leading you toward doing the wrong thing…whether it is committing a wrong against another or even possibly wanting to do harm to yourself, feeling like life isn’t worth living anymore?
If so, you need to seek out intervention…and there’s no better place to start than with the Lord. Come to Him in prayer and ask for His strength and Spirit to help you and He will come to the rescue. You can also bet that He will call others to help as well for we have seen in Abigail that the Lord can do His intervening work through another if He so chooses.
And this leads to two final questions:
1. Do you know of anyone who is in need of intervention? If so, the time is now to get involved. In regard to suicide prevention, I have always felt one must always err on the side of caution. Never assume that someone saying they want to kill themselves are just kidding…because maybe they aren’t. And if you choose not to intervene and they do commit suicide, it’s too late to intervene then. Instead, you’re left with wondering what might have happened if you had just acted. I don’t know about you but I never want to be in that circumstance.
2. Are you even seeking to be an intervening force for the Lord? If not, then pray today to be used by Him in an intervening way. For if we are truly going to be Christian…or Christ-like…then we need to be ready to do anything and everything that Jesus was willing to do…and that includes intervening and saving. Offer yourself to always pray for others and you will find no shortage of people in need of help and prayer…intervention in times of difficulty. I can vouch for this personally through the work of this ministry.
Through our scripture today, we have seen a wonderful example of the awesome power of intervention and how God can use us to step in and avert wrongs before they happen. My prayer is that all of us will either commit or renew our commitment to be interveners in the Spirit of Jesus today and forever more. For there’s a world full of need out there…and a need for all to intervene for those in the world. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
http://www.faithhopeandlove.info
Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment