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Episode 513: In this episode, Chris and Jeff dive into the fascinating story of Abigail and David from 1 Samuel 25. We explore Abigail's character, noting her sensibility, kindness, and beauty, and how she takes responsibility for the situation by approaching David and pleading for mercy. We focus on the significance of Abigail's character and her role in the story, the cultural context of marriage and multiple wives in biblical times, the importance of listening to wise counsel in moments of anger and how God can use imperfect people for great purposes.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, good morning everybody. My name is Chris. This is Jeff Forrester Man. We're so excited to be here. Are we the Bible Guys? We are the Bible Guys. That's right, and so we want to welcome you to the podcast. And by the way, we have five hundred plus episodes that you can go back and watch. If this is your first time. Tuning in, Man, you can drown yourself in Bible Guys episodes. That's right. And by the way, not just watch, but listen. I keep on saying watch, but. Yeah, hey, I wonder. So we averaged like twenty five minutes an episode ish times five hundred divided by sixty, it's two hundred and eight and a half hours. Wow, two hundred and eight hours. Yeah, that's a lot of hours. That's a lot of hours. That's like ten straight days and divided by eight hours. Let's say if you listen to eight hours a day, you go twenty six days. That means twenty six days eight hours a day. That means I've sat here and listened to you talk just go on and on for what. I wonder a percentage of those two hundred eight hours that you were talking versus me. It's really funny to think about if you add up the minutes, like what would it be? What we should do is take all of the episodes and drop them into AI and ask them a bunch of questions like that, how many words Jeff say versus? How many words did Chris say? That would be interesting? Actually, how many meaningful things did Jeff say versus? How many meaningful things? AI is going to discurbine what is meaningful? I don't think so, because. How many movie references that are about. Make versus that would be interesting, wouldn't it? That would be great? Well, you know, like yesterday I said no, two days ago I said on the podcast, I go in the world, and then I just went on, right, that's a movie reference. And yet nobody would know A I know. That AI knows everything. No AI does. I'm not you're right, this is not okay, This is not what I robot. Yeah not yet. This is not all those other ones the age of Ultron. These are We've not arrived there. So if you are a new listener today and this is your first time. It doesn't get any better than what just happened there. So if you're looking for something. Better, right, we have some other good podcasts. You've hit the peak, Ladies and Gentlemen goes down from there. But it is fun. We've got people all around the world that listen, thousands and thousands of people and what is it now, eighty ninety country something like that. But it's really fun to find out where our listeners are from. And so Desiree, she's the one that really does most of the work on this podcast. By the way, she every once in a while will do one of these segments saying, where are our listeners from? Because it's fun to see where the listeners are from. Hey, I just. Yawned, and did you know that somebody approached me in the lobby at our church on Sunday? She goes, Hey, I just want to let you know I love the Bibble guys, And she said, and I want to let you know also I count your yawns. Yeah, well there was one yep. And by the way, I've said this a couple of times, but why do I yawn all the time? Because you're bored? No, because it's dark. Low lighting. Low lighting makes you tells me. To yawn immediately, Yes, immediately. If I go into a low lighting environment, I yawn immediately. Yes. Go ahead. So today we're going to highlight a whole country, is what she says. But I think I think she meant a whole city. Yeah, because the answer down here is a city. That's correct. So the first one, hey, it will give you four clues. The first one German chocolate cake originated here in nineteen fifty seven. That's all I need to know to love the city. It sounds like Germany. German chocolate cake. Yeah, but so if it's not Germany, then I call farce. It's not. But I know there's a lot of Germans that live in this city. Wow, yeah, totally cake. And there were a lot of German cowboys back in the day. Were not sure there were no they were not sure. There were all right, bunch of a bunch of cattlemen out out in that part of the country where German. Guy walks up, you know, chi ching ch ching, chit chink with his little six shoes and he. Goes Venus Knitzer. I don't think so anyway. Number two, it is the birthplace of seven eleven. What yeah, so German chocolate cake and big gulps. What more do you need big gulps? Huh yeah, Well see you. Later, Okay, Varney, our favorite big purple dinosaur was created here. I don't know about our favorite. Yeah. I don't know about that one either. I love you. Yeah, he was big back in the day. Yes. And then finally number four. It holds the largest state fair in the United States, drawing over two million visitors every year. What. This is great because state fairs are amazing. You know what? Because you can get anything to eat on a stick. It's right, you can, man, That's why state Hey, I'm not joking. Well, we should say where it's at and then I'll tell you my yes state first, and it. Is Dallas, Texas. Hey, everybody in Dallas. We are so glad that you're here. Yes, listening? Thanks, y'all tuning in? Yep? So, hey, let us know where you're from, Yes, tell let us know where you're listening from. You can send us an email info at the Bible Guides dot com, or you can leave a comment on the if you're watching on YouTube, or you can how else can they I guess send up a bat signal. Yes, yeah, well. I mean they could always email us directly. It's we're not hard to find if you go to Heritage Church dot com. Uh, that is our church, and then our emails are you know, on those things too. So yeah, by the way, my brother lives in Plano. Texas, not sorry from Dallas, not. Far at all. So I have been to Plano several times and been to Dallas several times. And I got to tell yeah, I love Texas and I love Dallas. Yeah, and I love playing. We lived in Texas for a few years and so served as a church down there, my my wife and my my two sons Tyler. We lived near Beaumont, Texas. Yeah, so right down on the Louisiana border, right on the Gulf of Mexico. Yeah. Wow. It was just a big swamp. There were more alligators in our county than there were people. So but I loved it, loved Texas and been all over the whole state so many times. But what I was telling you about state fairs and fairs in general. In Texas, everything's on a stick and you can eat it and then it's fried. You get fried. Uh. Maybe the best single greatest thing I ever put in my mouth for food at a fair was a fried twinkie on a stick. Wow, and it sounds horrible. It was amazing, And went back I got another one. I've had fried alligator on a stick. Of course, you get chicken and pork. And I had ribs on a stick one time there where they ran a stick between each rib all the way up. You know. Oh yeah, all kinds of everything. You get everything to eat on a stick, and a lot of it's. Fried donuts on a stick. Yeah. Yeah, I've had donuts on a stick. Yeah, that's really great. So man, go to Texas for the state fair. Now that we know that the biggest state fairs in Dallas, that's a million visitors. That's incredible. Holy Christmas, I know that's amazing. So there you go, Dallas. You're represented the day. Yes, And I think you have the second best football team. Do that second fourth best? In twenty two. I was going to say yeah, I was going to say they're they're definitely. I always have. I always have so much hope for the Cowboys and then they just underperform every year. I have not liked the Cowboys ever since they beat us in our playoff game. The loss back in nineteen ninety yeah whatever, it was ninety seven, ninety three. No, no, no, were we taking off on the one playoff game? Oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Dallas was the one that took us out. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and I mean obviously not last year. Lines were actually good last year. Yeah, I'm talking about previous. Year back in the nineties. No, no, not that one, because we lost to We lost to the Cowboys in the nineties too, back and Bass Andanders. Was playing, well, the Cowboys are a cursed then, yes, for the lines. Right, well, we hate the Cowboys when we bring that up, just ruin the whole podcast. Okay, well we've been We started off yesterday telling the story of David and his men. He has got six hundred men and they ask for food from Neyball, a very wealthy man, and he has a really bad temper. He starts talking. He's all kinds of smack about David and about his people, and he doesn't want to share. Abigail Nabel's wife is like, man, we're about ready to get wiped out because of David, and she packs up a whole bunch of she picks up the whole entry. I love we didn't talk about it yesterday, but I love how she's referred to as sensible, kind and then beautiful. Yes, yes, that's right, right, because because we have to picture her in our minds. Right. So, here's this woman who's who's who's riding down? Here comes these four hundred men. They're like, nobody's going to be left live. And then you got this really beautiful, kind, sensible woman who has decided to clean up the pantry and take you know, two hundred packs of raisins and all these different you know, donkey's loaded up with food for these men. That's right. So and David literally says, get all of your stuff. We're gonna go wipe this guy out. That's what he tells his men. And so then in First Samuel, chapter twenty five, verse twenty three, Abigail is riding her donkey towards David and says, when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. She fell at his feet and said, I accept all blame in this matter, my lord, Please listen to what I have to say. I know Nabel is a wicked and ill tempered man. Please don't pay any attention to him. He's a fool, just as his name suggests, which, by the way, Nabel literally means fool. Wow. I don't know who names their kid that, but right, but I never even saw the young men. You now my Lord, as surely as the Lord lives, and you yourself lives. Since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, Let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. Please forgive me if I've offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord's battles, and you've not done wrong throughout your entire life. Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you. Your life is safe in the care of the Lord, your God, secure in his treasure pouch. But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling 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. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant. Davy replied to Abigail. Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, has sent you to meet me this day. Thank God for your good sense. Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands. For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabel's men would still be alive tomorrow morning. That's a strong statement. Then David accepted her present and told her return home in peace. I've heard what you said. We will not kill your husband. When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn't tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened, and as a result, he had a stroke and he laid paralyzed on his bed like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck him and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, praise the Lord whos avenged the insult. I wascerived from Nabal and has kept me from doing it myself. Nabal has received the punishment for his sin. Then David sent his messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife. When the messengers arrived at Carmel, they told Abigail, David has sent us to take you back to marry him. She bowed low to the ground and responded, I, your servant would be happy to marry David. I would even be willing to become a slave. Watching the feet of his servants, quickly getting ready, she took along five of her servant girls as attendants, mounted a donkey and went with David's messengers, and so she became his wife. David also married a Hannoem from Jezreel, making both of them his wives. It's all. Meanwhile, had given his daughter Michael, David's wife, to a man from a Galum named Pulti, son of Leish. Well Yeah, what is that? Yeah? Well, I mean, you know, can we just before we get to the awesome story. That was a thing back then, ye, marrying multiple wives, and everybody of every nation did it. But God never in the Bible, not once has God ever, God told him not to right, God did not approve of multiple wives. And yet it seems like everybody in power decided to exercise that right. Not a right. I guess legally it's a right, isn't it. Right, Yeah, as they decided to exercise their legal right to have multiple wives. And it was a cultural thing, and they were embracing the culture rather than doing what God had said was appropriate. Right. The only time, like we read about Boaz with Ruth, right, there was this thing that take care of your brothers or your relative's wife if she's a widow. Right, So if your brother your relative dies, you're supposed to take care of her. That would be a different kind of a situation usually than this idea of just go out and hey, there's a pretty woman, I'm going to make her my wife, and there's another one, I'm going to make her my wife. Just go around collecting women. It was a very different thing. So that was inappropriate on David's part. But the rest of this story is pretty incredible, the fact that Abigail had the courage to come and deflect David's anger by saying, hey, blame me. Do you know that I actually teared up when you were reading that story? I actually did, which is so crazy. He said, what an obscure story from the Old Testament to have so much emotion. But but I was actually just thinking, like, you know, first of all, she gets off her donkey and she uh, you know, goes down, and I think I just found it so beautiful that she took responsibility in such a way. And you know, and again she's you know, saying, hey, he should be cursed, because you know, she recognizes the weight of his insults. She's like, listen, he's an idiot, right. His name suggests. But but the point is is, though check her out, man, she is she is filled with so much nobility and wisdom and uh and think about the uh you know, just as she said, she says, do not let this be a blemish on your record. And then David says, thank God for you that God sent you here, because let me tell you what we almost did. And yet you know, not only me as the commander, but then the four hundred people that are behind me, and then my reputation for the rest of my life. This would have been this thing. I would have murdered him and everybody else in my anger. And thank God for you that you have shown so much wisdom. That's what he. Said, her wisdom right. And it reminds me of how many times in my life that somebody has come up to me and given me fair warning, hey, you're not acting correctly. And it could be in a small way, or it could be in a large way, you know, like a life changing decisions, you know, or the huge mistakes that have the potential to, you know, derail you in a big way. I've had those moments. But more so it's been in small ways where people have, you know, said hey, let me pull you aside. You know what, you're wrong. She's right, and you're acting this way, but you don't realize it, and all of a sudden you sort of have this lightning moment, you know, this light bulb moment that says, oh, my goodness, yeah, you know they're correct. Well, David was remember a few weeks ago? Was it last week? We had the question, you know about the law says don't kill tank commandments? I shall not kill. Oh that was a while back. Yeah, when was that? This was a couple weeks ago? Yeah, it was some weeks last week or a couple weeks ago. The question was, you know, the law says thou shalt not kill? But why why is there so much killing in the Bible? And we talked about the fact the pastor yeah, the stump the pastor that was last week's week, that was last week you were talking about Exodus twenty Yeah, yeah, no, I was like wow. And so the question was why is there so much killing in the Bible? And we differentiated between your individual right to get revenge meditated premeditated murder and the idea of God establishing the government to bring judgment on wicked people. Right, so God establishes the death penalty for murder. If somebody commits intentional murder, then the government is supposed to execute that person right now. A life for a life is what God says in the law, those kind of things. So there's all these established things, and so in a war environment, in a battle kind of situation, God allows this kind of you know, the you're allowed to protect your nation, you're allowed to protect your your property, you're allowed to protect your family, even if it means the death of the other person. You're allowed to protect those things. In this situation, David acknowledges that his bad attitude towards an the ball was purely revenge r and David acknowledged this would have been murder. Isn't it amazing? So David killed Goliath in a battle. Everybody's like woo hoo, and God celebrates the fact that David kills this, this wicked man that was, you know, mocking the people of Israel and the God and bringing war against pillaging against the people of Israel. They're allowed to protect their land, They're allowed to protect their resources and their assets. But in this situation, David is just ticked off and goes, boys, we're going to go wipe this guy out. We're going to kill him and everybody that works for him. And Abigail comes and goes, hey, if you do this, his blood will be on your hands and on your conscience the rest of your life because you're a good man. Right, Your reputation is you're a good man. The Bible calls David a man after God's own heart, right right, Nobody has that kind of accolade about David's general heart for God is so great that he's always pursuing God, which, by the wayhole Bible. Just as a side note, it's wonderful that David still has that, you know, that sentence set about him by God, right about him by God. And yet we also know David was not perfect. Oh well, he gets ticked off here. He's going to go wipe out in an entire community, right, and it's. Big failure, you know, later on in life with best sheep and everything else. It's you know, it's it's good to know that God still uses broken people for great things. Sure, and all the way throughout the Bible, you know, we we we sometimes refer to them where we hear about them as saints and you know, Saint Paul, Sat Saint Peter and and you know that's fine, but we have to recognize they were all broken people. Every single one of them had their faults, and yet God chose them and hand selected them. And guess what he hand selects you. He chooses you and all your imperfections to do great things because God can still use you as an imperfect person. Yeah, David's greatest accomplishments were prior to his greatest failures, right for sure. So the more you're pursuing God, the more God has to use of you. After David's great failures, it was, I mean, we're going to look at this pretty soon. Absolom is coming after him. As household starts collapsing. The only really good thing that happens out of it is he writes a couple of repentance psalms that are really really meaningful to us, and he writes those in his brokenness, and he raises up Solomon to take his place, you know, and Solomon early in his life is pursuing God. But there is this sense that God doesn't give up on people, even David, who's hot headed here and is ready to wipe out Nebal God sends Abigail, and I think God does that for us, that he's a young man after God's own heart. Of course, he's you know, he's living on this the edge of morality all the time because he's in a war kind of environment. And now, hey, I've got the assets, I'm going to go wipe out in Abel. But this was a revenge moment. It would have been blood on his hands, It would have been blood on his conscience. And instead she God sends her to him and he goes, you're right, And I think that we have to recognize in the heat of the moment, if there's somebody coming to intervene, we needed to catch our breath and pause and accept that that's a message from God to slow it down. You know, Hey, if David decided later on, know, I think God wants me to wipe out Abel. He could have done it the next day too. He still had the bigger army, He still had the tough guys. So there is a lot of wisdom and pausing and listening to, you know, the the other side of the story in this situation, listening to Abigail and. Thing, remember the dad joke. Yesterday we talked about the irony joke. Yes, you want to know the irony of. This story is that Ball was so concerned about sharing just a little bit of his resources with David, not really knowing that a month later he'd be dead and David would own all of his resources. That's right, So David inherited all of Naball's wealth by marrying Abigail. Right, Perhaps it would have depended on the law a lot of times. It'd be the men in Nabel's family and unless that was her dowry. Remember they had the dowry thing. Okay, Okay, I'm just saying, David, they certainly had the ability to go take it, taking. The western world, right, maybe not the eastern world. Okay, well that's fine either way. His wife's now his exactly. I don't want to share. Any with you. The next day, I mean this, this is just a couple of days later he winds up having a stroke. He's having a party celebrating his own successes and has a stroke and die ten days after that. That, Yeah, I'm crazy. Yeah, I just said a month later, because you know, I sometimes wonder how like how many days journey was Abigail traveling before she found David, and then how many days journey did she take to go home, you know? And then after that, how many how many weeks later after his death did David send for her. So that's why I said a. Month later, sure, but within a month, within a month probably, But holy cow, who could have ever predicted those turn of events? And so this is a true reminder again both out of Deuteronomy, and then God reminds us in the Book of Romans, chapter twelve. You know, don't repay evil with evil because vengeance's mind says the Lord I will repay. And David totally acknowledges in this situation that God got the revenge and David didn't have to. So David's mind and conscience in his hands are clean and God said, hey, I'm going to get rid of this fool. And by the way, that's what we read three days ago in sam chapter what was that twenty four where he said, God, you'll take care of my enemies, right, My enemies around me will fall because I have confidence in you. So God's hand is on David. And it says that God was the one that you know struck Neyball and God hit him, and what it says the Lord struck him and he died Holy Cavin. So yeah, so hey, that's pretty good. We have anything else to learn from this? I like your story. I like it too. I like it too. It was very emotional for me. Yeah, yeah, it really was. Love. I love when people stand up and they have virtue and responsibility, and the things that she said about him were just wonderful and I just got emotional just reading it. So there's a note in life application study Bible all about Abigail down in the corner, and it says she was sensible and capable, she was persuasive, she was able to see beyond herself, and when life's tough, situations oftentimes bring out the best in people. And that's what you see in her. That she had an oppressive jerk of a husband, she lived in a culture that tended to minimize women, and she grabbed a hold of what she had the resources and asked that she had and she said, hey, I'm not going to let my culture in my situation hold me down. I'm going to go out and make the best negotiation I can. Otherwise we're all going to get wiped out. And God used her to spare both the life of all of her servants and her household, and to spare David from doing the wrong thing. And it's also no wonder why she was thrilled to marry David. She's been married to that jerk for so many years. She's like, I just hit the watery. And it says David was good looking too, yeah, yeah, right, So now she's found a guy who's, you know, not ugly on the outside or inside. Right, All right, well, hey, that's our Time, so hopefully we'll see you next time on the Babble Guys.