An Offer You Can’t Refuse

       Anger is one of the hardest emotions we wrestle with.  For one thing, it’s so public.  You can’t hide anger. It’s on display.  For another thing, it’s so unpredictable.  It can be on us before we know it. And it wears so many different faces. Sometimes it’s just irritation or the blurting out of a statement we later wish we hadn’t said.  But occasionally it comes on us with such force that it results in aggression. 

       Anger can easily become a habit.  People can become addicted to the adrenaline anger provides.

       To this point anger has not been David’s choice.  Two weeks ago, Janet preached on how David spares the life of King Saul who is trying to kill him.  But now something happens that sends David right off the anger deep end.   As a result, he almost blows off his own foot with a shotgun to get rid of a wart.   The wart’s name is Nabal.

       That’s the way anger is.  It always comes out.  You stuff your anger at Saul and it comes out at a Nabal. 

      Nabal has a thriving sheep and goat business in a small town in southern Judah called Carmel .  Nabal may be a good businessman.  But everyone considers him a fool – his servants, his wife, everyone.

       One on the interesting things about the Hebrew language is that many words look the same but have different meanings.  The context makes clear which word is being used. There are several Hebrew words that use the letters nbl (vowels don’t count in Hebrew).  One word means a water bottle or pitcher.  Another means a musical instrument like a lute.  A third, borrowed from non-Hebrew Semitic languages, means noble or skilled.   

       I suspect that third meaning is the name Nabal’s parents had in mind.  But nbl also means fool.  And as Nabal grows up it becomes obvious to everyone that that’s the correct understanding of his name. 

       In the scriptures the fool is the person who lives as if there is no God.  That’s how Nabal lives – for himself.  We are also told that he is harsh, stubborn, belligerent and dishonest. 

       The biblical commentaries are absolutely all over the place about what sets off the conflict between David and Nabal.  Is David asking Nabal to simply give him what his rightfully his?  Is it the custom to reward those who protect your flocks from bandits – even if you haven’t actually hired them?  Some say “yes.”  Or is David acting like a mobster running a protection racket?  That’s certainly Nabal’s interpretation of what’s going on when David sends his young men for a visit.

                Godfather clip – “Tom Hagan Goes to Hollywood ”

       David is out in the wilderness with 600 men.  Supplies are scarce.  So David sends ten young men with sharp haircuts and bulges under their jackets to pay his respects to Nabal.  They point out that Nabal’s shepherds have been very lucky. They have been pasturing their sheep in the area where David and his men live.  But David’s men have done them no harm and none of Nabal’s sheep have disappeared – if you know what I mean. A little consideration might be appropriate in order that this happy arrangement can continue. 

       David sends his boys to Nabal during the festival at the time of sheep shearing.  That’s on purpose.  Right now Nabal’s wealth is especially available, visible and vulnerable.  David wants from Nabal "whatever you have at hand." Since Nabal has much "at hand" right at the moment,David implicitly asks for a lot.  His message begins soft words of greeting: "Peace... peace ... peace".  But to Nabal, David's message is not peace. The greeting is a warning to Nabal that his peace may be in jeopardy.

       Like the producer in the Godfather, Nabal's responds with an explosion of anger.  "Who is David?" he asks. "Who is the son of Jesse?" He implies that David is no better than the other outlaws, debtors, and escaped slaves who live in the hills.  “Who is David?”  Nabal's question does not mean he does not know who David is.  I’m sure he does. It’s more like “Who does David think he is?”  To Nabal, David is a nobody.  Nabal is engaged in big business.  He doesn’t deal with beggars.  And he will not negotiate with terrorists.        

      David’s men turn on their heels.  They know that David, like Don Corleone, is a man who likes to get bad news immediately. 

      Two stubborn men, both convinced they are in the right.  Here are the ingredients for a major explosion.  David’s anger is as quick as Nabal’s – but much more deadly.  David has 600 men.  He tells 400 of them to lock and load and mount up. 

       If the issue is left between David and Nabal – if no one intervenes – there will be blood. It won’t be David’s. David vows, “God do the same thing to me and more if I leave until morning a single person in Nabal’s household who urinates against the wall. 

        That’s a very crass and insulting way to describe a man.  It’s even worse in the King James Version.  But David is really bent. His language reveals his heart. He vows to kill every man who is there – all who urinate standing up -- from Nabal all the way down to his male servants.  No horse heads in Nabal’s bed for David.  That’s sissy stuff.  It’s going to be a clean sweep.         

       David has lost control.  He has lost all sense of his identity as God’s anointed. 

       David has been able to somehow see crazy King Saul as a temple of the Holy Spirit.  But he can’t see Nabal as anything but an ugly piece of garbage who is stinks up his life.  David is on the verge of becoming another Saul – out to get anyone who threatens his place. 

       Fortunately there is another actress in the story.  This is Abigail, Nabal’s wife.  She’s everything Nabal isn’t. Her fool of a father may have married her off to a fool of a husband just because he’s rich.  But Abigail is wise, discreet and – a female counterpart to David – beautiful of form.

       Nabal’s servants know they are in great danger even if Nabal is clueless.  They come to Abigail and say: "David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; (that’s us)and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him."

       The servants are very open about their feelings.  They contrast David who “was very good to us” with Nabal who is “good for nothing.”   They come to Abigail because no one can talk to Nabal. Apparently Abigail isn’t shocked by the servant’s opinion of her husband.  They probably aren’t a new insight for her.

       But what should Abigail do? 

       This is her golden opportunity for her to get rid of an obnoxious loser of a husband!  When she hears that David is coming to kill Nabal she could say something spiritual like, "Oh, I better pray about this."   When she hears thundering hoof beats coming down the hill she could be in the house praying, "Lord, be merciful. Take him swiftly!"

       It's her chance! Nabal’s vulnerable, and it's all his fault anyway.  All she has to do is do nothing.

       Instead she protects the fool.

       Abigail gathers a large amount of food and sends it on ahead of her as a peace offering to David’s advancing soldiers.  Then she rides out alone to meet David. She bows low before him and starts to speak.  She shows extraordinary boldness, common sense and capacity for effective language.  Her speech reverses David’s avalanche of anger. 

       She begins with a courtesy that is a real contrast to Nabal’s rudeness.  She all, “My lord this” and “your handmaiden that.”   Then she disposes of Nabal as a factor in the negotiations.   She says he’s a fool and not to be taken seriously.  He’s earned his name. “Let it be said of him, ‘As his name is, so is he. Fool is his name, and foolishness is in him.’"

       There is also a wonderful subtext in what she is says.  She says to David, “Nabal is a fool and one fool is enough in this story. This attack isn’t an action worthy of a prince of Israel .  Remember who you are.  Remember God’s mercy.  Don’t stoop to fighting grudge battles when you task is to fight the battles of the Lord.”   Nabal has no choice about who he is. “Let it be said of him, "As his name is, so is he. Fool is his name, and foolishness is in him."  But David has a choice. 

       The remainder of Abigail's speech reads almost like a benediction for the future king.  The life of "my lord" will be preserved in the care of God, but the lives of his enemies will be rejected. "My lord" will have no cause for regret, because he has not taken vengeance. 

        Abigail's promise to David echoes the promise of God.  The throne will surely come.  The divine promise will be kept. The future is so certain for David that vengeance on Nabal is both unnecessary and unwise. A great king like David does not need to bear the mark of petty revenge.    Abigail does not want David's immediate temptation to vengeance to intrude on David's legitimacy for the throne.  

        Abigail bases her appeal on a very bold interpretation of her interception of David. She’s not just a pretty face sticking up for a loser husband.  She says that the Lord Himself has kept David from disaster by putting Abigail in his path!  Since the Lord had kept David from this disaster, Abigail argues, it shows that God is involved.  So let all David's enemies, including Nabal be dealt with by the Lord.

       Finally Abigail concludes with a personal appeal.  She says, “Remember your handmaid."

Remember me in gratitude. Remember me as the one who talked sense to you. Remember me as the one who protected your coming reign from the blood of a fool.  Remember me because if you forget me I’ll be stuck only with this hopeless Nabal.”  She doesn’t quite say it – there’s no nudge, nudge, wink, wink in the Hebrew text -- but you get the sense that Abigail would be more than happy to trade up her husband.  You can’t much blame her.

       Eugene Peterson writes in Leap Over a Wall:  “Abigail on her knees in the wilderness, on her knees before David. David is rampaging, murder in his eyes, and Abigail blocks his path, kneeling before him. David has been insulted and is out to avenge the insult with four hundred men worked up into a frenzy. Abigail, solitary and beautiful, kneels in the path, stopping David in his tracks.

       “At this moment David is full of himself and empty of God; the emptiness is visible as ugliness. Abigail recovers God for David.”

       Peterson continues, “David is earlier described as beautiful, though there's no sign of it here. But beautiful Abigail restores the beauty of God to David, his original identity.  As he had escaped from Saul's clutches, so David evaded his own inner demons, avoiding the guilt that would have accompanied his ill-advised plan to massacre every male in Nabal's household. David was a better man than that, and Abigail is presented as one who brings out the best in David.”

       The startling self-discovery-causes David to begin his response to Abigail with a triple blessing: “Blessed be God who sent you.  Blessed be your discretion, Blessed be you.”  If it hadn’t been for Abigail, David would have done in both Nabal and his own future.  David is a free man.  Abigail has saved his life and his future.    

       Abigail leaves David, the man who listens to her, and goes home to the man who doesn’t listen to anyone.  She finds him passed out at a drunken party.  One he sobers up, she tells him how close he came to death.  The result is that he dies anyway.  He became like stone and died ten days later.  Technically it might have been a stroke. But David sees it as the hand of God as does the writer of the story.  God finishes what David shouldn’t finish.

      Then David remembers Abigail’s parting request that he remember her. Boy, does he remember Abigail. As soon as he hears of Nabal’s death, he sends messengers to Abigail asking if she will become his wife – or his second wife after Saul’s daughter Michal or maybe his third wife after a women in Jezreel. 

       “David has sent us to take you to be his wife," his messengers explain. Just as quickly,. Abigail accepts. "And she arose, and bowed down with her face to the earth and said: 'Behold your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.’” David's messengers correctly understand that as Abigail speak for "yes."

       David gains several things by marriage to Abigail.  He gets a wealthy wife who can help finance his army. He also gains a position of real political power in Judah by marrying into the powerful Calebite clan, which controls the important city of Hebron .  The Bible’s way of emphasizing this political connection is to describe Abigail consistently as Nabal’s widow.  The Hebron connection becomes the base of David's political power in the south. After Saul's death, David will be crowned as king of Judah , several years before he was also acclaimed king of the northern tribes. That first coronation took place in Hebron .

      That’s not too romantic.   Marriage at this level wasn’t romantic in those days.  It was business.  Abigail knows how the game is played.  But Abigail gets a husband is willing to listen – and not be a fool.  And David gets a wife who is wise and insightful and isn’t afraid to tell him God’s truth. 

       This story is all about names.  Nabal and Abigail live up (or down) to their reputations and get what they deserve. Nabal sinks like a heavy stone in the middle of all his wealth. Abigail is released from her burdensome husband to marry the future king.  But David's name also has significance as great as Nabal’s.  David means "beloved."   He also bears the title "anointed of God." David is God's beloved, chosen one.

      And we who follow Jesus Christ bear the name "Christian."  So this passage challenges us, just as Abigail challenges David, to live up to our calling as the beloved children of God -- rather than choosing to live in hypocrisy and bring shame upon the name. As Nabal's servants could see his true nature, our friends and neighbors can recognize what is truly in us by our words and deeds.  So let it be said of us the reverse of Abigail’s judgment on her husband, "As her name is, so is she. Christian is her name, and Christlikeness is in her."

       In the beginning of the story, David does not live up to his name.  Through Abigail's intervention, David is able to gain control of his emotions and avoid incurring the blood-guilt of Nabal's death, thus remaining worthy of his status as God's beloved, chosen one.  David needs Abigail if he’s not going to go off the rails. 

       Eugene Petersen writes:  “There's nothing more common in the spiritual life than starting out right and then going wrong. We start out with enthusiasm and promise, surging with energy and purity of heart. And then somewhere along the line we're corrupted and spoiled.   St. Paul coined the term shipwrecks to describe these episodes. The remains of these shipwrecks are everywhere to be seen in legislatures and courtrooms, athletic stadiums and concert halls, kitchens and bedrooms. 

       “And most tragically, among Christians. Not one of us is exempt. Someone offends us, crosses us, doesn't give us what we want. Our self-importance flares up and we're off to do something about it — usually off to do something about it armed with righteous indignation. Wrapped up in ourselves, we're angry because our self-defined identity is violated. We're off to avenge hurt feelings, a bruised self-image. We'll get even, get back at them, show them a thing or two.

       “And then we're stopped by something beautiful — child, friend, stranger; cloud, song, fragrance: Abigail. We find ourselves presented with something quite other than what we're feeling and doing. And we suddenly realize that we are better than what we are about to do.”

       That intervention in a wonderful gift from God.  So when God uses as an Abigail in your life to hold you back from wrong – perhaps a portion of Scripture that the Hold Spirit suddenly brings into you mind -- treat it as a gift. Welcome it.  Listen to it.  Learn from it.  Marry it.

       That’s how you will always live up to the name God has given you.