Video Transcript: Knucklehead Nabal

Video Transcript: Knucklehead Nabal

In our Bible reading plan we have been reading in the book of First Samuel as families at home. And as you read in First Samuel, the last part of First Samuel deals a lot with David being on the run from Saul. God has rejected Saul as king. But nonetheless, Saul still remains as king until his death. And he's very jealous of his son-in-,law, David and is out to kill him. Now, in First Samuel 25, we read of an incident that occurs where Saul is a little bit out of the picture, and where David is in the wilderness and part of his hiding out from Saul, and he has a run-in with a person named Nabal. Let's listen to the Word of God: 

“David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran, and there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was sharing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was sharing his sheep. So, David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him: “Peace be to you, and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us and we did the no harm and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants, and to your son David.”” 

When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David and then waited. And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed from my shearers and give it to men who come from I know not where?” So, David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword.” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword and about 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage. 

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us, both by day and by night, all the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” And Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes a figs and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband, Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her and she met them. Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.” 

When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, On me alone, my lord be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. (The name Nabal means fool). Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand. Now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my lord, according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you, prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause, or from my lord taking vengeance himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.” 

And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from blood guilt, and from avenging myself with my own hand! For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly, by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” Then David received from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”

And Abigail came to Nabal and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And Nabals heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So, she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal. his wife told him these things and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has avenged the insult I received at the hands of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.” This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen.

We're going to think this morning about knucklehead Nabal and as we get into that some of you probably want to understand that deep, theological word, knucklehead. Well, knucklehead is pronounced knuck-le-head. It's a noun, informal and it means a stupid, bumbling, inept person according to the dictionary. Some of its synonyms are blockhead, bonehead, dolt, dullard, dummkopf, dunce, dunderhead, fool, halfwit, idiot, ignoramus, knot head,  moron, nitwit, numbskull, oaf, and simpleton. I should probably get that list off the screen before some of you grab those as your latest insults for people, you're mad at. But a knucklehead is somebody who's got a problem and it's not just the problem with being able to think fast or remember well. That sometimes is what is meant when you call somebody a dummy or whatever, that they're just not that smart. But Nabals IQ, his intelligence is fine, but he's just a knucklehead. He's hardheaded, and he's what the Bible portrays in Proverbs as a fool. In fact, his name Nabal just means fool. Now, it's kind of hard to imagine a mother and dad cuddling their little newborn and saying, “We just want to name this little cutie knucklehead. Yeah, we just going to give him the name, fool.” It's hard to know how he got that name. You kind of suspect that his mom and dad didn't name him “Nabal”. Nabal was one of those names that he earned. You know how in the Bible sometimes people are given one name at birth, but then they end up with another one. Simon was born Simon and later was called Peter the rock by Jesus. Joseph, a Levite, was named Joseph, but he was called by everybody Barnabas, son of encouragement, because he was such an encourager. You could be born with one name and end up with another one and Nabal was one of those souls who ended up with another one. He ended up basically being called knucklehead by everybody who knew him. 

Now, as we think about this story involving a knucklehead, I want to think about it from three angles, from the angles of different characters in the story. One is simply from the angle of Nabal. What if you are a knucklehead? We really do have to ask that question. I hate to insult all of you nice people. I won't single anybody out. But it's very important when you listen to a passage like this, that you hear its warnings and take to heart the possibility that I might be the knucklehead. When I'm looking for that knucklehead around me, maybe the mirror is the first place to check. Then a second question to ask is maybe more from the angle of Abigail, or from the servant in the story. What if your spouse is a knucklehead? What if your boss is a knucklehead? And then there's David: what if you are the one who is insulted and directly wronged by a knucklehead? So, let's think about it from those three angles. 

First of all, what is you are the knucklehead. Now, one of the things you’ve got to notice in this story is just because you have a lot of things going for you and you seem to be successful and all things seem to be going your way does not prove that you're smart, or that you're good. If you ask the question, what if you're a knucklehead, the answer might be “Well, of course not! You know, I got a great life. Business is going well. Xouldn't possibly be a knucklehead.” Well, the man was very rich. He had great wealth. But that didn't make him a wise person. He had a great wife. The name of his wife was Abigail. The woman was discerning, she was wise, she could figure things out. She knew what needed to be done at the right time. And she was beautiful. So, he has this brilliant babe for a wife. But he's still a bonehead.

And it's just possible to be rich and have a great wife and maybe even the family is okay, largely due to her. But you could still be a knucklehead. And he had a great heritage. He was a Calabite. You remember the story of Caleb earlier in the Bible, where Caleb is this heroic person who is sent as a scout to spy out the land. And he goes in there with 12 people, but when they come back, only he and Joshua say “It's a great land and we can take it.” All the others are talking about the problems, not the opportunities. Nabal is not like his ancestor Caleb. Caleb sees the opportunity and says, “We can overcome those obstacles.” David comes Nabals way and Nabal sees it as a huge problem. He doesn't see it as “Bingo! This is an opportunity, you know, to return some favors and to get on the good side of the future king of Israel. Man, could things go well, for me, if I am part of David's outfit!” He instead says, “Yikes. Saul is the king. I'm going down if I allied with David in any manner whatsoever, and I don't like him anyway. And I'm selfish and I don't want to give anything away.” So, he's got the money. He's got the wife. He's got the pedigree, the good heritage, and he is just a hardheaded, mean, nasty kind of guy. 

Now, what do others see in him? It's very, very hard when you're foolish. And when you're stubborn to see your problem. That's why you're foolish in the first place. That's why you're stubborn. You think you're always right and you think you're surrounded by knuckleheads. You think your boss is one, you think your wife is one, you wish the kids would shape up and you're surrounded by all these dummies and somehow, you're the only genius of the bunch. You always have to consider the other possibility. I'm sure Nabal thought he was superb manager of his affairs and an excellent husband and all other things. But how did others see him? Well, his servant says, “He is such a worthless man that no one can talk to him.” Okay, well, that’s a rousing character reference, isn't it? Nobody can talk to by the way, worthless man is spoken in the book of Judges of a bunch of rapists from Gibeah. It’s spoken earlier in First Samuel of those rotten no-good sons of Eli, who were supposed to be priests and instead was sleeping with the women and defying the sacrifice. It's not a real compliment. He's a worthless guy and you just can't talk to him. 

A friendly stranger, David, hasn’t met  Nabal before, but he's friendly. He's being nice to all of Nabals people, he comes with this message of peace. And when he finds out Nabal’s response, he says, “Well, he's returned to me evil for good.” Abigail, his wife, well, she sees him as he is. It says she's a discerning woman, including being able to read her own husband. “Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” Ouch. That's what the smart wife thinks of him. And then what does God say? Well, at the beginning of the story, “the man was harsh and badly behaved.” So, there's basically your profile of Nabal as other people see him. He sees no problem. But others do. Interesting essay by C.S. Lewis was titled “The trouble with X” and he says, “The trouble with X is that everybody can see what the trouble with X is except X.” 

That's unfortunately the case with many of us. Our own worst flaws are obvious to just about anybody who knows us well and we seem to be pretty oblivious to them. But anyway, in Nabal’s case, a lot of people see what's wrong with him. Now, what are the dangers of being a knucklehead? Well, a knucklehead can turn a huge opportunity into a huge disaster. He's got this opportunity to get on the good side of David and be one of his close allies. And instead, he comes within an inch of having his whole household wiped out. The Bible often warns in Proverbs, especially of the dangers of being a fool. It's very, very important to be praying to God for a discerning heart, because you can turn opportunity into a huge disaster. Just take one modern politician who's now dead. It was said of Yasser Arafat, the terrorist Palestinian, that he never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. He had multiple opportunities to make peace with the State of Israel, to have his own territory and so on. And he would just continue to kill, kill, kill.  A knucklehead endangers people who are under him and all around him. Now, Nabal wasn't just going down himself. His stupidity, just about all the male members of his family killed.  His stupidity just about got all of his male workers killed. It is very hard to be a fool and have an effect you only. 

And now let's get to the wider context of this story a little bit. This story comes in the middle of that whole section of David, fleeing from Saul, having Saul his hands and able to kill him, letting him go having Saul in his hands again and letting him go again. And what is going on with Saul? Well, Saul, is a man whose heart isn't right toward the Lord. And Saul is a man who endangers the people around him. By the time you get to the end of First Samuel, you find that Saul has tried to kill David multiple times, his own son-in-law, who is loyal to him and his best warrior. He has tried to kill his own son and heir to the throne, Jonathan. He has got Israel in shambles by the end of the book.  He goes into battle, and he and his sons are killed, and Israel is killed and defeated and scattered. That's what happens when you have a Nabal on the throne. It is a very dangerous thing to have somebody at the top of government who does not know what he's doing and even worse, is doing things that are devastating for his people. 

And there are some scholars who believe that Nabal and the story of Nabal is told in part just to give kind of a miniature and a picture of Saul, when the fool returns evil for David's good. And of course, Nabal was a loyal person in some respects to Saul. And the danger that he brought was not just for himself, but for a lot of people around him. And of course, he does endanger himself. We've read the story. You know what happens? Proverbs 29 says, “A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed, without remedy.” He's got the beautiful wife. He's got the riches. He's got the pedigree, and he's deader than a stone because he had his chances. He had his chances and then all of a sudden God pulls the plug. So those are the dangers of being a knucklehead. And as we read a story like that, we always have to read the story through the ultimate lens of what the Bible is about. The Bible, in all of its parts points to Jesus Christ and it's a revelation of Jesus Christ, and an invitation to relationship with Jesus, and a warning against rejecting Jesus. 

And in the stories of David, David, in a sense, plays two parts. One is simply David himself, the man. And we can learn a lot from his example, both from what he did well, as well as what he did badly. But also, there are times in the David's story, where David is a type or a picture of the Son of David who is still going to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. David is the Anointed One. The word “anointed” simply is in Hebrew, “Messiah” or in Greek, “Christ”. David is an early version of Messiah or Christ. He, of course, isn't the real Christ, but he's  a forrunner and a picture. And what is the picture that happens when you go up against Him, when you reject your opportunity to have a relationship with Him, and instead insult Him and drive Him away? Well, what happens in the case of David? God's judges the one who won't have anything to do with God's anointed and greater judgment awaits those who reject not just David, but the One the Bible calls the Son of David, Jesus Christ. Psalm two, speaking of God's anointed king, even before Jesus came, says, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” Now I know that nowadays, it's said that love wins, and that all people are eventually going to be with the Lord forever in joy and in bliss. This is what megachurch pastors say nowadays, at least some of them. This is not what the Bible says. “How much worse punishment,” says the Bible “do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and as outraged the Spirit of grace?” See, it doesn't just talk about, “Oh, he happened not, you happen not to believe in Jesus, or you just kind of happen not to follow Him. It's says, if you don’t want to be with the Son of God, you have spurned Him. You profane the blood that He gave, you've insulted Him and outraged the Holy Spirit. That's what the scripture says happens when we don't put our trust in Jesus, and when we don't follow Him. And you might be able to fill up some churches temporarily, with a very different message. But you might be in danger of filling up hell, as well, iIf you're not willing to give the clear warnings of the ultimate danger that happens when a knucklehead rejects the Son of God, the Anointed One of God.

And so as we consider Nabals role in the whole story, a big part of the warning is, don't walk Nabals path, don't reject the Anointed One of God when He comes close to you. Jesus comes to us now. At times, it may seem like the cause of Jesus isn't doing so hot. And there are other forces in the world that seem to be prevailing. That's how it seemed to Nabal. He thought that Saul had the upper hand, and David was a loser. Big mistake. And there may be those who think, “Yeah, that Christianity thing is just going downhill.” Time magazine years ago had a cover story: God is Dead. I had to read a book a few years ago for my PhD dissertation, the title was “God is Dead” by an atheist sociologist of religion from Britain. And he was describing how fewer and fewer people are Christians. And so, to him, that's evidence that you can afford to just chuck it all and ignore it. Not so. Even when David is on the run, even when David's cause seems to be going downhill, even when God has not yet put him on that throne for everybody to see and for everybody to bow before. It is a very, very dangerous thing to mess around with the Messiah of God. 

Now, what if your spouse or your boss is a knucklehead? Well, how did Nabal’s servant handle it? He faced the facts about his boss, and he said, “Man, I got to do something, or we're cooked!” So, he hopes that maybe Abigail can get something done. And so Nabal’s servant takes action. Now, what does Abigail do? She sees her husband's folly very clearly. She takes action. She does it contrary to his wishes. Now, not that long ago, we preached through the book of Colossians and Colossians tells those to work for somebody to submit to those who are your masters. It tells wives to submit to their husbands. Ephesians and Peter's letters say the same thing. And some have taken that to mean that if you work for somebody else, you just say, “Yessa Messa,” and you do whatever he says all the time. And the same if you're a wife, husband is always right. Not quite.

There are times when things are so critical. And so much is at stake, that you simply have to go contrary to the wishes of someone who's doing something deadly and devastating to your family. And that may be your husband, it may be your wife, it may be somebody else. There are times when something is so sick, and so bad, that you simply have to find a way to stop it, or to undermine it. And those are not as frequent as one might think. This doesn't mean every time you have a tiff with your husband, or with your wife, you say, “Well, the pastor said that whenever you're a knucklehead, then I have to go around you and above you.” You know, well, that's not what I'm saying. But there are these crucial occasions. And sometimes there are times in a person's life when they've done things so serious, that those around them who would normally be honoring them and submitting to them, have to counteract them and put a stop to it instead. 

There are abusive parents, there are... Well, speaking of stupid, Nabals getting drunk. There are parents who become alcoholic, and you do not owe it to an alcoholic person to help them to continue in that, to wreck everything around them. The best thing you can do is to try to either help them to stop or separate yourself and those in your care from their alcoholic behavior. Those are the best choices. It's tough, but that's the way it is. 

And it's sad that someone like Abigail, how does she ever get matched up with this knucklehead in the first place? Never explains, but it happened. And she had to do an end-around. If you work for a knucklehead or you're married to a knucklehead, you have to do what you can to prevent the damage to others, even if you have to go against his wishes. And that's what Abigail did. She knew what needed doing. 

Now, notice, also in the Abigail story, if David in some ways is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of God's anointed. Abigail, in some ways in this story is a type of a faith response. First thing she says is, “Please forgive the trespass of your servant.” Now, in a sense, she hadn't even done it. It was her husband, who had done the damage, but she's still willing to just shoulder the responsibility and do what she can about it. Sometimes, we're a little in that position. We don't have very many excuses. But there are days when we say, “Well, you know, even my problems weren't really my fault. They were passed down to me from my parents.” Or if you read your Bible, if Adam and Eve’s fault.” 

We had an old Dutch farmer near us, growing up, and whenever something went wrong – the machinery would break down or somebody do something stupid, that would do some harm – he’d say, “Oh, Adam, Adam.” Adam, you’ve gotten us into this mess. 

Well, it may be so. Sorry Adam. But there's a second Adam, He's good too. But there comes a time to stop blaming, and just say, “Okay, here's where we are. I'm involved in this mess, please forgive it.” And then she sees what's coming. She sees what God's going to do. She believes. She's heard about promises that God has made to David, and she believes those promises are going to come true. She believes that David is fighting the Lord's battles. And she believes that God is going to do today all the good that He has spoken when He appointed David to be Prince over Israel. And so too, we believe God's word, and His promises concerning the reign of Jesus Christ, and His triumph. And faith may not see all of that triumph right now, but faith believes it anyway. 

And then a final thing that faith does is it seeks a reward. She not only asks forgiveness, not only believes the word about David, but she says, “And when all this comes true, then remember your servant.” See, unlike her husband, she sees David as an opportunity. She figures he's going to win. And when he does, she wants to be remembered well by him. And really that cry of faith, “Remember your servant. Bless me.” Right when Jesus was hanging on the cross or what did that thief next to him say? “Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” And so, we pray for forgiveness. We believe God's promises and then we ask God to remember and to reward us because of our trust in Him. 

So, you've got what happens if you're a knucklehead: repent of that and quit it as soon as you can. What happens if you're married to a knucklehead? Well, deal with it as best you can. But in the meantime, keep on trusting the Lord and His cause. 

And then finally, what if you're wronged by a knucklehead? First thing you need to do is just reject that rage and revenge reaction. That's what David, first thing he says is, “Okay guys, out with the swords strap them on. I got mine. We're going 400 of us. That guy's dead meat.” Well, there's a little problem with that. In the first place, revenge has a way of just flaming out of control and causing way more hurt than the original offense deserved. Nabal has insulted David and David feels that in return for that insult, this guy should die. And not only him; he's going to wipe out all of the male family members and all of Nabal’s workers, because Nabal insulted him. Well sounds fair to me. Not! You know, you've he's mad. He's a warrior. He's got a sharp sword. His men have got sharp swords. He can kill them all if he wants to. But he shouldn't, because revenge just has this way of being way out of proportion to the offense. You see it already, just when little kids are fighting. A kid might say something just to tease or to bug the other ones. So, what is the response? Well, maybe a little worse insult in return. And then the first one will bop the other one. And then the second one won't just bop, he'll punch him in the gut. And then they'll both be bawling and blaming the other one. 

Unfortunately, doesn't quit with little kids. One spouse hurts the other one. The second one turns up the heat. The next one turns it up a little more. And the next one turns it up a little more and sometimes you can't remember how the fight started. All you know now is you can't stand each other anymore and you don't know how it got to that point. And so, if you let rage and revenge keep building, it's deadly. That's why it says in the New Testament, “Don't let the sun go down while you're angry. And don't give the devil a foothold.” Because the devil works very well, where there's just rage and a thirst for revenge. Now, you say, “Well, yeah, that's all interesting, but man, we're reading about stuff that happened 3000 years ago, and I'm not exactly walking around with a sword strapped on and 400 men following me with sword strapped and I'm really not planning to kill anybody by next week. Well, that may be true. Hope not. The Bible says, “Tongues are sharp swords” “with swords and their lips” “evildoers who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows.” “There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” This is one powerful sword. It might not be the only one, but it is a way to kill. You ask Jesus Christ. What did He say? “You have heard that it was said, “Do not murder,” but I tell you that anyone who's angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Anybody who says to his brother “Raca!” is answerable to the Sanhedrin. Anybody who says to his brother, “You fool!” is in danger of the fire of hell.” Using insults to belittle and to destroy another person is strapping on the sword. And it can be done directly by undermining somebody, by attacking their dignity, by slamming them, by always telling them how worthless and awful they are. Or it can be done not by talking to them, but by talking about them, and undermining their reputation with others, trying to maybe ruin their job, by passing along things about them, or whispering to others and gossiping. So, there are a whole variety of ways where we can be out to get somebody and in our own minds that falls far short of me and my 400 swordsmen. But Jesus seems to equate them. 

Now, how do we handle hurts then? Well, when you're provoked first thing, take a deep breath and step back and cool down. Slow down and cool down before taking any action. Most action that's worth taking will still be worth taking tomorrow, unless of course, you're like Abigail, you got to head off disaster today. But any action of revenge if it's worth doing at all, in the future, you could wait a few days and sit on it. I know I have a rule for myself with email. When I get a message from somebody that makes me mad, I have on numerous occasions typed out a very articulate answer, and a very nasty answer. But I've learned to put it in my drafts folder. And almost always after that thing has sat there for two days, it has the “not worth sending” look to it, and then I delete it. So, there may be some of you who are quick with your mouth or are quick with your online comments. Just cool it. When a wise person speaks, listen. Remember how Nabal, nobody can talk to the guy. When David is talked to by Abigail, he says, “Whoa, that's right! I would’ve just about killed a whole bunch of people and brought blood guilt on myself. Phew! Glad you came along and stopped me!” And realize who else you might hurt in getting revenge on your enemy. You went out, you wanted to hurt Nabal, you woould’ve hurt a lot of families if you wiped out all his relatives, and all the people who worked for him. And another thing: one way to handle these hurts is just be sure of your God given identity and destiny, rather than just reacting to the insults. Nabal says, “Who's the son of Jesse? He's a nobody. He comes from who-knows-where.” Well, that's Nabal’s opinion. If you have God's opinion on the matter, if the great prophet Samuel has stood over you, and poured oil on your head, and declared you to be the next king of Israel, you think you might be able to ignore a few of the Nabals in your life when they say something ornery?

If God has spoken to you, and called you, his son, or his daughter and called you his beloved, and then somebody else comes along and says mean stuff, do you really have to get in such a dither about it? One of the things that helps you to kind of cool your hurts down is just remember who you are and what God says about you and then, well, let the Lord settle the score. He knows how. And He has His timing. And so, if he's going to settle the score, He can take care of that. The Bible again and again warns against just taking personal vengeance and leaving it up to the Lord instead. Now, here's a picture that I just got off the internet this morning. I just check the news for five minutes this morning, I happen to see a story about a woman in Iran who had, when she was in college, been proposed to by another man. And she refused his proposal because she didn't want to marry this guy. And so, he being such a sweet person whom she should have married threw acid in her face. One eyes is totally out. The other one is blinded, messed up her face big time. And the Iranian courts decided that she had the right to proportionate punishment. And so, they had a room set up in a hospital with a person there to execute sentence because the woman was too blind and was going to pour acid on both eyes of this man. And she was in the room. And she said, “I forgive him. Don't do it.” And the man was spared. He deserved it. And she decided instead, not to have that sentence inflicted on him. The Bible says, “Repay no one evil for evil. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, “Vengeance is Mine. I will repay says the Lord.” To the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” 

And our Lord Jesus takes it in the New Testament passages like this and the words that came from his own mouth, further than we see. David was willing to leave Nabal in God's hands. Jesus tells us to go even further and to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Because the fate of a fool in the end, should be an occasion only for sorrow or compassion or pity. When God does inflict his vengeance, it is a terrible thing. And so, pray that God will get rid of His enemies by making them into His friends, rather than treating them as His enemies forever. So anybody you know, the way to overcome evil with good is just leave the vengeance thing to God. Forgive. Pray that God will yet change and transform a knucklehead into a reborn person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Well, at the end of the story, David recognizes God's hand in two ways. He says, “Abigail blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who went you this day to meet me.” God does that. God spares you very often, from doing wicked or damaging things, if only you're willing to pay attention and listen to the people in your life, that He sent your way. “Blessed be your discretion. Blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt, and from avenging myself with my own hand.” And at the end of the story, David does realize that he didn't need to take revenge. “Blessed be the Lord, who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” God knew how to handle these things. God knows how to deal with enemies. But very often God has in mind to change enemies into friends. And even when He doesn't, vengeance is not yours. And the time is not now. It is His timing, and His decision and His justice that will prevail. 

So, what if you are knucklehead? Repent and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're married to a knucklehead, well, trust in the Lord, and then sometimes, you just may have to do what you have to do in order to make the situation better. And when you're wronged by a knucklehead, just remember: you are chosen and anointed by God, to be His special child. You don't need to respond to every insult that comes your way. Bless those who persecute you, overcome evil, with good. 

Father, we thank you for your work throughout history and your continuing work today. We thank You, Lord, for David and for the greater Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that your kingdom may prevail, that the forces of evil may be silenced and thwarted and turned back and destroyed. We pray also, Lord, that while it is still the time of your favor and of your mercy, and not yet the time of your full venting of wrath against sin, that you'll have mercy on many that you'll turn us from sin and turn us to You. Lord, forgive us when we've been fools. Transform our lives and make us, Lord, believers in the death and resurrection of Jesus, people indwelt by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We pray, Lord, that you'll give us grace, some of us, Lord in difficult circumstances, where we have people close to us who may be very hard to get along with or very difficult or give us your wisdom. Help those of us Lord, even now, who are struggling with wounds that we've suffered from others, who have been insulted or hurt in other ways, Lord, help us to deal with those things. Some of us, Lord, have been just wounded in almost unimaginable ways by people in our past, and we pray, Lord, for your help in dealing with that, that you'll help us to simply release them to your judgment and to your mercy. And to be able to move on with our lives, confident of who you are and who we are in you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.