1 Sam. 25:2-13
2 There was a man in Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean; he was a Calebite. 4David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5So 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. 6Thus you shall salute him: “Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. 8Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favour in your sight; for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.” ’
9 When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited. 10But Nabal answered David’s servants, ‘Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. 11Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?’ 12So David’s young men turned away, and came back and told him all this. 13David said to his men, ‘Every man strap on his sword!’ And every one of them strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
Blog Discussion Question: If you were David, what would you do?
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- Pastor Jerry is the pastor of Willow Creek and Benton Lutheran Churches of rural Dell Rapids, South Dakota.
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2 comments:
I don't blame Nabel for acting shrewd. It takes a long time to raise a flock large enough to feed 600 people. what i think David should have done is to go himself and not have sent his servents. It is easy to turn down servants and harder to turn down the person with the request. David whould have been able to better explain himself. Perhaps knowing that Nabel was surly and mean David sent his servents knowing that they would be turned down. Still I think it is a little hasty to draw swords this early.
I suspect that if I had been David, I might have done the same thing. After all, aren't we all a bit prone to make snap judgments, take offense, and wish vengeance. How many times have we all looked back at our reactions and wished that we would have acted with a little more thought and care. In the heat of the moment we can make pretty heated choices.
"Be still, and know that I am God," says God when we find ourselves ready to react with knee jerk pace. In the stillness of God's presence and power we might see that personal snubs mean nothing to us who are never snubbed by God....we might be less inclined to seek vengeance, for as God says, "Vengeance is mine.".....and in the care of the one who holds everything in his hands we might be less inclined to raise our hands and put up our dukes.
David's reaction seems pretty "human" to me, and that is why we need to "be still and know that I am the Lord."
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