Day #107

Sermon - Audio
1 Samuel 25-27 - Audio
1 Sameul 25-27 - Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

1 Samuel 25

Abigail means "The father's joy", Nabal means fool or senseless. How the father's joy became married to the fool is something we can't figure out. It could be that having his daughter be part of a wealthy family was more important to him than having her marry a man of wisdom.

25.4: Sheep sheering time was a time of joy, fun, eating and paying out what was owed to different people. David's protection of the flock of Nabal should have been seen as reason to give him reasonable compensation.

25.10-11: The reply of Nabal goes beyond polite refusal and hits on contempt.

25.13: David's response shows that he reflects his time. To be treated with contempt or dishonor meant that retaliation had to be taken. However, his desire for revenge would set him up for being seen as just another bully and ruffian i.e. he would be acting just like King Saul.

25.26,33: Bloodguilt is guilt that comes from wrongly killing another person. While the insult to David was strong, it was reasonable to kill Nabal on account of it. The killing of Nabal would have gone beyond "an eye for an eye" code that God had established. Saul and his family are later charged with bloodguilt in 2 Samuel 21.1, Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David zsought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

25.39-44: king’s marriages as alliances. Diplomatic texts from throughout the ancient Near East contain marriage contracts that function as political alliances between countries. Zimri-Lim, the king of Mari during the eighteenth century B.C., successfully placed his daughters in the harems of nearby kingdoms and married several foreign wives himself to increase his power and the stability of his realm. In David’s case, prior to becoming king of Israel, he made a series of marriages that strengthened his political and economic position. Thus the marriage to Saul’s daughter Michal gave him connection to the royal family. His marriage to Abigail provided him with ties to the area around Hebron, and his marriage to Ahinoam of Jezreel established connections with households in the vicinity of Megiddo and Beth Shan. This kinship network insured that David would have friendly voices in the council of elders from all over the country. IVP OT Background Commentary

1 Samuel 26:

David refuses an easy opportunity to kill Saul and take over the kingdom. David again shows that he will not take part in an unjustified killing. Perhaps the death of Nabal prepared him for this moment causing him to trust God to deal with his enemies.

26.14ff: This is a fun dialogue where David takes Abner to task for messing up on the job.

26.17ff: David pleads his case to the king. Everything he has done shows that he is a faithful servant.

26.21ff: The promise sounds good, but Saul is not trustworthy.

1 Samuel 27:

David decides to hide behind the curtain of Saul's enemies. No one is going to go into Philista to get to him.

25.8-12: These verses have to be understood as following God's command to conquer and inhabit the land. Generations had failed to do this, but David, a man after God's own heart, takes up God's call.