Episode Details

Preserving Providence

1 Samuel 25, Remsen Bible Fellowship, 04/25/2021

Introduction:

That great late 20th century theologian, Garth Brooks, sings in one of his songs that, “some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” And while I don’t generally recommend heading to the country station on the radio, or any part of the iTunes music store, for developing your theology, there is a lot of truth in his statement. We often pray and ask God for things through our limited little view of the world. And God, in his wisdom and kindness, ignores our requests and does something better than we could ever imagine. Likewise, there are times in life when we set our minds to an action, perhaps deliberately or perhaps impulsively, and God -again in a display of his kindness- totally thwarts our plans. We precisely such a text before us this morning in 1 Samuel 25. 

This chapter opens with what seems a historical footnote: Now Samuel died. But of course, if we remember the way this book moves, this is hardly a piece of small or insignificant information. This is Samuel, the center of the story in 1 Samuel for the first 7 or 8 chapters, the last of Israel’s Judges. He is a pivotal figure in the biblical narrative as a whole - and now he is dead. But the text just drops us with this information, tells us everyone was sad and they buried him, and then keeps moving. It has often been noted that when one of his servants dies God doesn’t go into a panic. He simply says, “next.” And so our narrative turns back to the man who is next - David. 

Of course, the death of Samuel is relevant to David as well. As Robert Vannoy points out in his commentary, “This notice is not a piece of irrelevant information; it is a notice telling us that David was particularly vulnerable to the onslaughts of the evil one because he had lost his most important counselor.” 

In the past, when David had experienced hardship and needed counsel, he could flee to Samuel (see 19:18). Those days are over.

As we turn to the meat of this story, one of the things we notice is that though this is a long chapter, there isn’t a lot of narration of events. Instead, the majority of the chapter is carried by sections of dialog. And within these dialogs we find certain words repeated. One helpful thing to do when you’re reading your Bible is to try and notice when something like that happens. Why do the Beatitudes say “blessed” so many times? Why is God called “holy, holy, holy”? There are several three fold repetitions in this chapter, so as we necessarily move with some speed over the text, we’ll slow down and focus on these repetitions each in turn. But let’s turn to our first section of the story. 

A Fool's Selfish Response to a Peaceful Request, v1-11

As we leave Samuel’s grave and come back into the Judian wilderness, we meet a very rich man. He has three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and so he has obviously done quite well for himself. Further, we find out in verse three that he is a Calebite, a descendant of the great spy in the time of Moses and Joshua, who was of the tribe of Judah. In other words, this fellow and David are kinfolk. But before we ever get into the story, the Hebrew reader of this story would be curious about something: this fellow’s Momma gave him an awful mean name. Nabal means “fool.” Imagine if your mother had named you Fool. Or Stupid, or Idiot, or some other english synonym. Maybe this guy is scarred. 

Whether he was scarred or not we don’t know, but the text does tell us he was harsh and badly behaved, or as the NIV puts it, surly and mean. This stands in sharp contrast to his wife Abigail, a woman discerning and beautiful. 

Now a man of Nabal’s welath would have shepherds all over the mountains leading his sheep from pasture to pasture, and we find out through David’s messengers and the witn