Shall we turn in our Bibles to the
17th chapter of 1st Samuel.
In the 17th chapter of 1st Samuel, we
read where the Philistines had gathered their armies
together against the children of Israel, and of
course, King Saul had gathered his armies together,
and they were setting their battle lines, they
were digging their foxholes, and setting up their
battle array on either side of the Elah
Valley.
Now, the Elah Valley is an area that
is, oh, south and west of Jerusalem, maybe
15 miles.
A beautiful little valley, but of course, anything
can be made ugly by war.
And so, on the mountain on one side
was the camp of the Philistines, on the
mountain on the other side was the camp
of Israel.
And in those days, they would take their
time, you know, in getting started into a
real battle.
They'd come and they'd yell and they'd have
their shouts and they'd try to psych each
other out.
And the children of Israel had been pretty
well psyched out by this fellow Goliath who
came out every day for 40 days.
The champion from the Philistines, he was from
the city of Gath, he was 9 feet
6 inches tall.
He had a brass helmet, a brass coat
of mail that weighed 5,000 shekels, was
it?
And he had these plates of brass on
his legs.
He had a brass chest protector.
His spear was like a weaver's beam, huge
spear.
And man, he'd come out there and stand
and he was an awesome sight in the
eyes of the children of Israel.
And daily, he would challenge them.
He would say, look, facing off here in
battle, we can settle it easily.
Send out a man to fight me, for
I'm a Philistine, you're the Israelites.
And if you've got a man in your
army that's able to fight me, if he
can defeat me, we'll be your servants.
If I defeat him, then you'll be our
servants.
And he was daily challenging them for 40
days.
Meanwhile, back in Bethlehem, Jesse called his youngest
son David in and said, David, I want
you to go out to the battlefield and
check with your brothers and see how things
are going.
Take these loaves of bread for them and
this bushel of parched corn, and take these
cheeses for their captains, and just find out
how things are going and bring us news
again of the condition of your brothers.
And so David headed off on a chariot
towards the battlefield in Elah Valley from Bethlehem,
about 20 miles distance.
And as he came near and he could
see the camp of the Israelites and the
Philistines, he got off the chariot and ran
to meet his brothers.
And of course, he started sharing with them
and the parents' concern.
How's everything going?
Are you warm enough at night?
And, you know, is everything okay?
And as he was talking to them, this
fellow Goliath came out and made his daily
challenge.
And so the fellows, when they saw this
man, they fled from him and they were
very afraid.
And the men of Israel said to David,
have you seen this fellow that comes out
every day to defy Israel?
The king said, if any man can kill
him, the king will make him very rich.
He'll allow his family to become tax-free
in Israel and he'll give his daughter to
the guy for a wife.
David said, the king will do what?
They said, well, he's going to give the
guy a lot of riches and give him
his daughter for a wife and his family
will be tax-free.
And so David's brother, Eliab, saw David's interest
in this thing and he said to David,
who's watching over your sheep back there in
the wilderness, kid?
You better get on home in a hurry.
You know, I know your heart, you're just,
dad probably didn't send you down here, you're
just down to see what a war looks
like and you go home in a hurry.
And his big brother is trying to sort
of protect him and David said, hey, wait
a minute, what have I done?
There's a cause here.
This fellow is defying the armies of the
living God.
And if none of you fellows want to
go out and fight him, I'll go out
and fight him.
And so a fellow ran and told Saul
the fact that they had a volunteer who
had volunteered to go out and fight David.
And so they brought David in to fight
Goliath.
They brought David in unto Saul.
And Saul said, oh, you can't fight him,
son.
That man is a man of war.
You're just a youth.
And he's been a man of war from
his youth.
You can't go out and fight him.
And David said, wait a minute, don't reject
me so fast.
He said, one day when I was watching
my father's sheep, a lion and a bear
came out and grabbed the sheep and began
to drag them off.
And I grabbed the sheep out of the
lion's mouth so he turned on me and
I took him by the beard and I
killed him.
And I also killed the bear.
And the God who delivered the lion and
the bear into my hands will deliver also
this uncircumcised Philistine.
So Saul said, well, give you a try
here, you know, and take this helmet and
this armor plate and so forth.
And so they put this armor on David
and the helmet and he's probably just a
little kid and, you know, the helmet probably
came down over his ears.
And, you know, the armor plate so heavy,
he said, oh, if you don't mind, I
haven't tested this stuff.
I don't think I better use this.
I'll just go out as I am.
And so David headed toward the giant.
Now, one interesting thing about the Elah Valley,
there is a dry stream bed in the
bottom.
Of course, it's got water in it when
it rains, but it's one of those typical
Southern California type of rivers, you know, that
only gets water when it rains.
But interestingly enough, when God created the earth,
I have in my office actually some, and
I should have brought some out tonight.
But when God created the earth, knowing what
was going to transpire in this particular valley,
when God made this valley and this particular
little stream bed, God just placed thousands of
smooth, round stones in this particular stream bed.
I've never seen any stream bed with so
many smooth, round stones, beautiful stones for a
sling.
And I've got a bunch of them in
my office.
I like to pick them up out of
that stream bed because they're so perfect for
a sling.
And so David stopped by and he picked
up five smooth, round stones.
And there's just bundles of smooth, round stones
in this stream bed.
And he headed up the hill towards the
giant, put them in his little shepherd's sack,
headed up the hill.
Well, when Goliath saw David coming, he was
outraged.
He said, am I a dog that you'd
send a child out to fight me?
And he began to curse David by his
gods and said, all right, kid, you're asking
for it.
I'll chop you up and feed you to
the birds.
And David said to the giant, you come
against me with a sword and a spear
and a shield, but I come against you
in the name of Jehovah of hosts.
The God that you have defied, and he
is going to deliver you into my hand,
and I'm going to chop up your whole
army and feed it to the birds.
David was assured not only a victory over
the giant, but over the whole host of
the Philistines.
And so David took one of the stones
out of his little pouch, put it in
his sling, and let fly towards the giant,
and he sunk the stone right into the
forehead of the giant.
And the giant fell down, and David went
running up, and because he didn't even have
a sword, all he had was a sling,
he didn't even have a sword.
He pulled the sword out of the sheath
of the giant, his own sword, and David
used it and hacked off his head.
And then he grabbed it by the hair
and held it up, probably began to swing
it around, yelling.
And all of the Philistines, when they saw
this, they're championed, destroyed by a child.
Panic gripped them, and they began to flee.
And of course, the men of Israel, when
they saw this, their hearts were encouraged, and
they all came out of their tents and
began charging after the Philistines.
And there was a great slaughter of the
Philistines that day.
And so the Lord delivered the Philistine there
in the hands of David.
Now when Saul saw David go out against
this fellow, he said to his captain Abner,
who is this young fellow, who is his
dad?
And Abner said, I don't know, as my
soul, I can't tell you.
And so the king says, inquire and find
out whose son he is.
And so as David returned from the slaughter
of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought
him before Saul, with the head of the
Philistine still in his hand.
It was a trophy that David had, he
wasn't going to let the thing go, he
was going to carry it around for a
few days.
It must have been a big head too,
you know, a guy nine foot six inches
tall.
And he said, whose son are you, David?
David said, I'm the son of thy servant
Jesse, the Bethlehemite.
Now when it came to pass, when he
had made an end of speaking to Saul,
that the soul of Jonathan, Saul's son, was
just sort of knit with the soul of
David.
Jonathan loved him as himself.
Actually, there came a bond between Saul's son
Jonathan and David.
They were really sort of two of a
kind.
They were both of them very adventuresome.
Both of them very daring.
Both of them with great confidence in God,
great love for the Lord.
It was Jonathan, you remember last week we
were studying about him when they were facing
the Philistines.
He was the one that woke up his
armor bearer and said, hey, I've been thinking
this morning.
It doesn't make any difference to God if
we have a whole army or just ourselves.
If God wants to deliver the Philistines in
the hands of Israel today, he can do
it to just two of us.
He doesn't need the whole army.
Let's go over this morning and see if
God wants to deliver the Philistines into the
hands of Israel.
And so he, with his armor bearer, took
on the whole army of the Philistines.
Just find out if God wants to deliver.
Because God's big enough, if he wants to
deliver them, he doesn't need a whole army,
he only needs two.
And God delivered the Philistines into the hand
of Jonathan and his armor bearer that day.
And so Jonathan and David were really sort
of two of a kind.
So they just immediately hit it off.
They just, you know, that kind of a
thing where a bond was formed, a deep
bond was formed between these two fellows, Jonathan
and David.
Now Saul sort of kept David.
I mean, he just, you know, also at
this point had a very great admiration and
liking for this brave, daring young kid.
And so he wouldn't let him go home.
He's going to keep him now there with
the army.
And Jonathan and David made a covenant because
they loved each other so deeply.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was on him and gave it to David
in his garments and his sword and his
bow and his girl.
I mean, he just gave David, hey, you
know, here, take my sword, my bow, my...
You know, he just tried to show his
expression of love towards David.
And so David went with Saul wherever Saul
would go and David behaved himself very wisely.
So Saul sent him over the men of
war and he was accepted in the sight
of the people.
Now, though he was just a very young
fellow, he was sent over a part of
the army and these guys respected him so
much from, of course, God's deliverance of the
Philistine into his hand that they just accepted
him.
But then trouble began to arise because as
they would come into a village after David
had returned from the slaughter of the Philistine,
that the women came out of all of
the cities of Israel singing and dancing to
meet King Saul with their tablets and with
joy and with instruments of music.
And the women would sing back and forth
one to another.
And one group would sing, Saul has slain
his thousands.
Now, he was used to this.
The women had started this when Saul would
come back from victory.
They'd come out and they'd sing with their
tambourines and they'd go through their dances singing,
Saul has killed his thousands.
Now, in this particular case, they started off
and, of course, oh, Saul was just, you
know, all right, you know, that's me, folks,
you know, here I am.
And then a second company of women sort
of answered, and David his tens of thousands.
Well, to a fellow who was having a
problem with pride, this was a little much.
And Saul became extremely jealous of David and
he says, what does he want more than
this, the kingdom?
And, of course, he was not aware of
the fact that God had already chosen David
to be the king and that God had
anointed David to be king over Israel.
And so it is interesting that immediately he
began to suspicion the fact that the kingdom
was in jeopardy.
What does he want more than this, the
kingdom?
And Saul was very angry.
And he said, look, they've ascribed to me
thousands, but to David tens of thousands.
And so from that day onward, Saul was
watching David very carefully.
Now, it came to pass on the next
day that an evil spirit came upon Saul,
one of these bad, ill-tempered days for
him.
And he prophesied in the midst of the
house and David played with his hands that
at other times and Saul had a javelin
in his hand and he thought, I'll thrust
that kid through and pin him to the
wall.
So he threw the javelin at David and
David nimbly dodged the thing.
But twice that day, he tried to ram
the javelin through David and David dodged it
both times, but David figured it's time for
me to get out of here.
And so he departed.
And so Saul then made him a captain
over the thousand and he went out into
the field.
But David behaved himself very wisely and the
Lord was with him.
So Saul began to get a little afraid
of David when he saw how wisely he
kept himself and how he did always the
right things.
But Israel and Judah loved David because he
was there among them and he would go
in and out before them.
So Saul said, here, David, you know, Mereb,
my oldest daughter, and of course, I promised
my daughter to anyone who would kill the
Philistine.
And so he said, she can be your
wife, but be valiant for me and fight
the Lord's battles.
For Saul said, let the Philistines kill him.
I won't have to lay my hand on
him.
He figured if he'd sent him out against
the Philistines, they'd kill him and he wouldn't
have to kill him himself.
But David said to Saul, hey, who am
I?
What is my life?
What is my father's family in Israel?
That I should be a son-in-law
to the king.
And they came to pass when the time
was supposed to be that Mereb was supposed
to be given to David as a wife.
Saul switcherooed and gave her to somebody else,
pulled a dirty one on David, gave her
to someone else.
Now, Saul had another daughter and Michelle actually
loved David very much.
And when they told Saul, hey, Michelle's really
in love with David, Saul said, oh, that's
all right.
I will give him her, that she may
be a snare to him.
So I don't know what kind of a
daughter she was.
She probably, I don't know, but he figured
she'd be a snare to David and give
him problems, which she did in time, that
the hands of the Philistines may be against
him.
So Saul said to David, you're going to
be my son-in-law today.
And David said, who am I?
You know, I'm poor.
I'm a poor man.
My family, I don't have any dowry to
give.
And so Saul's servants spake the words in
the ears of David and they said, you
know, Saul wants you to be his son
-in-law.
He wants you to marry his daughter, Michelle.
And David said, hey, do you guys think
it's just a light thing to be the
king's son?
I'm a poor man.
I'm lightly esteemed.
And so they came back and they told
Saul, hey, he doesn't want to do it.
He doesn't feel, you know, that he has,
he should, he doesn't have the dowry or
anything else.
So Saul said, go back and tell him
that I really don't want any dowry of
money.
And he set up a dowry regarding the
Philistines.
And David went out and gave him double
dowry.
And so Saul then, of course, was sort
of shocked and surprised.
He figured David would get wiped out and
going out against the Philistines.
But he gave then his daughter Michelle to
David as a wife.
Now in the 19th chapter, we find Saul's
third attempt to kill David.
David spoke to Jonathan, his son, to all
of his servants, and he told them that
they should kill David.
But Jonathan, because of his love for David,
said to his father, or he said to
David, David, my dad seeks to kill you.
I pray, take heed to yourself until the
morning, and abide in a secret place, hide.
And I will go out and stand beside
my father in the field where you are,
and I'll commune with my father of thee,
and I'll see what I see, I'll tell
you.
In other words, hide yourself until I can
find out really what my dad is thinking.
So Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul,
his father, and said, Let not the king
sin against his servant and against David, because
he hath not sinned against you, and because
his works have been very good toward you.
For he did put his life in his
own hand, and he slew the Philistine, and
the Lord wrought great salvation for all Israel.
You saw it, and you did rejoice.
Why then will you sin against innocent blood
and slay David without a cause?
And Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan,
and Saul swear as the Lord liveth, he
shall not be slain.
So there was an apparent change of attitude
for a moment.
Now, Saul does manifest almost a schizophrenia.
I would imagine that if a psychiatrist would
read the case history on Saul here, he
would probably be classified as a schizophrenic.
He would have these periods of great depression.
He would have periods of remorse and periods
of change.
Oh, David, my son, you know, you're like
a son to me, speak great words of
love, and then next day try to ram
him through with a javelin again.
So he was very vacillating.
Now, Jonathan speaking these kind words to his
dad about David, Saul responded and he said,
as the Lord liveth, he will not be
slain.
So Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him
all those things, and Jonathan brought David to
Saul, and he was in Saul's presence as
in times past.
And there was war again, and David went
out and fought with the Philistines and slew
them with a great slaughter, and they fled
from him.
And the evil spirit from the Lord was
upon Saul as he sat in his house.
His javelin was in his hand, and David
played with his hand on the harp, and
Saul sought to smite David even to the
wall with the javelin.
But David slipped out of Saul's presence, and
this javelin went into the wall, and David
fled and escaped that night.
So Saul sent out messengers to David's house
to watch him and to slay him in
the morning.
And Michelle, David's wife, told him saying, now
if you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow
you're going to be dead.
So Michelle let David down through a window,
and he fled and escaped.
And then she took the bed and put
pillows and all under the blankets so it
looked like someone was lying there.
And so in the morning when the messengers
were going to kill David, they said, oh,
he's sick.
They said, we want to bring him to
Saul.
They said, he's sick.
He's in bed.
And so they went to Saul, and they
said, we can't bring him.
The guy's sick in bed.
He said, bring him with a bed and
all so he can slay him.
So they went back to get David, and
then they found out that it was just
the pillows under the blankets and all.
David was gone.
And so he got angry with his daughter
Michelle.
He said, what are you doing?
Turning against your own father, your own flesh
and blood to protect David and all.
And so Michelle actually said to her
dad, well, she said, he told me, let
me go or I'm going to kill you.
So she lied her way out of it.
So David fled, and he came to Samuel
there in Ramah.
And he told him all that Saul had
done to him.
And Samuel went and dwelt in Naoth.
And it was told Saul, saying, behold, David
is at Naoth in Ramah.
And so Saul sent messengers to take David.
And when they saw the company of the
prophets prophesying and Samuel standing pointed over them,
the spirit of God came upon the messengers
of Saul, and they all prophesied.
So here's an interesting thing.
Samuel was there at Naoth, and David was
there.
And so they sent these guys out to
take David in, and God's spirit just came
on them, and they just started prophesying.
So he sent out another group of messengers
to get David.
And as they came near where the spirit
of God was working, the spirit of God
came on them, they started prophesying.
So he sent out a third company of
messengers to get David.
And when they came into the scene and
all this going on, they began to prophesy.
So Saul came down himself.
And the spirit came on Saul, and he
took off his clothes, he lay there naked
all night prophesying.
And so that they began to say, is
Saul among the prophets?
Again, that proverb that came out early in
Saul's career.
Now David fled from Naoth in Ramah, and
he came to Jonathan.
He said, what have I done?
What is my iniquity?
What is my sin that your father is
seeking my life?
And Jonathan said to him, God forbid, thou
shalt not die.
Behold, my father will do nothing, either great
or small, but he'll show it to me.
And why should my father hide this thing
from me?
Is it not so?
David said, your father's trying to kill me.
Jonathan said, oh, he's not really trying to
kill you.
He wouldn't do anything unless he told me
first, and he has not said anything about
it.
And David swore moreover and said, your father
certainly knows that you and I are good
friends.
And so he said, don't let Jonathan know
this, lest he is grieved.
But truly, as the Lord liveth and as
thy soul liveth, there is but a step
between me and death.
David just said, man, I'm living on the
border of eternity.
There's just a step between me and death.
Your dad's after me, and he's trying to
kill me.
Then Jonathan said to David, whatever you want,
I'll do.
And David said to Jonathan, behold, tomorrow is
the new moon, and I'm supposed to be
sitting there at your father's feast, and I'm
not going to show up.
And I want you to pick up on
your dad's attitude when I don't show up.
And if he says, where's David?
Just tell him, well, his family is having
an annual get-together in Bethlehem, and David
pleaded with me that he might go and
spend this annual family affair with his family,
and so he didn't come.
And just notice what your dad's attitude is
when I don't show up, because he's really
planning to kill me when I come and
sit there at the table.
So Jonathan was a little skeptical, but he
said, OK, we'll let you know.
But he said, what we'll do is you
wait out here behind this rock, and I'll
come out with my servant.
When I really found out what my dad's
feelings are, I'll come out with my servant,
and I will shoot my arrows and send
him out after them.
And if I call to him and I
say, the arrows are this side of you,
they've fallen short, then you'll know that it's
OK, that my dad is in a good
mood and he doesn't really have any intentions
of killing you.
But if I say to the young fellow,
the arrows have gone beyond you, then you'll
know it's time to flee because my dad
is angry and is thinking about killing you.
So Saul, the new moon, the feast of
the king, and Abner, his captain, was there.
Jonathan's place was there, but David's place was
empty.
And Saul didn't say anything the first day.
He figured, well, he probably isn't ceremonially clean.
You know, maybe he's killed someone today, has
blood on his hands, and so he wants
to go through the cleansing rite before he
comes.
He'll be here tomorrow.
So the next day when David's chair was
empty too, he said to Jonathan, where's David?
And Jonathan said, well, his family's having an
annual get-together.
It's a family gathering, and David pleaded with
me that he might go and spend this
celebration with the family in Bethlehem.
And Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan.
And he said, thou son of a perverse
woman, and don't I know that you've chosen
the son of Jesse to your own confusion
and to the confusion of your mother's nakedness?
For as long as the son of Jesse
is living, you're not going to become king
after me.
He's going to have the kingdom.
Wherefore, now send and fetch him unto me,
for he shall surely die.
So Saul, of course, gave forth now his
true feelings.
Jonathan saw what was in his dad's heart.
And Jonathan said, why should he be slain?
What evil has he done?
And Saul cast his javelin at Jonathan.
I mean, the guy was just enraged.
And so just because his son dared to
ask a question, why should you kill him?
What has he done wrong?
Well, Saul let fly with the javelin towards
his son Jonathan.
And so Jonathan knew that he had determined
to kill David.
So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce
anger.
He was really upset with his dad.
He did not eat meat on the second
day of the month.
And he was grieved for David because his
father had done him this shame.
And so it came to pass in the
morning that Jonathan went out into the field
at the time appointed with David.
And the little fellow was with him, the
little boy to chase his arrows.
And he said to the lad, run out
into the field and find the arrows which
I shoot.
And so as the lad ran, he shot
the arrows beyond him.
And when the lad was come to the
place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot,
Jonathan cried after the lad and said, is
not the arrow beyond you?
And so Jonathan said, hurry and gather together
all of the arrows.
And so the fellow gathered together all the
arrows and they brought them back to Jonathan.
So Jonathan gave him all of his artillery
and said, take it back to town.
And after the little boy left, then David
came out from behind the rock where he
was hiding and he bowed himself.
They kissed each other.
They wept with one another until David acceded.
And Jonathan said to David, go in peace
for as much as we have sworn, both
of us in the name of Jehovah, saying
that Jehovah be between me and thee and
between my seed and thy seed forever.
And he arose and departed.
And Jonathan went into the city.
Now David and Jonathan had made a bond.
Jonathan realized that somehow God was going to
give the kingdom to David.
And he said, I just want you to
treat my family well when you come into
the kingdom.
And all of my descendants, let there be
a bond between us.
And David made an oath to Jonathan that
he would treat the house of Saul with
respect and kindness and in love.
So David now fled to Nob, to Ahimelech,
who was the priest.
And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of
David and said to him, why are you
alone?
Why aren't there men with you?
David was a captain over a thousand men.
Where are your troops?
David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king
has commanded me on a business and said,
let no man know anything of the business.
Whereabout I'm sending you.
And what I have commanded thee.
And I've appointed my servants to such and
such a place.
So David's saying, well, I'm a CIA agent.
I'm on a special mission for the king.
And nobody knows about this special mission.
It's just a secret mission I'm on for
King Saul.
And so my men are over here and
I need some bread for them.
Well, the priest said, I don't have any
common bread.
All I've got is this bread that I've
baked for the showbread for the table of
the Lord.
It was that bread that would have been
sanctified to set out before God on the
table of showbread.
And David said, well, give it to me.
Five loaves and for me and my men.
And he said, well, are the men clean?
He said, had they not touched women?
He said, we haven't been around women for
at least three days since we've been on
this trip.
And so the fellow gave them the holy
bread, which was not lawful for any man
to eat but the priest.
And they took it and gave it to
David and his men.
Now in the New Testament, Jesus makes reference
to this particular incident.
When the Pharisees are trying to nail Him
in some of the fine technical aspects of
the law, Jesus said, did not David take
the showbread which was not lawful for a
man to eat?
They were getting on Him because they felt
He had violated the law of the Sabbath.
You know, one of the fine points of
the law of the Sabbath.
The disciples had gone through the field on
the Sabbath day and they took some wheat,
corn of wheat.
They called it the wheat, you know, the
tassel of wheat.
They call it the corn actually.
And they took it and they were rubbing
it in their hands.
Now you can take the dry wheat from
the stock and you can rub it in
your hands.
And as you rub it in your hands,
it has the effect of sort of threshing
it.
What you're doing is rubbing off the hard
outside hull.
And then you can hold it in your
hands and blow on it and you can
actually blow off the hulls.
And then you can eat the wheat raw.
And it's actually very good.
One of the trips over in Israel, we
were there in the latter part of May
when the wheat fields were about ready for
harvest.
And up in the area near Mount Gilboa
where Saul and Jonathan were ultimately killed, which
is up at one end of the Valley
of Megiddo.
It's about eight miles, ten miles south of
the Sea of Galilee, Mount Gilboa there.
There in that valley, beautiful wheat fields.
And so we were there and I went
out and I took some of this wheat
and I rubbed it in my hands.
And blew off the hulls and ate this
wheat.
And of course, when we were kids, we
discovered out of the chicken feed, if we
took the wheat, picked the wheat out of
the chicken feed when we were kids, it's
soft enough that you can crunch it in
your teeth and chew it.
And if you chew it long enough, it
turns into a gum.
And we used to always chew wheat gum
when we were kids.
You know, we didn't have enough money to
buy regular chewing gum.
So we'd pick all the wheat out of
the chicken feed and then we'd chew it.
And after a while, it turns into gum.
And we'd have our gum with the wheat.
And so it's very nutritional, very healthy.
And so the disciples were with Jesus.
They were hungry.
It was the Sabbath day.
They were going through the wheat fields.
So they began to pick the corn of
wheat and rub it in their hands and
blow it off and began to eat it.
And so they said, Oh, look at your
disciples.
They're doing that which is not lawful to
do on the Sabbath day.
You're not supposed to do any work.
And so that constituted work, rubbing the wheat
in your hands.
And so Jesus said, Don't you remember what
David did when he was hungry?
How he went in and ate the show
bread, which was not lawful for a man
to eat.
So Jesus makes an allusion to this thing
of David showing that human need rises above
the law.
Human hunger.
These guys are hungry.
Forget this little work bit of rubbing the
wheat in your hands.
They're hungry.
And the hunger supersedes the fine point of
the law.
Even as with David, the guys are hungry.
Yes, it's not lawful that they should eat
this show bread.
Yes, it's supposed to be, you know, only
there for the priest to eat, but the
guys are hungry.
And so the human hunger supersedes the fine
points of the law.
The point that Jesus was making.
And of course, using this particular instance with
David as the illustration of the point, which,
of course, everybody accepted that David had done.
In other words, there was no wrongdoing here.
So the priest gave him the hallowed bread,
verse six, where there was no bread except
the show bread that was taken from before
the Lord and put hot bread in the
day when it was taken away.
So they ate the bread that had been
sitting there all week before the Lord when
it was replaced by this new hot bread.
Now, a certain man of the servants of
Saul was there that day.
And his name was Doeg, and he was
an Edomite.
Doeg, and you could very well pronounce it
dog because he turned out to be a
real dog.
And he was the head over the herdsmen
that belonged to Saul.
And David said to Ahimelech, Do you have
here any spear or any sword?
For I didn't bring any sword or weapons
with me because the king's business required haste.
And the priest said, Well, I have the
sword of Goliath that you took from him
when you killed him, and it's wrapped here
in a cloth behind the ephod.
And so if you will take it, there's
no other but that one here.
So David said, Ah, there's no sword like
that one.
Give it to me.
So David arose and fled that day for
fear of Saul, and he went to Achish
the king of Gath."
So actually, he fled down to the camp
of the Philistines, to the enemy, the city
of Gath, and to King Achish.
And the servants of Achish said unto him,
Is not this David the king of the
land?
Did not they sing one to another of
him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his
thousands, and David his ten thousands?
And David laid up these words in his
heart, and he was afraid of Achish the
king of Gath.
I mean, they said, Hey, this is that
David, you know, wiped out the giant.
This is David.
They were singing about killing his thousands, you
know.
And so David thought, Oh man, I've had
it down here.
The king's going to do me in.
You have come to the end of side
one.
Please turn your cassette over at this point
for part two of this message.
So they brought David in before the king,
and David changed his behavior, and he acted
like he was a madman.
He began to scrabble on the doors of
the gate, and he let his spit run
down his beard, and just, you know, acted
like he was insane.
And so Achish said to his servants, Hey,
the guy is crazy.
Why have you brought him to me?
I don't need any madmen that you've brought
this fellow to play a madman in my
presence.
Shall this fellow come into my house?
And so he sent David away, and David
escaped, of course, out of the guy's hand.
Of course, he wasn't afraid of some guy
that was so weird.
I personally like it.
I think David is just a neat kind
of a shrewd kind of a guy.
I just like him.
And yet, here's an interesting thing.
My hero, but I sort of admire his
wit and his little act here in getting
out of trouble.
Yet there's an interesting verse in Scripture that
says the fear of man brings a snare.
Now it does definitely declare that David was
afraid of Achish.
And the fear of man can oftentimes cause
a person to act like a fool.
It brings a snare.
And so my brave David, not afraid of
the giant, is afraid of the king.
And so acting like a madman, he's reduced
to a man with spit running down his
beard and scrabbling on the doors and the
gates.
But he did escape out of the hand
of Achish.
And he went from there, and he escaped
to the cave at Adullam.
And when his brother and all of his
father's house heard of it, they went down
to him there.
And everyone that was in distress, and everyone
that was in debt, and everyone that was
discontented gathered themselves unto him, and he became
a captain over them.
And there came about 400 men.
So from out of all of the land,
David began to gather together a band of
men, a motley crew to be sure.
Everyone who was distressed, everyone who was in
debt, everyone who was discontented, they gathered together
with David down there at Adullam.
And David went from there to Mizpah of
Moab.
So he actually crossed over in the area
of the Dead Sea, went over to the
other side to Moab.
And there he established his family.
Now he knew that Saul's anger against him
would ultimately turn against his family.
So he said to the Moabites, let my
father and my mother dwell here until I
find out what God's going to do with
me.
And so he brought them before the king
of Moab, and they dwelt with the king
of Moab all the while that David was
in the hold.
Verse 4, now the word hold is masada.
And there are those who believe that actually
David was there in the hold or in
the fort of Masada, which of course was
later really developed by King Herod as a
winter palace and a fortress.
So it is possible David was down in
that area of the Dead Sea.
It is possible that this is indeed a
reference to Masada.
But he was there in the hold or
in the fort wherever it might have been.
Now, I want you to put a little
note here to read Psalm 57 and Psalm
142.
Both of these psalms were written at this
particular time of David's experiences.
And so I want you to go home
tonight and read these two psalms, but I
want you to be thinking now of the
background of these two psalms.
David writes Psalm 57 and Psalm 142.
He's down there.
Saul is pursuing him.
He's just taken his parents to safety over
in Moab.
He's hiding there in the wilderness area down
near the Dead Sea.
And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide
not in the fortress or in the hold
in Masada.
Depart and get thee to the land of
Judah.
Then David departed and came into the forest
of Herod.
Now, a prophet by the name of Gad,
whoever he was, told David not to stay
there, but to get into Judah.
So, when Saul heard that David was discovered
and the men that were with him, now
Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree
in Ramah having his spear in his hand
and all of his servants were standing around
him.
And Saul said to his servants that stood
about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites!
This son of Jesse, will he give every
one of you fields and vineyards and make
all of you captains of the thousands and
captains of hundreds, that all of you have
conspired against me?
In other words, he is saying, Hey, you
Benjamites, I'm a Benjamite.
Look what I've done for you.
And, you know, if you elect me president,
I'll do this and this and this.
I mean, sort of a political speech against
David.
And, you know, if David's elected, if David's
accepted, he's not going to treat you Benjamites.
So, well, he's from the house of Judah.
You know, Jesse and so forth.
He's not going to be as nice to
you as I've been to you.
He's not going to make you the captains
over the thousands and hundreds.
He's not going to give you fields and
all.
And here, look what I've done for you.
And you guys are turned against me.
You're in favor of David instead of me.
None of you will really tell me where
he is.
You conspired against me.
And you haven't shown me that my son
Jonathan has made a league with David.
There's none of you that's sorry for me.
Then answered this dog fellow.
And he said, I saw the son of
Jesse come to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son
of Ahitab.
And he inquired of the Lord for him.
That is Ahimelech, the priest.
Inquired of the Lord for David and gave
him food and gave him the sword of
Goliath, the Philistine.
So the king sent to call Ahimelech, the
priest, and all of his father's house.
And the priests were there at Nob.
And they, all of them came to the
king.
Now Saul said, here now, thou son of
Ahitab.
And he answered, here I am, my lord.
And Saul said unto him, why have you
conspired against me?
Thou and the son of Jesse, and that
you have given him bread and a sword,
and you've inquired of God for him, that
he should rise against me to lie in
wait as at this day.
And Ahimelech answered the king and said, and
who is so faithful among all of your
servants as David, which is the king's son
-in-law, and goes at your bidding, and
is honorable in thy house?
Did I then begin to inquire of God
for him?
Be it far from me.
Let not the king impute anything unto his
servant, nor to all of the house of
my father, for thy servant knew nothing of
all of this, less or more.
What are you talking about?
I don't know what you're talking about, Saul.
I didn't really conspire.
I'm not against you.
And you don't have any servant that's more
faithful in all of your house than David.
And the king said, you shall surely die,
Ahimelech, all of you in your father's house.
And the king said unto the footman that
stood about him, turn and slay the priest
of the Lord, because their hand also is
with David.
And because they knew when he fled, they
didn't show it to me.
But the servants of the king would not
put forth their hand to fall upon the
priest of the Lord, but the king said
to Dog, turn thou and fall on the
priest.
And Dog the Edomite turned, and he fell
upon the priest and slew them that day.
Eighty-five persons that wore the priest's gowns.
Terrible, terrible crime.
And Nob the city of the priest, he
smote with the edge of the sword.
Both men, women, children, little children that nursed,
oxes, asses, sheep with the edge of the
sword.
That which he wouldn't do against the enemies
of God, he is now doing against the
servants of God.
And one of the sons of Ahimelech, whose
name was Abiathar, escaped and he fled after
David.
And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain
the Lord's priest.
And David said to Abiathar, I knew that
day when Dog the Edomite was there, that
he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned
the death of all of the persons of
your father's house.
Stay with me, don't be afraid, for he
that seeks my life is seeking your life.
But with me, you'll be safe.
So, the one escaped to David from the
house of Ahimelech.
And David felt really responsible for the death
of all those families.
He knew that he made a mistake in
letting this Doeg go.
He should have killed him.
Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines
are fighting against Kelah, and they're robbing their
threshing floor.
So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall
I go and smite these Philistines?
And the Lord said to David, Go and
smite the Philistines and save Kelah.
And David's men said unto him, Behold, we're
afraid here in Judah.
How much worse have we come to Kelah
against the armies of the Philistines?
Now, David didn't have a very brave army
at this point.
The guy said, Hey, man, we're afraid here.
It's even worse if we go against the
Philistines.
So David inquired of the Lord again.
And the Lord answered him and said, Arise
and go down to Kelah, for I will
deliver the Philistines into your hand.
So David and his men went to Kelah,
and they fought with the Philistines, and they
brought away their cattle and smote them with
a great slaughter.
So David saved the inhabitants of Kelah.
Now it came to pass when Abiathar, the
son of Ahimelech, had fled to David, that
he came down with the ephod in his
hand.
Now it was through the ephod that they
inquired of the Lord.
And so it was told Saul that David
was come to Kelah.
And Saul said, God has delivered him into
my hand because he's gone into a walled
city.
Now we can surround him and capture him.
So Saul called all of the people together
to war to go down to Kelah to
besiege David and his men.
And David knew that Saul was on his
way down.
So David inquired of the Lord and he
said, Lord, will the men of Kelah deliver
me into the hands of Saul?
Now, David had delivered the city from the
Philistines, but yet the men weren't really faithful
to David.
And the Lord answered and said, yes, the
men of Kelah will deliver you into the
hands of Saul.
So David and now his band had grown
to about 600 men.
They fled from Kelah and they fled to
the area of the wilderness and the strongholds
that were in the mountains and wilderness of
Ziph.
And Saul sought him every day, but God
delivered him not into Saul's hand.
And David saw that Saul was come out
to seek his life.
And David was in the wilderness in a
wood.
And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to
David in the wood.
And he strengthened his hand in God.
And he said to him, Fear not.
For the hand of Saul, my father, shall
not find thee.
And thou shalt be king over Israel.
And I shall be next unto thee.
And that also Saul, my father, knows.
Now, Saul was becoming aware of the fact
that God's anointing was off of his life.
And Saul knew that David was going to
be the king.
And what he's trying to do is hold
on to the kingdom that he knows is
not his.
Now, Jonathan, his son, recognized that David was
going to be king also.
And Jonathan said, I'll be your right hand
man.
Jonathan is actually taking a very beautiful attitude
towards David.
His love was so great that he was
willing to let David be exalted.
He was willing to just be a helper,
a right hand man to David.
He was willing to abdicate the throne for
David's sake, to step down, to let David
rule.
I know you're going to be king.
I'll be your right hand man.
Don't be afraid.
My dad won't catch you.
He won't find you, you know, because, you
know, this is what God has in mind.
And Jonathan was expressing these things to David.
So the two of them made a covenant
before the Lord.
And David stayed in the wood, and Jonathan
went to his house.
Then the Ziphites came to Saul and Gibeah
saying, David's hiding with us in the strongholds
in the wood, in the hill of Hekela,
which is on the south of Jezimun.
Now, therefore, O king, come down according to
all the desire of your soul.
Come down to our part, and our part
shall be to deliver him into the king's
hands.
So Saul said, Blessed be ye of the
Lord, for you have compassion on me.
What a phony character, using spiritual language in
such evil things.
You know, it's possible to just get sort
of a spiritual jargon going, and you don't
have enough discernment to know when to use
it.
You use it even for corrupt things.
You know, praise the Lord, I really ripped
him off, you know.
And it's horrible the way people can use
spiritual language for such corrupt things.
Oh, blessed be of the Lord, you've shown
compassion on me.
Not all who say Lord, Lord are going
to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
A lot of people use the right jargon,
spiritual jargon, but they're just not going to
make it.
It's not what you say.
It's not what comes out of a man's
mouth that defiles him.
Or it's actually, it is what comes out
of the mouth, but this dualness out of
the mouth.
With blessings out of the same fountain proceeds,
you know, bitter and sweet water.
Blessings and curses, such things should not be.
So here's the blessing, but soon curses.
Go, I pray you, and prepare, and know,
and find out the place where he's hiding.
And who has seen him, and be careful
because this guy is very subtle.
And take all knowledge of all of the
lurking places where he hides himself, and come
and tell me of certainty.
And I'll go with you, and it will
come to pass that if he's in the
land, I'll search him out throughout all the
thousands of Judah.
And they arose and went to Ziph before
Saul, but David and his men were in
the wilderness of Maon in the plain in
the south of Jezamun.
And so Saul, also with all of his
men, went to seek him.
And it was told David, wherefore he came
down into the rock, and abode in the
wilderness of Maon.
And when Saul heard that, he pursued after
David in the wilderness of Maon.
And Saul went on this side of the
mountain, and David and his men were on
the other mountain.
And David made haste to get away for
fear of Saul, for Saul and his men
had circled David, and his men had encompassed
him to take them.
Saul, I mean, David had been surrounded by
Saul's men.
It looks like he's had it.
But there came a messenger unto Saul saying,
Haste, and come, for the Philistines have invaded
the land.
Wherefore Saul returned from pursuing David, went against
the Philistines.
Therefore they called the place Selah HaMalekah, which
is the crag of divisions.
And David went up from there, and he
dwelt in the strongholds of En Gedi.
So David now headed again down towards the
wilderness area of the Dead Sea.
En Gedi is about, oh, 20 miles probably
from where the Jordan comes into the Dead
Sea, on the west bank of the Dead
Sea.
And En Gedi is a beautiful spot.
The word En Gedi means wild goats.
And it is a place where there are
still a lot of the ibex, the wild
goats of Israel.
But the neat thing about En Gedi, you
see, the Dead Sea there is about 1
,282 feet below sea level.
Because you are so low, there are springs.
Because, you know, you're at 1,000 feet
below sea level.
Actually, the spring of En Gedi is at
about 800 feet, 700 feet below sea level.
And it just springs out there from the
pressure of the underground water and all.
There's a beautiful spring, and there's that neatest
waterfalls and fern canyons and wild fig trees
growing up the sides of the canyons and
all kinds of caves around there.
And just a beautiful place to hide out.
As far as just, you know, you've got
your water, you've got your wild goat to
eat, and it's just an excellent place to
hide out.
A very beautiful little valley in the midst
of a vast wilderness.
That whole Dead Sea area is just a
vast wilderness.
But En Gedi is a beautiful oasis.
And, of course, because of the heat, it
stays warm down there year round.
It's very fertile around En Gedi.
A lot of date palms.
They grow excellent watermelons in wintertime.
And it's just a neat place.
And that's where David was now hiding out
from Saul.
There in the strongholds at En Gedi.
Now, it came to pass when Saul was
returned from following the Philistines, they told him,
David's in En Gedi.
So Saul took three thousand of his chosen
men out of all of Israel.
They went to seek David and his men
upon the rocks of the wild goats.
En Gedi means wild goats.
And he came to the sheep coats by
the way where there was a cave, and
Saul went in to cover his feet.
That is, to go to sleep.
And David and his men remained in the
sides of the cave.
So David was hiding in this cave.
And Saul came and, you know, went to
sleep in the very cave where David and
his men were hiding up in the sides
of the thing.
And the men of David said unto him,
Aha, behold, the day of which the Lord
has said unto you, Behold, I will deliver
your enemy into your hand, that you may
do to him as it seems good unto
thee.
So David arose and cut off the skirt
of Saul's robe secretly.
Now it came to pass after that that
David's heart smote him because he had cut
off Saul's skirt.
He did it and then he thought, Ah,
that's not right.
This guy's a king, you know, and he
shouldn't, you know, have his skirt cut off.
And he felt bad about it.
And David said, The Lord forbid that I
should do this thing to my master, the
Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against
him.
See, he is anointed of the Lord.
So David stayed his servants with these words
and he would not allow them to rise
against Saul.
But Saul rose up and went out of
the cave and went his way.
The men, of course, wanted to do Saul
in.
And David forbid them to do it.
And after Saul had gotten out of the,
you know, down the hill away, David arose
also afterwards and went out of the cave
and he cried after Saul saying, My Lord
the King!
And when Saul looked behind, David stooped with
his face to the earth and bowed himself.
And David said to Saul, Why do you
listen to men's words saying, Behold, David is
seeking to hurt you?
Behold, this day your eyes have seen that
the Lord delivered you today into my hand
in the cave.
And some of them were begging me to
kill you.
But I said, I will not put forth
my hand against my Lord, for He is
the Lord's anointed.
Moreover, my father, see, here is the skirt
of your robe in my hand.
For in that I cut off the skirt
of your robe and I didn't kill you,
you ought to know and see that I
have neither evil nor transgression in my hands.
I have not sinned against you and you
are hunting my soul to take it.
And the Lord's judge between me and thee
and the Lord avenge me of thee, but
my hand shall not be upon thee.
As saith the proverb of the ancients, wickedness
proceedeth from the wicked, but my hand shall
not be upon thee.
Here's an interesting proverb.
Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.
It is the same as saying a man
sins because he is a sinner.
You see, we often think, because I sin,
I am a sinner.
No, because I'm a sinner, I sin.
You say, well, difference.
It's an important difference.
Only horse thieves steal horses.
If you were not a horse thief, you
couldn't steal a horse, no matter what the
circumstances are.
And stealing a horse doesn't make you a
horse thief.
It only proves you are.
If you weren't a horse thief to begin
with, you could never have stolen it.
The same with sin.
Sinning doesn't make you a sinner.
It only proves that you are.
I am a sinner by nature.
If I try to deny the sinful nature,
I'm calling God a liar.
His truth isn't in me.
All of us are sinners by nature.
And because we are sinners by nature, sin
is the fruit or the effect or the
result of what I am.
I sin because I'm a sinner.
Now, even so in Christ Jesus, I am
now righteous.
Therefore, the righteousness that I do doesn't make
me righteous.
I do it because I am righteous.
Because of God's work in my life in
making me righteous, I do now the deeds
of righteousness.
But we've got to keep in our minds
from this fallacy of thinking, because I do
deeds of righteousness, I am righteous.
Not so.
But wickedness proceeds from the wicked.
If you're wicked, wickedness is going to proceed
from your life.
It doesn't make you wicked.
It only proves that you are wicked.
And so it's an interesting proverb of the
ancients.
It is a true proverb indeed and is
in keeping with the basic doctrines of the
Scriptures.
After whom, David said, is the King of
Israel come out?
Who are you pursuing?
You're looking for a dead dog.
You're trying to find a flea.
The Lord therefore be judge and judge between
me and you and see and plead my
cause and deliver me out of your hand.
It came to pass when David had made
an end of his little speech that Saul
said, is this the voice of my son
David?
And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
Oh, my son David.
Oh, my son.
And he said to David, you are more
righteous than I.
For you have rewarded me good, whereas I
have rewarded you evil.
And you have showed this day how that
you have dealt well with me for as
much as when the Lord had delivered me
into your hand, you did not kill me.
For if a man finds his enemy, will
he let him go away well?
Wherefore, the Lord reward thee good for thou
hast done unto me this day.
And now behold, I know well that thou
shalt surely be king and that the kingdom
of Israel shall be established in your hand.
He knew it and yet he sought to
fight it all the way.
He knew what God's will was and still
he sought to fight the will of God.
The Bible says, Woe unto him who strives
with his Maker.
How many times people are trying to fight
what they know to be the will of
God.
Well, sad, but true.
And then Saul expresses, Now I know that
someday God's going to make you king.
Kingdom's going to be established in your hand.
Swear now therefore by the Lord that you
will not cut off my children after me
and that you will not destroy my name
out of my father's house.
And so David swearing to Saul and Saul
went home, but David and his men went
into the hole.
Now Samuel died and all of the Israelites
were gathered together and lamenting him and they
buried him in his house at Ramah and
David arose and went down to the wilderness
of Paran.
And there was a man in Maon whose
possessions were in Carmel and the man was
very wealthy.
He had 3,000 sheep, 1,000 goats
and they were shearing his sheep there in
Carmel.
Now Carmel is the mountain range that goes
from east to west.
It starts at the port city of Haifa
and goes east along the area.
Actually Megiddo is in a lower portion of
this range of Carmel, just about the end
of the range towards the east.
So there Nabal, his servants were shearing his
sheep.
Now the name of the man was Nabal.
His wife's name was Abigail and she was
a woman of good understanding and a very
beautiful face, but the man was churlish and
evil in his doings and he was of
the house of Caleb.
And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal
was shearing his sheep and so David sent
out 10 young men and David said unto
the young men, Get up to Carmel and
go to Nabal and greet him in my
name.
And thus shall you say to him who
is living in such prosperity, Peace both to
thee and peace to your house and peace
to all that you have.
Now I've heard that you have shearers and
now your shepherds which were with us.
We did not hurt them, neither was there
anything missing from them all the while that
they were in Carmel.
Ask your young men and they will show
you.
Wherefore let my young men find favor in
your eyes for we come in a good
day.
Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh to your
hand unto your servants and to the son
of David and to thy son David.
And when David's young men came and spoke
to Nabal according to all the words in
the name of David and they had finished,
Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is
David and who is the son of Jesse?
There are many servants nowadays that break away
from a man's master.
Shall I then take my bread and my
water and my meat that I have killed
for my shearers and give it to men
whom I know not from where they are?
So David's young men turned their way and
they went again and they came and told
David all these things.
And David said to his men, All right,
men, put on your swords.
And so every man put on his sword
and David also put on his sword.
And they went up after David.
About four hundred of the men, two hundred
of them stayed by their stuff.
And one of the young men told Abigail,
Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out
of the wilderness to greet our master and
he railed on them.
But the men were very good to us
and we were not hurt.
Neither did we miss anything as long as
we were conversant with them in the fields.
They were a wall unto us both by
night and day.
The whole while we were there keeping the
sheep.
Now, therefore, know and consider what you're going
to do, for evil is determined against our
master and against his house, for he is
such a man of Belial that a man
can't speak to him.
So they came to Nabal's wife and they
said, Hey, you know, David sent these servants
to talk to our master.
And man, he really railed on them.
And that's not good because David's men were
indeed kind.
They were a wall to us.
They didn't take anything from us.
And now man, evil is determined.
We can't talk to him.
No one can talk to him.
He's just such a character.
And so Abigail, Nabal's wife, made haste.
She took 200 loaves, two bottles of wine,
five sheep that are already dressed and five
measures of parched corn and 100 clusters of
raisins and 200 little cakes of dried figs.
And she laid them on the donkeys.
And she said to her servants, Go on
before me.
Behold, I come after you.
But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
And it was so, as she rode on
the donkey, that she came down by the
covert of the hill.
And behold, David and his men were coming
down against her and she met them.
Now David had said, Surely in vain have
I kept all that this fellow has in
the wilderness, so that nothing was missed from
all that pertained to him.
And he has requited me evil for good.
And so more also do God unto the
enemies of David, if I leave of all
that pertained to him by the morning light
any man at all.
So when Abigail saw David, she hurried and
got off of her donkey and fell down
before David on her face and bowed herself
to the ground.
And fell at his feet and said, Upon
me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity
be.
And let your handmaid, I pray thee, speak
in your audience and hear my words.
Don't let, my Lord, I pray thee, regard
this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as
his name is, so is he.
Now the word Nabal means foolish.
He said, Don't regard this guy.
He's a fool.
Like his name.
So he is.
His name is fool.
So, you know, he is.
They named him well.
Fool is his name and folly is with
him.
But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young
men of my Lord whom you did send.
I didn't see them.
Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives
and as your soul lives, seeing the Lord
has withheld thee from coming to shed blood
and from avenging thyself with your own hand.
Now let your enemies and they that seek
evil to my Lord be as Nabal.
And now this blessing which your handmaid has
brought unto my Lord, let it be given
unto the young men that follow my Lord.
I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine
handmaid.
For the Lord will certainly make my Lord
a sure house because my Lord fights the
battles of the Lord and evil has not
been found in thee all thy days.
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee
and to seek thy soul.
But the soul of my Lord shall be
bound in the bundle of life with the
Lord thy God.
And the souls of thine enemies, them shall
he sling out as out of the middle
of a sling.
So Abigail is there pleading with David a
beautiful woman has brought all of these things
and she is making good sense.
You know, why should you avenge yourself?
God will avenge you, David.
He's taking care of you.
And so forgive, you know, the foolishness of
this foolish man.
It shall come to pass from the Lord
shall have done to my Lord according to
all the good that he has spoken concerning
thee and shall have appointed thee the ruler
over Israel.
Then this will not be a grief to
you that you avenge yourself.
You won't.
This won't be on your conscience that you,
you know, came up and you wiped out
this guy and his family just because he
didn't give the provisions that you were wanting
for your men.
But when the Lord shall have dealt well
with my Lord, then remember your handmaid.
So David said to Abigail, Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel which sent you to
meet me today.
And blessed is the advice and blessed are
you which have kept me today from coming
to shed blood and from avenging myself with
my own hand.
Now to me, this shows the greatness of
David.
You know, some men are so dumb that
they can't take advice from women.
You know, they go in the man and,
you know, and they're not willing to listen
to anybody much.
And really oftentimes not a woman.
But here it really shows the greatness of
David.
He said, ah, blessed be thou the Lord.
That's good advice.
Blessed is your advice.
You're just a blessed person.
Thank you for coming and stopping me from
avenging myself, shedding blood, avenging myself.
And he saw that the advice was sound.
He saw that it was good.
He respected it.
He admired her for it.
And of course, many characteristics about Abigail.
Very, very sharp, good woman.
Should be an interesting one to meet in
heaven and to share with and all.
And she's just a very outstanding person indeed.
For in very deed, as the Lord God
of Israel lives, which has kept me back
from hurting thee, except you had come to
meet me, surely there had not been to
enable anyone left in the family.
So David received of her hand that which
she had brought to him and said to
her, go up in peace to your house.
I have hearkened to your voice.
I've accepted what you've said.
So Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he
held a feast in his house like the
feast of a king.
And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for
he was very drunk.
Therefore, she did not tell him anything, less
or more, until the morning.
But it came to pass in the morning
when the wine was gone out of Nabal,
he's sobering up.
His wife told him of these things that
his heart died within him and he became
as a stone.
He was so angry.
It so upset him what she did.
He just froze.
His heart died within him.
And actually, he probably had a heart attack.
And it came to pass 10 days afterwards
that he died.
The Lord smote Nabal and he died.
And when David heard that Nabal was dead,
he said, blessed be the Lord that has
pleaded the cause of my reproach from the
hand of Nabal and kept his servant from
evil, for the Lord has returned the wickedness
of Nabal upon his own head.
And David sent and communed with Abigail that
she might become his wife.
And when the servants of David were come
to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her
saying, David sent us to thee to take
thee to him for a wife.
And she arose and bowed herself on her
face to the earth and said, Behold, let
thine handmaid be a servant to wash the
feet of the servants of my Lord.
Now, here again, showing really the greatness of
this woman Abigail.
She said, oh, let me wash your feet.
You know, the feet of the servants of
my Lord.
So they were just David's servants, but yet
a very gracious woman and a marvelous woman
indeed.
So Abigail hurried and arose and rode on
the donkey with five of her damsels that
went after her.
And she went after the messengers of David
and became his wife.
Now, David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel and
they were also both of them his wives.
But Saul had given Michelle, his daughter, David's
wife, to Phaalti, the son of Laish, which
was of Galem.
And so the whole, you know, crazy mixed
up marriage situation that began, which of course
Solomon, when he took over as king, took
to the extremes.
Foolish extremes.