1 Samuel 25:28 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Samuel 25:28

Comments

There is in Abigail’s words sure evidence of a spiritual view of things and an enlightened state; her chief concern is for the cause of the Lord. She has followed closely David's career up to now, and she understands it, and what he is set for. There is no reason why he should take matters into his own hands and act out his private revenge, because the Lord will certainly bless him without him needing to do that. Would he not much rather secure his place through the blessing of the Lord, than through an uncontrolled act of violence? She combines previously made arguments. ‘Forgive me,’ she says to David, ‘but the Lord will give you a sure house. Don't let him down; he has called you to a particular purpose, ‘because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord’, not personal battles and vendettas. ‘And evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.’ She knew about David's godliness and she reminds him of it. ‘God has helped you and you have not given way to anything like this before. You have not gone this far ever, and God is watching over you, and he will bring you through and you must be worthy of that. She understands that Saul is his persecutor and she speaks of that without mentioning names: ‘Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul.’ Nevertheless she is certain that it will come to nothing, because God’s promise to David is certain to be fulfilled. ‘But the soul [or the life] of my lord’ – this is a marvellous statement; this is about David – ‘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.’ David’s life is like some precious item watched over carefully by its owner. David, you are like a precious jewel, or perhaps a crown made up of many precious jewels, all set in gold. It is to be transported from one place to another, and it is done with great care. It is wrapped up with many layers of soft cloth to protect it, so that it can come to no harm. You are like that, David. You are like a precious jewel or crown, wrapped up in cloth to protect it, being transported through this life. God protects you; God watches over you, and are you going to behave like a desperado, like an evil man? It must not be. Whereas ‘the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.’ They will be suddenly dispatched and put out of the picture. How beautifully she expresses it! ‘And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;’ – she has firm faith in this – ‘that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself.’ Abigail says to David, ‘Don't do this; don't kill Nabal, worthless as he is; certainly not his household, and his young men, and his shepherds and his herdsman. You don't want this on your record. In other words, do you really want it to be David, that when you are finally crowned king, and you are victorious over all your enemies, and the nation owes you so much, and God has used you in so many ways; do you really want it to be that there will be a great blot on your record, a massacre because you were offended by somebody's rudeness? And people will say, we owe so much to King David but there was that terrible massacre. Do you want that in the future? It will be held against you. You will hold it against yourself. You will look back and regret this.’ So she takes him to task.‘But when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.’ She knows the value of her counsel to him. She has not flattered him to win him over; she has given honest reasoning and humble and courageous correction to the future king. She knows that he will come to the throne, and that he will then have cause to be thankful that she ever gave him such wise counsel. If, at that time, she has cause to petition him, may he remember what she has done.

Application

This is a great step in anger management. Bite it back, suppress it, subdue it. Turn to something else, because you are about to say something or do something which will visit you many times for the rest of your life: that you broke a friendship, that you hurt a member of your family, that you inflicted unreasonable and disproportionate punishment in some shape or form on somebody. What an argument for us to use against ourselves, should we ever be carried away! Do I really want this to mar the future when God leads me on? That there will be a broken relationship, that there will be scars and hurt, caused by my losing self-control for a single hour?

We say to ourselves, ‘We are heaven bound. We cannot lose our salvation if we truly love the Lord. We are going to be guarded and kept by him through all kinds of circumstances, and he will hold us close to him, and take us surely across that eternal threshold into the glory everlasting. We are like jewels wrapped in linen cloth. It is the enemies of God, who will be jettisoned out of the way and judged. How can we be taken up by temptations of anger, and rudeness, unpleasantness, or vengeance, or anything like that when we have such a calling and such a destiny; when we have such a certain future, such a reward, and such riches?

When we look for a wife, we look for somebody who has spiritual priorities, who is not afraid to humbly correct us when we go wrong, someone who is all for the things of the Lord, and who obviously reads the Scripture, is familiar with its teaching, and has light and deep understanding. These are the issues to be impressed by in a potential spouse, and to pray to the Lord for, and to seek out.

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1 Samuel 25:28 Commentary and Bible Study