1 Samuel 25:36 Commentary and Bible Study

Clearly, the way God dealt with Nabal is intended to instruct us and to be a warning to those who hate his servants. Nabal proceeded with his feast, knowing that he had just caused deep offence to David, but rashly presuming that nothing would come of it. He showed a tremendous false confidence in his earthly security, based on an inflated view of himself. What happened to Nabal was a judgment of God. The text tells us so, – ‘it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal’ – and David sees it this way and thanks the Lord for it – ‘He said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal.’Nabal has already begun to feast and is drunk when Abigail returns. She wisely decides to say nothing for the moment. Her loyalties are still for the moment with her husband, and she does what she can for him, in spite of his implied ill-treatment of her. Nabal is intoxicated and incapable of making sense of such serious communication as he needs to hear. Too late he comes to his senses. Once we wake up to the reality of the situation, the terrible nature of our situation dawns on us, and that knowledge can leave us without strength. Nabal was deeply shaken that death had come so close and he had not been aware of it. He had not been on his guard and only the good offices of his wife had protected him. She who he took for granted had been his deliverer and he was shocked at his lack of understanding of the situation.But all this brought no repentance. He did not admit his guilt or turn away from it. He felt crushed and condemned by it, and he saw his own foolishness, but he did not come to God for the remedy. He felt the sentence of death in his heart, and in his case there would be no recover from this. God imposed on this living man a realisation that he had escaped death only by the action of a wife who he no doubt looked down upon. That information brought death to his heart.David thanks God that the Lord has righteously done what he was kept from doing. For David to have acted in revenge would have been sin; but God, who holds every life in his hand, may act in judgment at any time he wishes, and no one can stop him or find fault.David heard what the outcome had been and saw the justice of God towards Nabal, and the kindness of God to him, in holding him back from the evil that he was about to do. Now God had given him the outcome which he had been seeking for himself, but without him having to transgress the law of God. God gives us our victories over the world, victories which we must be careful not to take by any unlawful means.