Anger and Grace

1 Samuel 25:9-22

⁹When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. ¹⁰And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. ¹¹Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” ¹²So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this. ¹³And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. ¹⁴But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. ¹⁵Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. ¹⁶They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. ¹⁷Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” ¹⁸Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. ¹⁹And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. ²¹Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. ²²God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

The hero(ine) of this story is clearly Abigail. Nabal makes an arrogant decision, David makes an angry decision, and Abigail chooses grace. That sums up the whole passage.

Everything we know of Nabal exposes his arrogance, irreverence, and foolishness. He lives up to his name. Our knowledge of Nabal comes from the responses of others. Abigail is forced to act without his knowledge to save her people from violence and even his servant calls him worthless. Every word spoken of him in the text points us to finding him reprehensible. He’s an angry, arrogant, brute of a man who somehow managed to marry this beautiful, wise, grace-filled woman.

David acts impetuously, which is rather new. Up until now, we have seen a rather calculating and smart man who acts with wisdom when presented with a myriad of problems. Although, we did see a rather  impetuous teenager head down into the valley of Elah to kill Goliath. He is offended and furious at the reception his acts of kindness have received from Nabal. His first thought is to “strap on his sword” and seek revenge. What we also don’t see him inquire of the Lord as to what to do here. He’s moving under his own indignation at this point. He is prepared to kill Nabal and his entire family.

This is Abigail’s story. In order to save her own people, she moves with swiftness, wisdom, humility, and grace. God uses her to save David from himself.

This story is not one of justice. Yes, David and his men were wronged, but the violence he is about to perpetrate is not of God. God blessed him with a full stop. God uses Abigail to restore order in David’s life. One of my favorite authors illustrates the power of this story for us.

There is nothing more common in the spiritual life than starting out right and then going wrong. We start out with enthusiasm and promise, with energy and purity of heart. And a then somewhere along the line we’re corrupted and spoiled. St. Paul coined the term shipwrecks to describe these episodes. The remains of these shipwrecks are everywhere to be seen in legislatures, and courtrooms, athletic stadiums and concert halls, kitchens and bedrooms. And most tragically, among Christians. Not one of us is exempt. Someone offends us, crosses us, doesn’t give us what we want. Our self-importance flares up and we’re off to do something about it - usually off to do something about it armed with righteous indignation. Wrapped up in ourselves, we’re angry because our self-defined identity is violated. We’re off to avenge hurt feelings, a bruised self-image. We’ll get even, get back at them, show them a thing or two. And then we’re stopped by something beautiful - child, friend, stranger; cloud, song, fragrance: Abigail. We find ourselves presented with something quite other than what we’re feeling and doing. And we suddenly realize that we are quite other than what we’re feeling and doing. Wrapped up in ourselves, we had forgotten entirely about God; we now see ourselves as wrapped up in the bundle of God, with Nabal reduced to nothing more than a footnote in the text of our life.

Leap over a Wall. Eugene Peterson. ©1997 page 88-89. Harper Collins. San Francisco. CA

God is about to introduce David and Abigail. This relationship will bless them both. So while David sets about to get revenge and mete out a whole bucket full of violence, God intervene, and restores grace. He does that all the time and we are His grateful recipients.