1 SAMUEL 25 - GRACE AND GRIEVANCE
1 Samuel 25
Chapter 25 opens with the announcement of the death of Samuel. It seems almost a footnote to the rest of the chapter. But it is not. It is a significant turn in the life of David. David is losing his spiritual mentor and chapter 25 sows the seeds for several of David’s mistakes that will haunt him.
Discipleship is God’s method of development. It is how he builds people and how he intends to grow his church. Jesus spent his time on earth primarily teaching and training His disciples. And after His resurrection Jesus’ final command (the great commission) was to go and make disciples of all nations. It is essential in our walk with the Lord that we all undergo discipleship and that we in turn disciple others, as we are commanded.
Having lost his great teacher David finds himself without someone to speak to Him and provide necessary guidance. And yet as always we find God’s grace in the midst of our failings.
David is growing in strength and in the comfort of his position. He has essentially established himself as an overlord in a region in which resides a rich rancher, Nabal. David and his men have provided protection for Nabal’s sheep and it is the time for shearing, when the sheep are prepped for the summer and also for sale. Like the harvest for farmers it is a time of celebration. David has sent his men to collect what is essentially a tax for the protection he has provided Nabal. Nabal refuses to pay the men anything and they return empty handed. This infuriates David who prepares to attack Nabal and his household. Nabal’s shepherds, aware of the impending danger, inform Nabal’s wife, Abigail, who meets David with gifts in hand and soothes David’s anger. She informs Nabal the next morning of how his actions almost cost him his life and he is so frightened by the thought he appears to have a heart attack or stroke and dies 10 days later. David then marries Abigail along with another woman Ahinoam. Chapter 25 ends reminding us that David had previously been married to Michal the daughter of Saul.
Chapter 25 is a great reminder when we read the bible to distinguish what the bibles describes, verses what the bible prescribes. All of these actions of David are presented without commentary. While God has declared David man after His own heart, we must not presume all of His actions are sanctioned or even approved by God.
David himself confesses in Vs. 33, as Abigail first greets him with her gifts,
“Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!”
It is not clear that God has sanctioned David’s turn to being a warlord. But God is merciful and gracious. And as David begins to accumulate wives, the bible makes note of it, because that clearly flies in the face of what God commanded. In Deuteronomy 17 the Israelites had explicitly been told that when they set a king over themselves, “he shall not acquire many wives.”.
And yet we know both David and Saul will violate this, both to their destruction.
The accumulation of wives will haunt David for all his life as it will create divisions and sow contention amongst his children and rivalries for his throne. All of which may have been avoided with clear and strong guidance from a Godly man, speaking God’s word into David’s life and providing discipleship to shepherd David as he enters into all the promises of God.
David’s son Solomon, who would replace him on the throne, and is deemed to have been the wisest man to have ever lived, would ironically pen these words in Proverbs 11:14
“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”
Our Christian development will be greatly enriched by taking these words to heart and living by them.