Gotta get all my pieces together in order up here. There we go. First Samuel twenty five First Samuel 25, we're we will begin reading with verse one and we'll stop after verse one for just a moment because it's not about David and it's not about Nabal and it's not about Abigail. It's about it is a benediction of the life of of Samuel. Very short eulogy here.

These both of these books are named after Samuel. I just thought some of this was probably written by Samuel. It says in chapter 25 and verse one, and Samuel died. Now that that is a monumental thing in the history of the nation of Israel. Samuel was the last judge before kings were appointed to rule over the land.

He was a unique individual. It says, and Samuel died and all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him. So they had a nationwide funeral for Samuel, day of mourning, so to speak, for the loss of this servant of the Lord who was respected by most everyone. And buried him in the house in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

It would seem that all the hostilities and everything ceased, at least for a day between David and Saul and the whole nation mourned Samuel. Though we know little of the latter days of Samuel, the Lord chose to record little ill of him. And it seems the people in general still held him in high regard as a prophet and judge until the end of his life. We know from a couple chapters previous that he did help David at least once while he was on the run from Saul, protected him as Saul kept sending soldiers to to get him and that didn't work very well because the Lord took care of them. Even Saul, when he came to get David, didn't go too well for him either.

What a legacy he left for others to emulate in his faith and in his faithfulness to God. How did the how did the life of Samuel begin? Now, we we started in chapter 16 in our study because we were just covering from shepherd boy to king in the life of David in this series. But if you go back to Samuel chapter one, you find he has a very interesting beginning. His mother Hannah was barren, couldn't have children.

She prayed earnestly for the Lord to give her a child and that she would give the child back to the Lord. And when you are willing to trust God with the things God gives you, he often gives you things, things more important than just things. In this case, a son, A son who became ruler in Israel, a son who became a faithful judge, a son who became a prophet, a son who anointed the first two kings of Israel, a son who was faithful as a little child when Eli said to him, go and say, speak Lord for thy servant hears until the day that he died. Sad to say, there aren't a whole lot like Samuel. There aren't many that are as faithful from beginning to end as this young man in the house of the Lord who served the Lord all his life, who was salt and light in his day, who brought revival to a nation who had wandered wandering kind of aimlessly throughout the book of Judges.

Remember it says, there arose a generation that what? Knew not the Lord. Who helped to bring them back to the Lord? It was Samuel. His heritage was nothing particularly noteworthy.

Doesn't say anything about his eloquence or his physical abilities. What stood out about Samuel from the day he was young, from his youth until the day that he died, is he simply faithfully served the Lord. And a whole nation mourned him at his death and learned from him. Not just one generation, but several generations that he impacted for the Lord. His death marks the end of the judges, but not the end of the days of the prophets, says the Lord will, from time to time, send a prophet to Israel to warn them, to remind them of His promises and of His warnings to them.

So we leave off with Samuel at the end of verse one and we come back to David. In these chapters between being a shepherd boy and being a king, David is learning lessons that will help him in becoming a king. There are oftentimes, especially when you're young, that you just want everything to happen when? Now. Yeah.

You want it to happen now. Lord, you don't want to go through a two, five, ten, twenty, thirty year process to get where the Lord wants you to go. It's it's you're kind of chomping at the bit to to go do something and you want to see it. It all happened now, but it takes time. And it did for David as well.

David was anointed king years before David ever became king. And the years in between his anointing as king and him becoming king, for the most part, were not at all pleasant. He did spend several months in the palace with Saul, but it wasn't long before, well, that kind of went sour. And it just got worse from there. He spent several years on the run running from Saul.

But during that time, God was teaching him what? Lessons. Things that he would need to learn. And sometimes we need to have a little more of that perspective in our life as we're going through difficult times. You know, God is trying to lead us to a place and a place of growth and maturity, a place of service, and there are yet lessons that we need to learn along the way.

David learned lessons like be faithful at whatever you do and the Lord will exalt you. He was faithful as a shepherd and God made him a what? Well, God was bound to make him a king. He learned lessons like God is able to help, especially when you're backed into a corner. God will be there for you.

Ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you. David asked and time and time again who came to David's aid. God will stand for you when you stand for him.

We take a stand for the Lord and for what's right. Guess who is gonna stand with us? God will. David found this out when he stood before Goliath. He wasn't standing alone.

When he stood before Saul, he wasn't standing alone. Your faithfulness is not always rewarded by men. Even though it may be rewarded by God, it isn't always rewarded by men. So you can't always be a people pleaser. That's an important thing for a king to learn, I think.

You can't please everybody. So please who? Choose to please the Lord. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, so stick with him. Who was that in David's life?

That was Jonathan. Jonathan was a worthwhile friend. A friend that stuck by David, and therefore David stuck by him. A friend who managed to stay, a friend and confidant of David and yet an obedient son to his father. Jonathan was an amazing person.

David learned lying is not the right way even when it seems like it is. And your sins can cost you and others greatly. He lied to the priests about who he was and how did that end up? That ended up with all of the priests dead. Now that wasn't all David's fault because it wasn't David that ordered their their deaths, it was Saul, but but maybe lying wasn't the right way.

The ends do not justify the what? The means. He learned God is a God of mercy even when we stumble because even after he blew it big time, God did not abandon him. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, and he didn't abandon David. Don't be too busy to help others.

As David's on the run for Saul and Saul's coming after him, he hears about this city named Keilah. We learned this last week and what did he do? Well, he he went and helped them. He went and fought against the Philistines. He he forgot about Saul for a few minutes, and and he went and delivered a city of people from from, death and enslavement.

And then let God have the vengeance. Let God have the vengeance. Don't take the vengeance for yourself, and that's part of our lesson tonight. So, verse two, there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel. Carmel means vineyard.

Okay? There is Mount Carmel to the North, but this is a Carmel in the South. Farmland. So there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel supposedly near the city of Hebron. And the man was very great and had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

So this guy was very wealthy. These are the kind of numbers, you know, when you read it, I immediately think of who. All these sheep and all these goats and cattle and all that kind of thing. I think of Job. Yeah.

I think of Job. Job was blessed. This man, despite himself, as we will see, was was quite blessed. Now, the name of the man was Nabal. The name of his wife, Abigail, and she was a woman of good understanding, as we will see, and a beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish and evil in his doings and he was of the house of Caleb.

He was churlish. He was not very smart. Kind of foolish and stupid. His name means foolish as we as we see here. I'm not sure if that's the name his parents gave him.

Maybe it was. That was sad if they named him foolish but sadly, his character matched his name. And so we'll we'll see how that goes as our story continues. Verse verse four, David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep and David sent out 10 young men and David said unto the young men, get you up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. Thus shall you say to him that liveth in prosperity because he was well-to-do.

Peace be both to you and peace be to thine house and peace be unto all that thou hast. In other words, we come in what? We come in peace. Okay? We only seek your well-being.

And now I have heard that thou hast shearers, now thy shepherds, which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. So while David's men were in Carmel, there were 600 of them or so now at this time. They were with crossed paths with the sheep shearers, and they did not steal any of their stuff. They did not cost them in any way. They were courteous to them, and so David is telling his young man he's sending to tell Nabal this.

Verse eight, ask thy young men and they will show thee. Wherefore, let the young men find favor in thine eyes for we come in good, in a good day. Give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants and to thy son David. And so first of all, we see David's plight. He's got 600 men.

They are away from their homes. They are away from their farms, and that's quite a few mouths to feed. He's got to feed this little ragtag army of his, And so he happens upon the farm of Nabal and after a time, men are hungry. They need food. They need sustenance.

So as he has been actually kind of watching out and protecting Nabal's shearers, he sends some young men to request of Nabal that maybe he might help them out a little bit with some food. He's a well-to-do man. He certainly had plenty to spare and so David was asking politely. It wasn't a threat. They came in peace as they said.

So still on the run from Saul, David goes to Paran with his 600 men. He had been perfecting the flocks of a descendant of you noticed that it remarks that he's a descendant of who? He's a descendant of Caleb. Okay? That's why it's also connected with the city of Hebron because the city of Hebron in Judah was the city that Caleb conquered.

Okay? So these are some of his descendants that live not far from the city of Hebron. So Nabal is a man of noble descent. A matter of fact, a lot of his wealth may have been passed down from generation to generation. In all likelihood, the farm that he possessed was the farm that his parents possessed, his grandfather's great grandfather's great great grandfather possessed and it was passed down to him.

That was commonly the case. However, he lacked the qualities of which which made his forefathers great. Nabal was married to a lady named Abigail whose name means my father is joy, seemed fitting for her beauty and disposition unlike her ruthless, unkind, uncaring, and stupid or churlish husband. So David sent this contingent on a feast day to ask Nabal if he could see fit to be of help to him, especially since his men were actually being a help to Nabal's men, which wasn't often the case. Usually, bandits and marauders took advantage of people in this kind of situation.

So moving on to verse 10, we see Nabal's response. So David seems to be going about this the right way. And what is Nabal's response? Remember, David has, an army with him. 600 men, but still, pretty good group there.

Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David and who is this son of Jesse? There be many servants now the nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shears and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? So David's young men turned their way and went again and came and told him all those sayings. And David sent unto his men, gird ye on every man his sword.

And they girded on every man his sword, and David also grinded girded on his sword. And there went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff. So what is Nabal's response? The Nabal's response is, who are you? I don't care.

Get out of my face. I am not giving you anything. So that is Nabal's response to David. His response is discourteous. It is displays of selfishness and uncaring.

It demonstrated, as we'll see, an unwillingness to hear others. It was reckless, seen as the man he's saying this to has an army behind him. His response was not in keeping with the law of Moses. Leviticus nineteen eighteen, Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor, what? Eyes as thyself, I am the Lord.

David was Nabal's neighbor. Matter of fact, like the good Samaritan in a matter of speaking, David had made himself what kind of neighbor? He had made himself a good neighbor. He hadn't taken advantage of Nabal's situation, his shearers. He had protected them.

And he had been a good neighbor, and he was just asking Nabal to be to do the same, which seeing as Nabal had the means to do so, it would have been a good thing for him to do. But instead, he responded not just with, I'm sorry, I can't, but with with insults. And David didn't respond too well to the insults. So let's look at how David responded to the insults. Okay?

So we're at verse 14. So well, verse 13, we saw David commanded his his army, his men, 400 of them to put their swords on and to head off to see Nabal. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on him, insulted him. But the men were very good unto us. That is David's men, the guy, the servant of Nabal says, but the man, David's men, were very good unto us and we were not hurt neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the fields.

In other words, they didn't take advantage of us at all. They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. What what does that indicate? They were actually helping to what? Protect them.

This is one of Nabal's servants saying this. Now therefore, no one consider what thou wilt do for evil is determined against our master and against all his household for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. In other words, he won't what? He won't listen to anybody. He won't listen to anybody.

It is the Bible says there is safety in a multitude of what? Counselors. And a wise person listens to rebuke, but that does not seem to be Nabal. He just spouts off at the mouth without considering the what? What did he not consider?

The Lord, what was right, the consequences. And so now David is headed to take care of things with with Nabal. Look in verse twenty one and twenty two. Now David said, surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him and he hath requited me evil for good. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertained unto him by the morning light any that, it's speaking of males, that exist in his camp.

Okay? So David says, I'm gonna kill I I'm gonna kill all the what? All the males. I'm not gonna leave any of them. I'm assuming he means adult by the description here.

And that is his determination. That is his response to Nabal. We'll come back to his response here in a minute again. But let's first look at Abigail's response. So look in verse 18.

How did Abigail respond? Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched corn and a 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on asses, she said unto her servants, go on before me. Behold, I come after you, but she told not her husband Nabal. And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down to the covert of the hill and behold, David and his men came down against her and she met them. So what did she do?

She sent why did David send messengers to Nabal? He was requesting what? Food. Okay? They just needed some food.

Nabal had an ample supply. So when Abigail heard what had happened, she immediately gathered a bunch of food and a bunch this wasn't food for the back of one donkey. This was food for the backs of many donkeys, which she then sent on ahead and she headed off after them to see David in hopes that her gift would save the men of her household and the lives of others. Her gift was very sizable and no small feat to put together in such a brief time. And she left without telling her husband to save him and to save others.

She took matters into her own hands because the situation required that, she do so. And the opposite of her husband, she acted wisely. Our first responsibility is to who? Our first responsibility is to God. Is that true of husbands?

Is that true of wives? Yeah. What did the disciples say in Acts? They said we must obey who? God rather than men.

This was such a case. She got the stuff together. She did what she felt needed to be done to save the lives of others and what should have been done in the first place in keeping with the law of the Lord in helping their what? Their neighbor. So then if you'll look down to verse 23, we'll see how Abigail approached David.

When Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off the ass and fell 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 thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young man of my Lord whom thou did send. Now therefore my Lord as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, saying the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thine own hand.

Now let thine enemies and they that seek evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now this blessing which thy handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let it even 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 fighteth the battles of the Lord and evil hath not been found in all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul. Obviously, there she's seeking of Saul.

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. Who is she pointing David to? She's pointing David to God. That's the best advice you can give anyone. Point them to the Lord.

Point them to his word. Point them to his character. Point them to his promises. That's exactly what she is doing. She is telling David not just what David wants to hear, but what she is telling him is what he needs to hear.

It is also right and just. She continues, it can it shall come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel that this shall be no grief under thee nor offense of heart unto my Lord either that thou hast shed blood causeless or that my Lord hath avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid. So she came with a what? She came with a gift.

She came with humility. She she laid at the feet of David. She took the blame. She requested to speak. The Bible answers a soft answer, what?

Turneth away wrath. See the opposite with Nabal. A harsh answer stirs up, what? Wrath. A soft answer turneth away wrath.

Who is the who is the wise one in this story? Not so much David, but but Abigail. God uses her to save the lives of people in her household, but also the conscience of one who is to be king. She she Brent comes with a gift. She comes in humility.

She comes with a plea. She asked for forgiveness and mercy. She doesn't excuse what her husband did. She asked for forgiveness. She pointed David to the Lord, as I mentioned, his promise, his protection, promises he had made to David, the protection that he had provided David.

And she referred to David's own conscience in requesting that he not take vengeance upon her husband and his house. Deuteronomy thirty two thirty five says to me, belong with vengeance and recompense. This is the Lord speaking, obviously. Their foot, that is the foot of your enemy, shall slide in due time. For the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

The Lord said to Israel through the mouth of Moses here as he spoke on Mount Ebal before they went into the land, let God take care of vengeance. Don't take that upon yourself. Can God defend you? Can God take care of your enemies? Does he not see what they do?

The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. God knows. He can take care of it. Do not do harm to yourself and others by taking that responsibility upon yourself. That's exactly what David was about to do.

He was coming with 400 men to teach Nabal a lesson. He was doing it the what? The wrong way. But once again, the Lord had an Abigail. The Lord had a servant in the right place at the right time to save David from himself.

And though we haven't likely made this particular decision, been in this particular situation, it is no doubt we have been tempted to take vengeance upon someone who has hurt or harmed or injured or who spoke evil of us. But we're reminded here, as Abigail reminded David, vengeance belongs to the Lord. Let the Lord square things. He will. So Nabal wasn't willing to listen to good counsel, that's why his wife decided not to tell him.

But let's see about David. Verse 32. David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me. Blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very deed is the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst tasted and come to meet me.

Surely, there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any male servants. So David received of her hand that which he had brought him and said unto her, go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person. So unlike Nabal, thankfully, when David was confronted with the truth, when he was confronted with advice, even though it came from Abigail, from a woman, which shouldn't have been an issue, but sadly, some cases is, especially in that day. David didn't, in pride bow up in his heart and refused to listen.

No, he listened. And he blessed. He blessed the God who sent her. It's always best to give the glory first to who? The credit to God.

It was God who had Abigail. What if Abigail had not been told in time? Who knows what would have happened? But God is sovereign and he is in control. So he he blessed God who sent her.

He blessed the wisdom that God gave her in doing what she had done, and he blessed her for coming to him. He he was willing to look away from himself and look at others. Unfortunately, he needed somebody to step in his path and say, woah. But all of us have been there somewhere along the line. And thankfully, there was somebody to tell us the truth.

There was somebody to tell us what we needed to hear. And hopefully, we won. Hopefully, we listened. Sometimes God speaks directly through his word and by his spirit. Sometimes God speaks through the preaching and teaching of his word.

Sometimes God speaks through a family member or a friend. God speaks in many ways to us. We need to be listening to keep us from making foolish decisions also. He expresses gratitude for having been saved from his own folly, which he admits. And he forgives and releases her from any injury that Nabal had made.

David is learning. He's still a young man in a difficult situation. You say, well, I would know better. Well, we weren't in his situation. It's always easy to condemn others.

We need to look at ourselves. Did God take care of Nabal? Now look in verse 36. 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 drunken.

Wherefore she told him nothing less or more until the morning light. Okay? So it was the end of the shearing of the sheep and part of the harvest. And so he had a big feast, he had a big party. As his name suggests, he was a drunken fool.

And so that's what he became, a drunken fool. And so he didn't know what Abigail had done. He didn't know the danger he had been in. He was just parting, partying. Party.

Can't talk tonight. Kinda like as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the son of man. For people will be eating and drinking and giving in marriage. The point is they'll all be partying, having a great time, completely unaware that the judgment of God is about to what? The judgment of God is about to come.

Well, that's Nabal, completely unaware of what would have happened to him had his wife not taken upon herself to be the hand of God, not knowing what is about to happen to him. Jesus told a parable a rich man. He had a large farm, he had a big harvest, and he thought to himself, what am I gonna do with all this? Well, he could have shared a great deal of it with others, could he not, and laid up treasures where? Heaven.

But no, he said, I'll be build bigger barns and I'll sit back and eat, drink, and be merry. And Jesus said, you fool, for you know not that tonight your soul will be required of you. And then whose will those things be? For what does it profit if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And that's that's Nabal.

Came to pass in the morning, verse 37, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, his when he sobered up, and his wife told him these things that his heart died within him and he became a stone. His pride could not handle what had to be done to save the man of his farm, his farm. And it came to pass in about ten days after that the Lord smote Nabal and he what? And he died. Vengeance is mine.

I will repay, saith the Lord. And we have David's response once again in verse 39. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and hath kept his servant from evil, that is kept, I believe he's speaking of himself, from evil. For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his head, and David sent and communed with Abigail to take her to him to wife. So David blessed the Lord once again and thanked the Lord that the Lord stood in his way to keep him from evil.

And he proposed marriage to Abigail. I think he chose wisely in that regard. He saw something in her, not just a faithfulness to her husband, which by the way, she had been faithful to him. However long, she was married to him. She had stayed with him despite his foolishness.

And so he married her. Was this a proper response on David's part? Did David already have a wife? Yes, he did. Her name was what?

Her name was Michael. However, by this time, sadly, Saul had already given his wife Michael to another man as we find out later in second Samuel. So you might justify his choice. However, it does continue and tell us something else. If you look in verse 42, it says, and Abigail hastened arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

Verse 43 sadly tells us something else. David also took who? Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they were also both of them his wives. So where did Solomon get the idea that he could have many, many wives? He got it from his father.

He got it from his father. Though the Bible doesn't strictly condemn having more than one wife, it sort of does in Deuteronomy 17. And in every case where a man had more than one wife, it always caused all kinds of what? Trouble. Turn to Deuteronomy 17 if you would.

Because Deuteronomy 17 particularly is in regard to, guess who? David. Deuteronomy 17 verse 15. Deuteronomy seventeen fifteen. Now, did Israel at the onset have a king?

The answer is no, they didn't. Did God know one day they would have a king? Yes, God knew that. So therefore, God addressed some things concerning when they did choose to have a king, and we read about some of those in Deuteronomy 17. Look particularly in verse 15.

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose. In other words, you know, let God choose in David's case, in Saul's face, God chose. Though God chose the king that Israel wanted was Saul to show them the difference. But he goes on. One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.

In other words, don't don't have a foreigner come in and be king. That would be be foolish. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother, but he shall not multiply horses to himself nor cause his people to return to Egypt to end to the end that he shall multiply horses for as much as the Lord has said unto you, you shall henceforth return no more that way. I'm not sure exactly what the horses have to do with returning to Egypt, maybe with going down to attack Egypt. However, in verse 17, it says this, neither shall he multiply what?

Wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Specifically, God addressed multiplying wives. Why did he do that? Because he knew it was the habit of kings and wealthy, powerful men to do that very thing in that day. And that was something that God did not establish.

That is something God did not agree with. And so God told the king not to multiply wives. Nonetheless, David sadly did not quite get this. And though his harem was small by comparison to Solomon, Solomon learned from who? He learned from his father.

And often the things the the things that we mess up in, the the convictions that we are weak in, sometimes our children will have greater issue with, and we see that with David and Solomon. So a few lessons to learn as we close this evening. Number one, learn to listen to others and be slow to wrath. What are we told in James one nineteen? We are told be slow to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to what?

Wrath for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Was David following that when he first heard the insults of Nabal? No. He was quick to what? Wrath.

Was it going to accomplish the righteousness of God? The answer is no. So when you're angry, stop and what? Think. Before you speak, before you act, let not the sun go down upon your what?

Wrath. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Thankfully, Abigail stepped in and saved David from himself. Number two, be generous and seek not revenge, but let the Lord take care of that.

Be generous. Nabal would have just been generous. This wouldn't have been an issue. Sometimes we excuse our lack of generosity and our lack of concern for others because of their situation. There are times you cannot just hand people a bunch of money because, well, they're got a jug of whiskey sitting right beside them.

I wonder what they're gonna buy if you give them money. But but there is a checkers across the street that I can buy them a hamburger. Bought a fella couple pieces of fried chicken and some fries. When was that? Thursday after bible study.

He was sitting out there and he wanted food. So they have a $5 meal at KFC right now. It's, you know, it's hard to find a $5 meal these days. So he got he got a little bit of food. Don't look for reasons not to be generous.

You can't give more than you have, but secondly, don't let God take care of those who have hurt or injured you. Let him take vengeance. Let him deal out justice because God doesn't make what? God doesn't make mistakes because God knows the whole story because God is going to act in righteousness and holiness. So therefore, in the New Testament, Paul tells us recompense to no man evil for evil, provide all things honest in the sight of all men.

If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place under wrath for his written vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Wonder where Paul got that quote from. He got it from Deuteronomy thirty two twenty five that we just read about from the Old Testament.

And finally, a soft answer turneth away what? Wrath. So learn to have a soft answer. Learn to think before you speak. Be slow to wrath.

Trust the Lord. Listen to the advice of others. Some lessons David learned this evening. Lessons we probably can learn as well. Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you for this day. Thank you, Lord. For your love and your goodness to us, thank you for the opportunity to be salt and light in this day. Help us, Lord, to learn ourselves from your word, how to be salt and light, how to be a help in a world that needs desperately the help of Jesus Christ and not a hindrance by letting our flesh get the better of us. Thank you, Lord, for others you put in our lives, spouses, friends, teachers, sometimes parents or children, through whom you sometimes speak to us to tell us what we want to hear.

Lord, help us to be open to listen. We pray. Particularly to you. In Jesus name, amen.