"A wicked wally and a wise woman"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

1 Samuel 25. Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him. And they buried him at his home in Rama. Then David moved down into the desert of Peran. A certain man in Maon who had property there at Carmel was very wealthy.

He had 1000 goats and 3000 sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings. He was a Kayla Bite. While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was hearing sheep.

So we sent 10 young men and said to them, go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. Say to him, long life to you. Good health to you and your household. All good health to all that is yours. Now I hear that it is sheep shearing time.

When your shepherds were with us, we did not ill treat them. And the whole time they were at Carmel. Nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants, and they will tell you, therefore, be favorable towards my men since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.

When David's men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David's name, then they waited. Neibal answered David servants. Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.

Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered from my shearers and give it to men coming from who who knows where. David's men turned round and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. David sent to his men said to his men, each of you strapped on your sword so they did, and David strapped on his as well. About 400 men went up with David, while 200 stayed with the supplies.

1 of the servants told Abigail, Nabal's wife, David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not ill treat us and the whole time, we were out in the fields near them. Nothing was missing. Night and day Night and Day, they were a wall around us the whole time.

We were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no 1 can talk to him. Abigail acted quickly. She took 200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 dressed sheep, 5 cias of roasted grain, 100 cakes of raisins, and 200 cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

Then she told her servants, go on ahead. I'll follow you, but she did not tell her husband the ball. As she came riding her donkey, as she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine. There, where David and his men descending towards her, and she met them. David had just said, it's been useless.

All my watching over this fellow's operate in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David be it ever so severely? If by morning, I leave alive, 1 male of all who belonged to him. When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.

She fell at his feet and said, pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you. Here what your servant has to say. Please pay no attention, my lord to that wicked man of all. He is just like his name. His name means fool.

And folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. And now my lord, as surely as the lord your God lives and as you live, since the lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands. May your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like the ball. And let this gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the men who follow you.

Please forgive your servants as some presumption. The lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord because you fight the lord's battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the lord your God. The lies of your enemies, he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the lord has fulfilled for my lord, every good thing he almost concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel.

My lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servants. David said to Abigail, praise be to the lord the God of Israel who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the lord, the God of Israel lives, who has kept me from harming you, If you had not come quickly to meeting me, to meet me, no 1 no 1 male belonging to Nepal would have been left alive by daybreak.

Then David accepted from her, from her hand what she had brought to him and said, go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request. When Abigail went in a ball, he was in his house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.

Then in the morning, when Naval was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him, and he became like a stone. About 10 days later, the lord struck Naval and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, praise be to the lord who has upheld my cause against the Ball for treating me contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head. Then David sent word to Abigail asking her to become his wife.

His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife. She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord's servants. Abigail quickly got on a donkey and attended by her 5 female servants went with David's messengers and became his wife. David had also married ano ano him of Chisriel, and they both were his wives. But Saul had given his daughter, Mikhail David's wife to Helteo, son of Leish, who was from Galen.

Great. Thank you, Paul. Please keep the passage open in front of you. You may be, yeah, you may be wondering why this looks more like a press conference now with these banners behind me. The reason for that is we, so when we have the staging up, remember there was the back drop, on the state the school had, the school had their stage in it, they had their sort of backdrop for it.

When I was preaching a few weeks ago on suffering, I was preaching on suffering, but it looked like I was on the set of Mamma Mia. It looked like I was about to burst forth into song while dealing with quite a serious topic. So we thought it would be good to have a little bit of a backdrop so that when you rather than have the school backdrop, we can have that, particularly for the live stream. That's that's why it like live there. So that's why it's the There you go.

Let's pray. Hemily father, we thank you for your word. Ask please that you would help us now to understand this passage. Not just understand what's going on, but understand, what difference it should make to us today. Please teach us.

Help us to be alert. Help us to be ready to listen. Palmer. In 19 12, the Titanic crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Captain Edward Smith received several warnings about icebergs that were on the route that he ignored them foolishly he ignored all those warnings.

And late that night, as we know, the lookouts finally spotted the icebergs, but it was too late. The collision led to the sinking of the titanic and more than 1500 lives were lost. There'd been warnings, but tragically no 1 had listened. In today's passage, which I called wicked wally and a wise woman, We're gonna see that there is disaster looming. And the question for us is will foolishness lead to disaster or will wisdom save the day?

So we're gonna look at the story. We're gonna work our way through it, and our 1st heading is spot the fool. We're gonna play a little game of spot the fool, not in the room, but in the passage. It's a simple game. See if you can spot the fall.

I think you may have already thought of 1, but let's just see. Let me just give you a little bit of context for the chapter. Chapter 25 feels like a little bit of an odd 1 act. It stands out in the narrative. You see, we're used to the fact that by this stage in 1 Samuel, you've got, as we've said many times, Saul is king of Israel, but has been rejected by God because he rejected God.

And he is out to kill, excuse me, David, who has been anointed to be king as Saul successor. And this is what we're used to as we've been going through chapters. Saul chasing David. That's been the kind of overarching narrative. And now we come to chapter 25, where Saul is hardly mentioned And you've just got this incident with between David and this guy Nabal and his wife, Abigail.

And it just stands out a bit. What what's this about? But we need to remember, of course, whenever in the Bible you've got something which just sort of stands out as a weird kind of what's this all about. You ought to pay more attention to it because the writer knows what they're doing. And furthermore, and we'll see this more next week, chapter 24, so the chapter before us and the chapter after us, chapter 26, are a pair.

There's a lot that's similar between these 2 chapters. We'll see that there's a lot of similarity. So you've got those 2 chapters that are very similar and in between this odd 1 out. And actually, this is very significant. This chapter.

Let me show you why. The chapter begins. So you need to be back at page page 2 9 7. The chapter begins with the death of Samuel, which is just sort of brushed over, really. Samuel is mentioned as having died.

And we, if you know the book of 1 Samuel, you sit up at that point and go, that Samuel was so significant. He was. He was really significant. He brought the word of the lord to Israel, and he anointed kings, but we haven't heard from him for quite a few chapters. And then just at the beginning of this chapter, we're told he died, and everyone mourned.

And you think what's the relevance of that? We'll see you in a few moments. Verse 2, the action for our story begins. By the way, if if it gets noisy out there and you want to shut the doors, feel free to do so you guys, who've got the block to yourself over there. Nice little romantic settings for you over there, but up to you, if you wanted to shut them or not.

Okay. We're into the action of the story. And the story are introduced to this main character, but we're not told his name straight away. 1st thing we're told about him is about his possession. 1st 2, a set man from Mayon who had property there in Carmel was very wealthy.

He had 1000 goats and a th and 3000 sheep, and he was shearing in Carmel. In other words, The 1st thing you hear about this guy is his wealth. He's got a lot of sheep. He's got a lot of goats. It seems like this is a man who is defined by his wealth.

A bit like if I say, oh, you know, the guy the you know the Tesla guy who you know SpaceX worth hundreds of millions of you know what's his name? Elon Musk. Yeah. Okay. So you you sort of feel like he's defined by it, but I don't know about Elon Musk, maybe he isn't, but You know, you hear about his wealth before you hear about him.

He's got goggles. He's got sheep. Oh, and his name is Navarre which means Fuh. You spotted a fool yet? I mean, I don't know what his parents were thinking calling him that, but that's what his name is.

Full. And he's described for us. He's described. His wife is described, as, verse 3. Nabel had, his wife's, his wife's name was Abigail.

She's intelligent and beautiful, but her husband Sirly and mean. So he's a fool. He's surly. He's mean. We'll see more about his wife in a bit.

Well, David sends some of his men to Nabar. To get supplies and basically to summarize his speech, he says to them to say when your men were with us in the wilderness with their sheep, we protected them. We didn't cause them any harm. And not just did we not cause them harm. We're told later on that David's men formed a wall around them.

In other words, they protected Nabal, Nabal's men, his sheep, his property. They looked after them. And so David is now sending people to Naval to say, how about a bit of payback? How about some provisions? And Naval answers as you would expect from his description If he's surly and mean, how does he respond?

He responds with a no, but not just a no. It's an insulting no. He said, who is this David? Oh, he knows probably who David is. But what he's saying is, who does David think he is?

And who are you guys? Maybe you'll escape slaves. He seems to say. Maybe that's what you're doing here. So, no, I'm not gonna give you any food, and I'm not gonna give you any bread.

Why should I give you my things? He says. And so David's men leaves. Now 1 of Nabal's servants then goes to Abigail, Nabal's wife and tells her what happened David's men came, he says, but my master insulted them. And, although they were good to us, they formed a wall around us when we were in the wilderness.

Although they protected us, Nabal was was rude to them, sent them off. And now he says disaster is hanging over our household verse 17. See what it says. Now, think it over and see what you can do. Because disaster is hanging over our master in his household.

He's such a wicked man that no 1 can talk to him. Now let's just pause there. Have you spotted the fool? Okay. Be hard not to spot the fool at this point, wouldn't they?

Nabar. And, he is foolish in lots of ways. The Bible has quite a lot to say about fools and gives quite a lot of description of foolish things, particularly in the book of proverbs. The reason I was reading through it in my bible times, and there is a lot that it says about what fools are like. And as you look at Naval, you see quite a lot of them in him.

He seems to be all about his possessions. He's selfish and so on. But I want us just to focus in on 1 of his characteristics just to apply it to us. 1 thing, 1 of the things that the servant says, which is no 1 can talk to him. Fools you see won't listen.

Fools won't pay attention. You can't talk to fools. Proverbs chapter 12 verse 15 says this. The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. I wonder did you listen Do you listen to others?

I reckon probably if I asked you that, you'd probably go well. Yes. Of course not. You know? I think everyone in the room would say that probably.

No one's gonna admit saying, no, no, I don't listen to anyone. But do you really listen? I mean, it's a humbling thing actually to listen. Let me ask you a few questions. When was the last time you changed your mind on something?

When was the last time that you heard a sermon or in your bible reading? That something challenged you, and you actually changed in your thinking. When was the last time someone challenged you on your behavior? Or your actions or your habits or your attitudes or the way you relate to me, where was the last time someone challenged you on that? And you changed.

Now, I'm not saying that we should change every time someone challenged gives us, that that wouldn't be wise either. But if your answer is, you know what? I can't remember the last time I changed. Why is that? Maybe it's because there's nothing to correct.

Maybe you've got everything right. That seems unlikely, doesn't it? Or is it because you don't listen? Or maybe it's because people think you won't listen to it. So don't talk to you about it.

Maybe people have concluded of you or me, There's no point talking to him or her. They won't listen. They're not gonna waste my breath. Or maybe 1 thing that adds into this, and I think something that we need to keep work hard on at changing. And it's true for pretty much every church in this country, I would think, is that there's a culture of, we don't want to challenge 1 another because we don't wanna other people's feelings.

And that's understandable, and it's kinda nice, isn't it? And we go, I don't wanna hurt other people. I don't want them to think badly of me. But actually, it's not very loving, is it? Because we want to see 1 another grow in faith and in godliness.

And we need to have a culture of monsters and in our gospel communities and amongst the elders as well, where we can say to 1 another You know what? I think you're being too harsh or you're being this is not right. This thinking is not right. This the older you know, whatever it may be, and we will listen to 1 another because once people listen Fools, don't. And actually, that changes the way we think about what a wise person is.

When you think of a wise person, you think of a sort of stereotypical wise person, a wise person in a film or a cartoon or whatever it may be. That wise person is probably actually what the Bible would call a fool because in our imaginations, the wise people are the people who have all the answers. Who don't need to listen to anyone else. They are they they they think that what they do is right. The ways of fools seem right to them.

So actually in our minds, a wise person is probably actually a fool. A wise person listens is correctable. Will change. Okay. We're still playing spot the fool.

You've spotted the 1st fool. There's more than 1 fool in the passage. The other fool is not abigail and is not the servant, we've gotta look at David. David, you see, is being foolish. It's very clear as we go through the passage that David's actions are wrong.

He reacts impulsively violently and with vengeance. Just follows the story through just a little bit more because we need to get through a little bit more of the narrative. Abigail decides to send off the supplies that enable Naval oh, keep changing how I'm pronouncing it. Sorry. Go with it.

You know who I mean. So she sends off the supplies that he didn't send. And then she sets out. And the action sort of starts to come to a climax. Now David is coming down a ravine.

With his man. And as he comes down, we hear what he's been saying. Verse 21. Sorry. You gotta go over the page.

What's David been saying? Verse 21. David had just said it's been useless. All my watching over this fellow's property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.

May God deal with David be it ever so severely if by morning? I leave alive 1 male of all who belong to him. So David is on the charge. He and his men having grabbed swords and now coming to kill Naval and all the men in his household. And this is full.

This, you see, is not consistent with the behavior that David has done, even in just the previous chat chapter. In the previous chapter, David restrained himself from attacking Saul, who's the anointed 1, another anointed 1. But now, David is acting impulsively And the problem is David is now starting to behave in a very saul like way. Saul who is the rejected king, saul who was told to fight the lord's battles but never really did. Saul who then became vengeful and became violent.

And just a couple of chapters before a few as before, Saul has killed a whole load of priests in a place called nod. And now David is looking like he's about to become light saw. David is starting to act foolishly. And now we see why there's a problem that Samuel has died. Samuel was the prophet, and 1 of the roles of the prophet was to challenge the king, to tell the king the lord's words.

But who's gonna restrain David? He's on his way to kill Naval and all the men in his household. Who's gonna stop him? Who's gonna challenge him? There's no prophet around now.

Step forward, abigail, or rather ride forward abigail. She meets David as he's descending this review. And what she does and what she says are incredible. Her speech is staggering. It is wise.

It is insightful. And it's prophetic. And we're gonna have a look at it. The words of wisdom listen to these words of wisdom. We're gonna focus in.

There's 1 verse particularly. We're gonna xynon, but we are gonna look through the whole of what she says more quickly. Alright? 1st of all, she starts. 1st 24.

She fell at his feet. So the 1st thing she does is bow before him fallen at his feet. She actually responds to David the way David responded to saul in the previous chapter as the anointed 1. She is bowing before him showing him respect. And she says, 1st thing she says is not quite what it says in the NIV.

1st thing she says, verse 24 according to the NRV is pardon your servant. It's a bit more than that. It's according to the ESV on me alone, my lord, be the guilt. She said mine is the guilt. It's on me.

It's an incredible thing. She said the guilt is on me for what Naval did for what he said. It's on me. And being in his household, you could say, well, yeah, sort of does fall on her, but that's what she says. The guilt is on me.

And then she says, and Naval, he is a fool 1st 25, please pay no attention to him. He's a wicked man. He's a fool just as his name is. His name means fool and folly goes withered. He's just paying no attention to him.

Don't respond to him. And then she says, and as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. In other words, if I'd seen them. If I'd been there, things would have been different. I would have made sure things were said differently.

I quite like Peter Lighthart in his commentary in his comment book on this. Save, and knowing Naval was a moron, it was her duty to prevent him from dealing with anyone from the outside world, which is, like, he's such a wally. She shouldn't have he's not like he shouldn't be let out in public, basically. I should have stopped him. If I'd been there, I would have done.

And then she says, may your enemies be like Abel? Naval. She seems to know something's gonna happen to him. We'll come back to them. Then she urges him to take the gift that she gives him, verse 27, And then verse 28, this is the heart of the speech.

It's so important. I'm gonna put it up on the screen, but I'm using the E SV, which is a slightly better translation on this. This I think is the right at the heart of it. We need to just take a few moments on it. She says, please forgive the trespass of your servant, that guilt, which is on me.

Please forgive it. She doesn't just say, yeah, n n IV there. 1st 28, please forgive your servant's presumption. It's like she's in a very polite, very English where you're at. Please pardon me as I've, you know, whatever.

She she's not saying that she's saying please forgive that guilt, that wrongdoing. 4. You've gotta stop the linking words in this verse. Very important. If you were at the last time that we had our what it was in the word linking words.

This verse, very important. Please forgive the trespass of your servants for the lord will certainly make my lord a sure house. Now a sure house again, commentators will say that's Shore House. That means a dynasty. That means King off the King in his family line.

That's the Shore House. And that is staggering. No 1 has said anything about that so far. This is the 1st time we hear anything about there being a dynasty of Dave Yes. We've heard he'll become king, but Abigail is prophesying here to say, the Lord, yeah, he's gonna make you a shore house generation after generation.

It's gonna happen. Now, so she's saying, please forgive. For the lord is gonna make you and your house. This dynasty. Now that doesn't quite follow.

We need the next bit. Because I should have here we go. Because because my lord is fighting the battles of the lord and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live because my lord is fighting the lord's backing. So forgive us for you're gonna be made king and there's gonna be this Royal dynasty because why is God gonna do this for you? Because you fight the lord's battles.

That's what you are to do as king. And this is not the lord's back That's the warning she's given. Do you see this is really significant? She's saying god's gonna make you a sure house, a sure dynasty. Because you fight the lord's battles because that's what god's king does.

The lord's king fights the lord's battles, unlike saul. Don't become like saul, David. Fight god's battles. And that means David, you should turn around. Don't keep going.

And therefore, She says. Following verses, verse 29, she then says, so David, therefore you're gonna be kept safe. You will be kept safe, but your enemies, verse 29, end of verse 29, but the lives of your enemies, he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. Little reference pack. Nicole, little echo back to David and Goliath where David was fighting the lord back used a sling and the stone flew out of the sling and she's saying, so will your enemies be David?

You don't need to do this. God's gonna deal with all your enemies. He will deal with Naval, he will deal with soul. He will deal with anyone who comes your way. You don't need to deal with this soul.

This isn't your bad. And then she says, and when you become king, when the lord has fulfilled his promise 1st 30, you won't have this burden on you, this bloodshed on your conscience. And last thing she says, and when the lord your God has brought my lord to success. Remember your servant, which is a bit like does that sound a bit like the thief on the cross next to Jesus? Who says to him?

Remember me when you come into your kingdom. What a speech? And I'd encourage you to go home later this afternoon maybe have another look at it, particularly verse 28th, which is the ride at the heart of it. She says God's king fights god's battles. There's a warning there for dates Don't go down this path.

Now this of course takes us to Jesus. We saw this last week Jesus is the ultimate king. David is the lord's king, but only as a foreshadowing of Jesus, the great. And what we saw last week is actually what sort of what we saw this week as well, that Jesus does the lord's battles. When he went into Jerusalem, he didn't go with swords, and he told his followers to put their swords away.

He wasn't gonna take Jerusalem by force, but rather by dying. That's how Jesus wins god's battle. But we can add a little bit more on from this chapter. Just as David's enemies were gonna be dealt with 1 day so too Jesus' enemies will be judged. There will be judgment to come.

But for the moment, It is a time for forgiveness. So come to Jesus. Find forgiveness while it can be found. When we come to our last point, Praise for the to the praise the lord for his restraining hand. Thankfully, David was wise.

He listened to Abigail. I mean, that's a pretty big change, isn't it? And to do that in front of his men, is quite a big thing. People often say for parents, little parenting tips, let let your child give them as much opportunity as they can to back down if you're trying to correct them. So don't do it in front of their friends.

Don't tell them off in front of their friend. Give them up changing to back down to do it quietly. Abigail's gonna do this in front of his 400 men. And yet David is wise. He listens to her, and they turn back.

And he says 1st 32, David said to Abigail praise be to the lord, the God of Israel who has sent you to sent you today to me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from blood this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the lord, the God of Israel lives, who has kept me from harming you. If you have not come quickly to meet me, not 1 male belonging to Naval. Nobal, I'd I'd have to say it now.

Would have been left alive by daybreak. Okay. In that paragraph, who is it who stops David from going forward? Who says Abigail, you stop me? And the Lord stop me.

Who is it that did it? Who's responsible for the a 3 roundabout? We have this going round on the WhatsApp group for Hopcher. Who's response? Who should you fold?

Is it TFL? Is it Highway's agency? What did we end up with? Highway's agency. Okay.

But we didn't know who was it? Was it then? Was it then? I don't know who they pass you from 1 to the other. Is that what's going to hit?

No. No. No. It's not saying, was it date? Was it gone?

No. No. No. No. Was it algorithm?

You know, it's not that? It's the lord restraining David through Abigail. That's what's going on. And he praises the lord for it that the lord stopped him. And don't we see that in our lives too?

How often the lord will stop us from going down foolish roads, from going down sinful paths? And sometimes it's a word in a sermon, sometimes it's a word in gospel community. Sometimes it's the example of a Christian friend, someone you respect who you look at them and you go, well, they don't do that. So I'm not gonna go down that road either. And it is all the lord at work, restraining his people.

And therefore, we need to just a little application. We should make sure that we are mixing with wise people, godly people. You hang around with people like Naval, you become foolish, but listen to abigail and become wise. Well, the story goes on. Abigail went to Naval to and finds that he is feasting like a king.

Absolutely no idea that that he almost died, that his men were almost all killed. Blissfully unaware of danger that was so close to them, and he is completely drunk and so she leaves him. The next day, she tells him all that happened, and it says his heart failed him. He became like a stone, and then some days later died. Here is Abigail's prophecy come true.

The lord is bringing judgment on David's enemies. And so David praises the lord for holding his calls, He says the lord kept him from doing wrong, and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his head. And if the chapter had ended there, we would have thought, oh, great. There's a lovely rounding off of the story all, we're finished, but he doesn't. David then marries Abigo.

And we might be thinking, what is going on here? He's already married to Ahinone, and to Mikhail, those saw has given her to someone else. So we wonder, is this alright? Should this become a practice we do? Is polygamy okay?

Marrying more than 1 woman? I mean, the Lord's restrained him from bloodshed, but marrying several women, is that okay? Well, now let's not be too hasty here. The text doesn't comment. It just doesn't make a comment about it.

It just said this is what happened. And we know deuteronomy 17 verse 17 that it says the king must not take many wives. So don't assume God is okay with this. When earlier in the Bible, he has said it is wrong. Just because the prophet, a prophet doesn't say something to him, and just because he isn't struck by lightning doesn't mean God is okay with us.

And let's not forget. God is not obliged to restrain all our sin. It is an act of grace when he does, but if he doesn't, the blame is not on him. It is on us. And this is a reminder that even great date who foreshadowed Jesus better than most was still a sinner.

And the lord did not restrain this sin. But though he does not restrain this sin, and though he does not restrain us from all our sins, he nevertheless graciously provides the way for all our sin to be dealt with through the great king who fought the great battle on the cross, the battle to defeat our sin when he died in our place and that's what we're gonna remember in a few moments when we take communion. Jesus is sacrifice, so all our sin could be dealt with. So we saw a near disaster. The near slaughter of Naval's household and that David nearly turned to his own ways and his own vengeance.

Thankfully, the wisdom of Abigail was listened to. Will we listen to god's word? Will we look to god's king who fights god's backing? Let me pray for you. Heavenly father, we thank you for this chapter in 1 samuel.

Thank you that wisdom prevailed. And we pray please that you would help us to spot where we in our hearts are foolish, where we're tempted not to listen, where we're tempted to go our own way. And help us to be wise, to be humble, to listen and to change according to your words, and to be teachable, correctable. And we praise you that David was a your king who fought your battles, but that he points us forward to the great king. Jesus.

Who fought our battles for us, and we thank you for him and pray you would help each 1 of us to turn to him.