Honor and Foolishness

1 Samuel 25:1-22
    1 Then Samuel died; and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. David and the Wife of Nabal
    2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb.
    4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ”
    9 So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited.  10 Then Nabal answered David's servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
    12 So David's young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
    14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. 15 But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.”
    18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
    20 So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”

Here is a tale of honor and foolishness.  David and his men honored the family and flock of Nabal and Abigail by their presence as a wall of protection against thieves and predators, while Nabal refused to be thankful and honor that selfless act When time came for a feast to give them something to eat.  The man’s name is translated as ‘fool,’ and that is how he lived up to his name by being “harsh and evil in his doings.”  David had just left after mourning the death of Samuel who had anointed him as the true king of Israel by God’s command, and now this foolish and harshly evil man whom he had protected spurned him and God’s calling on him.  Nabal used words to say David had split from Saul as if it were a bad thing (neglecting God’s rejection of Saul and Saul’s death wish on the LORD’s chosen one).  He then refused to feed him and his men and this angered David enough to determine to attack and kill Nabal and his family with four hundred swords.  One of Nabal’s servants or workers quickly told Abigail of the impending doom brought on by the unreasonable husband and scoundrel of hers, and she sent food to David’s approaching force to stop them, and followed not far behind to explain and offer apologies for the way Nabal treated them.  She did this to stop the vengeance on David’s enemy who repaid him evil for good; sadly, he was about to to a similar thing by killing Nabal and his household.  The second half of this chapter brings the story to a better conclusion.  So far, we learn that rash responses should be thought through to not end up returning evil for evil just because someone returns evil for our good towards them (Proverbs 17:13, Romans 12:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:15, 1 Peter 3:9).  Let us choose to honor others and not pursue foolishness in our responses.