The Folly of Nabal

“David and Abigail,” by Frans Pourbus the Elder, c. 1570/80.

A Weird Story

There’s a story in 1 Samuel that’s kinda weird. It’s about a bloke called Nabal, his wife Abigail, and David, the soon-to-be king of Israel.

And it’s 44 verses long. It takes up all of chapter 25. And that’s gotta tell us something. The Old Testament never wastes its words. If a chapter is 44 verses long, and it’s a seemingly insignificant little story being told, then rest assured it’s not insignificant.

And it goes like this (If you haven’t read it):

David is out in the desert fleeing from King Saul who wants him dead. He and his men are thirsty and hungry and they need supplies. Nabal lives nearby. And he’s rich. Very rich. David’s men have been in the same region as Nabal’s flocks, but they’ve never looted, helped themselves or harassed Nabal’s staff.

So David finally asked Nabal for food supplies for his men as they start to struggle.

But hold on a minute, before we go on. Here’s what we read at the start of the story before David even asks:

 And there was a certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, and he was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand 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…

A wife who is well ahead of where her husband is at. In fact, the name “Nabal” means “fool”. I wonder what his parents were thinking? I wonder if today he’d end up in therapy over it? Anyway, the story is set up for what happens next. And it’s inevitable. Nabal rejects David’s request. Not politely, but foolishly

Nabal answered David’s 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 for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

Nabal scorns David and belittles him, implicitly rejecting God’s choosing of him to be king. And instead he backs his would-be-killer Saul. David’s response, as a man of blood, is to clean his weapons and get his men ready for a slaughter.

And that’s what he is going to do, until… until Abigail hears about it from Nabal’s distressed servants who say to her “He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.” They clearly knew that Abigail knew what her husband was like, to the point that they were confident when they uttered those words that they were merely pointing out the obvious!

Abigail goes behind Nabal’s back and this is what she does:

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs  of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred 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 Nabal.

It’s the little details, right? It’s the little details that give this the ring of truth, but that also tell us that this is an important story. The little details about the amount of food, and the type. But also that killer last line.  She’s keeping a secret from Nabal. Things are about to go nuclear.

There’s something in here for us to learn. But we’ll get there soon. First, where does the story go next?

Here’s where: Abigail arrives at David’s camp. She throws herself at David’s feet and in the process throws her husband under the bus. A bus, I might add, that he deserves to be thrown under. It must have been painful to say, but here’s what she confesses

Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. 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 Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

David blesses her, and blesses the fact that God has kept him from destroying Nabal and all that he owns. Abigail returns home, and here’s where it gets interesting:

 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the 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 Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

“Like that of a king“. There’s the real folly of Nabal. The text is pointed. He’s usurping the throne. A fool on the throne of his own life. The true king of Israel is out in the desert, in need and in fear of his life, and the foolish man is feasting. David does not have to lift a finger. God strikes Nabal dead. Abigail’s words must have shredded his very soul.  As David says:

Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.

God is not mocked. He is the God of vengeance and he will repay. Nabal may be rich from all his agrarian reaping and sowing, but in the end he is as much the fool as the rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12.

The story ends kinda strangely too. David takes Abigail to be his wife. It’s an awkward ending in some ways for those of us with modern sensibilities. But she moves from the ease and comfort, – and the wealth – of a would-be king, to the desert experience, with all its challenges, of the one who is the true king.

So What’s It Saying? 

There are some general implications aren’t there?  Make sure you side with the true king!  There’s a Psalm 2: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry with you and you perish in the way” moment here to be sure.

There’s also the point that our identity with the suffering Messiah, (David was God’s anointed), is the pattern of the Bible. Just as David suffered in the desert and was scorned and rejected by the wealthy fool, so too the ultimate Messiah is scorned and mocked on the cross, and left thirsty out in the sun by the wealthy and powerful fools of this age.

And we must go outside the camp, as Hebrews 13 tells us, bearing the same shame. Those who wish to be wise in the eyes of the world, will struggle to cope with the shame, the cancellations, the online mockery, the icing out of friendships, if they are unable to bear his reproach.

So you can see the general implications can’t you?

But here’s a specific one too: the sad reality of the marriage partner who does not value the Lord Jesus in the way that the other partner does. The brutal truth that there is many a well-to-do Nabal in a marriage, who neither sees, nor cares to see the great worth of the Lord Jesus.

And their spouse knows it. And mourns it. I’ve seen it too readily, not always in the husband, but all too often. I’ve spoken to women who mourn the fact that in terms of worldly wisdom and worldly wealth, their spouse is kicking goals. But in terms of godly wisdom and the wealth of a spirit tuned into God, they’re not even on the bench.

Worldly-wise Yet Foolish

Such people have allowed their worldly maturity to run well ahead of their spiritual maturity. In terms of Christian leadership they are not even in the frame, even while they may be leading at work or making a big name for themselves in some academic or intellectual pursuit.

Whatever it is, what looks in the eyes of the world to be wise, is in fact folly. Whatever it is, what looks like a true king in the eyes of the world, is an actual usurping of the throne by a faux king. Jesus reminds us that what humans value, God sees of little worth (Luke 16:15).

Though bear in mind Jesus spoke those words to the most religious people of his day! Folly knows no bounds if we give it room.  I know of a man who would never miss a Sunday, but whose wife had to wear long sleeves to church to cover the bruises. There are plenty of Nabal’s hiding under the cover of religion. Don’t be one of them.

Whatever form it takes,  this folly becomes a schism as sharp as that between Abigail and Nabal. It must have been daunting for her to reject her husband’s view of David, and then to prepare food for the outcast and bring it to him and his men. But think of the alternative!  She bowed before David and confessed the folly of her husband.

The lesson, of course, is not simply a reminder – and a painful one at that – for the spouse who has an unbelieving partner.

It’s a warning to Christian couples to not let the gap grow between you in terms of your love for Jesus. Having seem longer term marriages founder – even fail – over the gradual drift away from Jesus by one partner, it is imperative that we don’t allow it to happen to us.

As Jill and I will testify, we both must orient our lives constantly towards the true king and away from the false kings. We must pray together for God to enable us to keep going in the same direction.  Fo what is Nabal’s folly? He is not rich towards God, despite his earthly wealth.

The folly may be obvious from the start – a bad marriage choice that is a virtual unequal yoking. Or it may be the drift over time in a marriage, as the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth (or perhaps anger and unforgiveness towards God’s people), draws one partner away.

And you don’t notice it until… until the call to suffer with the Messiah alongside your spouse is rejected – and angrily at that.

Sadly for some reading this it isn’t a warning. No, it’s a rather painful reminder of your lived experienced: spouse who has constantly rejected your request to lean more onto Jesus, or who has foolishly allowed the wisdom of this world and all it offers, cloud their worship of Jesus.

Jesus Knows Jesus Cares

If that’s you, can I offer an encouragement. Jesus knows. Jesus cares. Jesus will hold that pain with you.

Just as the soon-to-be Messiah, David, takes Abigail to be his wife and to care for her, so too the ultimate Messiah, Jesus, will care for those who lean on him for salvation. He sees the folly, and he hears the pain, of those who experience the gap between their own love for Jesus and the lack of love for Jesus in someone they love.

And never forget those ten days. Nabal did not die immediately. Yes, his heart died within him and he turned to stone. But ten days!  Who knows, perhaps the same king who showed mercy to the household of Nabal upon Abigail’s intercession, will show mercy to the foolish one today.

For just as I’ve heard many a story of a spouse leaving Jesus behind for the sake of their own folly, I personally know beautiful salvation stories that go in the opposite direction: a bitter, angry, foolish husband who, in their mid-years turns to Jesus and becomes a servant of both Jesus, and of his own wife.

And to the point that the wisdom, joy, laughter and richness in Christ of their second half, far outweighed the folly of the first.