For a moment it seemed as if the dark clouds, which had gathered around his soul and prevented the light

penetrating it, were to be scattered. Saul owned his wrong; he owned the justice of David's cause; he even

owned the lesson which the events of the past must have so clearly taught, which, indeed, his own

persecution of David had, all unconsciously to himself, prophetically indicated, just as did the words of

Caiaphas the real meaning of what was done to Jesus (John 11:49-52). He owned the future of David, and

that in his hand the kingdom of Israel would be established; and all this not in words only, but practically,

by insisting on a sworn promise that in that future which he foresaw, Oriental vengeance would not be taken

of his house.

And yet David himself was not secure against the temptation to personal vengeance and to self-help,

although he had resisted it on this occasion. The lesson of his own weakness in that respect was all the

more needed, that this was one of the most obvious moral dangers to an ordinary Oriental ruler. But David

was not to be such; and when God in His good Providence restrained him as he had almost fallen, He

showed him the need of inward as well as of outward deliverance, and the sufficiency of His grace to

preserve him from spiritual as from temporal dangers. This may have been one reason why the history of

Nabal and Abigail is preserved in Holy Scripture. Another we may find in the circumstance that this incident

illustrates not only God's dealings with David, but also the fact that even in the time of his sorest

persecutions David was able to take upon himself the care and protection of his countrymen, and so, in a

certain sense, proved their leader and king.

The whole story is so true to all the surroundings of place, time, and people, that we can almost portray it to

ourselves. Samuel had died, mourned by all Israel. Although his work had long been finished, his name must

always have been a tower of strength. He was the link which connected two very different periods, being

the las t representative of a past which could never come back, and seemed almost centuries behind, and

also marking the commencement of a new period, intended to develop into Israel's ideal future. Samuel was,

so to speak, the John the Baptist who embodied the old, and initiated the new by preaching repentance as

its preparation and foundation. It was probably the death of Samuel which determined David to withdraw

still farther south, to the wilderness of Paran,218 which stretched from the mountains of Judah far to the

desert of Sinai.

Similarly our blessed Lord withdrew Himself after the death of John the Baptist. In the wilderness of Paran

David was not only safe from pursuit, but able to be of real service to his countrymen by protecting the

large flocks which pastured far and wide from the predatory raids of the wild tribes of the desert. It was thus

(25:7, 15, 16) that David had come into contact with one whom we only know by what was apparently his by-

name, Nabal, "fool" -an ominous designation in Old Testament parlance, where "the fool" represented the

headstrong, self-willed person, who followed his own course, as if there were "no God" alike in heaven and

on earth. And so he is described as "hard" -stubborn, stiff, - and "evil of doings" (ver. 3). His wife Abigail

was the very opposite: "good of understanding, and fair of form." Nabal, as Scripture significantly always

calls him was a descendant of Caleb. His residence was in Maon, while his "business" was in Carmel, a place

about half an hour to the north-west of Maon. Here, no doubt, were his large cotes and folds, whence his

immense flocks of sheep and goats pastured the land far and wide. It was the most joyous time for such a

proprietor - that of sheep-shearing, when every heart would be open. A time of festivity this (ver. 36), which

each would keep according to what was in him. And Nabal had cause for gladness. Thanks to the ever

watchful care of David and his men, he had not suffered the slightest loss (vers. 15, 16); and the rich

increase of his flocks crowned another year's prosperity. It was quite in the spirit of an Eastern chieftain in

such circumstances, that David sent what would be a specially respectful embassy of ten of his men, with a

cordial message of congratulation,219 in the expectation that at such a time some acknowledgment would be

made to those who not only deserved, but must have sorely needed the assistance of a rich Judaean

But Nabal received David's message with language the most insulting to an Oriental. The provocatio n was

great, and David was not proof against it. Arming about four hundred of his men, he set out for Carmel, with

the determination to right himself and take signal vengeance. Assuredly this was not the lesson which God