1 Samuel 25-26

1 Samuel 25-26

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 25: David Marries Abigail

                This chapter starts off by tell us that Samuel has died. David goes to the Desert of Maon where he meets a man who lives there named Nabal and his wife Abigail. Nabal is a ugly, disgusting mean man and his wife was intelligent and beautiful. Think Beauty and the Beast or Shrek and Fionna. David and his men go to Nabal and ask him for a hand out, Nabal is a very wealthy man and David and his army have been protecting his property. Nabal, being the mean guy he is deals with the men unfavorably.

                This upsets David's men and they decide to teach Nabal a lesson! Afterall David has only been nice to him, how dare Nabal do that! So 400 of David's men gather together to go and kill Nabal.

                But while they are coming towards the house of Nabal, Abigail loads up a donkey with food and heads out to meet them. Abigail gets down and bows before David and begs him to not do anything to Nabal, because he is a fool. David agrees and accepts what she brought as a gift.

                Abigail returns home in peace to find her husband drunk and living like a king. She decides to wait until the next morning when he is sober to tell him what had happened. Nabal, when he finds out freezes up and becomes like a stone for 10 days, before the Lord takes his life. David hears about this and sends servants to ask Abigail to be his wife, she agrees.

Chapter 26: David Spares Saul's Life

                Saul had just repented of trying to kill David, but Saul had lost his mind again and was back on the hunt to kill David. The Ziphites come to Saul and report that David is in the Desert of Ziph, so Saul sends his army out to get him, and they send out scouts to confirm that he was there.

                One night, Saul's army is all fast asleep. David and Abishai sneek into the camp and go to where Saul is sleeping. There they take Saul's spear and jug of water and head up to a hill within shouting distance to taunt Abner, the leader of Saul's army. He yells to Abner and asks him why he did not protect his king, by letting someone into the camp without stopping him and as proof he asks Abner to verify where the king's spear and jug of water are.

                Saul must have woken up by now, and steps into the conversation. David asks Saul why he is trying to hurt him, when he has done nothing wrong. Saul repents and tells David he won't try to kill him again. David returns his spear and jug of water and Saul heads home!