“The Fool on the Hill”

 “Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.” (1 Samuel 25:3)

Nabal

“And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.” (1 Samuel 25:1)

Nabal is Hebrew for “Foolish”, but here we have, “the man was very great”. The term “Great” is assigned to many people; Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, and Herod the Great. That title placed as value to a person is often never “Great”. In the case of Nabal he was Great in terms of money, but poor in leadership, compassion, and most importantly God.

Nabal was great in Worldly possessions that he received from his father, and that was all he inherited. He did not inherit the most important thing, Virtue. Nabal did not include God in anything. Always surly, with a nasty disposition.

David at Carmel

Although David and Saul had departed from one another, David was still expecting to be killed by Saul. At Carmel David had taken his 600 man army looking for food. David knew Nabal was not a nice man, but his men needed food.

David had his men deliver a very nice message to Nabal. Maybe too nice. David’s army went in among Nabal’s shepherds and defended them from Philistine raiders. Yet none of David’s men stole anything from the shepherds.

David came to Nabal as a beggar. Asking only for whatever Nabal could provide, and David would be grateful.

Nabal’s response to David’s messengers is like a modern response as an insult, “David? Never heard of him.” Nabal heaped abuse on the messengers.

David’s messengers could have retorted with insults, but they didn’t. They left and told David what was said.

“And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.” (1 Samuel 25:13)

David, who had been a reasonable man, was now angry. He planned to kill everyone in Nabal’s house. Every man, woman, and child.

Abigail

Abigail’s servant tells her of how good David has been to them. How David did not bother them, or take cattle. How David’s men had formed a wall of protection around them. But Nabal had grossly insulted David, and now David was coming to destroy them all.

Abigail was beautiful and far smarter than Nabal. She knew that it was up to her to calm David’s anger.

“18Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

19And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.” (1 Samuel 25:18-20)

Abigail deserves her own blog post.

Stay tuned…