A Crack in the Armor: the with Abigail

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. God has given you something even more reliable than prayer, and that is the counsel of the body of Christ. That is how God answers your prayers for wisdom. In a multitude of counselors, he says, there is wisdom. So you're praying about something God's already given you an answer for. Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Bidevich. You know, one day the story of your life will be told to the next generation. So how do you want today's chapter to be told? Is it a season of faithfulness, trust, and integrity?

Or is it the moment when you decided to walk away from everything and everyone you once served? Today, Pastor J.D. shows us David at a critical juncture, fresh off of his faithful response to the murderous King Saul.

But when he then encounters a smaller obstacle, he stumbles and nearly falls. The only thing that prevents David from veering into a pattern of sin and foolishness is an obscure figure, one of the wisest and least known people in the entire Bible. Let's meet her now as we turn to 1 Samuel chapter 25. Here's Pastor J.D. 1 Samuel 25.

I want you to hold your place in 1 Samuel 25. But first, let me take you on a little trip back into American history. The date is April 27th, 1777. The place, Ridgefield, Connecticut, two years into the American Revolutionary War and one of George Washington's favorite and most reliable generals was outmanned and outgunned by oncoming British forces. He ordered his men to retreat, and they did, they obeyed their orders, but he, he alone, stayed there on the hill crest.

It was one of the bravest things that anybody had ever seen. The commanding officer remained at the battle line by himself, single-handedly fighting off the British so that his men would have those few precious seconds that they needed to escape into the woods. In the process, his horse got shot out from under him and left him pinned partially underneath. But somehow, even from that position, he fought off the British soldiers who were at arm's length and he managed to escape. This was just one of many heroic feats that the men under his command had seen him pull off. His name was Benedict Arnold and he was one of America's youngest generals and arguably their most capable military mind. But, but he had a fragile ego and the Continental Congress, for reasons that are still unknown to us, overlooked him for promotion time and time again. Almost all of his contemporaries, his friends, men whose skill and accomplishments were vastly inferior to his own, historians say, they got promoted all around him.

To make matters worse, Congress refused to raise his salary even when he desperately needed it and clearly deserved it. Let's fast forward now a few months to October 1777, Saratoga, New York. Benedict Arnold is now under the command of General Horatio Gates, a man whose skill would not have held a candle to Arnold's. The men at Saratoga loved and they preferred Benedict Arnold, but General Gates was in charge. General Gates refused to heed Arnold's counsel about how to fight the battle, mainly because he was jealous. And then as an act of petty spite, Gates banished General Arnold to his tent where he was commanded to sit the battle out. But then the battle started to go badly, just like Arnold had predicted that it would and Arnold couldn't stand it. So he broke out of his tent and he rode up to the front lines like a madman from where he organized the men and launched a counterattack that shifted the entire momentum of the battle. Historians say that Arnold's bravery and his intervention won the battle of Saratoga. During that battle, he was wounded.

He got shot in the leg and he had to spend the next five months recuperating in a hospital tent. Meanwhile, General Gates took full credit for the victory, never even mentioning Arnold and what he'd done in that battle. Once again, the Continental Congress gave no recognition and no reward to Benedict Arnold. Fast forward now to 1779. Benedict Arnold is in Philadelphia. His wife, Peggy, a Tory loyalist, has been passing him British articles about the war. And General Arnold realizes that the British officers speak better of him, speak with more respect of him than even his own government does.

Peggy arranges a meeting between Arnold and British officer John Andre. And just like that, an American Patriot war hero becomes a national symbol of cowardice and greed. A man whose name is now synonymous in our culture with the word traitor.

How tragic to spend a lifetime faithfully serving one allegiance only to become a traitor to it in the end. Today in 1 Samuel 25, you're going to see David come this close to doing just that, to selling out the values that he has championed up to this point. Think of 1 Samuel 25 as part two of the story that we looked at last week in 1 Samuel 24. We left off chapter 24 with David as the hero, David bravely defying his men who are urging him to take matters into his own hands and kill Saul. In that moment, in chapter 24, David was the one who boldly urged his men to trust God and to wait on God and to do things his way. Now in this chapter, chapter 25, David is the one whose faith falters. David is the one whose flesh gets the best of him. And David has to have somebody else come to his rescue. And you all, while on one level, this is very understandable, right?

We all have our weak moments. It's at least going to leave us wondering. When you get to the end of 1 Samuel 25, it leaves you wondering, is David really the promised king that we've been waiting for? 1 Samuel 25 verse one. Now Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Now this is really important, I think, because Samuel had always functioned as a type of father figure for David, a spiritual mentor. Samuel was the one who believed in David when nobody else did, and now he's dead. So David understandably feels shaken.

He feels unmoored. Verse two, and there was a man in Mahon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats. Simply owning land in that day would have made you wealthy. To have 3000 sheep and 1000 goats is supposed to sound excessive.

It would have put you in the upper 0.01%. Saying a man has 3000 sheep and 1000 goats would be like saying the day that somebody had a fleet of Lamborghinis and a couple of vacation homes in Turks and Caicos. Verse three, now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved.

How many of you ladies feel like this describes your marriage? Okay, just kidding. Don't raise your hand for that. But this really does get interesting here. Let me just summarize the next few verses for you. David and his men have been staying in the vicinity of Nabal and his shepherds and his pastures, and a number of times David and his men protect Nabal and his property from Philistine raiding parties. They've been very sacrificially helpful to Nabal's shepherds. They really helped Nabal's shepherds thrive this past year. Verse 16 says that David had been like a shield wall for Nabal. Well, in those days it was customary to one time a year at the time of the sheep shearing to give a thank you gift to people like that who had assisted you throughout the year. So David sent some of his young men to ask for that.

It was basically assumed. It was very customary, but Nabal rejected the men. And to make matters worse, he sent them away with this stinging insult. Verse 10, who is David? Who is this rut son of Jesse?

You know, there are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Who is David? Everybody knows. He knows who David is. Not only is he not showing gratitude, he is deliberately taking a shot at David.

David's just another runaway slave. Imagine you are a waiter at a really nice restaurant, and some huge party comes in. They rent a private room, and you and a couple of runners are assigned responsibility for that room.

They're your only assignment for the night. They're there for like five hours until after midnight, an hour and a half after closing time. You stay the whole time, and you and your team give them excellent service.

You really bust your hump to make sure that you take care of their needs. Well, the bill comes. It's for several thousand dollars, and the guy disputes a couple of small items on the receipt and then leaves no tip. So you go out to the car, and you're like, hey, sir, I think you forgot to fill out the tip portion. And he says, quit begging me for money, you mouth breather.

The only reason you're a waiter is probably because you flunked out of school, and you couldn't handle a real job. Get out of my face. Now, I'm guessing if that's you, you're going to be angry on multiple levels. Well, see, that's basically what happened to David, just on a much larger scale, right? It's not just David. It's David and all of his men.

It's over a year's salary, not just in evenings. Plus, Nabal's insult, I think, touched on a tender spot for David. I mean, after all, David had grown up as the runt, right? I mean, for crying out loud, when Samuel came to choose one of Jesse's sons as king, David's dad forgot about him, literally did not even invite him to the tryout.

That's not a wound you recover from easily. For David's whole life, he's felt overlooked. And now Saul has publicly smeared him and exiled him. He's told everybody that David is a traitor and an opportunist. So Nabal's insult plays on those insecurities. And so verse 13, David says, that's it, that's it. Every man's strap on his sword.

It's go time. Verse 21, Nabal has returned to me evil for good. God help me if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him. David's gonna go out for vengeance against this nobody. Hey, y'all, where's this guy? Where's that guy from 1 Samuel 24 who said, I'm not gonna take vengeance into my own hands.

I'm gonna let God handle these things. David had been bravely faithful in a cave. Now he just caves. Last week, David resisted killing Saul when Saul, who had been actively seeking his life, was sitting there right in front of him. This week, he's about to murder a bunch of innocent people because he got stiffed on a tip and insulted by a nobody. That guy who resisted killing his enemy is about to murder a whole household of a nobody.

He passed the big test and he's about to fail the little one. By the way, does that ever happen to you? Do you resist some big temptation only to fall to a much smaller one? I don't know what it is, but that has happened to me several times throughout my life. When I stumble and fall, when I stumble and fall, it's almost always after some big spiritual victory. Then I fall prey to the smallest of temptations. David is tired.

He is worn out and this guy is playing on his deepest insecurities. So David loses it. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. To learn more about this ministry, visit jdgreer.com. Before we return to our teaching, I want to take a moment to remind you about an amazing resource we offer our listeners. If you have questions about life, theology, or the Bible, you won't want to miss Pastor JD's Ask the Pastor podcast. In each episode, Pastor JD answers real questions submitted by listeners just like you with biblical wisdom and practical advice.

The best part? It's completely free. You can access Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greer by visiting jdgreer.com slash podcasts or by searching for it on your favorite podcast platform. Listen on your drive to work or when you're out for a beautiful evening walk. Don't miss out on this great resource by subscribing today. And don't forget that we also release the podcast on YouTube.

You can subscribe to our channel and get notified every time a new episode is released. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Well, Nabal has a wife named Abigail. And you remember verse three, she is described as discerning and beautiful. She hears about this, verse 18, then she made haste and she pulled together a big gift basket full of fruit and meat kabobs, some big newtons, a couple of Starbucks gift cards and a pair of AirPods. This is how my verse 18 reads. And she rushes out to meet David. Verse 24, she approaches David, she bows down to the earth and she says, on me alone, on me alone, my Lord be the guilt.

Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not my Lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal for as his name is, so is he. You see Nabal's name means fool in Hebrew, which means it either originated from another language or was a nickname that his buddies gave him because I'm just having a real hard time seeing any parent knowingly naming their kid fool. I mean, I've heard y'all, I've heard some crazy naming stories. One lady who delivered a set of twins recently, one came out just before midnight, one came out just after midnight and the mother named them today and tomorrow.

Again, that's cute, but like she got to grow up with that. So I've heard some crazy, what were those parents thinking naming stories, but I just cannot imagine any parent ever intentionally calling their kid fool from birth. So Nabal is either from another language or it's a nickname. Either way, either way, that's what he goes by. She continues Nabal, fool is his name and Thali is with him.

His name's stupid, he is stupid. Ladies, I will say this is not exactly a model for how you should talk about your husband, but when there's a band of soldiers coming to kill all the males in your household, you do what you got to do, right? Watch this, but I, your servant did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent.

I love this. David, this would not have happened if I had been involved. Next time you come, ask to speak to the lady of the house, please.

Okay. Now listen to what she says next. David, you know that if men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be in the care of the Lord your God and the lives of your enemies. He's going to sling out as the hollow of a sling. What is she doing? She is reminding David of the promises of God, who he is in the Lord and what God has promised to do for him. Do you see how she brought up the word sling twice in that statement? What is she trying to do there? She's very subtly and artfully reminding David, hey, David, remember how God took out Goliath for you?

Remember how he did it with just a sling? God is the one that fights your battles, David. You don't need to take matters into your own hands. God fights for you. Verse 30, and when the Lord has done to my Lord, according to all the good that he has promised him, and he has made you prince over Israel when you become king, then my Lord shall have no cause of grief and no pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my Lord taking vengeance himself. One day she says, one day she says, when you come to the throne, you're going to have to tell the story of how you got there. And on that day, David, when you're retelling for your grandkids, the story of how God put you on the throne, do you really want to have to mention a chapter like this, where you got insulted by nobody and killed a bunch of innocent people in response?

By the way, could I pause there? That is actually great counsel. One day your life is going to be told as a story to the next generation. If you're a parent, it's going to be to your kids and grandkids. Are you living in a way now that you're going to be proud then of how it's told?

Mom and dad, they just couldn't wait to be married and do things God's way, so they lived together for a couple of years like everybody else in their culture. Is that what you want your kids and grandkids to say? Or do you want them to say, mom and dad were determined to do things God's way and they put Christ at the center of our home from the very beginning.

Or how about this? Mom and dad always live right on the edge of their spending abilities. They didn't really tithe or save because they just wanted to enjoy things in the moment. They always wanted the best clothes. They wanted the best cars. They wanted the best vacations right then.

Is that what you want them to say? Or would you want them to say, mom and dad determined to put God first in their finances and to live generously always. We trusted God even when it was hard, and they taught me by their example that I could trust God too. I saw them live out trust and generosity.

Or how about when he was single, he was frantic and desperate, always running around everywhere, couldn't just wait to figure out what was going on. Or do you want them to say he learned to trust God and wait on God no matter the circumstances. You see, faith means living today in a way that one day you'll be glad you did.

Faith means thinking about how you want the story of your life to be told to the next generation and then living that way now. That's what she says to him. One day this is going to be a story. You need to make sure it's told in the right way, David. You don't want this chapter as a part of it. David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel who sent you.

That's a key word. He sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from avenging myself with my own hand. Here's our first lesson.

Number one, we need the body of Christ. I don't care if you're David or not. Everybody has lapses of judgment. David in the previous chapter is the one urging everybody else to stand firm. Now David is the one who caves. That's why we all need Abigail's in our lives even if you think you're a David. In verse 32, David recognizes God sent you to me. God sent you to warn me and keep me from danger. You have got to be in a place where God can send those people to you also because everybody has lapses of judgment even if you're a giant killer like David.

Everybody gets caught in a weak moment when the right combination of factors expose a vulnerability. Abigail is that friend in your small group who speaks up when you're about to make a bad decision. I've told you this before and I'm not violating confidentiality, but people in our church sometimes will tell me about the dumbest decisions that they have made. I'm trying to keep a straight face when they're telling me. I asked them, why on earth did you think that was a good idea? They said, well, I prayed about it and it just felt right.

Please do not misunderstand what I'm about to say. But God has given you something even more reliable than prayer and that is the counsel of the body of Christ. That is how God answers your prayers for wisdom.

In a multitude of counselors, he says, there is wisdom. So you're praying about something God's already given you an answer for. When people make one of these colossally bad decisions, it usually happens, by the way, on the throes of an emotion. They were angry or they were excited about the possibilities of the new romance and they were love struck. Or they got starry eyed over what it would be like to drive that new car or go on that vacation or wear those kinds of clothes. And they were all swept up in the emotion and you needed somebody wise who was detached from that emotion to tell you what the best thing to do was.

An isolated man, we saw this, seeks his own desire and he rages against all sound judgment. You need Abigail's in your life. And by the way, you should pray to be an Abigail to others. Abigail is a model of godly counsel in every way.

Let me look at it. She speaks with calm clarity and an emotionally charged situation. Even with so much personally on the line, she is as cool as a kosher cucumber. She does not freak out. She comes humbly.

She bows down. She shows honor. She doesn't come haughtily or filled with rage or self-righteousness. She comes kindly, bringing food and warmth, but she speaks boldly and honestly.

She doesn't mince words. Best of all, she grounds her counsel in who God is and the promises that he's made to David. God give us friends like Abigail.

Amen. By the way, I just sent some prepping this message that there is some, I'm going to say woman here, that you need to play this role of Abigail in somebody else's life right now. And there is a specific situation that you need to speak into somebody's life because like Abigail, you're going to save their life. And by the way, I love, I love how this story rather subtly challenges our stereotypes.

Doesn't it? Nabal is the weak emotional one and Abigail is the calm, courageous one. Our society often assumes the opposite, doesn't it? Women are the irrational, emotional ones and men are the calm, strong ones. In this story, both David and Nabal are the ones consumed by their emotions and it is only Abigail who keeps her head. Ladies, God made you to be an Abigail. Some of the best chapters of human history and for sure some of the most important chapters in the history of the church have been written by strong, wise, courageous women. Women who saved the day when the men around them were acting like fools. And as a dad of three young daughters, I want to raise Abigails, not doormats, which leads me to our second conclusion, second lesson.

This one, by the way, is an exclusive for you ladies. Number two, ladies, you can be a wise woman and a blessing to your family, even with a foolish husband. See, I say that because sometimes a woman ends up in a marriage that is, shall we say, not ideal. Maybe she got married too young. Maybe she got married before she was a Christian.

Maybe the guy just changed, but whatever. Bottom line is she's married to a guy who is not leading his life as a spiritual leader. And so now she feels trapped. She feels like she's never going to be able to make a positive impact on the world. She's never going to be able to make a positive impact on her family.

Every week, listening to me, I'm guessing there are hundreds of you women in that category. Learn from Abigail. Abigail saves the life of her husband and her children, despite her bad marriage. That's Pastor JD Greer with the first part of a message titled, A Crack in the Armor, the episode with Abigail. If you missed any part of today's teaching or would like to catch up on our Life of David series, you can always do that free of charge at jdgreer.com. Pastor JD, to go along with this teaching series here on the program, we also have a Life of David Bible study that's available this month to our donors.

Tell us, what can we expect from this study? So yeah, this guy offers an in-depth look at the various phases of David's life. Think about it. He starts as a humble shepherd boy, so insignificant that his dad literally forgot him. So he starts that. It leads to, you know, probably the most famous battle in history, him versus Goliath, to being the boy king who is on the run. And then, you know, just all the ins and outs goes from being one of the most successful kings to a king who, yeah, fell tragically. But David finds forgiveness. You know, at every point of your life, no matter whether you're in the best of times or the worst of times, there's something in David's life that just ministers to you. You'll find it practical.

He's a great example of courage and leadership. It's like stereo. It's like so many things coming at you at once that they all blend together in a beautiful picture. So you'll want to really dive in on this one. We always try to give you resources that'll take you deeper.

This is an important one. So just go to jdgreer.com. You can get our all new Life of David Bible study by getting a gift of $35 or more to support this ministry. Call us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give online at jdgreer.com.

That's jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Thanks for joining us this week. We hope you have a wonderful weekend of worship and come back next time as we continue this teaching about David and Abigail. See you next time on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.