Episode 88 – Heart Lessons – The Humbled Heart

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Life is hard at times. Our hearts often get bruised and battered yet God offers us words that help and heal those hearts when we turn to him. Welcome to the Sweet Selah Moments Podcast, where we study his word and find strength for the day. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole (00:29):

Welcome to the Sweet Selah Moments Podcast. We are currently in a series called Heart Lessons. We are looking at David, a man after God’s own heart, and trying to discern what was it about his heart that pleased God. David was surely far from perfect. So we’ve eliminated being perfect as the way to get praised by God. Instead, we’ve discovered that God is pleased with a quiet heart that seeks him, a worshipful heart that literally sings to him, a courageous heart that trusts him, a loyal heart that does not betray a friend, and an abiding and persevering heart that keeps on going to God in the hardest of times. This is episode 88, The Humbled Heart. God is pleased when we admit we are wrong. Sharon, how are you at admitting you are wrong?

Sharon (01:14):

Oh, great, Nicole. Not always as good as I ought to be. I feel like most humans on the planet. I always understand why I did the wrong thing, the lazy thing, the thoughtless things. I have reasons. Ray says that to me all the time. Oh, you’ve always got reasons.

Nicole (01:32):

Don’t we though?

Sharon (01:32):

They’re really justifications. But usually the best response is the straightforward one. I was wrong. I messed up, I sinned. I don’t know why that’s so hard to say sometimes. When we say we are wrong it’s just stating a fact. It doesn’t mean we’re worthless, it just means we were wrong. And once that’s admitted, once we’ve said sorry and tried to fix it, we can move on again instead of wallowing about. (Nicole: Yeah) So I am learning this even though it’s slow. We get bogged down when we attempt to hide our sins or explain them away. You ought to just admit it. How about you, especially with kids, how do you help your kids just admit when they’re wrong and not do what I too often do and justify it? Tell me.

Nicole (02:22):

Well, we’re definitely still working on that one. It’s really hard to hear them out, Sharon, especially when I feel like they’re just giving me a long list of excuses, you know? (Sharon: Mm-hmm) It’s like, alright, no, no, no. But I really do try to listen first and then show them where they’re trying to push the blame on someone else and how we can, you know, I’m trying to teach ’em that we can only be responsible for our own actions.

Sharon (02:41):

True.

Nicole (02:42):

So, saying that Charlotte did this to me, or Ellie, it doesn’t matter. You can’t control Charlotte. You can only control yourself.

Sharon (02:48):

Oh, that’s good.

Nicole (02:49):

So it’s simple. They just don’t always get it. And then lately we’ve been asking them to say “I” statements. So if they come running to me and so and so did this and Olivia did this. No, no. What did I— statements. I did this. I punched my sister in the nose. I stole her doll. And I find that they’re often rather silent because they usually come to tattle and not to say that.

Sharon (03:11):

And not to confess.

Nicole (03:13):

Not to confess for redemption. So it does kind of, that works out pretty good in those moments cause it’s less, you know, arguing, I have to hear.

Sharon (03:19):

Yeah. I love that. And I did something similar with Kathryn and Mary when there was a, you know, a very loud fight going on (Nicole: Mm-hmm) and I had no idea who started what, whose fault it was. I would say, Okay, both of you go to your rooms and when you come out, I want you to say in front of the other, your part in the problem.

Nicole (03:38):

Ooh, that’s good.

Sharon (03:39):

And then they can correct you if you’re not right, but you’re just gonna tell me what you did wrong.

Nicole (03:44):

Yes, that’s so good.

Sharon (03:44):

And so then they have to come out and say, Well, I did this wrong. And they know their sister’s listening, so they have to be kind of honest with it.

Nicole (03:52):

Oh, that’s good.

Sharon (03:53):

But, um, same kind of idea. What did I do? What could I have done differently? But sorting through it sometimes is like impossible.

Nicole (04:02):

Oh it’s a mess. Like untangling a jump rope with twenty things in it and you’re just like, and they’re all yelling.

Sharon (04:06):

You know, kids can, well anybody can poke.

Nicole (04:07):

Yes.

Sharon (04:07):

You know, just a little poke at someone else. It’s subtle, but you know you’ve been poked and so then you respond and you know, is the poker to blame? Or is your response to blame?

Nicole (04:17):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (04:18):

We’re all a mess.

Nicole (04:19):

We are, we are. And we get so riled up when we’re told we’re wrong. Or think, it’s so much easier to see other people’s wrongs then to see your own wrongs.

Sharon (04:27):

Oh, it so is.

Nicole (04:27):

So we get that, Well you did that. That’s why I reacted so poorly.

Sharon (04:30):

I am so justified.

Nicole (04:32):

Yes!

Sharon (04:32):

Right?

Nicole (04:32):

Oh yes.

Sharon (04:33):

No, we’re not. No, we’re not. It’s so good for us to be humbled and just say, You know what? I was wrong.

Nicole (04:41):

It is, it’s so much easier in the long run too. It’s exhausting trying to justify our actions.

Sharon (04:46):

It’s freeing. It really is. And you know, it doesn’t kill us to admit we’re wrong. I don’t know why I thought it would. Cause it does not. I am living proof cause I’ve had to say I was wrong a lot.

Nicole (04:56):

And I’m still standing.

Sharon (04:57):

Here I am, alive. Alright. Well, moving on. We’ve seen a whole lot of awesome in David so far in this series. He’s, he’s made great choices by and large, behaved honorably under great pressure. He’s been amazing. But today he basically has a huge temper tantrum, flies into a rage and almost kills innocent people. I know! Last week we saw the wickedness of Doeg who did kill innocent people. It’s so fascinating to me, Nicole, that right after that, that even David could be tempted to do something that wicked, you know? He’s, he’s so appalled at what Doeg did. And we can get that way too. We can get so judge-y (Nicole: Oh yeah!) about what other people do. But we’re capable of it as well.

Nicole (05:44):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (05:45):

We are. We all have sinned. We’re all capable of doing evil if we do not watch ourselves. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) You know, one of my favorite parts of The Lord’s Prayer is where it says, Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. (Nicole: Oh yeah) Or deliver us from the evil one, either one. Because that says loud and clear, every day when we pray that prayer, I am, I am able to be led in the wrong direction. And I’m asking you not to let this happen to me. Keep me out of temptation. Protect me from the evil one that’s gonna try to snare me. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) We need to be aware.

Nicole (06:20):

Oh, we do.

Sharon (06:20):

That we’re tempt able. Evil lurks.

Nicole (06:24):

Yes.

Sharon (06:24):

And it’s trying to push us toward horrible, horrible actions all the time.

Nicole (06:30):

Yeah. It’s always right there. And we can all be tempted. You know, we do have to watch ourselves and not think somehow we would never mess up. I think that’s a really dangerous place to be.

Sharon (06:39):

It really is.

Nicole (06:40):

And Sharon, it hurts so much more to see someone who I admired mess up. And if it’s a Christian leader, it hurts even more.

Sharon (06:47):

It does.

Nicole (06:47):

It’s really hard to see.

Sharon (06:48):

It absolutely does because when it’s a Christian leader, they’re influencing others as well. People they’ve led to the Lord, people that have discovered new truths about God and then, Wait, what, they did what? Oh Nicole, let’s be so careful to not be led into temptation cause we’re capable of it too.

Nicole (07:08):

Yes, absolutely.

Sharon (07:08):

We are. Okay, time to read our story for the day. Can you set the scene? What custom led David and his men to believe they were owed payment for watching somebody else’s property? Cause that’s where we’re going today.

Nicole (07:23):

Yeah, this was very interesting. So we’re gonna be reading about Nabal, a very wealthy but very stingy landowner who owned thousands of livestock. He was very wealthy, very wealthy and back in those days it was common for a wealthy landowner to provide compensation or payment for any men who would guard his property or protect his livestock. And he didn’t necessarily have to seek and hire them out if they were just in the area. They could just say, Oh look, there’s a shepherd with some sheep. Let’s gather around and protect them for a while. And that’s how men would make a living back then.

Sharon (07:55):

Wow. So that was a common practice?

Nicole (07:57):

It was very common. Yeah. Just kinda like picking up work as you go along. (Sharon: Uhhuh) So at this point, David had been traveling with a significant number of men and they helped provide for themselves by defending farms in the local towns from raiders and thieves. And Nabal’s shepherds mentioned down in verse 16 that David’s men did a fantastic job of that. And it says in the verse that they were as a wall around us both at night, the whole time they were herding our sheep near them.

Sharon (08:22):

Oh David, of course he did a good job.

Nicole (08:24):

So they did a good job. Yes. So David had done a really great job of protecting Nabal and his assets and they were expecting to receive something of compensation as was tradition, either food or money. And David didn’t even demand how it was to be paid. He started the transaction doing everything right. So he and his men were very surprised and angry to receive nothing but insults for their hard work.

Sharon (08:46):

Wow.

Nicole (08:46):

It’s very interesting when he sent his bill of sale and kind of like, he didn’t even say, Oh we would like this, this and this. He just said, Oh, (Sharon: Could we have something?) could we have something?

Sharon (08:54):

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (08:55):

So also the timing of when David asked for compensation was also very courteous on his part. He waited until the shearing time when Nabal would’ve received money himself for the wool and would’ve had money to pay David and his men. (Sharon: Huh) So he wasn’t hitting him when he was hard up. So Nabal really had no excuse for his rudeness in what occurred.

Sharon (09:15):

Oh my goodness.

Nicole (09:15):

It’s super cool.

Sharon (09:17):

I actually hadn’t realized that the shearing time was an important part of this little story we’re about to read. (Nicole: Yeah) He would’ve had the money.

Nicole (09:25):

He would have.

Sharon (09:25):

And they waited.

Nicole (09:25):

And there was usually a feast, they would’ve had food prepared. It was a big deal for them. So this wasn’t like he was coming up to Nabal going, Hey, we did some work for you, you didn’t ask us, but now we need money. And he had no money available or food, (Sharon: Uhhuh, Uhhuh) They were preparing a big feast and he was shearing sheep.

Sharon (09:38):

It was the proper time to ask.

Nicole (09:39):

It was the perfect time to ask.

Sharon (09:41):

Okay.

Nicole (09:41):

So now he’s gonna look even worse in a little bit.

Sharon (09:45):

Well it’s really comforting to know, cause if you just read the story without that background, you’re like, wait a second. Seems kinda weird asking for, you know, food for four or six hundred men?

Nicole (09:55):

Right.

Sharon (09:56):

You know, but hearing that that was a a typical custom makes it a little different.

Nicole (10:00):

Yes,

Sharon (10:00):

And also knowing how many sheep Nabal had.

Nicole (10:03):

He had a lot.

Sharon (10:03):

He had a lot.

Nicole (10:04):

Yes.

Sharon (10:04):

So, alright. Well how about we read the story now, but thank you for the background. It’s found in 1 Samuel 25. We’re gonna read it in two sections and discuss and especially examine David’s angry heart, Oh my, that is humbled in the end, thankfully, before he does a shameful thing.

Nicole (10:21):

Yes. It is.

Sharon (10:22):

So Nicole, why don’t you start with verse one and we are gonna read through verse 22.

Nicole (10:26):

All right. “Now Samuel died.” (It’s a sad beginning.) (Sharon: Yeah) “And all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon.”

Sharon (10:38):

“There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had three thousand sheep and one thousand goats and it was sheep shearing time.”

Nicole (10:48):

“This man’s name was Nabal and his wife Abigail was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendent of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.”

Sharon (10:59):

All right, well we’ve set the tone.

Nicole (11:00):

Yep.

Sharon (11:01):

Abigail, good. Nabal, (Nicole: Not so much) bad. “When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep,”

Nicole (11:09):

“He sent ten of his men to Carmel (caramel, thinking of the food!) with his message for Nabal.”

Sharon (11:16):

“Peace and prosperity to you, your family and everything you own.”

Nicole (11:21):

“I am told that it is sheep shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel we never harmed them and nothing was ever stolen from them.”

Sharon (11:29):

“Ask your own men and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us since we have come at a time of celebration, please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend, David.”

Nicole (11:42):

Hmm. That was humble. “David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name and they waited for a reply.”

Sharon (11:48):

Okay. Can we just pause there? Because that really was a very nice way to ask.

Nicole (11:52):

It was very kind. He didn’t even demand as like a future king. Like, Hey!

Sharon (11:55):

Yeah.

Nicole (11:55):

I’m your soon to be king.

Sharon (11:57):

Oh, that’s true.

Nicole (11:57):

Yeah. Yeah.

Sharon (11:58):

So, okay, Verse 10. “Who is this fellow David, Nabal sneered to the young men? Who does this son of Jesse (Huh? … Oh, that’s hysterical, Oh my goodness) think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters.”

Nicole (12:17):

“Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered from my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”

Sharon (12:26):

“So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said.”

Nicole (12:31):

“Get your swords, was David’s reply, as he strapped on his own. Then four hundred men started off with David and two hundred remained behind to guard their equipment.”

Sharon (12:41):

“Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master. But he screamed insults at them.”

Nicole (12:51):

“These men have been very good to us and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.”

Sharon (12:58):

“In fact, day and night, they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep.”

Nicole (13:03):

“You need to know this and figure out what to do for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He is so ill tempered that no one can even talk to him.”

Sharon (13:12):

“Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered two hundred loaves of bread, two wine skins full of wine, five sheep that had to be slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys”

Nicole (13:30):

“And said to her servants, Go on ahead, I will follow you shortly. But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.”

Sharon (13:37):

“As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine she saw David and his men coming toward her.”

Nicole (13:42):

“David had just been saying, A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. And he has repaid me with evil for good.”

Sharon (13:54):

“May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning.” Oh, for crying out loud, David, can you stand it?

Nicole (14:03):

It’s like zero to one thousand in like a snap.

Sharon (14:06):

In a second. And is this not what Doeg did? You know, he didn’t just kill the one priest who helped David. He killed all the priests.

Nicole (14:16):

Right.

Sharon (14:16):

And then he killed everybody in the village. What is that? And these were the men that just had defended David. And David’s gonna kill every last one of Nabal’s men. David, Honey, calm down.

Nicole (14:26):

Right. He would’ve been just guarding those shepherds and you know, he would’ve been with them just recently.

Sharon (14:30):

Yeah! He just, he’s having a little temper tantrum.

Nicole (14:33):

I wonder if he’s really hungry. Maybe he just needs to eat. They’re really low on food. But this is a very extreme response.

Sharon (14:40):

It is. And it’s what rage does to you. (Nicole: Yeah) Rage makes you say stupid things. It really does. Just stupid, stupid things. Things that you regret later. I might know that because I might have had a time or two of rage where I have said things to Raymond that were totally horrible.

Nicole (14:58):

Oh yes.

Sharon (14:58):

Horrible.

Nicole (14:58):

Our poor husbands.

Sharon (14:59):

And then you look back on it and you go, how did I say that to him? He so didn’t deserve it. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) Oh my, it’s embarrassing. Rage embarrasses you. Rage is bad.

Nicole (15:10):

It does. Yeah.

Sharon (15:11):

Which is maybe why the Bible says not to rage. So.

Nicole (15:13):

It could be why.

Sharon (15:14):

Yeah. But I wanna go back to the very first verse in this before I let it go away from me. Because the fact that Samuel had died (Nicole: Oh, yeah) just, it seems to me to be very significant.

Sharon (15:25):

He dies and is buried and they start the chapter, they, whoever wrote it, starts the chapter, not that there were chapters, but this story is introduced by the fact that Samuel died and is buried.

Nicole (15:35):

Yes. Yes.

Sharon (15:35):

You know, it’s interesting to me that David’s great anger and rage occurs after his death because Samuel was a prayer warrior, Nicole.

Nicole (15:42):

That’s interesting.

Sharon (15:44):

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in 1 Samuel 12 when Samuel tells the people that although God is angry with them for wanting a king, he won’t reject them. Here’s the verses, and I’m gonna emphasize the one about Samuel valuing prayers, verses 22, 23, 24, and 25. So this is Samuel talking, “For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.” Verse 23, “As for me, far be it from me, that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.”

Nicole (16:16):

Oh, wow.

Sharon (16:17):

Samuel.

Nicole (16:17):

That’s beautiful.

Sharon (16:18):

He felt like it would be a sin against the Lord if he stopped praying for the people. “And I will teach you says Samuel, the way that is good and right. But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things he has done for you. Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.”

Nicole (16:35):

Wow.

Sharon (16:35):

So that part, ‘far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you’. When Samuel died, his prayers for David stopped.

Nicole (16:47):

Oh, right.

Sharon (16:48):

Right. Unless God let him pray in heaven. But I think it’s a different thing.

Nicole (16:50):

I do think so.

Sharon (16:51):

And you and I have talked about this before, about our aunties. My Aunt Barbara, I felt her death and the lack of, of sweetness of the Holy Spirit because she prayed for me every day.

Nicole (17:02):

Oh my goodness.

Sharon (17:02):

I’ve never forgotten how the loss was not just the physical loss of Aunt Barbara. (Nicole: Yeah) Somehow I felt something had changed in the heavenly realm.

Nicole (17:11):

Oh my goodness.

Sharon (17:12):

I did. I did.

Nicole (17:13):

Yeah. Prayer is so powerful. And we see that so often in scriptures. I think sometimes we forget just how incredibly powerful it is.

Sharon (17:19):

It is. It is.

Nicole (17:20):

And how many times we don’t even know that someone’s prayers for us have kept us from doing the wrong thing or kept us from harm. (Sharon: Uhhuh, uhhuh) I mean, maybe Samuel’s prayers were keeping David a little bit more on the straight and narrow. (Sharon: Yeah) And maybe he felt that loss and that could have led to.

Sharon (17:34):

Yeah.

Nicole (17:34):

Yeah. But oh, I know, I know. My great, great auntie was a prayer warrior too. And I can just remember with fondness so many really dark times as a young girl that she prayed so faithfully for me through and those are such treasured times that I remember, you know? (Sharon: Yeah) I could feel her prayers.

Sharon (17:49):

You, you do. You feel them. And when I go to speak, I get this rush of joy and I know it’s people praying. That sure, I mean, a lot of times I go to speak tired, you know? So the joy is not coming from my own body. It is. It is a move of the Holy Spirit.

Nicole (18:04):

Yes.

Sharon (18:05):

Man, prayer is important.

Nicole (18:07):

It is so valuable.

Sharon (18:07):

It is so important. So I don’t know, but my thought is Samuel dies and David has a temper tantrum. Something?

Nicole (18:16):

Could be coincidence, could be something more.

Sharon (18:18):

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. I really just, far be it from us to fail to pray for each other, Nicole.

Nicole (18:22):

Yeah.

Sharon (18:23):

We do not know what prayer does, but we wouldn’t be told to do it if it didn’t do something.

Nicole (18:28):

Right.

Sharon (18:29):

Right?

Nicole (18:29):

We don’t wanna see what it, what it doesn’t do.

Sharon (18:31):

Right. Exactly.

Nicole (18:32):

We don’t wanna see what happens when we don’t do it.

Sharon (18:32):

Exactly. Oh my goodness. So, okay, Samuel died. David has his men faithfully protecting sheep herders, grazing near them. And although at times they were almost starving, they never stole cause they could have stolen from those guys, instead of just being a wall of protection.

Nicole (18:49):

That’s true.

Sharon (18:49):

They took nothing.

Nicole (18:49):

There was quite a big, I mean six hundred men, David had six hundred men there.

Sharon (18:53):

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) So they never harassed, they never let any harm come to the sheep near them. So Nicole, what you think of Nabal’s reply? Let’s talk about Nabal’s ungracious reply for a minute.

Nicole (19:06):

So (it did) we were laughing at the part where he’s like, Who is this David, this son of Jesse? So Nabal was a wealthy landowner and during that time he would’ve been part of the council and the, you know, they sit at the gate, all those things. He knew who David was.

Sharon (19:20):

Of course he did.

Nicole (19:20):

He knew he was the appointed, the anointed king. (Sharon: Yes, mm-hmm) So he was being extremely proud and arrogant when he’s like, Who is this guy? Even though David came with a humble heart in the beginning, he didn’t say, Oh, I’m gonna be your soon to be king, give me payment. He came and said, Hey, we waited for the appropriate time. He did everything right. He

Sharon (19:38):

He sure did. And he, and he even said, if you happen to have stuff at the celebration.

Nicole (19:42):

Right. He knew there was feasting.

Sharon (19:43):

For crying out loud. Yeah.

Nicole (19:45):

It’s just, this just goes to show just how proud and arrogant that Nabal’s heart was. Kind of that he could like refuse the future king. He had the power right now to kind of humiliate David.

Sharon (19:55):

Perhaps he enjoyed that.

Nicole (19:56):

Oh, I’m sure. (Sharon: Yeah) He might have.

Sharon (19:57):

He also was stingy. Clearly.

Nicole (19:59):

Yes.

Sharon (20:00):

He’s like, I’m not giving you any of my stuff. I need it all for myself. (Nicole: Yeah) Greedy Gus. Yeah.

Nicole (20:04):

And he just had a pretty messy heart, yeah.

Sharon (20:05):

He was sort of a bad guy. I mean, not sort of, he was a bad guy. (Nicole: Yes) So, and the Bible’s pretty clear about it. Nabal was a bad guy.

Nicole (20:12):

Yes. Well, his name meant fool. Do you wonder if he was named that because they knew he was going to be, or if he just lived up to that. But I think it means foolish or fool, doesn’t it?

Sharon (20:20):

Yes it does. Yes it does. The name itself means fool.

Nicole (20:23):

Yeah. Awful.

Sharon (20:25):

Yes. Well, now let’s get to the heart of David’s great sin. Nicole, can you reread verses 21 and 22?

Nicole (20:31):

Sure. David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning.”

Sharon (20:48):

So what’s wrong with David’s solution to Nabal’s rudeness?

Nicole (20:51):

He completely lost his temper and let his anger get the best of him. (Sharon: Yes!) I mean, getting ready to go and kill everyone in Nabal’s whole household. (Sharon: Yeah) That’s in the extreme.

Sharon (20:59):

Yeah. Anger makes us stupid. It really does.

Nicole (21:02):

It’s not good.

Sharon (21:04):

Nope. It’s not. And I think that helps me when I’ve, you know, anger is an adrenaline rush. So you really feel like you have to explode because your adrenaline is going 90,000 miles an hour. (Nicole: Yeah) It’s so much better to go take a walk or run or hit a pillow.

Nicole (21:19):

You have to do something physical when you’re enraged.

Sharon (21:21):

Yes, to get rid of the adrenaline, but opening the mouth. Oh, no, no, no. Just don’t open the mouth when you’re angry. You will thank yourself later.

Nicole (21:29):

Close your mouth and go for a run.

Sharon (21:31):

Yes.

Nicole (21:32):

Even if you’re in your slippers just run.

Sharon (21:34):

Yes. Otherwise that humbling is gonna come as you’re like, I can’t believe I said that. I’m so sorry I said that. Oh, and it causes so much damage. So.

Nicole (21:41):

It does and it’s interesting that you mentioned Doeg and how that happened and David was rather appalled at what happened. And then here he is about to do the same thing.

Sharon (21:48):

The same thing.

Nicole (21:49):

Sometimes the things that we judge so harshly or we’re like, Oh, how could they do that? We end up doing or attempting to almost do. It’s almost like our sin is being exposed beforehand in someone else.

Sharon (21:58):

Kind of fascinating isn’t it?

Nicole (22:00):

It is. We need to be very aware of that. The things that we’re harsh on.

Sharon (22:00):

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There’s a verse or a saying and I actually don’t remember which. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Nicole (22:09):

Yes.

Sharon (22:10):

And that’s the way we need to look at it. When we see even a Christian pastor fall instead of ‘how could you?’ There but for the grace of God go I.

Nicole (22:19):

Yep. I am one choice away from where you are.

Sharon (22:20):

I could do it too. Right.

Nicole (22:20):

One choice. One sin.

Sharon (22:21):

Right. Right, right. So I will pray for you, I will ache for you. (Nicole: Yes) And I’ll run back to Jesus and say, please, please help me not do that.

Nicole (22:28):

Keep me close, Lord. I am fallible.

Sharon (22:31):

So now, enter Abigail who’s already been introduced to us as smart and beautiful.

Nicole (22:36):

Yeah.

Sharon (22:37):

And bless her heart, married to a really nasty guy. I love that the servants come right to her when trouble starts. They don’t even bother coming to Nabal. They knew who had the common sense in the family. Right?

Nicole (22:48):

It’s true. I mean, somehow she managed to maintain her beauty and poise and kindness, even married to Nabal. I admire that Sharon. It would’ve been so easy just to give up and crawl into a shell and hide or just want to, you know, beat him up a little bit or something.

Sharon (23:04):

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (23:06):

What a horrible man to have to live with.

Sharon (23:07):

Oh, I know. And you’d think that it would normally turn a woman into a sort of a mousey, cowering, ‘yes-whatever-you-say-dear’ kind of person.

Nicole (23:15):

Or have bitterness in her heart.

Sharon (23:17):

Right!

Nicole (23:17):

And just become like, I don’t care. It’s his to deal with. He made the decisions. (Sharon: Uhhuh) She doesn’t even stop to do that. She immediately goes into action and tries to solve his mistakes.

Sharon (23:26):

Yes, she does.

Nicole (23:26):

And she doesn’t seem grumpy about it either.

Sharon (23:27):

Nope. Nope. She’s just like, right. He’s been stupid again. Okay. Yeah. (Nicole: Yeah, yeah) So she’s a brave woman who chose to still be good and kind and strong in the worst of situations. And back then there weren’t exactly shelters for abused women.

Nicole (23:41):

Oh, right.

Sharon (23:41):

Right? You didn’t get to choose who you married. (Nicole: Yeah) There were few choices at all. She was stuck with a bad husband with very little recourse. (Nicole Mm-hmm). And I just, I admire her so much.

Nicole (23:52):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (23:53):

I really, really do. I’m stunned by the courage of so many people that the Bible highlights.

Nicole (23:59):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (23:59):

And Abigail is courageous. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) She truly is.

New Speaker (24:02):

Absolutely.

Sharon (24:02):

Let’s, um, let’s keep going.

Nicole (24:05):

All right. So we’re gonna finish reading 1 Samuel 25:23-38. And I’ll start with 23. “When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him.”

Sharon (24:16):

“She fell at his feet and said, I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say.”

Nicole (24:23):

“I know Nabal is a wicked and ill tempered man. Please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.”

Sharon (24:33):

“Now my Lord, as surely as the Lord lives, and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.”

Nicole (24:47):

“And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men.”

Sharon (24:51):

“Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty. For you are fighting the Lord’s battles and you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.”

Nicole (25:04):

“Even when you were chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch. (I love that.) But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling.”

Sharon (25:16):

“When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel,”

Nicole (25:21):

“Don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant.”

Sharon (25:33):

“David replied to Abigail, Praise the Lord the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today.”

Nicole (25:40):

“Thank God for your good sense. Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.”

Sharon (25:46):

“For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabals’ men would still be alive tomorrow morning.”

Nicole (25:57):

Yikes. “Then David accepted her present and told her, Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.”

Sharon (26:04):

“When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day.”

Nicole (26:16):

“In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result, he had a stroke and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone.”

Sharon (26:25):

“About ten days later, the Lord struck him and he died.” There you go. This is such a cool, weird story. I love it.

Nicole (26:34):

There’s so much in here.

Sharon (26:37):

Okay. We got a lot to unpack. What, what stands out to you the most? I mean, there’s so many things. I feel like we, we could have spent five episodes on this.

Nicole (26:45):

Yeah. Oh, Oh my goodness. So I probably the ending we just read, I think sometimes we worry and try so hard to work things out to our own good and solve our own problems. And it’s so frustrating to see evil, prosper. You know, Abigail was living with this evil man for so long and who knows how she wanted, you know, maybe she wanted to escape. Maybe she didn’t want this. But we see God serve a very quick justice on Nabal.

Sharon (27:08):

Yes. And Nabal died.

Nicole (27:10):

And he died. Like he just struck him down and he died. And I think we need to remember that God is in control and he will right all the wrongs in the end and sometimes quicker than others.

Sharon (27:18):

Sometimes quicker than others.

Nicole (27:20):

So it’s a little bit like, Oh good. Like he kind of got served what he deserved sooner.

Sharon (27:24):

Yeah. He did. And Abigail was really protected. Do you know what courage, well of course you do, what courage it took for her to go and tell him, stone sober, (Nicole: Mm-hmm) I completely, flagrantly went against what you would’ve liked. (Nicole: Oh yeah) And I brought this, this, this, this and all of that and met David and gave him our food that you refused him so that he wouldn’t kill you and your men cause, Oh by the way, you were drunk last night and would’ve been in no position to fight him off.

Nicole (27:52):

Yep. Oh my goodness.

Sharon (27:53):

So, you’re welcome. Right?

Nicole (27:55):

Yeah.

Sharon (27:55):

But she risked being beaten. She risked his rage in some really appalling ways by doing that. (Nicole: Yeah) And I love that about it too, Nicole. She was, she didn’t try to hide it.

Nicole (28:06):

No.

Sharon (28:06):

She just like, this is what I did. (Nicole: Yeah) So I just, the bravery just amazes me.

Nicole (28:12):

She was honest with David as well.

Sharon (28:14):

Yes she was.

Nicole (28:14):

And the way, I so admire how she worded that. It was so well worded, the way she came to this angry man with his army coming to justify cause they were, they were right. Like David was wronged and they were in the right.

Sharon (28:26):

Right, right, right.

Nicole (28:27):

So he probably felt justified, but the fact that she was like, Oh, don’t have this on your conscience. She brought God into the picture. She reminded him of who he was in God and that. Wow! What courage! To tell this king and his army, who he is.

Sharon (28:38):

I know!

Nicole (28:39):

And you don’t want this on your conscience. Just such beautiful words.

Sharon (28:41):

You will regret this. Yeah.

Nicole (28:42):

Yeah. Wonderful words of wisdom.

Sharon (28:43):

Then here comes David’s humbled heart. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) Because he’s like, Wow, wow, wow. You just saved me from doing a really stupid (Nicole: Yeah) horrible thing.

Nicole (28:53):

You can almost hear like the balloon fizzling down; just kinda pop that big rage bubble.

Sharon (28:57):

And he thanked her.

Nicole (28:59):

Yeah. That was so good.

Sharon (28:59):

So here’s the humbled heart that we’re celebrating today. When he was confronted (Nicole: Mm-hmm) he humbled himself. He knew he was dead wrong. (Niccole: Yeah) He allowed a woman to correct him, which in those days, I think, and he actually thanked God for her good sense. David didn’t cling to his pride or his rage. When we’re wrong, going back to what we said at the beginning, we need to admit it. And he did. We started the podcast saying that. We’re ending it the same way. We all sin. When it’s us that’s sinned, which will happen. (Nicole: Mm-hmm) let’s state the facts, ask forgiveness, get cleansed and move on. So.

Nicole (29:35):

So.

Sharon (29:35):

Let us pray about having a humbled heart.

Nicole (29:39):

Yes.

Sharon (29:40):

Oh Lord, thank you for this story. Thank you for all the riches we gain from just reading it. But Lord, most of all today we want humbled hearts. Father, we’re all gonna do something wrong this week. And so when it happens, would you help us to humble ourselves, to admit wrong, to notice that it doesn’t kill us when we do it. And to move on with your full forgiveness, Lord, as we come to you and we come to whoever we injured. Oh Father, help us to be quick admitters of wrong, quick forgivers when we’ve been wronged. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nicole (30:19):

Well, there was a lot to unpack today, wasn’t there? I am really going to try this week to have a humbled heart when I have been wrong. How about you? We’d love to hear from you and we’d be so grateful if you could leave us a review so that others can find this podcast. If you’d like to become a podcast partner, donate any amount @sweetselah.org/donations. Tell us in the comments that you want to partner with us to produce and deliver these podcasts. And please join us next week for episode 89, The Noble Heart. We love our weekly times of study and are so glad you joined us today.

Speaker 1 (30:54):

We are so glad you stopped for a while with us. The Sweet Selah Moments Podcast is a cooperative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries. More information about this podcast can be found @SweetSelah.org. Thank you for joining us.