Nabal means fool and he certainly lives up (or down as the
case may be) to his name. David is not
demanding protection money, he is asking a favor from the man and cites the
good conduct of his men among the shepherds of Nabal not to imply that Nabal
owes him something but to show what sort of character they have displayed. They are certainly more numerous and better armed
than these shepherds and could have done as they liked with respect to the
sheep but they showed character and discipline in their conduct even though
they had aught to eat as shown by their need of the showbread in the worship
place. Nabal treats this request with
contempt but his shepherds plead with his wife, Abigail, that these men have
not only behaved honorably, they also acted as a wall against others who would
have stolen. Apparently there was no
secret what sort of man Nabal was as the shepherds refer to him as a worthless
man even to his wife. Abigail provides
for David and his men and goes out to them but David has already sent them to
slaughter the lot.
Discernment is a gift from God. We have a problem with discernment, we
continue to measure things the way the world does and we frequently misjudge
things because of that. Zechariah was
told not to despise the day of small things when the rebuilding of the temple
was begun because people were discouraged that they would never be able to
duplicate the grandeur of the previous one.
Nabal sees David on the run, in Carmel, and concludes that he is nothing
at all, a man escaped from his master, and so can treat him with disrespect. Little does he know that this David, a
servant broken away from his master, will become the greatest king in the
history of the nation. Jesus says that
the kingdom of God is very like that, it begins small but becomes something
incredible. Let us not make that mistake
when we measure either our own significance or the significance and potential
of a small church.
The people of Lystra believe Barnabas and Paul to be Zeus
and Hermes because of the healing Paul has participated in of the man lame from
birth. Why? The Roman poet Ovid had written a story
called Baucis and Philemon set in this region shortly before this event and the
people at the time had failed to recognize them and offer them hospitality so
the city was burned to the ground.
Knowing this tale, the people of Lystra obviously wanted no part in being
similarly wrong. They knew a miracle
when they saw one, they knew that this was the finger of God and yet they got
it wrong anyway. They attributed the
work to their own gods rather than the God Paul was proclaiming. Signs have to be properly interpreted in
order to have value. We need discernment
lest we become foolish.
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