• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
ABIGAIL AND DAVIDCommentary on 1 Samuel 25
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
PREFACE
The purpose of this commentary is to bring together the best thoughts of past andpresent commentators and preachers. Most all of this material is available toeveryone on the internet, but it takes an enormous amount of time to find it. I ambringing it together in one place to make it easier for students of the Word to haveaccess to it. I try to give credit to all of those I quote, but sometimes they do notattach their names to their material, and so if you know the author, let me know andI will give them credit. If anyone does not wish for their quotes to be included pleaselet me know and I will delete them. My e-mail isglenn_p86@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION
Would you believe a story where 400 angry warriors are on the war pathdetermined to kill every male in a certain community, and where the leader hasvowed to do it before a day has passed, and one woman had the power to meet themon that war path talk them out of it, stop them, turn them around, and save all thosemen? That is the story of this chapter, and never will you find a woman who was agreater heroin in preventing a slaughter of innocent people.This is one of the most unusual chapters in the life of David, because it is not one inwhich he is the hero, for his behavior leaves much to be desired. He was about tocommit an unjust murder that would damage his career, and make him an object of God's judgment rather than an object of his favor. But a woman came riding to hisrescue, and she becomes the only hero, or heroin of this chapter. As Constable says,"God used a woman to avert a tragedy in Israel's history, again (cf. Judg. 4; 2 Sam.14:2-20; 20:16-22)."Ray Pritchard writes, "In our survey of the early years of David’s life, we havecome to a little-known episode that ought to be better known
 . The story of David and  Nabal and Abigail is riveting
. It’s got it all. There is intrigue, injustice, conflict,anger, revenge, attempted murder, an impassioned plea, sudden death, andunexpected romance. All in the same chapter! It’s like an episode of Baywatch or
 
All My Children, except that this story is entirely true."This chapter is the story of a woman who turned a major massacre into a wonderfulwedding. She stood between two angry men who were acting foolish, and by herwisdom she saved them both, one only for a short time, but the other to reign asking for many years.
David, Nabal and Abigail1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled andmourned for him; and they buried him at hishome in Ramah.
1. The death of Samuel was a major event in Israel, for he was the last of the judges,and it touched the entire nation. Saying all Israel assembled may be anexaggeration, for that would be a crowd beyond belief, but it means that all Israelrecognized and honored Samuel, and all were in mourning for the loss of this greatman. Two books of the Bible are named after this man, and he is on the honored listof men of great faith in Heb. 11:32. He is one of the few great men of Israel who didnot stumble in his faith or in his deeds, for he was a loyal servant of God and hispeople all the way to the grave. He never gave his worship to any idol as so manydid, and he never deceived or cheated any man. In the list of the really good guys of the Bible he ranks right up near the top. People say nice things like this at thefunerals of people who are far from ideal, but in this case it is for real. Somecalculate that he lived ninety-eight years.2. Clarke in his commentary cannot say enough good things about this man. Hewrote, "Samuel is supposed to have been the first who established academies orschools for prophets, at least we do not hear of them before his time; and it isgranted that they continued till the Babylonish captivity. This was a wise institution,and no doubt contributed much to the maintenance of pure religion, and theprevention of idolatry among that people. Samuel reformed many abuses in theJewish state, and raised it to a pitch of political consequence to which it had beenlong a stranger. He was very zealous for the honor of God, and supported the rightsof pure religion, of the king, and of the people, against all encroachments. He waschief magistrate in Israel before the appointment of a king, and afterwards he actedas prime minister to Saul, though without being chosen or formally appointed tothat station. Indeed, he seems on the whole to have been the civil and ecclesiasticalgovernor, Saul being little more than general of the Israelitish forces. In his office of minister in the state, he gave the brightest example of zeal, diligence, inflexible
 
integrity, and uncorruptedness. He reproved both the people and the king for theirtransgressions, with a boldness which nothing but his sense of the Divine authoritycould inspire, and yet he tempered it with a sweetness which showed the interest hefelt in their welfare, and the deep and distressing concern he felt for their back-slidings and infidelities.He was incorrupt; he received no man's bribe; he had no pension from the state; heenriched none of his relatives from the public purse; left no private debts to bedischarged by his country. He was among the Hebrews what Aristides is said tohave been among the Greeks, so poor at his death, though a minister of state, that hedid not leave property enough to bury him. Justice was by him duly and impartiallyadministered, and oppression and wrong had no existence. If there ever was aheaven-born minister, it was Samuel; in whose public and private conduct there wasno blemish, and whose parallel cannot be found in the ancient or modern history of any country in the universe."3. Gill wrote, "....and buried him in his house at Ramah;where he lived and died; not that he was buried in his house, properly so called, orwithin the walls of that building wherein he dwelt; though the Greeks F13 andRomans F14 used to bury in their own dwelling houses; hence sprung the idolatrousworship of the Lares, or household gods; but not the Hebrews, which their lawsabout uncleanness by graves would not admit of, see (Numbers 19:15,18) ; but themeaning is, that they buried him in the place where his house was, as Ben Gersominterprets it, at Ramah, in some field or garden belonging to it. The author of theCippi Hebraici says {o}, that here his father Elkanah, and his mother Hannah, andher two sons, were buried in a vault shut up, with, monuments over it; and here,some say F16, Samuel's bones remained, until removed by Arcadius the emperorinto Thrace; Benjamin of Tudela reports F17, that when the Christians tookRamlah, which is Ramah, from the Mahometans, they found the grave of Samuel atRamah by a synagogue of the Jews, and they took him out of the grave, and carriedhim to Shiloh, and there built a large temple, which is called the Samuel of Shiloh tothis day:"
Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon.
1. Samuel was David's good friend, and he was the one who anointed him king in theplace of Saul, and he was one David could run to when Saul sought to kill him, andnow that he was gone it could be that Saul would make even greater efforts to getrid of him, and so he moves down into a desert area, which was a good place of hiding.2. William Taylor wrote, "But his grief for the loss of Samuel, great as it was, couldnot be allowed to interfere with the taking of those precautions which were neededto insure his own safety. Accordingly, that he might keep out of the way of Saul, he
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...