Abigail, David Again Spares Saul

1 Samuel 25-27

Sadly, this text begins with, “Now Samuel died.” Such a powerful legacy of faithful devotion to God and to his people. Israel mourned and David moved on to the Desert of Paran.

We come to the story of Abigail and her not-so-great husband. David’s men are sent to ask for favor,

Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.1 Samuel 25:8

Nabal acted like an idiot, to put it mildly, and David ordered two-thirds of his men to strap on swords! Fortunately, Abigail heard about the incident,

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 1 Samuel 25:18

Abigail intercepts David, falls down before him and says,

Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him.1 Samuel 25:25

When she returns Nabal is having a feast like a king, completely drunk, acting like to fool he was characterized to be. Nabal has a heart attack and dies within 10 days, so David sends word and Abigail becomes one of David’s wives.

In Chapter 26, David spares Saul’s life again. He finds Saul with his army camping nearby, so he and Abishai sneak into the camp and take Saul’s spear and water jug without waking anyone.

So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.1 Samuel 26:12

David calls out to Abner, the one responsible for guarding the king and Saul hears David. Once again Saul admits his sin and once again they part ways, but Saul is not done yet.

Chapter 27 briefly describes David’s life of exile in Gath, the land of the Philistines and ironically, the previous home of Goliath. He lives there for one year and four months. Patiently waiting. Incredible.