Becoming Your Own Worst Enemy

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Promontory Community Church exists to make disciples of Jesus who know, live, and share the gospel for the glory of God. Morning church family

This morning we are returning to the life of David and our scripture reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 25. Our tradition is to stand as we read God's word, so if you are able, would you please stand with me. This is a bit of a longer passage, so please feel free to sit down if you need to.

Now Samuel died and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Rama. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Pyon, and there was a man in Mayon whose name was, sorry, there was a man in Mayon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, the name of the man was Nabal and the name of his wife, Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved. He was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabel was shearing his sheep, so David sent 10 young men, and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel and to Nabel and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him. Peace be to you and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time that they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.

When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabel in the name of David, and they waited.

And Mabel answered David's servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shears and give it to men who come from I do not know where?

So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this.

And David said to his men, every man strap on his sword, and every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabel's wife, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day and while we were keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do. For harm is determined against our master and against all this house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.

Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves, 2 skins of wine, 5 sheep already prepared, and 5a of parched grain, and 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on donkeys, and she said to her young men, Go before me. Behold, I will come after you. But she did not tell her husband Mabel. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under the cover of the mountain, behold.

David and his men had come toward her, and she met them.

Now David had said, surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he returned me evil for good. God, do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.

When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face. And bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said,

On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servants speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Not let my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabel, for as his name is, so is he. Nabel is his name and folly is with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent. Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my Lord be as Nabel. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my Lord be given to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my house a sure house because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, and the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord, your God, and the lives of your enemies, he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my Lord, according to the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my Lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood. Without cause, or my Lord working salvation for Himself. And, and when the Lord has dealt with my Lord, then remember your servants.

And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who 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 working salvation with my own hand. For as surely as the Lord of the, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you? Unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly, by morning there had not been left to Nabel so much as one male.

Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice and I have granted your petition. And Abigail came to Nabel, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king, and Nabel's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabel, his wife told him these things and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about 10 days later, The Lord struck Nabel and he died. When David heard that Nabel was dead, he said,

Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabel and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabel on his own head.

Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to take you to him as his wife. And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said,

Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.

And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her 5 young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David also took Ahhenoe of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michael, his daughter, David's wife, to Pulti, the son of Laish, who was from Gollum. This is the word of the Lord. Amen, amen. Well done. Thank you, Nicole. That's good.

Well, we are returning now to the life of David after our Easter break and we are coming to what is one of the greatest failures of David's life. There, there are a few that we get throughout David's life, but this is really his first big failure, and in one sense he's still kind of held back from it. But as we look at this, we're kind of faced with this question, what do we do when our heroes fail us? What do we do when the people that we look up to let us down in some way, right, everyone has somebody that they're looking up to, right? We, we might not call them our hero, rather we have people we look at and we actually consider what their life looks like, we imitate them to some degree or another, whether it's someone online or someone we know in person. And honestly, all you have to do is watch anyone for some amount of time and eventually they're going to let you down, right? Nobody lives up to perfect expectation, right?

We see this lots with celebrities, right, they're not always the same people off the screen as they are on the screen. And in one sense that doesn't really faze us because they're so far beyond us, we don't really think about them as real people. Oftentimes it's the people we know personally that make a bigger impact, right? It's your teacher at school who gets fired and suddenly you start thinking back through every conversation you had with them, wondering were they always like that. As you grow older, you start looking at your own parents differently, right? Right, you used to think about them as perfect people and you get older and you start thinking, oh actually they're just normal flawed people. Conversely, sometimes parents, you look at your children and you think, oh man, why are they making those decisions? Right, in the church we're we're not immune to this. How many pastors have we seen that have failed over the years for all kinds of different reasons.

The question is not if, but when people will let us down, and so the question is, what do we do when that happens? When people let us down, what are we supposed to learn from that? How are we supposed to react? And so this morning as we look at our passage, we're confronted with one of David's failures. What are we supposed to learn from this? As we go through this story, I want us to see there's a few things we should take. First is just the warning of how deceptive and how destructive sin can really be in our lives. We should take seriously the fight against temptation, not only how to fight it, but also to avoid it entirely, but also be reminded the only perfect person we will ever see is Jesus. Right? Whenever our heroes let us down, we are to be reminded that none of us are perfect, that salvation is not found in any of us. But is found in Jesus and him alone.

So if you have your Bible, I invite you just to keep it open to 1 Samuel 25 as we go through this passage, right, we're confronted with this problem of pride, and then the wisdom of God in fighting against temptation, but reminded salvation is always by the hand of God. We have a perfect savior Jesus, that forgives our sins and gives us the strength to fight temptation.

Alright, but now we're, we're gonna pick up our story here, and it's been a few weeks since we have looked into David's life, and so you'll remember that David has been on the run, right? King Saul has been trying to kill David now for actually quite a few chapters, and so David has been fleeing until last chapter, they finally. Met face to face, right? David and Saul came face to face. Saul went into a cave, he had no idea David was in the same cave. David had the opportunity to kill him on the spot. David chose not to kill him, and finally when they talked, Saul realized, right, I have been in the wrong. David is not actually trying to hurt me. Rather, there is this sort of truce that happens. We're told at the same time, Samuel passes away. Samuel was the prophet who anointed both first King Saul and then David to be king, right? This brief respite lets them come together to mourn this, but it's not going to last too long, right?

We're introduced in this chapter. To a man by the name of Nabal, alright, and here we are confronted with the problem of pride, right, Nabal we are told is a very rich man, he's wealthy, he's got lots of sheep, lots of goats, but we also are told his name is Nabal. Now for those of you who don't speak Hebrew. You can find in your footnotes, it tells us Nabal means fool. So this is a rich, foolish man that we are introduced to. His name is literally foolish, and so, just so we're clear, foolish people have been getting rich for a very long time. Alright?

But we're also introduced far better to his wife, right, his better half by far. She is, she is described as both, discerning, wise, and beautiful. Alright, and in many ways she is the most impressive person in our story. She is the one in many ways who is saving the day.

Proverbs 11 says, when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

In one sense, that verse describes our entire chapter, alright?

But as we're being introduced to all these people, David is sending messengers to go and talk with Nabel, and what we find is that actually they have a little bit of history, right? David has come across. His servants out in the wilderness as they're looking after all the sheep, and as they're shearing. Right, now when you shear all the sheep, if you've got a couple 1000 of them, it takes a long time, you're quite vulnerable, there's lots of stuff sitting around to steal at that moment. Alright, this is a dangerous place to sit. And so we're also told earlier on, there are Philistines who are regularly sending people to go and attack. So this is a sitting duck. David comes along, he's got this, you know, little militia with him at this point, and so he comes and he goes, great, I'm gonna protect you guys. And he watches over them, he protects them, makes sure nothing bad is going to happen, even provides for whatever needs they have.

And so David then sends this messenger to Nabal and says, look, the feast is coming, right, comes. At the end of the season, there's a big feast and he says, I'd like to come join you guys. Can I come and join? In one sense it's an ask, you know, he's, he's provided a service, could, could I be repaid? But more than that, it's, it's an invitation to hospitality. Right? We're told that Nabal is a Calebite, that means. He's from the tribe of Judah, alright? All that really means is David and him are distantly related. This is family coming together for a feast. Someone who has already, you know, blessed you in a lot of ways. Seems like a reasonable offer.

Verse 8, David's messenger say,

ask your young men, and they will tell you, right? Ask the people, they'll tell you what we did for them. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.

Right, David is not coming with a commanding or domineering, he's simply coming as both relative and humbling himself, expecting a gracious response.

However, this is a foolish man. Verse 10,

Nabel answered David's servants, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from, I don't know where.

Now there's some irony here. David didn't say I'm David's son of Jesse. Nabal knew that. He already knew who David was. He's making this big fuss, oh, who are you? You're nobody. You clearly already know him. You know where he comes from, you know what he's done. What is this actually about? Well, Nabel doesn't want to give him anything. This is my stuff. I earned this, this is what I get, you get nothing, go away. Right, Nabel, as his name tells us, has completely forgotten God.

In fact, God tells people in Deuteronomy, he says,

beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as at this day.

Nabel had forgotten that, ignoring not only that it was his servants who were doing all the work, but it was God's provision that he had what he did. And so Nabal's pride in that this is all mine is going to be his downfall. He sends back this harsh answer, and here's where we find David, who has been in so many ways up to this point, a paragon of virtue, right, allowing all kinds of people, right, not fighting back. I guess David is fed up with it. Because he gets his response, and what does he say? Every man strap on his sword. gear up, we're gonna go kill this man.

David grabs 400 men, all of them armed, and he is going to go, and he says he will wipe out every single man who is with Nabal. This is the most rash decision we have seen David make to this point. Right? James in the New Testament actually warns us about this kind of anger. He says

know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

David is way too quick to anger in this passage. In fact, verse 22, David swears,

God do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.

David is ready to go just commit genocide at this point. He's gonna wipe out everything that this guy has. Why? Because David's pride was hurt. David said, well, I had, I had earned this. I had done all this and now I should be getting what I deserve. He was owed something, he didn't get it, and so his response was to lash out in anger.

And here's the true horror of what pride really does to us. Because we've seen someone throughout this story who's been acting like that the whole time. His name is Saul. Saul has been the one who is jealous of David, who is getting all the attention that Saul wanted, and Saul's response was to lash out with anger and try and lead an entire group, an army to go kill David. Now here is David, the one who has been slighted, and how does he respond? Exactly like Saul. In fact, David's pride is leading to turn him into his own worst enemy. The very thing that he has been trying to run from is what he has now become.

Hear me, we need to see the warning of what's going on here. Pride will turn us into our own worst enemy. If this can happen to David, it can certainly happen to us as well. Our pride will twist our desires, it will take the very things that we think we want or the things that we hate and twist them around. We'll say to ourselves, yeah, but I deserve this. And so my anger, my vengeance is therefore justified. I can justify whatever action it is because I deserve more. We risk becoming the monster ourselves. So hear the warning, lest our pride get out of control, that our pride leads us to destruction. It twists us into our very own enemies, but here's then the question, what do we do when that happens?

The answer is, listen to the wisdom of God. Because as much as David at this point is determined to go and kill Nabal, wipe out everyone at this point, God is also going to stop him. David's giving in to this temptation, and yet God is going to provide him an escape. Right, in fact, this is still what God does for us. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10. Says

no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

Right? It doesn't say that you are going to always be strong enough to overcome any temptation. No, what's the promise? God's gonna give you a way out. Run, run from your sin, run from this temptation, God will provide that for you. Your endurance of the temptation is to run away from it. And in David's case, it is a woman by the name of Abigail.

Alright, and here is where Abigail comes into the story and just does amazing work. Verse 14, we're told some of the servants who overheard Nabal, they go and they talk to Abigail, right? They, they already know she's level-headed, he's a fool, so they come to Abigail and they say, look, David treated us very well. Right? We were protected by them, and Nabel has gone and offended him. We are in trouble. And so Abigail, I mean, I'm sure she's already had to do this a few times. Alright, she seems to know what to do. Immediately she goes, she gets a whole bunch of food, right? David wanted a feast, so she sends 200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 sheep prepared, grain, raisins, figs, everything, empties the pantry, sends it to David. It's not quite enough for a feast, but it's a symbolic offering to kind of buy some time. Alright? And then she gets herself ready and she goes out. She knows if she waits for David, that's way too late.

You gotta understand how bold a move this would have been for a woman to go out on her own into the wilderness to meet the man who is trying to kill her husband. This is a dangerous thing that she is doing. It is a bold move, and yet this is exactly what God is calling her to. Right, verse 23 says, as soon as she finds David, she bows on her face to him. I'm sure that alone would have already stopped him in his tracks. Verse 24, she begins to speak. She fell at his feet and said,

on me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servants speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.

Abigail comes, and the first thing she says is, I will take the blame. He might say, why on earth, Abigail, you didn't do anything. This is your foolish husband who's doing this, and in fact she's not even in danger. David's going after all the men. She is safe at this moment and has put herself in the way to take the blame for her husband.

I mean, here we, we just got through the season of Easter. This should be ringing some bells in our ears. See throughout this whole series, we've been seeing David has so often been pointing us, showing us something of what Jesus looks like. Here, it's Abigail. She's gonna show us eventually what Jesus does, what she says Jesus does, and that we had sinned before God, that we had actually faced the wrath of God, but Jesus is the one who steps in our place and says, let the guilt be on me. Jesus went to the cross on Good Friday. Why? Not because he had sinned, but because we had. It was to save us, though he did not have to, he stood in our place that our guilt would be forgiven, that anyone who comes to Jesus would be saved. Abigail comes and shows us a picture of what Jesus is going to do.

But even then she's not yet done. Because Abigail then begins to outline why it is that David should not go through with this. She's gonna give him reasons why he should fight against this sin. Verse 26. She says,

now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and all those who seek to do evil to my Lord be his neighbor.

All right, here, here is the crux of her speech. Everything is kind of flowing from this one point. It starts with the recognition that actually God has sent her. She's not there by accident, she's there to stop David from committing sin. Right? This is a, a strong statement for her to make right off the bat because David hasn't quite been stopped yet. But she is confident that God is going to work in his life, that she is in fact God's grace to him, because if he continues, he will be guilty of murder.

See, up to this point, you know, David has gotten into a lot of battles, right? There's been lots of fighting that has gone on, but in all of that, David was fighting to protect the people of God. He was fighting to defend or to free people who were being oppressed. This is not that. This is David taking vengeance in his own hand. This is him trying to justify in his own way, murder. And she confronts him with exactly what he is doing. David, if you continue with this, this is murder. And she gives him 3 reasons why he should not. Why should he avoid it, and I want us to see that because it's the same reasons we should fight against our sin as well.

Verse 28, look back with me. She says,

please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make you, David, a sure house. Because David, you're fighting the battles of the Lord and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.

All right, so why shouldn't David sin? Well, because God has a plan for his life. And here is where she is beyond just practical, she is nearly prophetic about what God is going to do, because this is actually a promise God does give to David a little, a little bit later on. 2 Samuel chapter 7. Once David has become king, God says,

and your house, that is household lineage, and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

God had a plan to use David to actually foreshadow what Jesus was ultimately going to do. Abigail says God has a plan for you. He is doing something in your life, you are to represent him, so do not sin.

Now hear me. We don't have the exact same promise that David did. But God does promise that he has a plan for our lives. For every Christian here, God actually does have a plan for your life. In fact, Ephesians chapter 2 says,

for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Actually God does have plans for your life in which you are to represent Jesus Christ, so why should you fight against the temptation in your life? Because God has a plan to showcase Jesus through you. We don't want to dishonor the name of God, of our savior, by living in such a way that would bring dishonor on his name. God has a plan for you, for your good. Don't turn away into sin. There's her first reason, 2nd one, verse 29. She says

if men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life

remember, that's happening. That's already happening.

Then the life of you, David, shall be bound in the bundle of the living of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies, he shall sling out as from a hollow of a sling.

I love how powerfully she speaks in this speech. Right, she, you have to remember this all started with shepherds binding up giant bundles of wood, right, this nice cushy, soft protection around you. She says, as you are following God, God has wrapped you like these bundles, safe and protected, but your enemies, they have been slung out like a sling. Right, Abigail goes, I know who you are, David. I know about David and Goliath, I know the story, you used a sling, she intentionally uses this metaphor of God shooting out the enemies, right? Being rocketed off, why? Cause David knows exactly what she's talking about. Right, do you remember how God can protect you? Why then would you sin and become one of his enemies? Why place yourself in the wrong camp after receiving God's kindness and care over your lives?

And in in one sense we read that and we think, well, OK, but. But it's OK, if I sin, Jesus forgives me. And absolutely, yes, we cannot overestimate the grace of God in our lives. But we can misestimate it. We can misplace where we think that grace really is. See, sometimes we get caught up and we say, well, it doesn't matter if I sin. It doesn't really matter who cares? Everyone sins, it's just, it's just what happens, it's just what people do. We justify all manner of things as if God doesn't really care about this. And so we say I can just continue living. I don't have to worry. Because God will just forgive me.

Actually Paul addresses that head on. Romans 6, right?

What shall we say, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who have died to sin still live in it?

If we have actually repented of our sins, said I'm stopping that, I'm turning away, I will follow Christ, how can I then go back and live in it? The forgiveness of Jesus doesn't mean we're now free to continue in sin. To live like a pattern of sin doesn't really matter to God and expect, well, he'll just forgive, no worries.

Now hear me. Do not misplace the grace of God. Do not think that he does not care about your sin, but do not at the same time then underestimate God's grace. For everyone who turns to Christ, confesses their sins, turns away from it and trusts in Him, you will find his mercy does not end, not so that you may continue on in living in sin, but so that every time you repent, you will find. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Turn again and again to the grace and to the mercy of God. You will find he is a protection around us, but do not then volunteer for the role of God's enemy. God's grace is far greater than we know, so turn to him again and again, every time as we fight against our sin. Why should we not sin? Because God has been so gracious, let us not abuse it.

Verse 30, she has one final reason.

This is when the Lord has done to you, David, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you prince over Israel, David, you will have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause.

Right, here is her final reason why David shouldn't continue, because if he does this, he will remember it his whole life. God, if God blesses him and makes him king and all the dreams that he's had come true, he will have to remember in the middle of the night, yes, but I also murdered when I should not have.

See, here's what temptation never tells us. In the midst of our temptation, as we look at sin and think, well it's so good, it never tells us how bad it will be afterwards. Right, there, there's a great book by the author, and I'm gonna butcher the name, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I know that's not right, OK, it's called Crime and Punishment. In the book there's a man, he's poor, he's destitute, he has nothing, and he comes to the conclusion that his only way out is to kill this one woman. She's a pawnbroker, she's not very nice, right, and she has money that he knows where it's hidden. And so he begins to justify why he would be allowed to do this. In fact, it would be a it would be good for everyone. Everyone dislikes her, so it would actually be a good thing. And so finally he convinces himself, he goes, he kills her, he ends up killing her sister because he witnesses it, grabs the money and runs. But the rest of the book. Even though he doesn't get caught. Is the problem of him living with that guilt. Every time those murders get brought up, he nearly faints, he can't handle it. Every time someone suspects him, he panics and is so worried, so overcome, he's sick and can hardly get out of bed. The guilt follows him, it crushes him, it condemns him. The money that he thought he would get, he can't even spend because then people would know. He is utterly trapped and is far worse off afterwards than he ever was before.

See this is what sin never tells us. Sin never says, never shows us what would actually happen afterwards, the problems that result and the guilt that leaves us in chains. Our sin doesn't leave us alone