1. "Every delay is a test. It tests your patience, your self-control, your ability to keep the bigger picture in view when things aren't going your way."

2. "David's men call this providence. David calls it temptation. It's crucial to know the difference."

3. "Saul is playing God by acting like the power of life and death is in his hands. He's transgressing the limits of his authority. He's trying to take an authority into his hand that only God has. But David won't play God. He knows the limits of his authority."

4. "The only way you can patiently endure evil without becoming evil yourself is by trusting that one day God will fully repay all evil."

5. "If you think you've mastered a certain spiritual lesson, just wait until God sends you a different set of circumstances that try that same thing from a slightly different angle."

6. "Abigail is living proof that submission does not mean passivity. Abigail is also living proof that submission doesn't mean either following an authority into sin or simply sitting by while those in authority make a hash of things."

7. "A wise rebuke is an undeserved mercy. So if you're in a position to give a rebuke, don't underestimate the momentous good that a single well-aimed challenge can do. You never know how much good might come. You never know how much harm might be prevented by a single verbal arrow aimed right at the heart."

8. "It is a mark of sincere and genuine godliness to be not less thankful for being kept from sinning than for being rescued from suffering."

9. "What loving hands construct the roadblocks to our foolishness? What mercy sends frustration to our purposes? What kindness builds hindrances in our path?"

10. "Not all remorse is repentance. Not all verbal expressions of repentance express genuine repentance. Real repentance demonstrates itself in deeds, not just words. Real repentance has roots in the heart and its fruits are actions."

Observation Questions

1. In 1 Samuel 24:4-6, what did David's men urge him to do when Saul entered the cave, and how did David respond both in action and in conscience?

2. According to 1 Samuel 24:12-15, what reasons does David give for refusing to harm Saul, and to whom does he appeal for judgment and deliverance?

3. In 1 Samuel 25:10-11, how does Nabal respond to David's request, and what does his answer reveal about his view of David?

4. What specific actions does Abigail take in 1 Samuel 25:18-19 and 23-31 to intervene between Nabal and David, and what does she warn David about regarding his future reign?

5. In 1 Samuel 26:8-11, when Abishai offers to kill Saul, what three possible outcomes does David say will determine Saul's fate, and what does David take from Saul instead?

6. According to 1 Samuel 26:21-25, what does Saul confess to David, and how does David respond—does he return to Saul or does he go his own way?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does David repeatedly refer to Saul as "the Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel 24:6, 10; 26:9, 11, 16), and what does this reveal about David's understanding of God's authority and his own role in God's plan?

2. How does Abigail's intervention in chapter 25 serve as a mirror to help David see that his response to Nabal should be the same as his response to Saul? What does this teach about how God tests us with the same spiritual lessons in different circumstances?

3. In 1 Samuel 24:12-15 and 26:23-24, David entrusts judgment and vengeance to God rather than taking matters into his own hands. How does this connect to the sermon's point about "playing God," and what theological truth about God's character does David's restraint demonstrate?

4. Why is Saul's confession in 1 Samuel 26:21 ("I have sinned... I have acted foolishly") not considered genuine repentance, and what distinguishes true repentance from mere remorse according to the passage and the sermon?

5. How does Abigail function as a "Christ figure" in chapter 25, and what does her willingness to bear Nabal's guilt (v. 24) and her prophetic confidence in God's promises to David reveal about the nature of mediation and redemption?

Application Questions

1. David refused to take vengeance on Saul because he trusted that God would judge justly in his own time. Is there a person or situation in your life where you are tempted to "play God" by taking matters into your own hands rather than entrusting judgment to the Lord? What would it look like to release that situation to God this week?

2. The sermon emphasized that mastering a spiritual lesson in one context doesn't mean we've mastered it in all contexts—David passed the test with Saul but initially failed with Nabal. In what area of your life have you thought you had grown, only to find the same struggle resurface in a different situation? How can you prepare to respond faithfully next time?

3. Abigail courageously delivered a rebuke that prevented David from committing a grievous sin. Is there someone in your life who needs a loving but honest word of warning or correction? What steps can you take to speak truth in love to them, and what fears might be holding you back?

4. David received Abigail's rebuke with gratitude and changed course. How do you typically respond when someone confronts you about a sinful attitude or action? What would it look like to cultivate the kind of humility that welcomes correction as an "undeserved mercy"?

5. The sermon asked what kind of gain we are tempted to grasp for in wrong ways or at wrong times—whether money, pleasure, career advancement, or reputation. What specific temptation to "grasp" rather than wait on God are you facing right now, and what practical step can you take to trust God's timing and provision instead?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 12:14-21 — This passage, quoted in the sermon, provides the New Testament teaching on repaying good for evil and leaving vengeance to God that David exemplifies in his treatment of Saul.

2. 1 Peter 2:19-25 — This passage describes how Christ entrusted himself to the righteous Judge when he suffered, providing the ultimate model for David's patient endurance and our own response to unjust treatment.

3. Psalm 13 — Referenced in the sermon, this psalm expresses the cry "How long, O Lord?" and models how believers can honestly bring their frustration over divine delay to God while still trusting in his steadfast love.

4. Matthew 4:1-11 — The sermon compares David's refusal to grasp the kingdom prematurely to Jesus' rejection of Satan's offer of immediate glory, showing how both embraced the path of suffering before exaltation.

5. Hebrews 10:32-39 — This passage calls believers to endure through suffering with confidence in God's promises, connecting to the sermon's theme of passing the test of divine delay by faith rather than shrinking back.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Test of Divine Delay: How Do We Respond When God's Promises Seem Delayed?

II. Repay Good for Evil (1 Samuel 24)

III. Receive Wisdom Over Folly (1 Samuel 25)

IV. Refuse Worldly Gain and Wait for Your Reward (1 Samuel 26)

V. Trusting God's Promises Enables Faithful Endurance Through Delay

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Life is full of delays: a traffic jam, a shipping hold up, a flight that can't take off due to the weather, a project at work that's past deadline, but you can't submit it until your boss gets back from vacation. The higher the stakes, the more a delay matters. If someone asks the question, will you marry me? Every millisecond of delay seems fraught with significance.

When you're stuck in a delay, how do you respond? Do you get angry, anxious, impatient, try to distract yourself? Every delay is a test. It tests your patience, your self-control, your ability to keep the bigger picture in view when things aren't going your way. If you're not a believer in Jesus, what is that bigger picture that you keep in view?

What's the vision of the future that helps you endure delays? And how confident are you that future will come?

If you're a Christian, dealing with delay can be both easier and sometimes harder. Easier if you're confident that God will keep his promises and that the end will more than make up for anything you suffer now. But sometimes the delay can be harder. Depending on what the delay is, it can shake your faith. What if it looks like God isn't keeping his promise?

What if it looks like God has made an appointment that he is now failing to keep? What if the delay seems to call God's character or faithfulness into question? That's why Psalm 13 cries out like so many psalmists, How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? Our passage for this morning is 1 Samuel chapters 24 to 26. It starts on page 246 of the Pew Bibles.

In our passage, David is dealing with a high stakes delay. God has promised that he'll be king and David has secretly been anointed king, but Saul, the old king, is still around and still reigning. Not only that, but he's continually trying to kill David. Now, haven't we heard all this before? Yes.

Haven't the last several chapters I've preached through focused on this? Yes, the delay is the point. For the whole second half of the book of 1 Samuel, Saul is sitting on the ash heap of his now defunct kingship and he refuses to budge. David knows that he will become king but he doesn't know when. Or how?

And so David is tested by divine delay. Does he pass? If so, how? Here's the main question our passage this morning answers. How can you pass the test of divine delay?

How can you pass the test of divine delay? We'll have three points. One for each chapter. Point one on chapter 24, repay good for evil. How can you pass the test of divine delay?

Repay good for evil. Look first at chapter 24, verses 1 to 7.

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, 'Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave, and the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, 'Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.' Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, to the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.

In Saul's continued hunt for David to kill him, Saul's intelligence reports have led him right to David's hiding place. And so he goes in with this large squadron of 3,000 elite warriors to try to hunt down David. Saul goes into a cave for a personal pit stop, not knowing that that's exactly where David is hiding. David's men take this as a sign from God. Now's your chance.

Take out Saul and take the throne. David's men call this providence. David calls it temptation. It's crucial to know the difference. So David refuses to hurt Saul.

He refuses to take the throne by taking Saul's life. So then why does David cut off a corner of Saul's robe? It seems that David is both trying to preserve his innocence and prove his innocence. It seems he was trying to take this corner of Saul's robe so he could show it to Saul and say, Look, this time when I had the chance to harm you and you could do nothing about it, I didn't do anything. I'm innocent.

I'm not trying to get at you. I'm not gonna take you out. This is for the Lord to handle. So even that little nick though, that little slice on Saul's clothing was too much for David. It was too close to hurting Saul and so David's conscience hurt him.

In other words, David passed this test but he got a B, not an A. He didn't hurt Saul, he kept his men from hurting Saul but the little slicing off the corner of the robe, that was too far. Yet David calls out now to let Saul know what happened. Look at verses 8 to 15. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my Lord the king.

And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, 'Behold, David seeks your harm.' Behold, this day, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you.

But I spared you. I said, 'I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.' See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you. Though you hunt my life to take it, may the Lord judge between me and you.

May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog?

After a flea, may the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.

David refuses to herd Saul because Saul is God's anointed king. Even though Saul is trying to kill David with maniacal devotion, David refuses to lay a hand on Saul because he respects Saul as God's king. He respects the office Saul fills and he respects the God God who anointed him to that office. That's what David means when he keeps referring to Saul as the Lord's anointed and giving that as the reason why he's not gonna harm him. God is the one who made Saul king.

God says he is going to unmake Saul's kingship and David is going to let God do God's work in God's way. In other words, Saul is playing God, but David refuses to play God. Saul is playing God by acting like the power of life and death is in his hands. He doesn't like David's threat to his kingship, so he decided, yeah, I can just take care of that myself, thanks. Saul's transgressing the limits of his authority.

He's trying to take an authority into his hand that only God has. But David won't play God. He knows the limits of his authority. No matter how politically appealing it would be to get Saul out of the way, David has higher loyalties than his own political career.

Are you ever tempted to play God? Are you ever tempted to take a matter into your own hands that only God has the ability or the authority to sort out?

What gave David the patience, the humility, and the grit to endure Saul's persecution without turning against him? Look again at verse 12 and verse 15: May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. Then verse 15: May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. In this, David is acting exactly like Jesus, his greater son to come, who, as 1 Peter 2:23 tells us, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

And this is exactly what Leanna read to us earlier in Romans 12, especially verses 19 and 21. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You don't have to judge because God will. You can judge because only God can.

The only way you can patiently endure evil without becoming evil yourself is by trusting that one day God will fully repay all evil.

David appeals to God's judgment in the near future. Because God has revealed to him that he has a score to settle with Saul. David knows that within his lifetime, God will right these wrongs. But for us as Christians, we don't know which scores God will settle here and now and which will only get resolved on the last day. And we do know that any earthly justice is only a partial measure of the justice God will bring about on the last day.

So we do know that whatever injustices are gotten away with here and now, God will right those wrongs and settle those scores in his own time.

David's appeal to God's justice and his defense of his own innocence seems somehow to get through to Saul. Look at verses 16 to 22.

As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, you, are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe?

So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the Lord, that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Saul recognizes that he has repaid David evil, whereas David has repaid him good. He basically says, David, you're in the right and I'm in the wrong. Just pause there a moment. What are practical ways to repay good?

For evil. Even consider small slights like someone saying a harsh word to you or learning that someone's been gossiping about you. How can you repay good for evil when you're tempted to repay evil for evil? Pray for the person. Sincerely seek God's blessing for them.

Pray against bitterness. Forgive them from the heart. Go out of your way to encourage the person, to find some way you can do a kindness to them, to serve them, to meet a need of theirs. Be careful to protect their reputation instead of tearing them down in others' sight.

Who are you tempted to repay with evil? And how can you do them good instead? In verse 20, Saul makes a significant confession. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. It took him long enough, but Saul finally acknowledges that David will be king and he asks David to remember him in mercy when he comes in his kingdom.

Then Saul leaves and goes back to his royal court and David continues hiding out in the wilderness. But God has more to teach, both Saul and David. Point two on chapter 25, receive wisdom over folly. How can you pass the test of divine delay? Receive wisdom over folly.

Look first at verses 1 to 13 of chapter 25.

Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand 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 Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, 'Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal 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 shepherds. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time 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 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 Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. And Nabal 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 shepherds 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. And about 400 men went up after David while 200 remained with the baggage.

Here, David makes a reasonable request for hospitality. David and his men had protected Nabal's shepherds and flocks when they were out in the wilderness and now David asks for provisions for his army. It's hard to keep troops fed in the desert.

So, Nabal, whose name means fool, lives up to his name and rudely rejects David's request. Ironically and significantly, his point of view on David aligns exactly with Saul's. Looking at verse 10, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?

There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. That's exactly what Saul would say. David did. Remember, David was a honored servant and assistant in Saul's court. So from Saul's point of view, David's a kind of runaway renegade, good for nothing.

Now, David's response in verse 13 is swift and brutal. He immediately declares war on Nabal and his entire household and he is going to personally execute the slaughter. So when David received evil from Saul, he repaid it with good. But when David received evil from Nabal, he immediately resolved to repay it with overwhelming evil. David so far Is failing the test of a realm transfer, a lateral move, can he take the lesson he learned with Saul and apply it in a different set of circumstances?

If you think you've mastered a certain spiritual lesson, just wait until God sends you a different set of circumstances that try that same thing from a slightly different angle.

You've mastered contentment in being single and then you lose your job. You've overcome anger at someone who hurt you but then a conflict flares up with your roommate. One of the ways God tests you is by seeing whether you can learn the same lesson more deeply. Not moving on to something else altogether but going one step deeper. Layer deeper down in the same direction.

Lord, I thought I was done with contentment. Nope. Lord, I thought I was done with patience. No, sorry. Lord, I thought I was done with having to deal with these conflicts and anger and, you know, locking horns with other people.

Yeah, we're all works in progress. We're all gonna stay works in progress. And sometimes the test the Lord sends you is to learn the same lesson you just thought you got done learning. So, as of verse 13, David has his heart set on slaughter, but thankfully, David is not the only one making plans. Look at verses 14 to 22.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal'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, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house. And he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.

Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two skins of wine, and five sheep already prepared, and five seahs of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down 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 has 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.

Abigail's one of my favorite characters in scripture. Courageous, bold, wise, humble, risk-taking, how can you not love her? Abigail is living proof that submission does not mean passivity. Abigail is also living proof that submission doesn't mean either following an authority into sin or simply sitting by while those in authority make a hash of things. She hears of the idiocy that David is planning in response to Nabal's idiocy and she resolves to remove idiocy from the premises.

She takes a big, bold risk. In order to save a whole bunch of lives and to try to save David from committing a whopper of a sin. Brothers and sisters, pray that our church would be filled to bursting with Abigails. We've already learned of a few of them in our own church's history from Caleb's course seminar. Like Celestia Ferris who founded the prayer meeting and the Sunday school that eventually grew into our church.

Or the two little girls in that Sunday school who went from brickyard to brickyard asking for free donations of bricks to help build our church Church's first chapel and broader church history is filled with examples of Abigails like this who either prevented much harm or accomplished much good by their shrewd and bold initiative. One was Selina, Countess of Huntington, who was the widow of a duke in 18th century England. She used her wealth and influence to build 64 chapels and have evangelical pastors appointed to lead congregations in those churches. She also founded at her own expense a seminary in Wales in 1768 for training ministers of the gospel. Pray for more of that kind of bold, shrewd, wise initiative.

Pray that we would rightly honor and celebrate that kind of thing among our sisters in the congregation, that we would hold up good models of it like Scripture does here with Abigail, that we can all rejoice in and learn from together. Back to our passage, that's just the setup. That's just the beginning of her action. What does Abigail do once she meets David? Look at verses 23-24.

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 servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, For as his name is, so is he. Nabal 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 in a ball. 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 lord 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, 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 all 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 for my Lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then remember your servant.

Abigail's depth of theological perception is stunning. Look back at that image in verse 29 where she says, if men rise up to seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. That image probably refers to a shepherd's practice of having stones in a pouch that match the number of the sheep he's caring for. She's saying, God has your life bundled up in his pouch. God has numbered your life with all those he's going to preserve.

And you, David, should know something about stones coming out from a sling. That's what's going to happen to all of your enemies. They're going to be flung out and you're going to be kept and preserved in God's care. So what's Abigail doing here? She's throwing herself between Nabal and David.

She's throwing herself between David and the accomplishment of his foolish, fatal plan. She interposes herself, takes upon herself the role of a mediator. In verse 23, she asks to take the guilt on herself. And in verses 26 and 28, she lifts up her eyes from this present conflict and speaks with prophetic confidence about David's future, God's promises to him, his reign, his coming kingdom. In verse 26, she refers to those who seek to do evil to my Lord as if she somehow knows the whole conflict that David's caught up in with Saul.

In verse 28, she refers to the sure house that God has promised David. Somehow she knows of that promise and she's confident in it. She promises that those who seek to harm David will in the end be like Nabal, which also seems to suggest some confidence about how God's going to work in this circumstance. And she's confident. That God will preserve David both inwardly from guilt and outwardly through trials, so that all David should do now is wait patiently and trust the Lord to act for him.

Abigail is speaking the truth in love and she's helping David see that this conflict with Nabal is a mirror of the conflict he's in with Saul. She's helping David see that in order to be a man after God's own heart, David has to be the same man with Nabal that he is with Saul. Different name and face, same test. Different trial, same God. Different challenge, same lesson.

Abigail is demonstrating to David the faith that in this moment he lacks. And she's trying to infuse that faith into David so that he can walk by faith and not try to secure his own deliverance by sight.

And, you know, not to put too fine a point on it, but Abigail is trying to stop David in his tracks. He has 400 military men with him. He himself is wearing a sword and she gets right up in his When David sits down on his throne, does he really want his hands stained with innocent blood? She's appealing to his conscience. When he begins his reign, does he want to be haunted by regret?

Verse 31, if David listens to Abigail, he will have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my Lord working salvation himself. In other words, if David listens to Abigail, he will not be guilty of playing God.

Abigail is telling David how to pass the test of divine delay. Let God be God. Let God fulfill his promises in his time, in his way. Your job, David, is just to trust and wait. If you're not a believer in Jesus, have you ever needed a rebuke like this?

Have you ever resolved to do something that you know your conscience would later come back at you for? If you've ever needed a rebuke like this, did you get it when you needed it? How'd you respond?

Kids in the congregation, especially girls, I hope you see an Abigail, a model of the kind of person you want to be. What a striking portrait of courage and wisdom. So here's my question for you. What will it take for you now to be this kind of person in 10 or 20 or 30 years? How can you begin growing into an Abigail right now?

In the absence of the now dead Samuel, Abigail is fulfilling something like a prophetic role.

Not only that, but she's inserting herself as a mediator, as we saw in verse 23, On me alone my Lord be the guilt. She's asking David to let her bear Nabal's sin. Abigail became for David wisdom and righteousness and sanctification from God. In this passage, Abigail is far more of a Christ figure than David is. David is the one on the road to destruction, and Abigail throws herself in the way.

David is a picture of all of us. All of our hearts are set on destruction, both for ourselves and others. All of us repay others evil for evil. All of us are tempted to play God by fallen nature from birth on. None of us gives God the place in our hearts that he deserves.

None of us submits to God and waits for God to act for us. Instead, we play God and damage others. That's the essence of sin, playing God and damaging others. Because God is a just judge, he promises to permanently repay with eternal punishment all those who persist in playing God. But because God is also abounding in mercy, he sent his eternal son into the world to become incarnate as our Lord Jesus Christ to be the true and better Abigail, Jesus came to bear the sin not of one foolish man, but of all of us who would turn from sin and trust in him.

Jesus came to pay the full penalty for the sins of every believer in his death on the cross. And he came to triumph from the dead, to triumph over death itself, to rise from the dead on the third day. Now he calls all people everywhere to turn from sin and trust in him. He appeals to you today, just like Abigail appealed to David.

Will you hear his appeal? Will you come to him in faith? Will you quit trying to play God and trust Jesus to reconcile you to God? That's Christ's appeal to you. And now we should get back to the appeal in the text and ask, how did David respond to Abigail's appeal?

Verses 32 to 35.

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, 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 in a ball 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.

David recognizes his sin and turns from it. David recognizes God's mercy and celebrates it. And he sees in Abigail an embodiment of God's goodness and so he blesses her, blesses the wisdom and discretion God's given her. He praises her for throwing herself in front of his way. As one commentator put it, it is a mark of sincere and genuine godliness to be not less thankful for being kept from sinning than for being rescued from suffering.

Abigail's godly roadblock works. David wakes up, comes to his senses, and goes the other way. How often does God show us kindness by frustrating our sinful purposes?

As Dale Ralph Davis has said, what loving hands construct the roadblocks to our foolishness? What mercy sends frustration to our purposes? What kindness builds hindrances in our path? A wise rebuke is an undeserved mercy. So if you're in a position to give a rebuke, Don't underestimate the momentous good that a single well aimed challenge can do.

You never know how much good might come. You never know how much harm might be prevented by a single verbal arrow aimed right at the heart.

Brothers and sisters, members of CHBC, pray for the courage to deliver a rebuke like this and pray for the humility to receive it. Pray to be a person who can both give and receive timely wisdom in high-stakes circumstances. Labor to become the kind of person who can deliver hard truths with soft words and a soft tone. To do that, you have to both study God's Word, study your own heart, and study the person you're talking to. Study God's Word, study your own heart, and study the person you're trying to address.

And also labor to become the kind of person whose armor can be easily pierced with arrows of truth spoken in love.

Now, what happened once David agreed to overlook the offense? God took care of him. Look at verses 36 to 44.

And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king, and Nabal'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 Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal 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 you 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 turned and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was of Golim. Back in verses 36 and 37, Abigail waits until Nabal is in a fit state to tell him about his brush with death and how she alone saved him and all the people of their household.

When she told him, he died within. A heart attack, a stroke, who knows? But the point is God brought him low. And in just 10 days, God brought him all the way down. In only 10 days, God did for David what David had foolishly set out to do for himself.

So David is kept from guilt, Nabal is judged for his sin and Abigail gets a serious husband upgrade.

There it is.

Obviously, there's the issue of David taking a second wife here. The Old Testament itself in Deuteronomy 17 says, Kings shouldn't.

Take multiple wives. David, we learn in verse 44 that David was actually wifeless when he meets Abigail. He had married Michal, Saul's daughter, but Saul had given her away to another man as a kind of political power play, presumably to remove that connection with the kind of royal household. So David lacks a wife, has no wife when he meets Abigail. There's much more we could say here, questions to raise, how righteous, how unrighteous, what's going on here, who has any say in any of this stuff?

But we should move on. We have a whole other chapter to cover.

Point three, chapter 26. How can you pass the test of divine delay? Refuse worldly gain and wait for your reward. Refuse worldly gain and wait for your reward.

Look at chapter 26, verses 1 to 5.

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, 'Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?' so Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army.

Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.

Saul comes after David yet again and brings his army with him. Saul's recognition of David's right to the throne back in chapter 24 was apparently not enough to end his murderous intent. So Saul sets up camp on a hill facing where David is and David goes out to check and see, is this really Saul? What's happening? And then David comes up with another plan.

To try to prove his innocence to Saul. Look at verses 6 to 12.

Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Joab's brother, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, 'Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?' and Abishai said, 'I will go down with you.' so David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment.

With his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, 'God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.' But David said to Abishai, 'Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be and David said, 'As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water and let us go.

So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. So much here is a kind of repeat of chapter 24, just under slightly new circumstances. Saul comes after David. Saul is trying to kill David.

David finds Saul at a vulnerable moment. David's advisor urges him to kill Saul. David takes something from Saul instead. Now, in God's providence and in the inspiration of this passage, when so much is the same, it brings out any difference into sharper relief. It's part of the point of having these two chapters side by side, sandwiched with Abigail in the middle.

What changed? What's different? The difference isn't what David takes. He takes Saul's spear, that is, his personal military strength, and he takes Saul's water that would have sustained him and kept him going in the heat of battle. What David is doing is, in a sense, disarming Saul, but he steers clear of Saul's person.

David is even more restrained than he was in chapter 24. He's even more self-controlled. He's even more careful not to give Saul or anyone else a reason to think he would take the throne by force. And the message he sends is even clearer and more powerful. Here we see the fruit of Abigail's rebuke.

It seems to have made a lasting difference in David's character. In chapter 24, David passed the test but he only got a B. Now here in chapter 26, he passes the same test and gets an A. An A, and he did it with the Lord's help. Verse 12 tells us that God is at work behind the scenes.

No one woke up in order to capture David in the middle of the night because God kept them all in a deep sleep. Now, in verses 13 to 16, David lets Saul and Saul's protector know what they've just let happen.

Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them. And David called to the army and to Abner the son of Nair, saying, 'Will you not answer, Abner?' Then Abner answered, 'Who are you who calls to the king?' and David said to Abner, 'Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king?' for one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing that you have done is not good.

As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your Lord. The Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. David speaks in this kind of oblique, metaphorical way, indirect. Someone came in to destroy your Lord.

Well, no, not literally, but David did take the spear. He did work a kind of military victory over Saul without one drop of blood being shed. And what about for Saul's protector, Abner? He was both literally and metaphorically asleep on the job. You had one job, Abner, protect the king at all times at all costs.

While you were asleep, someone took his weapon. This leads to one final confrontation now between Saul and David. And I say final because in the rest of 1 Samuel they're not going to meet again. So this is it, parting words shouted across a vast gulf fixed between them. Here we go, verses 17 to 20.

Saul recognized David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, O Lord, my Lord, O King. And he said, why does my Lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands?

Now Therefore let my Lord the King hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, 'Go serve other gods.' Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. One last time, David asserts his innocence.

He asks Saul to give him one good reason for seeking his life and he pleads with him to stop. Verse 19 might sound strange to your ears. David is talking about how Saul has driven him beyond the borders of Israel into foreign territories like those of the Philistines where David has been and will go again. But why does he say in verse 19 that the people who have driven him out, that he should have no share in the heritage of the Lord are go serve other gods. I think David's speaking somewhat hyperbolically.

He's saying that by being driven out of the land of Israel, he's being expelled from Israel's public worship. He can't go to the tabernacle. He can't see the place where God manifests his presence to his people. It's like what the psalmist confesses in Psalm 42:3-4, My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?' These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. And being excluded from the land and the sanctuary, David is being excluded from the public visible signs of God's presence with his people.

His persecution had spiritual consequences.

Now there's one final exchange between Saul and David, and it's a significant window into both of their characters. Look first at verse 21. Then Saul said, 'I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day.

Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake.

Not all remorse is repentance.

Not all verbal expressions of repentance express genuine repentance. Should David believe what Saul is saying? Of course not. On some level, Saul recognizes that he's in the wrong and he says so. David's righteous refusal to hurt Saul has gotten through.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. David's good has overcome Saul's evil. There's some kind of change on Saul's part, some recognition of being in the wrong, but it's not real repentance. Saul entreats David to return, to come on back. But David's too wise for that.

Real repentance demonstrates itself in deeds, not just words. Real repentance has roots in the heart and its fruits are actions. Real repentance is sustained over time in a different direction of life. Repentance is not a magic formula of words that if you simply say it out loud will absolve you from all consequences of your actions.

Saul here is not an example of repentance but false repentance. So how does David respond? Starting in verse 22, you'll notice that he doesn't return to Saul. He doesn't take a step nearer to Saul. He doesn't give any ground to Saul.

He doesn't ask Saul for anything. He doesn't give Saul any chance to get his hooks back into him again.

Starting in verse 22 through verse 25, and David answered and said, Here is the spear, O King. Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son David, you will do many things and will succeed in them.

So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

From now on, David will have nothing to do with Saul. He will only have everything to do with the Lord. That's the substance of his final words to Saul. And we see in verse 23 that God gave David this opportunity to prove his innocence yet again as a reward for his innocence. Because David is innocent, God gave him the chance to show it.

And that was a kind of display of God's favor and faithfulness to him. Yet once more he gets to show Saul and all concerned his true character. Yet once more he gets to clear his name and his reputation out in public. That's what the Lord was doing here. You can think of the fulfillment of God's promises here like a dimmer switch.

Throughout the whole second half of 1 Samuel, the switch is slowly turning up. God promised David the kingship. God secretly anointed David king. Over time, David's begun to gather an army and get more supporters and more help and more and more people or recognizing his kingship like Saul's son Jonathan or like Abigail or like Saul himself a chapter or two earlier. God is gradually showing more and more clearly whose side he's on.

God enables David to disarm the sitting king. The lights in the room are steadily getting brighter. The dawn of David's kingship is drawing ever nearer. And David proves his faithfulness to the Lord as he says in verse 24, By holding Saul's life precious in his sight. So he's saying, May God do to me what I've done to you.

I've proved my faithfulness to the Lord by how I've treated you and I know God's gonna prove his faithfulness to me. David trusts Saul not at all and he trusts the Lord completely. He asks for nothing from Saul and everything from the Lord. So here is what David models for us, especially in this final confrontation. You can put the lesson this way: Refuse to grasp at gain that God doesn't want for you, or in a way he wouldn't approve, or at a time he hasn't ordained.

Instead, wait patiently for God to give you his reward. In his time, in his way. Here David is like Jesus in the wilderness. In Matthew chapter four, when Satan promises him a kingdom now and he refuses. David, like Jesus, embraced the path of suffering than glory.

Humiliation before honor, endurance before reward. What type of gain are you tempted to grasp for? Getting money in some wrong way, sinful pleasure, career advance at a moral expense, advancing your reputation and outsourcing the cost to others, or sin as a pressure release from pain? What tempts you in terms of the wrong gain or the wrong way? Or the wrong time.

Don't grasp for worldly gain. Instead, wait for God's reward. Like David, what can enable you to pass the test of divine delay? Confidence that the God who kept all his promises to David will keep all his promises to you. Conviction that God will right all the wrongs committed against you far better than you ever could.

Humility to receive a rebuke when you're tempted to play God. And faith that one day faith will be sight, that all delays will be done, and that when every delay is done, God's love will be your reward. Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would enable us to faithfully endure through confidence in your promises. We pray that we would look to our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not revile in return, but instead suffered for us and gave us an example to follow. We pray that we would trust in your character and so be able to glorify you amid hardship, suffering, and even persecution. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.