I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 25-27.

    In the story of Nabal and Abigail, I seem to be missing something about the severity of the insult which Nabal gave to David. The writer assumes that the reader would see how terrible the insult was, and all of the other characters in the story are aware that Nabal’s insult was severe. We have one of Nabal’s servants who sees it as so potent an insult that he must go tell the mistress at once. As soon as Abigail hears of it, gathers gifts and sets out to meet David. It’s not that I do not see the insults, it is just that they don’t seem that severe to me. However, I can sort of imagine how these insults might be a threat to David’s survival. Nabal called him a nobody who was the son of a nobody. Furthermore, Nabal essentially said that David was a run away slave. On top of that, he called David and his men outlaws, after they had spent the season protecting his own men and property.

    The combination of the story of Nabal and Abigail with the rest of the passage gives us a good idea how David rose to power. When Nabal died a short time later from basically natural causes, David acquired his wealth by marrying Abigail. It may even be this marriage which led Saul to seek to kill David again. In any case, despite being able to show Saul up once more, David felt that it was just a matter of time until Saul trapped and killed him. So, he went over to the Philistines where he became a raider much like what Nabal had accused him of being (I think there is a distinction, but I am not sure I could explain it). However, David only raided those who the people of Israel had long considered their enemies (with significant reason), while telling the king of the Philistines he was raiding towns of Judah.