1 Samuel 25:32

_AND DAVID SAID TO ABIGAIL, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, WHICH SENT THEE THIS DAY TO MEET ME:_ David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord. Transported by passions, and blinded by revenge, he was on the eve of perpetrating a great injury; and, doubtless, the timely appearance and prudent address of Abigail were greatly instrumental in changing his purpose. At all events, it was the means of opening his eyes to the moral character of the course on which he had been impetuously rushing; and, in accepting her present, he speaks with lively satisfaction, as well as gratitude, to Abigail for having prevented him Contracting the guilt of bloodshed....

32-39 David gives God thanks for sending him this happy check in a sinful way. Whoever meet us with counsel, direction, comfort, caution, or seasonable reproof, we must see God sending them. We ought to be very thankful for those happy providences which are the means of keeping us from sinning. Most people think it enough, if they take reproof patiently; but few will take it thankfully, and commend those who give it, and accept it as a favour. The nearer we are to committing sin, the greater is the mercy of a seasonable restraint. Sinners are often most secure when most in danger. He was very drunk. A sign he was Nabal, a fool, that could not use plenty without abusing it; who could not be pleasant with his friends without making a beast of himself. There is not a surer sign that a man has but little wisdom, nor a surer way to destroy the little he has, than drinking to excess. Next mor...

EXPOSITION DEATH OF SAMUEL (1 Samuel 25:1). 1 SAMUEL 25:1 AND SAMUEL DIED. According to Josephus, Samuel had for eighteen years been contemporaneous with Saul's kingdom. If this calculation, which probably rests upon some Jewish tradition, be at all correct, we must include the years of Samuel's judgeship in the sum total of Saul's reign (see on 1 Samuel 13:1), as evidently his fall was now fast approaching. Samuel's life marked the beginning of the second age of Israelite history (Acts 3:24). Moses had given the people their law, but

AND DAVID SAID TO ABIGAIL,.... Having heard her out, and being overcome with her rhetoric and powerful arguments: BLESSED [BE] THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, WHICH SENT THEE THIS DAY TO MEET ME; who put it into her heart to come out and meet him, and endeavour to avert him from his bad design, which his heart was set upon; he saw plainly the hand of God in it, and in the first place acknowledges the goodness of divine Providence, in directing her to take the step she did....

CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The death of Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1)_ 2. Nabal and his refusal (1 Samuel 25:2) 3. Abigail's deed and her prayer (1 Samuel 25:14) 4. David's answer to Abigail (1 Samuel 25:32) 5. Nabal's death (1 Samuel 25:36) 6. Abigail becomes David's wife (1 Samuel 25:39) After the death of Samuel, briefly mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, David went still further south into the wil

1 SAMUEL 25:1 A. (TO RAMAH). DEATH AND BURIAL OF SAMUEL. (An editorial addition.) 1 SAMUEL 25:1. IN HIS HOUSE: in the grounds belonging to it. 1 SAMUEL 25:1 B - 1 SAMUEL 25:44. DAVID, NABAL AND ABIGAIL (J). From one of the oldest sources. The story is complete in itself, and has no obvious connexion with any of the other sections. 1 SAMUEL 25:1 B - 1 SAMUEL 25:13. David goes to the wilderness of Paran at the S. of the Araba

David's favourable answer 32. _Blessed be the Lord_ David rightly recognises that the intervention of Providence has saved him from a foolish and wicked revenge. Compare his prayer in Psalms 19:13. There is no lack of faults in David's life, and this outburst of passion was one of them; but with all his faults he had that spirit of genuine repentance which makes it possible for men "To rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things....

DISCOURSE: 306 DAVID KEPT FROM AVENGING HIMSELF ON NABAL 1 Samuel 25:32._ And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand_. THE fidelity of the sacred historians is observable in every part of the divine records. A partial friend, or a person who was unduly concerned about the honour of religion, would have cast a veil over the facts which are contained in this chapter. They are, it must be confessed, extremely humiliating, and constrain us to exclaim, “Lord, what is man!” In the general we behold “the man after God’s heart” acting with a holy consistency, and meriting the character of a most exalted saint: but here we see him rushing to commit the most horrid iniquities,

DAVID SAID TO ABIGAIL, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD— The finest spirits are soonest kindled into a flame; and to see them quickly cooled and calmed again upon the first shew of submission, by the first gleam of conviction, and raging wrath changed in one instant into flowing humanity and benignity, is the surest test of generosity and true magnanimity. David, convinced by Abigail's prudence of the rashness of his resolution, _blesses the Lord God of Israel for sending her,_ blesses _her advice,_ and blesses _her, who kept him from shedding blood, and avenging himself._ Can there be a finer picture of a generous mind? See Waterland's Script. Vindicated, p. 100....

_Abigail Appeals to David._ 1 Samuel 25:14-38 14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. 15 But the men _were_ very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: 16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he _is such_ a son of Belial, that _a man_ cannot speak to him. 18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched _corn,_ and an hundred clusters of raisins,