1 Samuel 25:33

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 BLESSED [BE] THY ADVICE,.... Thanks be to God, and to thee for it, being wise, good, and seasonable; or "thy taste" g, thy good sense, knowledge, as the Targum, discretion, prudence, and understanding: AND BLESSED [BE] THOU WHICH HAST KEPT ME THIS DAY FROM COMING TO [SHED] BLOOD; he came out with a full resolution to shed the blood of Nabal, and of all the males in his house, but was stopped by Abigail; who by her arguments so prevailed upon him as to cause him to desist from his design, and thankful he was to God for it; for though he had vowed he would destroy Nabal and his family, yet being a rash sinful vow, he saw it was better to break it than to keep it: AND FROM AVENGING MYSELF WITH MINE OWN HAND; which to do would have been sinful, vengeance only belonging to God; and now he leaves it to him, and is very thankful that he was prevented doing it himself. g טעמך "sapor tuus...

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

ADVICE. good taste....

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....