I Samuel 25-26
Dear RTB’ers,
Two incidents, both fairly straightforward. In the first, Abigail defies her husband Nabal and provides David and his men with food and drink. David is truly grateful and Nabal is equally angry – so much so that he appears to have suffered a stroke or a heart attack and dies ten days later (at the Lord’s hand, v. 38). David then takes Abigail to be his wife. Recall that David was already married to Saul’s daughter, Michal. Surprisingly, that marriage is over, with Saul turning Michal over to another young man. But that’s not the end of the Michal story. We’ll meet her again one more time.
The second incident has David again sparing Saul’s life, with David’s spoken phrase, “the Lord’s anointed”, appearing four times in our second chapter. Saul had acknowledged David’s righteousness two chapters ago when David had earlier spared Saul’s life. Today Saul appears genuinely remorseful: 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.” (v. 26:21) David does not “return” to Saul’s house. In fact our first verse in today’s reading tells us that David does not at all believe that Saul’s remorse is genuine: Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” (v. 27:1) Now, on to the next reading…
Blessings!