1 Samuel 13:19
19 Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!”

This single verse describes the tyranny with which the Philistines menaced the Israelites in the Old Testament. By this time, the Philistines had grown so powerful in the region that they even kept tight controls over potential weapon-makers (blacksmiths), so that the Israelites could not rise up against them with any serious force. At the time, Saul had been named the first king of Israel, but had already proven himself more self-focused and impulsive in his leadership; needless to say, it was a scary time for the average Israelite!

Yet even then, as chapter 14:1-23 proves, God was still with His people. Though the Israelites were unarmed and seemingly defenseless, caught between internal political strife and external military threats, God was still working, bringing confusion to the Philistines and helping the Israelites to rout them. The overall struggle was not yet over, not by a long shot, but this battle, which had seemed so hopeless at the outset, was utterly changed with God’s help.

The lesson here? Even when we feel powerless, defenseless, completely without what we need, God can and will provide. He will bring a fitting resolution to your problems, one you might never have been able to imagine; it may not come right away, but when it does, it will be perfectly timed to God’s plan.

1 Samuel 2:23-25
23 So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24 No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the Lord’s people. 25 If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?”

Here, Eli the priest is admonishing his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, for unlawfully demanding to be given the portion of meat which was to be sacrificed to God. This was against God’s Law, and flew in the face of everything that the Israelites believed–and not only that, these were priest’s sons who were breaking the Law!

Eli is understandably horrified to learn what his sons have been doing. Yet neither of the young men has stopped to think about what they are doing, nor about the ramifications of their deeds. Thus, Eli speaks to them strongly, reminding them that if they sin against God by doing things that God has specifically outlawed, they will have little to no recourse.

To us, the sinful act committed by Eli’s sons might seem silly–why would they keep doing something so obviously wrong? After all, they were priest’s sons and should have known better than anyone not to take the sacrificial meat. But greed likely overtook their better judgment; perhaps they thought that since their father was a priest, they would not get in trouble for taking it.

We, too, can let desire of all sorts cloud our judgment, and we end up sinning without even thinking about it. After all, when we let temporary desires make our decisions, where is there room for prayer and God in our minds? Combine that with the fact that sinning against another person offends God as much as a sin against Himself, and a more complete picture of exactly how dangerous sin is begins to emerge. This is why we have to stay vigilant and truly think out our actions–otherwise, we could end up doing things that neither build nor reflect our faith.

1st Samuel 25:20-27
20 As [Abigail] came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless–all my watching over [Nabal]’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”

23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name–his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.”

In this passage, David has just talked about Nabal, Abigail’s husband, who has been mean and spiteful towards David even after David’s been doing a lot of nice things for him. Just before Abigail appears, David has vowed to practically obliterate the men of Nabal’s family for all the injustices the man has done.

Then Abigail meets David, and begins to floridly apologize for her husband’s wrongful actions. She’s already brought foodstuffs for David and his men, to make up for what Nabal had withheld when David had sent men to ask for provisions earlier. Now she seeks David’s forgiveness for this wrong, and proves herself a devout follower of the Lord in so doing; she believes that David is a Godly leader, and is under God’s protection because of that.

In doing this, Abigail proves she is wiser than her narrow-minded, judgmental husband, who has bigoted himself against David simply because of all the negative things he’s heard about David (primarily, his rocky dealings with King Saul).

For Modern Believers, It’s Hard Not to Act Like Nabal

We might think Nabal was pretty stupid, to not understand that David asked for provisions out of sheer need, to not donate a small portion of what he had in stores to someone who had already helped guard his property. What we might not realize is that we cast Nabal-like judgments all the time–judgments born of a refusal to open our minds and hearts, born of our own stubbornness.

For instance, judging that another person is not saved, based on their clothing? That’s a Nabal judgment. Being prejudiced against another believer because of race/ethnicity, or even political beliefs? Also a Nabal judgment. How about thinking that someone else’s service to the church is not as important as yours? Yep, that’s thinking like Nabal.

But in order to be wiser, more like Abigail, we have to be willing to open our minds to new ideas. Nabal didn’t think much of David; in fact, Nabal characterized David in an earlier verse as a “servant” who had broken away from his “master”. But Abigail had heard enough to know that even though David was having trouble with Saul, God was using him in mighty ways already. Though she likely heard lots of rumors, conflicting and agreeing, she did not blindly believe any of them until she thought them over and decided for herself. She then took the action that she felt was the most Godly.

Being a thoughtful, nonjudgmental Christian in this age of sound bites, quick news articles, and scare tactics is difficult. In all that we do (and hear) out in the world, however, we should remember that it is not our judgments that bear any weight, but God’s alone.

When we try, like Nabal, to judge a person harshly with a narrow-minded perspective, we forget that we, too, are going to be judged for what we do to others. And since our words and actions are the only clues others have to our personal faith…what message do harsh judgments send, as opposed to thoughtful and prayerful words?

Part of ridding ourselves of harsh judgments is taking a moment to breathe, and think whether our words really honor God. Many times, we find that our words are not born of truth and Godly thought, but hate and stubbornness. (I’m definitely guilty as charged.) This moment of thought before speaking not only makes us think about how we’re saying things, but what we’re saying, too. You might just find that you no longer want to make such a harsh judgment, after all. (It works, believe me!)

1 Samuel 31:8-13
8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. 10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
11 When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard of what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men journeyed through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned them. 13 Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

Saul had spent most of his life running from God. As first King of Israel (before David), Saul had been driven by abject fear and jealousy for most of his reign, choosing to hide from the Philistines rather than face them, choosing to punish God’s next anointed king, David, and chase him around trying to kill him, rather than bowing out gracefully. In short? Saul acted very human.

Just before this point in the Scripture, Saul had realized his cause was lost in the midst of the fight with the Philistines; he was wounded badly, and so he chose to take his own life rather than to be discovered by the Philistines and be carted off to a worse fate. His sons and his armor-bearer also take their lives and die with him, and as verses 8 through 10 describe, their bodies are defiled and disrespected in death. What a sorrowful end for the first king of Israel–even though he made a lot of mistakes, it seems ill-fitting that he should be afforded such treatment in death.

And indeed, others consider it ill-fitting treatment, too. The people of Jabesh Gilead (a town east of the Jordan River) remembered Saul as a good man who came and successfully saved their town when the neighboring Ammonites threatened them. When they hear of what the Philistines have done with the former Israelite king and his sons, they immediately go to set things right. They ritually burn the defiled bodies, religiously purifying them and preventing any more mischief to be done with them, then bury the bones in a sacred place. They then mourn the deaths for seven days through fasting.

Saul, who had not been well-liked as king and who had not really done much besides chase David around and close his ears to God, is thus honored as a human being should be in death. He wasn’t perfect–far from it–but his deeds did not warrant such dishonorable treatment, and God moved in the hearts of those who lived in Jabesh Gilead to set that to rights.

How This Proves God’s Justice

This story in the Bible shows us that God will always set things to rights, even if it takes a long time, even if it comes by unexpected channels, and even if we aren’t around physically to see it. Saul was given a decent burial, given justice in death despite the choices he had made in life; even though he was a wayward child of God, God still loved him. God never stops loving us–not even when we refuse to listen to Him, not even when we curse Him or say we don’t believe He exists. And because He loves us, He is always acting for our best interests and for justice. Justice may not always come when we want it, but it will arrive perfectly on God’s time.

1 Samuel 24:20-22; 26:1-2
20 “Now I know for certain you will be king, and the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. 21 Therefore swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.” 22 So David swore to Saul. Then Saul went back home, and David and his men went up to the stronghold.

26:1 Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah saying, “David is hiding on the hill of Hachilah opposite Jeshimon.” 3 So Saul, accompanied by 3,000 of the choice men of Israel, went to the Wilderness of Ziph to search for David there.

Saul is temporarily sorry for what he has put David through, chasing him around and threatening his life; however, this remorse doesn’t last even two chapters in the Bible. When the Ziphites warn Saul that David is again in the area, Saul wastes no time in dispatching himself and his men to search for him, ostensibly to kill him. David’s promise that he will not harm Saul or his family, which echoes David’s promise to Jonathan in chapter 20, seems to mean nothing to the dishonored ruler–he continues to seek to remove the threat he perceives in David.

But David is wise; he knows not to trust Saul’s repentant behavior, and he makes sure he and his men are hidden even before Saul goes to seek him again. Even though the Ziphites give up his position not once but twice (first in chapter 24 and again in chapter 26 as quoted), David and his men are hidden in desert strongholds that are quite inaccessible, which frustrates Saul no end. The divine protection that has been with David since Samuel selected him continues, and Saul has nothing to counteract it.

Saul knows and acknowledges to David’s face that “[he] knows for certain that [David] will be king,” yet he is doing everything in his earthly power (which isn’t much) to try to overturn this result. Even though he knows he is beaten, he continues to try to fight–a mark of his desperation and fear of losing the last tie to the God-given administration of Israel, which he knows he no longer deserves. David has several opportunities before and after this passage in which he could take Saul’s life and grasp the throne in that way, but he chooses to spare Saul’s life instead. Thereby, he sidesteps the treachery and back-room politics that Saul is enmeshed in; against the advice of his own friends and allies, he is merciful to Saul, and further proves himself worthy for the throne.

These days, we may not be facing a despotic ruler who is trying to kill us, but many times life situations seem to explode without warning, throwing us into crisis mode. And while we are in that panicked mode, we can forget all about God in our attempts to save ourselves from shame, from failure, from disappointing others. David’s story reminds us that even in our most stressed, harried moments, we can trust God to guide and protect us. Our lives as Christians will not always be easy, but we have access to the Source of peace and strength to carry us through.