King Lamoni’s prayer for mercy

And he began to cry unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, have mercy; according to thy abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people. (Alma 18:41)

From this verse of prayer it is possible to tell some of the things Lamoni was taught by Ammon, even though the essential elements are only touched on by Moron who abridged the account.

“O Lord, have mercy” – Lamoni had to have been taught about 1) the plan of redemption and 2) about the Lord’s abundant mercy, such that he would feel inspired to ask for mercy.

“According to thy abundant mercy which thou hast had upon the people of Nephi, have upon me, and my people” – Lamoni had to have been taught about all the ways the Lord had had mercy upon the Nephites insomuch that he desired that for his own people. And it is most likely that he was taught about the intermediary role that the high priest (or high priestly king) played in pleading for the people, because he immediately assumes that role by interceding for his own people as well as pleading for himself.

One of the important principles all people have to learn in order to have the courage to ask for forgiveness for their sins is concerning the abundant mercy of God. Without this, we wouldn’t have the confidence to ask for Him to have mercy on us. This confidence is best built by hearing how the Lord has had mercy on others, particularly those who were in a worse case. (This is partly Ammon and his brethren were such great missionaries. They had been in an awful state, and the Lord had mercy on them, so they shared that, so that all those in similar states could trust that they could obtain mercy too.)

Let’s work on noticing the mercies that the Lord has bestowed on us and tell others about them.

Part of Solomon’s prayer to dedicate the temple

38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. (1 Kings 8:39-40)

I was touched by these verses, particularly as it speaks of every man knowing the plague of his own heart. I suspect we all have issues that plague us, things in our own character or thought process that we know aren’t helping us, that are causing us to self-sabotage in some way, things that we can’t quite get the better of on our own. But we can turn to the Lord in the temple for help with them.

Solomon asks the Lord to hear, to forgive, and do, and give to each person according to his ways, or according to his needs so that they know it is the Lord’s hand in their lives. The different actions possible give us some insight on what we might ask the Lord for.

Forgive – we can ask for our sins to be pardoned

Do – we can ask for the Lord to intervene in our lives or the lives of others in a variety of ways

Give – we can ask the Lord for spiritual and temporal gifts, as long as we do not ask to consume it on our lusts

Re-examining the parable of the unjust steward

 

1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. 

2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship ; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 

3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 

4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 

5 So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 

6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 

7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 

8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light .  (Luke 16:1-8)

I was reading through this parable and I noticed some things that I hadn’t noticed before. 

First it came to me that the debts the steward forgives might represent sins that need repenting. (Sins are represented as debts in other parables, so this is not farfetched.)

Next, it came to me that the steward might be a stand-in for church leaders responsible for church discipline, since part of what the steward is responsible for is overseeing those who are indebted to the master.

The parable of the unjust steward comes right after the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son, and therefore might be considered to be another parable dealing with finding the lost and receiving them back.

The steward was accused of wasting the master’s goods.  It may be that the steward was allowing the forgiveness available to go unused, or he was claiming mercy liberally for himself and not extending it to others.

Someone accused the steward of wasting the master’s goods, and the master lowers the boom and asks for accounts from the steward as a means of finding out the facts, along with a blanket condemnation that the steward will be out of the position regardless.

When the steward realizes he will be cast out of the stewardship and he can’t dig or he’s ashamed to beg, it may be that he’s realizing how dependent he really is upon his master. Without his master, he is nothing.  All the power and authority he thought he had, all the riches, didn’t really belong to him.  (Likewise, without the mercy and atonement of God, church leaders are themselves nothing.) 

In the process of studying his master’s financial records in order to prepare to give an account of his actions, the steward discovers the way he can make things better for himself.  So he goes through the accounts of who is indebted and forgives parts of the debts in order to gain their goodwill. His plan is that the debtors’ gratitude will inspire them to help him in his coming difficulties.  He also reasons that partially forgiving the debts will bring honor to his master as a merciful man in a way that can’t be argued with or undone.

The master can’t complain about the steward of partially forgiving debts without making himself appear stingy and ungenerous to the debtors in comparison to the steward.  So the master lets the steward’s acts stand as valid.

This is also in line with one of Jesus’s pronouncements else’s where:

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23)

One features in this parable is that the steward forgave part of the debts owed the master in order to ingratiate himself with them and increase the honor of his master as a merciful man.  The message is that stewards over the household of God should forgive part of the sins immediately so as to increase the honor of God as a God of mercy. 

When Jesus advises his disciples to make friends of the unrighteous mammon, He can be understood to be advising those who act as dispensers of church discipline to make friends of those who are going through the repentance process so as to help and support them along the way. 

When it says the mammon of unrighteousness may welcome Christ’s stewards into everlasting habitations after having made friends of them, that means that the initial offering of partial forgiveness generates goodwill and gratitude that helps the debtors reach for the rest of that forgiveness.  Eventually they are saved in heaven and therefore are able to welcome the steward into heaven and enjoy glory with him.

It is possible that better understanding of this parable would have done a lot to help members in the early church.  I have read that in the early church that there arose a tradition of requiring a long and painful repentance process on those who repudiated their testimony under intense persecution.   The process could last over a year, and this led to people preferring not to be baptized when young because they feared they would sin and require that painful repentance process.  This also led to people choosing to not be baptized until near death.

I personally felt this kind of mercy was extended to me when I was a debtor, and I’m very thankful for it.

Neat principles in what Alma quotes Zenos about prayer

In this section of verses, Alma goes after the Zoramite mistaken notion that the only place they could worship was in the synagogue.

2 And Alma said unto them: Behold, ye have said that ye could not worship your God because ye are cast out of your synagogues. But behold, I say unto you, if ye suppose that ye cannot worship God, ye do greatly err, and ye ought to search the scriptures; if ye suppose that they have taught you this, ye do not understand them.

3 Do ye remember to have read what Zenos, the prophet of old, has said concerning prayer or worship?

4 For he said: Thou art merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer, even when I was in the wilderness; yea, thou wast merciful when I prayed concerning those who were mine enemies, and thou didst turn them to me.

5 Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me.

6 And again, O God, when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me in my prayer.

7 And when I did turn unto my closet, O Lord, and prayed unto thee, thou didst hear me.

8 Yea, thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men, and thou wilt hear them.

9 Yea, O God, thou hast been merciful unto me, and heard my cries in the midst of thy congregations.

10 Yea, and thou hast also heard me when I have been cast out and have been despised by mine enemies; yea, thou didst hear my cries, and wast angry with mine enemies, and thou didst visit them in thine anger with speedy destruction.

11 And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son. (Alma 33:2-11)

The repeated phrases of this section should stand out. (I marked them here so they become more obvious.)  Count how many times “thou art merciful” and variations are used.  Count how many times “thou didst hear me” and variations are used.  Count how many times “because of thy son” is used. This is the message that Zenos wanted to hammer into the people—“thou didst hear me and thou wast merciful because of thy Son.”

The part of Zenos which Alma quotes is interesting because it is essentially a prayer of realization as Zenos reports to the Lord what he’s learned about prayer from experience. It is interesting this prayer was written down. We usually don’t write down prayers; we usually say them. However, Zenos felt this one important enough to save for himself and others.  It is also possible that Zenos felt the only way he could teach his people about prayer was during a prayer (if they were getting hard-hearted).

Modern instances of prayers written down include temple dedicatory prayers—the Kirtland temple’s dedicatory prayer is in the Doctrine and Covenants—and a few others. When reading the first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, I was touched to see that many times Joseph Smith recorded his prayers for the cause of Zion and for individuals in the church, even if his prayers were brief. For some years afterward I experimented with writing prayers in my journal concerning different things I recorded.

Back to the above verses.  The first thing Alma does is preface the Zenos quotation with a statement that it teaches worship can be done outside of synagogue or church.  He essentially equates prayer with worship, and this is enlightening. Communication with our Heavenly Father can be considered worship. We usually think of worship as an exalting thing that widens the distance between man and God, but prayer as communication closes that distance, bringing man to God instead of pushing him away and downward. I don’t think prayer is the only means of worship, but it is definitely one aspect.

Another thing we can notice about the Zenos section is Zenos reports his prayers have been heard and answered when offered from a variety of places—in the wilderness, in his field, in his house, in his closet, in the midst of “thy congregations,” or after having been cast out.  It is also implied that Zenos was heard even in sin, since he says the Lord turned judgments away from him. Clearly anyplace is a good place for prayer.

Something I notice is that only a few of those prayers are declared to have visible effects that involve other people, and yet Zenos says multiple times, “thou didst hear me.” A question we can ask ourselves is, “Do we feel the Lord hearing us even if we don’t yet see a change in our circumstances?”

I can testify that I have felt the Lord hear my prayers. I don’t know if I can describe it, but it is like a silent message felt in my core—“I hear you. I’m listening.”  Something feels different about the air, like someone loving, caring, and interested is there.  Like there could be invisible beings listening.  You probably have had this same experience.

Another neat thing is how this all answers the Zoramite questions. If you remember, after Alma got finished comparing the word to a seed that could be planted and nourished, part of what the Zoramites wanted to know next was HOW they should begin to exercise their faith.  The simple, short answer of Alma 33 is just three easy things: 1) pray 2) read the scriptures 3) believe Christ can save you in any predicament. 

Doesn’t that sound like the perfect way to begin building faith? I must be very slow because I never connected that together until when I started studying this chapter more closely, and I think it is SO COOL!!   If any time we feel lacking in faith or feeling unstable in the gospel, if we go back to those three basic practices – and it takes practice—we will start building our faith more.  No longer do we need to flop around helplessly, flailing in our doubts, seeking refuge in worldly things.  Just go straight to prayer, scripture study, and belief in Christ’s salvation.

Verse 8 tells us there can’t be any pretense in our prayers. “Thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men.” Heavenly Father knows us inside and out. He knows if we’re just praying for other people to admire us. He knows when we’re just making a public performance out of it solely for our own prestige. 

In Zenos’ prayer he says over and over that he did “cry” unto God.  When we are in deep distress there can certainly be tears involved, but I think he mostly means he raised his voice loudly in his prayers. It may be hard to imagine praying like this. Usually we think of prayers as being silent or quiet reverent things. Zenos shows us that Heavenly Father hears us even when we are loud.

I have personal experience with praying loudly. Usually my prayers get loud when I am frustrated. I feel most comfortable with loud prayers when I’m alone. It feels odd at first, but it has become more natural, and I know the Lord has heard me. I have complained, I have vented when my weaknesses have messed things up, I have railed against my ignorance, I have thrashed in uncertainty about what I should do, I have ranted about overwhelm and fear.  Heavenly Father has heard my cries, and I’ve felt that.

Another cool thing about Zenos’ prayer is it shows us different ways the Lord can help us deal with enemies when we pray. Verse 4 tells how Zenos prayed about his enemies and the Lord turned his enemies so they became friends. Verse 10 tells us that after Zenos had been cast out and despised by other enemies, the Lord was angry with his enemies and destroyed them.  (We also get another possible response from Nephi, who prayed about his brothers who were his enemies and he was directed to leave them.)   In passing, I have to note that the possibility that the Lord would punish the enemies of the righteous who are cast out and despised foreshadows how the poor Zoramites would be cast out and how the wicked Zoramites would eventually destroy themselves in battling the Nephites. 

The Zenos mentions his prayers are heard and mercy is given “because of thy Son,” which shows us that there was knowledge among the Jews during Old Testament times that there was a Father and a Son who would come. Our Old Testament only speaks of Jehovah, so Zeno’s knowledge (and also Zenock’s later in the chapter) shows us that by some means that knowledge of Father and Son had been suppressed.

In verse 11, there is something else to give us faith to pray, which I’ve touched on a little before. “for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son.”  Zenox learned he could pray for forgiveness and he would still be heard in his sinful state. This lets us know we are not stuck in some radio silence away from heaven because of our sins and weaknesses.  We can reach out. Zenos also knew when he was forgiven. He knew judgments had been turned away from him. He could feel it.  I believe we can look for that too as we pray for forgiveness.

Verse 11 gives us another truth—“thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me.”  Zenos knew Heavenly Father could hear his prayers, but he didn’t get confused about how Christ’s atonement fit into that. He knew that without the atonement, Heavenly Father would still hear prayers, but would be unable to show mercy because of our fallen state.  Prayers are mercifully answered specifically because of the atonement of Christ.  If we ever wondered why prayer has power, now we know why. Our prayers use the atonement. 

So, let’s see if we can pull together a list of principles from this prayer of Zenos.

·      God mercifully answers our prayers because of Christ.

·      We are heard when we pray for forgiveness. We will know judgments have been turned away.

·      The Father and the Son were known in the Old Testament.

·      We can pray about our enemies.

·      We can cry to the Lord. We can know He has heard us.

·      Pretentious prayer is bad, so we should pray to be heard by God.

·      Prayer is a way for us to begin to exercise our faith.

·      The Lord will hear our prayers anywhere.

·      Prayer can be written and recorded.

Today let’s try to make our prayers more meaningful and concentrate on hearing and feeling responses from the Lord.

To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little

You’re probably familiar with the story in Luke 7:36-48 of Jesus at the Pharisee’s house with the woman who came and wiped His feet with her hair and anointed them with ointment.  When the Pharisee looked down on the woman for her demonstrative love and because she was a sinner, Jesus told the parable of the two debtors, one owing five hundred pence and the other owing fifty, which a creditor forgave.  He asked the Pharisee which debtor would love the creditor the most for that, and the answer was of course, “he, to whom he forgave the most.”

Now we come to the punchline that hit me different recently.

44 And he [Jesus] turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. (Luke 7:36-48, emphasis added)

Previously I thought Jesus was just saying that Simon (the Pharisee) didn’t have very many sins to be forgiven of and that meant he didn’t love Jesus as much.

But recently I realized that Jesus didn’t say anything about how many sins Simon had; we just assume it was fewer because of the comparable sizes of the debts in the parable.   Also, it doesn’t say anything about whether Jesus forgave Simon or not; we just assume He did because of the parable.

I suspect that Simon had begun to repent, but that he hadn’t finished yet.  And because he was not finished, I think he still probably viewed faith in Jesus to repentance as a sort of last-resort tool or something to not be used very often.  Because he hadn’t used it much, he wasn’t as grateful as the woman, who had some serious sins that had been forgiven her.

Now here’s a question you may have had about this parable, even if only subconsciously.  (I know I had it myself.)  We may wonder, “If I haven’t committed huge sins, does that mean I am doomed to love Jesus less?” 

We don’t want to go the route of committing big sins just to repent so we can love Jesus more.  Sin is still sin; it still alienates us from the Lord.

The solution is that we gain greater appreciation for Christ’s atonement over time as we use it in our lives.   

When I was a teen, I knew about the atonement in theory, but I still had this foolish idea that I could do things myself.  Naturally, I didn’t appreciate the atonement much.   But as I came to points where I had to experience it and use it, I came to appreciate it more. 

Now, as I look back over the sins and mistakes that I’ve made and been forgiven of, as well as the weaknesses that I’ve asked for enabling power to cope with, I have a much greater appreciation and gratitude for it.   (I also sense that my gratitude is much smaller than it should be.)  But I imagine that my gratitude will only grow the more I use it in my life until the day I die when I will testify it was the only way I made it.

Disciples given power to remit sins

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Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)

Jesus spoke this as He visited His disciples for the first time after His resurrection, and as I read it, it struck me how amazing it was that He gave them this power.

It establishes the principle of confession of sins to priesthood authority. (I wonder whether this was to supersede or complement the practice of sacrifice at the temple.)  They can’t go around forgiving random people; they have to wait for people to come to them and confess. 

The power to remit sins isn’t just a feel-good encouragement.  It is the power to declare the heavenly record modified and a person’s sins expunged from that record.  That’s huge.   They can act as agents of God and declare them forgiven as God would do if He were there working with the person.

Our priesthood leaders have this power today and it is such a blessing.  We can go to the bishop and make confession and work through the repentance process with priesthood guidance.

Nabal and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25

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The story of Nabal and Abigail is an interesting one that has all kinds of interesting indications of character.

Briefly speaking, the story is this: David asks Nabal for food because he and his men kept Nabal’s flocks safe.  Nabal refuses rudely.  David decides to kill Nabal and his household, but Abigail (Nabal’s wife) finds out what her husband did and goes out with a big present of food to apologize for Nabal.  She pacifies David.  After she tells Nabal what happened, Nabal dies and then David marries Abigail.

What kind of person is Nabal?  His name means fool and was probably a nickname.  He was very great and rich, having 3000 sheep and 1000 goats.  But he was “churlish and evil in his doings” (v3).  He was of the house of Caleb (v3), but didn’t have Caleb’s nobility of character.  By one of his servants he was described as “such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him” (v17), meaning his servants must have frequently tried to reason with him to prevent him from making mistakes and he wouldn’t listen.  Even his wife knew he was a fool (v25).  He held feasts in his house like feasts of a king (v36), so he had plenty of food, and he seemed to think nothing of feasting without his wife (v36).  He also got very drunk (v36).

What kind of person was Abigail?  Her name means “my father is joy.”  She is described as “of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance” (v3).  She has the confidence of the servants because she is informed of problems (v14-17).  She takes action quickly and is generous (v18), she is a peacemaker and tries to smooth things over for her husband and for the sake of her household.  Also, the things she says to David about how the Lord will make him a sure house and he will be appointed ruler over Israel indicate she is far-seeing and could be considered prophetic.  Her concern that David not ruin his excellent record so far or have any regrets shows she is a true friend who sees the spiritual importance of staying pure.  Even though she doesn’t tell her husband what she’s going to do, she tells him afterward, so she takes responsibility and keeps him in the loop (v36), though that must have been hard when it went so against his wishes.

One question that might naturally come at this point is “How did these two ever get married in the first place?”  How did such a good woman end up with such a jerk for a husband?  Did she make a bad choice?  I don’t know if we can assume that marriages were formed the same way back then as they are today.  They may have been paired by parents and she didn’t know enough about Nabal to refuse.  Also, it is likely that she had to develop that good understanding out of self-defense in her marriage to cope with him.

It is interesting that after Nabal insults David’s messengers that one of Nabal’s servants goes directly to Abigail and tells her what happened and Abigail acts immediately, preparing this big food gift and delivers it personally without telling her husband.  That is a lot of stuff going on behind Nabal’s back.  And I bet you this is not a one-time event.  I bet that Nabal has been rubbing people wrong for a very very long time, and his servants and his wife have had to learn how to cope and pacify and mollify everyone whose feathers he’s ruffled. 

In fact, I bet that Abigail had to take a lot of the management of Nabal’s concerns herself, managing from the shadows, so to speak.  We get a glimpse of this when in her apology to David she says, “I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send” (v25).  She implies that if they had come to her, the response would have been different, and she was the one who took care of business, not her husband.

Also note that Nabal has no clue that what he’s said to David’s messengers is going to have any consequences or that his refusal is bad.  But Nabal’s servant who informs Abigail, and Abigail herself are completely aware of what is about to happen if they don’t do something fast, and they are completely right.  There is a major mismatch here about awareness of consequences.  That suggests that Abigail has been smoothing things over for so long that Nabal hasn’t learned there are consequences for being a jerk and he’s gotten worse over time.  And this time he’s angered the wrong guy and if Abigail hadn’t stepped in, he and the other men of the household would have been dead.

Was Nabal like this only with servants and outsiders?  Odds are that Nabal treated Abigail badly too.  She probably suffered under his critical eye and he was dismissive of her abilities just as he was dismissive of David’s messengers and refused to believe David and his men had helped him.  Abigail probably had to pacify Nabal and submit to unreasonable demands a lot.  In fact, her powerful appeal to David was probably informed by a huge amount of practice with apologizing and humbling herself to Nabal.

This should bring us to ask ourselves whether we are like Nabal or like Abigail.  Are we the kind of person who has to be pacified and have messes smoothed over for, or are we the kind of person who does the peacemaking and apologizing?  Are we the kind of person that no one can reason with, or are we the kind of person that can be warned and will take immediate action?

We can see Abigail had a hard life married to Nabal, even if they were very wealthy.  She could have given up.  She could have become Nabal’s enemy.  She could have left him.  If she had been any less of a righteous woman, she could have chosen to do nothing and then David would have rid her of her obnoxious husband.  But instead she acted against her own personal interest and pled for Nabal to be spared.  That is Godlike love right there.  In fact, she becomes a type of Christ: “Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be” (1 Sam. 25:24).  She is willing to be punished for her husband’s sins to save him, jerk that he was.

So, looking at this again, if Abigail is a type of Christ, Nabal typifies Adam and the rest of fallen mankind—deaf to good advice, thinking there is nothing wrong with us when we have offended many times over, shielded so many times from the immediate consequences that we don’t realize the doom that approaches, unwilling to acknowledge we’ve been helped by anyone if we can’t directly see it, returning railing and insult for justified requests for help or pay, feasting and enjoying ourselves while unaware of our danger.  If we, as Nabal, were informed of our true situation, our hearts would probably die within us too.

The truth is, we need a redeemer as badly as Nabal needed Abigail.  And Abigail’s determination and haste to plead for Nabal teaches us about Christ’s love and willingness to hurry and plead for us, even though we have made His suffering great.

Now, let’s look at this story even more granularly to see what more we can learn.

4 ¶And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

9 And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. (1 Sam. 25:4-9)

David hears that Nabal is shearing his sheep and he sends ten messengers to ask Nabal if he can give anything from his feasting to help David, even though it would have been a temptation to just take what they needed.  Living off the land as David and his men were, any place they could build goodwill became a possible source of support, so he may have hoped that if he helped Nabal, Nabal would help him back.  He invited Nabal to confirm the claims of David’s messengers by asking his own servants. He didn’t even make a demand for a certain amount; he left it up to Nabal, trusting Nabal’s generosity.  (Sadly,  in this case, it was trust misplaced.) 

Here’s Nabal’s answer:

10 ¶And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? (1 Sam.25:10-11)

Nabal undoubtedly had many servants leave him because of his jerkiness, but he didn’t realize he was the problem.  He just knew he had troubles keeping workers, so he looked upon David and Saul’s situation from that perspective and judged David to be an ungrateful servant breaking away from Saul.  It is also possible that he was suspicious about the messengers themselves, wondering if they were just using David’s name to try to get in on the feast he prepared.

Concerning their claims that they didn’t hurt Nabal’s sheep or bother his shepherds, Nabal doubts they made any difference at all, and rather than inquire of his servants whether it is true whether David’s men were helpful or not, he makes a snap judgment that they don’t deserve it since he doesn’t know them.  (Clearly Nabal hadn’t been out with the shepherds.)  I think it is pretty bad how Nabal could have learned the truth if he had just asked them and he chose not to.

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. (1 Sam. 25:14-17)

One of Nabal’s servants gives Abigail the benefit of the information that Nabal should have heard but didn’t.  And Abigail learns that not only did David’s men refrain from sheep-stealing, but they had been an extra protection for the flocks, keeping thieves away and keeping sheep from wandering.  In doing so, they really were like an army of shepherds.

I notice the servant doesn’t tell Abigail what to do to help the situation of Nabal’s rudeness; he only tells her to think about what she’s going to do and that “evil is determined against our master and against all his household” (v17).

So Abigail jumps into action and she gets all this food ready:

200 loaves of bread

2 bottles of wine

5 dressed sheep

5 measures of parched corn

200 raison clusters

200 fig cakes

I don’t think Abigail had to make all this right then.  I think it was already on hand in huge amounts for the kingly feast Nabal was about to have anyway (v36).  There was so much food already on hand that evidently what she took was never missed.

Notice that when Nabal talked to David’s servants about the food he’d have to give up he talks about bread, water, and flesh, and then look at the kinds of food Abigail prepared.  Nabal was downplaying the quality of food they had and trying to make it seem like he had only just enough for his own servants and nothing to spare.  He didn’t want to give anything.

Naturally when David finds out Nabal was so rude, he decides it is time to rid the world of a worthless, inhospitable person and household. 

As David gets ready to go kill Nabal and his household, he says so with an oath, but his oath is kind of funny:

So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. (v22)

The usual oath is “God do so to me and more also if I don’t ________” and it essentially asks for God to punish you if you don’t do what you have decided to do.  But David’s oath is different.  “So and more also do God unto the enemies of David if ______”  He’s asking God to punish his enemies if he doesn’t do what he says he will do.  It’s kind of funny because no way would God punish someone else completely unrelated if David doesn’t do what he promised; that would be unjust.  But the main effect of saying that is David’s pretty sure he’s going to do it, but he’s leaving the door open in case something prevents him for a good reason.  And it’s a good thing he did because Abigail has some really good reasons why he shouldn’t kill Nabal and all his men.

David is an excellent contrast to Saul, who makes strong oaths all over the place, and then finds himself breaking them because extenuating circumstances arise, to the point that soon his oaths mean nothing.

So lets look at what Abigail says to David after she throws herself at his feet. 

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

26 Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

30 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid. (1 Sam. 25:23-31)

First, notice that it repeats three times that Abigail abased herself in some way.  Repeating three times is the superlative form, like of like “best” is for us.  It shows us that Abigail humbled herself to the greatest extent that she could.

When she pleads for Nabal to David, another thing to notice is how she refers to herself and how she refers to David.  She calls herself “thine handmaid” six times and calls David “my lord” 14 times.  She’s humbling herself and exalting him.  That she’s so quick to do this and does it so well speaks of the practice she’s had at it and that she’s realized it doesn’t hurt her in any way, even though she is the wife of a “great” man.

There’s also something else happening subtly in the background of everything she says.  She starts out requesting that Nabal’s iniquity be upon her, essentially a request to be punished in his place.  Then, midway, her request becomes “forgive the trespass of thine handmaid,” which means she asks not to be punished.  And then at the end, her request is “when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid,” which implies she’s doing him a favor that he can repay later.  I think she probably hopes that he’ll see that her persuasion to keep him from shedding blood in this case is an important spiritual service more important than the food she brings.  This suggests that maybe we should try to see warnings as great services as well.

There’s one thing Abigail says that seems kind of strange:

Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. (v26)

It seems to express the wish that all David’s enemies could be like Nabal is at this stage with the assumption that David will not kill him.  But Nabal is rich and a complete jerk.  Adding to this, to underline her words, she uses the strongest oath she can—“as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth.”  I can only conclude that Abigail understands Nabal’s true state and knows he’s in deep trouble, that it is only a matter of time before he is taken out of the world.  He is not to be envied even if he is rich.  He is not even to be feared.  (And we see that she is right.  Nabal was in his very last days, even if no one knew it.)

The upshot of Abigail’s appeal is that David listens and does not destroy Nabal and his household.

36 ¶And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died. (1 Sam. 25:36-38)

Abigail goes back home and finds Nabal drunk and feasting.  Wisely she waits ‘til later to tell him what she did so his head will be clear.  If he’s a fool while sober, he’d be even worse while drunk, right?

When she tells him in the morning, it says, “his heart died within him, and he became as a stone” (v37).  I think this means his courage and confidence in himself died.  If he had a heart attack and his heart literally died right then he would have died that day, but he lived 10 days longer.

Consider all the many reasons a selfish conceited person like him would have to lose courage.

1. He made a huge mistake without realizing it when trying to protect his interests, and the consequences would have destroyed him and his household unawares.

2. Rather than him being the one who protected his whole household, his wife had. 

3. His wife couldn’t even tell him what she was going to do beforehand because he would’ve stopped her and that would’ve sealed the fate of him and his household.

4. He hadn’t listened to his servants who tried to tell him. 

If Nabal was in any way thoughtful, he would have thought about all the decisions he’d made throughout his life that brought him to that point.  He would have to realize he had been wrong so much of the time.  And that realization—“everything you’ve done to protect your interests has been offensive and wrong all along”—is incredibly painful.  The man wouldn’t know what to do with himself.

Ten days later, Nabal is dead from some sort of disease.

39 ¶And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. (1 Sam. 25:39-40)

When David heard Nabal was dead, he saw it as vindication from the Lord, and he admired Abigail enough to want her for his wife.  He had already seen her faithfulness to her husband Nabal, so he knew she would definitely be faithful to David.  She had seen how she advocated for Nabal, so he knows she will advocate for him too.  He needs good allies who will stick with him, and she is a good choice.  Also, her forward-thinking and anticipation of him eventually gaining the throne will encourage him through the hard times.  Annnnd, her generosity will make it much easier for him and his men to live on the run from Saul.

So he sends servants to her to tell her he wants to take her to wife.  What is her response?

41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

42 And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. (1 Sam.25:41-42)

She asks to serve David’s servants by washing their feet.  It is as if she doesn’t ask for or anticipate anything more than a life of service.  For a woman who has been head of a great household with many servants, this is incredible humility. 

It is also a very wise move.  She doesn’t know what kind of command structure David has in his army of followers or in his household.  She realizes that if she joins the household as a high-and-mighty woman she will stir up hostility and resentment and she knows from seeing Nabal at work how detrimental that can be.  So she’s willing to “start from the bottom” and be helpful to everyone as she figures out her place and demonstrates her worth.  She wants them to know she is not a threat and she won’t make trouble.

Abigail’s approach is a smart thing to do for anyone who joins an organization as a leader.  Learning the ropes and serving everyone makes more friends than lording it over everyone.

Is there anything else you learn from Abigail?