Day 107 —  We have been reading the Bible daily for almost a third of the year. What have you learned about God? About yourself?

Day 107 – 1 Samuel 25 – 27 (Samuel dies, Nabal/Abigail, David/Saul, David/Philistines)

Away from those lovely Psalms and back to history.

The first thing we read in Chapter 25, is that the prophet, Samuel dies and is mourned.  It’s another end of an era, where Israel will have kings alone to lead them. (Yes, there will be prophets, but not a prophet/priest like Samuel.)

David is still running from Saul, hiding wherever he and his 600 men can find. In this story, they protect a very wealthy man’s livestock for a season. No animal or human predator had harmed a single one of them. So when the thousand sheep are brought in to be sheered, David sends men to Nabal to collect food for his men as payment for their service.

But the “foolish” Nabal, holds tight to his pennies and refuses to give a single fig. Angered by his refusal to compensate, David gathers 400 of his men to pay back the ingrate. (Kill every last one of them.) But Abigail, Nabal’s wise wife, hears and immediately remedies the situation by loading multiple donkeys with enough food to feed David and his army. Plus, she runs ahead and bows before the kingly commander and begs his forgiveness.  David admires her for her peacemaking, accepts the loot, and praises God for using her to keep him from sin.  And… after her husband, the fool, dies, David takes Abigail as his wife. Whoa! Fairy tale story!

A short note at the end of the chapter tells us that David took a third wife, Ahinoam.  and that his first wife, Saul’s daughter, Michal, had been taken from him (while he was on the run) and given to another man.

Chapter 26 shows David again running from the mad King Saul (and 3,000 of his men) after the people of Ziph tattle about his whereabouts. David again spares Saul’s life when he could easily have taken it. While the king and his soldiers slept a “deep sleep from the LORD,” David crept down to within a foot of where Saul snored.  He took his spear and water bottle and left.

Then, on a hill with a “great deal of space” between him and Saul, David calls out and chides Abner, his captain for not protecting his lord. When Abner and the groggy king see David waving the spear and water bottle, they recognize that God kept David from killing him. Saul apologizes, packs up, and goes home, with even a blessing for David.

Chapter 27 shows that Saul’s change of heart doesn’t last and that he soon pursues David again. And David AGAIN escapes to the land of the Philistines. Achish, the king of Gath, allows him to stay, believing wrongly that David and his men are warring against their own people. In reality, David is attacking smaller Gershurites, Girzites, and Amalekites towns, killing all so there are no witnesses, and bringing the loot back to Achish.

While God commanded Israel to do this when they first conquered the land, David’s deception was wrong.  However, the king of Gath was happy and even gave David and his men the town of Ziklag, which became David’s official “fort.”