King Saul Turns on David
READ 18:6-9, 12
What causes King Saul to turn
on David?
READ 1 Samuel 18:1-5
How is it possible that two
men, Saul and Jonathan, could respond so differently to the loss of the throne?
How is it possible that one
man, David, could respond with the same loving attitude toward two men, Saul
and Jonathan, who treated him so differently?
But from that time on, King
Saul tries to have David killed; and eventually to hunt down and kill David
himself. David flees to the Judean
wilderness along the border of the Dead Sea, where he gains the leadership of a
group of outlaws. Things escalate to the
point that Saul gathers 3,000 men to hunt David and his outlaw band in the
desert. As luck may have it, Saul finds
a large cave in which to spend the night - the same cave that David and his men
use for their headquarters.
READ 1 Samuel 24:3-4
Why did David cut off a piece
of Saul’s robe?
READ 1 Samuel 24:12
How does David really feel?
David and Abigail on the
Road to Carmel
David escapes to the desert
with his band. While there, they protect
the flocks of a wealthy man named Nabal from other outlaws and Bedouin
tribesmen, in return for a future payment of food and some sheepskins for clothing. But when David’s servants went to collect the
payment at the end of the season, Nabal said “Who is David and who is the son
of Jesse? …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?”
READ 1 Samuel 25:12-13
Why is David’s response to
Nabal’s fraud and personal slight different from his response to Saul’s murder
attempt and banishment of David?
What is David’s intent for
Nabal and his household?
Why is being mistreated the
most important condition of mortality?
Nabal’s wife, Abigail, finds
out about what Nabal had done to David.
Fearing that he would march on their home in the hill country of Carmel,
she prepares all that is owed, and MORE, has it loaded on donkeys, and secretly
rides out to head off David and his army of 400 angry men.
READ 1 Samuel 25:25
Who is Abigail?
READ 1 Samuel 25:23-24, 28
What did Abigail do for Nabal?
READ 1 Samuel 25:32-33
What did Abigail do for David?
Who is the real “sinner” in
this story?
Who committed the greater sin?
The Atonement of Christ
When Christ stands before the
Father (and comes to us) to atone for the sins of another and seek our
forgiveness, does He say “forgive them for they know not what they do” or does
he say “forgive the trespass of thy servant?”
Neither Abigail nor Christ
actually committed the sin, but their willingness to assume another’s sins
illustrates who forgiveness is for; so who is forgiveness for?
Why must the victim forgive a legitimate
offense?
Why does Christ/Abigail not
haul the sinner forward and make them beg the victim for forgiveness (“say
you’re sorry, and MEAN it this time!”)?
Should it matter to the victim
if the sinner is really repentant or not?
It is as if, in the Garden of
Gethsemane, the Lord’s agony came in waves - a first wave for the sins that we
commit against the Lord, each other and ourselves, with all of the regrets,
shame and guilt that come with realizing truly what we have done - standing in
the light of day with a full realization of all our guilt. But then it is as if a second wave would
follow and mirror the first, and in the second wave He suffered the pains
endured by the victims of the acts committed by those in the first wave - now
it was anger, bitterness, loss and resentment.
Why might the second wave (the
victim’s hurt) be harder to suffer than the sins of the first wave (the
sinner)?
Why are we required to lay
down any burden we may be carrying - including forgiving those that unjustly
sin against us?
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