Reading: 1 Samuel 25-27, Psalm 85

The story of the book of Samuel for the last several chapters has been a parallel narrative of two men, one who had the title of king, and the other who acted like the king. While all this was happening, Samuel, the dedicated servant of the God of Israel, has been alive, watching the proceedings. At the start of today’s reading, we hear that Samuel has died, and Israel gathers to mourn. Though this is a short note in our story, the death of Samuel is not placed coincidentally, and indicates the closing of one part of the story and the beginning of another.

Following Samuel’s death we get the story of David and Abigail. At first, it seems we are simply continuing the adventures of David as a wilderness outlaw who fights Israel’s enemies, but there is more going on in this story. We are introduced to Nabal, the unfortunately named but very wealthy lord of a large area in southern Judah, and a descendant of Caleb. David and Nabal had previous dealings, in which David protected Nabal’s shepherds from banditry, and now David is coming to collect on the favor. Occasionally someone will point out how this looks like a protection racket from David, but it is important to remember how business was conducted in the ancient world. One did not simple ask for payment for services rendered as we would today. Everything was a relationship, and David’s request for food from Nabal was a way of getting paid for his services. Nabal’s refusal is tantamount to theft of services, and David’s angry response is rather justified. However, Nabal’s servants understand what their master has done, and tell his wife Abigail that David’s men are not who Nabal made them out to be. Abigail averts disaster for them all by not only giving David the payment he deserved, but going out and personally rendering an apology to David.

In the process, she makes a couple of important points. She tells David that she is preventing him from undue guilt for killing Nabal in defense of his own rights. Now, David had a right to be mad at Nabal. Up to this point, though, David has consistently relied on God to bring him what he deserves. The storyteller is subtly showing us that following the death of Samuel, he has departed from that policy. The story of Abigail and Nabal wraps up with God passing judgment on Nabal, as he dies suddenly on hearing the news of his near destruction from Abigail. That could have been the end of it, but there is a little more to the story: David sends for Abigail and marries her.

So what is the deal with this? Abigail is not a poor widow who needs David’s protection like Ruth in the story with Boaz. However, by marrying her David gains claim to Nabal’s property, assuming she does not have a son to contend for it, which does not appear to be the case. Also, she, a wealthy woman, is only too ready to marry a military leader of David’s quality and reputation. It is a positive power move for both of them. Along the way we are told that David has also married another woman, besides Michal the daughter of Saul, who he is still married to, although Saul has married her off again. This multiplication of wives is David’s first great misstep in fulfilling the proper role of the king in Israel. The Deuteronomy 17 regulations for the king specifically prohibit his accumulating many wives, but David now has three, and he’s not done.

Following this adventure, Saul again hunts for David, and the people of Zuph again betray David to Saul. There follows a scene where David has the ability to kill Saul, but he does not, and even prevents one of his men from striking the blow, which would have given David an excuse to claim the throne without saying he killed the previous king. Still, this is somewhat different than that first story where Saul happens into the cave where David is hiding. This time David invades the camp of Saul while he is sleeping and steals his spear and water jug. The spear is particularly significant as it is closely associated with Saul’s kingship. He is generally described as holding his spear at court, and by stealing it David is making a statement about Saul’s leadership.

Like the previous story, David confronts Saul following the incident where he spares his life, but there are differences again. David calls out the poor defenses of the camp and insults Abner, Saul’s general. He also makes a point about who Saul is acting in the service of. He says that if God is directing Saul, all well and good, but if it is a man, he is cursed. Saul, to his credit here, admits that he is wrong and tells David to come back to his service. But David, returning the spear which is the symbol of Saul’s authority, departs instead.

David’s conduct here, which is still remarkably humble, has shifted to a much more bold posture. That he confronted Saul in the daylight in front of his soldiers, who heard the exchange, will put Saul under pressure to follow through on his words, and this is indeed the last story about Saul hunting David. David, though, does not trust Saul and instead flees for a second time to the Philistine king Achish. This time Achish is happy to take David on as a mercenary, and even gives him his own town, Ziklag. David takes up his old habit of fighting the enemies of Israel, making sure word of his activities cannot make it back to Achish, who believes he is totally separated from the people of Israel.

The stories of Saul and David’s competition for the throne of Israel are drawing to a close, and following the death of Samuel we are given hints about the eventual fall of David from his esteemed place in his accumulation of wives and his slight deviation from the total trust in God that he displayed at the beginning of the story. David is still basically an unbeatable superhero on the battlefield, but we are starting to see into his tragic flaws, which will grow to the point of showing us that he is not, after all, the anointed one that Israel needs.