Focus

Breathe in clear thoughts of peace and reflection as you prepare to hear God speak to you through the scripture and the writer. Put aside all the things the world says you have to accomplish today and use this time to rest in God’s presence.

---

Read

1 Samuel 25:2-22 (NRSV)

There was a man in Maon, whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was clever and beautiful, but the man was surly and mean; he was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. Thus you shall salute him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing, all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your sight; for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David; and then they waited. But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” So David’s young men turned away, and came back and told him all this. David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every one of them strapped on his sword; David also strapped on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he shouted insults at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields, as long as we were with them; they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do; for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.”

Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys and said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me; I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. As she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them. Now David had said, “Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; but he has returned me evil for good. God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

---

Reflect

Over these last few months, never has it been clearer that there is a breach, a rift, a divide in our world and especially here in the United States. Factions have dug in, insults are being shouted across the chasm at one another, and is blame being tossed like grenades. Many claim they have never seen such division. As we near the election of the next commander-in-chief, it’s only getting worse.

In this little-known story from First Samuel, Nabal (which means “fool”) lived up to his name. David sent some of his men to seek refuge from Nabal, but they were turned away. Even after learning that David’s men had protected his workers, Nabal still refused their request. Nabal’s response angered David, who began to gather an army to strike down Nabal and his men.

Abigail, Nabal’s wife, had learned of the impending revenge. She set about, without her husband’s knowledge, to repair this relationship. Abigail gathered and delivered the supplies David and his men needed, thus ending this precarious situation.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus said, basically called every Christian on the carpet. Our calling is to follow the example of Christ and STOP THE FIGHTING! While even Christians may not agree on everything, they can learn (and teach) how to disagree in love and stand to bridge the gap of hate with a message of peace. May we try living into the old saying: In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.

---

Pray

Loving and patient God, give us strength to stand together in love. In those times when we can’t agree, help us to disagree with love in our heart. Let us be instruments of peace in this time of division. May we also remember that our peace comes not from humanity, but from you. Amen.

Go with God.