M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Nabal Insults David

25 Now Samuel died, and all the Israelites met and had a time of sadness for him. Then they buried him at his home in Ramah.

David moved to the Desert of Maon.^{[a] 2} A man in Maon who had land at Carmel was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was cutting the wool off his sheep at Carmel. ³ His name was Nabal, and he was a descendant of Caleb. His wife was named Abigail. She was wise and beautiful, but Nabal was cruel and mean.

⁴ While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was cutting the wool from his sheep. ⁵ So he sent ten young men and told them, “Go to Nabal at Carmel, and greet him for me. ⁶ Say to Nabal, ‘May you and your family and all who belong to you have good health! ⁷ I have heard that you are cutting the wool from your sheep. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harm them. All the time your shepherds were at Carmel, we stole nothing from them. ⁸ Ask your servants, and they will tell you. We come at a happy time, so be kind to my young men. Please give anything you can find for them and for your son David.’”

⁹ When David’s men arrived, they gave the message to Nabal, but Nabal insulted them. ¹⁰ He answered them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many slaves are running away from their masters today! ¹¹ I have bread and water, and I have meat that I killed for my servants who cut the wool. But I won’t give it to men I don’t know.”

¹² David’s men went back and told him all Nabal had said. ¹³ Then David said to them, “Put on your swords!” So they put on their swords, and David put on his also. About four hundred men went with David, but two hundred men stayed with the supplies.

¹⁴ One of Nabal’s servants said to Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, but Nabal insulted them. ¹⁵ These men were very good to us. They did not harm us. They stole nothing from us during all the time we were out in the field with them. ¹⁶ Night and day they protected us. They were like a wall around us while we were with them caring for the sheep. ¹⁷ Now think about it, and decide what you can do. Terrible trouble is coming to our master and all his family. Nabal is such a wicked man that no one can even talk to him.”

¹⁸ Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two leather bags full of wine, five cooked sheep, a bushel of cooked grain, a hundred cakes of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and put all these on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she told her servants, “Go on. I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband.

²⁰ Abigail rode her donkey and came down toward the mountain hideout. There she met David and his men coming down toward her.

²¹ David had just said, “It’s been useless! I watched over Nabal’s property in the desert. I made sure none of his sheep was missing. I did good to him, but he has paid me back with evil. ²² May God punish my enemies even more. I will not leave one of Nabal’s men alive until morning.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed facedown on the ground before him. ²⁴ She fell at David’s feet and said, “My master, let the blame be on me! Please let me talk to you. Listen to what I say. ²⁵ My master, don’t pay attention to this worthless man Nabal. He is like his name. His name means ‘fool,’ and he is truly a fool. But I, your servant, didn’t see the men you sent. ²⁶ The Lord has kept you from killing and punishing anyone. As surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, may your enemies become like Nabal! ²⁷ I have brought a gift to you for the men who follow you. ²⁸ Please forgive my wrong. The Lord will certainly let your family have many kings, because you fight his battles. As long as you live, may you do nothing bad. ²⁹ Someone might chase you to kill you, but the Lord your God will keep you alive. He will throw away your enemies’ lives as he would throw a stone from a sling. ³⁰ The Lord will keep all his promises of good things for you. He will make you leader over Israel. ³¹ Then you won’t feel guilty or troubled because you killed innocent people and punished them. Please remember me when the Lord brings you success.”

³² David answered Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me. ³³ May you be blessed for your wisdom. You have kept me from killing or punishing people today. ³⁴ As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, he has kept me from hurting you. If you hadn’t come quickly to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would have lived until morning.”

³⁵ Then David accepted Abigail’s gifts. He told her, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words, and I will do what you have asked.”

Nabal’s Death

³⁶ When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was in the house, eating like a king. He was very drunk and in a good mood. So she told him nothing until the next morning. ³⁷ In the morning when he was not drunk, his wife told him everything. His heart stopped, and he became like stone. ³⁸ About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the Lord! Nabal insulted me, but the Lord has supported me! He has kept me from doing wrong. The Lord has punished Nabal for his wrong.”

Then David sent a message to Abigail, asking her to be his wife. ⁴⁰ His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David sent us to take you so you can become his wife.”

⁴¹ Abigail bowed facedown on the ground and said, “I am your servant. I’m ready to serve you and to wash the feet of my master’s servants.” ⁴² Abigail quickly got on a donkey and went with David’s messengers, with her five maids following her. And she became David’s wife.

⁴³ David also had married Ahinoam of Jezreel. So they were both David’s wives. ⁴⁴ Saul’s daughter Michal was also David’s wife, but Saul had given her to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

Judging Problems Among Christians

6 When you have something against another Christian, how can you bring yourself to go before judges who are not right with God? Why do you not let God’s people decide who is right? ² Surely you know that God’s people will judge the world. So if you are to judge the world, are you not able to judge small cases as well? ³ You know that in the future we will judge angels, so surely we can judge the ordinary things of this life. ⁴ If you have ordinary cases that must be judged, are you going to appoint people as judges who mean nothing to the church? ⁵ I say this to shame you. Surely there is someone among you wise enough to judge a complaint between believers. ⁶ But now one believer goes to court against another believer—and you do this in front of unbelievers!

⁷ The fact that you have lawsuits against each other shows that you are already defeated. Why not let yourselves be wronged? Why not let yourselves be cheated? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do this to other believers!

⁹ - ¹⁰ Surely you know that the people who do wrong will not inherit God’s kingdom. Do not be fooled. Those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, those who are male prostitutes, or men who have sexual relations with other men, those who steal, are greedy, get drunk, lie about others, or rob—these people will not inherit God’s kingdom. ¹¹ In the past, some of you were like that, but you were washed clean. You were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Use Your Bodies for God’s Glory

¹² “I am allowed to do all things,” but not all things are good for me to do. “I am allowed to do all things,” but I will not let anything make me its slave. ¹³ “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not for sexual sin but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God has raised the Lord from the dead and will also raise us from the dead. ¹⁵ Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself. So I must never take the parts of Christ and join them to a prostitute! ¹⁶ It is written in the Scriptures, “The two will become one body.”^[a] So you should know that anyone who joins with a prostitute becomes one body with the prostitute. ¹⁷ But the one who joins with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord.

¹⁸ So run away from sexual sin. Every other sin people do is outside their bodies, but those who sin sexually sin against their own bodies. ¹⁹ You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, ²⁰ because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies.

The Map of Jerusalem

4 “Now, human, get yourself a brick, put it in front of you, and draw a map of Jerusalem on it. ² Then surround it with an army. Build battle works against the city and a dirt road to the top of the city walls. Set up camps around it, and put heavy logs in place to break down the walls. ³ Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up like an iron wall between you and the city. Turn your face toward the city as if to attack it and then attack. This is a sign to Israel.

⁴ “Then lie down on your left side, and take the guilt of Israel on yourself. Their guilt will be on you for the number of days you lie on your left side. ⁵ I have given you the same number of days as the years of the people’s sin. So you will have the guilt of Israel’s sin on you for three hundred ninety days.

⁶ “After you have finished these three hundred ninety days, lie down a second time, on your right side. You will then have the guilt of Judah on you. I will give it to you for forty days, a day for each year of their sin. ⁷ Then you will look toward Jerusalem, which is being attacked. With your arm bare, you will prophesy against Jerusalem. ⁸ I will put ropes on you so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your attack on Jerusalem.

⁹ “Take wheat, barley, beans, small peas, and millet seeds, and put them in one bowl, and make them into bread for yourself. You will eat it the three hundred ninety days you lie on your side. ¹⁰ You will eat eight ounces of food every day at set times. ¹¹ You will drink about two-thirds of a quart of water every day at set times. ¹² Eat your food as you would eat a barley cake, baking it over human dung where the people can see.” ¹³ Then the Lord said, “In the same way Israel will eat unclean food among the nations where I force them to go.”

¹⁴ But I said, “No, Lord God! I have never been made unclean. From the time I was young until now I’ve never eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by animals. Unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”

¹⁵ “Very well,” he said. “Then I will give you cow’s dung instead of human dung to use for your fire to bake your bread.”

¹⁶ He also said to me, “Human, I am going to cut off the supply of bread to Jerusalem. They will eat the bread that is measured out to them, and they will worry as they eat. They will drink water that is measured out to them, and they will be in shock as they drink it. ¹⁷ This is because bread and water will be hard to find. The people will be shocked at the sight of each other, and they will become weak because of their sin.

Praise and Prayer for Help

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

A Prayer in Time of Sickness

For the director of music. A psalm of David.