1 Samuel 25:9-18 – When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name.  Then they waited.  Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David?  Who is this son of Jesse?  Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.  Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?” . . .  Abigail lost no time.  She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys…”

Nabal was a wealthy man in Israel.  He was harsh and self-centered.  His name is the Hebrew word for “fool,” (nabal) and he belonged to the clan of “Calebites,” which in the Hebrew was the same word for “dogs.” (See also Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15).  This story happened while David was in the wilderness, hiding from his persecutors.  David and his men had helped guard Nabal’s shepherds and farm workers and treated them well for a period of some weeks.  All this occurred in an area called Carmel, which means “vineyard” in Hebrew, which reminds us of the abundant blessings we have through the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  When David needed some provisions for his men, he sent messengers asking Nabal for help.  Nabal refused, insulting David and his men, showing ingratitude for all they had done for him.

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2 Samuel 24:1-4 - Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”  So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”  The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders…

This census was one of David’s two greatest sins. The story is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 21, which says God incited David by allowing the Enemy to tempt him to do this. This sin of counting the “sheep” of Israel (see 2 Samuel 24:17) brought a terrible judgment from the Lord. 70,000 people died from a plague throughout the country, within three days’ time! We often compare the Work of the Holy Spirit to the “work of David,” so it is important to see the application of this problem in David’s life to our churches today.

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Acts 13:20-22 - “After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.  Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.  After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” 

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1 Samuel 22:1 -  ”David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. “

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1 Samuel 13:14 - the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Acts 13:22 - “After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”

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“With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.” - 1 Samuel 24:7

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Acts 13:22 – ” After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” 

Saul had a large standing army and weapons, but could not fight against a single person who defied his army (Goliath – see 1 Samuel 17).  David defeated Goliath with a simple stone and slingshot. 

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2 Chronicles 35:15  - ”The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, were in the places prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made the preparations for them…”

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1 Kings 1:38-40 - “So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down and put Solomon on King David’s mule and escorted him to Gihon.  Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, ‘Long live King Solomon!’  And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound.”  

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1 Samuel 17:4-7 - “A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall.  He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels;  on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him…”

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