Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Selfishness and hatred and pride are all over where we live. They exist everywhere that we do. It exists in our offices, it exists in our neighborhoods, it exists in our families and it likely exists in our church.

We live in a country that is sort of governed by what he says the rules of the jungle, every man for himself, survival of the fittest. But you realize that God has people who love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and love their neighbors as themselves.

And they'll go to any lengths to bring glory to God and good to other people.

Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now, as once again, he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Listen as I read this story.

Ernest Gordon groans in the death house of Chunkai, Burma. He listens to the moans of the dying and smells the stench of the dead. Pitiless jungle heat bakes his skin and parches his throat. Had he had the strength, he could wrap one hand around his bony thigh. But he has neither the energy nor the interest. Diphtheria has drained both. He can't walk or even feel his body.

Ernest shares a cot with flies and bed bugs and waits for his lonely death in a Japanese prison camp. How harsh the war has been to him. He entered World War II in his early 20s, a robust Highlander in Scotland's Argyle and Sutherland Brigade. But then he came the capture from the Japanese. Months of backbreaking labor in the jungle, daily beatings and slow starvation. Scotland seemed so far away, civility even further.

The Allied soldiers behave like barbarians, stealing from one another, robbing dying colleagues, fighting for food scraps. Servers shortchange their rations so that they could have extra for themselves. The law of the jungle has become the law of the camp. Ernest is happy to bid it adieu. Death by disease trumps life in Chunkai.

But then something wonderful happens. Two prisoners who have brought hope to the camp are transferred. And although they also are sick and frail, they heed a higher code. They share their meager meals and volunteer for extra work. They cleanse Ernest's ulcerated sores and massage his atrophied legs. They give him his first bath in six weeks. His strength slowly returns and with it his dignity.

Their goodness proves contagious, and Ernest contracts a case. He begins to treat the sick and to share his rations, and even gives away a few of his belongings. Other soldiers do likewise, and over time the tone of the camp softens and brightens. Sacrifice replaces selfishness. Soldiers, he says, have worship services and Bible studies.

And then one evening after a week of working on an outside the camp detail, a Japanese guard announced that the shovel, there was a shovel that was missing. The officer kept the allies in formation, insisting that someone had stolen it. Screaming in broken English, the guard demanded that the guilty man step forward. He shouldered his rifle and he said, "He will now begin to kill each and every one of the prisoners until someone confesses to what they have done."

Just then, one of the two Scottish soldiers broke ranks, stood stiffly at attention and said, "I did it." The officer unleashed his anger and beat the man to death. And when the guard was finally exhausted, the prisoners picked up the man's body and and their tools and went back and returned to the camp. Only then, when the shovels were recounted, the Japanese soldier had made a mistake. No shovel was missing at all.

Question of the day: What kind of person does this?

See, what kind of person does this?

Now, we aren't in a prison camp, but selfishness and hatred and pride are all over where we live. They exist everywhere that we do.

It exists in our offices, it exists in our neighborhoods, it exists in our families, and it likely exists in our church. We live in a country that is sort of governed by what he says the rules of the jungle. Every man for himself, survival of the fittest. But you realize that God has people who love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and love their neighbors as themselves.

And they'll go to any lengths to bring glory to God and good to other people. That kind of person who desires to live just like his Savior. Isaiah 53:6 says, "But the Lord caused the Lord caused the immorality of us all to fall on him."

He was completely innocent and yet he willingly took the penalty for us. Ask yourself the question, "Could I act like that?" I mean, is that right? Could you act like that? Well, I want to talk about one woman who can act like that in the Word of God, and she does today. So I invite you to open your Bibles to First Samuel chapter 25. First Samuel 25.

The first thing I'd like to do is give you the general context of this. There's three main characters involved: Nabal and David and Abigail.

Now, I want to talk about what the condition that David's in. In First Samuel 24 is the incident where Saul goes into the cave to use it as a bathroom, and David's in the cave. And he decides he cuts a part of the garment off of Saul, and he shows it to Saul. "I could have killed you in the cave, but I didn't. I withheld my hand." And it appears as though Saul's really moved by that, but by First Samuel 26, the chapter after this one, he's back at it after David again.

But there's something even more that happens there. The very first verse of 25 says this: "Then Samuel died." That's it. Samuel died. You say, "Well, it's just..." it's everything to David. Samuel is the prophet priest of Israel. Saul's afraid of him. He is the most powerful man in Israel. He's the one who anointed David to be the next king. He's now dead. He was the refuge where David could run. But he's now dead.

And there's more of it. David's parents have now been placed under the care of the king of Moab. Now, you might wonder, "Why would he go to the king of Moab?" David put his parents there to protect them from Saul. Remember someone in David's line, you might have heard about her, her name was Ruth. I think we talked about her here. And Ruth is what? A Moabitess. So he sends his parents to Moab.

Then Saul took his wife, Michal, and gave her to another guy. She was already married to David, but he placed her and gave her to another guy. So here's David, he's not part of the court, he's no longer part of the army, he has no wife, no priest, no friend. And all he can do is sort of run. That's all he has going for him.

And it says, "Then Samuel died and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, burdened him buried him at his house in Ramah, and David arose and went down into the wilderness of Paran." Paran is south of the Dead Sea. The Jews called it no man's land. It was okay for grazing some flocks, but no one really wanted to pick the place to live there like in Paran. Well, that's where David is. And he is swinging from Saul.

And then it says after that, "Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. And this man was very rich." Now, those two towns are only about a mile and a half apart. But the point of it is, what we learn here is that there's something about this guy, and the first thing doesn't sound too bad. "This man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep. He had 1,000 goats. And it came about that he was shearing his sheep in Carmel."

"And now the man's name was Nabal." So so far, it sounds like a good American success story. He's made it good. And no, no. Nabal, his name Nabal is fool. Now, that's unlikely the name his mother gave him. But it is the name everybody else gave him. Everybody. So anytime you talk to you and you said, "Hey, fool." That's what people called him. He was completely a rich fool.

Max Lucado says this, "Think of him as an oppressive dictator of his territory. He owned cattle and sheep and took pride in both. He kept his liquor cabinet full, his date life was very hot. He motored around his hometown of Carmel in a stretch limo. He had NBA seats were in the front row, his seats on the flight was always first class, and he was prone to hop over to Vegas for a week weekend and play some Texas Hold 'em."

It's a different way of describing, but that's Nabal. That's what he is. His name is fool. He reminds me of what Asaph said in Psalm 73. One of the things that bothered Asaph the most, that whole Psalm is dedicated to this. "It really bothered me when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." And if you ever think about it and you know the wicked in our culture, they can become very prosperous. And so Nabal is the poster boy for this.

Now, the next thing it says, "And his wife's name was Abigail." Well, here comes Abigail now. And Abigail, her name her name simply means "my father is joy." That's her name, Abigail. And once again, this is the fourth lady in a row. Notice how she's described in the Word of God. She's intelligent and beautiful.

Sarah was beautiful. Rahab was likely beautiful. Ruth was beautiful. Now, Abigail. She's intelligent and she's beautiful in appearance. "But the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite." Now, don't think that's a terrible thing. A Calebite's not a terrible thing. He is an heir of who? Caleb. Do you remember the story of Caleb, the spies, went into the land? Two of them said, "Let's go into the land," Joshua and Caleb.

Now, this means something because get this. He's going to have this confrontation with David, and he and David are both descendants of Judah. They're second cousins. So that will help you understand what's going on in this whole scenario. He's a Calebite.

So, it says here then, "And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing the sheep." That's a big deal. You'll see it in just a moment. Shearing time is sharing time. You see, once you shear sheep, there's a big festive party. Anyone who could come apart, you'd give them the blessings of this sheep shearing. Sort of like when they with Ruth, when you planted the field, you left parts of it for people who needed food to be able to pick up the food.

So David sends his men, and he has good reason to, you'll see in a moment, to be part of this festivity. So David sent 10 young men, and David said to his young men, "Go up to Carmel with Nabal, and greet him in my name." And thus you shall say, "Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have." A blessing. "Now I have heard that you have shears. Now, your shepherds have been with us, and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything all the days that they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes. For we have come," he says, "on a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David." Couldn't say it nicer.

Now, there's something that's a backstory here. The reason that that David knows that. David and his men, he had 600 men. They protected those shepherds. David had a heart for shepherds. They protected all their flocks. And you're going to see they even say that a little bit later here. So David says, "If you've got anything you can give us at all, we would appreciate it." Okay.

Now, here comes Nabal. Now you'll know why he got his name the way he does. First, no, let me go back, he reports to David. He says, "When David's young men came, they spoke Nabal to Nabal according to all these words of David's name, and they waited." And it says, "But Nabal answered David's servants and said this, 'Who's David?'" Okay.

Now understand that. If you lived in Israel, you can't ask that question. Do you remember that story about some big tall guy? Now you remember the story of David and Goliath, when he was a teenager? Do you remember when the aftermath of that? What did it say? Thousands upon thousands sang praise to David. David was known by every person in Israel. And by Nabal. But Nabal didn't care.

And now and by the way, I'll even prove he couldn't be he's not that naive but notice, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?" Well, that's him. How do you know his father if you say, "I don't know who he is?" He knows. Notice then, here comes the insult. "There are many servants today who each are breaking away from their master." That's all David did. He's a man who broke away from his master Saul. That's what he did. He broke away.

Now watch, this is typical of a very successful man who happens to be a fool. "Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shears and give it to men whose origin I don't even know? This is my stuff."

"So David's young men retraced their way, went back, and they came and they told him according to all these words." And David said to his men, "Each of you gird on his sword." So each man gird on his sword, and David also gird his sword, and there was about 400 men went up behind David, while 200 stayed in the place with baggage.

Wow. This is amazing what's happening here. David said, "That's enough. I've had enough of this. Get your sword." See, "Get your sword." What's happening? Here's my view. A man after God's own heart is going to become a fool just like Nabal. That's what he's doing. One writer said this, "As soon as David heard it, eyes glared, nostrils flared, lips snarled, and testosterone started flowing through the body." "You're going to get him for this."

See, "I'm going to get him for that." That's the way this is going to work. This is foolish. We're going to see in a moment why and who points it out. Wow.

So, "But one of the young men," meanwhile, back at the ranch, "one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, 'Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household. For he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.'"

I got to love that. That's that. Now remember this, this is a servant of Nabal, who's going to go talk to Nabal's wife. He's so confident that she understands the truth about Nabal. She said he said, "He's worthless." And it's an interesting thing. That word worthless is Beliyya'al, and it means to be worthless, useless, or without any goodness at all. That's who he is. The servant says, "He's worthless. You can't talk to him at all. I wish we could have talked to you earlier."

Now Abigail comes into the picture. And first we'll see her actions of what she does here. "Then Abigail hurried and took 200 loaves of bread, two jugs of wine, five sheep already prepared, five measures of roasted grain, and 200 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys."

Now, let me ask you, ladies. How many of you could get 200 loaves of bread together without going to Rouse's? I mean this, they must have some real means here. She got 200, 200 loaves. And then she has two jugs of wine, but that word jugs there is interesting. They're 13 to 20 gallons each. So possibly 40 gallons of wine. Now David had 600 men, but I just want you to see that. Five sheep already prepared, five measures of roasted grain, and that could be somewhere between 40 to up to 200 liters of grain that she already had roasted. 100 clusters of raisins. And even the last one, 200 cakes of figs is Debalah, and Debalah means pressed down and condensed figs. She put this all together immediately. That's her actions.

Then she gives her instructions. She said to the young men, "Go on before me. Behold, I'm coming after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And why? He's a fool. Okay, please understand that. "And it came about as she was riding on her donkey, donkey coming down the hidden part of the mountain, and behold, David and his men were coming down towards her." So she met them.

And David had said, "Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him. He has returned to me evil for good." Does that make you mad? It made David mad. Have you ever do something really good for someone and you get evil in return? That's why David said, "These are this is fighting words for me."

Now, understand something. There is a difference from David's point of view. Saul's been mistreating David terribly. But David will keep telling Saul, "You're the anointed king. You're the king of Israel." "This guy is just a rich fool. I wouldn't do anything. I withheld my hand from Saul, but I'm going to take this guy down. And not just him, I'm going to kill every male that's under his authority. I'm going to kill everybody at once." Wow.

All because his pride is involved. "He's returned me evil for good, that should never happen. May God do so to the enemies of David and more so, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any that belong to him." "We're going to kill them all because he insulted me."

"When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted her donkey. She fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground." She fell at his feet and said, "On me alone, my Lord, be the blame."

I said very, she gets off. She bows on her knees and puts her forehead on the ground. She's going to call herself, by the way, there's a bad translation in American Standard, "a maidservant," that's terrible. "Maidservant" doesn't even sound bad. She's a slave. And that's the Hebrew word, slave. She's going to call herself six times in this passage, "I'm your slave." And 14 times she's going she's going to say to him, "You're the Lord. You're my Lord, I'm your slave."

But notice what she does that's just remarkable. Not only is she intelligent and beautiful, "On me alone be the blame. Whatever you're going to do to them, do it to me." Would you do that? Especially for a fool? You see what I mean? That that's the most amazing thing about Abigail. It's an amazing, way beyond her beauty and her intelligence. "I'll take the guilt myself."

You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called Oneplace.com. That's Oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift.

Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 70006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's FBCNola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.