Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: We as believers, we as Christians should leave the fools, the Nabals, the chief empty-headed—New Testament, the fool, the word in the Greek is one who's empty-headed. Leave them in the hands of God. We're not to deal with them in the way of judgment. God will deal with them.

David J.: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David J. thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.

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On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series called First Samuel with his message titled, "How to Handle the Fool, Part Two." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So, here as we continue in chapter 25, we'll consider how David, a man after God's own heart, was not immune to some foolish mistakes.

You see, a man named Nabal, whose name literally means fool, is introduced here as a wealthy man, but he was rude and he was arrogant and he mocked David by questioning his identity. This put David in such a furious state that he gathers his men to take revenge, and it's Abigail, Nabal’s wife, who wisely intervened.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that handling the fool is not always about confrontation or judgment. The most effective way is with humility and restraint. Abigail didn't clash with her husband, but through gracious and humble actions, she avoided a crisis. Now, with his message called "How to Handle the Fool, Part Two," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: How to Handle the Fool, and it deals specifically with three very interesting chief performers. If we were talking about a Broadway play, there's everything in this story for it to be a great play or a great drama. The only thing we lack is a dragon and a castle. Maybe behind the scenes, invisibly, we've got the dragon, Satan, weaving his anarchy in the lives of people.

But we've got three key players, and we looked at that together. We saw the humanity of a fool and his folly personified in the man Nabal. Remember that in 1 Samuel chapter 25? Nabal—his name means fool or chief of fools, the head fool. How would you like to have your name like that written in the Bible? That you're the head of all fools.

He was a smart business guy, very successful, he was wealthy, he was powerful. He apparently had entrepreneur type of savvy, and he was quite well-known in the area. He was also, though, loud; he was harsh, rude. He was a drunk of a man and evil-minded, we found out. I read something this day, today, about Nabal that was written many years ago. That author penned this about Nabal: "The man breathes but never really lives, who receives but never gives. Creation's blot, creation's blank, whom none can love and whom none can thank." That's Nabal. This guy is absolutely disgusting.

The Bible says he's a fool. The Bible tells us in Psalm 14:1 that "the fool has said in his heart that there is no God." Isn't that interesting? Nabal lived as the man that he was, a man without God. We see in this chapter the humanity of control by God, personified in this woman called Abigail. Her name means "joy to the father" or "one who causes joy."

Abigail, a godly woman. She was a woman spirit-filled, we know from scripture, a woman who was possessed of character much like the Lord. She had character qualities that so often, as we'll see, resemble the Lord Jesus Christ. She was married to a very pathetic man named Nabal, and yet, listen, she remained a saint, as it were, unto the Lord and unto God's people. She was a godly woman married to a lunatic, and she stayed faithful to the Lord. She was a woman of very much communication and touch with her God.

And then we see our chief player in this wonderful book of Samuel, and that is we see the humanity of the man of God. That man's name is David. David's name means "beloved one" or "one who is loved by God." If your name is David, your name means "beloved one" or "one who is loved by God." He was a man who was both a man's man. We love reading about David, us guys do, because he was a soldier, warrior, pretty intense guy.

He was a man's man, and at the very same time, he was very gentle. He was very poetic. He was a man who was very meditative, contemplative. He was a man that was apparently, we read from the Psalms, very romantic about life. He was quite a mix. A guy that we would no doubt today respect greatly if he lived. He was, as we've made mention so many times before, the man who could hear that an army or a giant is invading Israel, and he would grab his sling or his sword and run out there, do battle, knock his head off with that rock or cut his head off with that sword.

He would do war, and then he would pull up a rock, sit down, and write some incredible poetic thing about God and about God's goodness that we wind up singing millennia later here in church. What an amazing guy David was. A warrior and a worshiper. He was a battler and a believer. He's a great combination of what the Christian man, I think, or the Christian believer should be like.

In our previous study, part one of this message in chapter 25, we looked at the first four points, and it was this: regarding how to handle a fool, we learned a few things. Number one, we learned that life will have its fools. Have you caught on to that? Life has its fools, they're everywhere. You might say, well, I don't know if I've ever met a fool. You've met a fool, and they'll come. Tragically in this life, there are more fools than we would like to admit.

But they're everywhere, and they're often plaguing the work of God, fools are. They are often people who, in a self-aggrandizing way, they know everything about everything. They'll tell you how it is. They may have never done it, they may have never been experienced at it, but they'll tell you exactly how to do it and how the outcome will be. They're fools.

We would call people today of like matter a one who's an armchair quarterback. He knows everything about football or baseball or whatever it is but has never played the game. That's Nabal. He pretends to know everything about life, but he's never lived it right. He's missed it. He's got the wealth, he's got the power, he's got all of the influence that those things bring, and yet he's missed life and the meaning of life.

There's a lot of people like that today. They have everything in the world, and we would easily attribute to them by appearance that man or that woman must be wise. Why? Because they own this or they have that or they've got that status. Listen, be careful. Not so. Not at all. We saw that in verses 1 through 9. We saw also this: that a fool will resist you, will resist us. A fool will do that.

We saw also that fools lack a thankful heart. We also saw that a fool—God knows how to deal with him—that God has his way of dealing with the fool. We saw that in verses 14 to 17. So now tonight, we pick this part up in our study, "How to Handle the Fool," point number five. It is this: to know to leave the fool in God's hands. Will you jot that down? That's our fifth point in part number two of our study, verses 23 to 31.

It is this: that we as believers, we as Christians should leave the fool, the Nabals, the chief empty-headed... New Testament, the fool, the word in the Greek is one who's empty-headed. Leave them in the hands of God. We're not to deal with them in the way of judgment. God will deal with them. In verses 23 to 31, we're going to look at that right now.

In your note-taking, jot this down if you would: Romans chapter 12, verse 19 says, "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place or wrath to the Lord; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Keep that in mind as we look at this, at this fifth point, because we're to leave the fools in our lives to God's hands. That's a great discipline right there.

Somebody attacking you? Is somebody a fool in your life? They are absolutely a Nabal. Maybe you're married to Nabal. Or what would be the Nabal... maybe you're married to a Miss Nabal, Nabalene. And you're saying, "Man, Pastor, that's it. I am married to the Antichrist, if it was a female, I mean, it's the Antichristess. That's who I'm married to." Or maybe you're saying, "No, Pastor, it's my husband. He's a Nabal. He hates God. He hates my Bible. He makes fun of it. He puts it outside when it rains."

Listen, he makes fun when you try to come to church every Sunday morning. And he says to you—it sounds like I know what I'm talking about, doesn't it? It sounds like I've heard this before from wives—"Go to church. Yes, lady, go. Go be with your Christian friends. Go worship your Jesus." She lives with a Nabal. Or if your wife is doing that to you. It's hard. There comes a time when your patience runs out and you almost would want to exercise vengeance upon them. God says, "No, don't do that. God will do that."

So what do we know under this particular point in verses 23 to 31? We want to do the right thing regardless of the fool. People, learn this right now as we look to this and we'll read it in a moment. Don't enter into the sin of a fool. If a fool is sinning against you and attacking you and being verbal on you, if a fool is coming against you, don't get down in that gutter and become just like that fool. There's a very interesting law in the things of righteousness and living and in sin.

It is this: when someone is sinning against you, don't enter into their sin. The temptation's huge to do that. "Well, did you hear what she did?" And there's this thing inside that says, "You know what? She did that to me, and I'm going to go out and do this. I'm going to get back at her." Don't do it. You will be sinning against God and you will destroy your own life. You, I understand, have this desire to excise judgment or vengeance upon them. Don't do it. Let God do it. God has his way.

"Well, he did this, he cheated," or, "He did that, and now I'm going to go do that and..." Don't do it, lady. Don't do it. You're sinning against God and you're ruining your own life. Don't enter into the sin of another. Look what we learn here. It says in verse 23, "May God do so, and more also to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him, that is Nabal, by morning light." Who's speaking? David. David, what are you doing? Nabal had come against David. What's David doing? He's entering into the folly.

Now when Abigail saw David, she hastened to dismount from her donkey. She fell on her face before David and bowed down to the ground. Verse 24: "So she fell at his feet and said, 'On me, my lord'"—that's David. She's not talking to God, she's talking to King David, King to be—"'On me, let this iniquity be, and please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. Please let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.'"

He's an empty-headed fool. It's what his name states, and that's exactly how he lives. "But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent." Remember David sent the entourage ahead and said, "Hey, my guys are coming. We supplied good protection for you during these evil days, and we're hungry, we're thirsty. We want to come and take of what would be right." David's very courteous, very gentle. And she said, "Listen, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you sent young men."

You know what she's saying? She's saying, "If I would have known, things would have turned out better, but I didn't know." Now, verse 26: "Therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal." In other words, David... she's diplomatic, isn't she? She's a pretty slick girl.

"It's a good thing that you're going to be so much under control, David, and hold back your hand from committing bloodshed and becoming evil like the rest. I know you don't want to taint your reputation and your walk with God." You see what she's doing? She's diffusing anger. When we left off with David, he was being noble, he was being godly. He was such a great example. And then this one little guy... a giant didn't set him off. Saul didn't set him off. The armies of the Philistines did not set him off.

But a fool set him off. Isn't that how it is in our lives? We come from this great spiritual victory, and then we come home and, you know, maybe your child or your husband or your wife says something, and it sets you off. You've experienced great victory, and then this thing happens? Now sometimes God just allows perhaps things like that to happen to show us that we were not quite the legend that we thought we were. Pride comes before a fall. For whatever reason, David's lost it, and he's going to go kill Nabal and all his men.

Don't you love this guy David, though? I mean, guys, come on. It's like, yeah. But that's not right. He's sinning here, he's goofing up. Let's look at Abigail for a minute. She's something. We need Abigail to run for political office today. She'd be fantastic. People like this. She's a woman of beauty and brain. Bible tells us she's good-looking and she was bright, spirit-filled, and an awesome catch, by the way. Find a woman with beauty and with brains, that's a great thing.

Physical attraction is truly skin-deep. It really is. I know you younger people, you don't think so. You're wrong. Beauty's only skin-deep, physical beauty. It's only skin-deep. The Bible says Abigail's beautiful to look at, and she's very, very brainy. She's beautiful on the inside, too. That's true beauty. And let me tell you something: even if she wasn't beautiful on the outside but she had it on the inside, after a while, you can be living with the most beautiful person on the planet, and if they're not sweet on the inside, they're bitter on the outside.

I mean, if they're not sweet on the inside, that beauty out there in the front, it gets real old real quick. Don't be fooled by this modern age in which we live. 1 Peter chapter 3 is a verse that applies to Abigail, I believe. 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 through 4 says, "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word," Nabal, "they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives," a godly example of the wife. "When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear" or reverence.

"Do not let your adornment be merely outward." The Bible doesn't say, "Do not adorn yourself outwardly." It says, "Don't adorn yourself outwardly only." Please hold back the cards and letters. But it's okay to wear makeup if you want to wear makeup. "Oh, Pastor, you know, I'm sure I'm going to get this thing now. Oh, you just invited in the spirit of Jezebel." No, I did not. Makeup's not a sin. The Bible says, "Don't let it only be the adorning of the outward." It didn't say, "Don't adorn the outward."

J. Vernon McGee, you've heard this before: "If the barn needs painting, paint it." That's kind of cute. Now us guys, our wives would come back and say, "Yeah, if the belly needs exercising, exercise it." I could hear that in my head the moment I said the first thing, I could hear that in my head. "Or the arranging of hair, wearing of gold, putting on of fine apparel. But rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with an incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God."

That's very, very excellent advice, especially in our day and age. Sounds nuts, huh? It's true. It doesn't matter that you can look so good. Listen, girls or guys, whatever we put on, know this: at the end of the day, it's going to come off. But what's on the inside's going to stick. It's going to stay. And we need to be cultivating that. Moms, if you have young daughters, cultivate that in them. Tell them, "You've beautified the outside, now, sweetie, now let's beautify the inside."

And it's easy to do it. We think, "How do you do that?" You know what? Moms, teach your daughters how to be women. Teach your daughters how to conduct themselves on a date. That day will come. To be a lady, to be godly. Listen, any guy can go anywhere and get any kind of a girl at any time, except a godly woman. The Bible says that if somebody finds a godly woman, they have found what? A good thing. And a godly woman glows. She just glows.

A woman who loves the Lord, there is a beauty about them and it just can't be denied. And as I thought about this, there's only one thing more beautiful than a godly woman. Anybody know what it is? Who said that? Did you say what now? Pregnant? Exactly right. The only thing more beautiful than a godly woman is a pregnant godly woman. I don't know what it is. They glow. You've seen them glow. They've come in and out of this church, they're just glowing. They've got that belly out there and it's almost like they're just walking... it's just them and God.

And it kind of makes you jealous. "Lord, I know I can't get pregnant, but she's got something going on in her life with you and it's very cool." They just glow. Why? What's happening? There's something going on on the inside spiritual that emits outward, and it changes their very countenance of who they are. It's spectacular. Abigail's that kind of a woman. A complete woman is infinitely more attractive, and there's only one way for a woman or a man, I'm sure, to be attractive and that's in the Lord.

Verse 27: "And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to your young men who follow my lord," or David. "Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant, for the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house." She begins to prophesy now, the very will of God. "Because my lord fights the battles of the Lord." Guys and gals of this church, we want to have that attributed to our name, don't we? Hey, we know who you guys are. You guys fight the battle of the Lord. That's awesome. Sign me up, man. That's excellent.

"And evil is not found in you throughout your days. Verse 29—this sums up the ministry and the passion and the life. Listen to what she says: 'Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life.'" Who's she talking about? Saul. "'But the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God.'" Can you mark that in your Bible? Please mark that in your Bible and make that a prayer of your life from this day on. God, we want to pray this in verse 29: "Lord, bind up my life in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God."

"And the lives of your enemies shall he sling out as from the pocket of a sling." No doubt what she says now in her prophecy of David's life, she incorporates something of the past that causes David to stop and think: "That's right. Through the Lord, I've killed a giant. I need to just calm down. I'm going after a fool with vengeance. I'm going to risk murdering the lives of many of his men. I'm out of control. God is speaking to me through this woman."

And no doubt in my mind she's under the power of the Holy Spirit. She not only speaks about the future, she reminds David about the victories that he enjoyed with God in the past. She sums up David's life, and I love what she says in verse 29. Basically she's saying this: David, God is your reason and your passion for living. Your life is filled with His fullness and it always will be. Because of this, no enemy can ever conquer you. That's what she's saying.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called "How to Handle the Fool, Part Two." Glad you could spend some time with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called First Samuel. It’s a series that highlights the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel’s darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship.

And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Did you know that along with the radio program, Pastor Jack also has a TV show with more of the Pastor Jack Hibbs content that you'll like? It's called Real Life TV. If you enjoy Pastor Jack on the radio, you're going to love him on TV, so check your local listings or visit jackhibbs.com and catch the latest episodes. That's jackhibbs.com.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.