The Folly of Revenge

“She fell at his feet and said: “My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name – his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.” I Samuel 25: 24

Background:

In I Chronicles 12, we are introduced to David’s mighty men. David was hiding from Saul who was out to get him because he recognized that God had anointed David to be the next king and was sure that David would kill him and wipe out his entire family. Saul was afraid and operated out of fear. As David was on the run, trying to avoid confrontation with Saul, mighty warriors began to gather around him. From the tribe of Benjamin, there were warriors who could shoot arrows or sling stones right-handed or left-handed. These were actually related to Saul who was also from the tribe of Benjamin, but they recognized David as God’s chosen and joined forces with him. There were also warriors from the tribe of Gad who could handle the shield and spear and were ‘swift as gazelles’. ‘The least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand.’ These were no ordinary men. Some from Judah also joined them and became known as the Thirty. Men from the tribe of Manasseh were very brave and became commanders in David’s army. Later on at Hebron, more joined David - over 337,000 military leaders and fighting men representing all the tribes of Israel. But the story about Nabal occurred before the great gathering at Hebron. However, the 600 warriors who had already joined David were formidable.

Read I Samuel 25:1-42

Nabal was not too astute in his response to David’s request. Though, by our legal definitions of today, Nabal was well within his rights to refuse David’s request. He had not asked for David’s protection, though he enjoyed it and prospered from it. Lawyers would have a hay day in court with this one trying to prove that while Nabal had not signed a legal and binding contract asking for David’s help, his use of David’s help represents an unwritten contract and, therefore, he owes David remuneration. At any rate, David’s response was not what we would put in the category of “a man after God’s own heart.” He responded in anger and was ready to go after Nabal and annihilate him and his family.

A servant who was more astute than his master recognized the pending disaster and went to Abigail. He recognized Abigail’s good sense and intelligence and knew she would know what to do. He recognized that she was the only one who could go against the master and survive. Abigail was proactive. She saw danger coming and flew into action preparing to avert the disaster. She prepared supplies – probably more than David had asked for and sent the servants ahead and went herself to meet David. Abigail personally apologized and asked that the folly of her husband be ignored because she was now coming and giving David what he had asked for and more.

When Abigail spoke with David, she reminded him that he was God’s anointed to fight ‘the Lord’s battles’ and that avenging himself on Nabal was a ‘wrongdoing’ and she didn’t want that on his conscience. She reminded David that God would take care of his enemies.

David recognized that Abigail was sent by God to keep him from bloodshed and avenging himself with his own hands. He accepted her gift and sent her home in peace.

Indeed God did take care of David’s enemy Nabal within a few days of this incident. His heart failed him and in ten days he died (I Samuel 25:37-38). God does not always avenge that quickly, but in this case he did. David was ready to respond in anger. God showed him a better way. And in the end, David was not only avenged, but acquired a beautiful wife as Abigail became his wife after Nabal died.

Reading this Scripture caused me to think about how God might feel about revenge. I need to go to the New Testament and to Jesus’ teachings to better understand conflict and revenge.

In Romans 5:8 we are told that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. As sinners, we would be natural enemies of God. But while we were still living in a state of sin, Christ died for us. He was the offering that turned God’s wrath away from us and sent us on our way in peace.

Romans 8:26-27 says that “… the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” We like to think of this scripture as ‘other-minded’ – the focus being on praying on behalf of someone else even if we don’t know exactly what they need. But I think that this scripture can also be referring to me when I am angry, unfocused, wounded, and in a way out of my mind, wanting vengeance on someone for a wrong done to me. If the Spirit is indeed interceding for me, I do not have to ‘fight the battle’ on my own. The Spirit, in a way like Abigail, steps in when I am weak and about to do something foolish and reminds me that God is there and he will take care of things.

And Romans 12:19-21 says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Overcome evil with good. That is not a natural way to respond to evil done to us. If someone pushes us, we want to push back a little harder to show them. But soon we will find out they push back a little harder yet and if we stop and evaluate, we see that we are not going the direction we want to be going in the situation. It is when we can follow God’s wisdom to overcome evil with good that things usually turn around.

And finally, the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 5:43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I like to use the word ‘complete’ or ‘full’ along with the word ‘perfect’. I don’t think the English language has a really good translation for this word. I think the idea here is that as we are filled with God’s spirit, we begin to think more like God and God is love and wins people to himself by his love, not his revenge. So if we are to get our enemies to change and quit beating on us, we are going to need to do it by loving them, not by pounding on them to get them back.

Now, going back to David and his visit to Nabal… David was ready to attack. He had his men organized and was heading for Nabal. But because David was tuned in to God, when Abigail met him and apologized for her husband, he was able to see God’s hand in that and to turn back. Allowing God to avenge wrong is the better way. This doesn’t mean that we, like David, won’t get lined up and ready to go fight, but if we stay tuned in to God, he will show us our folly in time to redirect our energies into loving our enemy rather than killing him.

I’m pretty sure from studying God’s Word that he doesn’t want us to be in the business of revenge. He wants us to be in the business of loving others in the same way he has loved us. We can’t do this on our own, but with God’s help given to us through the Holy Spirit, we can set aside the spirit of vengeance and get about loving our enemies into the Kingdom of God.