The King, The Fool, and The Bride Text: 1 Samuel 25:39-44
Introduction: Providence Moves Swiftly
We are in the midst of a great contest between two kingdoms. One kingdom, led by Saul, is crumbling. It is built on envy, paranoia, and rebellion against the clear word of God. The other kingdom, the kingdom of David, is being built by God Himself, but it is being built in the wilderness, through trial and affliction. David is the anointed king, but he is not yet the enthroned king. He is being taught what it means to be a king after God's own heart, and the central lesson is this: the king must trust God to establish his kingdom. He must not seize it for himself.
In the chapter just preceding our text, David was on the brink of a massive failure. Provoked by the churlishness of a fool named Nabal, David was saddling up to exact a bloody, personal vengeance. This would have been a disaster. It would have stained his hands with guilt and undermined the very foundation of his future reign, which was to be a reign of justice, not personal vendetta. But God, in His providence, sent a wise and beautiful woman, Abigail, to intercept him. She turned him back from his sinful course with her wisdom and humility, and David blessed her for it. Now, in our text, we see the aftermath. God moves swiftly to resolve the situation, demonstrating that He is a far better judge than David ever could be. He is a far better provider of justice, and as we will see, a far better provider of a wife.
This passage is not a quaint historical romance. It is a profound illustration of God's meticulous sovereignty. We see how God deals with fools, how He honors the righteous, how He establishes godly households, and how the enemies of God's anointed rage in the background. In these few verses, we see the justice of God, the humility of a godly woman, the establishment of a royal house, and the impotent spite of a rejected king. Each element teaches us something crucial about the way God builds His kingdom, both then and now.
The Text
Then David heard that Nabal was dead, so he said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil. Yahweh has also returned the evil of Nabal on his own head." Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. Then the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you to take you as his wife." And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, "Behold, your maidservant is a servant-woman to wash the feet of my lord's servants." Then Abigail hurried and arose, and she rode on a donkey, with her five young women who went about with her; and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife. David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives. Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
(1 Samuel 25:39-44 LSB)
God's Vengeance and David's Praise (v. 39)
We begin with the news of Nabal's death and David's reaction.
"Then David heard that Nabal was dead, so he said, 'Blessed be Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil. Yahweh has also returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.' Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife." (1 Samuel 25:39)
Notice the first thing David does. He doesn't gloat. He doesn't say, "Good riddance, the world is better off." He blesses Yahweh. His first thought is theological. He sees the hand of God in this, and he rightly interprets what God has done. This is a mark of spiritual maturity. A mature believer sees events not as random occurrences, but as data points in the grand narrative of God's sovereign plan.
David praises God for two specific things. First, God has "pleaded the cause of my reproach." Nabal had insulted David and his men, treating the Lord's anointed as a runaway slave. This was not just a personal slight; it was an attack on the office God had given him. David recognizes that God is the defender of His anointed. Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, and David here sees that promise fulfilled. God took up David's case and won it decisively. God will always vindicate His people. Sometimes He does it in this life, and He will most certainly do it on the last day.
Second, David blesses God because He has "kept back His servant from evil." This is remarkable. David is just as thankful for the sin he was prevented from committing as he is for the justice God executed. He sees God's restraining grace, which came through Abigail's intervention, as a massive blessing. He had been ready to take matters into his own hands, to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Had he done so, he would have been in the wrong. But God stopped him. This is a prayer we should all pray: "Lord, keep me from my own sinful impulses. Deliver me from myself." David understands that being saved from your own sin is a far greater deliverance than being saved from your enemies.
God returned Nabal's evil on his own head. This is the law of the harvest. What a man sows, he reaps. Nabal sowed foolishness, arrogance, and contempt, and he reaped sudden death. God's justice is not arbitrary; it is fitting. The punishment fits the crime. Having seen God's perfect justice and His preserving grace, David's next action is not surprising. He sends for Abigail. He recognizes that the woman who was the instrument of God's grace to him is a woman he should bind himself to in covenant.
A Humble Bride for the King (v. 40-42)
The scene now shifts to Abigail, and her response to David's proposal is a master class in godly humility.
"Then the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel and spoke to her, saying, 'David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.' And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, 'Behold, your maidservant is a servant-woman to wash the feet of my lord's servants.' Then Abigail hurried and arose, and she rode on a donkey, with her five young women who went about with her; and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife." (1 Samuel 25:40-42)
David's messengers arrive and state their purpose plainly. Abigail, who had been the wife of a very wealthy man, is now a widow. David, the future king, proposes marriage. How does she respond? With shrewd negotiation? With coy hesitation? No. She responds with immediate and profound humility. She "arose and bowed with her face to the ground." This is the posture of worship and deep respect. She recognizes David not just as a man, but as the Lord's anointed.
Her words are even more striking. "Behold, your maidservant is a servant-woman to wash the feet of my lord's servants." This is not the false humility of Uriah Heep. This is the genuine article. Washing feet was the lowest task, reserved for the lowest servant in the household. Abigail is not saying she is worthy to be David's wife. She is saying she would be honored to be the slave who washes the feet of his men. She is not angling for position or status. She is offering herself in total service. This is the heart of biblical submission. It is not the grudging compliance of a lesser being, but the glad, willing, and strong submission of an equal who understands created order. A godly wife does not submit because she is inferior, but because she is wise, and she knows that this is God's glorious design for marriage. Her humility is her strength, and it is precisely this quality that makes her a fitting bride for the king.
Notice also her haste. "Abigail hurried and arose." There is no reluctance. She immediately aligns herself with God's will, which she perceives in this proposal from God's chosen king. She leaves the house of the fool and joins herself to the house of the righteous. She became his wife. This is a picture of the Church. We are called out of the foolish world, and when the King calls us to be His bride, our only proper response is to hurry, to bow, and to offer ourselves in glad service, honored to wash the feet of His servants.
A Complicated Household (v. 43)
The narrative then adds a detail that is jarring to our modern sensibilities.
"David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives." (1 Samuel 25:43)
We have this beautiful story of God's providence bringing David and Abigail together, and then, almost as an afterthought, the Holy Spirit informs us that David already had another wife, Ahinoam. And now he has two. What are we to make of this? First, we must read the Bible as it is written, not as we wish it were written. The Bible is unflinchingly honest about the sins and failings of its heroes. David was a man after God's own heart, but he was not a perfect man. His heart was pointed in the right direction, but his feet still stumbled.
Polygamy is never God's ideal. The pattern in creation was one man, one woman. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Not three, not four. One. Christ has one bride, the Church. Elders and deacons are to be one-woman men. The monogamous standard is the creational standard. However, in the Old Testament, for the hardness of men's hearts, God permitted things that did not conform to His perfect will. Polygamy was one of them. It was regulated, but it was not the ideal, and it always brought trouble. Think of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Think of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. Think of Elkanah, Hannah, and Peninnah. It was always a source of strife, jealousy, and sorrow.
So, we should not view this as God's stamp of approval on polygamy. Rather, it is a realistic depiction of the life of a saint in a fallen world. God works His sovereign purposes even through the messy and sinful situations we create. David's taking of multiple wives was a cultural accommodation and a personal failing, and it would later bear bitter fruit in his family, particularly with Absalom. But it did not disqualify him from God's grace. God's covenant with David was not based on David's perfection, but on God's promise. This should be a comfort to us. God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines.
Saul's Covenant-Breaking Spite (v. 44)
The passage concludes with a final, contrasting note about Saul.
"Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim." (1 Samuel 25:44)
While David is building his house, Saul is trying to tear it down. While God is providing David with a wife, Saul is stealing the wife David already had. Michal was David's first wife, given to him by Saul himself. The marriage was a covenant. By giving her to another man, Saul is not just being a bad father-in-law. He is a covenant-breaker. He is showing his contempt for the sacred institution of marriage and for David himself.
This is more than just personal animosity; it is spiritual warfare. Saul's kingdom is of this world. It operates by power plays, manipulation, and treachery. He is trying to sever David's legitimate claim to the throne, a claim that was strengthened by his marriage to the king's daughter. By giving Michal to another man, Saul is trying to declare David's marriage, and by extension his royal future, null and void. It is a pathetic and wicked attempt to fight against God's decreed will.
This is what the enemies of God always do. They attack the covenant, and they particularly attack the covenant of marriage. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church, and so the devil and his servants have always hated it. Saul, acting as a true son of Belial, attacks David at this very point. But his efforts are futile. God's plan cannot be thwarted by the spiteful schemes of petty tyrants. David will eventually get Michal back, and he will get the kingdom, because God has promised it.
Conclusion: The Greater David and His Bride
This story is a wonderful illustration of God's providence, but it is more than that. It points us to a greater story. David, the anointed king rejected by the ruling authorities, is a type of Christ. Nabal, the fool who scorns the king and whose name means "fool," is a picture of this fallen world. He is rich, arrogant, and blind to the reality of the true king. And Abigail, the wise and beautiful woman trapped in a covenant with a fool, is a picture of the Church.
We, the Church, were by nature bound to the foolishness of this world, under the sway of the evil one. But the true King, Jesus Christ, set His love upon us. And while we were still in the house of the fool, He sent His messengers to us with the gospel. He did not come to destroy us in our folly, though we deserved it. Instead, He waited. And God, in His perfect justice, struck down the power that held us captive. On the cross, Christ defeated the Nabal of our sin and death. The evil was returned upon its own head.
And then, in our widowed state, the King sent a proposal of marriage. He has called us to be His bride. And what is our proper response? It is the response of Abigail. We must hurry. We must bow down, acknowledging Him as Lord. And we must offer ourselves in humble service, saying, "Behold, your maidservant." We are not worthy of such a King, but He has made us worthy in Himself. He has called us out of the house of the fool and brought us into His own house, to be His beloved wife forever.
And what of the Saul of this world, the devil? He rages. He tries to break the covenant. He tries to steal the bride. He whispers lies and accusations, trying to declare the marriage null and void. But his spite is impotent. The one whom God has joined together, no man, and no devil, can tear asunder. The King is building His house, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.