We are Christians in large part because of our Hebrew forebears. Oh, you may have heard it all before: the Hebrew Bible, the collection of stories we sometimes call the Old Testament, is an important part of our heritage. We cannot fully understand Jesus and his impact on his culture without having some passing acquaintance of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, we cannot understand the importance of Jesus on our culture without striving to understand the lessons of the Hebrew Bible. That portion of our Holy Bible makes it clear that God chose to enter the world first through the Hebrew people: God’s chosen people. Through them, God’s presence was experienced first and most directly. And because Jesus was part of that chosen people, his voice found ears among those who understood who he was: the Messiah incarnate, come to connect God and humanity directly.
That is all fine, good and true. But for me, there is another reason why 21st century Christians may find help in the writings of the Hebrew Bible. That reason is this: their world looks an awful lot like ours.
For centuries Christians have had a running debate over the differences of the God revealed in the Hebrew Bible and the God revealed in the New Testament. The argument goes something like this: the God of the Hebrew Bible is a vengeful, punishing God, while the God of the New Testament is a loving, grace filled God. How are we to reconcile these two views? Well, I’m not sure it can be done here, but we need to keep a couple of things in mind when we start to look at the Hebrew Bible.
First, it was written in a different language, in the midst of a different culture than the New Testament. This has all kinds of ramifications. How different cultures present things will vary widely because of their shared experiences, their morays, their way of doing things. Even when describing the same events, imagery, language, and meaning all hinge on the cultural roots of the writers.
Second, the faithful people described in the Hebrew Bible had not yet grasped the idea that God is ever present, that God is available for a personal relationship with each and every person willing to commit to that relationship. Theirs is a view of God as a corporate God. That is, God deals with all humanity when meting out blessings and punishments. The collective is important to the Hebrews and their conception of God. Their God seems different because they have a different understanding of how humans can relate to God.
We Christians of the 21st century have a larger understanding of the idea of a personal relationship with God. But somewhere along the way we have retained the corporate God, too. The idea that we are all born into sin and rebellion because Adam and Eve were sinful and rebellious is one of the places where our corporate God is made known. The idea that a country will be punished by God because of the actions of society, such as was alluded to by some Christian leaders after the horrible events of September 11, 2001, is another one of those places.
The 21st century Christian lives in a time much like the early Hebrews. Unsure of exactly how to deal with the violence and confusion around us, we seek God’s will. Unsure that God is truly listening, we try and hedge our bets by upholding our religious rituals, while all the while also upholding our cultural rituals. When we read the stories of the Hebrew Bible, this juxtaposition of culture and religion is exactly the place that so many Hebrews found themselves. And so, to my way of thinking, we better pay attention: these folks definitely have something to teach us.
The story we heard this morning is one of those sorts of stories. The clash of individual rights and societal expectations lead to a vengeful response that would have been fully accepted by the culture of the time, but would not stand up under the scrutiny of God’s gaze. So, the decision was made to put cultural norms aside and hold high the concepts of mercy and grace.
In this story, David was not yet king, but had made his reputation as a mighty general, a warrior of the highest order. His troops are bivouacked in the field, and their presence has surely been a comfort to those in the surrounding areas. They were seen as protectors. Thieves and enemies would not dare to harm the shepherds and farmers of the area while David’s army encamped nearby.
David, seeking food and supplies for his troops, sends a group of soldiers to the home of Nabal, a rich and powerful landowner. It was festival time at Nabal’s. They were shearing the sheep and celebrating the bounty that was coming their way. It was a time for eating and drinking and seeing hard work come to fruition.
David’s emissaries bring a greeting of peace and respect to Nabal, and ask if he might be able to help the army of David by giving a gift that might help feed them. But Nabal is having none of it.
“Who the heck are you?” he says, “Why should I give you anything? I don’t know you from Adam. Is it my problem to feed every bum that wanders into my home?”
If someone came to your door and asked for a gift, what would you do? If you were convinced it was a representative of a powerful general who could do you great harm, would your response be different?
The fact is, at that time, this request would not have been out of order. It was how armies of that time were taken care of. The culture accepted it and these armies encamped in the name of the people were partially supported by those same people.
When the news comes to David, his response is quick and angry. “Saddle up boys,” he says, “we are going to Nabal’s house and doing some damage. There won’t be a man left alive after we’re done.”
Wait a second. This is David? The hero of our Hebrew Bible? The king revered above all kings in Hebrew history? The king who Jesus counted as patriarch of his lineage?
Okay, I will concede that I might respond the same way as Nabal when a stranger comes looking for a gift. But am I willing to stand up here and admit that if I were the one whose request was spurned, would I be likely to hold a grudge? I am human, and so, yes, David’s response to somehow get revenge is somewhat understandable. Add to that the fact that this notion of revenge might just be standard operating procedure for a warrior general, and you can see how this might happen.
Enter Abigail, the beautiful wife of Nabal. Nabal’s workers, fearing for their own safety and being politically savvy and aware of potential response of David, go to Abigail to ask her help. Abigail, being much smarter than her husband, takes some gifts and heads out to meet David. Diplomatically she pleads the case. She reasons: Nabal is a fool, and David is much better than that. Yet, if he stoops to Nabal’s level, the consequences will be enormous: homeless families, fatherless children, the specter of the murder of hundreds of people on David’s conscience.”
Yes, society might accept this act, and maybe Nabal deserves punishment, but in the end, shouldn’t that be God’s decision? Yes, David might get some immediate self gratification that comes with revenge. After all, the term
“revenge is sweet” was coined for a reason!
This is the gist of her argument to David. “Add it all up, David, and you have to wonder,” Abigail hints, “just how well respected a king you would be if you go through with this.”
David, understanding her words, is overcome and thanks her profusely for saving him the guilt of murder, bloodlust and sin. He understands that it would have an impact on his ability to stand before God and before God’s people and truly be the King that the people need. How thankful is David? Well, a few verses later, Nabal dies (but not at David’s hand). David hears of it and asks Abigail to be one of his wives and she accepts.
So, we have put ourselves in Nabal’s shoes. We have put ourselves in David’s shoes. We have admitted that it would be possible for us to act as they did. Now let’s put ourselves in Abigail’s shoes. Would we be the voice of reason, the voice of faith, the voice of mercy that she was?
Hopefully none of us will be involved in a situation quite like this. Hopefully none of will be caught up in a situation where 100’s of lives hang in the balance of our actions.
That does not preclude us from taking a good hard look at this situation and at the actions of those involved and seeing that we also wrestle with the same sort of dilemmas in our daily lives, if not quite so extreme.
What is acceptable in society is not always acceptable before God. What is acceptable to society may indeed have ill effects on us as individuals. What is acceptable to society is not always right. And we are the ones who, with God’s help, must sort all that out.
For me, this is where the situation of the Hebrew people in relation to the world and in relation to God is so helpful. When I read of Jesus performing miracles and healing people and forgiving his killers, even as he is dying, I am awestruck. When I think of the anger and hatred that Jesus met with kindness and mercy, I shake my head in wonder. When I see the gentleness with which Jesus treats the hard headed disciples unable to see what is right in front of them, I am amazed. Why? Because I don’t know if I could do all those things. Sure, I know that I should strive for those things, but when the example is Jesus, this unflawed, sinless, fully human fully divine man, I know that I will fall short. You know what is helpful to me? Examples of flawed people, dealing with real life situations, trying to sort out the tug of culture, the bond of family and the call of God in their lives. People who sometimes act impulsively and even stupidly. People who, through trials and mistakes, come to a place where they can honor God. Because those people live where I do.
We live in a world of entitlement and self-gratification. Our culture tells us over and over again to look out for the interests of ourselves, at the expense of others, if necessary. We must deal every day with a clash of what is in our interest, what will make us feel good and what might be best for our society as a whole. In business, in entertainment choices, in simply being out among others on the street, we must face those choices. David and Nabal reacted initially only thinking of what they wanted. And while what they wanted was not illegal or unacceptable to the culture at the time, it would not stand the test of God’s judgement. When we face similar, if not so extreme choices, we must ask ourselves: even if society says it’s okay to become so self-involved as to only think about our interest and self-satisfaction, is it okay with God?
The Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament is full of examples of this type of question, and we ignore them at our own peril.
Near the beginning of this sermon I mentioned that sometimes New Testament Christians have a hard time reconciling the God of the Hebrew Bible with the God revealed to them in Jesus Christ. That is part of why so many of us put the Hebrew Bible on a lower level than the new testament. But the God of the Hebrew Bible and the God of the new testament are indeed the self-same God. And we can never fully understand the true nature of God until we understand that.
An example: Abigail appeals to David on the basis of what is an accepted part of the Hebrew Bible. In the book of Deuteronomy, the following famous quotation is heard: “Vengenance is mine,” says the Lord.
When we hear that term in it’s Old Testament context, it is easy to jump to accepting that God is an angry, revenge seeking God. That God stands in stark contrast to the words of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” But Abigail makes clear that they are not at odds with each other.
Abigail appeals to David to think this through: God does not claim the mantle of vengeance to highlight an angry, random, capricious demeanor. No, God claims that mantle precisely because God’s vengeance serves the cause of God’s justice. If vengeance is left to the humans, God is saying, it would be a completely different story. Our pursuit of revenge is almost always going to be ill advised, random, off target and misguided. Our pursuit of vengeance will almost always preclude us from being creative in solving our problems.
Abigail understands this and models well one of Jesus’ most famous prescriptions: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” David starts out peacefully enough, but quickly comes close to violating this admonition. Nabal, quite frankly spends his time actively working against this notion.
Who is treated justly in this situation? David, pulling back from the brink of unwarranted violence, becomes a great king. Abigail, seeking to make peace and protect hundreds of people, becomes the wife of the king. Nabal, thinking only of himself, dies alone and bitter.
It is easy for us to get caught up in the entanglements of what is our right, versus what is right; what is human justice, versus what is God’s justice; what is our will, versus what is God’s will.
The teachings of Jesus go a long way to sorting out the conflicts of culture and faith. The stories of our Hebrew ancestors give us real world examples of the human difficulties of traversing those conflicts. And for both of these, I thank God: the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, the God of Jesse, the God of David, the God of Abigail, the God of Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray: Lord, we seek to do your will always; and always we need help. Thank you for the covenant which bound you to our Hebrew ancestors and for the covenant which binds us to them, to you, and to each other. May this covenant be the tie that binds us all together in faith, and love, in all we do. It is in your name that we pray, Amen.