I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 25-27.

    With today’s passage the focus shifts completely from Saul to David. In today’s passage we start to see how David would view his role as king (although he is far from being king at this point). When David moved into the desert in southern Judah with his men, he began protecting the shepherds and merchants in that area from bandits and raiders. This was similar to what he had done for the town of Keilah. As part of this, he expected the wealthy men whose property he had protected to provide some support to him and his men.
    Reading this passage, I have always had trouble understanding what was so terribly insulting about what Nabal said to David’s men. I do not believe that the problem was the insult to David, rather I think that it was the insult to David’s father, Jesse. Nabal did not just call David a nobody, he called his father one as well. In essence, Nabal said, “How does being Jesse’s son make you any better than a beggar?” Jesse was a man of sufficient prominence that Samuel knew who he was when God sent him to anoint one of his sons. This situation did not escalate because Nabal refused to pay for the protection which David and his man had provided for him. It escalated because he was rude about doing so. The passage makes a point of the fact that Nabal could have easily afforded to provide goods to David and his men, since he was throwing a feast fit for a king while his wife, Abigail, was off delivering a bribe of appeasement to David.

    The first time David fled to Achish, the Philistine king of Gath, he was alone. This time he arrives with his own war band, a group of men who owe loyalty to no one but David. This fact explains the different reception which David received on this occasion. While there David supported himself and his men in the time honored fashion of raiding those not under the protection of the ruler of the territory in which he resided. This was similar to what had happened in Keilah, some war bands from Philistine territory had been raiding there until David came to their defense. Rather than raid into Israelite territory (which was conveniently close) David raided the territory of other people’s in the area. However, he told Achish that he had raided Israelite territory in order to make it seem like he would be unable to return to Israel.