The mean and surly Calebite

This week is on 1 Samuel 25:2-11:

A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.  While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.  So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.  Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!   “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”  When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.  Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.  Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

Nabal was a very wealthy man.  Imagine how much land you would have to own in order to graze four thousand animals.  Imagine how much those animals would be worth.  Even if you slaughtered and ate a whole goat or sheep every single day of the year, and even if none of them had a single kid or lamb, that's ten years of more meat than a family needs.  And that's assuming that's all the food he's got.  The man was crazy wealthy.

David was on the run with his men.  During these times, it was expected that if you showed up at some stranger's house, he was sort of obligated to house and feed you for a night out of courtesy.  They didn't have motels back then.  Everyone was expected to look out for each other.  David figured he was saving the poor people some trouble by going to the rich guy to get some provisions.  The rich guy could totally afford to help him out without starving his family.  Not only that, but David and his men had actually been guarding Nabal's property when they were camping out nearby.  If anything, Nabal owed him a favor, even if he wasn't obligated by good manners.

Nabal had a different perspective.  He was mean and surly.  He didn't want to give anything from his abundance.  He found it insulting that someone would expect him to share.  Why should the rich be obligated to provide for the poor?  Why help someone who isn't your neighbor or who isn't related to you?  Nabal was interested only in the bottom line, and the bottom line said "No handouts."  And just to drive his point home, he insulted David and his men, accusing them of being runaway slaves.  It's pretty much an instruction manual on how not to be hospitable!

Nabal brings a curse on himself through his attitude.  If it wasn't for his wife intervening, he and all of his men would have been killed that night.  The scary thing is that Nabal's attitude is similar to our own sometimes.  Here is a man who has unimaginable abundance.   He could live comfortably for the next ten years without having to earn another cent.  We can easily condemn him when we put it that way.  But lets look at it this way:  Imagine you had ten years' salary in the bank, and some random guy knocked on your door and wanted you to give him a thousand dollars to fix his car.  Can you feel that reluctance welling up?  You have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, and you, like most people in that position, would deny this guy the one thousand that would totally transform his situation.  You'd probably even say some of the same things Nabal would say.  "Am I going to take money out of my childrens' inheritance and give it to some stranger that didn't work for it?"  "I don't even know who you are, mister.  You could be an escaped convict, for all I know."

Treating abundance like it is scarcity is sinful.  You're denying your blessing.  You're the person, sitting in a five star restaurant, whining about how nobody can survive on only ten million dollars a year anymore.  That's insulting to everyone who lives on less.  Nabal's actions say "God cannot bless me.  I must guard and hoard all of this for myself, or I will have nothing."  They say "I deserve this blessing.  I alone deserve it, and I can decide who is less of a man, and deny them access to it."  Nabal ignores God's charitable kindness to him, and assumes that God has delegated his godhood to him.  He alone decides who is blessed.

That's not to say we should just hand things out to people until we're broke.  That's a different question than the one asked of Nabal.  What this is saying is that if you are so blessed that you will never know hardship, and someone asks for something they need which you won't even notice missing, you would have to be extremely evil to deny their request.  For someone who has so much to give so little is exactly what God is not.  Our natural sinful inclination is to be like Nabal.  We must fight to be charitable.

Ask God to show you your abundance.  You might not even have all of it where you can see it.  Try to be aware of your blessing.  Ask for sensitivity so you won't be surly and mean to people who God wants to bless through your excess.   He doesn't give us excess for us to hoard it. He wants us to share.