There is no denial from the careful reader that 1 Samuel 24 and 26 are telling the same story. Perhaps we should say, virtually the same story. But that the stories are cut from the same cloth is undeniable.

What we have over these three chapters—1 Samuel 24-26—is a very large and very tightly unified sandwich of literary structure. It moves as follows:

A. David refrains from killing God’s anointed (1 Samuel 24).

1. Saul is tipped off about the whereabouts of David and his men (24:1).
2. Saul leads 3000 men out to battle with David (24:2).
3. David has clear opportunity to easily take Saul’s life (24:3).
4. David is encouraged by loyal followers to take Saul’s life (24:4).
5. David takes something that belongs to Saul (24:4).
6. David refuses to harm the “Lord’s anointed” and restrains his men (24:6-7)
7. David calls to Saul and his men from a nearby but safe position (24:8).
8. David refers to Saul as “my father” and Saul responds with “Is this your voice, my son David?”  (24:11, 16).
9. David uses the corner of the robe as proof that he does not wish Saul harm (24:11).
10. David says that Saul coming after him is like coming after a flea (24:14).
11. David calls for the Lord to judge his actions toward Saul (24:15).
12. Saul repents of his actions toward David (24:17).
13. Saul speaks well of David and his future (24:20).

B. David accepts Abigail’s wisdom and refrains from killing Nabal (“Fool”); the Lord takes Nabal’s life from him; David takes Abigail, Nabal’s widow, for his wife (ch. 25).

A’.  David refrains from killing God’s Anointed (1 Samuel 26).

1. Saul is tipped off about the whereabouts of David and his men (26:1).
2. Saul leads 3000 men out to battle David (26:2).
3. David has clear opportunity to easily take Saul’s life (26:7).
4. David is encouraged by loyal followers to take Saul’s life (26:8).
5. David takes something that belongs to Saul (26:11-12).
6. David refuses to harm the “Lord’s anointed” and restrains Abishai (26:9-11)
7. David calls to Saul and his men from a nearby but safe position (26:14).
8. Saul responds to David by saying, “Is this your voice, my son David” (26:17 [see also v.21]).
9. David uses Saul’s spear and water jar as proof that he does not wish Saul harm (24:16).
10. David says that Saul coming after him is like coming after a flea (26:20).
11. David calls for the Lord to judge his actions toward Saul (26:23-24).
12. Saul repents of his actions toward David (26:21).
13. Saul speaks well of David and his future (26:25).

That an abundance of links exists between the stories in 1 Samuel 24 and 26 is an understatement.¹ In the art of literary structure, this is going over the top. Not only are the connecting pieces lined up one after another but the closeness in wording and certainly the way the basic plot runs through each event is strikingly similar—even identical in many cases. What we have is undoubtedly an emphasis upon David’s consistent refusal to raise a hand against “the Lord’s anointed.” Even though the anointed (King Saul) wants nothing more than to kill David and even though the circumstances in both cases would make killing his tormentor a matter of virtual ease, David is adamant in the rejection of the action.

Upon reflection of God’s Word as a whole, our minds are taken to none other than the foot of the cross. After all, it is Jesus who taught that “all the Scriptures” were about Him (Luke 24:27). Surely, this greatest of Israelite Kings (prior to Jesus), this one after God’s heart, is pointing us forward always to the one King over all things. David is directing attention to the One who outshines even the best Israel had to offer—its best priests, prophets, and kings—and One so superior to David that the great king who followed Saul will seem a poor substitute for the One to whom Israel’s heart was already crying out.

It is Jesus who fulfills these stories of humility in the face of ruling oppressors and dogged trackers with murderous hearts in a way that no one else—even David himself—ever could. Just like David, Jesus is already the anointed King. Just like for David, so for Jesus there is an Israelite leadership that wishes to retain its authority at any cost. Just like David, Jesus is surrounded by followers who feel taking enemy lives is a justifiable—even commendable—means of acquiring the throne for God’s chosen (Luke 22:38, 49-50). Yet just like David, even though the means are completely at his disposal (and more than David could have ever dreamed, cf. Matthew 26:53), Jesus chooses the road of humility and dependence upon the Father for the removal of his oppressor rather than taking matters into his own hands. This is the way of complete dependence to which our Savior (and we) is called.

But our search for literary meaning has only just begun. If we know anything about Jewish literary structure, it is that the ancient authors loved to hide the most valuable pieces in the middle. Their mirroring of lines and paragraphs, and in our case even long portions of extremely similar text, was done to help the reader find a center piece. That piece would sit on its own chiastically, bringing full harmony to the entire unit by giving a main point which would infuse meaning into the whole. It never forces itself on the reader, but subtly beckons one to give it the attention it deserves. Only then can full clarity be achieved.

In our current text, this necessarily leads us to 1 Samuel 25. In the middle of these two chapters—1 Samuel 24 and 26; these seemingly identical stories—lies another fairly well-known story. If the pattern of Jewish literary structure holds, then it is essential we ask ourselves why it was so important for the original author (dare we say the Holy Spirit) to place the story of David, Nabal, and Abigail directly in between. What is the point of this section, as a whole, and what does it have to say to the reader? And, lest we skip over the all-important question, what does it have to say about the true Anointed One, our Lord Jesus Christ?

The account in 1 Samuel 25 at first might seem detached from the other two stories in plot and meaning. But this is hardly the case. The story is about David and his men, still in distress, looking for sustenance as they hide and wait for God’s time for David to come out of hiding and be crowned the official king of Israel. In the story, we are introduced to two characters very quickly, married to one another but as opposite in temperament and simple common sense as can be imagined. The woman, Abigail—which the text points out first of all is “wise/discerning,” (25:3)—is unfortunately married to a man whose name is a perfect description of his character, as she later states: Nabal means “fool” (25:25).

After approaching Nabal with a request from the anointed king, David’s men relate the interaction they have had with Nabal’s men, and how they have always treated Nabal’s servants and sheep/property with great care and respect. David, through his men, requests whatever Nabal might give them since they have been careful to treat all that he has with kindness, even protecting Nabal’s flocks and servants from all potential threats (26:16). Nabal is also encouraged by David’s men to seek out the truth of this matter among his own servants (25:8) but even one of Nabal’s servants is quick to point out to Abigail later that Nabal is such a worthless man, he refuses to listen to them even when they do try to speak to him (25:17).

Nabal’s response is one of utter ignorance. Though it seems David and his men have been close to and even serving as protection of his own servants and flocks for some time (25:7, 16), Nabal is clueless of David’s identity and equates him only with any renegade servant who might seek to “break away from his master” (25:10). He unequivocally refuses to help David or his men in any way, apparently doing nothing to confirm anything that has been relayed to him by his own servants.

Upon hearing all of this, David is incensed and instructs his men to prepare to devastate Nabal’s house and kill all the men of fighting age associated with him (25:13, 22). It is as he and his men are on the way to commit this act of destruction that he is met by the discerning and beautiful Abigail (25:23). It is Abigail who makes a case before David that Yahweh is the one who should be trusted to take the life of a fool like her husband at His discretion, not David’s. Because of Abigail, David will not act like Esau whose potential attack with four hundred men would have been an act of selfish vindictiveness (cp. Genesis 32:6).² David must trust God to work on his behalf to remove Nabal from the earth when God sees fit. In giving the right of vengeance to the Lord, once David is established on his throne as God’s anointed king over Israel, he will feel no guilt nor “pangs of conscience” about his former actions. He will have been upright. He will have trusted the Lord to fight his battles for him at the Lord’s discretion and in the Lord’s timing, rather than his own (25:30-31).

Following Abigail’s pleadings, David recognizes her wisdom, blessing her for keeping him from “working salvation with my own hand” (25:32). Peter Leithart’s evaluation of this wise bride bears repeating: “In this, Abigail represented the loyal remnant of Israel, the bride, who was turning from her ‘fool’ of a husband and declaring loyalty to her true master, the true anointed of the Lord, the true Christ.”³  We would only add that in so doing, she becomes a picture of the future wise bride of God who will see in Jesus the anointed One who seeks God’s heart. The foolish nature of her earthly “husband” is seen later in the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who, like Nabal, neither recognize the true King (cp. 25:10), nor accept the wisdom of the servants who do (cp. 25:17).

The following day, upon hearing Abigail’s story of her encounter with David, Nabal’s heart dies within him, and he becomes “as a stone.” Only ten days go by before Nabal is struck by the Lord and dies, fulfilling Abigail’s words (25:37-38). David then blesses the Lord because Yahweh has returned Nabal’s evil to him, and David also takes the widow as his wife (25:39).

In both chapters 24 and 26, David was quick to rebuff the idea of doing harm to Saul, even though Saul focused all of his attentions on taking David’s life if possible. David’s reasoning was that Saul was God’s anointed—put into his position of leadership by God—and, therefore, it should be God alone that removes him. Yet, when faced with the insolent rejection of a fool to his legitimate request, David finds it well within his scope of personal authority to take the life of the foolish and unconcerned rich man. It is only when godly, wise Abigail steps in that David acknowledges his need for discretion and humility—allowing God to take vengeance for him, not only with kings, but also with fools.

In learning this lesson, David becomes even more a type of the great King who will one day walk the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus will be faced with multiple opportunities when He could work from His own authority and summon the power available to Him to destroy those who reject Him (Matthew 26:53; Luke 9:54-56). Yet this is the not the way our great King, for He is gentle and humble (Matthew 11:29; 21:5). He will go to slaughter as a lamb that does not open its mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Even to death, He will allow the Father to be the only one to execute judgment upon those who reject Him and His message of good news, while He actively prays for the acceptance of His executioners (Luke 23:34).

Jesus is our standard. What David had to be reminded and convinced of, even being stopped as he was on the way to act as judge and executioner, Jesus did with no need of outside influence.

We have the opportunity to live in the likeness of our humble Savior even today. We are not called to execute any kind of judgment on those who, through neglect, complacency, or design, have wronged us or brought us harm. We are Jesus’ body on earth. As such, we are called to walk in His footsteps, representing His thoughts and actions to our very best ability.

In a time of pandemic, in a racially and politically charged society, we are tasked with the necessity of being peaceful, meek, and humble, knowing that our job is not to seek retribution for those who may have brought calamity upon us, either perceived or real, individual or corporate. We are the sheep of His pasture alone. We strive only to imitate one Master, the one who came not to be served but to serve.

There may be times when we feel our enemies have been put into our hands by God. Surely, we might think, God has given me this very opportunity to bring retribution on the head of this one who has tormented me so and made my life so exceedingly difficult. Yet, just like David’s soldiers and David, himself, we would be wrong. Whether upon king or fool, God is one who has the right to render punishment. By keeping this in mind, we have the opportunity, like David, to live as a type of our Lord, also, putting our selfish and vengeful thoughts aside in order to live for the exaltation of the one and only Judge of the living and the dead.

Lord, let our hands not be raised in defiance against Your creation, but in humble acceptance of Your sovereign authority over all people—especially ourselves. Amen.

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Eric Robinson lives in Lubbock, Texas, and teaches Bible for Dallas Christian College. He is the author of “Jesus in the Shadows” and “Over Our Heads: Meeting Jesus in the Layers of Scripture.”

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1. For more connections, see Peter Leithart, A Son to Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003), 144-145. ↩︎
2. Alastair Roberts, “The Reopened Wounds of Jacob” (https://theopolisinstitute.com/the-reopened-wounds-of-jacob/). ↩︎
3. Leithart, 142. ↩︎