# 1 Samuel Chapter 25
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## Summary
Samuel dies and Israel mourns. David goes down from the stronghold into the wilderness of Paran. In Maon David sends 10 messengers to Nabal a significant herd owner to remind him of the care shown to his shepherds whilst they were in Carmal. Nabal opts to play ignorent to the favour slighting david and ignoring his request. 

David is angry and saddles up with his men with the intention to kill all the males within Nabal's household. His wife Abigail is however discerning and sends a gift to David supplicating and interceding on behalf of her husbands folly for Davids forgiveness. David relents and the Lord strikes Nabal dead. David then takes Abigail as his wife.

## Meditatio
Samuel a prophet has died and all Israel mourns. The chapter passes over the significance of this in merely a few lines but we should consider for a moment what Samuel has accomplished.

It is important to recognise that Samuel is a liminal figure. He marks the last of the judges and the transition to and establishment of of the monarchy in Israel which will stand for hundreds of years; and ultimately with the establishment of the Kingdom of God; forever more.

In addition to this Samuel is a prophet, representing the physical presence of the Lord on earth. Holy in the sense that he is set apart for the purpose of representing the Lord's presence on earth but not Divine and still all to human. Symbolically he represents vision and the loss of his prescience marks a transition to Nathan and Gad his contemporaries at the time.

Within the narrative we see that Nabal chooses to mark this transition to the pattern of the established Kingdom by seeking personal gain. Whereas Abigail who has and is more discerning than her ignorant husband shrewdly acts to save those amongs Nabal's household. Nabal ultimately succumbing to his selfish and foolish nature and loosing the life he sought to preserve. Abigail on the other hand gets to sleep with the King.

I get serious [Matthew 16:25](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16%3A25&version=ESV) vibes from this passage. There is a pattern in scripture that in clasping at things we tend to loose that which we seek to hold. Lord may we recognise the value in letting go.