The Churl "Nabal" by Jos. Clarke

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1875

The Churl "Nabal"

By Jos. Clarke

"Was churlish and evil in his doings." 1 Sam. 25:3. "The instruments of the churl are evil." Isa. 32:7.

It appears that Nabal was a man of great wealth, and he held a great feast in his house (at the time when he had gathered his flocks together for shearing), like the feast of a king (verse 36); and it also appears that the army of David had been of great service to the interests of Nabal; for the shepherds in Nabal's employ testified that the soldiers of David were as a wall of fire to them by night as well as by day. But Nabal was too selfish and ungrateful to appreciate the favors he had received, and by which he had been greatly enriched; and when the servants of David in their extremity of need came to Nabal for succor, he repulsed them with rudeness and reproaches.

All of the great preparations made for Nabal's feast were of the most liberal character; yet now when the starving soldiers of David came to him for food, his heart suddenly contracted, and he changed his mind suddenly to a point of indignant selfishness, and he charged their master David with being a refugee from justice, a runaway from his proper place, and classed him with runaways and deserters.

Previous to this, no doubt he had fawned upon David, and had befriended his cause while his sheep were scattered among the mountains; and David and his men were to his shepherds and flocks as a wall of safety; but now his fleeces were secure, and he did not think any farther, only to grasp more tightly whatever was in his hands.

Thus it is with the natural, the carnal heart. Covetousness springs up naturally in the soil of the human heart, and all the evil nature of man is fostered by it. This greed of money grows to a frightful degree, and freezes out the love of the truth, and the love of God, and love to man. It congeals the heart to stone, and churlishness is often the result of this base passion. Often the noble youth starts out in life full of great and excellent aspirations, but stopping to accumulate, he becomes enamored with gold, and it becomes his god. For this he labors, and saves, and plans, until his whole heart and life are enlisted in the pursuit. Perhaps he is morose and sour to his friends, and cold to all that do not tend to add to his possessions. All his mind is a vast encyclopedia of profit and loss, and his morality is weighed in the same balance with his goods, in the old avoirdupois, and he detests such investments as promise poor or doubtful profits.

In the warm sun he sees only such rays as warm his fields and ripen his grain; and the rain is only useful, if it water his lands; no matter if storms scatter the produce of a country, if it spare his, all is right.

The history of Nabal is a suggestive and instructive one. His great feast was to advertise his great liberality, yet in the midst of its festivity he snubbs his old friend who comes to his door and begs a morsel from his overflowing board. His story is soon told (read verse 38). Alas, how many in this age treat the cause of God in the same manner. When it is briefly stated that the cause of God is in want of means, then these "upper ten" Nabals fly into a rage, and berate the servants of David, and call their master hard names. How little they think of the death stupor of Nabal.

Jos. Clarke.