We start looking at the life of one of the central characters of the Old Testament here - King David. You know - the guy who was a man after God's own heart. Here's the end of a rather interesting story about David's life before he became king.
1 Sam 25: 32-42 - David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal so much as one male." Then David received from her hand what she had brought him; he said to her, "Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice, and I have granted your petition."
Abigail came to Nabal; he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him; he became like a stone. About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the Lord who has judged the case of Nabal's insult to me, and has kept back his servant from evil; the Lord has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head." Then David sent and wooed Abigail, to make her his wife. When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife." She rose and bowed down, with her face to the ground, and said, "Your servant is a slave to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." Abigail got up hurriedly and rode away on a donkey; her five maids attended her. She went after the messengers of David and became his wife.
A bit of context: David and his companions wandered up to the estate of the wealthy curmudgeon Nabal and asked (more or less politely) for some food. Nabal told them no in rather gruff but no uncertain terms. David was incensed at the refusal and decided to kill Nabal. Nabal's wife, Abigail, met with David and convinced him not to act as a pirate. The rest, you see above.
What strikes me as interesting is that David sees Nabal's death as a matter of God stepping in and acting as a "hit man," killing the rich man and allowing David to take the dead man's wife for himself. Sounds like a pattern of behavior being established to me.
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