There are plenty of examples of really good people in the Bible, and plenty of examples of wicked ones. But there's only one who's described as just plain mean.
Before David became a king, when he was still being chased through the desert by Saul, he relied on the goodwill of local people to provide him and his men with food. Generally this seems to have granted readily enough, but then he tried Nabal. He sent his men with a polite greeting: 'Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!' (1 Samuel 25:6). Nabal, however, was described as 'surly and mean in all his dealings', and he lived up to his name, refusing David's men point blank and accusing David himself of being nothing but a runaway servant.
David, not surprisingly, saw red. But before he unleashed his soldiers, Nabal's wife Abigail took matters into her own hands. She met David with ample provisions and begged for her husband's life: 'Pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal... his name is Fool, and folly goes with him.'
When he finds out what Abigail has done, Nabal has what appears to be a stroke (verse 37) and dies; Abigail becomes one of David's wives.
Being known as the meanest man in the Bible is not much of a legacy. From the start to the end of the story we don't hear anything good about Nabal. There are other people in the Bible of whom that's true, but this story is different: his faults aren't that he's particularly wicked or bloodthirsty or deceitful or proud. He is just not a very nice man.
His faults are, in other words, too close to home.
The story makes us ask: what's the legacy I'm leaving? When I die, how will I be remembered? Am I kind, generous and sensible, or am I surly, mean and foolish? In Proverbs 10:23 it says: ' A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a person of understanding delights in wisdom.' That godly wisdom was shown by Abigail; Nabal is just remembered as a fool.
