Reading… and Thinking

And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand!”

— 1 Samuel 25:32-33 (ESV)

One of my personal Bible heroes is Abigail of Carmel. She was a remarkable figure of faith, personal strength, intelligence, decisiveness, and humility. David was so impressed by her that after meeting her once, he immediately determined to marry her when he later learned her husband had died.

Abigail was married to a complete jerk. His name was Nabal, which means “fool”. She says of him, “Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him.” Whether the marriage was arranged, or she made a bad decision when she was younger, we don’t know.

The world would say that Abigail should leave Nabal. But she did not. In spite of his faults, she not only stayed with him, she did her best to run the family business and insulate others from Nabal’s folly. She even intervened with David to save Nabal’s life, when a lesser person might have sat back and let Nabal get what was coming to him. So often we excuse wrong behavior on our part, because someone else has done wrong. (“If he can do that, then why can’t I do this?”) But Abigail did not let Nabal’s wrongdoing rub off on her—she continued to be a faithful wife, even if he didn’t deserve such loyalty.

When Abigail found out how much David and his men had done for her family, and how churlish Nabal had been toward them, she instantly recognized that a disaster was about to unfold. She developed a solution and put it into action immediately. She took the entire burden of saving the situation onto herself. When she met David, she bowed to the earth before him—although she was a wealthy, powerful woman and was used to others bowing to her. Her soft words, her humility, and her open expression of faith that God would set David on the throne of Israel, immediately moved the future king. His anger (which was also foolish and wrong) abated, and he was moved to admiration for this prudent, brave woman.

We don’t really learn very much about Abigail—after this she is hardly mentioned. But from this account we can extract several very powerful lessons:

• Regardless of our circumstances, loyalty and faithfulness are to be commended, especially in marriage. If we have committed ourselves, we must follow through on the commitment.
• The world urges us to look out for ourselves. Abigail teaches us that if we do right, the Lord will look out for us. He can get us out of situations, and it’s far better to wait for Him.
• Another person’s wrongdoing is no excuse for us to do wrong.
• Wrath can be turned away by gentleness and humility, where threats or an angry response would bring escalation, and probably catastrophe.
• There should be no consideration given to whether a humble action will jeopardize our prestige or position. The truly strong person can be humble, and their nobility will be seen in their humility.
• Acting to deter someone from doing wrong is one of the most loving things you can do for them.

May we all take the lessons from this noble woman!