Devotions from The Dock - Day 2: Abigail

The second day of our Dock Devotions focused on one of my personal favorite characters, and stories, in The Bible: Abigail. Her name appears in only a couple of different chapters, but the part she played in history – particularly the future King David’s history – was enormous. The discussion was based on 1 Samuel Chapter 25.

As usual, a bit of context first. David and his mighty men as they are called, had been on the run, trying to avoid King Saul. King Saul knew that David had been anointed King and wanted to kill David so that this would not take place. Shortly after the Death of Samuel (who, many years earlier, had anointed David to be the future king), while still trying to hide from Saul, they came to a town called Carmel.

They arrived during a festive time, so David instructed his men to ask Nabal, a wealthy landowner, for any provisions, “you can find for them.” The request included the fact that they (David and his men) had been in the area and had done nothing to harm or disrupt any of Nabal’s property or possessions. It was a legitimate, polite request.

Nabal (whose name means “fool”), however, wanted no part of it. He rebuked David’s men and sent them away. As you might expect, this did not sit well with David. This brought out the warrior side of him and his reaction was to tell his men to, “put on your swords!” In modern parlance, I guess David thought Nabal’s response was “fightin’ words.” At this point, 400 of David’s men prepared to head back toward Nabal to get supplies in, shall we say, a more forcible manner.

Now… Enter Abigail. Unlike their boss, Nabal’s servants were not at all fools. One of them told Abigail – Nabal’s wife – what had taken place. The servant feared, I dare say knew, that David was going to respond with force toward Nabal and all those associated with him. This particular servant seemed to be aware that Abigail was much more reasonable than her husband, so he appealed to her to do something about the situation. I love what follows next: “Abigail wasted no time” (v.18 NLT). The woman who was first introduced to us as, “an intelligent and beautiful woman” (v.3 NIV) knew immediately what to do.

Abigail gathered supplies – bread, wine, grain, figs… all the things (and probably more) that David was initially requesting – and headed out to meet David. Right before she got to him, we read that David had gotten himself and his men into quite a frenzy, ready to attack and kill every male member of Nabal’s household.

Again, enter Abigail. When she confronted David, what follows is, to me, the greatest example of diffusing a dangerous and tense situation that I have ever read or witnessed. The best way to share this is for you to read it as it is written:

²³When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. ²⁴She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. ²⁵I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. The name Nabal means “fool”. But I never even saw the young men you sent.

²⁶“Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. ²⁷And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. ²⁸Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.

²⁹“Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling! ³⁰When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, ³¹don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!” (vs. 23-31 NLT)

Wow. Is there a lot to learn from that, or what? Before I get to the lessons we talked about that Tuesday, let’s look at what happened next. (And please, if you’ve never read all of this story for yourself, please do so!)

David responded with great appreciation and gratitude for her intervention. He quickly realized that the wisdom that she spoke had just averted a personal – and potentially national – disaster for him. “Return home in peace” (v.35 NLT) he said to her, while also saying he would not kill her husband.

The next morning Abigail had to tell Nabal what had taken place. This probably took as much courage, or more, than going out to meet David. As soon as she told him however, he had a heart attack, and died ten days later. After hearing word of this, David asked Abigail to be his wife, which she did.

So much good stuff in this! Here are just a few of the things that the youth learned from Abigail and pulled out to discuss that Tuesday morning…

Stand up for what’s right, even if it’s dangerous. In Abigail’s day, going against your husband’s wishes was not something you did. Let alone going behind his back to do so. It was obvious that Abigail knew of her husband’s, shall we say, “lack of intellectual discretion”, but he was her husband none the less. She had to measure and weigh the consequences of what she did, before she did it, and yet still determined that this was a case where she had to act in an unorthodox, not to mention potential fatal for her, manner. Abigail was – and is – a model for courage.

Intercession is a valuable tool. When we think of interceding for someone, especially in “church-world”, it’s often from the standpoint of prayer. When we pray for someone we offer an intercessory prayer. In this case, Abigail’s interceding was more in the form of reconciling differences between David and her husband. She took it upon herself to intervene and help devise a solution. Abigail was – and is – a model for intercession.

Grace and kindness will open doors and get people to listen to you. The way Abigail approached the whole meeting with David, with such a conciliatory and compassionate nature, set the tone for the entire discussion. When David first laid eyes on her he was prepared to kill her husband and every other man in sight, yet by the time she was done speaking, he was back to the harp playing version of himself, rather than the warrior version. These days we would say she displayed an incredible amount of emotional intelligence in that conversation. Abigail was – and is – a model for being graceful and kind.

Reason and logic are your friends. Especially in this very contentious situation, the way in which Abigail logically laid out what would happen if David went through with his murderous plans, made plain to him that he should not go through with them. The clarity of her thoughts and the succinctness with which she shared them, were amazing. If you do this, this will happen, and that’s bad because… But if you don’t do it, this will happen, and isn’t that much better? It really was brilliant. Abigail was – and is – a model for thinking rationally.

As you can see, there is a lot to learn from and admire about this amazing woman named Abigail. She was – and is – a model for both men and women. As a man, I want my daughters and my granddaughters to be like her. I want my grandsons to find a woman like her to marry someday. As women reading this, I would think she would be about the best kind of role-model you can find, in the Bible or anywhere.

One final thought about the passage above that I will leave you with. We didn’t discuss this that morning on the dock but look at verse 29 one more time. Abigail says to David that he will be, “safe in the care of the LORD your God, secure in his treasure pouch!” God’s treasure pouch! Does that not paint an awesome word picture? I don’t know about you, but that’s where I want to always reside – in God’s treasure pouch.

Thanks for reading. God Bless you and yours.