Nabal and Abigail!

The story of Nabal and Abigail is a story riddled with unexpected twists and turns:

³⁵ Then David accepted her present and told her, “Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.”

³⁶ When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. ³⁷ In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke,and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later, the Lord struck him, and he died. 1 Samuel 25:35-38(NLT)

For those of you not acquainted with this fascinating story, the scriptures prior to what is listed above relayed the story of David and his men protecting the sheep of Nabal at no cost to him. When the feast time came, David sent word to Nabal asking for some of the fruits of their festivities. Nabal refused. When David heard word of that he vowed to kill everyone on Nabal’s farm.

The men who heard of David’s intent quickly went to Abigail, Nabal’s wife and told her all the was planned by David. Abigail got to work preparing a huge supply of foodstuffs to take to David and his men. Upon her arrival, she begged David not to bring bloodshed on hs hands by killing Nabal and his people. In the above verses we find David instructing Abigail to return to her husband without fear for his life.

Nabal was very drunk when Abigail returned from seeing David, so she waited until morning to tell him of what she had done. Nabal immediately had a stroke and took to his sick bed, where he died some ten days later.

The interesting thing about this passage lies in the 38th verse where it says that the Lord struck him down, and then he died. Did the Lord strike him down because he was going to strike down Abigail for serving David and his men? We may never know what the intent of his heart was at that moment, but we do know that Nabal never got to respond on this side of heaven.

I’m not going to identify the moral of the story, except to say that I admire the courage of Abigail, to risk her life in preparing for David and his men, and then to return to her husband Nabal and let him know what she did. While the incident ended with the death of Nabal, it began anew with Abigail’s marriage to David.

Some would argue that Abigail was not submissive to Nabal and I would beg to disagree. Every word in God’s Word is for our edification and learning. Abigail modeled a woman who was in submission to her husband, but was governed by a higher authority who gave her what to do to enable her entire family and household to survive. After her preparation for David she returned to her household and informed her husband of her deeds. HIs stony heart did not emanate from Abigail, but from his own sinful heart.

While 1 Peter 3 outlines the duties of a wife, there are countless scriptures that depend upon us to hear from God and read from HIs Word. Abigail’s story is not relevant to every woman, but she is one woman who had a story that illustrated God’s unique way of saving a community,

Maria