By Roy E. Ciampa, Ph.D.
S. Louis and Ann W. Armstrong Professor of Religion, Samford University
Abigail: Intervening Faith
1 Samuel 25:2–3, 14–17, 23–28, 32–35
In Abigail we find a woman who shows us how faith combined with godly character, wisdom and humility can empower a person to serve as an intermediary in a time of crisis.
Be a person others can trust when help is needed. (2–3, 14–17)
Nabal and Abigail were an odd couple. She was as bright and beautiful as he was mean and miserly. David and his men were on the run and somewhat dependent upon the goodwill of others. Being an extraordinarily wealthy man Nabal had huge flocks of sheep and goats and thus a major sheep-shearing operation that could be expected to turn a large profit. David’s men had protected Nabal’s flocks and shepherds in hope of being rewarded once Nabal recognized how valuable it had been for his profit margin.
Nabal didn’t merely rebuff David’s request for compensation but went further and sought to shame David publicly as a nobody or worse — just someone’s worthless runaway servant. One of Nabal’s servants decided that Abigail needed to be informed. Her character was as well-known as Nabal’s but for the opposite reason. While it might be impossible to reason with Nabal, Abigail was known as an intelligent and reasonable person who could be counted on in a time of crisis.
Heads would roll (literally) if Abigail couldn’t undo the damage caused by her foolish husband.
Humbly encourage others to do the right thing. (23–28)
Given Nabal’s offense of treating David shamefully rather than with honor in a culture where the attribution of honor or shame was an extremely sensitive issue, Abigail’s approach was to humble herself and make it absolutely clear she considered David to be a man of extreme honor (and a man whose honor had been egregiously attacked) and her own husband to be the one who lacked honor and did not deserve to be treated as a man of honor.
Nabal and others might be forgiven and spared for the sake of his wise, gracious, godly, generous and humble wife.
Knowing David to be a man of God she invoked the Lord and His providence as a sign that God did not want David to shed blood. Their encounter was a divine appointment intended to keep David from acting on his planned revenge. It would be wrong for David to act on his murderous anger, and God would reward him if he were to show grace and mercy instead.
Keep a Christ-centered perspective in resolving conflict. (32–35)
Abigail’s extraordinarily wise, godly and culturally sensitive response brought David back to his spiritual senses and deescalated the extremely dangerous situation.
David recognized Abigail’s intervention was not merely a cleverly calculated attempt to spare her husband but an act of God Himself. God was at work though Abigail to keep David from acting on his sinful desire to murder a man and his servants out of a rage based on his public slight.
Abigail’s approach to resolving this conflict anticipated Christ’s own approach. Christ “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” and “humbled himself” before God that we might be spared (Phil. 2:7–8). By going out to intervene Abigail put her life on the line in order to save the lives of numerous others, including that of her foolish husband.
It was her combination of approachability, wisdom, humility and spiritual discernment that made her the one person who, by the providence of God, could defuse such a dangerous situation. We need more Abigails in our world today.
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