WHO WAS ABIGAIL?

“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. And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. Please 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.” – 1 Samuel 25:26-28.

Over the last few weeks on Friday, we have been looking at various people from the Bible who are not that well-known but who provide an example, a model, for us of faith, trust, courage, perseverance, conviction, and so on. Such is the case with Abigail.

Often, life is not the easiest, but sometimes, the hardest part can bring out the best in people. Abigail’s life and Bible story are an example of this truth. Instead of feeling defeated in her circumstance, she acted courageously and used wisdom to avert a devastating scenario.

The story of Abigail is found in First Samuel 25. The Bible describes Abigail as being “a sensible and beautiful woman,” but her husband Nabel was “was crude and mean in all his dealings” ( 1 Samuel 25:3). The Bible tells us in chapter 25 that David and his 600 men had shown great kindness to Nabal and his workers. They had protected them when the servants had cared for their sheep out in the desert, and they were faithful to never take anything from them. At a time when dangers in the desert lurked all around, this was a huge blessing from David to Nabal and his family.

But when David sent his men to ask Nabal to show favor to them by sharing some of their provisions, Nabal responded by saying, “Who is this fellow David?” Basically, Nabal said, “No way am I going to share my provisions with these men.”

When David’s men returned and reported Nabal’s response to David, David became so angry that he took 400 of his men and set out to retaliate by destroying all of Nabal’s men. A servant of Nabal came to Abigail and told her how his master had insulted David and his men. Immediately, Abigail began to gather provisions for David’s men so she could take the provisions to David herself and apologize to David (vv. 14-20).

As Abigail approached these 400 men, David had just said in anger, “…he has repaid me evil for good.  May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning” (vv 21-22). That was the explosive scene Abigail rode into.

First, Abigail fell on her face before David and said, “…I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. I 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….Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way” ( 1 Samuel 25:23-24).

Abigail’s humility silenced her enemy and completely changed David’s response. David even apologized to Abigail and thanked her for her words that restrained him from killing many innocent people in his anger (vv. 32-34). Then, David’s men received all the provisions she had provided.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the qualities of Abigail?
2. What can we learn from the story of Abigail?