This is a question often asked of pastors by followers of The Shepherd.
‘I am just an ordinary follower of Jesus; how can I possibly help to extend the Kingdom of God, as you keep suggesting?’
This is a good question, and one of the answers is to look at little known people in the Bible, who did amazing things for God.
The fifth person to look at is Abigail, the wife of Nabal, whose story can be found in 1 Samuel, Chapter 25.
If the previous story of Rahab could be seen as the wonderful grace of God, this story might be seen as ‘Grace, gentleness and courage in action’.
I set out below, most of this incredible story from the NIV, which is required to understand the fulness of Rahab’s actions.
2 A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!
7 “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8 Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore, be favourable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”
9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
12 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So, they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30 When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
36 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”
Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. 40 His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”
41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives.
NIV
The context of this story is that it plays out somewhere between 1020 and 1010 BC. in the days of David. David is a man who has already been chosen to be the next King of Israel, but he is not king at this time. Instead he is being hounded by his predecessor, King Saul.
Saul’s jealousy and contempt for David grows stronger and stronger by the day. At this time in the story, we see that David together with about 600 men are on the run, and they are trying to escape the sword of Saul.
So, to the two main characters in the story. Abigail’s husband Nabal is described as a rich man and a wealthy rancher. He is also described as a harsh and evil man. This man was rotten to the core, and even his own household said, he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.
On the other hand, all we know about Abigail is summed up in this one chapter of the Bible, and she shines as one of the most notable women in the Old Testament.
The story of Abigail is about a woman stepping into history, and stopping a bad situation from getting worse, as she confronts David, just at the time he intended to kill Nabal, her husband.
Some situations in life may need both our input and involvement. If we look closely at this amazing woman, we will see that she is a wonderful example of one who did this with grace, gentleness, and courage.
Abigail had a large mess to fix which took much persuasion. How did she fulfil this difficult task? As a brave woman, she did not run away, rather she gathered up a huge amount of food and provisions and headed out to see David. When she reaches him, what is the first thing she does? Abigail falls at his feet, places the blame upon herself and tells David to pay no attention to her foolish husband Nabal.
Abigail’s plan worked, and David calls off his invasion. After all Abigail has been through, she goes home to her husband, Nabal, and look how she finds him, he is having a party and he is drunk. This amazing woman Abigail is still faithfully doing what she should do in her marriage, but it is not long before we see what happened to her feckless husband Nabal. The story tells us that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
At the end of this story, Abigail finds favour in the sight of David, and she becomes one of his wives.
Perhaps the most important reason we should step in like Abigail, and seek to influence a situation, is that if a conflict is not resolved, or someone is not confronted, or sins are not brought to the light, far greater problems will almost certainly follow.
Following the story of this courageous woman, if you are in a difficult situation that you are unable to change, can you be like Abigail and never give up, and never allow your situation to affect your faith. Abigail’s testimony to you is that God will continue to work in your life.
The next little-known person in the Bible we will look at, is Anna, the Daughter of Phanuel, whose story can be found in three short verses in Luke 2:36-38.
The Shepherd Speaks 