Women with a Story to Tell: The Merry Wives of David: Abagail.

 David was on the run from his maniacal father-in-law, King Saul. He left his wife behind. Michal was Saul’s daughter, as we are often reminded in I Samuel 18. That relationship got more complex as Michal was pulled between her father and her husband. David’s first wife was not so merry after all. Eventually, Saul gave her to another man.

 David was hiding out in the wilderness of Paran in southern Israel, west of the Dead Sea. I Samuel 25 describes a rich man who was living there, Nabal by name, who herded sheep around Maon and Carmel. Expect trouble in this story. The text says that Nabal was not only rich, but he was also “surly and mean.” 

 David sent ten of his young men to Nabal to ask for food for a feast day. They were to say that David had been in the area of his shepherds but had watched over them so that neither he nor anyone else (like rustlers) had bothered them or taken anything from them. Now David was asking for some provisions, perhaps as compensation for his service. 

 Hospitality to strangers was a general rule throughout the Ancient Near East, so this is not unusual. However, Nabal answered haughtily: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and the meat that I have butchered for my shearers, and give it to men who came from I do not know where?”

 Nabal thought that he was smart and tough, but his mouth gave him away. He acts as if he does not know David’s story but then reveals that he knows that he is the son of Jesse and he does know where David is from. He says it in a way that implies, “Who is this son of a commoner who desires to replace the king? Why should I respect this upstart?” Nabal sent David’s men away with no gift.

  David responded in anger, strapped on his sword and told his men to do the same. He left camp with 400 men while 200 remained with the supplies that they had. However, one of the shepherds working for Nabal was keen enough that he suspected Nabal had bit off more than he could chew, so he slipped away and told Nabal’s wife. 

 The shepherd said to Abigail, “David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he shouted insults at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields, as long as we were with them; they were a wall to us both night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.”

 At the beginning of the story, Abigail is described as “clever.” Perhaps this is why the shepherd informed her. He concluded, “Now therefore know this and consider what you should do; for evil has been decided against our master and against all his house; he is so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.”

 Abigail immediately gathered up all the bread and wine that she had, as well as parched grain, raisins, and figs. She loaded donkeys and sent them quickly to meet David. She followed behind, riding by a route that did not take her near her husband.

 David was marching and thinking, “Surely it was in vain that I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness; … but he returned me evil for good.” Abigail intercepted David, dismounted, and ran to him. She bowed low and tried to take the blame because she failed to see David’s young men and thus did not keep them from meeting Nabal at all. She offered the present of food and wine and begged him to let Nabal’s enemies take care of his arrogance. In this way, she pleaded, David would not take vengeance and thus incurring blood guilt on himself. 

 Her goal was to save her husband, but her talking point was that vengeance was only going to bring more trouble for David. She praised David for “fighting the battles of the LORD.” She argued that David should avoid this temptation to get revenge so that “the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living under the care of the LORD your God; but the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling.”

  Did I say that Abigail was clever? David considered and saw the folly of his own anger. Then he said to Abigail: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand!”

 Then David dismissed her, “Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice and I have granted your petition.” Abigail’s “good sense” or common sense (which is a lot less common than you would think) averted a disaster for her husband and for David. Vengeance only calls for more vengeance. Instead, let the Lord handle it if you have a just cause.

 As Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”