Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday
October 22, 2020
Pastor Rick Kabrick
The Story of Abigail. A Beautiful Godly Woman who saved David from Disaster.
PRO 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.”
Actually, this could apply to the men in this story…Well, one did listen to wise council, the other didn’t.
The Hebrew word for beautiful is YaFah and means to be Beautiful.
When the Scripture says a woman was beautiful, she was beautiful.
David is said to be yafah when he described as a youth going up against Goliath.
Wisdom and being able to discern the situation and seeing the direction God wants you to go, and then having the determination to do it, That’s the key to a successful outcome.
PRO 17:28, “Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted as wise: and he that shuts up his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
PRO 15:1, “A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger”.
Standing between them is a woman who has the Divine ability to fully understand the situation. Not a woman of division but of unity.
1 woman + GOD + PV = Great things.
Righteous anger is different from emotional anger, remember emotions cannot think…emotions cannot think.
The Calebites were attached to the tribe of Judah; and since Judah would be the tribe most loyal to David,
If David had indeed done such a thing, it could have alienated the whole tribe of Judah.
It might seem like David was operating like the mob, but David asking for supplies from Nabal were very much a part of the customs and standards of that time.
That Nabal would be stupid enough to not recognize this is amazing (although his name means…fool so…
Nabal’s response infuriates David. He immediately orders two-thirds of his army (400 men) to strap on their swords and prepare for battle. It is hard to explain David’s desire for such an extreme action as killing everyone associated with Nabal.
David felt that nothing but the blood of a whole family and everyone associated with a man, could pay for the insult.
Kinda need to reign in his anger, right?
Remember David was a warrior, and those 600 men with him were the special forces of the day.
The old saying, Power only succumbs to power and even then reluctantly.
And the thing is that David and his men could have easily done so. They were a powerful force.
Abigail is a believer in the GOD of Israel, and she apparently has heard of David, perhaps even knows that he has been anointed to be KING.
Nabal probably deserves David’s wrath; however, those working for him are simply pawns in this setting…right? They did nothing.
What a contrast between Abigail’s wise humility and discernment and Nabal’s foolish pride.
It was a sling, of course, that brought David to the attention of all Israel in his triumph over Goliath. And of course she knew the story of David and the giant named Goliath.
Abigail’s wisdom here was surely inspired of God, because, David’s shedding the blood of Nabal, would have started a blood feud among the clans of Judah.
David humbly received the rebuke of this woman, thanked her and thanked God that she had come to meet him with such a plea. How difficult is that for a man, to take the rebuke of a woman.
Nabal was dead wrong, dead drunk, and now dead physically.
Regardless, David remained a man after God’s heart despite all of his failures, and of course that is a lesson we can all learn.
Not that we want to sin, but that we will fail and yet GOD will never leave us or forsake us.