The Joy of Her Father (1 Samuel 25:2-44)

(1 Samuel 25:2-44) The whole story is in the Bible

Excerpt: “As she was riding her donkey into the mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.  David had just been saying, ‘A lot of good it did to help this fellow.  We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen.  But he has repaid me evil with good.  May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow.             (1 Samuel 25:20-22)

 The Joy of her Father...This is what the Name “Abigail” means.  As we will now discover it she was a sensible and beautiful woman of faith and she was also very wise.  Unfortunately, she was married to Nabal who as his name suggest was a fool.  A fool who could not appreciate his blessing in the fact he had a good wife.  Well, you ask me, how do you know he was a fool.  I can tell, in 1 Samuel 25:25 his very wife describes him as such.  If you have a God-fearing wife and you are a fool, look out because God will deal with you in his own time like he did with Nabal.  Do not abuse of God’s goodness and return the favour to your wife for his name’s sake.

As the story goes, Nabal’s servants had been protected by David’s soldiers but when David sent his servants to Nabal to ask for a favour they were turned down.  Nabal was a mocker of God’s people, and he did not have much appreciation for anything coming from God.  Even so, he lived with a godly woman but could not appreciate her value in any way.  There is coming in God’s time frame where he will deal with a foolish husband.  If Nabal had been a wise man, he would have thanked God for his wife every day.  But lo and behold, she was taken from him and given to another more worthy than he was.

His wife Abigail knew exactly what to do to protect her family from destruction and from David’s actions against Nabal.  Nabal had given evil for good, but now Abigail was about to turn it around and give back good instead for the sake of her family.  David was approaching her house with his servants to fight, and she stood in the gap to protect.  A gift turns away wrath (Proverbs 21:14) and that is what she did.  Nabal had destroyed his future by his own words and actions and with the help of a wise woman God was about to use her in David’s life.