Seasoned Words #3 - Abigail's Example
Our reading comes from the life of David, before he became king and while he was running from Saul. It was a tense and stressful time and a man named Nabal offended David greatly. The offense was so great that David set off to kill Nabal and wipe out his household.Thankfully, Nabal's wife, Abigail, was a wise women who, when she heard about the offense, put together a wagon of supplies and set off to meet the furious David. Our reading is long, but the devotion is short...
| 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. Then she told her servants, "Go on ahead; I'll follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal. As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 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. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!" When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 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. 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. 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. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you. "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. 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. When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 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." (1Samuel25:18-34) |
Abigail's quick thinking, positive action and sincere words are a really excellent example of how to de-escalate a volatile situation.
- Her generous gift to David and his men indicates her serious commitment to healing the rift.
- By coming alone she indicates both vulnerability and trust
- In her words Abigail is both humble and smart:
- she acknowledges Nabal's failure,
- she recognises David's destiny and the pressure he has been under,
- and she is bold enough to show David that giving in to his anger will damage his reputation.
We are called, like Abigail, to be peace-makers.
Very often we will have to begin at a place of brokenness.
We will step into anger, tension, frustration and hurt.
And, with God's gracious help, we can bring calm and resolution.
Tomorrow we'll look at some practical how-to's...
