David and Abigail

Copyright (c) 2008 Jon Straumfjord

Now there was a man in ... Carmel, [who] was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep.... The name of the man was Nabal {lit: "a fool"}, and the name of his wife Abigail {lit: "source of joy"} ... a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings...

When David heard ... that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten young men ... "... go to Nabal, and ... say to him ... 'Please give whatever comes to your hand to ... your son David.'"

Then Nabal ... said, "Who is David, ... Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?"

Then David said to his men, "Every man gird on his sword." ... about four hundred men went with David, ...

Then Abigail ... took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs {a little more than a bushel, or about 10 gallons} of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

Now when Abigail saw David, she ... fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground.

Then David said to Abigail: "Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And ... kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.

... after about ten days, that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.

So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head."

And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. So Abigail ... became his wife. (1 Samuel 25:2-9,10,12,13,18,23,32,33,38,39,42, NKJV)

Nabal was a very rich man. At this time, wealth was measured more in livestock, than in gold or silver. David and his six hundred men had been living nearby in the wilderness of Paran for a period of many months, all the time raiding enemy communities for food and goods, as they hid from King Saul and his troops.

Shearing time had come, which was a time of great celebration in the ancient world. Nabal had over three thousand sheep to shear and, of course, some of these were killed to feed the shearers. Even though David and his men had been nearby for many months, they had refused to take anything from Nabal, and even protected his property during that time. Since such obvious generosity required a reward, David sent some men to Nabal to request some provisions as payment for their time.

Nabal was a miserly and arrogant man, who considered his own wealth above the needs of others. So he refused to share his provisions with David, and slandered his integrity. He even refused to listen to his own servants who had advised him to be generous to David and his men. In terror, Nabal's servants quickly ran to Abigail, Nabal's wife, a beautiful and intelligent woman, for help.

Abigail quickly assembled a generous offering for David and his men, mounted her mule, and hurried to meet David and his four hundred armed men (two hundred were left to guard their supplies). When David and Abigail met, David quickly acquiesced to Abigail's plea for mercy, accepted her generous offering, and returned to his own camp. Since David had refused to vindicate himself but instead trusted in the Lord, Nabal died a mere ten days later, and David took Abigail to be one of his own wives.

So what can we learn from David and Abigail? First, the Lord expects us to reward the generosity extended to us by others, even at great personal cost. Second, true faith runs towards the battle, not away from it. Third, true faith, refuses to vindicate one's own self, but rather trusts the Lord to balance the scales in His own time. Fourth, true faith is always generous, neither stingy nor miserly.