Bible Women: Abigail: The Father’s Joy

Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. 1Sa 25:3  

Who Can Understand Love?

Love is terrific because there is nothing a woman cannot do because of it. And Abigail is a living embodiment of Paul’s ode on the love which “seeketh not her own” and “thinketh no evil”.

And men killed Jesus because he loved too much.

Abigail’s name means “my father’s joy.” But she married Nabal. And Nabal means a fool.

I doubt his mother gave him such a name. Most likely it was a nickname given to him by people. Probably one man noted his churlishness and remarked rather sadly that he resembled a fool. And then other people noticed and they too agreed. And so the name stuck. A fool is a connotation for a miser, greedy, wicked, and an arrogant fellow.

And yet Abigail did not mind the tag. She saw him (as only a woman sees things), and she married him.

And that is what is terrifying about a woman’s love. It sees things other people don’t see. And God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son to die for it. But the world has never understood that.

David in the Mountains

This story takes us back to David, God’s beloved poet. He had been in hiding because of his adversary king Saul. So he became accustomed with mountain rocks and caves and desert places for a home. And today if we are blessed by his psalms it is because of his wilderness tears.

And that is how Nabal comes in. A ‘fool’ and ‘a son of Belial’ technically mean the same thing (worthless person). He did not regard God, nor was he ever in his thoughts. And to God (more than anyone else), that is a fool. Probably it was because of him that David gave us the psalm: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

And then David heard that Nabal was around, as it is written,

And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.  And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.  Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. 1Sa 25:4-8  

And that was David’s request. It was adorned with humility. But the reply his men received from Nabal’s mouth was pure foul.

And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.  Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?  So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings. 1Sa 25:10-12  

And that answer got David raving, and immediately he gathered his small army for total war.

But one of the Nabal’s shepherds ran and told Abigail of the impending doom. And that is where Abigail’s quick understanding was fully employed. Her action averted a bloodbath. She gathered enough food for David’s army and when she met him on the way she “fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.”

She beseeched him. She used the words “I pray thee” three times in quick succession, the names “my Lord” eleven times, and the names, “the LORD” seven times in seven verses!

And that humbled David.

And Abigail returned home to find her husband drunk after “the feast of a king” in his house. She waited until morning when she broke the news to him: “But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died” (1Sa 25:37-38). 

So Nabal became the first man to die of a stroke in the Bible. Others think it was a heart attack.

But when David heard that he blessed God who had saved him from committing murder. He then sent for Abigail with a proposition to become his wife. And that is how she ended up as David’s second wife.

And so Abigail became a king’s wife. She had not anticipated it. She had not looked for it. But God’s favour just found her!

How do you judge things which happen in your life? For Abigail, it is not what she saw, but what God saw. It wasn’t her life but God’s. Can you see things like that in your own life too?

“God Moves in a Mysterious Way, His Wonders to Perform.” Take courage in that hymn.

Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee. Jer 32:17 

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1Co 2:9  

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Eph 3:20-21