Abigail brings propitiation.

I am sure you do not seek groveling servants. But servants that humble themselves under your mighty hand and yet can discover their full potential in you, this is another Christian paradox.

“Yes, I said blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are the meek – that does not mean that your personhood has been downplayed and degraded – it means a recognition of your total need and dependence on Me – and you recognizing this both spiritually and physically – it is easy to start there and slowly move away again to and independence of thought, of self-worth and self-love. You are called to live a complete, fulfilled life in Me – but the emphasis is” in Me” – it is only in recognizing everything you have, every blessing you have is in Me and through Me and by Me that you will experience that.”

As we move into Ch 25 of 1 Samuel, the first vs brings a key moment in the story. With a simple statement, “Now Samuel died”. The role of the great prophet has decreased and slipped into the background as David and Saul have taken over prominence in the story. Yet this prophet has played a key role in identifying the future kings and his importance is emphasized by the names of the two books covering that period of history.

This whole chapter is further taken up with the story where a lady called Abigail plays a prominent role. David has been protecting that area of the country with his men. At that stage there was much lawlessness and fighting among various bands of men and David had taken it on himself to protect the local population.

When he sends word to the most prominent and rich landowner Nabal, to send him supplies, in payment for his protection, Nabal answers him most rudely and this provokes David to want to seek retribution. When Nabal’s wife hears of this she takes it upon herself to defuse the situation by going behind Nabal’s back and taking the supplies that he had requested to David and more. When Nabal is told about this he is so angry that he actually dies from a stroke or heart attack.

Now to me this is an important story because it gives us a faint prediction of what Jesus did on the cross on our behalf.

You see, since the time of Adam, God’s wrath has been focused on each person for demanding their independence from Him. His wrath is finally expressed in the death and eternal separation from Him and all that is good by each person. There was only one way to deal with this and that was for someone who was totally sinless and did not deserve His wrath to take that wrath on Himself. In so doing He turned God’s wrath away from us onto Himself. This act is called “propitiation”.

In a sort of similar way Abigail through her act of supplying what David had requested and more, she turned his wrath away from her husband and all the people who worked for him. In the process she ran the risk of her husband taking his anger out on her, but was protected by an act of providence which took the husband out.

The chapter ends with the note that David takes this woman as his second or third wife.

Several times as the story unfolds, we are given a glimpse of David’s various wives. It seems that amongst other reasons he used them as a means of making political progress as he moved towards kingship.

As I finished this chapter, I reflected again on the amazing act of Jesus in turning God’s wrath away from us. A wrath which makes Nabal’s uncalled for anger appear as almost mild by comparison.

May God bless you in this coming week as you consider these things.