The wisdom of Abigail

Abigail Offering Bread to David, PD Art-Old, Louis de Boullogne (1654–1733), via Wikimedia Commons

I love Abigail.

The story of Abigail is found in 1 Samuel 25, and I've listened to this chapter of the Bible over and over.

Here are a few things I noticed about Abigail:

-Abigail is the sort of person other people confide in. When there's trouble in her household, one of her servants lets her know what was going on. She was trustworthy, and that saved her. (Whereas Nabal, her husband, was "such a son of Belial, that one cannot speak to him!")

-Abigail knew what to do in a crisis

-Abigail lived the sort of life that resulted to her being ready for a crisis.

-Abigail was wise about who she consulted and who she didn't. (She didn't tell Nabal what had happened till things were over.)

-Abigail was ready to humble herself when the circumstances required it.

-Abigail was ready to take consequences upon herself that weren't even her fault, for the sake of those who were in her charge. (And this is love . . .)

-Abigail was well-spoken and knew how to persuade with her words. (Look how clever she is when she talks to David - she even hints at David's famous victory against Goliath! Talk about appropriately flattering!)

-Abigail, moreover, knew how to persuade David specifically. When she faced David's wrath, she didn't give a general argument, but an argument tailored specifically to David. She referenced the LORD's promises. She spoke to David's future, and the man he wanted to be, and what David knew to be true of the LORD (that he would avenge on his beloved's behalf). She hinted at regrets David might have if he continued on his present course of action.
This was not a woman flailing about, hoping to catch on a winning argument. She was specific and shrewd in the words she chose to use.

-And moreover, Abigail asked for something for herself - in addition to just the solution of the present problem.

-Despite her humility, Abigail knew her own worth. When David eventually demanded her as a wife, Abigail went to David mounted, and with a retinue. She went as a woman of means and reputation. Because that was who she really was.

On David:
Also, just to point it out, in this chapter, that it's evident David:

1) wanted justice, but,

2) was ready to hear a reason for mercy.


I can't help but appreciate that, too.



Honestly, so much has been said about the Proverbs 31 woman that it's hard to jump into the fray. But, for my money, if you want to see a woman who was, in real life, virtuous, just, and shrewd, it's hard to find a better example than Abigail.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

the wise woman of Tekoa & King David: a theory

Sometimes, when I read the Messianic prophecies in context, I wonder how much context can really have to do with anything, no matter what my college education pounded into my head. Doubtless, in those cases, I just don't have a wide enough view in order to really get the context.

However, this week I read something in the Old Testament that wasn't, I don't think, an actual Messianic prophecy, but that certainly sounds like one out of context. Read this, and see what you think it's talking about:

"For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans devices so that the banished one will not be cast out from him."

So poignant. Doesn't that sound like a Messianic prophecy? Yet it's not. It's part of the wise woman of Tekoa's plea to King David to let his banished son Absalom back into Jerusalem. It seems to be, as far as it goes, not about anyone at all, except Absalom and David.

Yet . . . the account says that it was Joab who, as the woman says, "put all these words into the mouth of your maidservant." Joab, longtime servant of King David. Really, a character worth studying in his own right: steadfast, yet tricksy; on the right side, yet with a terrifying hard-hearted streak. But a man who had been with the king for years and years, doubtless soaking up all of the king's words with intelligent attention.

And he "put all these words" into the woman of Tekoa's mouth, in order to convince David of what he thought was best to be done: bringing Absalom back to Jerusalem. Isn't it possible that Joab - being the man he was - was wise enough himself to know that what would best convince David was a bit of David's own theology in a stranger's mouth?

Because the argument is: "God makes strange devices in order to save the hopeless man. You, then, should imitate God in your behavior towards the hopeless Absalom." Or, at least, so I read it.

So, then, from David's mouth (surely Joab had heard some of his sovereigns prophetic psalms) to Joab's to the woman of Tekoa's: this may indeed be an echo of the same theology we find in the Psalms. 

It certainly sounds like it to me. What do you think? Is my theory probable?

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

so, feigning madness isn't deceptive

Just another interesting tidbit as I do this chronological read-through of the Bible this year: in Psalm 34, David advises us:

Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.

The thing is, this psalm was written by David after he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

So . . . are there people it's okay to deceive?

Or maybe that's only if you're the anointed one of the Lord? (Not being sarcastic there.)

Just something I noticed and thought was odd. Odd in an hmm, want to ponder that further sort of a way. Is this being wise as a serpent? Is, "confusion to the enemy!" an acceptably Biblical principle?

And . . . after Christ has come, who is our enemy? Is deception of enemies a strictly old convenant okay thing?

Or, upon further thought, did "speaking deceit" mean something different to David than it does to me? And, if so, what?

I really don't know the answer to any of those questions. But it's interesting.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell