A young couple rented a vacation cottage for a week. One afternoon the husband looked out a window at the swimming pool and exclaimed, “Let’s change our clothes and go get some exercise!” His wife, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen and looking out the window watching some people play tennis, quickly agreed. While she dressed for a tennis match, he put on his swimming trunks. The window a person chooses to look out at the world often determines the way they respond to their situation.
In the story of Abigail and Nabal that we’ve been studying every Thursday (and most Friday’s) we see that David is looking out the window of revenge. He is set on getting even with Nabal for his unkindness. Abigail, on the other hand, is looking out an entirely different window – she is seeing a sovereign God and has now stepped in to remind David to get the same picture.
In I Samuel 25:26 we hear her speaking humbly, directly and clearly to David. Because he is a man after God’s heart, he stops and listens to her. She says, “Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.” Fourteen times she calls David “my lord.” Six times she refers to herself as “thy handmaid.” She reminds him that God had kept him from doing this evil thing he was set on doing. She wants him to see the situation from God’s point of view. We will always see things correctly when we get the Lord’s perspective!!
We will be a godly friend, employer, spouse or sister if we point others to the Lord if they’re not thinking biblically. I don’t’ know about you, but it’s so much easier to just listen and agree with a person than to listen, realize they’re not thinking biblically and then bring Truth into the picture. It’s really the hard thing, but it’s the right thing, and that’s what we see Abiagail doing with David.
In verse 28 she reminds him that God had made promises that He will bring to pass and that David need not avenge himself. She tells him to stick to God’s battles and not add any of his own.
We see a beautiful word picture in verse 29. It says, “Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God: and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.” The picture here is that of a traveler who would take their precious belongings and wrap them up and carry them close to their body so they would be safe. For those who know Christ as their Savior, we are bundled up, safe and secure in the sovereign care of our loving God! Abigail reminds David that even though Saul has been chasing after him, he’s secure. Nothing will happen to David that hasn’t first gone through the sovereign hands of an almighty God! That same promise is for you, dear friend, if you’ve trusted in Christ. We don’t have to be afraid of those that can kill the body, but can’t destroy the soul! (Matthew 10:28) Our lives are under the protection of Divine providence.
Abigail must have often run to the security of her God while she dealt with Nabal in this difficult marriage. What peace and refuge He must have brought to her on a daily basis. He longs to do the same for us. We are safe in Him!
In the last part of the verse Abigail tells David that his enemies would be slung out as in the middle of a sling. What a wise woman to use terminology that David could understand. He certainly knew something about slings, didn’t he? She’s reminding him that God will judge the evil doers. He will tolerate them for a time, and then they will be judged. Those who have been the enemies of God will be dealt with. This is a warning to us not to become a Nabal, or we can be sure God will have to deal with us. We don’t know when, but we do know in God’s way and in God’s time He will sling out; He will destroy all those evil doers.
In the meantime, those who are in Christ are safe, bound in the care of the Lord our God!
RefreshHer 