abigail

Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.

  A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.  His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.

~I Samuel 25:1-3

How does this description of Nabal and Abigail set the stage for what is to come?

• We could possibly see that there may be a few arguments between the main characters mentioned

These verses reveal what a mismatched couple Nabal and Abigail were.  How do women in Abigail's possition cope?

• I suppose that if, either they love their "mismatched" husband, or,. if they feel like there really is no option to escape such a situation, they kind of just go with the flow with what there husbnad says and just bare the burden of troubles

 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.  So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.  Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!

  “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing.  Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”

  When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.

  Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.  Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

  David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.

~I Samuel 25:4-12

Compare the words of David with teh words of Nabal.  What does this tell you about each man?

• David is very friendly and welcoming and Nabal is very suspicious

What do the words of those around you tell you about who they are and what they are like?  What do your words reveal about you?

• I'm not certain if I will answer this question correctly, but, peoples opions could tell us about how that person grew up, whether that means they grew up sheltered or if they grew up in a racist family.  What do you think?

 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word.  David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

~I Samuel 25:12-13

Why was David's reaction the wrong reaction?

• Because Nabal had not threatened David at all.  He just didn't know who David's men were talking about

What does Luke 6:27-31 have to say about how you should react when you've been wronged?

• here is what Luke 6:27-31 says:
  

   “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,  bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

  First of all I love this set of verses.  It got me through some tough times a number of years ago.  Basically, no matter how much someone says they dislike or hate us, we need to treat them like we love them, and be kind to them.  In a way, it's kind of like a secondary golden rule

One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.  Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing.  Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.  Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”

~I Samuel 25:14-17

What does this passage tell you about Abigail's relationship with the servants in the household?  What did the servants think of their master Nabal?

• The servants can whole-heartedly trust her
• they probably see Nabal as a man that makes terrible decisions and treats everyone slave or not poorly

Are you more like an Abigail or more like a Nabal to those who are in your care?  Your coworkers?  Your children?  Your husband?  Your extended family?

• In all cases, whether they are presently existent in my life or not, or will hopefully be in my future, I am definitely more like Abigail.

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.  Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.

  As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.  David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good.  May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”

  When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.  She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.  Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.  And now, my lord, as surely as the LORD your God lives and as you live, since the LORD has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.  And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.

  “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The LORD your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the LORD’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.  Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.  When the LORD has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,  my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

~I Samuel 25:18-31

How do you react when someone in authority makes a bad choice?  If the choice affects you, what should you do?

• I either react with great suprise or maybe sometimes wtih outrage.
• If the choice affects me, I should pray that God will find another option that will work out to be good for me to handle

Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

  When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.  Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.  About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal and he died.

~I Samuel 25:35-38

Compare David and Nabal's actions.  How often do you respond like David?  Like Nabal?

• I think everyone react in both ways that either David or Nabal did.  I know that I try to react more like David than Nabal.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise be to the LORD, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.”

   Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.  His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, “David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.”

  She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord’s servants.”  Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David’s messengers and became his wife.

~I Samuel 25:39-42

Why do you think David was so quick to ask Abigail to marry him?  Was he attracted to her?  Did he feel responsible for her?  Did he admire her?

• All these factors are pretty plausable I suppose.  But I suppose how I would say it would be that he believed that she needed a good man in her life and he felt like he could fill those shoes

What Davids do you have in your life?  What Nabals?  What can you learn from Abigail about living and working with each of these men?

• I'm not sure that I have either type of person in my life, at least not anymore if I did.  I guess what I can learn from her is taht I should embrace and trust the David-type of man, and be leary of those who are like Nabal