Commentary on "Abigail: No Victim of Circumstances"

LESLIE MARTIN

 

Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, October 23, 2010 - Introduction

 

To really appreciate the account of the wise and beautiful Abigail, her husband Nabal and David, it is helpful to review the setting of this dramatic encounter. When the prophet Samuel was old, the people of Israel demanded that he appoint a king for them like the pagan nations around them. Samuel was grieved that the people had rejected him as God’s prophet and judge. When he prayed about the matter, God told him that the people hadn’t really rejected him but they had actually rejected God as their king. God said to go ahead and listen to them, but warn them what it would be like to have a king. Samuel anointed Saul to be Israel’s first king. (1 Samuel 8) It was only a short while before it was evident that Saul did not have a whole heart for God. He was the “people’s choice” but not God’s choice, and because of his deliberate disobedience, God declared that the kingdom would be torn from him and his family and given to another. Subsequently, Samuel anointed David, “a man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 15,16)

It didn’t take long before King Saul became jealous of David and issued an order for his death. Over the next few years David spent his time hiding in the wilderness from King Saul even though God had already chosen him to be the next king of Israel. David was very careful not to defend himself by causing harm to Saul, even though he had several opportunities to kill the king. He refused to take matters into his own hands. He honored the fact that Saul had been anointed king, and he trusted God to defend him against Saul and to bring about his coronation according to God’s plan. (1 Samuel 24:8-22) During this time, the prophet and last judge of Israel, Samuel, died. All of Israel mourned his death and buried him at his home in Ramah (just north of Jerusalem in the territory of Ephraim). David and his men traveled far to the south to the wilderness of Paran to escape a possible attack by King Saul, his army and possibly some of the people of Israel who could not resist the reward offered by Saul since there would be no restraint after the Prophet Samuel’s death.

Everyone in Israel was well aware of those recent events and the fact that David had been anointed as Israel’s next king. It is in this context, during a time of uncertainty, national grief and King Saul’s relentless pursuit of David, that the Bible introduces us to Nabal and his wife, Abigail.

 

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