"There was a man in Maon, …
Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail; and she was a woman of good
understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish [or
stingy] and evil in his doings" (1 Sam. 25:2,3).

Most of us are familiar with the story
of Nabal’s refusal to help David and David’s angry, vengeful response:
"Gird you on, every man, his sword … [Nabal] has requited me evil for
good" (25:13,21,22).

At this point Abigail, the wife of
Nabal, comes on the scene. She is described as "a woman of good
understanding and of a beautiful countenance." This is a noble testimony,
surely, and one that shows that grace can manifest itself in the most untoward
circumstances. The house of the stingy Nabal must have been an oppressive,
depressing scene to one like Abigail; but she waited on God and, as we shall
see, was not disappointed.

The story of this remarkable woman
is full of encouragement and instruction to all who may find themselves cramped
and hindered by unavoidable connections and associations. To all such the
history of Abigail simply says, "Be patient, wait on God, do not suppose
yourself void of all opportunity for testimony. The Lord will be much glorified
by meek subjection and surely will give relief and victory in the end."
True, some may have to reproach themselves for having formed such connections,
or having entered into such associations; but even so, if the folly and evil
are really felt, confessed, and judged before God, and the soul brought into an
attitude of thorough subduedness, the end will be blessing and peace.

In Abigail we see one who was used
by God to correct no less a personage than David himself. It may be that her
course, up to the time at which the sacred historian introduces her to our
notice, had been marked by much that was painful and trying; indeed, it could
hardly have been otherwise, associated with such an one as Nabal. Time,
however, brought to light the grace that was in her. She had suffered in
obscurity, and was now about to be raised to an unusually high elevation. Few
had seen her patient service and testimony; but many beheld her exaltation. The
burden that she had borne in secret was about to drop off before many
witnesses. The preciousness of Abigail’s service did not consist in her having
saved Nabal from the sword of David so much as in keeping David from drawing
the sword at all.

"Now David had said, Surely
in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing
was missed of all that pertained unto him; and he has requited me evil for
good" (25:21). This was terrible! David was rashly taking himself out of
the place of dependence—the only happy, the only holy place. Nor was it on
behalf of the congregation of the LORD. No, it was to avenge himself on one who
had treated him badly. Sad mistake! Happy was it for him that there was an
Abigail in the house of Nabal who was about to be used of God to keep him from
answering "a fool according to his folly" (Prov. 26:4). This is just
what the enemy desired. Nabal’s selfishness was used by Satan to ensnare David,
and Abigail was the Lord’s instrument to deliver him.

It is well when the man of God can
detect Satan’s working; to be able to do so, he must be much in the presence of
God, for there alone can he find light and spiritual power to enable him to
cope with such a foe. When out of communion, the soul becomes distracted by
looking at secondary causes and subordinate agents, just as David was
distracted by looking at Nabal. Had he paused to view the matter calmly before
God, we should not have had such words as, "In vain have I kept all that
this fellow has in the wilderness." He would have passed on and left
"this fellow" to himself. Faith imparts real superiority over the
petty circumstances of this transient scene. Those who know themselves as
pilgrims and strangers will remember that the sorrows as well as the joys of
this life are evanescent, and they will not be inordinately affected by either
the one or the other. "Passing away" is written on everything; the
man of faith must, therefore, look upward and onward.

Abigail, by the grace of God,
delivered David from the unhappy influence of the present by leading his
soul onward into the future. We learn this from her exquisite address to
him:"And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and
fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his
feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be; and let your
handmaid, I pray you, speak in your audience, and hear the words of your
handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray you, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal:
for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I
your handmaid saw not the young men of my lord whom you sent. Now, therefore, my
lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld
you from coming to shed blood, and from avenging yourself with your own hand,
now let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal … The
LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the
battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in you all your days. Yet
a man is risen to pursue you, and to seek your soul; but the soul of my lord
shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God; and the souls
of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And
it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to
all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you ruler
over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto you, nor offense of heart
unto my lord, either that you have shed blood causeless, or that my lord has
avenged himself; but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then
remember your handmaid" (25:23-31).

We can hardly conceive anything
more touching than this address; every point in it was calculated to touch the
heart. She presents to him the evil of seeking to avenge himself and the
weakness and folly of the object of his revenge. She reminds him of his proper
occupation, namely, fighting the Lord’s battles. This must have brought
home to his heart the humiliating circumstances in which Abigail met him, even
rushing on to fight his own battle.

However, the reader will perceive
that the leading point in this address is the special reference to the future.
"The Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house." "The
soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your
God." "When the Lord shall have done to my lord … and shall
have appointed you ruler over Israel." All these allusions to David’s
future blessing and glory were eminently calculated to withdraw his heart from
his present grievance. The sure house, the bundle of life, and the kingdom were
far better than Nabal’s flocks and herds; and in view of these glories, David
could well afford to leave him to his portion, and his portion to him. To the
heir of a kingdom, a few sheep could have but little attraction; and one who
knew that he had the anointing oil of the Lord upon his head might easily bear
to be called a runaway servant. All these things Abigail knew—knew as matters
of faith. She knew David, and knew his high destinies. By faith she recognized
in the despised outcast the future king of Israel. Nabal knew not David. He was
a man of the world, swallowed up with present things. With him there was
nothing more important, nothing more influential, than "my bread, my
flesh, my shearers"; it was all self; there was no room for David
or his claims. This might be expected from such an one; but surely it was not
for David to go down from his elevation to grapple with a poor worldling about
his perishable possessions. Ah, no; the kingdom should have filled his eye and
engaged his thoughts, and lifted his spirit about all lower influences,

Look at the Master Himself as He
stood before Pilate—the creation of His own hand. How did He conduct Himself?
Did He call upon His little band of followers to gird on every man his sword?
Did He say of the man who dared to sit as His judge, "In vain have I
imparted unto this fellow all he is and all he has?" No, He looked above
and beyond Pilate, Herod, the chief priests, and scribes. He could say,
"The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" This
kept His spirit tranquil, while, at the same time, He could look forward into
the future and say, "Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64).
Here was real power over present things. The millennial kingdom, with all its
untold joys, with all its heights and depths of glory, glistened in the
distance with everlasting light and brilliancy, and the eye of the Man of
Sorrows rested upon it in that dark hour when the scoffs and sneers, the taunts
and reproaches of guilty sinners were falling upon His blessed Person.

Dear Christian reader, this is our
model; thus ought we to meet the trials and difficulties, the reproach, abuse,
and desertion of this present time. We should view all in the light of
"hereafter." "Our light affliction," says an eminent
sufferer, "which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). Again, "The God of all
grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you
have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you"
(1 Pet. 5:10). "O fools, an slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
his glory?" (Luke 24:25,26).

Yes, suffering must come first and
glory afterward. Anyone who, by his own hand, would seek to take the edge off
of present suffering and reproach proves that the kingdom is not filling the
vision of his soul—that now is more important to him than hereafter.

How we ought to bless our God for
having opened to us such a vista of glory in the ages to come! How it enables
us to tread, with a buoyant step, our rugged path through the wilderness! How
it lifts us above the things that engross the children of this world!

May we prove the sacred reality of
this more as we pass through this vale of tears. Truly the heart would sink and
the spirit faint, were we not sustained by hope—even "the hope of
glory" (Col. 1:27).

(From "Life and Times of
David" in Miscellaneous Writings, Volume 6.)