"And the LORD God said, It is
not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for
him" (Gen. 2:18).

Abigail was truly a helper to her
"churlish" (or selfish and stingy) husband, Nabal. Even though her
husband was not a good man, she interceded with David on his behalf and spared
Nabal and his sons and servants from being slaughtered. At the same time she
spared David from the shame and guilt of shedding innocent blood (1 Sam.
25:23-31). The outcome for Abigail was that she received a blessing from David
(verses 32-35) and later, after Nabal died, she became David’s wife (verses
40-42).

Sapphira, on the other hand,
failed to be a helper to her lying, hypocritical husband, Ananias. The early
Christians unselfishly sold their property and shared the proceeds with the
poor and persecuted believers (Acts 4:32-37). Ananias was one of those who
"sold a possession" and "brought a certain part and laid it at
the apostles’ feet" (Acts 5:1,2). There was nothing wrong with this in and
of itself, but Ananias pretended that he was giving the entire
proceeds from the sale to help the poor. This was hypocrisy and it was sin
(verses 2-4).

This sinful act, which brought
God’s judgment of death upon Ananias (verse 5), was bad enough. But to make
matters worse, his wife Sapphira was a party to the entire matter (verses 2,8).
As Ananias’ helper, she had a wonderful opportunity to appeal to her husband to
tell the truth. Instead, she repeated his lie—and died with him (verse 10).

"He who converts the sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a
multitude of sins" (Jas. 5:20).