1 Sam. 25
Although Abigail may be a rather difficult character to understand, yet she was a woman of faith, and there is very much that we can learn from her in a moral way and from the place given her in Scripture.
Samuel, God's faithful prophet, is dead he who was the true link between the people and God. Saul, although rejected by God, is still in the place of power, and outwardly acknowledged by the people as king. David, God's anointed one, is rejected and persecuted by the existing powers, and is a wanderer in the land over which, in God's purpose, he is shortly to reign.
Just at this point Abigail is introduced. She is the wife of a man named Nabal, who is prosperous in this world, but believes the general false opinion of David, and is a supporter of Saul's government.
Abigail shares Nabal's prosperity, but in heart she has nothing in common with her foolish, churlish husband. God calls her a woman of good understanding, and this is fully shown in the fact that, in spite of all that opposed, she was in the current of God's thoughts and had His mind, estimating persons and actions in the light of divine wisdom.
David, "the man after God's own heart," was given the first place in hers. David, the despised, scorned, runaway servant, as man regarded him, was in her eyes God's anointed king. David, the pursued wanderer, whose life was in hourly jeopardy at the hand of Saul, was in her esteem "bound in the bundle of life" with the Lord his God.
Abigail, being thus taught of God, does not blindly follow public opinion. She now looks at everything, not according to appearances, but from God's true standpoint, and so she has a right estimate, and everything is measured by the relation in which it stands to David, God's chosen king. She speaks of Saul, the people's king, merely as "a man" risen up to pursue David.
She recognizes the evil and folly of Nabal's attitude toward him, and that he is, in consequence, under the judgment of God.
She counts herself, although a beautiful woman and the wife of one of the largest land-owners of Israel, only as David's handmaid-David, the poor, homeless fugitive! How contrary to what is natural! Nothing but the teaching of God could produce such an attitude of heart.
She seeks two blessings at his hand, forgiveness and remembrance, and David beautifully answers her in true kingly style. "I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person," he says, and so when after ten days God's righteous judgment fell on the wicked Nabal, he put his answer into force, and she who had made such a bold declaration of loyalty is united to him and personally shares his rejection.
After the lapse of a few years David is invested with his royal rights, and then the one who has shared his rejection and sorrow, shares his glory and joy.
Surely all this speaks to us. David is a distinct type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and perhaps especially so just at this time in his life, when he walked the path of rejection.
Christ, although occupying the highest place in the glory of God and being the true Man after His own heart, is still the rejected One on earth, and the point for us is whether we are going on with the course of this world-following the public opinion and careless of Christ's claims of love over us-or, on the other hand, whether, like Abigail, we are willing to surrender all and commit ourselves to Him during the time of His rejection, sharing the outside place assigned Him by the world.
Soon that wondrous day of display will arrive when Christ will come forth in His glory, and then those who have been true to Him in the face of opposition during His rejection will share His triumph as belonging to that chosen company that forms His heavenly bride and occupies the closest place in His affections.
What a wondrous portion! Who would not make the important choice and willingly drop their hold of the things that are so soon to pass away, receiving instead the blessings of forgiveness, the Lord's loving remembrance and the joy of being "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6)?