Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Don't lose anytime...

I've been studying the story of Abigail.  I've always enjoyed her story.  Wondering how such a woman filled with such wisdom ended up with a "fool" like Nabal.  Nabal's name even means fool!  He was mean, he was proud, he was loud, and these are just a few of his finer qualities at least from what we read about him in 1 Samuel 25.  We also learn he was very wealthy and had a beautiful wife and she was intelligent!  Yes, both of these are listed in God's Word.  Such beautiful words shared about Abigail, but my favorite verse was found in verse 18.  Abigail lost no time!

I want to back up a minute and explain the story a little bit.  David and all of his men were hiding in the desert from Saul.  David had helped Nabal's shepherds while they had been  doing the job of taking care of Nabal's sheep.  David had watched over them during their sheep shearing time and now he needed Nabal's help.  So he told some of his men to go remind Nabal how they had helped take care of the shepherds and now Nabal could return the favor.  David wanted Nabal to help provide food for all of his people.

Well, Nabal being true to his name turned them back to David with a reply of "who is this David"?  When they returned and gave the reply.  Well, David was not a happy man!  He was going to answer Nabal's reply in haste with pulling his sword on him!  Yes, he was going to be rid of this man.

In the meantime, the servants told Abigail of the actions of her husband.  Abigail knew who this man/David was and knew she had to do something.  I love the picture of Abigail.  Her servants thought enough of Abigail to come to her and tell her what was happening.  During this time women just weren't consulted much, but this servant recognized Abigail's intelligence and went to her for help.  In verse 18, we are told that Abigail lost no time!  What a lesson for all of us to learn from this smart, beautiful woman named Abigail.  We see wrong things happening around us daily and God placed on my heart this morning this question to ask myself and to then in turn ask all of you - Are we wasting time watching the wrongs that surround us?  How do plan to act?  Are we going to jump into action like Abigail did to right the wrong?

Abigail gathered all the supplies she could gather and placed herself in the path of David and all of his men!  She stopped David from making a very bad mistake of having blood on his hands.  She kept David from acting in haste without thinking about the wrong that he was about to do to another human because he was in a hurry to answer a fool's response to his request.  Abigail humbled herself to show David the respect he deserved and God placed this woman in David's path to say the words that he needed to hear before he answered evil with a wrong answer!  Yes, sometimes we must move out of the comfortable place into an unknown area to be where God is calling us to be at that moment.  So today be like Abigail and waste no time!

Sweet Blessings,

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