March - Women's History Month Biblical Leaders in the Old Testament

Abigail the Intercessor whose story echoes in the hearts of all women is an example of true submission and courage, even in the face of danger. Nabal was a wealthy man who possessed many resources but had a reputation for being mean and of bad character, and his wife, Abigail, was beautiful and intelligent. Nabal foolishly insulted David’s men and in contempt sent them away empty-handed despite that David’s men had freely protected his herds from marauders not taking advantage of the man’s herds or servants. She is the type and picture of an intercessor whose powerful supplication averts judgment. She is a type and shadow of the church that stands as the corporate intercessor interceding on behalf of those who face impending judgment and annihilation for their wickedness and defiance against righteousness. “Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb. When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’” So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited. Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”” 1 Samuel 25:2-11 (NKJV).

Abigail the Intercessor whose story echoes in the hearts of all women is an example of true submission and courage, even in the face of danger. Nabal was a wealthy man who possessed many resources but had a reputation for being mean and of bad character, and his wife, Abigail, was beautiful and intelligent. Nabal foolishly insulted David’s men and in contempt sent them away empty-handed despite that David’s men had freely protected his herds from marauders not taking advantage of the man’s herds or servants. She is the type and picture of an intercessor whose powerful supplication averts judgment. She is a type and shadow of the church that stands as the corporate intercessor interceding on behalf of those who face impending judgment and annihilation for their wickedness and defiance against righteousness. “Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb. When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’” So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited. Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”” 1 Samuel 25:2-11 (NKJV).

The story of Abigail is one of a wife interceding on behalf of her husband. David and 400 of his men were on their way to seek vengeance for Nabal’s foolish response. But one of Nabal’s servants informed Abigail of her husband’s lack of social graces, and what David’s intentions were upon his arrival. Abigail’s response was in stark contrast to that of her husband. She knew who David was and the One that he served. Without hesitation, and without telling her husband, Abigail gathered together food supplies and loaded them on donkeys. Then she headed out to meet the future king of Israel. When Abigail saw David, without a word, she fell on her face before him, bowing herself to the ground. Falling at his feet, Abigail delivered the most humble, heartfelt plea for David to spare her husband’s household. But her request was not made from a heart of fear, nor was it from a heart of anger toward her husband. Rather, while she admitted that her husband was a man of bad character, she reminded David that his life was in the hands of God. His enemies would be destroyed because of God’s justice, and his own house would endure. She only asked in return that, when God had fulfilled everything He had promised, David remembered Abigail’s humble and respectful spirit which touched David’s heart. He saw the error he was about to make. “So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies. Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel[d] that one cannot speak to him.” Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light” 1 Samuel 25:12-22 (NKJV). 

The news angers David who impetuously mounts an army to retaliate against Nabal. David rushes to war seeking to avenge himself for Nabal’s contempt and scorning when on en route he encounters Abigail and her servants. Abigail comes bearing gifts and in humility throws herself before David and begins to intercede asking for forgiveness for the wickedness of Nabal and beseeching his mercy. She pleads to David on behalf of the sinful nature of her husband by honoring David's God and asking for His mercy. She then begins to prophesy of his kingdom and reign as the Lord’s anointed. David is quickened from his raging stupor through her humble pleas remembering his divine destiny as king and God’s mercy upon his own life. David having known God’s mercy and forgiveness hears Abigail’s humble pleas for mercy and realizes that He is about to make a big mistake in taking vengeance upon himself instead of waiting for God to avenge him. David was moved by her reverence for God, the beauty of her humility and brokenness when interceding for the innocent of her household, and her willingness to let the wrongdoing be placed on her account. David could not but melt under the power of God’s grace on her intercession. David awakens from his raging stupor upon hearing the woman’s earnest pleas and is reminded of his prophetic destiny and God’s mercy and forgiveness. He gratefully thanks her for her intercession which stopped him from taking vengeance in his own hands instead of waiting on God to avenge him. Moved by the pleas of this beautiful woman David graciously granted her request for mercy and withdrew his judgment against Nabal and his household. He accepts her gifts and sends her away in peace. What a picture of God and his response to his people who intercede on behalf of the ungodly who truly merit judgment instead of mercy. Abigail stood in the gap for her people hoping to avert a disastrous consequence of Nabal’s sin. “Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant” 1 Samuel 25:23-31 (NKJV).  

David intended to slay Nabal and his servants, but Nabal's wife, Abigail, interceded and calmed David, who spared Nabal's life. After continuing in the wilderness, David spared Saul's life again and fled to Philistine territory. He himself had just recently spared the life of King Saul, who sought to kill David. Yet David had been quick to exterminate the household of a man who had merely insulted him. His life of exile had angered him, and this anger had nearly driven him to seek vengeance against a man who was not the real enemy. David heeded Abigail’s wise words. He respected her for the great respect she showed her husband’s household, despite his faulty character. He sent her away with a blessing, promising her safe return home and the preservation of the men of Nabal. Abigail’s name is mentioned in Scripture only one more time, as the mother of David’s second-born son. In the end, Nabal’s wealth, his wife, and his very life are taken from him. Abigail—a savior full of beauty, wisdom, and discretion—enters a loving relationship with David. In Abigail, we have a small picture of the ultimate Savior, the Source of Beauty and Wisdom, who desires a loving relationship with us forever. But her story echoes in the hearts of all women as an example of true submission and courage, even in the face of danger. Abigail truly is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible. “Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.” Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. Then it happened, after about ten days, that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.”  And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.”  Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife” 1 Samuel 25:32-42 (NKJV).