4/11/23 - 1 Samuel 25: 23-31

1 Samuel 25: 23-31

Observation:

Abigail goes to David and before David, she bows down and starts speaking to David to not pay any attention to her husband, Nabal, and went as far as stating her husband being a "wicked man". Abigail goes on to wish all of David's enemies who seek harm against him end up like Nabal. Abagail also presents David with gifts that he can give to David and his men. Even going as far as offering blessings to David that God will protect him and proclaims when all is said and done according to God's plan David will rule over Israel; she requests that David remembers her.

Interpretation:

Some context need to be provided to fully understand the reason as to why Abigail is going on her own to David and pleading with David as to not do anything against Nabal. After Samuel's death, David and his men went to the Desert of Paran. While David was in the wilderness, he heard about a rich man who had thousands of sheep that were being sheared in Carmel. David sent his servants to go greet Nabal and ask for anything Nabal would be able to provide. The servants did as David requested; however, they were only met with utter rejection and disrepect from Nabal enough for David to take up his arms and march over to Nabal. Someone eventually told Abigail on what's taking place and she makes the quick decision to gather up whatever provisions she can (200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 dressed sheep, 5 seahs or roughly 37 liters of roasted grain, 100 cakes of raisins and 200 cakes of pressed figs) and loaded all the provisions on donkeys. Abigail would then tell her servants to start heading out first to David and she didn't even tell her husband about what's going on. 

Now we come to verse 23 where Abigail sees David and "quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground." She is humbly presenting herself in serious yielding manner. She knows shes in a hostile environment that she is completely relying on God's grace to soften David's heart. Abigail cannot provide excuses on behalf of her husband's disrespectful nature, but what she did instead stated to David that exacting on revenge simply from being dishonored by words would be beneath him. Abigail goes even further by foretelling David on how God will protect his life therefore it would not be wise to kill those who are also followers of God. Abigail further goes into detail that a good man such as David would not delve into desires on the spur of the moment otherwise it can easily turn into regret. At the end of it all, she requests David to remember her.

Personal Reflection:

How many times throughout my life has someone disrespected me from the most simplest of terms to the absolute highest. How many times have I allowed my anger get in the way and exact revenge in any way possible. How many times have I allowed my pride to cloud my judgement and make numerous mistakes whether it lead to sin or not. How many times have there been someone next to me telling me to let it go and not do anything stupid which could lead to more pain down the road and at the end I ended up ignoring them and doing what it is that I wanted to do. How many times have I looked back or reminisced and thought to myself what a bafoon or how foolish I was and instantly thought regret. I would like to look from two point of views in this passage. First from David and the second from Abigail. 

At first, Nabal only spoke words of insult and disrespect towards David enough for David to tell his men to pick up their arms and get ready to do something quite violent it appears. I can definitely relate to this as David's pride and lack of humility got in the way and made him get up and act. Throughout high school and college, I played several online games and when someone told me what a terrible player I was, I would get instantaneously defensive and aggressive where I used a lot of colorful language that would not be considered Christ-like hence sin. In David's case, he was hurt when all he was asking for in return was a favor when he treated Nabal and his property with the utmost respect. Same thing happened in my life all the time, when I do something extremely nice for Jiyoon and I go out of my own way when I ask for something I expected an agreement without any pushback whatsoever only to be met with ridicule and rejection. It would be a outright lie if I was to say that I waas not hurt by the rejection. And it would also be a lie if I said Jiyoon and I did not get into fights about it. In the beginning of our marriage, I would surely get angry about it but over time I have not allowed it get the betterment of my conscience but I admittingly would get disappointed depending on the degree of the request.

Second point of view is Abigail where she's doing everything she can to nullify the situation. She understood quickly the stupidity of her husband's actions and acted right away. I believe when she was speaking to David, it was God speaking through Abigail to David, basically telling David, don't do anything stupid and don't be tempted by sin and something you in turn will regret. It's clear God did not instruct David to get up and fight Nabal. But I believe God put into Abigail's heart and mind to get up and do whatever she can rectify Nabal's mistake. I know exactly what Abigail was feeling, not the life or death situation portion but simply in terms of knowing when someone you love or is bound to you made a horrendous mistake and you want to do everything you can to make sure the other party did not attempt to exact revenge. This is what I love to call "high school drama". But there's also times when I haven't attempted to be the peacemaker between parties who I am associated to and completely ignored it. Imagine if Abigail ignored the idea and thought to herself that David won't act on this. I applaud Abigail for doing what she did and go to an extreme hostile situation where majority of us would have tuck tailed and ran.

Application:

Such a simple passage turned out to be something quite deep for me. On one spectrum I see myself being in David's shoes and I've also been in Abigail's shoes, too. Continuing on from David's point of view, pride can surely get in the way of things. He thought because he did XY&Z, he could ask for things in return. To me, the thought of generous acts should NOT expect anything in return. I struggle with this. When I do something nice I would want something nice to be done for me. It's human but it's not something that I need to strive for. Nowadays I don't expect much from anyone but I do get angry when I ask for something and get rejected. I need to humble myself more to the point where these needless things do not get a hold of my emotions. As for Abigail's point of view, if God called on me to act on certain things I need to act and not be afraid. Here, Abigail knew exactly what she was getting herself into but humbled herself by doing what God was pressing on her heart and gave everything including her life in God's hands. How humbling it must have been to have your enemy's (at that moment) wife to come before you and telling you to calm down not knowing whethere you will live to tell the tale or not. Praise God that David listened and he had to humble himself and calm himself down. But majority of us including myself have witnessed that even though you try to be the peacemaker, the dispute gets worse and worse. I need to pray for positivity where even though "I" strongly believe or "I'm" heavily discouraged I still leave it in God's hands regardless of the outcome. There will be times when I allow my negativity get in the way of things and I need to fight against it and take courage to do what is being asked of me.