Daily Devotional

Some people have a heart to see God’s kingdom. They have tuned their hearts to know it, and make decisions in alignment with what they see. My dad could not see me leaving the historic family church. My mom could not see me leaving the security of my teaching job. Lynn and I were also without understanding of what God was directing.

But some Godly couples in the church did see it. They saw God’s purposes and plans before they had yet manifested themselves elsewhere. They acted on what they saw, despite being minority voices in the deliberations of the church. They came directly to us, and changed the course of our lives, and of the church. They were people of good understanding. Thus began my pastoral ministry.

There was a “woman of good understanding” described in the book of I Samuel. She saw what no one saw. Her name was Abigail. Her husband could not see past himself, his lucrative farming and ranching operations and the godless status quo of the country. He declined helping David, the king to come, and thus put in motion his own destruction and that of all his household. But Abigail saw the prophetic future. Listen to her speaking to David below.

“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.” I Samuel 25:27–31, NKJV

In deep humility, knowing her place in the world in which she found herself, she stood between Daved the king to come, and Nabal her husband. While giving a copious gift to David and his men, she also restrained him from avenging himself against her husband and his prospering enterprises and family.

Then she both recognizes and prophesies the truth God had laid out for David. He was fighting the battles of the Lord (not Saul). God was to make him an enduring (eternal) house, as a forefather of Christ, and a type of His kingship. She predicted that God would keep him “bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord” his God, and sling out his enemies. She knew and declared that God would soon appoint him king over all Israel.

What a role model she is for us all, of balanced Christian action, fearlessly going God’s way when it seemed she alone could see it all! She stood between men on both sides who would not normally give her any significant attention. And she prevailed.

May we be Abigails in our day. It was not by chance she knew all this, that she took bold and decisive action. Only a person who has invested herself first and highest in the Lord would have even the least measure of that insight and power. She knew the workings of the family enterprises. She knew the politics and spiritual landscape of her country. She knew the Lord who ruled over it all. So she also knew what to do, in the right time and the right way.

Study her life. And let it inform your own. We do not know when the “David vs Nabal” moment might come our way. But we can know the Christ who does, who will also lead us into action by His Spirit in our hearts!

May the Lord write many more stories in our lives of faith, wisdom and fearlessness, like Abigail’s, to the glory of the name of God our Father!

Read: I Samuel 25
Sing: Footsteps of Jesus, Mary B. Slade (A. B. Everett)

"New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved."