18 Abigail ACTED QUICKLY. (OR Flew into action. The Message) 1 Samuel 25
Abigail was presented, without warning, with a situation which threatened to destroy her whole family. The situation was not of her making and the blame was entirely her husband’s, but she immediately, ‘Flew into action’, as the Message Bible puts it. Situations can arise where there is no time for consideration, only prompt action will save the day!
Abigail was warned by an unnamed servant that her husband had insulted David to his ten men and though they had once protected the shepherds and their livestock, now they would come for revenge. She was the one who suddenly found herself with responsibility for the future of the entire family. Abigail acted immediately, she took the decisions alone, without consulting anyone. She also made a personal commitment to be the one to face the angry men threatening to take their lives. She showed great courage!
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, ‘Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.’ But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 1 Samuel 25
She put together a substantial gift, at short notice, for David and his men, which she hoped would be large enough to placate them. Abigail was not the only woman in scripture who faced dangerous situations and had to decide quickly what she must do.
3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: ‘Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.’
4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, ‘Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. Joshua 2
Rahab also showed great bravery in hiding the two Israelite spies and then telling them how to make good their escape. Rahab also took a personal stand and once again, like Abigail, rescued her whole household from destruction. Both these women showed personal bravery and much wisdom in dealing with dangerous situations.
Another example of courage in the face of disaster was the Shunamite woman, for whom the prophet Elisha had promised a son.
20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, ‘Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.’ 2 Kings 4
She also decided upon her course of action and set out to find the prophet Elisha, who had granted her a son. Through her faith and the faith of Elisha her son was restored to her.
All these ladies faced tremendous challenges and all of them received great rewards in their futures when they’d overcome. Abigail became the wife of King David, a much more rewarding life than living with the ‘mean and surly’, Nabal. Rahab and her household survived and Rahab was grafted into the family line of King David and then the Messiah. The Shunamite returned after the famine, had an audience with the king and was given back her property along with the income from it.
God recognises those who take righteous stands when faced with difficult challenges and rewards them here and for eternity. May He guide us to know the right paths for ourselves and those around us in the days ahead. Amen
The Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.