THE BEAUTIFUL ABIGAIL MEETING DAVID.
Abigail immediately grasped the situation and at once despatched a small procession of provision-bearers along the way David would come. In this she did not even take Nabal into her counsel, and she prepared to pay bountifully for the conduct of her foolhardy husband.
The band had scarcely started when she followed after, and, as she expected, met the avenging warriors by the covert of the mountain, and the interview was as creditable to her woman’s wit as to her grace of heart. The lowly obeisance of the beautiful woman at the young soldier’s feet; the frank confession of the wrong that had been done; the expression of thankfulness that so far he had been kept from blood-guiltiness and from avenging his own wrongs; the depreciation of the generous present she brought as only fit for his servants; the chivalrous appreciation of his desire to fight only the battles of the Lord and to keep an unblemished name; the sure anticipation of the time when his fortunes would be secured and his enemies silenced; the suggestion that in those coming days he would be glad to have no shadow on the sunlit hills of his life, no haunting memory—all this was as beautiful and wise and womanly as it could be, and brought David back to his better self. Frank and noble as he always was, he did not hesitate to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to this lovely woman, and to see in her intercession the gracious arrest of God. “And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy wisdom, and blessed be thou, which has kept me this day from blood-guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.”
What a revelation this is of the ministries with which God seeks to avert us from our evil ways! They are sometimes very subtle and slender, very small and still; sometimes a gentle woman’s hand laid on our wrist, the mother reminding us of her maternity, the wife of early vows, the child with its pitiful, beseeching look; sometimes a thought, holy, pleading, remonstrating. Ah, many a time we have been saved from actions which would have caused lasting regret. And above all these voices and influences there has been the gracious arresting influence of the Holy Spirit, striving with passion and selfishness, calling us to a nobler, better life. Blessed Spirit, come down more often by the covert of the hill, and stay us in our mad career, and let us not press past thee to take our own wild way, and we shall have reason for ceaseless gratitude.
Only ten days after Abigail’s womanly intercession Nabal died by the judgments of God.
When David heard of Nabal’s death, he was very grateful indeed that he had been restrained by the prudent words of Abigail, and sent messengers to her at Carmel, asking her hand in marriage. And this is the touching reply she sent back to David, “Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”
“And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.” After her marriage, she accompanied David in all his fortunes; and no doubt her shrewd business sense was of great service to her husband. The words she told David while he was sinking under discouragement from Nabal’s ingratitude, that he would be “bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God,” became prophetic of her own after life. She proved that—
“They who get the best are those
Who leave the choice to Him.”