Abigail Submission

Hi Family,

So God revealed something to me in my sleep. That some of my sisters are married to some difficult men. Some men that it's going to take a little work in order to either decrease yourself in order to grow them to a good place where they are feeling good. Or there is just too much risk involved in order to grow them to a good place. There are the wives that may need to have an Abigail type of submission.

Lets read this story. It's a little long, so i'll try to skip parts where I can and summarize parts where I can.

1 Samuel 25

2-3 There was a certain man in Maon who carried on his business in the region of Carmel. He was very prosperous—three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and it was sheep-shearing time in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal (Fool), a Calebite, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and good-looking, the man brutish and mean.

4-8   David, out in the backcountry, heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep and sent ten of his young men off with these instructions: “Go to Carmel and approach Nabal. Greet him in my name, ‘Peace! Life and peace to you. Peace to your household, peace to everyone here! I heard that it’s sheep-shearing time. Here’s the point: When your shepherds were camped near us we didn’t take advantage of them. They didn’t lose a thing all the time they were with us in Carmel. Ask your young men—they’ll tell you. What I’m asking is that you be generous with my men—share the feast! Give whatever your heart tells you to your servants and to me, David your son.’”

Basically, what King David was trying to relay to Nabal was "my servants were all around your farms and your people and we protected your property including your servants. We didn't ask for anything. We did the right thing by making sure you were protected. Now it's sheep shearing time and we were hoping you would be willing to give us an offering of your choice seeing that we've been so helpful and good to you. Long story short, lets look at Nabal's reaction when the message got to him...

9 David’s young men went and delivered his message word for word to Nabal. Nabal tore into them, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? 

I'm telling you. I can imagine David's anger when he was told that Nabal said that. Because I can imagine if I did something so nice for someone and I just asked for an offering, and they came back with that ungrateful who is this son of jesse mess?? Oh yea, it would probably be on! But lets take a look at King David's reaction when he was told what Nabal said:

12 “Strap on your swords!” 

Yea, that would be quite a few of us. Strap up..... Goodness. But we are talking about Abigail and submission. Why are we talking about all this? Because I want to be sure that you have an accurate picture of what is going on and the urgency so that you can understand the TYPE of submission that Abigail had to show.

Now we already know that Abigail was a beautiful smart woman who I believe had submission to her husband. But she had a greater submission to authority. So lets see how she came into play in this story....

14-17 Meanwhile, one of the young shepherds told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, what had happened: “David sent messengers from the backcountry to salute our master, but he tore into them with insults. Yet these men treated us very well. They took nothing from us and didn’t take advantage of us all the time we were in the fields. They formed a wall around us, protecting us day and night all the time we were out tending the sheep. Do something quickly because big trouble is ahead for our master and all of us. Nobody can talk to him. He’s impossible—a real brute!”

Now remember, David was the King. Anointed by God. He had his issues, but he was a man after God's heart. But because Nabal said what he said, it was now about to go down. David had arranged his troops and was on his way to Maon and kill EVERYONE there. Just for Nabal's disrespect and disregard. But guess what Abigail had to do. Remember I said she was submitted to her husband, but she had a greater submission to Authority. That meant the king.

In the next post we will talk about what she did in order to rectify the mess that her family was in because of the foolish decisions of her husband.

I Love you all! Be blessed!