1 Samuel 25:18-22 – Dealing with life's dilemmas

Abigail was a wise and perceptive woman. She was the very opposite of her husband, Nabal. She was also kind and generous. When she was told about her husband's foolish reaction toward David’s men, she didn’t delay any further. Like that sensible young man who brought the news, she knew how serious the matter was and quickly jumped into action. So 1 Samuel 25:18-19 said, “Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.  She said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.” 

Abigail probably knew her husband well, so she did not tell him before she went into action. Wise move! No reason was given but we can somewhat guess. One reason could be that she wanted to avoid a needless argument with an unreasonable man. Having lived with him, she must have been aware of how he would react. Secondly, it was so critical that she didn’t want her goodwill to David to be sabotaged. Like her, we must also act wisely. There are times in our life, for the sake of peace, we need to withhold information from certain people, even if they are close to us. Who are those people? People who may torpedo our God guided direction. People who are godless, troublesome and self-centered, and have the possibility of disentangling our God-given plan. We learn to act wisely like Abigail so that God’s plan can be brought into fruition unhindered.  

Notice how she wisely strategized the delivery. Like Israel of old, she sent the goods ahead of her while she followed a little distance from behind. Meanwhile, David was already on the way. She couldn’t tell how David would respond to her kind gesture, so we conjecture that there must have been some trepidation on her part. We imagined that at a certain vantage point she could see David, but he couldn’t see her. Perhaps it was at that point that David furiously said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belongs to him.” Then at that critical moment, Abigail appeared, and they met.

What we learn here is about a wise person who took the right risk. She probably could surmise how her husband would react had she told him about what she was going to do. But what was more needful was to act quickly to save his whole family and people from being annihilated. Life often presents us with all kinds of situations. And we know that there is no one-fix response to every situation. There are times in life when we will have to choose between the lesser of two evils. It is precisely in those moments that our walk with God will be brought to bear. That’s why we must consistently connect with God so that with His given wisdom, we will know how to deal appropriately with life’s dilemmas.