By Patsy Norwood ©
2025 All Rights Reserved! Any and all commercial use of this study is
prohibited!
I Samuel 25: 1 –
42; 27:3; 30: 1-18; II Samuel 2: 2-3; 3:3; 17:25; I Chronicles 2:16-17; 3:1
In our last
lesson, we saw Abigail breathe a sigh of relief after David’s response. This week Abigail’s husband’s day of
reckoning arrives …
Verse 36 When
Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a
king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all
until daybreak.
Abigail returns
home to find her husband still drunk and still enjoying the feast he was giving
a bit too much. Here again we see
Abigail’s discernment in action, she wisely said nothing that night, she knew
she would not be able to reason with him in his current state, it would keep
until morning.
Timing is critical
when embarking upon a mission such as or similar to Abigail’s. What was her mission? It was to inform her husband of what had
almost happened because of his actions and what didn’t happen because of hers.
37 Then in the
morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his
heart failed him and he became like a stone.
It’s the next
morning and Nabal is sober. He likely
has a huge hangover and might not be in the best mood, but Abigail cannot keep
the previous day’s events from him any longer, he must be told all.
Daybreak or
morning light of the new day was the time David had vowed in I Sameul 25:22,
that by this time not one of the male members of Nabal’s household would be
alive. Instead, it’s now the time that
Abigail is having a most serious conversation with Nabal about his prior
actions.
Did Abigail
struggle to find the right words to tell him what he had to know or did she
just come right out with it and lay it on the line. The Bible doesn’t tell us, it could have gone
either way, but what we do know is that she told him and ‘his heart failed
him and he became like stone.’ In
today’s medical language we would likely say he had a heart attack or stroke that
left him in a coma-like paralyzed state.
What was Nabal’s verbal
reaction to what Abigail told him? We
don’t know, again, the Bible doesn’t tell us, but given what we do know about
Nabal, it’s easy to see how he might have flew into a rage that brought on his
medical condition.
What could he have
been enraged about? Possibly three
things, if you put yourself inside Nabal’s head and heart: (1) anger over
Abigail’s misuse of his goods, (2) alarm at what had almost happened, and/or
(3) shame and humiliation he felt that Abigail had brought upon his name by her
interference.
38 About ten
days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
God struck Nabal
ten days later. While it’s possible that
it was of the same nature as before, we don’t know that; Scripture doesn’t tell
us. What it does tell us is that Nabal
died by the hand of God.
Notice that God,
not David brought about Nabal’s death.
God did not want David to bring about Nabal’s death for reasons
mentioned in earlier lessons … He, God, would do it Himself.
What does this
tell us about the awesome God we serve?
While he is 100% love and care and has shown and continues to show this to
and for His children, He is also 100% about His purpose of bringing as many
people as are willing to heaven through the decisions they make on earth. (Yes, it is our choice, we get to choose
where we spend eternity.) Sometimes, God’s ways might look uncaring and
unloving in our eyes, but those are the times when we have to put our full
trust in the God who is able.
In our next
lesson, we’ll finish up our study on Abigail, who is now a widow. I hope you’ll join me back here then as we
watch Abigail go from being a widow to
_____, well you’ll just have to come back and find out!
Until the next
lesson,
patsy @ From This
Heart of Mine
~ a place for
women to gather and study God's Word ~
Sources used for
this study:
Various
translations of the Holy Bible
Various
commentaries
Several trusted
and biblically sound online sources
Dictionary of New
Testament Background, Editors: Craig A Evans & Stanley E. Porter
Archaeological
Study Bible
All the Women of
the Bible by Edith Deen
Daughters of Eve
by Lottie Beth Hobbs
Halley’s Bible
Handbook by H. H. Halley
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