Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.” When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent – 1 Samuel 25:21-25.
I chuckle at this account of Nabal’s wife rescuing her husband from his foolish choices. My first thought is that my wife (Barb) has rescued me from many foolish choices and taught me better choices in life from my typical “introverted, self-centered concern” that often ignored the needs of others. I would love to say that I have listened and learned to care for others in much better ways than I have, which is true to some extent, but there is such a long way to go. It is easy to take a singular step of faith when one is learning and declare “mission accomplished” through a one-time event and then go back to our old ways of doing things. Growth and change are hard for us because we like ourselves the way we are. On the other hand, we hate change because (in general) it requires sacrifice and learning a new way of doing things – many of us simply can’t be bothered.
Foolishness is connected to our sinful personality tendencies. It is those characteristics that still need to be transformed by the Spirit of God to embody the values of Christ’s character. In this narrative, David sent his men to guard the workers of Nabal (whose name means foolish) as they looked after their flocks and were entitled to some compensation. Nabal was not having it and basically told David and his men to “get lost”. Fortunately for him, his wife rescued him from being slaughtered along with their household. Some of our foolishness is just immature lack of common sense. Other acts of foolishness can be dangerous because it can, as in this case, be self-destructive and harmful to those around us.
Many wives have often rescued their husbands from their foolishness. Sometimes it is our addictions to hobbies and sports. Sometimes it is more destructive issues that have moral implications that we either dismiss as being a problem or we justify our behavior by devaluing the significance of it. Addiction to drugs, pornography, gambling, and the sort can destroy our own life and the life of our families. Many wives have been gifted with the patience of Job when it comes to the self-destructive habits of our type A personalities. Regardless of if it is ego, anger, or a broken self-image, many of us should be profoundly thankful for the resilience and patience of our wives to hang in there and keep rescuing us from ourselves. Some ladies are remarkable in what they have had to put up with for many, many years. Unfortunately, some ladies are often criticized for these actions because their “patience” ends up enabling their husband’s behavior not challenging it.
The uniqueness of this narrative is that Abigail (Nabal’s wife) was not just putting up with foolish choices, she was dealing with a fool. There are very few solutions to the collateral damage of fools. They seem to have a mastery for foolishness. Their ongoing actions are constantly self-destructive, and they drag families through the ongoing pain of their foolishness. Praise the Lord for the “Abigail’s” in our life that God has given to rescue us from our foolishness (or in any other terms, our stupidity). Mother’s Day is never sufficient to express our gratitude to those ladies in our life (wife or otherwise) for their profound ministry in our life to keep on rescuing us from our foolishness. Only God can take a fool and make him into a faithful person who serves his family and others with integrity. Between God’s grace and the gift of a gracious wife (or mother or even mother-in-law) who keep on being this helper that keeps on rescuing us from our foolishness is priceless. By the way, the root word in the name Abagail means, “to shout in exultation or rejoice”. Certainly an appropriate response for many of us who have godly women in our life to rescue us from our foolishness and learn to be faithful instead.
Pastor Brad
