A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
It another beautiful day, and another wonderful opportunity to share the word of God. In today's blog post, I will want to share some discoveries the Lord is opening up my heart to in the life of a woman in the Bible named Abigail. The book of 1 Samuel 25 tells the story of a man named Nabal and his wife Abigail and I believe this story contains a lot of lessons for the women.
The first thing that was said about the couple is that a man in Maon who had property at Carmel was very wealthy, and the author of that book in the Bible went on to describe the wealth of this man. But immediately the name Nabal was mentioned, the wife's name followed. Now reading in-between the lines of this passage, I will say that behind the wealth of Nabal is his wife Abigail. You know the saying goes that "behind every successful man is a woman."
To confirm my thoughts of the impact of Abigail on her husband's wealth, we will notice that the author first gave the characteristics of Abigail the wife of wealthy Nabal as an intelligent and beautiful woman before giving the characteristics of Nabal himself (as a surly and mean man). Nabal's name was mentioned first and his characteristics second, while Abigail's name was mentioned first with her characteristics first. This arrangement tells me that the secret to Nabal's wealth resides in the intelligence and beauty of his wife.
I have come to understand that as a suitable helper in the life of my husband, the success of my assignment given to me by God lies in the success of my husband being all that God has called him to be. So if my husband succeeds then automatically I have also succeeded. Then my prayers and support for his life has not been in vain. If on the other hand, my husband is yet to attain what God has called him to do and be in life, then my assignment is not getting a pass mark. Then I need to double my efforts, pray more, seek wisdom to support him more and watch over him the more.
The assignment to be a helper in your husband's life has not made you a head over him. The fact that your success in God's assignment for your life is tied to your husband's success does not then mean you should become tired and aggressive towards your husband. Rather it means you need to pray more, show more submission to him, show him more love and respect, treat him with high esteem and honour him the more. By so doing you are giving God greater tools to work with and work through in making your husband all that He the Lord has designed him to be. Remember that Peter said in 1 Peter 3:1-2 that it is through your behaviour and not your words that your unbelieving husband will be won over to God, when he sees the purity and the reverence of your life.
Going back to the story of Abigail, we will note that her husband Nabal was surly and mean, so to say that he was a wicked man. He was wicked enough for the Bible to actually call him wicked, yet that was not enough reason for Abigail to turn her back on him. The Bible never said Nabal treated his wife with exception, because if he did the Bible would have mentioned it that "although he treated his wife fairly." But the Bible just simple said Nabal was surly and mean and I want to believe that that was his behaviour towards every one around him without the exception of his wife. But still Abigail the intelligent and beautiful woman stood by her surly and mean husband whose wealth I believe is not without her impact.
If we read on in the chapter, we will see Nabal display his cruelty when he refused to help David who had earlier helped him watch over his shepherds and cattle when they were at Carmel. This action of Nabal was to fetch him his total destruction as David had vowed to kill him and his entire household for his cruelty. But here comes the intelligent and beautiful wife of mean and surly Nabal to the rescue again.
Immediately Abigail got the information of what her husband had done which I believe is not a strange thing to her, she didn't go fighting her husband. She was not fearful. As the suitable helper to her husband, in wisdom, she rose up and packed all that David had requested for. Food and drinks, enough for him and his men were packed on donkeys and sent ahead of her to plead the case of her mean and surly husband.
1 Samuel 25:14-19
One of the servants told Nabal's wife Abigail: "David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. Yet these men were very good to us. They did not ill-treat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them. Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no-one can talk to him."
Abigail lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants. "Go on ahead; I'll follow you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
The above passage here is what Abigail did when she heard the trouble her husband had gotten himself into with him negative character. And by the time we read the story through, though Abigail was able to save Nabal from the wrath of David, but not from the hands of God.
The lessons we are learning from this passage is the approved attitude of a woman of God who is also a wife of noble character. She is designed by God to be the secret success in the life of her husband. Yes your husband might be wealthy and affluent, but it will be such a nice thing for him to know that he would not have gotten such success without your help and support. Though your husband might acknowledge it or not, but let it be known to you and to God that you did your bit in helping the husband that God has placed over your life to be all that God has destined him to be. Let it be known to him that without your help it would not have been easy.
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