1 Samuel 25:14-19, 23-25
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 where 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 roasted grains, 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.
When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: “My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what you servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name – his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.
I am thanking God for yet another wonderful opportunity to share the truth of His word. As long as there are ears to hear, eyes to read and hearts to yield to the truth of God’s word, there will always be His word to share. And when we truly obey the truth of His word we shall eat of the good of the land to the praise of His Holy Name.
So we'll continue to share on the application of wisdom in our marital situation and trust the Lord that our homes will shine for the world to see and the glory will be for Jesus alone. It appears that this phrase wisdom in marriage and its application touches more of the women than the men, I suppose its because the woman holds the responsibility to build the home and not the man. Also when God was giving His instructions on marriage, He addressed the wife first (Ephesians 5:22-33, Colossians 3:18-19, 1 Peter 3:1-7), so that should make us understand that the woman is the bedrock of any marriage. The life and death of a marriage lies in the bosom of the wife. So in order to have a very beautiful marriage that even the husband will be proud of, the wife needs to make use of wisdom.
The importance of wisdom in marriage cannot be over emphasized. Almost all the problems and challenges of marriage will evaporate when they come in contact with godly wisdom. Violence will be a total stranger in a marriage where godly wisdom is constantly engaged and applied. So when you want to make your marriage a success, seek and apply godly wisdom and you will stand to testify of it's efficacy.
In today’s blog message we will see how wisdom was applied in the marriage of Abigail and learn a thing or two from her and her use of wisdom that we might apply in our marriage as we seek to have a home that shines for others to see.
The introduction of the story of Abigail and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25:2-3 tells us the characteristics of the couple and the Bible didn’t hide the fact that Nabal was mean and surly. God in heaven knew that Nabal, Abigail’s husband was surly and mean. Abigail knew and understood that her husband was a wicked man, he was surly and mean. But then she didn’t divorce him because he was surly and mean, rather she built her home on the pillars of wisdom. Until God took the life of Nabal, Abigail remained his wife and she was intelligent and beautiful yet married to a mean and surly husband.
The evidence we have of how Abigail managed her home and husband is how she handled the situation between her husband and king David. The Bible tells us that immediately report of what her husband had done came to her, she was swift into action getting as much supplies of food and drinks as she could possibly get and sent them ahead of her to plead the case of her husband. She went as far as accepting responsibility for her husband’s wrong just so that his life and that of his household might be spared. So we understand better why Abigail’s marriage was intact even in the event that her husband was mean and surly.
There are a lot of mean husbands who would be drawn to God simply by the attitude of their wives when they see the godly traits in her, and they see that despite all that they do wrong all they get in return is love, reverence, submission and respect. With these attitude traits they will want to know what makes that woman thick despite what they are making her go through and when they dig deep all they find is Jesus and the fear and love for God. This will no doubt make them want to seek God too.
Those in troubled marriages might wonder for how long they have to endure the hardship for the change to happen and for peace to finally be their lot in the marriage; well I would say that it will last as long as you allow yourself to be trained by the process. Troubled marriage teaches patience, it trains in perseverance and it trains in wisdom. It trains in self-control and contentment, it makes you tough and soft all in one. It trains you to put your total trust in God and to be able to weather any storm that life may bring your way and when the training course is over you will be a master of your home and a good and seasoned teacher to teach and encourage others. You will have joy at the end of the journey and those who could not weather the storm and fell along the way will call you lucky not realizing what you had to put up against, endure and learn to be able to attain the position of rest and abundance that you have attained
In Hebrews 12:4-11 tells us to endure hardship as a form of training from the Lord, yes it is painful at that time because no form of discipline is easy but hard, but later on it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. The hardship of your troubled marriage is included in this scripture. So be rest assured that if you allow the process to train you as it is intended to, you will later reap the harvest of righteousness and peace.
So in conclusion, we go back to the story of Abigail and Nabal; after Abigail had gone through a time of training by God through the hands of her husband Nabal and it appeared Nabal was not ready to be a good man, God took his life and handed his intelligent, beautiful, well-trained and well-seasoned woman to king David as queen. Abigail moved from just been a wife to a wealthy man to being a queen over the whole twelve tribes of Israel. It was a win-win story for her. Many will say Abigail was lucky, but they forgot the hardship through which she was trained to get to the exalted position of a queen.
So as you pass through your valley of shadow of death in the form of troubled marriage, know that it is a training process, understand that you need to pick up lessons along the way and above all seek wisdom. It is only when you have been tried and tested in seeking and applying godly wisdom will you attain that position of righteousness and peace in your marriage. May the Lord bless our homes.
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