"David said to Abigail, 'Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.' Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, 'Go in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.'" (1 Samuel 25:32-35) David recognizes Abigail as a woman of faith. He knows she has come in obedience to the Lord even though it must have been extremely frightening to speak to an angry man with four hundred angry men behind him (two hundred were left in the camp), all armed and ready to fight. This would be a daunting prospect for anyone but especially for a woman in an era when very little value was placed on the opinion of women.
Abigail is thankful and relieved that her request was received in the right attitude by David. She must have returned home on a spiritual high, so to speak, because the Lord has given her success. As often happens following a great victory, vexing circumstances follow. The devil likes to kick us when we're down, that's true, but he sometimes finds it more effective to kick us when we're basking in the glow of victory. He does this in an attempt to catch us off guard and also I think because he hates seeing us praise the Lord. He hates it because he knows it builds our faith and makes us feel closer to the Lord so he tries to discourage us as quickly as possible. As soon as Abigail reaches home and walks in the door, she's met with a discouraging scene.
"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." (1 Samuel 25:36a) Nothing about Abigail's home life has changed. She's experienced a great victory from the Lord away from home but she's still married to a spiritually reprobate man who thinks far more of himself than he ought to and who thinks far less of others than he ought to. The first sight to meet her eyes when she opens the door is her sloppily drunk husband behaving like he's king of the realm, showing off in front of his guests who are probably as sloppily drunk as he is. He doesn't mind bestowing the richest of foods upon these flunkies in exchange for their admiration and allegiance but he was unwilling to give David and his men the most basic of supplies in return for protecting his shepherds and sheep from marauders.
We were told earlier in the chapter that Nabal's name (which may be a nickname) means "fool". He's still acting the fool. His wife and servants realized he put himself in danger by turning down David's request for food but he seems oblivious to that fact. Instead of being on guard with armed men at his side, he's "very drunk". He's not in any condition to defend himself or the people of his household. He has no concern whatsoever that harm might come to anyone because of his actions. David only threatened to kill the male relatives and male servants of Nabal, but Nabal can't know this. Yet he isn't even interested in making sure Abigail is safe. Seeing the deplorable condition her husband is in, Abigail doesn't say a word to him until the next day. It's no use trying to talk to someone in Nabal's condition; they won't understand or won't remember.
"So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 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. About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died." (1 Samuel 25:36b-38) Nabal is so upset to hear that Abigail helped David that he has some type of cardiac event, after which he lingers in his bed until he passes away ten days later. No doubt his hard-drinking, rich-food-eating lifestyle has a lot to do with this, along with a bad temper that didn't do his blood pressure any favors.
Word gets to David that Nabal has expired of natural causes, leading him to again praise the Lord for preventing him from dirtying his hands by taking vengeance for himself. "When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept His servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head.'" (1 Samuel 25:39a) Nabal is the kind of man about whom the Apostle Paul said, "God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Galatians 6:7b) Nabal didn't suddenly start being a greedy, ungrateful, ungodly man on the day David asked him for some food. Nabal had been that way a long time. He wasn't grateful for his blessings and wasn't willing to share any of his blessings with others. He was unpleasant to be around, was verbally abusive, and for all we know may have also been physically abusive to his wife and servants and hired workers. He lived his life in a bad temper and he died in a bad temper. But David didn't have to lift a finger against him and for that he will always be thankful to the Lord.
David is thankful to someone else as well. "Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife." (1 Samuel 25:39b) He wants to protect and provide for and show kindness to the woman who gave him godly counsel.
We aren't told why David doesn't go to Abigail's house to propose to her himself but he isn't the first man in the Bible to gain a wife by messenger. For example, you'll recall from our study of Genesis that Abraham sent a servant to procure a godly wife for his son Isaac from among Abraham's own people. Isaac and Rebekah did not even meet each other until after she accepted the proposal by proxy and returned with the servant. Abigail, like Rebekah, accepts the proposal relayed to her by messenger. "His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, 'David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.' She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, 'I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord's servants.'" (1 Samuel 25:40-41) This is her way of saying, "I am honored and humbled by this opportunity."
She wastes no time in going to meet her groom. "Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David's messengers and became his wife. David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim." (1 Samuel 25:42-44) We don't know when David married Ahinoam but it was probably after hearing that his first wife was no longer his. I am sure word got to David not long after Saul gave Michal to another man in marriage. Naturally David wants the companionship of a wife and the opportunity to have children, so he married Ahinoam.
He has also married Abigail out of a sense of responsibility for her, out of a spirit of gratitude toward her, and due to finding her appearance and her character very attractive. Although this makes him a bigamist in today's world it is not a situation that is forbidden in the Old Testament. The Lord said that a king was not to "take many wives" (Deuteronomy 17:17) but did not specify how many was too many. It was typical in ancient cultures for wealthy men to have more than one wife but that doesn't mean this is the Lord's best plan for marriage. The Lord provided His template for marriage when He officiated over the first wedding ceremony and joined together Adam and Eve in holy matrimony. Whenever we find a man in the Bible with more than one wife, we find conflict in the home. David's home will not be exempt from such troubles, for after he has become king and has taken a number of wives and has fathered a number of children, we'll find him unable to be the kind of husband and the kind of father the Lord wants men to be. Some of his children will turn against each other and some of them will even turn against David.
But for now I hope he has a short interlude of quietness until we arrive at our next chapter and find Saul again pursuing him with the intention of killing him.
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