Friday, June 24<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 18: The chief motif of this chapter is Saul\u2019s growing suspicion and distrust of David, which is elaborated in the context of Saul\u2019s family. Both his son, Jonathan, and his daughter, Michal, quickly become fond of David.<\/p>\n
With respect to Saul\u2019s daughter, Michal, the king sees a way to use her affection for David as a means to dispose of him: He offers the girl in marriage but requires his planned son-in-law to pay one hundred Philistine foreskins as a bridal price. Saul presumes that this requirement—which includes a streak of course ethnic humor about Philistine genitalia—will enrage the Philistines enough to finish David off. In the Greek version, David simply produces the one hundred foreskins, but the Hebrew text is more interesting and ironical: David decides to show Saul a thing or two by producing—and counting them out!—two hundred Philistine foreskins!<\/p>\n
With respect to Saul\u2019s son, Jonathan, the king observes with distress that he become deeply attached to David, much impressed with the latter\u2019s handling of Goliath. David\u2019s abrupt intervention on the battlefield, at the hour when \u201cSaul and all Israel . . . were dismayed and greatly afraid,\u201d seized the attention of Jonathan. His eyes fixed on this newcomer walking calmly back into the camp, one hand gripping the giant\u2019s sword and the other swinging the giant\u2019s severed head.<\/p>\n
Jonathan, unlike most godly men of the Old Testament, died young. Indeed, combat being a pursuit commonly ungenerous in respect to years, Jonathan\u2019s prospects for maturing to grey hairs were never promising. However, as we have seen, he fought with a derring-do that lowered those chances further still. As for the enemies of Jonathan, their odds for old age were even worse, for he was truly fearsome in the arts of war.<\/p>\n
Though he was manifestly adept as a swordsman, it was chiefly as an archer that men remembered Jonathan. They often watched him begin his day in the discipline of that skill (20:20\u201322, 35\u201338). The funeral dirge of Saul and Jonathan, memorized by the Israelites and in due course recorded in the Book of Jasher, was known, in fact, as the \u201cSong of the Bow\u201d (2 Samuel 1:18), named for that line that reads, \u201cthe bow of Jonathan did not turn back\u201d (1:22).<\/p>\n
Jonathan\u2019s pursuit of warfare was formed by, and inseparable from, a warm commitment to his father\u2019s throne. He was a faithful son, but his fidelity will be sorely tried in the chapters that follow. As it became obvious to both father and son that David, not Jonathan, would be the next king (20:15; 24:20), the situation grew tense and progressively complex. Saul, increasingly deranged and acting in rage, not only disputed the fidelity of Jonathan (20:30, 31), but even made an impetuous attempt on his life (20:33). Remaining ever loyal to David, however, Jonathan stayed steadfast at the side of his doomed father, finally dying with him on the desperate slopes of Gilboa, brave and faithful to the end.<\/p>\n
Saturday, June 25<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 19: This chapter is structured on three episodes, in each of which David is delivered from the clutches of Saul: (1) with the aid of Jonathan; (2) with the aid of Michal; and (3) with the aid of Samuel. There is a progressive intensity in these three episodes: in the first, David is delivered by negotiation; in the second, by a ruse; and in the third, by a demolishing counterattack.<\/p>\n
In the first episode (verses 1-7) Jonathan, following a promise to David, persuades his father to call off the execution of his friend. David is so placed that he can hear the conversation and be reassured. The intervention is successful, and David returns to court. The arrangement, nonetheless, is not permanent, because David\u2019s continued military success plunges Saul once more into a deep and murderous madness (verses 8-10).<\/p>\n
In the second episode (verses 11-17) Michal, learning that Saul\u2019s executioners are plotting to kill her husband the next morning, plotted his escape during the night. Her ruse included placing a statue of a household god in David\u2019s bed and pretending he was sick. Meanwhile, David has made good his getaway.<\/p>\n
This story reminds the reader of Rachel, who, like Michal, also employed the services of a household god to deceive her own father, Laban (Genesis 31:19,34-35). The similarity between the two cases, moreover, prompts the reader to recall that Laban, like Saul, meanly used his two daughters to exploit Jacob; both Laban and Saul delayed handing over the desired daughters and increased the price for them.<\/p>\n
In the third episode (verses 18-24) Samuel, receiving David at his home in Ramah, protects him from Saul and the agents Saul sends to capture the fugitive.<\/p>\n
This episode is elaborately told: Three delegations are dispatched. At each instance, Samuel and his prophetic followers are raised to ecstatic experience, causing a negative and debilitating reaction among those dispatched to capture David. (They become as helpless as the three delegations sent to arrest Elisha in 2 Kings 1:9-18.) Finally, Saul himself arrives, and in this case the debilitating reaction becomes extreme: Saul goes completely mad, strips off his clothes, and lies naked in the dirt.<\/p>\n
The final details of this third episode form a contrasting parallel with Samuel\u2019s first encounter with Saul at Ramah in chapter 9. There are five points of correspondence: (1) Both meetings take place at Ramah; (2) in each case Saul makes inquiry how to find Samuel; (3) in each case the inquiry is made at a well (cf. 9:10-11; 19:22); (4) in each case Saul is gripped by an ecstatic experience; and (5) in both cases the bystanders inquire, \u201cIs Saul among the prophets?<\/p>\n
This detailed parallel, however, serves entirely to heighten a contrast. Whereas in the first encounter with Samuel Saul was elevated in honor, in the second he is utterly degraded. In the first case, the question, \u201cIs Saul among the prophets?\u201d invites a positive response: \u201cYes!\u201d In the second case the same question solicits a negative answer: \u201cNo, Saul is among the hopelessly insane!\u201d<\/p>\n
As Saul slips into lunacy, David makes his escape. Never again to appear in the court of Saul, he begins to live as a fugitive and outlaw, a thing not so easy to do in a place as small as the Judean Desert.<\/p>\n
Sunday, June 26<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 20: It would be a simple matter to document the political crisis brought about by the decline of Saul and the simultaneously increasing success of David. Holy Scripture is not content, however, simply to chronicle the details of this crisis. Two other aspects of the political situation are objects of his interest and reflection: the divine purpose and the human drama. The first aspect is concerned with theology, and the second with psychology.<\/p>\n
First, with respect to God\u2019s purpose in the painful unfolding of these events, the comments of Holy Scripture are necessarily brief, modest, and occasionally indirect. The biblical writer claims no clarity of perception into the divine mind beyond the experienced conviction that the Lord of history had a decisive hand in the political development described in these pages. Things did not simply happen. They happened, rather, because they were guided by an obscure providential impulse that nudged events along in a determined direction. At no point in the story, moreover, did this providential impulse violate or impair the free choices and decisions of those taking part in the drama.<\/p>\n
Here and there the biblical author points to some seam in the story\u2019s fabric where God inserts a subtle but determining influence. For instance, when David and his two companions gain the advantage over Saul as he sleeps in the camp at Hachilah (chapter 26), the author discerns the divine intrusion that makes the story\u2019s outcome possible: \u201cDavid took the spear and the jug of water at Saul\u2019s head, and they slipped away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord<\/i> had fallen on them.\u201d How did this come about? The writer has no idea of the mechanism of it, but he is sure the sleep came from the Lord, and this little detail determines the outcome of the narrative.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the author\u2019s perception of the providential influence is so oblique that he refrains from drawing attention to it. The reader is obliged to ferret the matter out for himself.<\/p>\n
Second, with respect to the human drama of this political crisis, the biblical author describes in detail the complex psychological experiences of the major characters.<\/p>\n
Chief among these is Saul himself, who suffers the emotional trauma born of his rebellion. For a brief period—lasting exactly one verse in the previous chapter—Saul lets Jonathan persuade him to abandon the persecution of David. Saul\u2019s is unhappy at his spiritual state, but there is no real repentance. Deeper than these transitory impulses of remorse is Saul\u2019s radical rebellion against the divine will. Even though Saul can say—and evidently, for the time being, believe it—\u201cI have played the fool and erred exceedingly,\u201d David cannot trust the king\u2019s emotional instability to hold that thought in place very long.<\/p>\n
In the present chapter, the author analyzes the inner suffering of Jonathan, torn between the obligations of piety to his father and fidelity to his friend. Intrinsically opposed, both claims are equally tested. Even as he is obedient to his father, Jonathan is fully aware that the old man cannot be trusted, even with his son\u2019s life. Saul is doomed, and Jonathan knows it, but Saul is still his father. David, to whom he is bound by personal covenant, is in danger, and Jonathan must protect him, even at the cost of offending Saul.<\/p>\n
Monday, June 27<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 21: Jonathan, though sorely pressed in the effort, found a way to remain loyal to David without breaking his allegiance to Saul. Not everyone involved in the crisis was able to do this\u2014the priests at Nob, for example, one of whom David now approaches in the first story of this chapter (verses 1-10).<\/p>\n
Ahimelch, chief of these priests, is the great-grandson of Eli, the priest of Shiloh, who was so important to the first chapters of this book. That family moved south after the Philistines\u2019 capture of the Ark and the death of Eli, and now we find them at Nob, not far from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Acquainted with reports of the deteriorating relationship between the king and his son-in-law, Ahimelch is at first fearful to receive David. Doubtless he knows these reports from his brother, Ahijah, who serves as Saul\u2019s military chaplain (14:3). Ahimelch is nervous.<\/p>\n
He has reason to be: Although David has struggled to remain an obedient subject of the king and a faithful friend to the king\u2019s son, he is not overly scrupulous with the truth on every occasion, including two occasions in this chapter. In short, David deceives Ahimelch, perhaps with the intention of giving him an excuse if Saul should learn of this meeting.<\/p>\n
First, David is well aware that Ahimelch has custody of the sword of Goliath. Indeed, it was to obtain this sword that David has come to Nob. Nevertheless, he never mentions the sword; he simply requests a weapon, and he does so near the end of his visit, as though the matter were an afterthought.<\/p>\n
Second, David deceptively reassures Ahimelch that, far from being on the outs with Saul, he has just been dispatched by the king on a top-secret mission. He goes on to elaborate this hoax by mentioning that the rest of his party is concealed in the neighborhood, and they need food.<\/p>\n
In other words, David hoodwinks the priest into helping him\u2014the first of many beggars to pull a fast one on the clergy this way\u2014and when the incident is soon reported to Saul, Ahimelch will pay a dear price for his kindness. In due course, David\u2019s conscience will not lie easy on this matter.<\/p>\n
The bread David receives from Ahimelch come from \u201cthe loaves of the presence,\u201d the dedicated bread placed in the sanctuary before the Lord and replaced each Sabbath (cf. Exodus 25:30; 35:13; Leviticus 24:5-9; 1 Chronicles 9:32). Normally this bread is eaten only by the priests, but Ahimelch makes an exception in the present case; this exception will later meet a very important approval (cf. Matthew 12:3-4; Mark 2:25-26; Luke 6:3-4).<\/p>\n
One verse mentions that Saul\u2019s Edomite spy witnesses the entire transaction. Not good.<\/p>\n
In the second and shorter story (verses 11-16), David continues to elude Saul by going southwest and crossing into Philistine territory. This is risky, but David is a bit desperate. We suspect that reports of the political crisis in Israel may have reached Philistine ears, but David takes no chances. To make certain the Philistines will see in him neither a threat nor an advantage, he begins to act demented. When David recently watched Saul in a completely demented state, he took notes and knows what to do. This is his second deception in this chapter. The Philistines are impressed.<\/p>\n
There have gone abroad, of late, reliable tales of whole sections of Saul\u2019s army—even Saul himself—suddenly going berserk, so the Philistines are on their guard. The problem might be contagious, for all they know, so Achish, the king of Gath, declines to have anything to do with this mad visitor from Israel. Out with him!<\/p>\n
While David is playing the idiot in Gath, Saul\u2019s Edomite spy wastes no time getting word to the king about what has just happened at Nob.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, it occurs to David that his own family is at risk; he must get them to safety, away from Saul. They will be safest in Moab, he considers. Through their venerable ancestor, Ruth, the family has a touch of Moabite blood. It is time to turn east.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, June 28<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalms 144: I understand this psalm to be a description of the present reign of Jesus our Lord, the Son of that very David to whom it is ascribed. By this I do not mean Christ\u2019s reign solely in heaven, where He is enthroned at the right hand of the Power. This is not a psalm about heaven; it contains too much indication of conflict for this to be the case.<\/p>\n
This psalm has in mind, rather, the reign of Christ over the faithful on earth, His dominion over our hearts. This is a psalm about life here below; heaven is the place above the present fray. It is the place from whence we hope to receive our help: \u201cLord, bow the heavens and descend; touch the peaks, and make them smoke. Flash forth Your lightning bolts and scatter them. Let fly Your missiles, and dismay them. From high above extend Your hand. Snatch me up and rescue me, from the flooding waters\u2019 torrent, from the hand of foreign sons.\u201d<\/p>\n
On earth the reign of Christ in His saints is an experience of both war and peace, which two components dominate, respectively, the first and second halves of our psalm.<\/p>\n
Inasmuch as \u201call who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution\u201d (2 Tim. 3:12), the Christian life is properly thought of as combat. Thus, Jesus, as King, is also a military leader, God\u2019s final answer to that ancient petition \u201cthat our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles\u201d (1 Sam. 8:20). Thus, in this psalm we bless Him for teaching our hands to do battle and our fingers to make war, and for delivering us from the evil sword. In the words of the traditional Latin anthem, Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat<\/i>—\u201cChrist conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules.\u201d Such were the words sung by the martyrs, their blood poured out for Caesar\u2019s pleasure. Those men, women, and children were not in doubt as to the identity of the true King.<\/p>\n
Thus, the Christ who appears in the first half of our psalm is the One described by St. John: \u201cNow I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. . . . He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses\u201d (Rev. 19:11\u201314).<\/p>\n
But Christ is also the Prince of Peace, the latter being the theme of the second half of our psalm. This part describes \u201cthe blessings of those whose God is the Lord.\u201d However literally or figuratively we are to understand the sons like ripened shoots, the daughters like pillars in a temple, the full storehouses, the many sheep and fattened cattle, they all refer to the tranquility and prosperity of a well-governed realm. Such is the Kingdom of the Christ celebrated in this psalm.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, June 29<\/b><\/p>\n
Saints Peter and Paul: In both the East and the West, from earliest times, the Church has celebrated the double feast day of these two Apostles as linked in a special way by their martyrdoms in Rome.<\/p>\n
Even though there appear to have been Christians in the capital of the Roman Empire virtually from the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:10), the origins of that local church were always associated with these two great preachers who, in Rome, shed their blood for the name of Christ. Writing to the Christians at Rome in the year 107, Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch in Syria , could say to them: \u201cI do not give you commands, as Peter and Paul.\u201d With respect to the ministry and martyrdom of these two Apostles at Rome, the evidence from the dawn of the Christian history is overwhelming, nor was there a dissenting voice on the matter from any source.<\/p>\n
With respect to Paul, of course, we have the Acts of the Apostles and the Second Epistle to Timothy. With respect to Peter, we are not entirely sure when he did reach Rome, but it must have been in the early 60s. If he was in Rome in the late 50s, it is difficult to explain why he was not greeted in the 16 chapter of Paul\u2019s Epistle to the Rome, or why Luke makes no mention of him in the final chapter of Acts.<\/p>\n
However, we do know quite bit regarding the place, the time, and the circumstances of Peter\u2019s death. The fourth century historian, Eusebius, cites testimonies from the second and third centuries to bolster his thesis that the chief of the Apostles was crucified in Rome during Nero\u2019s persecution (mid-60s): Tertullian in North Africa. Gaius in Rome, and Dionysius of Alexandria in Egypt. Clement of Alexandria, writing about 200, says that Peter witnessed his own wife\u2019s martyrdom in Rome, just before his own. The African, Tertullian, speaks even more boldly of that crucifixion in Rome, \u201cwhere Peter equals the Lord\u2019s Passion\u201d; he treats the information as though it was common knowledge.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the early Christians seem to have been so familiar with the circumstances of Peter\u2019s martyrdom that Ignatius of Antioch (writing to<\/i> Rome) and Clement of Rome (writing from<\/i> that city), felt no need to elaborate on the details. The story of Peter\u2019s crucifixion was so widely reported among the churches that the Gospel of John, probably written from Ephesus, could simply refer to the expansion of Peter\u2019s hands as \u201csignifying by what death he was to glorify God\u201d (John 21:18f.). John did not have to explain the point; everyone knew exactly how Peter had died.<\/p>\n
This was perfectly obvious to Tertullian more than a century later. Citing this passage from John, Tertullian wrote, \u201cThen Peter was \u2018bound by another\u2019 when he was fastened to the cross\u201d (Scorpiace<\/i> 15.3).<\/p>\n
The Christians at Rome, however, have never clung to this common feast day in an exclusive way. Throughout the centuries they have shared it with Christian all over the world.<\/p>\n
Thursday, June 30<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 24: The story in this chapter has so many points of correspondence with the episode in chapter 26 that some Bible readers speculate that both accounts are records of the same event.<\/p>\n
To me this seems unlikely, because there are too many significant differences, chief among them being the roles of Abishai and Abner in chapter 26. It is more likely, I believe, that the resemblances between these two stories come from the history of their transmission; details from each story became transposed to the other, because the two \u201csituations\u201d are so similar. Such an exchange of details is hardly rare in the history of narrative.<\/p>\n
Here is the story of Saul and David in the cave: When Saul\u2019s jealousy and dangerous behavior drove him from the royal court, David was obliged to wander, much like an outlaw, in the desert regions in the south of Judah. Harassed and pursued by the army of the increasingly deranged king, David was constantly on the move, he and his small band of friends, hiding here and there as chance provided, often hungry and always exposed to danger. Saul had put a price on David\u2019s head, moreover, so there was the added peril of betrayal; the king\u2019s spies might be anywhere.<\/p>\n
David\u2019s plight was dire indeed: \u201cin weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,\u201d \u201cbeing destitute, afflicted, tormented,\u201d while wandering \u201cin deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth\u201d (2 Corinthians 11:27; Hebrews 11:37-38).<\/p>\n
The present reading tells the story of David\u2019s concealment in another cave, this one at Engedi, just west of the Dead Sea, where Saul had led a military detachment to apprehend the young fugitive. The circumstances of this encounter draw attention to two features of the story, both of them typical of this whole period of David\u2019s desert wandering.<\/p>\n
First, there is the quiet, subtle working of Divine Providence, whereby the Lord protects David from capture and delivers his enemy into his power. The Lord has all these things in His historical control, a truth already perceived when David just happened to show up<\/i> at Saul\u2019s camp at the very moment Goliath was throwing out his challenge! This theme will be repeated in the next two chapters, the story of David and Nabal, and a second encounter with Saul.<\/p>\n
Second, David shows mercy to Saul, whom he yet regards as Israel\u2019s rightful king. This trait of mercy will also be manifest (and put to the test) in the two chapters that follow.<\/p>\n
Throughout this period of great hardship and relentless persecution David learned by experience that \u201call things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose\u201d (Romans 8:28). God has \u201ccalled\u201d David to become the next and better king, and David must bide God\u2019s time and pleasure to reveal that call.<\/p>\n
As Israel, at the time of Moses, endured a period of trial in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land, so did David, who was put to the test in the desert preparatory to assuming leadership of Israel. These several chapters of First Samuel (23\u201426) form an account of that period.<\/p>\n
In both chapter 24 and chapter 26, God puts the life of Saul into David\u2019s hands. All David had to do, in order to seize the throne of Israel, was to reach out and take the life of the deranged king. David recognized each occasion as a temptation.<\/p>\n
Friday, July 1<\/b><\/p>\n
Thursday, June 30<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 24: The story in this chapter has so many points of correspondence with the episode in chapter 26 that some Bible readers speculate that both accounts are records of the same event.<\/p>\n
To me this seems unlikely, because there are too many significant differences, chief among them being the roles of Abishai and Abner in chapter 26. It is more likely, I believe, that the resemblances between these two stories come from the history of their transmission; details from each story became transposed to the other, because the two \u201csituations\u201d are so similar. Such an exchange of details is hardly rare in the history of narrative.<\/p>\n
Here is the story of Saul and David in the cave: When Saul\u2019s jealousy and dangerous behavior drove him from the royal court, David was obliged to wander, much like an outlaw, in the desert regions in the south of Judah. Harassed and pursued by the army of the increasingly deranged king, David was constantly on the move, he and his small band of friends, hiding here and there as chance provided, often hungry and always exposed to danger. Saul had put a price on David\u2019s head, moreover, so there was the added peril of betrayal; the king\u2019s spies might be anywhere.<\/p>\n
David\u2019s plight was dire indeed: \u201cin weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,\u201d \u201cbeing destitute, afflicted, tormented,\u201d while wandering \u201cin deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth\u201d (2 Corinthians 11:27; Hebrews 11:37-38).<\/p>\n
The present reading tells the story of David\u2019s concealment in another cave, this one at Engedi, just west of the Dead Sea, where Saul had led a military detachment to apprehend the young fugitive. The circumstances of this encounter draw attention to two features of the story, both of them typical of this whole period of David\u2019s desert wandering.<\/p>\n
First, there is the quiet, subtle working of Divine Providence, whereby the Lord protects David from capture and delivers his enemy into his power. The Lord has all these things in His historical control, a truth already perceived when David just happened to show up<\/i> at Saul\u2019s camp at the very moment Goliath was throwing out his challenge! This theme will be repeated in the next two chapters, the story of David and Nabal, and a second encounter with Saul.<\/p>\n
Second, David shows mercy to Saul, whom he yet regards as Israel\u2019s rightful king. This trait of mercy will also be manifest (and put to the test) in the two chapters that follow.<\/p>\n
Throughout this period of great hardship and relentless persecution David learned by experience that \u201call things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose\u201d (Romans 8:28). God has \u201ccalled\u201d David to become the next and better king, and David must bide God\u2019s time and pleasure to reveal that call.<\/p>\n
As Israel, at the time of Moses, endured a period of trial in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land, so did David, who was put to the test in the desert preparatory to assuming leadership of Israel. These several chapters of First Samuel (23\u201426) form an account of that period.<\/p>\n
In both chapter 24 and chapter 26, God puts the life of Saul into David\u2019s hands. All David had to do, in order to seize the throne of Israel, was to reach out and take the life of the deranged king. David recognized each occasion as a temptation.<\/p>\n
Friday, July 1<\/b><\/p>\n
1 Samuel 25: In this chapter, roughly halfway through the description of
\nDavid\u2019s exile, comes the endearing account of his meeting with Abigail and of their eventual marriage. Reckoned among the most winsome narratives in the Bible, it is a story interesting, and even intriguing, from several aspects. The principal interest of the biblical author himself is properly theological, especially the theme of wisdom.<\/p>\n
Even though she will not become an active participant in the drama until verse 14, Abigail is immediately introduced with her husband Nabal, near the very beginning of the account. This stylistic arrangement allows the author to establish early what becomes a sustained contrast between the two characters throughout the story. Abigail is \u201ca woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance,\u201d whereas her husband \u201cwas harsh and evil in his doings\u201d (verse 3). The rest of the account, elaborating the differences between a wise, attractive woman and her sottish, offensive husband, thus becomes a narrative enactment of the tension between Wisdom and the Fool, a standard theme of the Bible\u2019s sapiential literature.<\/p>\n
Nabal is rash, compulsively driven, hot-tempered, sharp-tongued, stubborn, stingy, impossible to reason with, and very slow to learn. A major feature of Nabal\u2019s moral imbecility is the failure to appreciate his wife\u2019s wisdom. Long habituated to ignoring her example and her counsel, he has followed his own path to self-destruction. His household servants sum it up: \u201cHe is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him\u201d (verse 17).<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the conditions of her marriage, however, Abigail is not a woman to sit around agonizing over her fate. On the contrary, she is the very embodiment of the resourceful, energetic, and \u201cvirtuous wife\u201d described in Proverbs 31:10\u201331: loving and patient, disciplined, hard-working and efficiently organized, wise and discerning, and endowed with a gentle disposition and pleasant speech.<\/p>\n
Abigail\u2019s household is so well ordered that, with no prior notice, she can promptly put together an enormous meal (including two hundred loaves of bread!) to feed David\u2019s entire army (verse 18). A woman of great practical insight, she acts with dispatch; three times in the one chapter we are told that she \u201cmade haste\u201d (verses 18, 23, 42). The attentive reader gains the impression of a woman who decided, years ago, that her very survival would require an energetic but disciplined approach to life.<\/p>\n
To save her household, therefore, Abigail goes out to meet the outraged David. This latter, sadly, is not far behind Nabal in rashness of temper. Vowing an exorbitant retaliation for Nabal\u2019s arrogant affront, he too is on the point of playing the Fool (cf. Proverbs 14:17). But then Abigail, acting as David\u2019s own personal Lady Wisdom, comes to seek him out, giving the \u201csoft answer [that] turns away wrath\u201d (Proverbs 15:1), instructing him not to \u201canswer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him\u201d (26:4). As the personification of Wisdom on David\u2019s behalf, Abigail \u201chas slaughtered her meat, \/ She has mixed her wine, \/ She has also furnished her table. \/ She has sent out her maidens, \/ She cries out from the highest places of the city\u201d (9:2\u201310).<\/p>\n
In his hour of impending moral peril, then, David\u2019s deliverance comes from receiving the instruction of Wisdom (Proverbs 15:32\u201333). He is rescued from an evil course of action that his anger had caused to seem proper (16:25; Ecclesiastes 7:9). The wise Abigail exhorts him to patience and restraint. She persuades him to abandon his foolish vow—compare this with Saul\u2019s earlier vow in chapter 14—of blood-vengeance and to leave retribution to a provident God.<\/p>\n
Thus rescued from the edge of moral catastrophe, David recognizes and praises Abigail as a woman of sense and discretion. The ultimate, decisive difference between David and Nabal is that the one will listen to Abigail\u2019s exhortation and the other will not. The wise man gladly receives instruction and reproof, but the fool does not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, June 24 1 Samuel 18: The chief motif of this chapter is Saul\u2019s growing suspicion and distrust of David, which is elaborated in the context of Saul\u2019s family. Both his son, Jonathan, and his daughter, Michal, quickly become fond of David. With respect to Saul\u2019s daughter, Michal, the king sees a way to use … Continue reading June 24 – July 1, 2022<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1874,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}