1 Samuel 25:18 Commentary and Bible Study

Abigail realises what she has got to do, and very quickly she prepares a great deal of provision from their plenty. ‘Then Abigail made haste,’ – she has obviously always been something of a problem solver – ‘and took’ – and look at the quantities – ‘two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.’ It seems as though she was ready to take to David far more than he was expecting to have been carried by ten men and their mounts. Her generosity will pacify David’s anger against Nabal’s refusal.‘And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you’, immediately after them. This was probably a mark of humility. She wasn't going to stride out in front of her young men, but she was going to come before David as a humble suppliant and follow them. She rides to meet with David, who she assumes to be coming in a great rage. But she didn't tell Nabal. His life would be delivered without him even being aware of it, for he was bound to react badly, even against his own interests. ‘And it was so, as she rode on the ass,’ verse 20, ‘that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.’ She was a woman of great courage. She not only knew what she would do, and organised it as quickly as she could, she then went herself and met with David. She was a woman of prayer; she had prepared the way. She was going to through herself on the mercy of one who she believed, through prayer, she was able to win over.We are reminded of the situation, in case we have forgotten how tense this was. ‘David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David’ – well David wasn't supposed to be making enemies of Israelites – ‘if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.’ In his anger he speaks like this. Not one will live.