Day 116: David and Abigail

1 Samuel 25:43 Polygamy was still tolerated at this phase in Israel’s history as God adopted an INCREMENTAL approach in forming his people to embrace his ORIGINAL plan for monogamous marriage. The Mosaic Law had modified God’s original plan by permitting a man to have multiple wives and likewise allowing for divorce; Christ taught that marriage was originally established by God as a lifelong, fruitful, and exclusive covenant of love between one man and one woman. (CCC 1610-1611, 1664, 2387, 2400)

Psalm 63 The desire for water to relieve thirst serves as an analogy of the soul’s longing for God, who quenches our spiritual thirst and leads us to true happiness. When we thirst, we suffer because we lack something that is essential to life; when we receive water, we receive life itself and are refreshed. Only in God can our thirst be completely quenched. The Hebrew nefesh can mean “throat,” “soul,” or the entire human person, thus suggesting a solid connection between the image of thirst and the yearning of the human heart. The image of hunger hints at an animal sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem.

As Christians, our hunger and thirst are satisfied in Christ, who not only nourishes with his Word but also with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. (Cf. St. John Paul II, General Audience, April 25, 2001)

The psalmist looked to the Temple as the place especially to perceive the presence of God. We encounter God in an intimate way in the Mass, especially in Holy Communion and in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle. We are called to enjoy the fullness of his presence when we see God face-to-face in Heaven. (CCC 1088, 1621)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• As we have noted before and as we are going to see many times after this, David is NOT a perfect human being

• David is in many ways the hero of the Old Testament

• He becomes the ARCHETYPE

• When we read Chronicles, we will see David as the archetype of the FUTURE MESSIAH (TYPOLOGY!!)

• But David is not perfect

• In 1 Samuel 25, we have the story of how David and his men have been guarding Nabal’s shepherds

• They wanted a little something for their efforts in payment or sustenance

• Nabal is a pretty arrogant human being (fun fact, his name means “foolish” 😁)

• Nabal rejects their request and is pretty rude

• Keep this in mind

• Even the men who were guarded, the shepherds of Nabal, they said that David’s men were not only good at protecting them, but they were also GOOD TO THEM

• We recognize even though the people who are following after David are relatively rough, and were down on their luck when they joined up with David in some ways, they are following the lead of David

• Their leader is a JUST AND UPRIGHT human being (but remember NOT PERFECT)

• That’s a GOOD THING

• Keep this in mind, how our leaders are and that’s how we are

• Of course, that’s not a HARD AND FAST RULE

• Oftentimes, we look to those who LEAD us to KNOW HOW TO ACT

• That’s why we are grateful that Abigail was willing to stand up to the evil that was in David’s heart

• Abigail INTERCEDED and in doing this, she demonstrated her WISDOM, her COURAGE, her VIRTUE, her GOODNESS

• There is this blessing called the NUPTIAL BLESSING in the Marriage Rite of the Catholic Church over the bride

• “May she be as the women whose praises are sung throughout Scriptures”

• May this bride be of the same kind of QUALITY as the women whose praises are sung throughout the Scriptures

• Abigail is one of those women

• She is filled with WISDOM

• She is filled with COURAGE

• She faces down David who is coming to kill her husband

• She is very brave, wise, and beautiful

• On the other hand, Nabal is CHURLISH (GREAT WORD!!)

• Nabal is also a Calebite, which is nice (not sure why 🤔 anyone want to figure this out?)

• As our leaders go, so we go

• So as David is going down the wrong path, seeking vengeance for a personal insult

• In this moment, he is still young and brash and willing to take rash actions

• We are grateful to Abigail for having stood in David’s way not just so that Nabal can continue to live 

• But because she stood up to David, then David would not be GUILTY

• We just think about all of the people in our lives

• All the people who have stood up to us and told us to NOT DO THAT THING

• Or all the people who have stood up to us and said, “Hey it’s time to move forward”

• What are the battles we are called to fight?

• What are the battles we are called to AVOID fighting?

• Here is Abigail who is able to stand in front of David and say, “This is not a battle you want to fight. This is not a thing that you want to do.”

• I can think of so many people in my life when I was on my way to do something that I knew wasn’t right and someone was willing to stand up and convince me not to (But there were plenty of times I didn’t listen 😔)

• I thank God for the times that I DID LISTEN and hopefully be WISE and LESS GUILTY

• There are also those times a person stands up and says maybe this IS a battle you need to fight

• We have to keep our EARS OPEN

• We have to keep our HEARTS OPEN

• To be STOPPED by the Lord

• To be SPURRED ON by the Lord

• We listen to the voices of the people around us and in the midst of that we ask, “What part of this is the Lord speaking? How much of this is the Lord’s voice?”

• As we know, NONE OF US KNOWS EVERYTHING

• WE NEED ALL OF US

• WE NEED A COMMUNITY

• THAT’S WHY GOD HAS GIVEN US THE ONE HOLY CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH

• That’s why God has given us EACH OTHER in the Bible in a Year

• For 365 days we are a COMMUNITY COMING TOGETHER

• PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER

• SUPPORTING EACH OTHER

• INTERCEDING FOR EACH OTHER

• So that when it’s time to move, we can help each other move

• When it’s time to NOT move, we can help each other avoid moving

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and we give you honor. We thank you for all your ways. We thank you for the ways in which you send people to us, either to encourage us to holiness or to keep us from evil. We thank you for all those people, Lord, that have ever prayed for us, ever stood up for us, that ever stood up TO us so that we can be called to greatness and be deterred from folly, deterred from evil. Lord God, we thank you for all the people that you have brought into our lives who encourage us to get close to you, and all those you have brought into our lives who encourage us to stay far, far away from what is wrong. Lord God thank you for all the Abigails that you have brought into our lives and may you be praised and may they be blessed forever and ever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”