|
Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
July 23, 2025
Reading: 1 Samuel 25:23-25, 32-35
When Abigail saw David, she hurried and alighted from the donkey, and fell before David on her face, bowing to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, ‘Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.
David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from blood-guilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal as much as one male.’ Then David received from her hand what she had brought him; he said to her, ‘Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice, and I have granted your petition.’
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
“If it doesn’t serve you, let it go”, was one of the final lines in the Netflix series ‘Sirens’. A common idiom heard today, it is mentioned repeatedly throughout the series as a way of dismissing people or things that hold you back from your best self. The two main characters who referenced it were women seeking an escape from the trauma of their childhoods. They were trying to bodily and spiritually transcend the shackles of their old lives and enter into worlds of extreme wealth and power - thereby, in theory, achieving a kind of liberation. But an important question that the series asks is: “Do they?” Do they transcend? Do they escape that which connects all of us: relationships with one another, the good, the bad, and the ugly? What does it cost us to let those relationships go? In direct contrast, the main character Simone has a sister who continually sacrifices her own life to serve first her sister, and then her father in their times of need. Is she the fool? Or does she understand more profoundly the role asked of all of us?
I don’t want to give any spoilers away, and we can all examine our own family trees, or friendship trees, to determine for ourselves if we can ever truly let go that which does not serve us. In this text from Samuel, Abigail does a bit of both, letting go and selflessly serving. One could argue she lets Nabal go - for he doesn’t serve her. But more importantly, she seeks the deliverance of all the men of the house of Nabal. To give this a little context, Nabal is a wealthy and greedy man. David has protected Nabal’s herds in the wilderness. Now, on the day of shearing and celebration, he politely asks for compensation. Nabal rudely rejects such a suggestion, thereby infuriating our young warrior. Abigail, in her wisdom, intercedes to thwart any blood shed. She proclaims her own fault in not offering compensation and in fact brings excessive and quickly-collected goods to David, with humility and submission. Abigail’s humility and devotion to her people, and her understanding of who God and David are, make her one of the many noteworthy female characters in the Bible. In fact, the Jewish Talmud recognizes her as one of the seven female Prophets.
Abigail behaves selflessly. Nabal does die, but not at the hand of David. Her actions saved David from vengeance killing, saved many lives in fact, but could not prevent Nabal's death by God’s judgement. His heart is turned to stone when she tells him what has happened, and he dies ten days later. David sends for Abigail to be his wife and she submits willingly. There is no indication that Abigail did any of these things to advance her position. She behaved with courage, wisdom and a profound sense of responsibility. She did not live in an era like ours where she could so easily dismiss that which didn’t serve her; but also, she stands out as an example of how we all should behave. She took care of those who could not take care of themselves even if it did not immediately and directly “serve her”. She used her position of power to protect, not exploit. She understood both human nature, and human rules, and put herself at great risk to protect the greater good.
This is not a common tendency in 2025. I would argue it is counter-cultural. Instead, we dismiss that which doesn’t serve us. We “throw away” things that are only mildly broken or used. To where do we truly “throw” these things? There is always a cost to this mantra, whether it is with people or material goods. I think the end of ‘Sirens’ is meant to really make us all consider-which path would we take? Would we ruthlessly pursue a position that allows us to escape the reality of our circumstances, thereby throwing away that which doesn’t serve us? Or, would we get into the trenches and fix the cuisinart, fix the engine, or fix the relationship if we can? And what does the choice of the two paths cost or gain us? Imagine a world today where we all emulated Abigail? Or a world where we loved one another as God loves us.
“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’” (JAMES 4:6)
| 
