Absorb
Cleaning up. Always cleaning. And as she was organizing her
servants, making sure the feast was running well, one little task and another
duty after another. Her to-do list ran long. And all were on eggshellsāNabal was
drinking, after all. Nabal was throwing a feast. And his tongue and wine could run
long and run sharp. The disgruntled neighbor who had a jab of Nabalās tongue
was appeased with an extra serving of fine dates. Another angry response was
placated with a cup of rich red wine specially poured to the offended. And
Nabal blindly blathers on. Abigail oversaw, kept peace, hovering in the background,
her sharp eyes and mind reading the body language. Servants scampered quietly,
tension high in the air. Cleaning, always cleaning up. Sending the servant to
wipe up the spilled wine, to sweep after the pounding of the fine flour, to
rake the ashes. Always cleaning.
14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, āBehold, David
sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at
them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did
not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16
They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with
them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should
do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he
is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.ā
Another mess. Another dangerous spill of Nabalās wine-lazy
and drink-ready tongue. Scurrying, loaves from the feast and wine skins
garnished, raisins and cakes of figs, delicacies. And she tremblingly sets out.
To face the swords. The harm was done. The anger hot. She, a
small woman in the face of offended anger? Davidās intent to do in all of Nabalās
household could start with her. Instead of grabbing the loaves and running in the
opposite direction, Abigail glances to heaven, bows her head in whispered
prayer, and sets to meet the swords.
To face the shame. She humiliates herself. Fell down on her
face. Yes, a woman, but a wealthy woman before a nomad, desert vagabond. āMy
lord, it is my guilt.ā Not Nabalās. No excuses run off her lips. Did her heart
tremble here too? The shame? What the servants would say? Her pride tremble at
the suppressed protestations, āNot my fault!ā?
The weight of guilt assumed bowed her innocent shoulders
down, bowed her face to the dusty ground. Abased. She absorbed the evil that
her husband had done.
And offered peace. Offered life. Her own body a bridge of
peace and life.
Life is costly. Peace is costly. Asking forgiveness,
admitting wrongācostly. Giving forgivenessācostly. The real evil done by you or
done against you is absorbed. The forgiver says, āI will not exact what you
should owe me from you. Instead, I will bear the pain.ā The confessor says, āI
will bear the pain to try to make things right again as much as it is in my
power to do.ā The little things heap up. Costly. The big things jab deeply.
Costly.
Life demands courage. Peace demands courage. For swords can
still be out.
* What do you need to
absorb to forgive or to ask for forgiveness? Where can you get that strength to
do so?
* What courage do you
need to make peace?
Some of us have huge costs to forgive. It is a pain that
bows us down to the ground, plants our face in the dust. āLord, I cannot absorb
that pain. I cannot let them off the hook. It is too much.ā
Yet, Abigail did. āFor Yahweh will certainly make my lord,
David, a true house.ā God, her Promise Keeper.
āFor my lord David is fighting the battles of Yahweh.ā God,
the One Sovereign in Time and Space and Acting in History.
āThe life of my lord David shall be bound in the bundle of
the living in the care of Yahweh your God.ā God, the Preserver of Life, the Life-Giver.
āThe lives of your enemies, David, Yahweh, shall sling out
from the hollow of a sling.ā God, her Defender.
āAnd when Yahweh has done to the my lord David according to
all the good that he has spoken over you, and when Yahweh has dealt well with
my lord Davidā¦ā God, the Good-Giver, the Promiser of Blessings, the One Who
Causes His Word to Be Fulfilled.
Abigail absorbed her husbandās evil, making peace instead of
running in self-protection for she saw God. She knew God. Swallowing her fear,
she trusted her life to God instead of the menās anger. She saw her Savior
bigger than the swords. Swallowing her pride, she set out to make right for she
knew whose she was, and knew she was to bear his image of peace, life, unity,
shalom. She saw Godās glory more than her own greatness, his purpose more than
her own pride.
Abigail absorbed the evilādone against her by Nabal
countless times. She could have run away, and let him get his due finally for
all the foolish, banal slanders he had thrown against her. Abigail absorbed the
evilāclaiming his trespass as her own. Abigail absorbed the evilāpreventing David
from responding in deadly, foolish kind. On her stooped shoulders the evil
stopped.
And Abigailās act of humility, extending peace, foreshadows
another man who bore evil on a cross. Who made peace between God and man by
saying, āFather, do not exact from them what they owe you; I absorb in my own
body all the evil. Father, forgive them.ā The Son of God, the true human, who
was sin for us (1 Cor. 5:21). The Son of God, the God in human flesh, who made
forgiveness possible in his act of humility.
Promise Keeper, Sovereign in History, Preserver, Life-Giver,
Defender, Good-Giver, Promiser of Blessings. The Savior, the Absorber of Evil,
Prince of Peace, the Humble Servant. This is our God. And no matter what
courage, what evil, what banal acts others do against us, we serve the same God.
Forgiveness is costly, but he has born it. We absorb the evil, passing it on to
God. For whatever cost and repercussions forgiveness and peace brings, we trust
him. For all that Abigail pointed out to David is true for youāGod will
establish you, work for you, preserve you, protect you, bless you. In Christ
our Lord.
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