14 One of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail: “David sent messengers from the desert to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us all the time we were herding our sheep near them. 17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail lost no time. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs [b] of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent. – I Sam 25:14-19, 23-25
Abigail covers the tracks of her foolish husband and saves the life of her family. Nabal was so engrossed in himself that he did not provide for his family or man up and do the right thing.
What was Abigail thinking? “I have to do this kind of thing all the time. Cover the tracks of the foolish King.” Yet she did it without complaint. He mission was to do the right thing. She seemed to live beyond herself and did what was right, regardless of the fault and regardless of the cost. She did not blame, she acted.
I get caught up in blame. Why should I pick up the slack? It’s not my fault that things fell apart. Abigail gives me a good reminder that it is not about passing blame, it is about doing the right thing and moving the kingdom forward.
God, my my focus not be on things left undone, or on blaming others, but on taking responsibility and moving forward.
[tags]blame, responsibility, god, devotions, Bible[/tags]