All right, if you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to 1 Samuel 25. 1 Samuel chapter 25. And if you're thinking, didn't we just go over this chapter a few weeks ago? The answer to that is yes, we did. But there is something that I really wanted to pull out from this chapter and someone that I really wanted to focus on. And it is not David and it's not Nabal. It is actually Abigail. Want to focus on on Abigail because I think she serves for us in as a great opportunity to see God's blessings that come as He grants His people wisdom. I think she serves to us and for us as a great example of what it means to be filled with wisdom. We're not going to read the entire chapter. But we are gonna start in verse 14 where it introduces Abigail. So 1 Samuel chapter 25, and we'll pick up in verse 14, and we'll read a few verses here in this chapter. So if you're physically able to do so, would you please stand with me one more time as we honor the reading of God's holy and written word. 1 Samuel chapter 25, beginning in verse 14, hear the word of the Lord that's given to us this morning. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nebal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness salute to salute our master. And he railed on them. But the men were very good to us and we were not hurt. Neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them. When we were in the fields, they were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now, therefore, no one consider What you will do for evil is determined against our master and against all of his household. For he's such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five shares of parched corn and 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on asses or on donkeys. And she said to her servants, go on before me. Behold, I come after you. but she told not her husband Nabal. And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill. And behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them. Let's pray together. Father, we ask that you would help us to receive wisdom from your word. God, thank you for the godly examples that you have given us in scripture. Men and women of faith who love you and who honored you, as we're told in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, and we see here now in 1 Samuel chapter 25. We thank You that these brothers and sisters in the faith serve as great examples of submission to You and what that looks like. So now we ask that by the power of Your Holy Spirit You may give us wisdom, may give us understanding, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. I think that you've probably all heard the saying that there's a difference between wisdom and intellect. I know a great number of people that are very intellectual, but truthfully, they could not cook a pizza in a microwave. It's just true, right? There are people that are very intellectual, but there's a difference between intelligence and wisdom. I heard a story years ago, and maybe you've heard this story too, about a college professor who gave a course, the same course, at the community college every year for like 25 years. And for 25 years, he failed to change the final essay on the New Testament survey class. And everybody took the class because it was such an easy A. I mean, you could just study and study and study from previous notes from students, and you could get 100, and it was just easy A. Well, the class went on just like normal, just like always for the last 25 years, except this time, the professor, without telling anybody, decided that on the final exam, he was not going to ask about Paul's missionary journeys, as he had done for the last 25 years. he asked for them to critique the Sermon on the Mount. Well, as you can imagine, there was great dismay and a great hush fell upon the class. The professor stayed for the first little bit, and slowly, one by one by one, students came up and just simply turned in blank sheet of paper after blank sheet of paper, except for one young man. This young man wrote feverishly, and he wrote and he wrote and he wrote and he wrote and he wrote. For three hours straight, he wrote and he He had given, long after all the other students had left, the professor sent in the grader to finally collect his sheet, and he finally had finished, and he gave it to the grader, and all the grades were posted. All of them on the final had received Fs, except for one who received an A+. And one of the students asked this young man, what in the world did you write about? And he said, well, read it. And on this piece of paper, the very first, on the very first at the top of it, he says, who am I to critique the Sermon on the Mount? So let me tell you about Paul's missionary journeys. There was great wisdom in all of this, right? There was great wisdom in all of this. And so there is a difference between wisdom and intelligence. Such was David to learn. Such was David to learn. It's an important lesson. So before I tell you about Abigail, let me just remind you, for those of you that may not have been here, where we have been in 1 Samuel 25. 1 Samuel 25, Saul, David running still from Saul and dwelling now in the wilderness of Paran. Nabal was pasturing a very rich man who had lots of sheep, lots of wealth, had sent his sheep shearers to shear the sheep and David had acted as a way of protecting them because Nabal was a fellow Israelite and so David took it upon himself to be a blessing to his fellow Israelite and he took care of the sheep and he took care of the shepherds, he took care of all that was He did not belong to Nabal. He was under no compulsion to do so, but he did it because he was a fellow Israelite and he wanted to show love and concern for this man. But unfortunately, though he had protected Nabal's flocks, although he had protected the men that served Nabal, it went well without noticing. Nabal, as a matter of fact, went so far as to insult King David. Oh, well, he wasn't king, he was just simply anointed, but to insult David and just simply ask the question, well, who's David? There's lots of people that have broken off from their kings and their masters and lots of servants that have risen up in these days. David became so enraged that he decided that he was going to kill Nabal and all of his household. And as a result, Nabal's arrogance turned out to be an act of a fool. We talked about his name, which means fool from the house of a dog. That's literally what his name translated would mean, would be Nabal, fool from the house of a dog, Caleb, meaning dog. And his servants knew, and his wife, one of his wives, Abigail, certainly knew that he was a foolish man. And so at this point, then, we are introduced to Abigail. And what I wanna show you from the life and the interaction here from Abigail, what it means to be filled with the wisdom of God, what it means, what it looks like, how we act as men and women who belong to Christ, who belong to the Lord, and who are serving the Lord, what it looks like for us to be filled with the wisdom of God that can only be produced by the Spirit of God in our hearts and minds. So let me show you this. First and foremost, wisdom stands even in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances. So wisdom stands and actually I would say is outstanding in the midst of foolishness, right? It is hard for us not to see how outstanding wisdom is in the days when fools run things. In the days when the foolish run things, how outstanding wisdom can be. And so as a result, I mean, Abigail was not someone who was It was not without great difficulties, because you have to remember, at this point in time, marrying for love, there wasn't a whole lot of that, right? Like in the West, in the United States, and in Western culture in general, we romanticize it, and we're like, oh, you know, everybody wants to find their quote-unquote soulmates. But you've got to remember, this was not the way this was, and still isn't the way it is in much of Eastern society. Many times women are promised to husbands as babies. And so Abigail was no different, although we're not told that. Most certainly, had she been given a choice, would not have chosen to marry a man such as Nabal. But you have to remember that women did not always have a voice in their marriage. And we are told that she was a beautiful woman, and so her beauty would have added to the dowry that her family would have received from Nabal, being given then a great wealth from Nabal because of her beauty, so that he could then take her as his wife, her family becoming rich because of this. So there was lots of things and so she was treated as a piece of property to be sold and someone to not be cherished as clearly Nabal did not cherish her. We have the understanding here that she was, although we're not told directly, but the text hints at the fact that she was just one of many of the wives that Nabal had had collected, but of all of them she seems to be the one that did in fact run the household. She was the one who was in charge of running the household. Her marriage most certainly was amidst a mismatch. Nabal was a fool, she was a very wise and intelligent woman. She was beautiful, he was not. She was skilled at dealing with people, he was not. Abigail was respected, Nabal held in contempt even by his own servants, even by his own slaves. He was held in contempt because of his foolishness. She was not married to a man her equal. She was married to, honestly, a fool. But she treated him, even in the midst of this, with wisdom and grace to the point that her wisdom served him. Abigail lived with the shame of Nabal's reputation. But she certainly did not live or allow it to affect her life. And so she lived for his good despite his foolishness. She lived for his good despite his stupidity. She lived for his good despite his absolute just ridiculous nature. She was a woman who loved the Lord. And clearly Nabal did not. Clearly Nabal did not care for God or the things of Yahweh, the God of Israel. But she was instead cautious and shrewd in dealing with people. She was cautious and shrewd with dealing even with Him, right? She was cautious and she was shrewd in making sure that everything went as it needed to go because she wasn't going to pay the price for his foolishness. And even in the midst of all of this, she was a woman of honor. As I said, she honored her marriage covenant, even though she was in a mismatched marriage, even though she was in a in a horrible place. No woman I don't think would have ever wanted to be or no person would have ever wanted to be man or woman in a place where they were not valued. They were not cared about. They were not. They were treated as a piece of property. But our circumstances were not for better or for worse were they. They were from actually so you know we all take the marriage vows you know for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, right? But those were her marriage vows. Her marriage vows were from bad to worse. They were not for better or worse, they were from bad to worse. And yet in the midst of all of this, she still sought to honor her marriage. She still sought to take what is a bad situation and turn it in as best she could through the wisdom God had given her. into the best interest of everyone around her. She cared about her servants. She cared about the household. Even if she was seen as a piece of property by Nabal, others valued her intelligence and her wisdom. Others saw the grace that God had given her and valued her opinion. They valued her wisdom. And even if everyone else but Nabal took it, they were willing to to listen to her. And so wisdom doesn't say, well, unless I'm honored, I'm not going to give you this wisdom. Or unless I'm valued, I'm not going to give you this wisdom. Or unless I'm treated as an equal, I'm not going to give you what you need. It says, no, no, no. It says, I'm going to honor I'm going to honor you. I'm going to respect you. Whether it's for better or worse or from bad to worse, I'm going to still work in your best interest because I know the love of Christ. I know what it's like to follow Christ. I know what it's like to follow the Lord, the God of Israel. And this was the type of woman that she was. And truthfully, believers, this is the type of people we should be. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, what did Jesus tell us to be? He told us to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. He told us to be salt and light. He told us to be to the world. We are to be the salt and the light of the world. We are to work for the best interest of those around us, even if they don't value us, even if they look at us with contempt or don't value or treat us as equals, we need to work to honor them and to help move us forward. meet their best interests and have their best interests at heart. And I know that can be very difficult, right? It can be hard when we're not valued, when we're not honored, when we're not seen as equals with others. I mean, it's very easy to get very jaded and very quickly wicked in our viewpoints, right? And just say, well, if that's the way you're gonna treat me, forget it, you know? But to honor the Lord in our relationships is to seek another's best interest, even if they don't have our best interest at heart. We know that the Lord does. We know that the Lord cares about the way we respond to people. The Lord cares about the way we look at people. The Lord cares about the way we honor people. After all, now that doesn't mean like Abigail that we have to say, well, you know, whatever you say, buddy, you know, that's fine. And I've got to honor them because I got to go along with anything they say. No, no, no. She didn't do that. She had their best interest at heart. And at times that even meant against going against his wishes so that he, she could serve him so that she could help him so that she could, she could ultimately not face the, the firing squad as it was because of his foolishness. She cared enough about him, about his best interest, because ultimately it honored the Lord. It wasn't just that it served her, although it did, but ultimately why did she do this? Because she honored and valued the Lord. She loved the Lord. She served the Lord and we're told in the New Testament to to work as to Christ in everything. We're told to work as unto the Lord in every aspect of life. Does it mean that we go along with everything that we're told to do? No, most certainly not. But it does mean that we act with great honor and great integrity. We act with people's best interests at heart, even if they don't know that it's in their best interests. Even if they don't see it as being in their best interests. We do not go along to get along, right? We seek their best, even if that brings us into conflict with them. Even if that brings us into some sort of a worse position, we are not going to just go along to get along, right? I think all of us would need to look no further than the Nuremberg trials to realize that I was just doing my duty is not an excuse. for wickedness. And so we, as God's people, need to be filled with the wisdom that comes only from the Holy Spirit, the wisdom that only is ours in Christ through the Holy Spirit. But not only does it, excuse me, not only does wisdom stand out in the midst of difficult circumstances, but wisdom also, secondly, produces strength in the face of those circumstances. Wisdom also produces strength in the face of those circumstances. You say, well, what do you mean? Well, look in verse 14. It says, But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the out of the wilderness to salute or to greet our master. And he railed on them. Right. So so he he dishonored them and by them, David. But the men were very good to us and we were not hurt. Neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them or together with them. When we were in the fields, they were a wall to us. both by night and day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. And so wisdom produces notable fruit. Who did the servant go to? When everything was on the line, who did he go to? Clearly he knew Nabal was not going to listen because of the way Nabal had already acted. So who did he go to? He went to the woman who was Nabal's wife who kept the home. And the servants came to Abigail with a problem because they wanted to get a solution. Because they knew Nabal, it was impossible to get a solution from him. So who did they go to? They went to the one who could give them the best solution. And herein is the problems of being a worthless man. Nabal was a worthless man. As a matter of fact, that's what the servant calls him. He calls him a son of Belial, right? He calls him a servant of evil, a servant of wicked, right? A servant who is just worthless in his being. And listen to how God defines a worthless person. Listen to how God defines a worthless person in Proverbs 6, 12-15. It says, a worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth. He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet and points with his fingers. Perversity is in his heart. He devises evil continually. He sows discord. Therefore, his calamity shall come suddenly. Suddenly, he shall be broken without remedy. And so, this is a reality for Nabal because Nabal ends up dying because of his foolishness. But in all of this, the noticeable fruit was that ultimately Abigail had acted with great wisdom throughout all of this time. Otherwise, there was no way this servant was coming to her. But the servant knew. Abigail to be a woman of wisdom and of grace, filled with the Spirit of God. And so he seeks her out so that she might give him a good piece of advice so that they can do this to protect the household. Because they knew David was coming and David was going to kill them all. He wasn't going to protect anyone. He wasn't going to spare anyone. Now surely, I say that understanding that more than likely he would have taken the wives and the children as his own, right, and underneath his care, right, or as his servants, either one. So it wasn't necessarily that her life was in jeopardy, but all of her servants and all the household that she took care of and she loved, they were in jeopardy. They were in jeopardy. And so she acts with great swiftness, with great wisdom, And therein is found here in verses 18-22 is that she acts with decisiveness. Do you notice what she does here? In verses 18-22, look at this. Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn or grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on the asses or on the donkeys. So do you notice what she did there? She didn't procrastinate when she was presented with a problem. She didn't procrastinate, but she acted wisely and she acted quickly. Her character drove her decisiveness. In other words, she was a woman of wisdom who acted with wisdom. So who we are is going to be revealed when we're under pressure. Ultimately, who we are is going to be revealed by how we act and the way that we think and the way that we act when we are under pressure. And so she didn't procrastinate, she acted quickly, she acted with wisdom, she acted with decisiveness, but she acted wisely. In the midst of all of this, as we read here in verse 23, look what it says. And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off of the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. She was courageous. Even though she sent all the servants before her, who was with her when she arrived? It was her. She came alone to David. And all these men, she met them on their death march, on their way to kill the entire household. Here she is, a lone woman. She gets down off of the donkey and she prostrates herself on the ground because she acts with great courage. She acted despite knowing that her husband was going to be angry. She acted despite knowing that David was angry. She acted despite knowing that an angry enemy who was on his way Right? She acted, but she acted nonetheless. And she didn't know David. She had no clue. She had never met David. She had heard of David because of the way she talks about him. So she clearly, just as Nabal had heard of David, she heard of David, but she had never met him. She didn't know how he was going to respond. But yet she still, as I said, acted in her husband's best interest and her household's best interest, even though she knew he was gonna be angry, because her actions were in direct opposition to what her husband had already ordered. Her activity and her actions were given in a time when the husband had the right of life and death over his wife. So she risked her life, not only from David's standpoint, but she also risked her life from her husband's standpoint. Because she was caught literally between a rock and a hard place. She could have been killed by David in his service, but she could have also been killed by Nabal. Nabal could have said, well you're just a worthless woman, go kill her. He had literally the right of life and death in his hands. But she acted nonetheless with great wisdom. not caring about her own protection, not caring about anything about herself. Her only concern was that those whom she loved would be taken care of. She faced an angry enemy without protection, an angry enemy that was bent on destruction, and yet she acted with great wisdom and great courage in a time when others would have most surely ran away. Thirdly, though, wisdom acts by placing the interests of others above ourselves, as I've just mentioned. Because if you look in verse 22 and verse 24, and then verses 24 through 31, you'll see how she responds. Listen, and this isn't, so I don't want you to hear me saying that she's buttering David up. She's not. She's being very sincere. But notice how she speaks to David. She doesn't speak contemptuously as Nabal had done. She doesn't speak with fear. But she comes to David with great honor and integrity in the way in which she speaks to him. And listen, let's pick it up in verse 25. Listen to what she says here. Let not, my Lord, I pray you, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him, but I, your handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord whom you did sin. Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, seeing the Lord has withheld you from coming to shed blood and from avenging yourself with your own hand, Now let your enemies that seek evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now this blessing which your handmaid has brought to my Lord, let it even be given to the young men that follow my Lord. I pray you, forgive the trespasses of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord of Jehovah, Yahweh. And evil has not been found in you all your days. Yet a man is risen to pursue you and to seek your soul. But the soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God. And the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling. and it shall come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and shall have appointed you ruler of Israel, this shall be no grief to you nor offense of heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood causeless or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember your handmaid." Do you notice she speaks with great wisdom? She doesn't come to him and say, hey David, don't be like Nabal, don't be a fool. No, she comes to him and speaks to him with honor. She speaks to him with great integrity. She's not trying to get out of this to save her own skin, but to protect those that she loves and cares for. She's not trying to butter David up here. It would be a wrong reading of the text to say, well, all she was trying to do was butter David up. No, no, no. That's not what's going on here. She is speaking to him because she knows that David is the rightful king of Israel. That he will one day be the rightful king of Israel. And notice the way she acts with wisdom to protect others. So notice this, okay? In verse 24, what does she do? She accepts the blame, doesn't she? She accepts the blame. The blame isn't hers. It was her husband's fault. But she accepts the blame. I didn't see him. Please forgive my negligence. But she was offering her life for the life of others. She could have thrown her husband under the bus, but instead she acted and accepted with personal responsibility, something that I wish our society would learn again, the need for personal responsibility. It was her husband's response, but it was her husband's responsibility. And David, right, David knew, knew that it was her husband's responsibility for what had happened. And he should have acted with wisdom. Nabal should have acted with wisdom, but instead was a fool. But here, Abigail acts as an intercessor for her, for those whom she loves. And she accepts blame. She accepts blame. But she accepts blame being blameless. She is blameless and yet she accepts blame. And she also preserves the life of others. As I said, it was not customary in this time for David to have any plan to hurt the women and the children. It was not the way this would have happened. But to kill all the male servants and to kill her husband and to kill anyone serving him, he would have most certainly slaughtered them. And as a result, her actions saved the lives of all of her servants. But notice there's one other thing here, right? And that is the prevention of sin. She prevents David from sinning. And she even draws this attention to it. Because in verses 24-31, I don't know if you know this, but in verses 24-31, This is the longest speech given by any woman in the Bible. I don't know if you know that, but now you do. Verses 24 through 31 is the longest speech given by any woman in the Bible. Sorry, in the Old Testament, not in the Bible, in the Old Testament. And so David was determined, while David was determined to take vengeance against the one who had sinned against him, God had sent Abigail on the way to help David to escape from this temptation of taking vengeance upon another. Now, I don't think I have to tell you, but this gives us a great place to focus on. Because ultimately, Abigail's actions actually point us to another, to a greater, to one who was the savior of Abigail. Who was the one who accepted the blame of his people, though he himself had done nothing wrong and had not sinned. Right? As we are told that he became sin who knew no sin. That we might become the righteousness of God in him. He served as the one preserving the life of his people in dying on the cross and raising again on the third day. He prevented his people from tasting the wrath of God that they rightly deserve by interceding and interposing himself as their mediator upon the cross and being raised again on the third day, Christ became our great high priest, our great high prophet, and our great high king. And Abigail serves as a great Old Testament example of the work of Christ. Because ultimately, like Abigail, he being greater was even concerned for other spiritual welfare. Just as Abigail was, in fact, concerned for the spiritual welfare of her servants. So how do we apply all this, right? Well, I would simply say this. Brothers and sisters, we need to be people who seek the wisdom of God. And as I said, this wisdom doesn't come naturally. This wisdom is only wisdom that is given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to act in wisdom. We should be people who are knowledgeable and humble. We should be people who act with humility, but yet with great wisdom and great knowledge of the person and the work of who God is. And as a result of who God is, we act with great wisdom. We should pray and seek wisdom. We should also be a person of character. We should be people that when nobody else is watching, when God is the only one watching us, that we should be people of wisdom and character. We should always act with courage to do what's right, to not back down, to not let the unspiritual or the foolish to hold us back from doing what is right and what is good in the eyes of the Lord. After all, on the day in which we stand before Christ, day in which we stand before Christ and His mercy seat, no one else is going to give an account for us. We will stand before the mercy seat of Christ and give an account to Christ and we aren't going to be able to say, well I didn't see anybody else standing so I was scared and I didn't stand. We should never allow the unspiritual or the foolish to hold us back. I would also say this, God uses strong women. Strong women of God. God uses strong women of God. From biblical times to the present day, God has used wise women to shape history. Abigail's words to David reflect her strong faith and knowledge of the Word of God. We could go on and on. We could talk about Mary, the mother of our Lord. We could talk about Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. We could talk about Hannah. We could talk about great numbers, Ruth, Naomi, and all the rest. Esther, who God has used to shape history for the glory of God through their willingness when others were not even willing to stand and did not even know what was going on. They were willing to stand for the Lord and to honor Him. And our churches and our families need women who are strong enough to submit to the Lord and to honor their marriages, to honor their commitments, to honor Christ, and to be women of Titus chapter 2. If you don't know what women of Titus chapter 2 are, then there you go, there's your homework, Titus chapter 2, go and read it. Titus chapter 2, women who are women like in Titus chapter 2, But ultimately, Jesus, the son of David, is the anointed one of God who we must bow to and serve in all of our lives. Jesus, like David, sends his servants to offer peace. And those who acknowledge and honor him will be richly blessed, just as Abigail was. Those who foolishly and pridefully refuse to give the honor that is due Him and the Heavenly Father will perish just like Nabal. Remember Psalm chapter 2, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. So let us serve the Lord Jesus Christ with great wisdom and honor. Let us not be afraid to speak. Let us not be afraid to stand when others are refusing to stand, Christians. Now is the time for us to stand and give strong testimony to Christ and to lead a culture that truthfully has fallen prey to their own flesh that cannot tell up from down and right from wrong. We who know Christ must lead the way in following Christ and in calling our culture and our nation to repentance and faith in Christ. Let us do this with boldness and with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. Again, we thank you for Abigail and for the wisdom that she provides to us. I pray that all of us would be like Abigail, filled with wisdom, filled with the wisdom that belongs to us through the Holy Spirit and through Him alone. May the Holy Spirit, may we yield to Him, that we may be men and women of courage, men and women who know what we should speak in the day in which we stand in, to lead the way for the glory of God, to preach the gospel to the nations, That Christ could be glorified. The Gospel would speed forward to the nations. And that nation upon nation would hear the Gospel. And soul upon soul would be harvested for the glory of God. That they would repent and believe the Gospel. That Christ would be honored in the receiving of sinners into His Kingdom. And God, may we be faithful to preach Jesus and act with wisdom in the day in which you have placed us. And we pray this in Jesus' name.