Page 50 - Sarah's Children

Many men have doubts and insecurities about their call and election. Many who have
been called to minister in some capacity endure great torments when they find
themselves walking as outcasts and rejected by the mainstream. Often these doubts
can be such a weight of reproach that they lead the person to sin, even as David
would surely have sinned had Abigail not interceded.

Look at Abigail’s words. She knows the distress in David’s heart. She is a wise woman
and she perceives the issues that are warring within David. She understands what
is necessary to raise him back to a place of faith so that he will not act out of his
desperation and frustration. She begins by speaking of the surety of his calling and
she declares with great confidence that David will certainly see all that Yahweh has
spoken to him fulfilled.

This was really the heart of David’s anguish. The promise of Yahweh had tarried. It
had been many years since the oil was poured over his head by Samuel and the years
had driven him far from a place where he expected to see the promises of God
fulfilled. These thoughts tormented his heart and were like a goad in his spirit.
Abigail proved herself to be a cheerleader of David, rooting for the fulfillment of
God’s purposes in his life with these words:

Yahweh will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my
lord is fighting the battles of Yahweh, and evil will not be found in you
all your days. Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life,
then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with
Yahweh your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as
from the hollow of a sling. And when Yahweh does for my lord
according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and
appoints you ruler over Israel, this will not cause grief or a troubled
heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my
lord having avenged himself. When Yahweh deals well with my lord,
then remember your maidservant.

David needed someone to understand what had been promised to him. He needed
someone to encourage his heart when all the circumstances around him were
discouraging. He needed to hear from the lips of another person that his situation
was not hopeless, but that Yahweh would perform all He had spoken. Abigail’s words
were like a healing balm to David’s aching heart. She encouraged him with words of
faith and hope, and as she did so David’s desperation and pain was washed away to
be replaced with calm and peace and with the patience to wait upon Yahweh.

What perception was in the heart of this woman! She did not go out and scold David
for wanting to destroy her family. She did not tell him that the course he was on was
wicked. No, she affirmed him and encouraged him and lifted him up. She brought