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The route of discretion

1 Samuel 25:18-38 (JDV)

1 Samuel 25:18 Abigail hurried, taking two hundred loaves of bread, two clay jars of wine, five butchered sheep, a bushel of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
1 Samuel 25:19 Then she said to her boys, “Go ahead of me. I will be right behind you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:20 As she rode the donkey down a mountain pass hidden from view, she noticed David and his men coming toward her and met them.
1 Samuel 25:21 David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.
1 Samuel 25:22 May God punish me and do so severely if I let any of his males survive until morning.”
1 Samuel 25:23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, knelt down with her face to the ground, and paid homage to David.
1 Samuel 25:24 She knelt at his feet and said, “The guilt is mine, my lord, but please let your servant speak to you directly. Listen to the words of your servant.
1 Samuel 25:25 My lord should pay no attention to this worthless fool Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name means ‘stupid,’ and stupidity is all he knows. I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s boys whom you sent.
1 Samuel 25:26 Now my lord, as surely as Yahveh lives and as your throat lives — it is Yahveh who kept you from participating in bloodshed and avenging yourself by your own hand — may your enemies and those who intend to harm my lord be like Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:27 Let this gift your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
1 Samuel 25:28 Please forgive your servant’s offense, for Yahveh is certain to make a lasting dynasty for my lord because he fights Yahveh’s battles. Throughout your life, may evil not be found in you.
1 Samuel 25:29 “Someone is pursuing you and intends to take your throat. My lord’s throat is tucked safely in the place where Yahveh your God protects the living, but he is flinging away your enemies’ throats like stones from a sling.
1 Samuel 25:30 When Yahveh does for my lord all the good he promised you and appoints you ruler over Israel,
1 Samuel 25:31 there will not be remorse or a troubled conscience for my lord because of needless bloodshed or my lord’s revenge. And when Yahveh does good things for my lord, may you remember me your servant.”
1 Samuel 25:32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be Yahveh God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!
1 Samuel 25:33 May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand.
1 Samuel 25:34 Otherwise, as surely as Yahveh God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males left by morning light.”
1 Samuel 25:35 Then David accepted what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. See, I have heard what you said and have granted your request.”
1 Samuel 25:36 Then Abigail went to Nabal and noticed he was in his house, holding a feast fit for a king. Nabal’s heart was cheerful, and he was very drunk, so she didn’t say anything to him until morning light.
1 Samuel 25:37 In the morning when Nabal sobered up, his wife told him about these events. His heart died and he became a stone.
1 Samuel 25:38 About ten days later, Yahveh struck Nabal dead.

The route of discretion

Abigail was caught between two men, acting on emotions and not acting wisely. She chose the route of discretion and interceded for Nabal by presenting David with gifts. She rescued both men that day. David recognized how wise she had been, and chose her to be his wife after Nabal died. Her gift of discernment was more valuable than her beauty. Young men, look for ladies with discernment.

LORD, give our young men the wisdom to look for discerning wives.