Context No. 2699 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

1 Samuel 25:14-20: in context

14But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master; and he insulted them. 15But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, and we didn’t miss anything as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields. 16They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master and against all his house, for he is such a worthless fellow that one can’t speak to him.” 18Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five seahs of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19She said to her young men, “Go on before me. Behold, I am coming after you.” But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal. 20As she rode on her donkey, and came down hidden by the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.

David's men had guarded Nabal's shepherds and asked only for a share at feast time, and Nabal answered with an insult. Now David is riding out with four hundred armed men to wipe out every male in the household. A servant runs to Nabal's wife Abigail and lays out the danger, because Nabal is too surly to be reasoned with.

Abigail does not hesitate. She loads donkeys with bread, wine, dressed sheep, grain, raisins, and figs, and rides out to intercept David, without a word to her foolish husband. Caught between a reckless man and a furious one, she puts herself in the gap and moves fast to head off a slaughter. No one appointed her peacemaker; she simply saw the disaster coming and stepped into its path.

When I see a disaster building between other people, do I step into the gap to make peace, or wait and let it break?

Sources

1 Samuel 25:33: "Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand."
Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."
Proverbs 15:1: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."