“The Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord” (1 Samuel 25:28)
Nabal lived up to his name which means “fool.” If he was ignorant of the Lord’s anointing of David then we might conclude the Lord’s judgment of him was severe. However it is clear in the context of the quote above that Abigail, Nabal’s wife, was well aware that David had been anointed by Samuel in the will of the Lord to be Israel’s king. Since she was aware it seems reasonable to assume that Nabal was also aware but their responses were quite different.
Even though he had been the beneficiary of David’s protection Nabal chose to show contempt toward David and rejected him as God’s anointed. On the other hand, Abigail valued the protection they had received and believed the report that David was the Lord’s anointed to be king. Her works of faith (v 18ff) backed up her words of faith (v 28 ff). Abigail’s statement of faith, “And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel …” (v 30), is one of the clearest testimonies of faith we will ever read. This is the expression of genuine faith in the heart.
Abigail was in a covenant relationship with her husband which could only be broken by death (Romans 7:2). Through Adam’s sin we are in a binding relationship with Satan which also can be broken only by death (Romans 6:23). When the Lord struck Nabal so that he died Abigail was free to marry another (Romans 7:3). We read in 1 Samuel 25 that when David heard that Nabal was dead he immediately asked Abigail to be his wife. He recognised her faith in the word of the Lord.
This account helps us to visualise the differing responses of Israel toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Nabal is of the same mind as unbelieving Israel and Abigail of the same mind as believing Israel. However, it also has application to Gentiles.
As God struck Nabal dead the Lord Jesus Christ has struck sin and Satan on the cross when He became sin for us (Romans 5:8; cf. Genesis 3:15). He took sin to death thus destroying the binding hold Satan and sin had over us. In so doing He has made us free to be bound to another (Romans 7:3). All those who, like Abigail, believe the report and express their faith in the Lord’s anointed are free to “marry” another. That other is the anointed King, namely, Jesus Christ.
Abigail is a picture of all true believers who will have expressed the same kind of faith. We have been delivered from our former bondage to Satan because of sin by Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross and thereby have been made free to enter a new covenant with the Jesus Christ.
Like David in Abigail’s day, Jesus is not yet on the throne of David but it is only a matter of time. Jesus came the first time at just the right time (cf. Galatians 4:4, 5) and He will come at just the right time the second time. Jesus is the Christ (Anointed One) and He will sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Maranatha.