“Now the name of the man was Nabal,
and the name of his wife Abigail.
The woman was discerning and beautiful,
but the man was harsh and badly behaved.”
1 Samuel 25:3

Last night I read the story of David and Abigail. David was on the run from King Saul, who was bent on killing the future king. The story goes that David, through his men, had asked Abigail’s husband, Nabal, for food. David justified this request by saying, in general, that if he had wanted, he would have simply taken it. Despite this understanding, Nabal denied and even insulted David. Well, that didn’t sit well, and David mounted to kill all the men in Nabal’s company, Nabal included.

Nabal’s wife, Abigail, caught wind of this. Listen to what a young man told her:

1 Samuel 25:17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.

Gulp. She quickly gathered provisions to meet David. Long story short, David relented and thanked her for preventing the impending disaster. Furthermore, the Lord himself struck down Nabal and within ten days he was dead. David then took Abigail, apparently willingly, to be his wife. We read about her again later in the bible.

The thought struck me that there are times that I need people like Abigail in my life. I need people like the young man who warned her. Now, maybe I’m not so bull-headed as Nabal, but I still need someone watching my back. So do the people around me. They need me to return the favor. We covered this yesterday with this verse:

Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Certainly, we don’t want to be like Cain, who infamously said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) Instead, we want to protect our brother’s interests.

Deuteronomy 22:1-4 “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

Notice that this covers people we don’t even know.

Anyway, I need other people, and they need me. We all need each other, just like Jesus said:

John 17:20-23 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

See that? Jesus desires that we get all tangled up in each other.

Father, tangle us up! Amen.

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