Abigail: An Intelligent Beauty, 1 Samuel 25

April: This Weeks Bible Reading:

9 I Samuel 28-31

10 2Samuel 1-2

11 2Samuel 3-5

12 2Samuel 6-9

13 2Samuel 10-12

14 2Samuel 13-14

Today I was finishing listening to 1 Samuel and Abigail came into the story. I forgot that David married her and another woman. Anyway, here is a little excerpt from the 50 page paper I wrote in seminary about Abigail. Thought yall might enjoy:

Complementarians believe that Abigail shows how women can have great influence on men and still exhibit a submissive attitude. Piper asserts that a beautiful example of non-directive leadership is when Abigail talked to David out of killing Nabal (1 Samuel 25:23-35). Piper states, “she exerted great influence over David and changed the course of his life, but she did it with amazing restraint and submissiveness and discretion.”[1] Thomas Schreiner points out that Abigail was not a prophetess and had no other official ministry that we know of. However, she was humble and gave gentle advice to David – this is a great example of a woman persuading men, humbly and gently, to pursue a more righteous course. David was the leader in this account and this shows how a leader can be humble. For women Abigail is a model of gentle and humble persuasion. She was winsome, yet bold. Furthermore, Schreiner says surely no one would say she had a position of leadership over men in 1 Samuel 25. Overall, she had earned from him respect, and she illustrates for wives today “vital principles of restraint and proper priorities, as well as the determination to make the best out of a difficult situation.”[2]

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[1] John Piper, “A Vision of Biblical Complementarity Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible,” in John Piper and Wayne Grudem, eds., Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), 52.

[2] Patterson and Kelly eds., The Woman’s Study Bible, 485.