Good Morning! - 2010.08.02 - Proverbs 15:1 - A Soft Answer

Good Morning!

 

A soft answer turneth away wrath:

 

but grievous words stir up anger.  (Proverbs 15:1)

 

If you have to have a strong cup of coffee and yell at three people to get your day started, this may not seem like a good thing for you. But everybody around you might be tickled pink if you would deal with it.

Are you ready for a good story? It's about a wise, sweet-spirited wife and a smart-mouthed husband. It begins in the following verse:

Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish (rude) and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.  (1Samuel 25:3)

 

He's about to hit the wall. He was ugly to David's men who had protected Nabal and all he had. Nabal's anger and his smart mouth have activated David and 400 men with swords on their way to clean his plow. But one of the men warns wife Abigail and she immediately knows what has to be done.

 

Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.  (1Samuel 25:18-19)

 

This is one of the smartest women in the Bible. She is saving the life of her smart-mouthed husband.

 

And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.  (1Samuel 25:23-24)

 

I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: (v.28) And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.  (1Samuel 25:32-33)

 

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.  (1Samuel 25:35) Not the end of the story.

 

And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.  (1Samuel 25:36-38) Not the end of the story.

 

When Abigail told Nabel what had happened, apparently he went into a rage and had a stroke or a heart attack. We would say "he popped his cork."

 

And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.  (1Samuel 25:39)

 

Abigail became one of David's favorite wives. In those days, that was the best she could have hoped for. The lessons for today are pretty obvious. The most important thing we have to manage may be our mouth. For some people, their mouth is their undoing and the biggest enemy they have.  The irony of it is that they may blame it on someone else. We may need to put our worst stuff on the Lord and let Him sort it out for us. I have to confess that my mouth has not always been on my side and has cost me a lot over time.

 

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.  (Psalm 19:14)

 

This article can also be viewed at www.bibleliving.blogspot.com

 

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