In the spirit of that song, let us turn to Revelation 11. There is a wonderful testimony here that gives us great hope and assurance in the days in which we are living, as we testify of Him as Lord of heaven and earth.
Revelation 11:15 says:
And the seventh angel sounded;
and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying,
The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ:
and He shall reign for ever and ever.
One day, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do thank You that, as the redeemed of the Lord, we can return unto You today. Lord, we are thankful, as You have reminded us, that You have taken us out of the miry pit. We have been placed upon that solid rock, and, Lord, we have been brought into so great a salvation.
Lord, that salvation is one aspect of being saved from something, but we are thankful that we are also saved unto You. We are saved unto One who has a purpose. We are saved unto so great a calling that You have. Lord, we are saved unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank You that, as we look forward, Lord, one day every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One day Thy kingdom will come and be made manifest. Lord, we want to be those who learn in this hour to cooperate with You, to be trained of You, to rule and reign with You at that time.
We bless You, Lord, for what You have encouraged us in Your Word. We thank You for the lessons that we can find in Your Word. We thank You for Your life, and we yield ourselves unto You today, Lord, acknowledging You as the Teacher and looking unto You to speak to us, opening our hearts to receive all that You would have for us. In Your precious name, amen.
As King mentioned, we will be continuing to share today on David’s mighty men. It was a little over two months ago that I shared part one, so maybe we need to do a little review.
I asked the brothers in the group to pray for me yesterday because, have you ever noticed when somebody does a review, about five minutes to twelve they say, “Well, now that’s enough reviewing last time”? So may the Lord help us to capture the essence and foundation of what we shared before without distracting from what He has to say today.
Why are we looking at David’s mighty men? What we said was that the Lord has brought us into so great a salvation. But the salvation into which we have been brought not only saves us from something; it calls us with a purpose.
He desires for His kingdom to be made manifest—yes, in the future—but He also desires for that kingdom to be made manifest among His people in this hour. He is taking the opportunity during these days to train us. That training is the work, as Scripture speaks of it, of transforming us into the image of His beloved Son and conforming us to that image.
We are using the picture of David and his mighty men to encourage us because it shows us the beginning, the process they went through, and the end.
Turn back to 1 Samuel 22. That is where we first see David and these ones gathering to him. I think many of us can relate to those who joined with David to bring in his kingdom.
First Samuel 22:1-2 says:
And David departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam:
and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him.
And every one that was in distress,
and every one that was in debt,
and every one that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him;
and he became captain over them:
and there were with him about four hundred men.
In David, we see him taking what we would call a motley crew. In many ways, “motley crew” is giving them a compliment, because they were worse than that. The thing about it is, when we look upon these ones who came to David, whom he trained and used later to bring in his kingdom, we have to remember: that is us.
These guys were in that miry pit, and we were in the miry pit. Because of that, we were in great distress, great debt, and great discontent. But the Lord, in His great love, revealed Himself to us and brought us unto Himself.
We see here how David takes these ones and trains them to learn more of the character of God. Later on, they come and bring in the kingdom. The Lord is doing the same thing with us.
We see in 1 Corinthians 1 that He takes those who are weak, the foolish of this earth, the ignoble of this world, and the Lord calls and brings them unto Himself. So often, we can fall into the trap of thinking, “I’m not good enough to be saved. Once I get my life straightened out, once I get some things behind me, then I can be of value to Jesus.”
No. The precious thing we see in David’s life is that all these came in their discontented, distressed positions, and not one of them was turned away. He accepted each one of them just as they were. Brothers and sisters, He has accepted each one of us just as we were.
Sometimes we hesitated. We tried to improve ourselves, but He accepted us. Praise God, He does not leave us like that. He starts doing a work of transforming us, but He accepts us as we were.
As David trained this crew, the Lord is also doing a training work: taking a group of individuals and forming them into one people. It is a corporate expression of those who are under the headship of the King. There they are, ruling with him. When the king goes this way, they go that way.
That is what the Lord desires of us. He saves each one of us, and each one responds individually. But then, through our individual salvation, He reveals to us that we have been brought into being part of a body—part of the great calling to be that corporate expression of His life upon this earth.
It is so great a salvation. I think we will spend our entire life upon this earth discovering the greatness of that salvation. Would that we could each day know more and more of it.
As we look at David and his mighty men, we see how they began. We shared last time how they were used to bring in the kingdom. But once the kingdom was established, let us take a quick glimpse at how they were used within the kingdom, because they served their entire lives.
Hold your finger in 1 Samuel and turn to 1 Chronicles 27. David has his kingdom established, and now he is setting up the administration over all his kingdom: the commanders of the army and those who would be in charge of the various functions within the kingdom.
Different translations title 1 Chronicles 27 in different ways. Mine has, “Commanders of the Army, Chief Officers, and Various Overseers.” But if you take time to look through this chapter, you will find that the names mentioned there are quite often the names of David’s mighty men. He used them and set them over various functions within the administration of his kingdom.
If you turn to the next chapter, 1 Chronicles 28, David reveals his heart about building a temple. The Lord had revealed His plan, and David called those ones together. In verse 1, he calls all the leaders of Israel together, and toward the end of that verse, those included are his mighty men.
He reveals his heart—the Lord’s heart—to them for a place, a dwelling place, among the people of God. Then, in 1 Chronicles 29, it speaks of the temple, the offerings, and how Solomon is made king.
In 1 Chronicles 29:24, all those who are pledging allegiance to Solomon include the mighty men, pledging allegiance to King Solomon.
We noted last time how one of the tests of those whom David had trained was that they knew their king’s heart. They knew what his intent was. Even when David was old and the new king was coming along, Adonijah tried to steal the throne.
Certain ones went to Adonijah. Joab and some of the others who had been around David went to him. But those who knew the king’s heart went to Solomon. Those were the mighty men and the other faithful ones. They were not distracted.
It reminds me how, in the last days, it says many will come in His name: “This is the Christ. This is the Christ.” How do we know?
Some of those who had been with David did not know the king’s heart. They had even served with David, but they did not know the king’s heart. We can be with Him; we can be around the things of the Lord. But are we touching His heart? Do we know who He is and what He desires to accomplish?
These mighty men had entered into the heart of their master, so that when the true king was manifest, they chose him. Quite often, if we look around today, there are many things being done in the name of our King. There are many things being done in Christianity. How do we know which ones are from His heart and which ones are not?
This is why it is so essential that every day, as the Lord provides us a training ground just as He provided a training ground for David’s mighty men, we open our hearts and learn the lessons He is trying to teach us.
What is He trying to teach us overall? He is really trying to teach us and show us what the great desire of His heart is. That is why David said, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after.”
We heard it recently: there is one thing that the Lord is calling us to. We can be distracted by many things, but there is one thing that the Lord is calling us to. Would that one thing be what drives our heart also, as it drove David’s heart and as he was able to instill it within the heart of his mighty men?
We said last time that David is a picture of Christ. We are really not going to be touching a lot on David, because that is a whole other volume of things. But who are these mighty men? If we are going to learn lessons from them, who are they?
These mighty men are simply ones who responded to the love of their master. When they saw their master’s heart, when they saw his love for the Lord and his love for them, they responded.
Many of us can see the love of the Lord, but are we responding? These ones responded. It is testified of in Revelation that these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Wherever David went, these mighty men followed—through the good times, through the blessings, and through the sufferings. Whatever the path held, they followed him wherever he went.
We can also say that these mighty men are simply normal Christians living in abnormal times. That is what the Lord is really after in our lives.
Sometimes we think that the Lord wants extraordinary Christians, but really all the Lord is looking for is that we live a normal Christian life. The problem is that the standard is so low today that quite often we end up living a subnormal life. But He simply wants us to live a normal Christian life in these abnormal times.
As we live that normal Christian life in these abnormal times, do you know what that makes us? We are simply bondservants of the Lord.
What is a bondservant? A bondservant is one who loves his master. A bondservant is one who has his master’s interest at heart. He knows what his master desires.
When he knows the heart’s desire of his master, a bondservant, as we saw in the Old Testament, is one who has chosen freely to be totally given to his master—not interested in his own self, not pursuing his own things, but yielded totally, captured by the love of his master, and responding unto him.
I believe that in the days in which we are living, the challenge for all of us is: are we going to be bondservants of the Lord? Who are we serving? Who are we serving?
These ones chose to serve David. In that, they learned David’s heart. They learned the vision that David had, and they followed him wherever he went.
We are so thankful for this picture. I like the pictures of the Old Testament because, so often in the New Testament, we can have a teaching; but in the Old Testament, we see a picture. We see ones who fall down, make mistakes, get up, learn, and keep going on.
Last time, I was thinking I could give a test. There were seven points I shared last time, but out of the love of the brethren, I will not do that since it has been over two months.
As we look through 1 Samuel 22 and 23, there were seven points. I will just touch on them quickly:
Recognizing our condition. We recognize that we are nothing and bankrupt, but we see who He is. That is simply our salvation: seeing who He is and, in His light, seeing who we are.
Separation from the past. They separated themselves from the past and went to follow him. They separated from the things with which they had been occupied and came unto him. That is the testimony of baptism.
Consecration. They gave themselves and said, “David is our lord. He is king.” In consecration, we settle the issue of who is Lord of our life.
Abiding in him. In the midst of good times and bad times, they learned to abide with David.
Fellowship with the king. At the beginning of 1 Samuel 23, they learned that they were called into fellowship with David. They could share their hearts with David, and David could share his heart with them. There is an open, honest relationship into which we have been called in the fellowship of the Lord.
Serving the living God. They learned whom they were really serving. They served certain ones and were betrayed, but through the lesson of being let down, disappointed, and unappreciated, they learned that they were serving a living God, not man. Much of our service is displayed to brothers and sisters, but ultimately our service is to God.
Recognizing the true enemy. The enemy was not their brethren. They learned that the enemy was the flesh and the things of the enemy himself.
It was interesting in the picture: David went and fought the Philistines, but Saul would not fight the Philistines; he would fight David. Too many believers today are taking on that spirit of fighting with one another more than really standing and fighting against the things of the enemy. Would we learn who the enemy really is?
I would like for us to continue today. There is one overall question that we want to ask: Where and how do we end up?
The goal there was ruling in the kingdom. What is our condition? Where and how do we end up? So often we can start well. We can be running well. But the issue is: how are we finishing?
Thank the Lord that, as we are running through this life, we can be running great at times, but then something can distract us. Oftentimes, we can be running pretty lousily. We can fall down. We can totally forsake the Lord and go our own way. But in His mercy, He draws us back, and when we finish, we are finishing where He wants us to be.
The issue, brothers and sisters, is where we finish. Yes, it is important where we start. If we do not start in Christ, we will never end there. But after we have started, after we have been called unto Him, where do we finish?
We can learn from the next two individuals mentioned here in 1 Samuel. They give us a great contrast of where one finishes. You might ask why I am going to share on these two, because they are not listed among the mighty men. But I think within them we will see what the real heart of a mighty man is—the spirit and heart that distinguishes the mighty men from those who are not.
We want to look at a contrast between Jonathan and Abigail, keeping in mind this question: Where did they finish?
As we look at Jonathan, turn to 1 Samuel 23 and consider verses 16-18. We know that Jonathan was the son of Saul. He was a great friend of David. He helped David at times and spoke up for David at times. This is actually the last meeting between Jonathan and David.
David is out in the wilderness, and Jonathan comes out to him.
First Samuel 23:16-18 says:
And Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.
And he said unto him, Fear not:
for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee;
and thou shalt be king over Israel,
and I shall be next unto thee;
and that also Saul my father knoweth.
And they two made a covenant before the Lord:
and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
We know Jonathan has a good reputation, but I would like us to consider another aspect of him, because I think it is critical for us in the days in which we are living.
Jonathan and David had a good relationship. Jonathan was David’s friend. They were almost, though not blood brothers, united in love. But the issue is: where do they end up? Where does Jonathan end up?
In Jonathan, we see one who acknowledged that David was king. He spoke up for him. But there came a time in Jonathan’s life when he had to make a decision: “Am I going on with David, or am I going back to Saul?”
We see that Jonathan chose to go back and be with his father Saul. Later, at the end of the book, Jonathan is killed with Saul. He chose to go back to that one who represents the man of the flesh. He would not separate himself. He went back, settled with his father, and ended up dying with his father, killed by the Philistines, never entering into ruling with David in the kingdom.
It is a sobering thought. If you look at verse 17, there is a lot being said: “You will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you.”
Jonathan was willing to rule next to David, but Jonathan was never willing to be ruled by David. He was not willing to come under David. He did not take the spirit of the bondservant.
Jonathan never separated himself from his old ways, from the old system, or from his own self-interest. He wanted to rule with David, but he was not willing to suffer with David.
Paul exhorted Timothy that those who suffer and endure with Him will reign with Him. Brothers and sisters, the way to the throne—the way to ruling and reigning with Him in the kingdom—is the way of the cross.
It is separation from the things of the past. It is settling the things of the past. Are we willing to leave behind all the riches and everything that we have?
Jonathan was not. Before, he was number two in Saul’s kingdom. So he said, “Okay, I will rule with David in his kingdom.” But was he willing to forsake all?
Jonathan is a sad picture. He is a beautiful picture of one who loved the Lord and served the Lord, but there came a point in time when he would not forsake his own interest and put the interest of his master above the interest of himself.
Jonathan would not leave and forsake the riches of the world. He had a position, a great position within that old system, and he was not willing to leave it. He had status in the family as firstborn. Would he leave that?
Reputation among friends is one of the hardest things to lose. Are we willing to have our reputation ruined because we are following the Lord? “What will so-and-so think of me? What will so-and-so think of me if I do this?”
This is the challenge that we have: are we willing to forsake our own interests and really become about our Master’s business in this time?
The difference between Jonathan and Abigail, as we will see, is that Abigail had the spirit of a bondservant. Jonathan never did.
Sadly, as we look about Christianity today, we see so much crossless Christianity. We can enjoy all the benefits. We hear of a kingdom, and we want all the benefits of the kingdom. We want all the joy, all the riches, the surpassing riches of Christ.
But how did Paul enter into those surpassing riches? He said, “I die daily.” Brothers and sisters, the way of the cross has been lost today. The Lord is trying to call us back to it.
If we really desire to enter into the good of our Master, to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, that can sound so beautiful. We say, “They follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and they are there in Revelation before the throne.” But what is following the Lamb wherever He goes?
It is experiencing the humiliation of being born in a feed trough in Bethlehem. It is experiencing rejection by those whom you came to serve. It is experiencing the agony of Gethsemane. It is experiencing the death of the cross. This is the way the Lamb goes.
This is the way that the Lord is calling those who rule with Him to go. It is not a great sales pitch. If you were putting out an infomercial on wanting to rule with Christ, this is one that would have to be played at three o’clock in the morning because nobody would watch it. It would not be very popular.
But the Lord is not interested in popularity. He is interested in truth. He is interested in having a people who, as they see Him and behold Him, are willing to forsake everything.
We see in these men in 1 Samuel 22 and 23 that they left everything. They saw something of David. The question we have to ask when we find ourselves attracted by the things of the world and many other things that pull us is: have we really seen the Lord?
I loved one of the little verses in the songs the children sang today. Even though they did not spell it right, it was telling about the size of their God. Actually, I liked the double “Z” in there because it made God bigger. The question is: how big is our God?
The problem we have—I know in my own life—is the fear of man rather than the fear of God. At times in my life, men are bigger than God. By His grace, He is training me to put God in His rightful place.
When we are confronted with something, how big is our God? Do we see Him as all-sufficient, all able to lead us through into victory? Or do we find ourselves like Jonathan? We want all the benefits. We want all the glory. “I will rule next to You in Your kingdom.” We want all the glory of that.
But are we willing to go the way that our Lord went—to be trained, to forsake all, and to enter into the good of our Master?
Praise God, there are those who responded in this way. We have Jonathan in this lesson. He was still part of the nation of Israel, but he did not get to rule with the king. We have a choice: are we going to be those who rule with Him, not only now, but in the days to come?
We have a beautiful picture and a contrast here. Jonathan and Abigail had much in common. They both loved David, and David loved them both. David poured his love out to Jonathan.
Yet when David went into the wilderness, Jonathan returned to his own house. We hear no more of Jonathan until his death. Silence in the Bible means there is nothing to record of the value of his life.
Up to that point, we see Jonathan coming along. But there came a point—and brothers and sisters, we all know it, because we have faced different points in our life—where we have to make a choice: who are we going to serve?
That choice will be impossible for us to make in ourselves. But thank the Lord, it is possible by the grace He has given to us, as we respond to His love and His grace.
If you look over in 1 Samuel 25, we see Abigail. We see a beautiful picture here. David and his men were out serving.
We will not have a chance to read all of 1 Samuel 25, but I will summarize it. One of the reasons I wanted to use Abigail was to show that some of the mighty men are women.
If you look among those who really helped David in his kingdom, Abigail was a great help. Bathsheba was a great help. She knew who the king was supposed to be. The Lord is calling brothers and sisters. So even though we are using this phrase “mighty men,” it is used inclusively of brothers and sisters who have chosen to rule and reign with Him.
At the beginning of 1 Samuel 25, Samuel has died. In verses 2-13, we see a rich man named Nabal. He was pretty much an evil, harsh man. His name even means fool. How would you like to have a name that meant fool? You kind of wonder about his mother and father. You pick a name for your child and name this child “Fool.” Maybe they knew something, but that was his name.
He was very rich and prosperous, and he had all these sheep. David and his men had gone to the southern part and were watching out for the sheep and everything. The men later testified that while David’s men were there, they were like walls surrounding and protecting them, keeping them from the enemy. Not a sheep was missing. They did not mistreat them at all.
Afterwards, David, in the Old Testament tradition, sent a few messengers down to Nabal and asked, “Could you spare a few sheep, some bread, and some food for us, so that we would have provision?”
Nabal responded as you would expect. He said, “Who is this David guy?” He did not recognize who David was and actually mocked him. “Who is this guy that wants my bread?”
It is interesting, if you look through verse 11, how many times Nabal uses the word my: “My bread, my water, my meat, my shearers”—my, my, my.
That sounds like us a lot of times, does it not? Me, me, me. “Why should I do anything? Everything is for me.” That is the modern way. But Nabal said, “No, no, no, they cannot have anything.”
We see that these men were already being trained by David. These young men, instead of defending their master, attacking Nabal, destroying him, and wiping this fool out, kept their mouths shut, went back, and told David. The Lord can defend Himself, brothers and sisters.
They went back and told David. We said earlier that David was a picture of Christ. Well, this is one of the times he is not. There are no perfect pictures, because David reacted in the flesh. He had to be trained also.
David’s fleshly reaction was, “Okay, everybody, put on your swords.” He got four hundred of his men and said, “You two hundred stay here with the baggage. Four hundred of us are going down, and we are going to wipe out Nabal. There is not going to be one man left in his household. We are going to destroy them all.”
You have this band of four hundred mighty men going down to destroy Nabal and his household. Praise God, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail. He said, “Abigail, David and his men came here, and this fool Nabal did not receive them. He turned them against us, and they are coming to destroy us.” He testified of how wonderfully David’s men had treated them, but their master did not recognize it.
In verse 18, we see Abigail’s response:
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.
Abigail immediately responded and started going to David. As she came to David, we see the true heart of this maidservant.
David was coming one way with the intent to wipe everybody out, but who was Abigail thinking of? We will see who her interest really was. She was not trying to save her own life.
In verse 23, we see a beautiful picture of putting the master in his place and taking our place.
First Samuel 25:23-25 says:
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.
Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal.
We see Abigail putting David’s and the Lord’s interests above her own life. You talk about loving not your life unto death. David had one intent, and that was to destroy everything. Abigail went out and got right in front of him. She fell on her face in a place of worship, adoration, reverence, and humility before him, to bring him back to his senses.
She knew that what David was doing was wrong. Abigail was not focused on her own interest; she was focused on the interest of the Lord.
As she continued before David, she warned him not to avenge his own blood. Then, in verse 28, we see this precious testimony and plea of Abigail:
I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid:
for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house;
because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord,
and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.
How did Abigail know that God was going to provide for David an enduring house? That is an amazing revelation that she had. She said, “Look, David, remember: God is going to provide for you this enduring house.”
In verse 30, she continues:
And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that He hath spoken concerning thee,
and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;
That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord,
either that thou hast shed blood causeless,
or that my lord hath avenged himself:
but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord,
then remember thine handmaid.
We see in Abigail this prophetic word. She recognized who David was. Nabal did not recognize who David was. Abigail recognized: “This is a man of God.”
How did Abigail know this? Had she gone to a conference? Samuel did a lot of traveling. We do not know what Samuel shared. We really do not know how Abigail knew.
But as I was thinking upon it, what came to me was this: when you look at Abigail, you see one who had a hidden life with the Lord. As one who has a hidden life with the Lord, the Lord reveals His heart to us.
As she was there serving, as she was there caring within this house, she had a hidden life with the Lord. She had also heard that David had a chance to kill Saul, but he did not do it. There was this call upon David’s life, and she was meditating on and considering this.
Brothers and sisters, again, one of the things lost in modern Christianity is a hidden life. Abigail had one, and she knew the Master’s heart.
It is interesting throughout Scripture: if you look at different ones who had hidden lives with the Lord—and it is pretty much every bondservant, because that is one of the characteristics—there are things the Lord revealed to them that make you say, “How did they know that?”
For example, remember when Joseph had been sold as a slave and was in Potiphar’s house? Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, and Joseph said to Potiphar’s wife, “I cannot do this. That would be a sin against God.”
How did he know that? The Ten Commandments had not been given. How did Joseph know that taking his master’s wife would be a sin against God? Because he had a relationship with his Master. He had a relationship with the Lord, and he knew what was right and what was wrong.
The same thing is true within Abigail. We see how the Lord had been showing her that He was doing this great work—how Samuel was being used of the Lord to bring in this transition from the time of judges to the time of kings, and how Saul was not really God’s chosen one, but David was the man after God’s own heart to bring in the kingdom. Abigail recognized this.
David’s response to her is wonderful. He came to his senses. In verse 32, he says:
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.
Unless she had come quickly, David would have greatly sinned. But thank the Lord, she responded.
One of the characteristics we see within Abigail is her quick response. In verse 18, Abigail quickly responded; she hurried. In verse 23, she hurried quickly.
One of the things we see about servants of the Lord is that there is a quick response. When the Lord says it, they do it. Love does not stop to calculate. Love responds.
Our minds stop to calculate and figure things out. If Abigail had stopped and calculated how to go out and approach David, it would have been too late. She went out.
Later in these verses, Nabal dies. He passes away out of fear. He is scared to death, literally, because he finds out what has happened. He sobers up, and he dies.
Then it is so precious: David calls Abigail to be his wife. How does Abigail respond? Does she say, “Oh, I am going to be David’s wife now. I have been suffering under this guy Nabal. Now I get to be the king’s wife. Man, this is going to be great”?
Is that how she responds? Look at her response. David calls to her in verse 40, and she responds in verse 41:
And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said,
Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
“Behold, your maidservant.” It reminded me of Luke 1, when the angel had spoken to Mary. Mary said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”
Abigail realized she was a bondservant. She was that maidservant to David. She was not assuming the privileges that might go along with being his wife, because she knew that he was the man of God; he was the king.
Even though she might be next to him, her heart attitude was that she was a bondservant. What shows Abigail’s heart even more is this: many of us will wash the king’s feet, but will we wash the king’s servants’ feet?
It is easy to wash the king’s feet. We would all love to do that. But she said, “I will wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” She recognized the value of the Lord’s servants. In that spirit of humility, she recognized that she was simply a fellow servant with all the Lord’s servants.
She separated herself from all her wealth. We can see that she had much. If her husband had all that, she would have inherited it. She had all sorts of wealth. She left it all behind her, and she went on down there to serve David.
Another aspect of Abigail that is so encouraging—one who has the spirit of a mighty man, the spirit of a bondservant—is that she speaks of suffering service.
For many years, Abigail had suffered in her marriage to Nabal. Through those many years, when we are in a place of suffering and serving, we may say it is wasted. No.
We can see that Abigail was serving, because when this need arose, there was already food prepared.
It reminded me so much of the parables in Matthew 24 and 25, the parables that speak of our Lord’s coming. As our Lord comes back, are we those who are prepared, or do we need then to start trying to make preparation?
The abundance Abigail had to take to the king when he was coming testifies that she had already made preparation. In her time of suffering, in her time of serving one who was a fool, she was still preparing.
She did not know when it would be used. She did not know how it would be used. But at that time, she was ready to be used.
Do we have a willing heart to go through suffering service? Maybe it is suffering service within a marriage, as with this one. Do we say, “I am going to wait until everything gets better, then I will serve”?
It may be suffering service within a situation at work, suffering service within an assembly, or suffering service among brothers and sisters. There is suffering service in many places.
But the Lord is calling us in this hour, as we see in Abigail, to make that preparation. We do not know the hour or the time when He would come.
Abigail had no idea how all the things she was preparing would be used. But the Lord had a time. At that moment, she was ready—at that twinkling of an eye.
We are called in this time to redeem the time that we have, to really enter into all that our Lord has for us.
Abigail ends up in Jerusalem with David. She is ruling and reigning. She is there with David because she made a choice.
It is interesting, too, as you look at Abigail and Jonathan: they were both rich. They had everything. They had privilege. One made one choice; one made another choice. One ended up ruling with the king. One ended up dead with the man of flesh.
As we see the spirit of Abigail, we see the spirit of a bondservant. We see one who says, “I love my master. I love what the Lord has. I will forsake everything to follow him and to come into the good of what he has.”
Brothers and sisters, in the hours in which we are living, that is the call the Lord has. It says back in the Old Testament, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”
Abigail was willing and able to go this way because she lived this life in a hidden way before. She was able to make that choice on that day when David came because she had already made a choice in her heart before that.
As the Lord was working with her, she had that hidden relationship with the Lord. We see even her reputation as one of discernment. She had a good reputation. Everybody could see the contrast.
It must have been a tremendous testimony to the servants in that household to see the faithfulness of Abigail in the midst of that situation.
So often, when we are in a suffering time and are not appreciated—we may be abused in many ways or taken for granted—we want to pack our bags and head away.
But Abigail hung in there. She received the call of her king: “Come and be with me.” She ended up with him in Jerusalem.
It did not mean that her sufferings ended. As we see later in 1 Samuel 30, she was taken captive. Here she made the choice to leave her home, go, and follow David; then, in chapter 30, the Amalekites came and took her captive. David had to go and recover all. We will look at that next time.
But we see this contrast, and it is so important for us in the days in which we are living. We need to settle this issue within our heart. There is a question the Lord has: where are we going to end up?
Where are we going to end up? His desire is for us to be those who, like these ones, bring in the kingdom of God in the day and time in which we are living—to be a testimony unto Him in this day and time.
Outwardly, Jonathan’s love for David and Abigail’s love for David seemed very similar. But there came a point where they had to make a decision: where were they going to end up? Who were they going to be totally yielded unto as their master?
Jonathan could not do it. But Abigail was willing to be that poured-out drink offering, totally captured by the love of her Master, to be used of God to bring in the kingdom that He desired.
She was able to do that through the hidden life, through suffering service, and through allowing the Lord to use her to make ample preparation.
Would the Lord speak to us in this hour? I know that when we talk about the contrast between Jonathan and Abigail, particularly in these days, it is not a message that we usually hear.
Maybe for some who are thinking of Jonathan, it is the first time we have thought about this from this perspective. But all we can do is give this back to the Lord and let Him search us, teach us, and show us His way.
May He allow us to be those who are prepared for our Master’s return. When our King comes, may we be ready. May we be those who respond. May we be those who can hear our Master’s voice as He beckons.
We do not know the hour, but we thank Him that we have today. As we have today, we give ourselves to Him to make preparation and allow the working of the cross to continue to be made real within us, for His name’s sake.
Let us pray.
Lord, we do come with very worshipful hearts unto You. Lord, we thank You that You have called us unto Yourself.
Lord, we thank You for all the joy, the riches, and the blessing of this life that You have called us unto. Lord, also, there is an aspect of patient endurance, of suffering, of the way of the cross, of really entering into the joy of our Master.
Lord, we want You in this hour to truly search our hearts. When we have these choices set before us, Lord, whom are we going to serve? Whose interest are we going to place first?
Lord, we desire to place Your interest first, but we know within ourselves there is great resistance. Lord, show us more of Thy love. Draw us, Lord, in a greater and fuller way.
Oh, that we could be those who run after You, that when that time and that choice are there, we would truly follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Because we know that in the end there is that glorious kingdom prepared. We bless You, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.