Taken from a sermon last year. Emphasis mine.
The authority of a husband is not absolute. No human authority is. There is nothing here to indicate that Abigail was in the wrong, and much to show that she was in the right. She honored the lawful authority of her husband in much the same way that David honored the lawful authority of Saul—while knowing that God was going to change everything shortly. She honored Nabal more than Nabal did, which is how David treated Saul. She is a feminine counterpart to David. Biblical submission prohibits rendering to any creature the absolute submission that belongs only to God. And beware of men who demand absolute submission beneath them, and are scofflaws toward the authorities above. There are many men who want to reserve to themselves the right to be blockheads, and they also think biblical submission means that their wives are required to not notice.
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Heather love, I really feel for you and your family. The first I came across all this was bekka’s post, where I understood her point of view but I thought it was a shame she didn’t speak in a more loving way. I can understand people misunderstanding your Dad’s quote which seems to be taken out of context, and I appreciate the man who posted it from the gospel coaltiion who apologised for posting it out of context in a way that could cause upset. However it is clear that your dad and all of your family have clear biblical views that are not at all what some people are writing, and that you are going through a really tough time because of this furore. I have been greatly blessed by this blog in the past and lizzie’s book, and I am sad to see what has happened and to read Christians attaciking each other so viciously. I understand that you feel On the end of injustice, and may God give you grace to find strength in Him through it. I do pray for grace for you all too, to find grace enough to love those who speak against you and not to retaliate in the wrong way, but to speak the truth in love. God bless you all x
The above quote is entirely reasonable. For that reason alone, we should not expect the unreasonable to understand or accept it.
By the way, just looked at my post and hope you don’t think I’m patronising saying ‘love’, I’m not sure if in America you say that like we do in England. Was meant in a friendly way 🙂 xx
I never listened to this sermon series, but I recently finished reading 1 Samuel, and I thought of this story and the larger David narrative in the midst of the past couple of days.
There was a comment bewailing that women are “told that the only way they can be truly succeed in life is by ‘submitting’ to a man.” But a woman as a woman is only ever to submit to a man as a man in one situation: marriage. And for a marriage to succeed in honoring God, then, yes, she must submit to him. But every other relationship that calls for honoring authority — child to parent, church member to pastor or elder, citizen to governing authority, employee to boss, etc. — submission is not sex-specific. Both men and women are called to submit. And of course our submission to God is not. We see lots of these relationships play out in the David narrative.
But one other thing I thought in response to the “succeeding” comment was that I, being unmarried, can succeed in honoring God only if I (as a woman) don’t submit to any man (as a man).
Anyway…that was a tangent to the post, but the quote helped my lingering thought come together.
Love this… Can you please provide the link to the sermon? I don’t see it and I would love to listen to it.
Much love to you all!
Becky:
http://www.dougwils.com/Book-of-Samuel/war-on-an-empty-wineskin.html
http://www.canonwired.com/featured/1639/
Becky:
http://www.canonwired.com/featured/1639/
That last sentence is a humdinger!
When did it become unchristian to defend Biblical truth? When did we all become so offended at one Christian defending another? When did massaging someone’s feelings become more important than defending Biblical doctrine?
Thank you, Valerie! 😉
Hi I’m sorry I’ve never got this whole abigail thing. I’m not arguing for a wrong understanding of submission but to be honest she comes across as a pretty unpleasant character. So i find it hard to admire her esp when she slags off her husband to David and to his face and then marries David. Which is also not great given all his other wives. I had understood this type of ot narrative to be about God as hero using us despite our rubbishness and not to be used to provide examples for us on how to behave. Please clarify why abigail is so great?
Emma, I’d recommend listening to the whole sermon, which you can find at the link I posted above. Pastor Wilson shows how Abigail was actually honoring Nabal through her actions. She did, after all, save his life!
thanks i will. Also to Brooke newman hello! I agree about your comment of a narrow definition of sound. I mostly call it the circle of soundness and or Christian mafia. I’m in sheffield where i go to Hugh palmer’s old church, Sorry for commenting on this post but comments were closed on the other post. And for the late reply I’ve been on holiday. Emma
Valerie I’d not thought of her saving his life before. Still don’t like how she did it though!