FEMININE FEATURES IN 1 SAMUEL (5)
[p. 346] FEMININE FEATURES IN 1 SAMUEL (5)
1 Samuel 25:1-20; 1 Samuel 25:32-44
JT This chapter is the climax of our present inquiry. Abigail presents typically the full thought that is in mind. Experience is contemplated here, so that we have to assume history, preceding history, in looking into this chapter. She is a product of ministry; Samuel represents the ministry in this book. Abigail has to be taken as one who, as her own words showed, was conversant with history; she knew the history of David and the history of the opposition to him, so that she is seen as corresponding with David in a personal sense. What we noted yesterday in chapter 16 enters into this chapter as to his personal appearance and his lovability, indeed, his name means ‘beloved’, a word that has a great place in the Canticles. Canticles is a book which has to be taken in connection with all these types of the assembly, because it furnishes poetic forms of expression and marital forms; it is full of them; it is a love book, and is called “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s”. There are masculine and feminine sides there presented in the forms of expression in the book; it is typically Christ and the assembly, or Christ and Israel. God has hardly any place in it literally, so that it enters into the service of God in relation to the Lord’s supper.
We rightly designated chapter 18 of 1 Samuel the love chapter, but it is the hate chapter too. Hatred is there, and the intervening chapters between that and this, between chapters 18 and 25, contemplate the bitter hatred of Saul; but David is progressing, personally progressing. In chapter 19, without referring to it formally, we have him saved by three elements inclusive of Michal; his preservation hinges on her among two other elements. First Jonathan saves him from destruction, or threatened destruction,
[p. 347] and then Michal, and then the prophetic ministry saves him. I am referring to all this because it enters into our subject, how love will protect Christ or what represents Him here. Christ as He is known here; and the last element used in chapter 19 to preserve David is, as I said, the prophetic ministry. Samuel is presiding, a sort of president of a college of prophets, so to speak, which is very significant, because it is real prophecy; so real that it absorbed and overwhelmed the messengers of Saul in their murderous intent, and overwhelmed Saul himself. It is real prophecy; the Spirit of God came even on Saul. That is a great feature at the present time — it is increasing in importance — the prophets and their ministry. We have spoken of the glory of the ministry; well, the prophetic is the most effective especially because, as here, it acts even upon unconverted people. They may remain unconverted, but for the moment they come under the power of the prophetic word and serve the purpose as did Balaam. Then what follows is Saul definitely rebuked by David; and now we come to this chapter where Samuel dies, as if to remind us that that ministry is over and what replaces it is Abigail, but Abigail and David.
JW Does the character of the opposition carry a different form this time as seen in Nabal?
JT It does. He is a churlish man; he is not attempting to slay David, but he is thoroughly against him. We have a picture of him here; it is said that he had his business in a different place from his residence, apparently he lived at Maon but his business was at Carmel; that is, he was a man of great affairs. He is said to have been very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. I do not know that we have anyone else spoken of whose belongings were counted in this way except Job. “And he was shearing his sheep at [p. 348] Carmel. And the name of the man was Nabal” (verses 2, 3), which means a fool or an ungodly or impious person. So that it is a grievous picture — he is an intolerable sort of person, and yet he is a Calebite, meaning he had a remarkable ancestry, showing how we may degenerate from our ancestry. He is the husband of Abigail.
Now he is seen as approached by David in a most gracious way. This is all to bring out the details of the position. It is said, “Then David sent out ten young men” (verse 5), these have to be noted too; the young men of this chapter have to be well noted because they are important. There are a great many young men now, it is remarkable how many of them appear at these meetings, and young women too; it is always a challenge as to why they are here, why they are at these meetings. I think we shall see that these are so to speak, assembly men, at least one of them is; they are with David. We are told in verse 14 that one of Nabal’s young men “told Abigail”, as if he understood that she was in the position to arbitrate; she is the leading person, as the assembly is the deciding body in Matthew — the last word is there. These are important facts because we are in the presence of the assembly in type, in fulness, like the queen by the side of the king in Psalm 45: 9, “upon thy right hand doth stand the queen in gold of Ophir”. It is the qualities of Abigail that have to be noted, but one of Nabal’s young men apprised her of Nabal’s rejection and of the scorn heaped upon David. These ten young men were sent to Nabal and David says to them, “And thus shall ye say, Long life to thee! and peace be to thee, and peace be to thy house, and peace be to all that thou hast! And now I have heard that thou hast shearers; now thy shepherds who were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there aught missed by them, all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and [p. 349] they will tell thee. Therefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes; for we come in a good day, give, I pray thee, what thy hand may find to thy servants, and to thy son David” (verses 6 - 8). That is a beautiful address, the Spirit of Christ is in that. The young men are capable of carrying that message, so that it says, “And David’s young men came, and spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased”. They did not prolong their word; that is very good.
GAT There is a time to speak and a time to be still.
JT Yes.
JH Abigail being of a good understanding and a beautiful countenance would be in line with what we had last night in connection with what is inward and outward.
JT She is presented immediately to us by the Spirit as having a good understanding and a beautiful countenance, meaning that although she had a terrible husband, a husband that would worry her life, yet she is not overcome by that; she is greater than that. It is to bring out the character of the assembly; it is not to be overwhelmed by conditions such as difficult persons to deal with.
GAT Would you mind speaking a word for Nabal? Do you not think he gave a very fair reason why he should not give anything that he owned?
JT That is a question. We are now dealing with Christ and the assembly; David represents Christ, and his address to Nabal is very respectful and very gracious. If Nabal had pursued the history of the book, as evidently Abigail had, he would graciously bow and thankfully grant David all that he needed; but he is unworthy, he is entirely unaffected by the ministry.
GAT He said he did not know, but you say he should [p. 350] know.
JT Well, David was there to be known. Did not everybody else know David?
AB It is interesting that the young man says in verse 14, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master”. He had recognition.
JT How did he know? That is the idea. A real and exercised person will know. It is humbling when you get leading persons in the meeting who do not know what is current, because these things are to be known and the assembly has ears. Some leading brothers do not know what is going on, they are not conversant with the current history of the testimony. See what Nabal says, “Who is David?” (verse 10). That man is writing himself down as a fool, and that is what he is accounted to be; that is the meaning of his name, he is writing himself down as that. It is the Spirit of Christ that will test us out.
GAT Is that the reason why the first mention of Abigail speaks of her as having understanding? She knew what was going on.
JT That is what I thought. It says, “The name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance” (verse 3). We have just to read the book to see that she had a most remarkable understanding.
AR You cannot expect to get much out of a leading brother like this when he is exploiting the brethren; he is trying to get all he can from them.
JT Yes; and he is not living with them. The ‘Carmel’ spoken of here is not the real Carmel, according to the note. The word is a park, it is a pleasant place; it may be that he lived in his business, that seems to be the idea.
AR That is where he is making his place of business.
JT Just so.
[p. 351] SMcC Over against Eve and Rebecca and the other types of the assembly, how do you view Abigail?
JT As just what she is called, “a woman of good understanding” (verse 3), which means she is conversant with matters; she has used her mind; she was conversant with David because she knew what to say to him about himself, about the matter that had risen up against him and about other things. I believe that is why she is such a striking type of the assembly viewed as having experience with the things of God; possibly typical of the beginning of the Acts when the saints had experience with the Jewish conditions. They had to do with the Sadducees and other such conditions; the remnant of Israel was there and was still in relation to those conditions. The saints had to arrive at a judgment of them, which they did.
JH In the presence of all the ministry, should we not look for these features more now than ever before?
JT Yes; the saints have to deal with these ‘fool’ conditions, conditions under that influence. What is said of him is, “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him” (verse 25). The clerical system involves that, and the saints have had to do with it, and they have learned it in experience; they take on church qualities in the experience, that is, they take them on because they are to be taken on in the ministry. However weak the ministry may be, the real thing is current and the real saints are taking it on.
SMcC So that in matters that arise in our localities, instead of going beyond the locality and writing away for help (not that one is making little of any help) we would in the light of an Abigail know what to do and how to act.
JT I think so. The care meeting is one thing and the ministry meeting is another; both are seen [p. 352] in this chapter. The care meeting is like the young man laying the matter before Abigail, he knew the facts and placed them where they should be; he tells nobody but Abigail, apparently. The ministry meeting is what we are alluding to in chapter 19; it had already come in and it develops in her because she knows what to say and what to do. The ministry ought to help us in all these local difficulties.
GAT Neither the ministry nor the messengers affected Nabal.
JT Well, that is just so; that is what is said. He is so churlish that Abigail herself tells us about him later. But the young man here in verse 14 says, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master” — he knew it was the spirit of blessing and not of cursing, and that is what is to mark us, “Bless, and curse not”, Romans 12: 14. And he goes on, “and he has insulted them. And the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we companied with them”. These are the young men of David; these men are current. But this is the young man of Nabal speaking, and he is giving his side of the position. He goes on, “They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them feeding the sheep. And now know and consider what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household; and he is such a son of Belial, that one cannot speak to him” (verses 14 - 17). That is his own servant saying that, so that it is a true witness of his condition. So Paul renders a true witness to the condition from which he was now seeking to detach the saints of God, that is, judaism. He says in the epistle to the Thessalonians that the Jews are against all men.
WMcK Is it important in verse 5 to see that the greeting David sends is in his name, so that what [p. 353] comes before us in assembly is in the name of the Lord Jesus?
JT That enters into it too. We were calling attention to the correspondence there is with the early days; it was the Nabal character and the Jewish character that Paul, generally in his ministry but especially in the epistle to the Galatians, was seeking to detach the saints from. It is said in John’s gospel, “The doors shut where the disciples were, through fear of the Jews” (chapter 20: 19); it was this element. And the apostle says about the Jews to the tender Thessalonian assembly, “For ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus; for ye also have suffered the same things of your own countrymen as also they of the Jews, who have both slain the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have driven us out by persecution, and do not please God, and are against all men, forbidding us to speak to the nations that they may be saved, that they may fill up their sins always, but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost”, 1 Thessalonians 2: 14 - 16. That is a word, to the tender gentile assembly, but involved Ephesus, that is, it is the twain made into one: “that he might form the two in himself into one new man”, Ephesians 2: 15. It is the assembly properly, and the apostle is acquainting them with judaism, what it had become, how impossible it had become, against everybody — God and men.
EGMcA Would these ten young men be represented in the following verses 1 and 2 of 1 Thessalonians 3? “Wherefore, being no longer able to refrain ourselves, we thought good to be left alone in Athens, and sent Timotheus, our brother and fellow-workman under God”. Would there be a connection between those ten young men sent from David and this young man?
JT [p. 354] That is good. The same thing is true in Corinth, Timothy is sent in the same way. Paul brought Titus up to Jerusalem, as you will remember, according to Galatians 2, and he was representative of the work of David’s men. They did not compel him to be circumcised because the work of christianity was so complete there was nothing to add to it.
EGMcA As to this young man that came to Abigail — would you say the influence of Nabal had no effect upon him, but he was entirely under the sway of Abigail?
JT That is remarkable, how intelligent he is! He puts the matter on her and the ability she had: “And now know and consider what thou wilt do”. He is not telling her what to do, because the brothers in the care meeting enquire and get the information and place it where it belongs. It is the assembly’s prerogative to execute whatever is needed to be done.
AR I think that is excellent, “Tell it to the assembly” (Matthew 18: 17), is that the idea? The young man is telling it.
JT Just so.
JH David’s young men had been very good to Nabal’s servants, and really had a right to what he asked for.
JT Quite so. Our brother was seeking to defend Nabal, but you do not want to make a defence for a man like that in a care meeting. What our brother is saying now is that it is a matter of right, because David had done him a great service.
JH Would there be much of the Nabal spirit amongst the Corinthians? Paul speaks of the rights of those who labour in the gospel.
JT Paul says, “So also the Lord has ordained to those that announce the glad tidings to live of the glad tidings”, 1 Corinthians 9: 15. The Corinthians were ready to give him their [p. 355] money.
HB Does it link up in any way with Matthew 18?
JT That is the sort of thing, he will not listen to the assembly.
JWD Do you get that sort of thing again in Philadelphia? What form of opposition does judaism take amongst ourselves?
JT It is the legal doubting side, I think; unreasonableness goes with it, unfairness and refusal to recognise obligation. Now Nabal is obligated to David, but he is utterly repudiating that thought. And so it is; you find certain conditions where obligations are repudiated. Take Paul at Corinth, what obligation they were under to him! Whatever else is the case, he says, I am your father. It was through his service they were converted, how could they ever pay back that obligation? I think you will find that that sort of thing comes into our care meetings, and we need this chapter to acquire the Spirit of Christ, whether we see it in David or in Abigail. But it is to be noted that Abigail is really leading here. The Spirit of God seems to make her in a certain way superior to David; not that it could be so in the antitype, but it is to bring out what the assembly is in Matthew really, what power it can have, and how much we need the Spirit of Christ in dealing with matters in the care meeting.
CCT The Abigail spirit should be carried out in our care meetings on the understanding side, and the beautiful countenance would be brought out as a result.
JT The matter of the spirit shown in the care meetings was brought to my mind lately by a brother writing to me from a distant city and speaking of the distressing way in which the brethren spoke to one another. We ought to be respectful, it is useless to talk of loving one another unless we respect one another. This brother said the brethren were not able to speak to one another with [p. 356] due ordinary respect. I know well enough what that is by experience.
GAT It is not so bad now as it used to be.
JT I do not think it is.
Rem Why is it that our care meetings are so long? Why should they not be in line with the other meetings?
JT There is something in that. If I may refer to the meetings in the old country, the care meetings in London are very brief — about an hour and a quarter, and also in Glasgow. Each case is to be taken up on its own merits. In your city of course your care meeting should not be very long; but where there are, for example, ten meetings to attend to once a month, a great many things come up, and we should take time to settle matters.
CCT Would you leave exercises over to the next month?
JT That is a question whether we should. If there are current matters to be attended to they should be attended to; it is better to sacrifice so that they may be cared for.
JW The exercise in Acts 15 was completed, was it not?
JT That is the thing; every month should be a completed matter, both financially and otherwise. At least that is how we find it and it works well.
RG “And now know and consider”, verse 17 of our chapter.
JT Quite so, it is to be done now; and what you find is that Abigail made haste, she did not put it off; it might have been a disaster if she had. It says in verse 18, “And Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes”. She did it at once.
JWD [p. 357] It would seem that if we are in the spirit of the dispensation at the care meeting matters would come to a comparatively rapid conclusion as in this chapter.
JT If we carve the matter out — if we lay out our responsibility, as it is said; “Take care of the assembly of God” — if we take that on and make it a monthly matter, the Lord says, “I am with you always”, and He is with us in that. These are the things He leaves to us ourselves, but He says, I am with you in that.
JWD The ten young men and their concentrated evidence brought the matter out fully. Do you not think that where there is a divided spirit about a matter, it is difficult to come to a conclusion?
JT Ten would be a numeral of responsibility.
Rem How do you look at the provision made by Abigail? Does she exceed her responsibility through her knowledge of David?
JT That is the next thing to see, the female side under her hand, that is what you have in mind. It is said that she took; this is important, I mean the material side of the matter. The Spirit helps in the solution of difficulties so that you have something to meet conditions. So it says, “And Abigail made haste” (verse 18). Her great ancestor made haste in a critical time, to prepare a meal for three Persons that came to him — for God Himself. “Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes, and laid them on asses. And she said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal” (verses 18, 19). That principle had already been set out by Jonathan, not to tell Saul. The husband side, the male side, the responsible side, has to be left out at times. It is a question [p. 358] of love and care, and Abigail is a type of the assembly from that point of view; Matthew is the antitype.
EGMcA She was a woman not only of great intelligence but of great resources. As you say, she did not tell her husband, but in verse 25 she says to David, “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal”. She says, that is not the point before us — it is your interests, and she goes through this wonderful speech to him with him in view all the way through as to his coming glory. Is that the idea? Would not that close up our care meetings sooner?
JT I think that is good — having the glory of Christ in mind in everything. She is very careful to tell him about Nabal, she says, “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal”. That is a remarkable word about her husband.
AR What did you mean by Matthew being the antitype?
JT The assembly is viewed as perfect as an institution; the assembly is a divine institution by itself, having prerogatives, actual prerogatives from heaven. It is representative of heaven as in Matthew 18.
AR Do you mean in what she brings or what she gives?
JT No, what she is herself, and what she has under her hand. Matthew 18 contemplates the assembly as a finished institution, a completed institution. In verse 17 the matter is told to the assembly and her decision is binding.
JWD You are speaking of what you recognise independent of what may be the outward expression of it; you recognise the divine institution in a locality as apart from the actual condition.
JT You take it up abstractly really, we have to do that now, but God is with us in that.
AR “[p. 359] Whatsoever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be bound in the heavens” (Matthew 16: 19). God accepts that.
JT That is what I mean. There are absolute prerogatives down here to settle matters, so that we are never driven to the wall; we are never puzzled; and the point is to be like Abigail and think the thing out, consider what we are going to do. There is constant inquiry about what we are going to do, and how we are going to meet this or that. The first thing is to think ourselves. Do not expect distinguished brothers to think for us; the obligation is on us to consider the matter ourselves.
JH Would you open up a little more about Abigail not telling her husband?
JT Nabal represented judaism, and whatever takes on that character is not to be considered at all; we move on without it.
GAT I suppose if your husband is not in fellowship with you, you would not come home from the care meeting and tell him what took place.
EGMcA Are you considering Nabal more as a condition than as a man married to this woman?
JT Oh, yes, it is a condition — whatever may represent judaism now. He is coming under the government of God, he is banned, he is shut out of the whole matter. She says, “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial”, it is not simply a foolish man, but a man of Belial; he is governed by the devil.
GAT Would you explain what that word means — ‘Belial’?
JT It refers to the power of Satan. It is a form of expression referring to positive wickedness from the devil; that is what is meant. She calls him a man, as she does Saul later; she calls Saul the king [p. 360] a man.
AB Does verse 25, the verse at which you commenced to read, indicate there was no change with Abigail? She says at the close of the verse, “And I thy handmaid did not see the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send”, indicating the circumstances had made no change with her. If she had been there and known of it, the condition would not have been there; the provision would have been made just the same.
JT She would have done what was right; that marks the assembly. Rome has taken on this claim but never acknowledges the rights of Christ, she repudiates them; she says, “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow”. If Abigail had known the facts she would have done what Abraham did. She goes on to say in verse 25, “Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, Nabal”, and then she tells David what his name means. You see, she is like Adam, she can convey what the name means: “For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him”. That is a settled matter with him.
AR I think I can understand why Paul characteristically did not go up to Jerusalem; I suppose that is why he says in Galatians, “O senseless Galatians” (chapter 3. 1).
JT That is what he means. He went up later to his sorrow; he found Nabal there; the account of his arrest and all that followed was Nabal.
JWD This state would deliver us from fear, would it not? We often fear the Nabal element. If we have a conception of the glory, or an apprehension of it in our souls we would operate from that viewpoint.
JT Just so; so that one great point in our care meetings is to be able to name things. What do you think, brothers; and What do you think? Of course it is right enough to ask. One brother might say, I feel ..., but it is better to say, I know. Name the [p. 361] thing at once. That is what David says about her, that she had discernment; he says in verse 33, “And blessed be thy discernment”. She could name her husband.
CCT I was thinking of being able to name things; not only was she able to name it, but able to tell the meaning of the name. We ought to be able to follow that out in our exercises.
JT Just so.
EGMcA Is this a subjective state exemplified in Abigail? Does she save the responsible element exemplified in the male? As David says, “Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me ...” (verse 34).
JT Just so. David drops in a certain sense (though he is a type of Christ) so as to bring out the greatness of the assembly, what it is as left to itself, because that is the position. The Husband is away in heaven, and we are here to represent Him, and I think Matthew shows that the assembly has authority to represent Christ not only in the abstract thought, but that actually the grace is there. Sonship underlies the position before we get to chapter 18, implying that the grace of heaven would be there in what was done.
JH Abigail seems to show great feelings, she says, “Upon me, my lord, upon me let the iniquity be” (verse 24).
JT That is the acceptance of obligation, which is a great point made in the Scriptures and in our care meetings. We are obligated to a matter, to look after it. It says, “The glory of kings is to search out a thing”, Proverbs 25: 2. I believe that enters into our care meetings. As we actually are — just so many people — we have no status really beyond enquirers. We take on the form of authority in assembly with others, sisters and all, but in the meantime it is a tentative matter; we are searching out [p. 362] things and it is the glory of kings to do that; we are just so many persons.
SMcC In Matthew’s gospel the Lord in His ministry alludes more to the final end of things and the judgment of His enemies than in any of the other gospels. Is the point that the assembly as in Matthew 18 — the vessel of administration and of grace — restrains Him, speaking reverently, in the present dispensation in regard of judgment?
JT Yes; it maintains Christ, it maintains what He is here. He says, “And behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age” (chapter 28: 20); so that His ascension is not given in Matthew; it is held out of sight, as it were. In the same way there is much in relation to David that is not mentioned here, but things are held out of sight so as to bring out something else. It is to bring out the mystery of the assembly in Matthew: “Tell it to the assembly”.
Rem Is it noticeable that while Abigail acted in haste, yet the provision she took was ready, it was available? The sheep were ready dressed; Nabal had just been shearing the sheep, but what she had had taken available form.
JT You are really just directed back in your thoughts to Rebecca, an earlier type of the church. She was always ready, too — plenty in the house, everything was ready. The care meeting effects that, things are looked after and kept tidy, according to Psalm 133: 2, “to the hem of his garments”, that is a finished thought.
JW Is the assembly used governmentally then for the judgment of Nabal, in the recognition of the rights of Christ? It seems that Abigail told him nothing more or less until the morning light, and when she tells him his heart dies within him.
JT It is the way the government of God acts in relation to the assembly. There are two collateral [p. 363] lines from Pentecost, the actual direct work of God, and the government of God. Bearing on that the first thing that comes under the government of God is judaism; the decision of the assembly in Jerusalem in Acts 15 is to show how assembly prayer met the Jewish attack. It was a finished exercise, and was met in the assembly — the whole exercise; the letter was sent down, and it was finished so far as that went.
JWD What is your thought as to the hem of the garment? You remember the woman that touched the hem of the Lord’s garment; is the touch a kind of power operating inwardly?
JT I think it refers to the completeness of Christ here, because it was an administrative time peculiarly attached to Himself, only that He brought in the twelve. They did not know what was going on, but it was a finished position; Christ and the twelve apostles involved a finished position, and the dispensation at that time was carrying on in a finished way. You always find whatever He did, He did it well and did it completely.
JWD I was thinking that this thought of completion is important. Certain very wonderful things come out of it.
JT Just so.
JK Would that be suggested in what David says, “Go up in peace to thy house” (verse 35) — the completion of the thing?
JT Yes, the thing is settled; so that the Lord says to the woman, Go in peace. That is the principle of the dispensation; faith comes into it and you can finish the matter.
AR David had in mind to slay Nabal, but he says to Abigail, “Blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming with bloodshed” (verse 33). How do you look at [p. 364] that?
JT The Lord had already said that he should not use the sword, typically it was not the thing to do. David was not to use violence, typifying Matthew; it is not the time of violence, it is the time of the long-suffering of God in grace, but reaching an end, because Nabal died in ten days. He did not die at once; it was a prolonged thing. It brings out the real thing in the saints, the Holy Spirit in the saints. Nabal comes under the government of God in time. It is a question of our patience.
AR Does Jerusalem come under the government of God in type?
JT Quite so; the judgment of that had already come in, “God has judged your judgment upon her”, Revelation 18: 20. The judgment has already come in in Abigail and the young man. Nabal was already judged; he was just set aside; he is not to be questioned or brought into the matter with her. The Lord says of Thyatira, I have done so-and-so, and that is a finished matter with her; and He goes on to Philadelphia.
GAT In the beginning of the meeting you said a good deal about the young element in these young men. Now are you leading us on to experience in Abigail? She had more experience than the younger ones.
JT She is a woman of experience, and experience with a remarkable man, but she maintains her good understanding and her beautiful appearance, her countenance, which is a great triumph.
GAT She completes the thing.
JT She goes through to the marriage. The whole marital matter is settled here, and I believe that is where the defect was during the Middle Ages. The Reformation tried to settle the matter, but it did not, it was only partial. But the more recent revival is a more effective thing, because we have reached Christ and the assembly. The reformed condition did not [p. 365] look for heaven; it was simply a change of conditions. But now we are ‘called out’, the word ‘assembly’ means ‘called out’, ready to go up. The midnight cry has gone forth, “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”, Matthew 25: 6. We are ready to go.
EGMcA Do you mean all the revival of the marital affections for Christ is preparatory to the taking up of the assembly?
JT That is it. We have arrived at the finish, and this chapter is a type of the finish whether it were in early days or now in the recovery.
AR Revelation 18: 20 says, “God has judged your judgment upon her”, referring to the Babylonish system. I was wondering whether we as saints should not have power to judge present military conditions also.
JT We ought to have a judgment about everything; God does not do anything without informing His prophets. I believe among the brethren you get true impressions; no spiritual man would assume to be a prophet about things, but at the same time he has impressions.
EGMcA In this passage we not only have the ability to judge in a negative way, which in one sense is the way we are taking this up, but the ability to heal, to bring in a situation that is perfectly agreeable to the One whose interests we have at heart. Just arriving at a judgment is not enough.
JT What you see in David is that he shines here most when he speaks about Abigail. It is a question of Christ and the assembly — to bring out the greatness of Christ and the assembly.
JWD Does this marriage link on with Revelation 19?
JT Pretty much. Tell us more.
JWD The marital thought coming out in administrative matters links up with Revelation 19.
JT [p. 366] That is right. It is a section at the end of the book, full of hallelujahs; that is victory! “The marriage of the Lamb is come”. Much is said about Babylon and her destruction then. “For the marriage of the Lamb is come”, that is where we are; it is the finish, “and his wife has made herself ready”, Revelation 19: 7.
JWD I was wondering whether the fact of the brethren getting clearer on this line of the truth links on with the Lord’s appearing and has that in view.
JT Yes; Matthew says, quoting the Lord in the parables, “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him” (chapter 25: 6). That has been going on for a good while, and the time has come now when we are about to enter in; and I believe Revelation 19 is to show that as a result of the history and the effect of the ministry on the assembly, she is then complete: “For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready” — His wife — that is historical.
JH Would that expression and also the fine linen given to her, which is “the righteousnesses of the saints”, be the full working out of the administration of the assembly here?
JT I think it is to bring out the whole history. We were speaking about the care meeting — one scripture to support us in it is, “In the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Proverbs 11: 14), and then, “The glory of kings is to search out a thing”, Proverbs 25: 2. In the last chapter of Proverbs we have the “woman of worth”; that must be historical, the allusion is to what she is, and then we are told what she does, and that is what enters into Revelation 19: 8, “His wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure”; she is allowed to array herself in fine linen. Nobody else will be allowed to do it because the garment implies what she is. It is [p. 367] not that she can go and buy the garment she likes; she is allowed to have the fine linen, just as we might say in regard of royalty, ‘Only a queen can have that’. It is a distinction, she has qualified herself so that she is allowed to be arrayed in fine linen, it is ornamentation that is in mind, she is entitled to that because of her history. I believe that is Abigail in type; that she knows all about the current history is evident in the way she speaks to David.
ASB Is Nabal like one we have referred to in Ephesians, “drunk with wine, in which is debauchery”, Ephesians 5: 18? On the other hand we have the beauty of Abigail coming out in relation to the spiritual side, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 17.
JT We are not to be filled with violence, but with the Spirit.
AR She comes “down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”, Revelation 21: 10. Does that suggest what she is in herself?
JT It belongs to her; it is not given to her there. It is granted to her according to her royal state to be “clothed in fine linen ... the righteousnesses of the saints”. The plural ‘righteousnesses’ would be to include every one of us or to intensify the idea, because she is marked, abstractly anyway, at the beginning and at the end and all the way through by righteousness. There is no thought of anyone having any place with God without righteousness; she is recognised as having it, and plenty of it.
GAT What period of the church’s history are you referring to now?
JT At the beginning; what beautiful traits of the assembly you find in the book of Acts! Your heart is thrilled as you see the work of the Spirit in different persons. Take Lydia and Phoebe: these are suggestions of the beauty of the assembly according [p. 368] to what we have in this type, mature persons. Now Phoebe was a dignified person; she is called a patron, a person who can confer advice with dignity without making you little. She is great herself, but she does not want to make you little; she represents moral greatness in the way she did things in Cenchrea.
JWD It makes the historical side of the ministry very interesting, it is a part of our own glory. Often in readings we try to bring everything down to affect ourselves, but the historical side is our glory.
JT Just so.
JH Every maintenance of the rights of Christ is found in the fine linen.
JT That is the thought; your righteousnesses are in it.
AR A great person in the world will make you feel little in his presence, but not a spiritual person; a spiritually great person never does that.
JT The Lord never did that. Peter says to Cornelius, I am a man like yourself.
GAT That is a fine spirit to bring into the care meeting; you do not make any feel small or great.
JT You are what you are; Paul says, “I am what I am”, and we all recognise that. This is not a David chapter; this is not so much Christ as the assembly. The Spirit of God, as it were, places David so that Abigail shines, and David shows his best thoughts; he appears at his best when he is talking about her. He does not say anything about Nabal or Saul or his own exploits; he is talking about her, and she is talking about him. But he is at his best in this chapter in talking about her. He retires to talk about the saints — to put glory on them. So he says to her, “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me. And blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging myself with mine own hand”. — As a matter of fact, she maintains typically the dispensation by her grace; she prevented a happening that would discredit the dispensation, and he sees that now. And then it says, “So David received of her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person”.
Then we have the contrast in Nabal, “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 drunken to excess” (verse 36). “Drunk with wine, in which is debauchery”, that is this man. So it says, “She told him nothing less or more, until the morning light. And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass in about ten days that Jehovah smote Nabal, and he died” (verses 37, 38). That is the government of God; that is the way things are going; we do not take the sword; God does. There are two things under which we come: the government of God, and the direct action of God which is in the assembly. That is our position.
EGMcA This is another finished matter.
JT Just so. Nabal is under the government of God ten days. Abigail did not poison him; she did not do anything to put him out of the way, God did it. He is judged already by her and by the young man; we have a judgment about everything that is going on in the world today. God is working governmentally according to our prayers, if we are with Him; He honours us, and things are happening on account of our prayers. The main thing now is the young men; they have to be watched and preserved, and if this war is going to destroy them either morally or physically it is most urgent that the war should [p. 370] be stopped. But the government of God is usually gradual, because He works something out in us morally. He uses the rod, then He destroys it.
FM It says, “about ten days” in regard to Nabal.
JT That is what I was thinking; it could have been done at once, but it was not.
GAT Is that why we sometimes grow impatient, we cannot wait the full time?
JT “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord”, James 5: 7. The intention is to bring things to a positive finish (all as to Nabal is the negative thing), so it says, “And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil; but Jehovah has returned Nabal’s evil upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her as his wife. And the servants of David came to Abigail to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to thee, to take thee as his wife. And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash [p. 371] the feet of the servants of my lord. And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife”. She comes in like Rebecca, she links on with Rebecca, because she goes to him — he might have come to her, but he did not. It is a type. It is to be pointed out that she brought her damsels with her, “five damsels of hers”, meaning the feminine idea is stressed in her companions; it is a feminine idea, just as with Rebecca, she brought her damsels with her too. The feminine idea is to be stressed in these last days, and if it is to be stressed there must be suffering.
JH Is it not a remarkable expression in verse 41: “Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”? Does that find expression in what Paul said, “To me, less than the least of all saints”, Ephesians 3: 8?
JT Just so; by love serving one another.
ChasT Is this similar to Esther’s exercise? She says, “If I perish, I perish”, Esther 4: 16, and the result is Mordecai speaking peace to all his seed.
JT Just so. As we said, the five damsels here refer to the feminine quality, and in abundance.
Rem She said to the young men, “Go on before me” (verse 19), but here the damsels followed her.
JT Very suitable.
AR Being subject to the Christ — is that what you mean?
JT Just so; that is the attitude in which the assembly is set by God; she is subjected to the Christ.
ASB Does it help us to see what you had in mind if we go back to verse 1? There Samuel died, and the ministry is cumulative now in Israel. The features of Abigail are to be brought out with the intent that they are to be for David.
JT I think it is very beautiful. It is a finished matter right through, and that is what God is aiming at, to do things properly. The matter is finished.
SMcC Would you say a word about verses 43 and 44? “David had also taken Ahinoam of Jizreel; and they became, even both of them, his wives. But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim”.
JT That is a cloud over what we have been saying about the finished side. The two wives go on to Israel; there is more than the assembly in mind. It is David, you might say, set up with these two wives, they are his household; we know that later they are both mentioned as taken away by the Amalekites, so that they are definitely in his household. I suppose the Lord would indicate that [p. 372] in the counsels of God you have Israel and the assembly too.
EC Is it not remarkable that Abigail is released from an undesirable husband and David here is released from an undesirable wife?
JT That is another thing that goes on — adjustments. We were thinking of that this morning, the constant need of adjustment.
EC Still Michal is mentioned later.
JT She is, but she despises David. That is a most sorrowful thing about her, and her judgment is fixed.
SMcC What you have said about Abigail this afternoon should teach us to place greater value upon the working out of administration in our localities. Every result seems more and more to win the affections of the assembly for Christ.
JT That is an excellent thought to go away with.
JW “I ... have accepted thy person”, that would be a commendation.
JT I think that runs through; he had said before, “Blessed be thy discernment”. He is at his best in speaking about her. The Lord seems to love to bring out the truth of the assembly; Mr. Darby was the vessel that God used to speak about the assembly after the general position was reached; that was his constant theme. The Lord gave that full scope, and now He has brought us back to it, but more in the local working out of the truth of the assembly.
GAT What would you say about the transfer from Samuel to David?
JT Well, Samuel represented one side of things; but now he is dead, that is to be noted. It is a certain line of things that God had used according to what we had earlier in our readings, but now it is another line; that is another thing completed. His ministry was completed and now it is another thing, it is Christ and [p. 373] the assembly.
EGMcA As following the type, we do not need Samuel now we have David.
JT No indeed. You might prophesy in the church, but it is to support the truth of the church.