THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RELATION TO THE TYPES OF THE ASSEMBLY (5)
[p. 350] THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RELATION TO THE TYPES OF THE ASSEMBLY (5)
1 Samuel 25:1-33; 1 Samuel 25:39-44
JT We have here perhaps one of the best types of the assembly. Christ is before us in His Davidic character. His royal kingly qualities and military power, and particularly as inaugurating the service of God. Abigail is introduced to us as a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance. The description agrees somewhat with that given of David himself, who is said to be “ruddy, and besides of a lovely countenance and beautiful appearance”, 1 Samuel 16: 12. In none of the other husbands or bridegrooms typifying the Lord do we get such a reference. It is Christ in His excellence, first, as to what He is personally. His personal attractiveness, and then His military power in chapter 17, and then His kingly and ministerial power; and in the service of God he became marked by priestly qualities.
The description of Abigail in chapter 25 brings out a complete correspondence to David in feminine qualities. She fits into Romans 7. We spoke of it yesterday as regards the legal type in Zipporah, but here we have the death of the husband, Nabal, so that she is free “to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God”. And moreover, that we should “serve in newness of spirit”. We should be to another first, who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we should bear fruit to God, and then in verse 6 “having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter”. Her husband was living when she came into touch with David, but he died within ten days. “Jehovah smote Nabal”. “His heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass in about ten days that [p. 351] Jehovah smote Nabal, and he died. 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”, 1 Samuel 25: 37 - 39. His heart died within him. Jehovah smote Nabal and he died. Abigail’s husband is dead clearly, and David is particular to notice that; “David heard that Nabal was dead ... and ... sent and communed with Abigail, to take her as his wife”. So that the road into assembly position in relation to Christ is made clear. The way is made for her to become the wife of David, typically the wife of Christ, made for one who is equal to the position too, who takes it up and graces it. Her graces and her assembly qualities are seen more in her first meeting with David than later. There is little made of her later. She is fully attested to here in her manner in meeting David. That is to say, in applying it to ourselves, we come in contact with the Lord in circumstances such as are described, such as the death of the prophet Samuel, and the opposition of Saul whose character is seen in Nabal. David is still in rejection, but in military power. So that I think we ought to consider Abigail as representative of the saints now taking up the assembly position and doing so intelligently, bringing out the qualities immediately, particularly in her having a judgment as to the one who had a place as husband before.
AEH Do you think that what underlies the whole type of Abigail is the preservation of conditions from which and in which the service of God can be maintained? She seems to maintain the outstanding conditions of the dispensation in her attitude and spirit.
JT I think she would, though there is little made of her later, save that she maintains her place as one of David’s wives. The traits of the assembly are seen at once and they are not freshly developed, as in a young woman like Rebecca, but in one of mature age who has had to do with a man like Nabal. She has developed her assembly qualities in a position that did not promote those qualities. It is just like what Peter says, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. We have believed and known. That is the idea. The one who should inaugurate the service of God was in Peter’s mind while others were departing, turning away from the Lord, and manifesting Nabal qualities. There was complaint in Capernaum against the Lord and against the special teaching He was developing in John 6. Peter and the others with him speak and say, “We have believed and known”. You can see he had believed and known.
LES Would you say a word as to the death of the prophet here, how it fits into the understanding of the type.
JT I think the suggestion is, that she acquired her qualities through the prophetic ministry. The place it has in 1 Corinthians I think is just that. The preservation of the assembly is in mind and hence the great stress laid on prophetic ministry. This ministry is seen persisting in the midst of the contrariety from Saul, and from the people. Samuel said “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you”. He persisted, whatever their attitude, and I think that is the meaning of it, and corresponds with the importance of prophetic ministry as in 1 Corinthians.
Rem So Nabal would be the product of Saul, the public side, and this woman the product of the prophetic side working in the public position.
JT Well, that is what I thought. She had developed these qualities whereas Nabal is called a churlish man. He says, “Who is David?”. Fancy [p. 353] a man saying that when you think of the history of David in those days. It reminds you of Saul in chapter 17, “Whose son is this young man?” and yet he had been in his house and ministered to him. So Nabal says, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master. And shall I take my bread, and my water, and my flesh which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whom I know not whence they are?”. Well, that is pride. Nabal knew well enough who David was. David’s was a most gracious message. It is the spirit of Saul in Nabal. A man like this would flourish in the days of Saul and would no doubt carry far with man like Saul. He knew all about Saul and knew nothing of David. Anybody who knew anything would have known about David. A young man could describe him perfectly, one of Saul’s own young men.
RWS It says she did not tell her husband Nabal, like Jonathan who did not tell his father. She is able to keep things.
JT I thought of that. There are two witnesses to that, as you say. “Jonathan ... told not his father” what he proposed to do, which was a spiritual decision. That she did not tell Nabal, shows the importance of hiding things when they should be hidden. The Lord Himself said several times, “Tell ... no man”.
SMcC In what sense would the Holy Spirit stand related to this type?
JT The Spirit had a great place in the days of David and as David is introduced to us in 1 Samuel 16, we are told that “the Spirit of Jehovah came upon David”. His name is first mentioned in this passage. The meaning of David is ‘Beloved’. That is like the Holy Spirit coming on Christ as recorded in the synoptic gospels, coming in the form of a dove upon Him as He is announced to be the Beloved. John the baptist says, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon him”. I suppose the Holy Spirit is seen in this book particularly to show how He came in the expression of divine love. The Spirit is here today in relation to divine love. That is how He came on Christ who was then announced to be God’s beloved Son. David typifies Him thus — Christ as the beloved of God. It was not simply on the Person, but on ‘The Beloved’. “The Spirit of Jehovah came upon David from that day forward” as if he is here now, and Abigail comes under that too, for David is seen henceforth as loved femininely. The song of the women is “Saul hath smitten his thousands, and David his ten thousands”. We are told too that “all Israel ... loved David”. He is a lovable person. The Holy Spirit is on lovable people and those lovable to the saints too. So that I suppose Abigail would be a sort of product of the Holy Spirit in that way. The Spirit is a long time here — not simply come at Pentecost, but here a long time, so that persons are known as loved by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
LES Would it answer somewhat to Colossians, “who has also manifested to us your love in the Spirit”, Colossians 1: 8? That is the only time the Spirit is mentioned in the epistle, but you have all the wealth the Spirit has produced.
JT Quite so. They are lovers in the Spirit to show how genuine it was. The love by which David was loved is remarkable. The Spirit came upon him, it says, when the description is given. Jehovah says, “Arise, anoint him”. That [p. 355] is in the midst of his brethren. It is a well-known matter. It is quite obvious that the Spirit came upon him, but not simply on the person, but the person recorded as to what his name means; on David, and the word means ‘Beloved’. This is a public matter really, because it is in the midst of his brethren, a most beautiful scene, corresponding with the Lord’s position in the Jordan. John said, “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God”. He became known to a good many at the Jordan doubtless, so that heaven’s love for Christ was known. The apostle says by the Spirit that “God gives not the Spirit by measure”. The presence of the Holy Spirit has been for a long time here.
Rem What you have said seems to explain why there is no outstanding figure mentioned such as water or something else in connection with Abigail. Attention is being called to the man, and the Spirit would be working in connection with that.
JT That is the thought. David is later making a comparison between the love of women and the love of Jonathan — what masculine love is over against feminine love. The love in David is greater than even the love that is in Abigail and that is how it should be. It was in David historically a long time and, of course, she was probably as old as David, so that she is contemporary in regard to what is most precious, and not only what characterises Christ in the assembly eternally. It is a question of love — masculine and feminine affection.
FNW This is a direct link with Psalm 45, “anointed thee with the oil of gladness” and then the kings’ daughters brought in.
JT Very good. The Lord is seen there as the King. It is the song of the Beloved really. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions.
CFN What she says in verse 28 brings out her discernment of David. She says, “I pray thee, forgive the transgression of thy handmaid: for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a lasting house; because my lord fights the battles of Jehovah, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days”. And [p. 356] then she speaks of him as being bound in the bundle of the living with Jehovah. Does that prove, what she is spiritually by what she sees in David?
JT I think so. I think that brings her in as parallel with Peter. Peter says, “We have believed and known”. It was a historical thing and the product of experience, the knowledge of the Holy One. Here she had a knowledge of David as a military man of genuine character, showing she was really his contemporary. She is not one freshly converted and in her first love, but a contemporary person capable of knowing David and what marked him, but, of course, she had a judgment of her husband as well. She was a woman of discernment. He refers to her in that way, saying, “Blessed be thy discernment”.
JH Would her understanding and her discernment be qualities formed by the Spirit necessary for a right apprehension of David?
JT I would say that. It is the Spirit bringing out what was seen in David. The distinction between masculine love and feminine is striking in his history. It is he who brings it out, so that we have Jonathan’s love for him mentioned. We should observe what is said in chapter 18, verses 2 to 7. We are told also that “All Israel and Judah loved David” (verse 16). We may be sure that Abigail was not outside of all that. She was there. It is a contemporary history, therefore, a growing and deepening affection and intelligence as to the anointing of David; that is, of Christ.
WB-w So that the word, “a woman of good understanding” would show she was experienced.
JT She would be ready for whatever developed further as she had learned in her younger days as contemporary with David. She was a contemporary like the other women of Israel. She no doubt regarded him and exceeded most of them. As a [p. 357] contemporary further we have Michal of whom it is also said that she loved David, but it was a mere shadow of the thing and it was untrustworthy. She is given to somebody else here, and she might as well be. She comes in in a sinister way, like the denominations. It is really a snare to Christ and the testimony.
Rem Now that we have Abigail who corresponds to David, the Michal element goes down; she is given to another. One thinks of the steady deterioration in things all around.
JT It is said that she loved him, and at one time, to save David from Saul, she put an image in the bed and the net of goats’ hair at its head. It was a bad sinister action, though she showed some regard for him. Abigail is the contrast to all that; she loved David genuinely with a thorough understanding of him. So right through this history we have comparative love and the difference between masculine love and feminine love. David’s is a time of love. Solomon speaks of “a time to love”. Solomon was loved of Jehovah. It was a time when different persons became tested as to the object of their affection, so that love is under observation. Love is a very important item in christianity. John says, we should not have known it at all if Christ had not laid down His life for us. We do not know it in natural things; it is developed through death, the death of God’s Son. David went through death typically and therefore comes into our times to make a comparison of love. What kind of love have I got? Of what depth is it? Is it abiding love? Is it a love developed through experience? If it is, it is an Abigail love.
AR It says that “All Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them”. That would be experimental [p. 358] love.
JT They would see him. You may be sure there was much talk about him as an object of genuine affection.
CAM You were alluding to what David says in 2 Samuel 1, “passing women’s love”.
JT That is what I was alluding to. It is a final comparison made. It is to bring out what the love of Christ is in the fullest masculine sense, and feminine love in the assembly, but this is not as great as Christ’s love. The masculine is always greater. David in the type is qualified to judge this, because the first mention of David is by his name. He is already in mind as a person, the son of Jesse, but as the Spirit of God came upon David, his name is given; it means ‘the beloved’. He is mentioned in the book of Ruth, but that does not mean it is the first mention of his name. The Holy Spirit will come upon a person who is loved. He came on Christ as peculiarly so, not as He comes on us collectively; it was unique upon Christ personally. He was great enough for that, but it is as heaven announced its love for Christ.
LES Would Paul’s word in Galatians 2 fit in with Michal’s character? He says, some were “brought in surreptitiously, who came in surreptitiously to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage”.
JT Well, that is, I think, what she is; an element in christendom that does not hate Christ. She despises him in time, but there was love in a way there as far as she could have it. She is not a type of a real christian, but a person who has some regard for Christ, but who, in a test case, despises Him. That is the sorrowful side. She is given to another here. Saul did that. He has done his work through her to damage David. Now he gives her to another.
[p. 359] Ques Would you say a word as to Abigail’s remark that David fights the battles of the Lord? Does that enter into the thought of love in a comparative sense?
JT Well, I think we see it in what we have already remarked. The women came out when David returned from the battle; it is then that the feminine side shows itself, “Saul hath slain his thousands”. He is not yet out of view but is diminishing in their minds. This section is to show how the Nabal or Saul quality is gradually diminishing, but soon to disappear. In Nabal’s case, it took ten days. David said of Saul, “His day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish”. He was shown the greatest consideration, but in the end he dies on Mount Gilboa. It is all carefully ordered, that these two men should die so as to make way for others, really for David. It is all to make way for David.
AEH Is the idea of the battles of the Lord seen illustrated in John 18? The Lord said, “The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?”. He was really engaged in the battles of the Lord there, was He not?
JT Well, chapters 18 and 19 of John and the Lord’s conversation with Pilate bring out the Lord’s relation with the powers that be. It shows the remarkable power of the truth. He said to Pilate, “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above”. John 19: 11. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants had fought ... but now my kingdom is not from hence”, John 18: 36. We have part in this battle. The peculiar kind of warfare that Christ is waging Himself now is a heavenly warfare. It is really brought out in Ephesians. That is, “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of [p. 360] this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”, Ephesians 6: 12. That is, the darkness of this dispensation, the peculiar kind of darkness active from above. Of course, we can bring that into our chapter. The battles of the Lord have been going on ever since Pentecost not with ordinary swords. “Put the sword into the sheath”, is the Lord’s word. “All who take the sword shall perish by the sword”. We are still in this war. We are never out of it if we are good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus will take up warfare again when He comes out of heaven. Our position at the present time is a mysterious sort of thing. People do not understand us and the purpose of our warfare.
JWD Feminine affection in us as connected with Christ on our side, does not reach to affection for Christ for what He is to God.
JT I think this section is helpful in bringing out what kind of affection I have. Have we love like Michal? A christian may come forward under certain circumstances and contend for Christ, but would allow idolatry in doing so. It is a mixed sort of thing. She puts an image in the bed. What we are saying is well worthy of our consideration. What kind of love have I got? Because there is a variety, and it is in the David period that it comes out. There is in David supreme love. There are other loves too. There is love like Jonathan’s. It was a remarkable love, surpassing the love of women, as David says, but still he clave to the house of Saul till the last, and died on Mount Gilboa like Saul, so he did not go all the way. Michal’s love did not go all the way at all; it is connected with darkness, an image in the bed, and yet you might say she did the best she could, and when another test came she despised him. That is a testing consideration; one might defend David at one time and despise him at [p. 361] another. There were women that came out and sang their songs about Saul and David. They were not very clear, but they gave David more than Saul. Still Saul was not out of their minds. When we come to Abigail, Saul is completely out of mind. She is representative of the assembly. It is only as I see that all elements of Saul’s kind are reprobate, that I am ready for the assembly. I no longer vindicate natural sentiment, and that sort of thing.
AB The apostle so often said to the Corinthians, “Do ye not know?”. He has to tell them about love in chapter 13.
JT The love chapter; “a way of more surpassing excellence”. He brings in the comparative side there. “The greater of these”, not the ‘greatest’. It is the comparison that is in his mind.
G-. Abigail says, “I pray thee, forgive the transgression of thy handmaid”, but it was Nabal who had transgressed.
JT She is an upright woman; she was Nabal’s wife still, legally so, anyway. She does not disclaim responsibility for her husband’s liabilities. She is accepting them and facing the thing. That is the first thing she has to do; one of her young men says this to her; “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”. David was going to destroy the males and she faced the thing. That brings out a great quality in the assembly, that those who belong to it characteristically face obligations. David had asked for things from Nabal, but Nabal refused in a most disdainful way. She brings two hundred loaves, as it says, “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, and laid them on [p. 362] asses. And she said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you”, 1 Samuel 25: 18, 19. She knows what to do. This is what was needed and she met David. He came down on one side and she on the other. They met on the plain.
WGT The young men of Nabal were more righteous than he. Abigail had in mind the preservation of the young men.
JT Yes. The young man knew where to place the information. Why did he not tell Nabal? He knew better. It brings out what is in keeping with Abigail’s good understanding. She knew what to do.
RRT In her dealing with the matter, there is something for us in the fact that she does not attribute the disgrace to Nabal, but she takes it herself.
JT Well, that is what I was thinking. Every true assembly person accepts obligation. If it attaches to one, it attaches to all. It is a question of fellowship.
RWS In this matter of love I would like some more help. Is the Lord’s love always seen in a masculine sense?
JT Always in a masculine sense. It is always that. It is the supreme idea. John says, “Hereby we have known love”. You may say he must have known it in the bosom of Jesus, but he says it is known because He laid down His life for us. It is a supreme test of love to die for the brethren.
AR Does the presentation of masculine love in the Lord develop in us masculine love or feminine love?
JT Feminine love is expressed collectively. That is what we have to bear in mind for Eve is a type. That is what God has in mind — Adam and Eve. It is Christ and the assembly, and in their eternal relations, so that love in the assembly is collective, what we have together. Can we love together? Can [p. 363] we do that? Maybe we never thought of it. The first and second Corinthians are to bring out love. Paul has to describe it in the first epistle. He says, “Shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”. That is the way of love. What we had yesterday afternoon about Zipporah speaks of this but it was not very much; that is the assembly in the wilderness. The apostle is aiming at producing love among them and so he gives the complete picture in the first epistle, and I suppose the second would bring out love developing among them, real assembly affection developed among them.
CHH Would masculine love be expressed in the assembly as we proceed to sonship?
JT That would be love to God. Sonship is love to God, it is not feminine love, It is masculine love in sons, but the assembly’s love for Christ is developed in a collective sense. It is what we are as gathered. It is a question of subjection. The Corinthians were wanting in that. It helps to follow that. It was a little sister who had no breasts in Canticles. She is to be spoken for. That is what the apostle is getting at in his efforts at Corinth.
AL In 1 Samuel 18 it says, “Michal Saul’s daughter loved David”. It does not say he loved her.
JT That is important. She loved him. It was genuine love so far as possible but it failed. Divine love never fails.
AR Do you develop also masculine love in the assembly?
JT Love for God is that kind. It is a question of what man is before God. The word ‘man’ covers male and female and I think in the great ultimate it is not the feminine thought at all. It is the masculine thought, in “the men whom thou gavest me”. It is a question of sonship, so that love for God is not the same as love for [p. 364] Christ.
CHH How would love come out as we are considered as the Lord’s brethren?
JT It is not collective. The word ‘brethren’ is simply so many persons, but the idea of the assembly is a unit, all united together. It is an organism. That is one of the greatest things to get at. Can we love together?
Ques Is the thought of the Head of the assembly involved in the man and the woman bringing about the love together that you are speaking of?
JT I think so. Christ is Head of the assembly in a personal way. The body is a complete thought by itself. The proper figure is a man and his wife, headship is in a man and his wife. Christ is Head over all things to the assembly, as much as to say, He will refer to her. In dealing with the universe He will refer to her. “To the assembly” means He will refer to her. I suppose if David had any counsels to take, you may be sure he would bring Abigail into it. There is not much made of her afterwards. It is an experimental thing. It is a historical matter. As soon as she met David it would all be there.
JHE Assembly love is the Lord’s last ministry, that you might have love among yourselves — love together.
JT Exactly, but it is love among yourselves. It is a remarkable way of putting it.
CAM Would you say, this masculine love is expressed in Paul when he said, “I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God”? In a sense that is the reflection of the love of Christ.
JT Quite so. He had espoused her as a chaste virgin to Christ. The more you think of this the more you see how Paul had it in his mind in his dealings with Corinth, and I believe Abigail is like the house of Chloe or the house of Stephanas. It is really an Ephesian suggestion. It is the Davidic character of Christ in view of royalty, and kingly [p. 365] qualities, and even priestly qualities in the service of God. What will Abigail be now? She will not be a mere drudge in the house, you may be sure. She is going to be a true wife, a person of understanding, but of a long standing. She was a contemporary with this kind of love: Now as she comes into contact with David it is all there. It is a wifely love that would stand the test.
LES Would the two thoughts be seen in Revelation 21: “a bride adorned for her husband”, the feminine, and “the tabernacle of God is with men”, the masculine?
JT Exactly. Take that to illustrate what we are saying. It is a love of standing. The second verse of it brings the assembly in abstractly. She is called the holy city, the new Jerusalem. That is not a sudden thing. She is at least a thousand years old. It is in connection with the eternal state of things, so that it is a long standing matter. Verse 9 brings in the same thing, only it is the beginning of the millennium and brings out what can be in relation to millennial conditions. In chapter 19 she is the wife, the Lamb’s wife, to whom it is given to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright; she is the same in chapter 21: 9, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. It is all to bring out what she is, in the status of a wife; her love is of long standing. That is the kind of love that is valuable. It is a seasoned love. It stood the test.
WR Is that not the kind of love that you have in Proverbs 31, in the virtuous woman?
JT The virtuous woman is a type of it. Her husband is absent, but she is true to him.
FNW Does glory to God in the assembly involve masculine love only, or feminine love as well?
JT Glory to God in the assembly. It is not the glory of God, but glory to Him, that issues forth out [p. 366] of the assembly,. Glory to Him throughout all generations in the assembly in Christ Jesus, having power in that setting. It is effective really by Christ, what He develops in the assembly Godward. What goes up to God is masculine.
FNW That would be masculine, would it?
JT It would be. God has no wife. It is a question of Christ and the assembly. God does use the term ‘husband’ in regard to Israel in the Old Testament, but the truth in christianity is seen in man — male and female. Christ and the assembly.
WW Why is Abigail found married to such a person as Nabal?
JT Its meaning is seen, I think, in what existed as the Lord went up to heaven. The saints were still related to judaism. Nabal is judaism. Saul is judaism, but as soon as the husband is dead, then there is liberty to be married to another. That is, judaism became dead. We become dead to the law and this severs us. That is a touching thought. We die, as it were, and are now at liberty to be married to another, not anybody, but even to Him that is raised from among the dead. It is a moral thing. The matter of the death of Nabal and Saul applies to ourselves and to all that judaism meant to the body of Christ, that we might be to another, not to belong to anybody, but to be married to another, even to Him who is raised from among the dead.
Ques Would a comparison with our first type, Eve, help us at this point? There is no previous history there and no historical surroundings at all, but Abigail has both, and is the thought that these are the exercises of the kind of affections that serve the Lord that would enable us after the Supper to reach the highest thought of union?
JT I think that is good. You want to have as mature a love as you can have. The Ephesians had first love. They are the only ones who are spoken of in that way: “Thou hast left thy first love”. You cannot say that is mature love. It is the first, the freshest and in a way, the most delightful. Love never fails. Genuine seasoned love never fails. I believe abstractly it is the love in the assembly which the Lord values right through. It is coming up in the end, and He is going to tell certain ones about it, to make them know He loves her. It is a lovable person, “that they shall know that I have loved thee”. I believe John shows us that love going right through to the end. The assembly comes down from God. Love is of God. She has the glory of God. She really comes from God. She has got love.
APT Verse 42 says, “Abigail hasted and arose”. Is that the agility of love operating?
JT Abigail hasted and arose. She acted herself. The damsels who followed belonged to her. They followed her and she went after the messenger of David and became his wife. She is no mere novice, she is a person who understands the position. If it is a military man that has power to do ill and cause disaster, who needs appeasing, she knows what to do; and now that she is to be his wife, she is no novice.
AEH If I follow your thought clearly, are you suggesting that this is the kind of love that should mark us now? There has been a long history and in this peculiar time in which we are living this seasoned love should be in evidence.
JT That is the idea. It is a love that is developed toward Christ. It is like persons in the church of Rome, that were real christians but they were not dissociated yet from the old position, but they are ready for it. The prophet Samuel dies, and clearly Abigail is to take the place. The military position is to supersede the prophetic. Samuel dies and is fully recognised, and she comes in on the scene immediately. Undoubtedly she has been [p. 368] engaged with the prophet. If she ever met Samuel you may be sure he would tell her about David. She was developing understanding spiritually as a contemporary of David. What is going on in christendom now? Many are given prominence who are not yet severed from their own husbands, but the prophet dies and God brings about conditions which sever them. They are no novices. They are a remarkable element of christendom. It is assembly material, seasoned assembly material.
CFN Would it be right to say this power of discernment is peculiarly a feature of the assembly?
JT Well, that is the first thing that David says to her. “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel” (verse 32). That is, it is God’s work. God is working with this person. This is not the first time God has dealt with this woman. She has a spiritual history. Now David says, ‘He has sent you to me’. He recognises she is under God’s control 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” (verse 33). Remember that she is given that honour to intervene so that David should not be in a false position. That is an important matter that Christ, as viewed here in testimony, should not be put into a false position. It is one of the features of the assembly that she should prevent that.
Ques Could you say a word about Ahinoam? David takes her at the same time, but in chapter 30 she is spoken of first, before Abigail. Would she represent one of whom there is no previous history recorded?
JT Well, I had not thought of it. It is said here that “David had also taken Abinoam of Jizreel; and they became, even both of them, his wives”. I would think that she is no doubt there before Abigail, but they became both of them his [p. 369] wives. They were genuine wives. They had the wifely features. There is not much said of her until afterwards only that they had this status, and over against Michal who did not deserve it at all.
AR These marriages have no ceremony attached to them.
JT It is the wifely confidential idea. A wife should be a confidante and Abigail would be especially so.
WB-w Was Ahinoam suggestive of Israel still having her place?
JT He had taken her according to the passage read. They became both of them his wives. It is the fixedness of the relation that is made clear.