“Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). But what does it mean to be a peacemaker in real life? Well, Nabal’s wife Abigail gives us quite a few good ideas, doesn’t she? After all, unlike most of us Southerners, she is open and honest about the reasons for the conflict between Nabal and David. Instead of trying to sweep everything under the rug or making excuses for Nabal’s rude behavior, she frankly admits to David that her husband is just what his name implies – a fool (verse 25).

And notice that Abigail was willing to do whatever it took to put a stop to the conflict. After all, she was realistic enough to know what warlords like David might do when they are insulted. And so, in order to prevent David from shedding innocent blood (verse 26), she took some of the food that David’s men had asked for, loaded it on donkeys, and went to intercept David before he had a chance to attack. Oh, and she didn’t bother to tell Nabal any of this (verse 19) – because she knew it wouldn’t do any good.

But Abigail didn’t just acknowledge the root of the conflict and work hard to correct it. She was also willing to humble herself, going so far as to take the blame for Nabal’s rudeness (verse 24). And she went even further: even though she was Nabal’s wife, she acknowledged David as her “lord” and herself as his “maidservant” (verse 24). And this is because, unlike Saul and Nabal, she recognized God’s plan for David to be the “ruler over Israel” (verse 30). In short, she knew that David should be treated as the king he would one day be.

But Abigail wasn’t just trying to keep the innocent men of her household from being killed. No, she was also concerned about David’s reputation. She didn’t want him to avenge himself (verse 26) or to shed blood without cause (verse 31). Instead, she reminded David that he could trust the Lord to protect him and to do justice for him (verse 29). She thus called David to rise above his anger, and to be the best man he could be.

So, what does it mean to be a peacemaker? To face conflict honestly and to do whatever it takes to diffuse it. To accept the consequences of the dispute, regardless of where the blame really lies. To be more concerned about the plans of God and the good of our enemies than we are about getting our own way. To be a peacemaker is thus to be like Christ. Is it any wonder that such people are called the children of God?

I Samuel 25:18-35 (NASB)

18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19 And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 And it came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them.
21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good.
22 “May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him.”
23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David, and bowed herself to the ground.
24 And she fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant.
25 “Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26 “Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, since the LORD has restrained you from shedding blood, and from avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies, and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal.
27 “And now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.
28 “Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; for the LORD will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
29 “And should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
30 “And it shall come about when the LORD shall do for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and shall appoint you ruler over Israel,
31 that this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having avenged himself. When the LORD shall deal well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me,
33 and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed, and from avenging myself by my own hand.
34 “Nevertheless, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male.”
35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request.”