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 [aa]bloodshed and from [ab]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 [ac]male.” 35 So David received from her hand what she had brought him and said to her, “Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to [ad]you and [ae]granted your request.”
36 Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything [af]at all until the morning light. 37 But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
David Marries Abigail
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent [ag]a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you to take you as his wife.” 41 She arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Then Abigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who [ah]attended her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
43 David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.
44 Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
Vengeance belongs to God, plain and simple. When we try to “get even”, we can (and will) mess it up. We’ll go too far, or we won’t be satisfied that we’ve done enough. We’ll destroy relationships, or worse. Ultimately, one can get swept up in a cycle of retaliation that only ends in tragedy.
But God knows how to take care of us better than we do, and He alone is capable of judging us for our deeds appropriately. We need to trust Him when we are wronged. Trust God with the outcome, and with our next steps so that we do not put ourselves in the wrong as well.
Only then can we be assured of avoiding a gross over-reaction and keep ourselves following His plan for our lives. Don’t let someone else’s lack of judgment throw you off track.