Originally Posted by Caroline

I'm sorry, but this thread does appear rather odd to me.

Do Reformed people consider submission to be the highest commandment of God that trumps everything else? Because, if so, I'm really in the wrong place.

What kind of twisting, winding trail do we have to go down to come up with the conclusion that God demands total submission all the time, regardless of what those in authority are doing? Sure, as a general practice, people should submit to those in authority over them. But the Bible praises many who stood up to ungodly authority and did the right thing. Think the midwives refusing to obey the Pharaoh's order, or Jonathan helping David against the orders of his father/king, or Esther defying the law to appear before her husband/king without being summoned, or the apostles continuing to preach even when ordered to stop, or ... I could go on and on.

I think Abigail did what she did because it was the right thing to do. I think she called her husband a fool because he was. The Bible gives as an overall guideline that women should submit to their husbands. It never says that there are no exceptions or that women are obligated to support their husbands in doing sinful/dangerous/wildly insane stuff that is likely to get people killed.

There is a term for a society that demands abject, mindless obedience no matter what. It's called a 'cult'. For the rest of the world, I can't imagine how this story is a problem at all.

Question: God tells us to submit to the leaders at our church. But if the pastor and elders at your church (or for those of you who are pastors and elders, whoever you answer to) had the lovely idea of setting the church on fire with everyone inside, would you be required to submit to them? Would you have to run through hoops in your mind to figure out whether disobeying them somehow benefited them in such a way as to still be considered 'submission'? Or would you just say, "A leader behaving this badly really shouldn't be in charge anymore" and take matters into your own hands?

This was, in effect, what Nabal was doing (setting the place on fire with everybody inside, I mean). Abigail and the servants had a little common sense about them.