|
I think it's quite clear that Abigail is a godly wife. She has a submissive attitude in general, as can be seen even from her reporting what she did to Nabal. He was her husband and she treated him as such and accorded him the authority of that position, even though he was a fool. At the same time, she was a woman of wisdom, and capable of taking matters into her own hands to prevent disaster.
Anyone who wants to use her to defend a lack of submission ought to be sure that they have as much wisdom as Abigail did, and that they take into account her loyalty to her husband. And anyone who wants to argue that submission is mindless needs to take into account her clear and definite actions against her husband's abundantly manifested will (because even if he hadn't expressly told her not to give food to David there was no doubt as to what his answer would have been had she asked).
Of course another lesson from that passage is that when men won't discerningly listen to their wives, they can force them into taking action behind their backs, and come to richly deserve the title of fool.
|