peacegiver lessons

so i got back from break early and i started rereading this book called the peacegiver. this is another INCREDIBLE book. and i have learned so much from it the past few weeks. 

here is lesson #1.

so in the peacegiver it's basically about a husband and wife who are experiencing a rocky time in their marriage (all marriages do of course, but this one was about to destroy it). and the husband, ricky, has this dream where his grandfather appears to him and they have this conversation and learn together.

so in the dream they end up in carmel with biblical people: david, nabal, and abigail. basically david is really mad at nabal and is on his way to nabal's house to seek revenge. david and his men had been protecting nabal's animals and david feels without his help, the sheep would probably have been lost. david also feels that he could've taken advantage of the situation in various ways, but he didn't. doesn't that mean something? but despite all of this and giving so much help and consideration, when their provisions start to run low nabal refuses to help them. i think in the story ricky who is hearing about this story from the grandfather expresses it's no wonder they're mad. 

so david and his men are on their way to pay a visit to nabal. it's also noted that david is a really incredible person, but he's so outraged by nabal's actions that it starts to consume him and it grows and festers. (see blogpost "wolves story.") so they're on their way and they run into abigail. abigail is nabal's wife and when she heard of her husband's treatment to david she quickly gathers what david and his men have asked for, and more, because she's worried david might get upset and do what he's about to do/planning on doing. she approaches them and passes her servants, goes before david and his men, and bows down, facing the ground. 

once they have stopped she says, "upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be." 

"upon you be what iniquity woman?"

"please my lord, i saw not the young men you sent to nabal, my husband. but see, i have provided. please accept of my offering, that this shall be no grief unto thee."

(david looks at what she's got) "you take the fool's sins on your own head? you know the injustice and see us coming to right it, and now you beg for mercy upon thine house?"

"i beg for my house, yes, but for thee also, my lord, that this shall not be an offence of heart unto thee, either that thou has shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself. for the lord will certainly make thee a sure house because my lord fighteth the battles of the lord, and evil had not been found in thee all thy days. so it ever may be so, my lord, i pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid."

... "rise, dear abigail. who am i to withhold forgiveness from one such as you? blessed be the lord god of israel, which sent thee this day to meet me and which has kept me from striking you. and blessed be thine advice, and blessed be thou, dear abigail, who has kept me this day from sinning against the lord. for as the lord god of israel liveth, if not for your intercession, by the morning i would have destroyed every male in thy household."

(samuel 25)

lesson to be continued. :)