Abigail And David In 1 Samuel

In the story of Nabal, Abigail and David in 1 Samuel 25, there are three narrative elements that are strongly emphasized. These include character progress and transformation, characters, and plot conflicts and resolutions. Each of these elements helps to shape the story and give it a strong foundation in order to create a story that the reader enjoys and can take significance from.

In the story, Abigail is the protagonist. Protagonist can be defined as an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea. Abigail is the good, main character. Ironically, she is married to the antagonist. However, Abigail is the hero of the story. She is told by one of the shepherds that her husband was being ungrateful and selfish and insulting David and

his people who were protecting him. She immediately takes initiative and grabs as much food as she can bring and takes it to David and his men. She bows down at his feet and takes all the blame for her husband’s foolishness. She even defends him telling David to just leave it to God and not kill him. She saves her husband and prevents a war. She wins over David and saves herself by offering the gifts to him and because of everything she has done, David blesses her and thanks her. Abigail causes a transformation. Originally, she might seem like the bad guy because she is married to Nabal but she causes the story to change from bad to good. She runs out and tells David that this is just who Nabal is and to just let God work in him and prevents David for fighting and killing Nabal and starting a war. Instead, she makes peace and rest and helps David herself and David is very grateful and blesses her instead. Abigail totally turns the story around for good.
The characters in the story are known to us through their actions and words.

Abigail is the protagonist, a beautiful and intelligent woman. Her intelligence is seen through her quick actions to immediately go out to meet David and bring gifts of much food and wine for him and his men. She does not need to ask her husband, she just goes and does. She takes initiative and she is kind. We see this also when she is bowing down to David and says that she will serve him and she saves her foolish husband’s life even though she knows he should be killed. However, she shows good character by telling David to let him live because God is working in him and to leave it up to God. Because of all her efforts and kindness, David blesses her and is very grateful for what she has done. David is a mediocre but still strong character. David respects Nabal and his land and his sheep and makes sure that none of his people ever take anything from him but protect his property. When David sees that it is sheep shearing time, he has some of his men go to Nabal and ask for a small share of what he has in reward of their good service and respect for him. He is rejected and David is furious to hear that he was just insulted instead. David wants to go out and fight him and kill him but he is stopped by Abigail who gives him a change of heart. David agrees to show mercy and is full of thanks to Abigail and blesses her and thanks the Lord for placing her in his life and stopping him. David realizes that

God has a plan all along and that God was watching and waiting for the right moment. Nabal is a fool as his name says. He is very selfish and wealthy and wants to keep all his wealth to himself. He mocks David’s men and laughs in their faces. He rejects them and does not care that they had been helping or respecting his land before. He simply laughs at them and then goes back to his palace to throw a feast and get horribly drunk. Just by his actions, we see how foolish he really is. He thinks he can just parade around and do whatever he pleases. His words show us that he is ignorant and dumb and does not think before he speaks.
The plot in the story occurs when David tells his men to strap on their swords and David goes out to get Nabal. The reader is anxious to see what will occur. Instead of a huge fight occurring, Abigail shows up and the plot turns to the falling action. The plot conflict is between David and Nabal and how Nabal is refusing to respect David. By Abigail’s small act of running out to talk to David, she reverses the whole situation and creates a happy ending. Here it shows the result of a smart protagonist and ends the story in a great exposition.
This story is considered a change of fortune story.

It has a punitive plot because Nabal, the unsympathetic, selfish villain undergoes an adverse change of fortune which is death as a result of his foolishness. Each of these narrative elements explained help the reader to really break down each character and understand who they really are and what their motives are. You can even relate to them and connect with them better. The breakdown of the plot is helpful because you get to see where the action is and why emphasis is put on certain areas. All of this gives us a better idea of the author’s purpose and a sense of what they want us to take from this story. This story had good characters and a happy ending which made it enjoyable for the reader. This story teaches us that God is always there watching and always has a plan. It also shows us that God uses people and puts them in our lives at certain times for a purpose. Nothing is coincidental or happens on

accident.