“Let the blame be on me alone.” 1 Samuel 25:24
Following the death of Samuel David and his servants were traveling through the Desert of Maon when they encountered a wealthy landowner named Nabal. David was apparently acquainted with who Nabal was because he had previously entertained his shepherds and been kind to them when they had been in David’s own backyard. Presuming Nabal would be kind enough to return the favor David asked if he might spare some food for his own men, but Nabal, notorious for being “surly and mean in his dealings” refused. Fortunately, Nabal was married to a kind, intelligent, and beautiful woman named Abigail, who upon learning of – and perhaps embarrassed by – her husband’s lack of hospitality, gathered up a generous supply of food and wine, loaded it on several donkeys and had it sent out to David’s men, without her husband’s knowledge.
What I find curious in the story though is this. When Abigail came out to meet David face-to-face, she fell down before him begging forgiveness. “My lord, let the blame be on me alone.” Now, if she felt shame or embarrassment by her husband’s behavior and offered the men some food to make up for it, that’s understandable. But to bear the blame – all of it? Which begs the question, are we to be held responsible when someone else misbehaves?
One judge thought so. It occurred on a cold winter night in 1935 when New York City’s colorful Depression era mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, took over the bench in a night court in one of the city’s poorest wards. A tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with steeling a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. Yet the shopkeeper refused to drop the charges. LaGuardia sighed, then turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you, the law makes no exceptions – ten dollars or ten days in jail.” Simultaneously he reached into his own pocket producing the ten dollars to cover the fine. “Here is the ten-dollar fine which I now remit. And furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat!”. . . And what about me, I wonder? Have I contributed to a culture in which people have to steal bread to eat, or feel they must lie, cheat and steal to get ahead in the world. If that is so, then let the blame be on me.
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