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Abishag: Lovely Servitude


Just like most young girls, I daydreamed of being a beauty queen. No, I wasn’t the loveliest girl in town, but I would let my imagination run wild and pretend I was walking on the ramp with the Miss Philippines' crown on my head. I wondered what it would be like to be chosen as the most beautiful girl in the land.


When King David was old, he always felt cold and needed to be under a lot of blankets. And so his officials suggested that they look for a young virgin woman to care for him and lie beside him to keep him warm. Searching throughout Israel, they found Abishag, a young and beautiful woman from Shunem, to serve the king. Abishag was described not once, but twice, to be very lovely. Imagine, the loveliest woman in the country with the job description: King’s Servant! And she faithfully served the king. She laid in his bosom but had no sexual relation with him.


But Abishag's beauty would later cause a larger rift in the king’s family. After King David’s death, his son Adonijah asked Bathsheba's permission to marry Abishag, which would connect her to the intrigue of the throne’s succession. Solomon was livid at this request as such marriage would in effect give Adonijah the throne. So, Solomon put Adonijah to death and the lovely Abishag became the servant of King Solomon.


These days, the things that women do to look and feel beautiful are endless. There are regimens of treatments, pills, whitening creams, and surgical augmentations available only because the industry understand that women want to hear they are lovely.

But where does real beauty come from? Real beauty comes from within; it is internal, not external. That is why God looks at the heart and not at the outward appearance. It’s only in the beauty of the heart that a woman can find love to share and the humility to serve. Even the most beautiful woman in the world, Miss Universe, has her advocacy, and that’s service! Jesus, our Lord, came to serve, not to be served. Dear one, if you want your beauty to shine, love and serve others as Jesus did.