'If you want good advice, go to the town of Abel to get it'

 " And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities, and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord: which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua, the Bethshemite" (1 Samuel 6:18).

We've already seen this great stone Abel as the great spiritual truth that charity is the first thing in the Church. In this connexion the leitmotif of Abel, charity, continues in 2 Samuel:

"She said, “Long ago people used to say, ‘If you want good advice, go to the town of Abel to get it.’ The answers they got here were all that was needed to settle any problem" (2 Samuel 20:18).

If you have any questions about the Word or spiritual life, then all that is needed to settle any problem is to relate the text or experience to love of God and the neighbor and to charity.

In the New Testament, the Lord communicates the same point when noting that all the law and all the prophets hang on those two commandments. So in other words, all the law and all the prophets and all the histories and poems are to be inquired about at the town of Abel, which is enough to settle any problem of interpretation or practice because optimally aligned with the heart and mind of God.

The verse occurs in the section of 2 Samuel when Sheba rebels, which involves the correspondence of Sheba, "those who are in the doctrinal of charity" (AC3240), but in the tails or reversed position, or those who are not in the doctrinals thereof ; hence the state of rebellion against David, who here represents the Lord. For those in doctrinals counter to charity are in a state of rebellion against the Lord. 

When the wise woman who wisely referred to the town of Abel heard that all they had to do to avoid being slaughtered was to kill the rebellious Sheba, she promptly arranged for his head to be thrown over the wall. 

This signifies the defeat of the doctrinals of those who are not in charity in a very similar way to the incident in 1 Samuel when the Philistines are obliged to return the ark of the Lord; for there was a sacrifice then at the great stone Abel, as we see from the verse with which we began.

The verse with which we conclude is a timely reminder that it is definitely not normal to slay Mussolini at the rock Mussolini or to slay Gaddafi at the winepress of Gaddafi. There is thus certainly a higher meaning expressed thereby. That meaning involves falsehoods against which the Israelites were then combatting; but it is here repeated that the importance of properly understanding references to stones and great stones in these histories may be clearly understood.

"And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan" (Judges 7:25).