God gives us so that we can give to others

From: July 11-17, 2006 Study: # 452

TOPIC: “God gives us so that we can give to others” 1 Samuel 25:1-12 One can not give what one does not possess, but we cannot refuse to give what we can share with those who are in need. We are called to be good administrators of all that God has given us. It’s not that we are pending to receive what we do not deserve to take advantage; that is not fair. Neither can we pretend to supply others needs using what belongs to others, when we are the ones who have to do it. Many times we face situations at our own convenience, but we must learn to respond the right way. God will ask for each one of us to give according to His will, not more, not less, but what God asks and demands of our lives. A true believer can clearly see what God wants and demands. Nabal, a man from Israel, was senseless and foolish to not understand the importance to give when God asked him. This man was from the descendant of Caleb and was a very rich man. (Verse 2) As Nabal did, today we can see that as the power and the excess of engagements possess us, we do not take time to meditate how we should live this life with God and towards others. In Genesis 2:2 we read that God established a day of rest for men. Surely God did this so that we would sit and analyze what our life is and make a balance of who we are, what we have and what God requires from us. But, as the years go by we forget this and do not seek to understand how we should proceed in this world. We must seek and look where we have lost. We must realize that this is because we haven’t had a moment of rest. We must examine ourselves to see if we have done what God requires from us, of all the good we have done or all that we have not done. We must search to see if there is passion in us for God and if we yearn for His coming; how we have loved Him and if we’ve given others what belongs to them. This incident between David and Nabal shows us the insensitivity of men when there is a need and an opportunity to give. When we stop loving, everything turns wrong in our lives. When love is gone there is no interest towards others. Revelation 2: 3, 4 We do nothing for others, we just survive working and accumulating for ourselves and we never take a day of rest and go to a service to meditate and adore God and seek so that our hearts will be filled with love for those who surround us. We adjust to only comply, this is sad because in this way we will have no progress in God. Something happens when deep inside of us, we feel and know that we were meant to give and be a blessing to others who are in great need. Caleb had received good lands before all this happened. Joshua 14:13. Caleb was a brave man, a man of faith in God, who did not live for himself, but he knew for whom he lived, for his descendants. So Nabal was very rich because of the inheritance Caleb had left him. David, who was anointed by God was in distress and had to ask for bread for him and his men. Nabal faced a great problem because he was being tested. Regretfully, David encountered a man who was hard hearted and of bad deeds. (Verse 3). Nabal was exposing his life with his bad response without knowing it. He was exposing his life and all he possessed because of the lack of knowledge. We must be sensible and not foolish as Nabal was. Nabal was buried in his bad deeds. David did not go to him with authority, but with a need that compelled him. Not even for a moment did David try to take advantage because he was a chosen and anointed by God, but he was asking for food because David’s worriers had protected Nabal’s pastors for a long time. David knew God directly and his men, even though they were warriors, they had a way of behaving according to the justice of their leader.

What happens? When we become nonsense we cannot see the needs of others. Men and women, who meditate with their heart, can understand that if they serve those who are in need they will never lose, but gain a lot. For this reason we must always meditate and think in God and in others. The problem is that we live seven days a week only thinking in ourselves. Nabal was supposed to give tribute to the king who was the anointed and selected by Jehovah. David was not asking for a contribution. Nabal’s duty and obligation was to give tribute to David for he was the anointed, the general who took care and defended his sheep. David did not borrow from him in a rude way, but as a servant, as a friend. But Nabal was a hard, perverse, cruel, silly man that did not understand the great danger he was exposing himself and his loved ones to. The more stubborn we get, we forget that we are harming others, because we are no longer friends and we turn into enemies; there is no peace, no love, and no surrender to others. And the worse thing is that an enemy enjoys doing harm to others. Nabal was rude, shameless and irreverent with David. In 1 Samuel 18:7 we read that the people of Israel honored and recognized David, but Nabal could not see who David was, he saw him as a vagrant and gave no merit to what God was doing with David. All the things that God has given us are so that we can do His will with them. Nabal did not do this. He refused to do it. But his wife Abigail was a wise and fearful woman of God and gave David twice what he asked for. 1 Samuel 25:18 She was very generous and gave abundantly. She knew that Nabal’s bad attitude was going to destroy him, his family and all he possessed. Then Abigail came between them and asked David not to hurt them. (Verses 27, 28) David answered peacefully and had respect for her. 1 Samuel 25:35. How great the harshness that possesses men that destroys them, their loved ones and all they possess? When Nabal found out all that was happening his heart fainted, terror came upon him and he died. 1 Samuel 25:37, 38 The great danger of being senseless is extremely dangerous, we lose sensitivity and we don’t know when Jehovah will visit us. When we manage to see the danger of exposing our loved ones everything turns into terror. We must avoid this by loving and meditating in God. Nabal wasn’t able to resist when terror reached his heart, because of his coarseness he died. The same God that was with Nabal, who had given him all he possessed is the same God that is with us. We must not keep what does not belong to us, we must serve, love, be thankful, for by grace we have received. God gives us so that we can be capable of loving and giving to those who surround us who are in need. Let us be wise and sensible as Abigail was and not senseless as Nabal was. God is our provider; let us learn to give with gladness. Amen.