Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them. 1 Samuel 25:8
Objection #7. Some may object concerning a particular person that they do not certainly know whether he be an object of charity or not. They are not perfectly acquainted with his circumstances. Neither do they know what sort of man he is. They know not whether he be in want as he pretends. Or if they know this, they know not how he came to be in want, whether it were not by his own idleness, or prodigality. Thus they argue that they cannot be obliged, till they certainly know these things. — I reply,
First, this is Nabal’s objection, for which he is greatly condemned in Scripture; see 1 Samuel 25. David in his exiled state came and begged relief of Nabal. Nabal objected, 1 Samuel 25:10-11, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?” His objection was, that David was a stranger to him. He did not know who he was, nor what his circumstances were. He did not know but that he was a runaway. And he was not obliged to support and harbor a runaway. He objected, that he knew not that he was a proper object of charity; that he knew not but that he was very much the contrary.
But Abigail no way countenanced his behavior herein, but greatly condemned it. She calls him a man of Belial, and says that he was as his name was. Nabal was his name, and folly was with him. And her behavior was very contrary to his. And she is greatly commended for it. The Holy Ghost tells us in that chapter, 1 Samuel 25:3, that “she was a woman of a good understanding.” At the same time God exceedingly frowned on Nabal’s behavior on this occasion, as we are informed that about ten days after God smote Nabal that he died.
This story is doubtless told us partly for this end, to discountenance too great a scrupulosity as to the object on whom we bestow our charity, and the making of this merely an objection against charity to others, that we do not certainly know their circumstances. It is true, when we have opportunity to be certainly acquainted with their circumstances, it is well to embrace it. And to be influenced in a measure by probability in such cases, is not to be condemned. Yet it is better to give to several that are not objects of charity, than to send away empty one that is.
Second, we are commanded to be kind to strangers whom we know not, nor their circumstances. This is commanded in many places. But I shall mention only one. Hebrews 13:2, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” By strangers here the apostle means one whom we know not, and whose circumstances we know not; as is evident by these words, “for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Those who entertained angels unawares, did not know the persons whom they entertained, nor their circumstances. Else how could it be unawares?
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in Christian Charity or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced (1732) Section IV.
Edwards continues to offer us brilliant thinking as we enter a season of thanksgiving in America. It’s easy to be generous to those we have knowledge of their situation.
But we tend, as stewards, to think that measuring or assessing someone’s worthiness of our aid is part of our generosity, when the sin of Nabal and the command in Hebrews is clear.
Take time to read Nabal’s story today and ponder how Nabal and Abigail acted and it’s implications for your living, giving, serving, and loving. Do this in thankfulness to God for His grace and love.
In the days of Nabal it was a time much like “thanksgiving” so this could not be more relevant.