Share and Share Alike
Share and Share Alike
“For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.””
I Samuel 30:24
My brother and I grew up being raised by our grandparents. They were diligent in constantly attempting to insert a teaching of manners, respect and discipline. It was a little heavier on the discipline side of things, definitely because we needed it. My grandparents were raising two twin boys after raising three children of their own.
Right when their life was suppose to get easy, we made it much much harder on them.
I remember growing up and being dressed alike as twins, it was horrible. My brother and I wore the same clothes, right down to the belts. And once we became discriminate about this practice, thankfully it stopped. At birthdays and Christmas time, clothes were always the go-to gift. My grandparents were in a generation of practicality and necessity. Gifts were not given on the basis of want, rather they were thoughtful gifts given on the basis of need. And clothing was always a need.
My brother and I would constantly exchange clothes. One of us would get a shirt the other one like more and vice versus. I’m sure it was hard for them to find something similar for us to wear that wasn’t identical.
The identical twin thing overstayed it’s welcome and my brother and I started to accumulate a wardrobe of our own style. The problem arose when I liked something my brother owned and he liked something I owned. We desired what the other has, we just didn’t ask for permission to take it. Herein laid the problem. Imagine looking for a shirt to wear to school that morning only
to find your brother wearing it. Only to hear your grandmother shouting at both of you.
This is precisely when my grandmother would shout the saying, “share and share alike”. We would mumble and grumble, and comply. We’d leave for school wearing each other’s clothes and giving each other the worst looks.
I had no earthly idea what my grandmother was talking about until I read this story in the Bible. I knew, to my brother and I, it meant to share and stop fighting over our clothes, because I’m sure she had another twin-induced headache. It also meant that, basically, what belonged to him, belonged to me, because neither one of us worked for it, paid for it or owned it.
This morning I read the story of David and the Amalekites. The story in 1 Samuel 30.
While David was away, the Amalekites came and destroyed Ziklag, where David lived. They burned the city and took David’s two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail. In fact, the Amalekites took all the women, children and property of Ziklag. When David returned to find that this has happened he and the people of Ziklag were devastated. The Bible says they wept until they had no power to weep.
“Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.”
I Samuel 30:4
I’ll admit I’ve cried a few times, okay, maybe once. All joking aside, I’ve cried quite desperately, but never to the point of having no more power to weep. I can’t imagine. And I imagine many have wept this hard after losing a loved-one like a wife, child, sibling or parent.
The people under David wanted to kill him. But David turned his attention to God. David prayed to God for direction and blessing. David wanted to go after the Amalekites and he wanted to make sure God was in the middle of that decision. So David prayed and God answered.
David left Ziklag with six-hundred men to go after the Amalekites and rescue the wives and children that were taken. David rode without rest, desperately searching for the Amalekites. Along the way, two-hundred of his men couldn’t physically continue the journey, so they were left at a stream to watch over the supplies. David and the other four-hundred soldiers continued the search and came across an Amalekite servant in a field. This servant was left behind by the Amalekites and David used him to find the people who invaded and plundered Ziklag.
David found the Amalekites “spread abroad upon all the earth”. It was described this way because the Amalekites had taken so much property that belonged to the people they invaded, that it was spread across the land. David killed the Amalekites and took what belonged to him and his people. He recovered more than what was taken from him and this was considered extra, or spoils.
As David returned home he stopped where two-hundred of his men had been left to recover. The men that were with David in battle did not want the men that stayed at the stream to have any of the “spoils”. But David disagreed.
David told them that God provided for their success. God led them to the Amalekites through the servant that was left in the field. God was the reason they defeated the Amalekites and He was the reason they were able to rescue the wives and children and return with more than what was taken from them. The two hundred that couldn’t make the rest of the journey had still been involved in the victory. They were to “share, and to share alike” - as if all had fought together.
David returned with the wives, the children, the livestock and the all the spoils that the Amalekites had taken from them and others. David sent these spoils to other lands as a gift to those people that served God.
God is the reason why we are able to accomplish what we accomplish and why we have what we have. So many times we look at ‘what we own’ or ‘what we have’ or or ‘how healthy or wealthy we are’ - and we forget to acknowledge that we wouldn’t have any of it without God.
It all belongs to Him. Yes, it is true that we may do the work, we may put in the effort or we may think we are the reason behind it all - but it goes further back than that.
Without God, we wouldn’t even be here. Our breath, our heartbeat and our existence is a gift from God. We don’t actually own any of it. Our single, simplest mistake is believing that we do. Sure we make decisions, and some those may go against God’s will or be in it. And God will allow those decisions, because in the end, we will return to Him.
David knew God was in the middle of the decisions that returned the wives and the children to Ziklag. And just because some of the men couldn’t make the entire journey, didn’t mean they were involved in the fight.
My brother may have taken a shirt or a pair of shoes to wear without asking. And maybe we didn’t understand what our grandmother was saying at the time. But she knew.
Those items didn’t belong to us, they didn’t even belong to my grandparents. Every single step involved in getting those shoes and shirts to us involved obedience, submission and God.
“Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man’s wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.”
But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.”
I Samuel 30:22-25