Staying with the Stuff
By H.
It is a common expression with many who seek to be excused from doing active missionary work that they will “stay by the stuff.” They make themselves believe that the old rule made by David that those who remained behind to care for the property of the army should share equally with those who went to war: “As his part is that goeth to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.” Read the story of the events which called forth this just rule. It is in 1 Samuel 30. David and his men had gone to war with Achish, but the princes of the Philistines refused to allow David to fight with them, and demanded that the Hebrew fugitive warrior be sent to his home at Ziklag. On their arrival at that city, they found that an enemy had taken the city, burned it with fire, and carried all the women and children captive. At the word of the Lord the sorrowing soldiers pursued the fleeing enemy. But the pace was too hard for all the men; two hundred of the six hundred were compelled to stop; “but David pursued, he and the four hundred men.” An abandoned servant of the fleeing spoilers guided the army to the spot where they were encamped, and David fell upon them, destroying practically all, and recovering all the captives and the spoil, which they carried back to their city. On their way they came to the two hundred who were too faint to follow David. Some of the company suggested that these be given their wives and children, but no more; but David severely rebuked them, saying, “Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our land. For who will harken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part [share, A.R.V.] alike.” Note some particulars: Every one of the six hundred went to the limit of his strength, stopping only when exhausted. Only one third remained behind, the larger number pressing on. Those who remained claimed none of the spoil; there is no record that they so much as asked for any of it. So it may be logically said that only those who have enlisted, who have worn out in the service, who have been compelled to remain “with the stuff,” may expect the victor’s reward. With man it is as it was with Saul when he was chosen to be king of Israel; instead of standing out before the people, ready to serve them, he was hiding among the stuff. It may have been modesty, but the result was the same. In the destruction of Jerusalem, when the time was ripe to escape, when the call came to get out of the city, the instruction was: “In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in his house, let him not come down to take it away.” Doubtless there were those who clung to their possessions and were destroyed; and doubtless there will be those—thousands of them—in the last great day who will go down to eternal destruction because they clung to the things of earth when they should have been active in the work of the Lord—who staid with the stuff when they should have pressed on to the help of the Lord against the foe. It is a poor excuse, an inadequate hiding-place for many an unfaithful soldier. H.