The Sin of the FREE LUNCH

   There are three Bible Accounts you don't hear preached on very often.  It's not that they are unknown, just uncomfortable to preach.  They seem unrelated. There are interpretations that go all over the place I have read.  Yet there is a common thread that has been lost in all the preaching, twisting and distortions of these scriptures.  In fact, there is a cultural reason to avoid these three.  The Prophetic Truth:  The whole of the edification of scripture must be inculcated into our culture or it will not create the changes necessary for the abundant life we can have.

Here are the three stories:

Genesis 23:1-20:  Abraham's wife Sarah Dies at 127 years old.  He weeps.  He wants to bury her in Canaan.  He goes to the Hittite elders to appeal to them to allow him to buy land to bury her... a cave at the end of a field.  They want to just give it to him. A gift.  For free.  They insist. He argues that he wants to pay for it.  They go back and forth.  The owner of the cave at the end of the field says that the cave is worth ten pounds of silver.  Abraham calls witnesses and pays him in full.  Takes title to the land.  Land he could have had for nothing.  Sarah is buried in the Cave Abraham bought.

1 Chronicles 21:1-30: King David ill advisedly takes a census of the people.  In reality to discover how rich and powerful his nation was.  It angers God.  God tells David he will punish him.  70,000 people die.  David sees the angel of the Lord with sword drawn about to destroy Jerusalem.  The Lord stops the Angel.  This vision of the Angel takes place on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.   David knows he must make a sacrifice to God on that place.  He goes to the Jebusite and asks to buy the land.  Araunah offers it to David for free.  Insists in fact.  David says something KEY to the story," 

But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present an offering that cost me nothing!”

He could have got away in this deal without the 600 gold pieces it cost him.  Yet he paid in full, sacrificed and the Lord relented.  Would that have happened if he had sacrificed without paying for the land?

2 Samuel 23:8-17   David and his mighty men are fighting a battle.  Near Bethlehem.  He in the heat of battle thinks about the well of Bethelem, 15 And David said longingly, “Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!”  Three of those who had joined him some time before at the cave of Adullam broke thru the ranks, at risk of life and limb and got water from the well and brought it to David.  He doesn't drink it, but rather pours it out as an offering to the Lord.  Seemed strange.. but there was a principle at work.  David says:

“Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.  

The water was not his, it was purchased at great cost.  He would be getting a free drink at someone else's expense.

In all three of these stories there is one thread of truth.  Something for nothing isn't Godly.  Getting something from someone, even given to you in good faith is bad faith.  Our culture no longer understands this.  We must have a return of the principle that if you get, there has to be a price to be paid for it.  There is no such thing free lunch is a Biblical Principle to which our culture must return.

The truth of this must be restored or our culture will die.... and that is the most Prophetic Thing I will say today.