7 Saul said to his servant, “If we go, what can we give the man? The food in our sacks is gone. We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?” 8 The servant answered him again. “Look,” he said, “I have a quarter of a shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God so that he will tell us what way to take.” 9 (Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a seer.) 10 ”Good,” Saul said to his servant. “Come, let’s go.” So they set out for the town where the man of God was.
They where afraid to go to the prophet empty handed without something to give. It was important that when someone would go to get a word that they would give something as a gift or a offering. This is something that I know that there is biblical backing to but I have always struggled with the what the doctrine of giving should be in the church. I do not want to teach heressy or teach out of selfish motivation but I also do not want to teach something that is not truth because I want people to feel good.
This to be the theme to most of scripture that when ever you went to the house of God or a spoksmen for God you would have something to give or to offer. It was just part of the idea… I am going to recieve something and I need ot have somthing to give.
I also think the key to this text is the question: What do we have? The idea was that they did not have enough to give but he was just wanting to give what they had. The answer is you give according to what you have. Some have more and some have less but we give according to what we have…
