Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Stash (01/09/25)
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TITLE: Teachings on Stashing in the Bible | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lakella Davenport
01/16/25 -
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According to vocabulary.com, the word stash, may be a combination of the two words stow and cache. To stow means to put away something into a secure place. To stash can also mean to hide something. According to Oxford languages dictionary online, to stow means to: “pack or store (an object) carefully and neatly in a particular place.” To cache also means to store or to pile up. The Bible makes mention of things we should not stow away, or cache. I will examine two of those things (gifts/talents and resources/material possessions).
The Parable of the Talents in Matthew chapter twenty-five verses fourteen through thirty warns us not to stash away our talents or gifts. We should not hide our gifts of the Holy Spirit or our talents from the world; never using or activating them because of fear. If we have been blessed with an abundance of financial resources; we must not stow them away. We must give whatever we can to support God’s kingdom and his mission for us within the earth. God has given all of us spiritual gifts and talents that we can use to spread God’s glory, power, honor, goodness, and sovereignty throughout the earth. Our mission as Christians is to make our Lord and Savior known throughout the earth.
In this Parable of the Talents, a man gives three of his servants talents of money, before he goes off on a far away trip. He gives one five talents and he gives another two talents and to the last one he gives one talent of money. The Bible tells us that the one to whom he gave five talents, went and “traded” and made five more talents. Likewise, the one he had given two talents, went and gained two more. However, the one to whom he gave one talent, stowed away or stashed away his one talent. “But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the earth and hid his lord’s money,” (Matthew 25:18). When the lord of these servants came back, he rewarded the two servants who used his money to gain more. He made them rulers of many things. However, he punished the lazy servant whom he had given one talent; because he didn’t do anything with his talent. The least he could have done would have been to put his talent in the bank, and it would have gained interest, at the return of his lord. He would have more to show unto his lord at his lord’s coming. The lord of those servants punishes this unfaithful servant by taking away the one talent he did have and gave it to the one who had ten talents. He then casts the unprofitable servant into “outer darkness,” (Matthew 25:14-30).
This parable is a reminder that we must be faithful with the gifts and talents, and resources God has given unto us. We must not hide our talents and gifts. We must use them to bring glory to God. If we refuse to use whatever God has given to us; no matter how small or great it is; we risk losing those talents, gifts, and resources. They were given to us by God to best serve his kingdom and his people.
Another parable of the certain rich man in Luke chapter twelve, verses sixteen through twenty-one, warns us again, not to cache our resources, especially if we have great wealth. The Bible warns against stowing up for ourselves treasures on earth (money, material possessions, silver and gold). “Don’t lay up treasures for yourself on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:19-21).
In this parable of the certain rich man, he hoards an excess of his goods. Instead of giving the excess of his goods to the poor; he stores them up and builds bigger barns in which to stow them away.
The last example of teachings on stashing in the Bible is a positive one. It is about Joseph, when he stashed, all the excess food in Egypt during the seven plenteous years, so that the whole earth would have a storehouse of food and grain during the seven years of famine that was to come upon the earth (Genesis 41:47-49).
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