Category: Band

After King Xerxes had approved Haman’s declaration that all of the Jews would be exterminated across the Persian empire, Mordecai began to weep and mourn, both for himself and for his people there within the empire. As Esther heard about Mordecai and what was causing him to cry out in this way, she courageously put a plan into action to reverse the course of the declaration, risking her own life in order to save her people.

Esther threw a banquet for both the king as well as for Haman, making Haman feel great about himself and his position within the empire. He was close to the king, and now he was even being honored by Esther, who was, unbeknownst to him, one of the Jews that he intended to have killed.

Upon returning home after the first of the banquets that Esther would hold for the two men, Haman was, on the one hand happy, but on the other continued to fume with anger because of what he perceived as Mordecai’s insolence, his refusal to honor and bow down to Haman as he passed. His wife suggested that he set up a pole so that Haman could soon place Mordecai on the pole when the time came to execute the Jews. In this way, not only would the Jews be killed, but Mordecai would be set up as a symbol that the Jews had been exterminated, but would also be an example to anyone else who might dare to not recognize Haman’s greatness.

His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.

Esther 5:14

Of course, as we follow the story, we find that not only was Mordecai not placed on the pole, but instead, Haman finds himself parading Mordecai around, honoring Mordecai instead in front of all of the people there in Susa. It is an incredible display of irony that won’t end there. Haman’s plan, and the motivations behind it, as a result of Esther’s wisdom, is exposed before the king and Haman himself will be placed on the pole, the very pole that he had set up to hang Mordecai.

It reminds me of a beautiful song that I’ve heard, and I believe have also noted before. A lady named Jess Ray sings it, called Gallows, which I believe was originally found within the video called Sheep Among Wolves II. Here is the song:

In this song, Jess is singing about the way in which Haman not only acts in satanic ways, but also shows himself to be a type of Satan within the story of Esther.

Why?

Satan’s hope was to destroy the Messiah in an effort to completely thwart the plans of God. If he could exterminate the Jews, the Messiah could not come as the Messiah would come only through the Jews.

Yet Jesus did come, and a “pole” was set up for him in the same way that the pole had been set up for Mordecai. Satan directed the actions of the Jewish leaders and intended to use the Romans to kill Christ, but he played directly into God’s plan. By killing Jesus, Satan himself lost the war that he had been waging with God. All of Satan’s power was stripped from him because upon Jesus, God placed all of punishment for the sins of the world. All of Satan’s power was found in the fact that he was able to accuse people for the sin that they had committed, yet on the same cross where he directed people to hang Jesus, Satan lost all of his power because Jesus took all of the punishment.

As Jess sings in the song above:

The devil is gonna hang on his own gallows.

That is exactly what happens with Haman in the context of the story of Esther, and the same thing has happened also with Satan through Christ’s death on the cross.

Throughout the book of Esther, we do not see God specifically mentioned, but we can clearly see God moving. In the first three chapters that we are reading today, the plot sets by Queen Vashti being sent away as a result of her refusal to be paraded around as a trophy wife, another demonstration of Xerxes’ wealth and power.

Esther is then chosen, amongst all of the other virgins in the kingdom, to replace Vashti and Mordecai, Esther’s cousin who raised her after her parents had passed away, uncovers a plot to kill the king, only to report the plot through Esther and have his loyalty recognized, written down in the annals of the king.

Now, the table is set for the primary conflict of the story to come forward and be presented. Haman is honored by the king and all of the people at the gate, except for Mordecai, bow down to Haman as he passed by them. Haman, therefore, hated Mordecai, but he also learned that Mordecai was a Jew, so he made a plan to not only kill Mordecai but in fact all of the Jews throughout the Persian empire:

When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

Esther 3:5-6

Haman becomes, within this story, a type of Satan or Antichrist figure in that he hopes to not only destroy one of the Jews, but their entire race. Despite the fact that the Jewish people had broken the covenant that God had made with them, no longer obeying God and thus being punished for their disobedience by being destroyed as a nation, God still intended to fulfill his promise to Abraham that a blessing would come from God, through their nation, to be a blessing to all nations.

Yet if Haman were to have his way and the Jewish people were to be destroyed as a whole as he had desired, the Messiah could not come through the Jews as God had planned. Not only is Haman threatening Mordecai, not only is he threatening the rest of the Jewish people, but he is even threatening the Messiah. Without the Jews, there would be no Messiah. And without the Messiah, there would be no relationship with God, neither for the Jews nor for the rest of the Gentiles around the world.

God’s hand continues to be visible within the story of Esther as he guides the people such that his plan will not be thwarted. God will carry his plan to completion, both in that time and even today.

As Nehemiah continued toward finishing the project to build the walls around Jerusalem, he faced quite a bit of opposition. Opposition from within and external opposition as well.

From within, the Jews were doing their best to rebuild the walls, but they had several pressures that they were facing as well. They had needed to pay taxes, so they had sold their land or even sold their children into slavery. The local nobles, the governmental officials and Jews themselves, were lending and charging interest back to their own countrymen. And they had to take out mortgages on the little bit of land or property that they did own so that they could have money to eat. They weren’t working to earn money for their families because of the project of building the wall, and to make matters worse, there was a famine that was even in progress at the same time, so it was difficult for the people to be able to eat at that time.

Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

Nehemiah 5:2-5

At the same time, the Gentile leaders living in the Trans-Euphrates area, what we would roughly call today the areas of western Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, the countries to the west of the Euphrates river, very much preferred that the walls of Jerusalem remain down, leaving Jerusalem exposed to attack. They began to call Nehemiah for a meeting, even accusing him of building the walls so that Jerusalem could lead a revolt against the Persian empire.

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”

I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

Nehemiah 6:6-8

As we do the work that God has called us to do, we should expect opposition. Opposition will come from within and it will come from external sources as well. Opposition will come from every side.

God may even call us to do the work in less-than-optimal conditions. In Nehemiah’s case, there was a famine at the time making it difficult for the people to continue to do the work when, in reality, it was difficult for the people to even eat.

There is rarely, if ever, an optimal time in which God’s work is meant to be done. Today, God calls his people to make disciples of all nations, to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God to all of the peoples of the earth.

Is now an optimal time to do that work? Probably not. Even today, there are many wars. There is terrorism. The political climate is very challenging. There are militant people everywhere who want to stop the work, to stop God’s work and his mission from moving forward. However, in the same way that we see Nehemiah move ahead, finding solutions to the problems that he faced both internally and externally, we must do the same.

We should expect opposition. We should expect that the conditions will be challenging. Yet God calls us just the same. He calls us to carry out the work, praying and persevering all the same, working wisely yet moving forward, despite the opposition.

Nehemiah came to Jerusalem with a vision, a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down when Babylon had destroyed the city nearly 140 years before. He started by surveying the work, but then he laid out his vision to recruit the other people in the work. Nehemiah didn’t, in fact, start by swinging a hammer. Instead, he knew that this was a big job and he called many people into the work.

In all, just among those that are listed in chapter 3, I counted 39 sections of workers, made up of multiple men and women in each section, who were called into service and were counted as those who were completing the work. All of the way around the city, the wall was to be rebuilt and the work didn’t require one worker, a small crew, or even a large team. No, this was a huge job and required an army of workers who would rebuild the walls.

The repairs next to him were made by the priests from the surrounding region. Beyond them, Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs in front of their house; and next to them, Azariah son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house. Next to him, Binnui son of Henadad repaired another section, from Azariah’s house to the angle and the corner, and Palal son of Uzai worked opposite the angle and the tower projecting from the upper palace near the court of the guard.

Nehemiah 3:22-25

In a similar way, the work that Christ has called us into, to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations, to make disciples of all nations, also requires many, many workers. It is no small work. It is a work on a global scale and requires a number of workers commensurate with the calling that Jesus has given to us. A church here, a pastor there, or a few missionaries aren’t enough. No, the work that is in front of us requires workers. A lot of them.

This is our aim. Jesus told his disciples when he sent them out – recorded in Luke 10 – to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into his harvest field. This is what we must continue to do today. Not just hope that workers will go, but pray that God will send them, and as God identifies those people who are willing to go, even some who will go to their friends and family or others that will go across the world, we must prepare them and send them.

This is the work that God has called us into. The walls are broken down. The world is in desperate need of Christ and we can no longer “play” church… – please hear what I’m saying. It isn’t enough to just go to church once a week and move on with the rest of our lives. It isn’t enough to be part of a Bible study. The Lord is sending out workers to a world that is broken and the only solution is Jesus himself. Will we be the workers? Will we rebuild the walls? Will we call others up to service to bring many into the kingdom of God?

Nehemiah was the cupbearer for king Artexerxes from the Persian empire where the Israelites had been scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem. They had been taken to Babylon and then had subsequently became part of the Persian empire as the Persians came to conquer Babylon.

Now, as Nehemiah was carrying out his duties for king Artexerxes in Susa, one of the royal capitals of the Persian empire, he received some visitors who had come from Judah, the area where Jerusalem is found. Nehemiah wanted to know about the state of Judah and Jerusalem since it had been conquered more than a century before. Unfortunately, the men, the vistors, gave him a difficult answer. They reported that the wall of Jerusalem was still broken down, the gates had remained burnt, and the result was that the people that remained there in Jerusalem were in trouble and disgrace.

Nehemiah broke down crying, mourning, and in sadness. He has received terrible news that his homeland laid in ruin. It had now been over 140 years since the time that Jerusalem had been destroyed, and while Nehemiah had personally grown up living in another empire, his desire to rebuild the city of his ancestors remained strong.

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 1:4

Nehemiah wept for his ancestors. He was broken-hearted for the city of Jerusalem. Yes, he served the king of Persia, but he was also concerned about his countrymen and the state of the city of his heritage.

This made me think today… Nehemiah was concerned about the state of Jerusalem enough to make him mourn, fast, and pray. In fact, his sorrow motivated him to make a plan to do something about the situation. He was scared to ask the king for permission to go and rebuild the walls, but yet his motivation to fix the situation was so great that he would overcome his fear, overcome that which could have held him back so that he could accomplish the mission that God had given him to do.

Few other people, including the people who even lived there in Jerusalem, including the people that lived there in Judah, felt the same motivation that Nehemiah felt. No one else in the entire set territories that surrounded Jerusalem felt the same sorrow. Yet Nehemiah had a sense that there was something deeply wrong: Jerusalem’s walls had been broken down and its gates were in ruin, having been destroyed by fire. Few others, if any, felt motivated to change the situation, but Nehemiah had been shaken to his core and he would heed the call from God to go to change the situation in Jerusalem.

So I ask myself, and I think that many, many more of us should ask ourselves… Do we have this same sense of the spiritual ruins that we have all around us today? In many countries, including those that we would call “Christian” countries, we might have .5%, 1%, or possibly a maximum of 5% who call themselves Christians, and even fewer who are following Christ.

Do we feel that? Do we have a sense of mourning? Do we fast and pray to the extent that we would make a plan to go and do something about the situation? Do we realize that this means that 95%, 99%, or 99.5% of people do not know Christ? Do we realize that this means that this percentage of people do not know the way to the Father, and if we truly believe what Jesus says, cannot come to the Father?

Do we care? Do we care that this is an eternal reality for these people? Do we care that the kingdom of God is missing so many people? So many nations? So many tribes and languages?

Or do we, instead, shrug our shoulders and just accept the situation to be as it is?

Nehemiah was moved to make a plan. He had become a man who was changed by the news of the destruction around him. He wasn’t a contractor. As far as we know, he wasn’t a builder. He didn’t have much experience, but that didn’t matter. He was moved to change the situation to make it as it should be, to correct the problems as they were presented. Nehemiah mourned, fasted, and prayed, and then he made his plan and went to do what God had called him to do.

So what can we learn? Are we moved by the spiritual devastation around us? Will we mourn, fast, and pray, then move to make Christ known among all of the nations?

Why did Jesus perform miracles? Why did he show himself able to command the wind and the waves, to walk on water, to drive out demons, or to heal people of their sickness?

He was showing by his actions that the words that he was speaking came directly from God.

If he was able to perform actions that only God could perform, then it is reasonable to believe that his words also were the words that God intended for him to speak.

In Jesus’s case, he was not only speaking words from God, he also claimed that he himself was God, and so the miracles that he performed were also intended to confirm that he, as God, was there in Israel in the form of a human being and in the person of Jesus, and the words that he was speaking as he claimed to be God were also true.

In the case of Elijah, God had told him to go to live with a woman and her son in the town of Zarephath. In that place, he had the woman make him bread from the very last of the flour and olive oil that they owned. There was a severe famine in the area as a result of rain being withheld for several years and so the woman and her son had come to the point where they believed that they were about to die. They had come to the end of their resources, the end of what they had. Elijah, though, told them that God had said that their flour and oil would not run out while he was there with them, until the day that the rains would return.

The woman, though, seems to have remained unsure. It wasn’t until her son became sick and eventually died, only to be resurrected by Elijah’s prayers over the boy that she fully believed Elijah’s words came from God:

The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

1 Kings 17:22-24

In several cases, I have heard people in the church speak of the “authority” that they have over spirits, demons, sicknesses, and other types of difficult situations. Yet at the same time, they also speak of God in ways that run contrary to who he is and what we have already been told in the word of God. In these cases, I’m reminded that we often like the idea of seeing God give us power, and being able to exercise that power, without really knowing God or understanding his character. In other words, we like the power that God can give to us because we like to demonstrate in front of others that we have some special ability, but we do not necessarily like him for who he is, his true self.

In short, in those cases, our interest is in impressing man and being known as a type of godly person as a result of some special power, not in impressing God by living for him. In those cases, we want the glory to come to us, not to go to him.

Obviously this is a problem.

The purpose of a miracle, or some type of action that only God can perform, is to confirm the words that are being spoken. The confirmation in the form of a miracle is that those words that the person is speaking have come from God.

But our role is not to desire the miracles nor the power, but instead to know, to love, and to obey what God has told us. In this way, God receives the glory for what he has done, not us. If God decides to do a miracle, then great. He should receive glory for what he has done! He is showing his power and confirming his word. This has both happened to me and has happened through me, and I can confirm that it is possible. But the power is not ours to give. It is the Lord’s power to distribute when he is ready and to whom that he desires, so as to confirm what he has said.

Ahijah gave Jeroboam a prophecy that God had torn the kingdom of Israel away from Rehoboam and given Jeroboam the greatest part of the kingdom. But Jeroboam was an evil king, leading the people to worship the gods of the people who surrounded the people of Israel, even setting up golden calves, altars on the high places of the land, and fake religious festivals to lead people away from remembering the festivals that God had commanded.

There came a time that Jeroboam’s son was sick, so Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah, the same prophet that had given Jeroboam the news that he would rule over the northern tribes of Israel. Her task was to see if their son would live.

Ahijah gave a terrible response to Jeroboam’s wife. Not only would the boy die, but it would be the most merciful thing that God would do within Jeroboam’s house as a result of his wickedness:

Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!

As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

1 Kings 14:10-13

Jeroboam’s son would die, but he would, at least, be buried. All of the rest would die and their bodies experience incredible indignities, becoming a warning for all of Israel and all of the peoples who surround them.

Why would they be a warning? Because they rejected God as their God and instead followed the evils of the gods of the other nations while even doing religious activities that had the pretense of being like those that God had commanded.

God completely destroyed Jeroboam and the people of his royal house. And in many ways, what happened to them is very similar to the description and imagery that we see the scriptures speak of Jesus’s return. There will be wrath and there will be justice, not only for disobedience against God, but most of all, for rebellion in placing ourselves in the place of God. When we choose to do what we believe is right based on our own ideas, based on our own plans, believing that we know what is right and what is wrong, we replace God and his sovereignty over our lives with our own plan. We become our own gods and we worship ourselves. We see this throughout our societies and across the earth even today, just as man has done from the beginning.

The wrath that God will one day bring upon us will have been of our own making, just as the wrath that Jeroboam brought upon himself was also of his own making. Yet there is good news that is available. When we say that we are “saved” by Christ, it means that we are saved from this wrath that will come. If we will repent from this sin of rebellion and turn back to God, placing our faith in Jesus’s sacrifice, we also can be saved from the wrath that is coming from God. We can instead live with him.

But it also means that we acknowledge him, Jesus himself, as king over all. Jesus is the king in the kingdom of God. We are no longer our own kings, but we are his people. We must look to him so that we will be saved from the coming wrath that will wipe away every evil until it is all gone.

As Solomon came to power as the king over Israel, one of the main things for which he is credited is for having asked God for wisdom. God, in fact, commends Solomon for not asking for riches or for long life, but instead for insight on how to be a good king, how to govern his people well.

Before he asked to have wisdom, though, we could also ask: where did Solomon obtain the wisdom to ask for wisdom? What was the primary motivating force for him to ask for this instead of riches? Or instead of fame or for power?

Solomon’s primary motivation, his reason to ask for wisdom, was his sense of humility as he took the throne over Israel. Solomon’s humility in recognizing that he doesn’t know how to rule his people well caused him to ask for wisdom. He asked God for wisdom and insight because he wanted to do the job well that he had been called to do.

Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.

1 Kings 3:7-8

Making good decisions starts with a posture of humility. It starts with truly recognizing that we do not know everything. It starts with understanding that even if you have some knowledge, you may not have the experience to know the right steps to take. You may not have the understanding to know the right direction in which you are to go.

And we should, of course, consider how different this is from the world’s typical way of leading. How often do we, as people who know little, try to make others think that we know exactly what should happen next? We realize and feel within us that we know nothing, but before others, we try to make a good impression and make them think that we know what we are doing.

I believe that this is at the core of the reason that Jesus came preaching that we must repent and believe. Repentance begins with a humble heart. It begins with a deep understanding that we have been wrong and we do not know the steps that we should take forward. Repentance sheds our pride and instead places our dependency on God.

This is what Solomon was doing. Not necessarily repenting, but fully recognizing his need for God. He recognized that he had been given a responsibility that he didn’t know how to fulfill. He needed God’s wisdom and his guidance. This is what we also need. We need God’s wisdom. We need his guidance, shedding our pride and recognizing that all that we have and all that we need comes from him.

Solomon was able to see clearly that it was God’s hand that had placed him on David’s throne. Adonijah, another son of David and Solomon’s half-brother, had attempted to rally a group of leaders around him so as to make a show of taking power as the next king over Israel. But it wasn’t real. It was a fake kingship. It was fake leadership.

But Solomon knew that God himself had placed him on the throne. He had been rightfully named by David to be the successor, to be the next king.

And yet Solomon was still merciful. He allowed Adonijah to live. If Adonijah would be loyal to the king, to Solomon, he would be allowed to stay and live in the kingdom. If not, however, it would be Adonijah’s end.

Adonijah just couldn’t get the idea of being the king out of his head. He kept thinking of ways that he could wiggle his way into the palace, to find his way to the front of the line. He made a request to Solomon through Bathsheba, Solomon’s own mother, that Solomon would allow him to have Abishag as his wife.

But Solomon saw through the request. He knew that this wasn’t just a request from Adonijah because he loved Abishag. No, this was a power play.

Abishag, despite not having sex with the king, had been chosen as a type of concubine for king David to lay with him and keep him warm in the days and weeks leading up to his death. In that time of ancient Israel, taking the king’s concubines was a sign of power, of taking the throne from the current king, just as Absalom had done with David’s concubines when he took control of the palace. As David left Jerusalem, he left behind his concubines and as Absalom came to take the throne, one of the first things that he did was to sleep with each of David’s concubines in a tent before all of Jerusalem.

But Solomon understood what Adonijah was doing, so despite the mercy that he had shown to Adonijah previously, giving him a chance to remain loyal to him as king, Solomon now acted decisively. He acted with moral clarity. He knew that God had given him the throne and the role that he should have as the king to establish peace in Israel:

And now, as surely as the LORD lives—he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised —Adonijah shall be put to death today!

1 Kings 2:24

Personally, I have struggled to understand what was happening to David in his latter years as king over Israel. Previously, before he decided to let his armies go to war without him and instead decided to stay in Jerusalem where he would take Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and then subsequently kill Uriah, he seemed to speak and act with a confidence that I believe we could only say was given to him by God. However, after his fall in sleeping with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah, David seems to lose his clarity of thought. He no longer has a clear vision of what God has called him to do as he leads Israel. He can no longer objectively see what he should do.

As a result, the child who was born from him having slept with Bathsheba died.

As a result, David doesn’t rebuke or punish Amnon for raping his sister Tamar.

As a result, Absalom kills Amnon and sets his sights on becoming king over David.

As a result, David leaves his throne and the city of Jerusalem so that Absalom can enter.

As a result, David’s kingdom ends up in war, yet David doesn’t want Absalom, who is in rebellion to the true owner of the throne over Israel, to be killed.

And finally, as a result, Adonijah also believes that he can take the throne as king and further divides the kingdom, subsequently causing more death and destruction.

All of this resulted from David’s disconnection from God and his willingness to do whatever it was that he wanted to do. He slept with whom he wanted. He killed whom he wanted to cover up for his sexual sins.

My inclination has been to try to see David in the light of God saying that he was a man after God’s own heart. He was supposed to be one of the good guys. And I believe that was true. He was one of the good guys. At one time, one of the best. Prior to him deciding to live based on his own prestige, based on his own power, he definitely did act in this way. He was a man that acted with the heart of God. So my desire has been to try to see his lack of rebuke of Amnon and his love for Absalom in this light as well.

But now, understanding the clarity with which Solomon acts, the clear vision with which he sees the reality of the situation and takes action upon Adonijah as well as the others who had aligned themselves with Adonijah, I think I am now fully persuaded that David had truly lost his way. Solomon sees the hand of God, the will of God, in the way that he was given the throne over Israel and so he speaks and acts with a similar clarity with which David spoke prior to the turning point of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. Solomon, at this time, has not yet been lured away into his own self-absorbed, self-exalted stupor caused by his view of himself through riches and power, so he still sees with the clarity that God gives him. He still is able to understand clearly God’s intention that he would be king over Israel, so he makes decisions and acts within that clarity.

The roots of sin can be, at times, a difficult thing to fully nail down to understand completely. In David’s case, I believe that David’s sin was actually not just the fact that he slept with Bathsheba and killed Uriah. Yes, these were egregious sins and certainly seemed to mark David’s downfall, but these were the outward symptoms of an inward reality of what was happening within of David. At some point along the way, David’s pride began to allow him to think that it would be OK to call Bathsheba to him and sleep with her. David’s pride allowed him to think it would be OK to send Uriah to his death, intentionally murdering him, even causing the death of others.

This is the same type of deception that happened to Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden. It seemed that they were being punished because they ate a piece of fruit. But what was really happening? They believed that they would be like God, themselves having the “knowledge” of good and evil. In other words, they could decide for themselves what was right and wrong. They would have this knowledge. So, as a result of their pride and desire to no longer be ruled by God, no longer need to listen to him, they ate the fruit and their eyes were opened.

This is the pride by which David was deceived, and this is the same pride by which we must also remember that we must not be deceived. We must understand the lessons of pride and desire to be our own “gods”, making our own decisions about right and wrong in our own way. We may not be kings, but in the influence of our own world, we can make similar pride-filled decisions that take us far from God’s plan for our lives.

Instead, I pray that, for myself, I will be able to remain connected to the vine, as Jesus says in John 15. I pray that I will remain connected to him, the true source of life. I pray that I will be able to truly understand my relationship to him, that he is God, the one and true God over all people and all things. I pray that my life will continue to glorify him, not choosing for myself what is right and what is wrong, but instead living for him above all and in this way, I will have a guide for my life, as both David and Solomon did before their pride led them away from God’s plan for their lives.

Nathan had come to David and prophecied to him following David’s sin with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of Uriah. He told him that from David’s own household, God would bring calamity. In fact, we find that calamity comes upon David but also extends to the rest of his family and even extends out to the rest of Israel. The consequences of David’s sin truly radiated out and were not just for him, but for all of those over whom he had influence.

Absalom was David’s son. He had killed his brother Amnon, avenging what Amnon had done when he raped his sister Tamar. But David never took a side. He never brought justice upon Amnon nor, subsequently, Absalom for killing his brother. So the calamity didn’t just end with Amnon’s rape of Tamar, but continued with Absalom killing Amnon and even going on believe that David could be replaced because of the impotent leadership that he saw in his father. Absalom saw himself growing within Judah and could even imagine himself replacing his father as the king over all of Israel.

Absalom began to act upon this vision of himself and began to proclaim himself king. He was extremely presumptuous, of course, but David allowed it! In fact, as Absalom began to grow in power with additional followers, David even moved out of his palace, making way for Absalom to enter. As the king, David had completely lost his way. He no longer was the man that had been called to be king. His life no longer looked like the one that he had previously led, worshiping God before all of the people, praising the Lord for what he had done. Instead, he had fallen a long way, leaving behind the identity that God had bestowed upon him as the leader over Israel.

David did finally go to war with Absalom but gave his army instructions to bring Absalom back safe. Think of that… David’s instructions were to go to war against those had betrayed him, the king, but not to kill the one that was leading the betrayal. Keep safe the one that is leading the revolution.

The army doesn’t do this, of course. They can see clearly what is happening in the kingdom, the revolt that is happening. So when Joab, the leader of David’s armies, sees his chance to kill Absalom, he takes it, and he makes sure that Absalom is dead, that the threat was removed. From Joab’s perspective, he wanted to make sure that there would no longer be a threat to David’s reign. He had already seen his king remove himself from his own palace, giving up his own throne. He wouldn’t stand this any longer, and so he ran Absalom through with his own spear and those of his armor-bearers.

But as Joab returns to the king, instead of finding David rejoicing and celebrating his army’s victory, he finds David weeping over Absalom’s death. And the result is that the army must slip under the cover of night back into the city. The army must return in shame because David, the leader of the kingdom had lost his way, had lost all of his clarity related to his identity, who God had called him to be, and what he had called him to do. He was no longer leading his kingdom but was weeping instead for those who betrayed him.

So Joab responded to David:

Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the LORD that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.

2 Samuel 19:5-7

It is an extremely sad story to see David’s downfall, to see him experience one problem after the next, to see him lose his way, to see him lose his identity. As a result of his sin, he can no longer see who he has been made to be, so instead of looking up to the Lord to find his identity, to find his strength as he once did, he now judges that which he should do by using his own reasoning. He makes decisions based on his own ideas, using his own moral compass. He is no longer truly acting as a king over a kingdom, but instead as a man thinking only of the internal politics of his own fractured family.

Reading this story this morning and considering David’s life as a potential metaphor, I have to say that it made me think of the Church in some ways. I will admit that the comparison that I am about to make could be a stretch and is based on some recent events that I have personally experienced so there could be emotions attached to my connection of David’s downfall to what I see in the challenges that Church today is facing, but I want to relate this story as one to at least consider.

I recently led a group through a training lesson related to baptism. As a team, we regularly lead new believers through a series of lessons related to some of the fundamental teachings of Christ, teaching these new believers to follow Jesus based on what he told us to do. Jesus told his disciples that if they loved him, they will obey his commands, so we take that seriously. The first and most important command is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, so if Jesus says that if we love him, we must obey him, and so then the first thing that we should do with new believers is to teach them to do what he said to do.

In teaching this group, I explained that there are a series of lessons that we want to take new believers through when we are teaching them to follow Jesus. They are these:

• Repent and believe
• Baptism
• Love (love God, love your neighbor as yourself)
• Abide in Christ
• Make disciples
• Prayer
• The Lord’s Supper

Of course these aren’t all of the lessons that we must learn and put into practice to be able to learn to follow Christ. There are many, many more, but these are some points from which we can begin. This is the start. They are the first steps, and by doing these things, we can gather believers into churches based on a common set of understanding of who Jesus is, a gathering that will allow them to grow in Christ, helping one another to follow him all the more.

From this list of lessons, I chose the baptism lesson as an example to use in our discussion. I know that this lesson has the possibility to truly challenge those who are participating, and to be honest, my hope is to challenge people’s thinking a little bit.

Why?

Because here we have a command from Jesus:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus never gives a command to anyone that they should be baptized, but interestingly, we see that he does actually give his disciples a command to baptize other people. Of course, that naturally implies that we must also be baptized, but if we are being completely clear about what Jesus says, he is telling his disciples to baptize other people. That is one of the first steps to becoming a disciple of Jesus.

However, it isn’t the last step. In fact, Jesus goes on to say that we must teach them to obey everything that he has commanded. As people who are following Jesus, we are to make disciples. And what is the definition of making a disciple? According to Jesus, I would read it this way:

First, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Then, teach them to obey everything that he has commanded.

Yet one of the very things that he has commanded us to do, directly within this passage, is to baptize other people. He just said it! So what does that mean? It means that we not only should be baptized, but we should also baptize other people.

If you are part of a more traditional church or have some background within a more traditional church, you may already understand why this lesson could be challenging for believers within similar types of churches. We can sum it up with this question: How often are we taught to obey the command of Jesus to baptize other people?

Almost never, if ever.

In fact, in the group that I was facilitating, I asked if anyone had ever been taught to baptize another person. One hand amongst the group. OK, great, no problem… at least for right now. Let’s learn to do it.

Remember… “Teach them to obey everything I commanded you…”, Jesus said.

So we are going to teach them to obey. We are going to learn to baptize other people.

The way we do that, therefore, is to practice. In the lesson, we’ve learned what baptism is. We’ve learned who should be baptized. We’ve learned why they should be baptized, and how they should be baptized. So now, we want to apply what we have learned and actually role play a baptism in advance of heading to the water so that we know what to expect and how it will work. We have found that this is good both for the person who will be baptized as well as for a new person who will be baptizing another person. To do that, we place someone in a chair sideways and one person practices baptizing the other person.

“Teach them to obey everything I commanded you…”.

However, when we reached this part of practicing baptism, there were three of the people who decided that they didn’t want to do this. They said they weren’t sure how they felt about it. They wanted to take a higher view of baptism, they said.

Now, I’m going to stop here and say that I don’t necessarily want to heap blame on the people that were there that day. Instead, my concern, and therefore my question, is this: Why is this the first time that any of these long-time Christians learned to baptize? Why would this seem strange to any of them? Why would they question it?

I believe the answer to this question is that we have created a tradition that places leaders in a position within our churches that removes, or at the least, neuters the identity of others that are within the church. What does that mean? It means that, instead of equipping and empowering the people within the church to fully becoming the disciples of Christ that they were intended to be, we have instead taken away or reserved certain religious “rites” from believers, which prevents the believers from actually fulfilling Christ’s commands.

Let me say that again:

…which prevents the believers from fulfilling Christ’s commands.

Although there are many other examples, one example is this question of baptism. As one African man once asked me repeatedly after I gave him this lesson: Who can baptize another person?!? You’re saying I can baptize? No way… I need to call my pastor so that he can baptize this person.

And where was his pastor? Back in Africa.

And where was he? Thousands of miles away in Europe.

What had this man learned in his church? Whether through direct teaching or by inference from the practice and lack of teaching to follow the commands that Jesus had given his disciples, he had come to the conclusion that he could not baptize another person. No, instead, he needed to take those people to his pastor.

He refused to follow the command of Jesus to baptize other people because the tradition and practice of his church was that the pastor, and only the pastor, could teach someone else about Jesus or could baptize another person.

I routinely receive the same pushback with regard to the Lord’s Supper, and in fact, one of the people that refused to learn to put baptism into practice that day said the same thing: I think the same about the Lord’s Supper. I don’t want to have a low view of the Lord’s Supper.

To respond, I and our team have an extremely high view of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. So high, in fact, that we believe it is important that every disciple is equipped to do it because Jesus has called us to do it.

Reading about David this morning and realizing how far he had fallen, as well as the effects that we see from his sin ripple out to the rest of both his family and the rest of Israel, I couldn’t help but to draw a connection in my mind to the state of the Church in which we live today. The scriptures teach that there is one Head for the Church, and that is Jesus himself. And the Head of the Church has taught what we, all of us, should be doing to love him. And that is, we should all be obeying him, doing what he has called us to do.

Yet what have we done instead? We have created several layers of headship before we can reach the actual Head. We frequently create titular heads in our churches. We then have layers of oversight within our denominations. And we have denominations with boards and presidents that lead various districts and regions of churches. Furthermore, we have schools to which we send those who will be the leaders, qualifying them and granting them, and frequently only them, authority with a certificate based on the time that they spent in that institution.

In many ways, I can understand the organizational levels as the denominations seek to support the individual local churches. However, we should ask ourselves… What is the fruit? If we can judge the outcomes as Jesus said – You will know them by their fruit – the question is this: Are we producing disciples that follow Jesus fully, as he said, or are we producing fruit that primarily follows our traditions? Are we reinforcing the fact that Jesus is the Head of the church and that we are each – all of us – a part of his body? Or are we enforcing the organizational structure that we have created?

David fell a long way because of his sin, and as a result, he strayed far from the identity that God bestowed upon him and calamity came upon him from within his family. David should have recognized his sin and continuously repented and turned his heart back to God.

In a similar way, in the Church today, each and every one of us, must leave behind our own kingdoms, our ideas that our identity comes from anyone aside from Christ himself and instead look to God and our one, single king. The Head over the church: Jesus himself. The authorities are simple: We hear from Christ only through the word of God and the Holy Spirit.

If we will each do that, we should begin to teach and equip disciples from within our churches who are able to take the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations, just as Jesus said would happen before the end would come. But without this equipping, without leaders who are willing to teach the people within their churches to fully obey everything that Jesus taught us, we will languish where we are today, continuing to see calamity come from within our own family, just as we see happening in many different ways through the broader body of Christ even today.

May Christ have mercy on us all and teach us through his word and through the Holy Spirit to help others fully follow Jesus, putting into practice everything that he has commanded us to do.