Last week we saw how caring David
was. He arranged with the king of Moab that his parents can stay
there so that they will be safe and looked after whilst Saul was
searching for him. It is heartwarming to see how he cared for his
parents, just as God wants us to.
David then listened to the prophecy
of Gad that he shouldn't stay in the stronghold, but that he should
depart for Judah. He was obedient and went to the forest of Hereth.
Saul then heard that David and his men were there. He then stirred
up his servants, especially his servants from the tribe of Benjamin
that he was also from, that David was the enemy. And it was here
that Saul did an evil thing. Doeg, the Edomite split on David and
told Saul that he went to Ahimelech at Nob when he fled from Saul.
So Saul called Ahimelech and all the other priests to come to him.
He interrogated them insinuating that they were conspiring against
him with David. They didn't know what he was talking about as David
never shared the truth with them. It was then that Saul did a
horrible thing. He ordered that all 85 of the priests be murdered.
He even went further and ordered that the whole city of Nob be
struck with the edge of the sword, men, women, children, oxen,
donkeys, sheep, everything. He ordered the massacre of innocent
people, all because he was jealous of David.
We should never allow jealousy to
become so out of control. Many, many people are in jail today due
to jealousy. Many murders have been committed due to the ugly head
of jealousy rearing its head. We should never allow it to fester
and to grow so big, driving us to do inhumane things.
The other lesson that I believe
that we can learn here is that God's leaders can so easily come
under attack. They are easy targets because they are elevated at
church, but we should never allow that to happen. Even if we don't
agree with our leaders at church, we should never bad mouth them,
never spread lies about them and never belittle them. God doesn't
take kindly to His men and women being attacked.
I know spiritual leaders can let us
down and I know they can make mistakes. But it is not our job to
judge them, let alone attack them or gossip about them. If they are
preaching things that are contrary to the Word of God we need to
have conversations with them and share our perspective with them.
And if we cannot come to an agreement we can leave the church if we
truly do not agree with their doctrine. There are many avenues to
follow. But publically attacking them or discrediting them is not
the way.
I know some spiritual leaders are
there merely for their own personal gain, but I believe most are
there because of their heart for God and we need to honor that. The
leaders of the early church were violently persecuted, but they
continued due to the fire for Christ that they had within them.
Their members prayed for them and it pulled them through on many
occasions. Today we need to pray for our leaders too. They need our
prayers, our encouragement and our love. We need to lift them up
and help them to keep on standing. Just like Aaron and Joshua kept
up Moses's arms. Everyone gets tired now and again. An encouraging
word might be all that they need today.
Father we pray for our spiritual
leaders. We pray that You will keep them standing. We pray for
supernatural courage and strength to continue with their
all-important work. We are sorry that we so quickly criticize them,
instead of lifting them up. Give us the wisdom and the right words
to say. Amen