Preacher Diaries

OF RULERS AND LEADERS  (Part 2 of 5)

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4.  Connections Beyond the Office

Usually, force, inheritance, or a political process produces the ruler.  On the contrary, a relational process produces the leader, and the people follow that person “out” and “in.”  The ruler has an ‘official’ connection to the people, the leader has a heart-connection with them.  One relationship starts and ends in or around the office, the other lovingly and mutually transcends that regimented space into the private recesses of the players.  One relationship is formal, the other is much more: respectfully and cheerfully cordial, unrestricted by the legalities of office.  One leadership style is self-centred, the other is people-oriented.  One is about power and control, the other is about service.  One is about rules, the other is flavoured with grace.  One is founded on fear, the other on love.

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OF RULERS AND LEADERS  (Part 1 of 5)

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“Also, in time past, even when Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the LORD your God said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over My people Israel.'”
1 Chronicles 10:2; 2 Samuel 5:2, New King James Version.
  1. A Definition
Take one more look at our text: two characters are prominently projected: Saul and David, in apparent contrast.  At the time when one “was king,” the other “led” the nation.  One was ruler, the other was leader; one had the throne, the other had the people; one wielded power over the people, but whom they went along with “out” and “in” was the other.  In other words, a people’s king might not always be their leader, and rulers are not necessarily leaders.

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WHEN SPIRITS DETERMINE VISAS

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That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
Deuteronomy 30:3.

God can bless anybody anywhere, even in the wilderness; and anybody can choose to be somewhere, but sometimes locations can be the function of a supervising curse or blessing, according to our text.  Before Nebuchadnezzar fell out of favour with God, he sat on a throne in his palace.  When divine judgment came on account of his pride, he was “driven” from his throne into the wild.  His new physical location among the beasts was a consequence of a Spirit-Force acting upon him (Daniel 4).  When Adam and Eve sinned, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden into an ‘outside’ place of labour.  Their former location of bliss had been sustained by their relationship with God; in the same way was their new location of labour the consequence of their spiritual crisis, an expression of their spiritual state.

How will God Speak to Me? (Part 5 of 5)

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Luke the Researcher

I once asked an audience to tell me which book was more inspired, between St Luke’s Gospel and St John’s Gospel.  There were those who were sure that St John’s Gospel was more inspired, that it was more ‘the word of God’ than St Luke’s Gospel.  A few maturer folks said that both books had equal inspiration as the word of God.  The Introduction to the Book of Revelation clearly shows that Apostle John had an encounter with the Almighty where he was instructed to write; so, the authenticity of that book cannot be questioned (Revelation 1:1, 10-11).  The same apostle wrote the Book of John, which opens in a unique mystical way, almost like Genesis: “In the beginning…”  But St Luke’s Gospel with a different mode of inspiration is part of the same Bible.

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How will God Speak to Me? (Part 4 of 5)

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  1.  Knowledge
Ordained with Knowledge
The third of the three channels highlighted in our primary text is knowledge: “any that knoweth.”  So, not only by signs or by prophets, but also by the one that “knoweth,” we can hear God and be saved.  The knower could be ourselves or another.  In other words, this knowledge that saves could come from a third party or it could be knowledge acquired by ourselves for ourselves. On facial value, it might not look as ‘spiritual’ as what comes from the Prophet, or the signs of God that we interpret to decode a divine message, yet it saves no less.

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How will God Speak to Me? (Part 3 of 5)

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  1.  Prophets
This is the channel we are most familiar with: prophets, who stand as connections between God and mortals; persons anointed to be able to see into the spiritual realms, as most others cannot.  When people are not sure about the will of God, they usually seek to a prophet of God.  For example, it took a prophet to tell David that he was not supposed to build the temple of God (2 Samuel 7:4-13).  When the people of Israel wanted to know the mind of God in the closing days of the Kingdom of Judah, they went to Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 42:1-4).

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How will God Speak to Me? (Part 2 of 5)

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Circumstantial Signs

The experience of Balaam in the course of one business mission provides a handy illustration of circumstantial signs that God sometimes puts in our path to slow us down or altogether deter us from potential dangers, if we would hear.  Unfortunately, many times, we think ourselves too ‘committed’ to a people or to a project to hear those signs and save ourselves. Only from hindsight do we rue our losses.

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TAKING JERICHO

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2 And the LORD said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.

3 “You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.

4 “And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
Joshua 6:2-4, NKJV.

In the passage above, God was giving General Joshua the strategy for taking the fortified city of Jericho: seven priests with seven trumpets marching with armed soldiers for seven days around the city, making seven rounds on the seventh day.

Suppose there had been only six priests available for the assignment?  Suppose there had been eight priests, all of them insisting that they had to be part of the Special Team of trumpeters, especially on the final day?  Suppose Joshua had been forced to please everyone, and had allowed all eight or ten ‘volunteers’ on that prophetic march?  Suppose, after the fifth day, everyone had become so tired that none could continue the march on the sixth day, or only four priests had shown up?  Surely, God would have understood their human frailty and given them the city all the same … or don’t you think so?

If Jericho was already “given,” as God said to Joshua, why did he still have to go through those rigours for those many days?  Are there times we miss what Heaven considers already “given,” because of a detail missed?  What did God know about Jericho that the marchers did not?  What did He know about the city that He did not tell even Pastor Joshua?  Why does God sometimes give instructions without explanations?  Why does God get particular (even legalistic) about details sometimes?

I have wondered what might have happened if any of those details had been missed or amended, ostensibly to ‘accommodate’ ‘understandable human conditions’?  Would they still have had the breakthrough they had, the way and the time they did?  Why do some Jerichos persistently defy the loud and long blasts of so many priests for so many days? I have been wondering, and you probably have an answer, what if there had been only six priests … or a mighty army of one million priests … screaming themselves hoarse at adamant fat walls, even when God said the land is already “given”?

From The Preacher’s diary,
October 16, 2017.

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