PROCLAMATION
“And there happened
to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, son of Bichri, a Benjamite;
and he blew a trumpet, and said, ‘We have no part in David, neither have we
inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel.’ ” 2 Samuel 20:1 (KJV)
EXPLANATION
These words
were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God after the death of
the prophet Samuel by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. As David was trying to convince the people to
accept him again as king, not everyone who came to meet him was supportive of
him. There was a troublemaker in the crowd named Sheba who would
lead a second rebellion against King David. When Sheba openly
opposed David, the men of Israel followed him and deserted David, but this time
the men of Judah stayed loyal to him. (2 Samuel 20:2) It is not
stated whether or not Sheba was a part of the first rebellion against David led
by Absalom. It is also not stated why David felt that Sheba was more
of a problem than Absalom or why Sheba was so influential. (2 Samuel
20:6) However, after he left, David sent his men to pursue after
Sheba and they returned with his head. (2 Samuel 20:22)
APPLICATION
In every
crowd there is always a troublemaker present. Someone who undermines
our position, opposes our plan, and wants to lead our followers in a different
direction. It is not always clear exactly why our haters hate us
so. Some people feel that we have done them wrong and they will not
forgive or forget it. Some people don’t like what we have said, or
what we have done, or what we stand for, or for being who we
are. There is nothing that we can do to make some people like us, and
we really should not try to. We just need to be ourselves and to
follow The Word of God and accept the fact that we will have some
haters. Jesus, The Christ, said that we would be hated (Matthew
10:22) but that we should remember that the world hated Him before hating us. (John
15:18) So, we should rejoice and be glad because we will be blessed
when people insult us, persecute us, or lie on us because of our beliefs, and
we should know that we will receive a heavenly reward because of it. (Matthew
5:11-12)
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