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 about us because of our beliefs. We should know that we will receive a heavenly
reward because of it when we persevere. (Matthew 5:11-12)
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