Today in the concluding part of the series, let’s look at a response of God’s anointed to persecution from enemies weaker than them!
Yes, strange as it seems, we even sometimes see enemies who are actually weaker than us who provoke us badly. Here it would be all the more tempting to settle scores because there would be no great fear of retaliation! Ask David, who was severely pricked by an uncouth, surly but not-so-strong Nabal (I Samuel 25)!
Now the temptation to get even at being insulted was too great even for a man of God’s own heart (I Sam 25:21-22), especially as the provoker was not as strong as him! But for the timely intervention of wise Abigail (Nabal’s wife) and her wonderful intercession, David would have had the seared conscience of a man who took law into his own hands, all his life (I Sam 25:31)!
But what about Nabal, who heaped insults upon the anointed servant of God? He was not going to get away, was he? Though David forgave him, verses 37 and 38 of the same chapter record sombrely the fact that Divine comeuppance by way of a premature death shortly caught up with that churlish character.
A short detour…
Forget physical persecution, as this David versus Nabal account testifies even insulting God’s chosen ones’ can prove costly for the careless lot. Even with respect to the Nation of Israel, let us be careful with our words. I shuddered coming across a tirade against Israel by a Christian pastor recently. Even if all of Jewish actions in the simmering West Asia do not seem overboard, would it not serve us well to remember the Biblical mandate “Do not give him (Israel) your blessing and DON’T CURSE HIM” (Genesis 31:24-TLB)?
Jerusalem, as per the Biblical prophecy (Zech 12:1-3) could become ground zero of all Global tension in the imminent tribulation period. Are not all Global events, most notably the failed/truncated peace talks of recent vintage between Jews and Arabs, a harbinger of future events to come?
Jews deny that Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God, and our Arab friends are just as guilty. No wonder in the early part of the Tribulation period the Anti-Christ would have countless admirers!
But the the book of Romans prophecies that the Jews will repent and seek Christ towards the end of Tribulation (Romans 11:26). One truth which cannot be denied is the fact that Israel is a tool in the hands of the Wise Creator, as He takes the World history to a climax. (for more on this topic, click on the following: http://www.jandsmministries.com/rev_pre.asp ).
To those following developments in West Asia in the media, I can only pen these words with an air of one pleading with folded hands, “those with eyes PLEASE SEE and those with ears PLEASE LISTEN” (Matt 13:9) for events are unfolding therein exactly in consonance with Biblical prophecies! It’s time to accept Jesus! Now! Now to the other side of the coin…
Now coming back to the main track (I had used “a loop line”, you see!), no essay on any topic is complete, till we look at both sides of the coin, as it were. What about those ruthless persecutors of Christians, who at some time realized the folly of their ways and repented? Did God forgive them?
There is an emphatic YES to this answer in the Scriptures.
What about Saul, the rabid Jewish persecutor, who became a mighty Christian apostle Paul, following his personal encounter with Christ, on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16)? Or for that matter the jailer who cruelly clamped the limbs of Paul and Silas in the Philippians’ jail in the rusting stocks (Acts 16:24-24) but accepted Christ later?
God keeps the doors of forgiveness open to all who sincerely seek Him…yes to even to the likes of those who participate in terrorism and persecution, to those who are perpetuating the communal violence globally! So even as there is a command to persecuted Christians to forgive their persecutors, there is a call to the persecuting lot also to repent of their cruel ways and seek the true and ever living GOD, when there is still time (II Cor 6:1-2)! `
“Winners do not do different things, they do things differently”…wrote the wise management guru Shiv Khera in his book “You can win”. In conclusion, I would like to slightly rephrase this wise sentence and put it this way: “Christians may not do different things but they are commanded do things differently”. That is in the face of persecution (from all kinds of foes’) we have been commanded to show love.
Suresh Manoharan
Hyderabad-India www.jandsmministries.com
(To Access the entire “The Command and the Call” mini-series, please click here.)