If I were invited to preach on Father’s Day, I may use the Second Samuel account of the distressing season in David’s biography, the occasion when Absalom dared to challenge his father for Israel’s throne. The passage teems with enough intrigue and father-son interaction to develop a series or short book. The book title may be Non Parenting for Dummies.
One paragraph arrested me as I read 2 Samuel 2:7-12 it several weeks ago, "And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron. For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If the LORD shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD. And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom."
Absalom’s reach for power rightfully belonging to his father David had gone on for a long time. The KJV says 40 years. Newer translations record four years. For four years, or more, Absalom appointed himself a judge at the city gates and chipped away at David’s authority and reputation. He slyly built a following, an Israeli "Tea Party" that promised better everything when the right leader (Absalom) would ascend to the throne. The defining sentence in the passage is, "And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were called; and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not any thing." After more than four years not one of the two hundred men had an inkling of Absalom’s devious spirit. The sad fact is "the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom."
From the wider text which embraces the whole of Absalom’s conspiracy, I suggest we should learn the following lessons:
We have a responsibility to know whom we follow. Being naive is not acceptable. The adage is timeless, "We teach what we believe, we reproduce who we are." I suggest that we ought to know our leaders in direct proportion to the amount of influence that leader has over us. Unlike political leaders who are impossible to know personally, we can know and choose spiritual leaders. The traits of spiritual leadership were well defined by the Apostle Paul for his protégée Timothy. "Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self–controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap." (1 Timothy 3:2-7)
Followers must understand that distance is a built-in peril. Personalities in media ministries cannot be known, but assume authority to speak into everyone’s life who dares to set their radio or television to the frequency on which the teacher-preacher appears. On occasion, not too often or Pat will conclude I am absolutely daft, I speak back to one of the authoritative gurus and say, "You don’t know me, where I live, what I am experiencing or that I should do anything to sustain your presence in the media! And, I don’t know you either!" Glibness, the ability to influence and convince others is not enough! "Who are you?" is the question.
True accountability in groups small enough for members to know one another is imperative. Family is the first, most important God-designed accountability group. A spouse must be allowed to call their mate into account. Parents must assume spiritual leadership for their children. On occasion parents must humble themselves before their children and confess their sin, their errors in discipline and judgment.
If the contemporary Absaloms of our culture are followed as the 200 and later, the masses in Israel’s story, the results will be as disastrous. Someone taught me, "One cannot walk the path others have walked without arriving at the same destination."
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