Did you know that Meekness helps us to receive truth?
James 1:21-25…..NKJV…….21 Therefore lay
aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save
your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like
a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself,
goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of
liberty and continues in it, & is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of
the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
1 Thessalonians
2:10-16…..NIV…….10
You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were
among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a
father deals with his own children, 12
encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls
you into his kingdom and glory.
13
And we also thank God continually because,
when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not
as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in
you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in
Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the
same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 15 who killed the Lord Jesus
and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to
all men 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that
they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The
wrath of God has come upon them at last.
The Gospel presented by Jesus shapes the life course for any one choosing to live it out for God! It is putting this word into action to live by faith and this worship of this word in his life will influence his life all the way to meeting Jesus at the end of that journey!
Jesus was the “meek” man. He humbled Himself before the Father to walk in His steps regarding His image and the foundation of the work to be set forever in His word.
In God's perspective, people who humble themselves, are
these people who are strong, while from a human perspective, it depends on whom
they want to impress. You can see that in the story of those who impressed
David’s son instead of staying alongside David as the King! ( of Ahithophel’s
advice to the King seen in 2 Samuel 16, 17, and what occurs in 18) Ahithophel
commits suicide out of bitterness in 2 Samuel 17:23.
At the point of Grace, we choose whom we will serve. We are told
over and over to forgive those who have done something against us. Yes, and
that can occur daily in this world we live in today!
But Humility is so important that God gave Paul some help to
make sure that he would stay humble: 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 NKJV 6 For though I
might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I
refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to or hears from
me. 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the
revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to
buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded
with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For
when I am weak, then I am strong.
Yet, this “thorn” in the flesh is a person. We know this because we see it in the Old Testament:
Ezekiel 28:22- 24 NKJV “Behold, I am against you, O Sidon; I will be glorified
in your midst; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I executed
judgments in her and am hallowed in her. For I will send pestilence upon her
and blood in her streets; the wounded shall be judge in her midst by the sword
against her on every side; then they shall know that I am the LORD. 24 “And
there shall not longer be a pricking brier or a “painful thorn for the house of
Israel from among all who around them, who despise them. Then they shall know
that I am the LORD GOD.”
From this verse 24, we see that insults of the nations are
compared to prickly briers and painful thorns. Numbers 33:55 ‘But if you do not
drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that
those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your
sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. 56 Moreover it
shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’”
From the time of Jesus, His walk was about the persistent
heart giving the kingdom of God that had come: the Gospel! Jesus was effective
in that He laid down His life and could take it up again because He spoke it
into being. Paul saw the power of Jesus’ walk and proved to be an effective
servant of God.
People wonder today why they are harassed everywhere they go and it is because those irritants remain because that is what they worship. But if we would pray for them, give them into God's hands, what we will see is that we are free to continue to live for God and pray again.
So humility has a dominant thrust in it where appears a
willingness to submit to God, to what is His truth and remain in it to give to
others. These two willingly submit to giving their whole life into God’s glory.
So what would be the level of our humble hearts? Ephesians 4:3 …endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Unity with each person begins in the unity each of us has as a responsible heart toward the things of God.
And it is within that unity with God that one can keep unity with others.
So in returning to Ahithophel we find a most fascinating character. In 2 Samuel 15: 12 Ahithophel was a trusted counselor to King David. He was also a member of his cabinet. The King relied on Ahithophel’s advise as if he spoke from God himself seen 2 Samuel 16:23. Ah yes, but things changed for the “bad”. It was David’s son Absalom that led a rebellion against him, and in this rebellion Ahithophel betrayed David by joining in the rebellious Abasalom. AND we can know the king’s heart on this matter when David recounts those painful laments of a heart when a trusted Ahithophel betrayed him in Psalm 41:8-9 and Psalm 55:12-15.
Psalm 55:12-16 NKJV For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;
then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against
me; then I could hide from him. 13 but it was you, a man my equal, My companion
and my acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together and walked to the house
of God in the throng. 15 Let death seize them; let them do down alive into
hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. 16 As for me, I will
call upon God, and the LORD shall save me.
Yes David called upon God and for God to save him from more foolishness!
AHITHOPHEL: whose name means “foolishness” certainly proved to be the foolish man and it was indicated in his first meeting with Absalom in 2 Samuel 15:12. Yes the rebellion was on! And some parts of historical record give a light on what occurred to make Ahithophel do what he did to the king!
In
historic background, Ahithophel was the father Eliam found in 1 Chronicles 3:5.
And then the grandfather of Bathsheba, so this was a personal ordeal for the
man who knew the king and had worked side by side with him. Yes, David as the
king with loose morals at this time defiled another man’s wife. Instead of
being on the front lines in battle with his men, David stayed in the palace and
then had his eye on the lovely Bathsheba bathing. So in this corrupted action on David’s part,
Ahithophel’s sense of wrong crowded his thinking.
Yes, David was king but was to be the honorable and here he
slipped terribly in the acts of murder of Bathsheba ‘s husband Uriah the
Hittite. What Ahithophel proposed in his pursuit of David is given in 2 Samuel
17:1…… Ahithophel gives Absalom advice: “Now let me choose twelve thousand men
and I will arise and pursue David tonight. 2 I will come upon him while his
weary and weak and make him afraid. And all the people who are with him will
flee and I will strike the king.
It was a personal hostility that Ahithophel held for David.
1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the
disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world. 21 For
since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it
pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we
preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks
foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God.
Through the Gospel, revelation of truth is power. And in the
operation of God’s power through this gospel is victory over sin and death. But
to the Jews, this very message of Christ crucified signaled weakness and proved
Jesus the false Messiah. The Jews looked for signs instead of in Messiah’s
power ( Isaiah 35; 61) The Jews stumbled
in this truth. And of course to the Gentile mind-set, they held no messianic expectations.
No, they held only what a deity should be like, so the message of Christ
crucified was foolishness to them.
Yes, David did try to hide his corrupted acts. He treated
this young woman terribly and her husband even worse. He wanted her to sleep
with her own husband to hide his dilemma her creating a child within her womb.
But the honorable Uriah would not do that while the men he fought with would
not have the same thing available to them. David proceeds with another act of
betrayal to place Uriah on the front line of the battle. Yes, death would occur
to this young man.
Ahithophel most likely burned in his thinking that became a
hate with a force behind it! So Absalom set to take David’s throne, and he,
Ahithophel, must have thought some kind of good must have turned towards him in
favor, but David prayed in 2 Samuel 15:31 “O LORD I pray, turn the counsel of
Ahithophel into foolishness!” Remember
David had already prayed in Psalm 55!
In Ahithophel’s counsel to Absalom with the thought to immediately attack
David before he can regroup, a change occurs in a dramatic way. A loyal friend to David, Hushai pretends to
have turned to Absalom’s side and urges him( Absalom) to delay an attack. It was God
causing Absalom to heed Husahi’s advice and Ahithophel realizes a fatal
mistake. In bitterness, he knows that God will not punish David now. No because
David repented and prayed for God’s hand on the outcome of his own stupid
behavior.
In despair it was Ahithophel who would die: “He put his house in order and then hanged himself (2 Sam 17:23). In prayer, David displayed anguish. He wrote of betrayal in Psalm 55:13-14. A seemingly spiritual companion betrayed David in verse 13: “ but it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance”. 2 Samuel 15:31 Then someone told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, “O LORD I pray, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
Humility goes hand in hand with meekness. Jesus the meek had a
restraint being held in the “kind, the gentle, and the sensitive to others’
needs. They are those who will agree
with that which is God’s word. They will not argue God’s word, neither will
they insist on their own way in it. People could approach Jesus! They could
speak with Him and He would return that which was life to them. He was and is
the meek, but He is not regarded as the “weak”! Like Jesus we are to be the firm and the uncompromising
regarding following truth. And what is revealed to us is that Jesus did not
overwhelm others who were aligned against Him.
God’s grace has been poured out to us! People who know their Lord
and God are the blessed and it shows! We, too, can enjoy this abundance of grace.
We should pray. We should allow truth to prevail in our lives and let people go and give them over to God and His truth.
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” 15 “But if you do not forgive me their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
God forgives those who are truly repentant. It always results in a willingness to let them go!
New teaching at: Voice of Prayer
