“Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was
striking the people, and said, ‘Behold, I have sinned, and I have
done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done?’ ”
People who are characteristically righteous always have an
outsized sense of their own relative culpability. That is probably a good
thing. A tender conscience toward sin and a heart which always looks to get
right with God are qualities to be valued and pursued. God is often more
generous with his assessment of righteous men and women than they are with
themselves.
But a preoccupation with our own personal responsibility can
also be a bit like wearing blinders.
An Off-Base Protest
In this case, David’s protest was way off base. Those “sheep”
he was so eager to protect, and whose punishment he was willing to take on
himself, were being stricken for a reason. We have no idea what that reason
was, and it is not necessary that we have all the gory details. Scripture simply says, “Again the anger of the Lord was kindled
against Israel.” That will do fine. This was not the first time the behavior of God’s people had provoked him, and it would not be the last. David’s imprudent actions in numbering the people were used by God to
bring appropriate and necessary judgment on his repeatedly-erring nation.
Throughout the lengthy history of the children of Israel
chronicled for us in the word of God, we often find wicked people with godly
leaders. God is gracious, and often raises up courageous men who stand in stark
contrast to those around them, drawing men and women back to God. Moses.
David. Hezekiah. Josiah. Elijah. John the Baptist. Each went hard against the
cultural zeitgeist of his day. The spirit of the age had no claim on them.
Golden Calves and the Yoke of Caesar
The reverse situation is far less likely. Until we come to the Church Age, we rarely find large numbers of genuinely innocent people suffering under
wicked authority figures. A few outspoken prophets, sure. But that scenario of flocks of guiltless, oppressed “sheep” contemplated by David is all but absent from scripture.
When Ahab and Jezebel were running Israel into the ground,
its people were gleefully worshiping golden calves at Dan and Beersheba. When
Manasseh led the people of Judah astray, it was because “they did not listen”. Judah was deaf to the voice of God, and it got the leadership it richly
deserved. And the very same first century Judaeans who complained about the yoke of Caesar were
called to account by John the Baptist for all manner of injustice, selfishness
and evil-doing in their personal and business lives.
The same principle is in evidence all over today’s political
landscape. When Canadians rejected Prime Minister Stephen Harper in favor of
Justin Trudeau, they selected a man after their own hearts. Few leaders more effectively
represent the character of their nations. The stifling political correctness, omni-tolerance of evil, intellectual
incoherence and historically-ignorant globalist utopianism of modern Canadian society could
not possibly be more perfectly epitomized than in Pierre Trudeau’s firstborn
son. We got the leadership we deserve, and then some.
Another Jezebel
It should therefore not surprise us at all to find a similar scenario playing out in local churches everywhere. Churches have good leaders and
bad ones, but the bad ones rarely oppress wise, biblically knowledgeable,
loving congregations. Rather, bad leaders — be they pastors, elders, or those
possessing any of the many inappropriate and unbiblical titles extant in
Christendom — come to their positions of authority because they are
perfectly acceptable to the vast majority of congregants they purport to serve.
The New Testament “prophetess” Jezebel held sway in the
church at Thyatira because a significant number of its members were overly tolerant. Diotrephes — who rejected apostolic authority, refused to welcome
believers into the church, and excommunicated those who disagreed with him —
dominated his local church because nobody there was up to contending with his “wicked
nonsense”. Only John was apparently prepared to come and do so.
Sheep That Love Being Sheep
If you are concerned about the direction your local church
leadership is currently taking, and see major problems on the horizon, you have
probably noticed those leaders are not without some measurable level of congregational
support. If you are listening to the same hired “pastor” week after week after endless week, it is usually because the men in your church are happier paying someone to do the job than doing it themselves. If you
constantly hear messages that sound like empty fluff, it is because a
significant number of your fellow believers are spiritual lightweights, and
they are getting exactly what they are asking for. If the “worship team”
bombards you with modern noise with nonsense lyrics on a Sunday morning, it is
because that’s what your fellow Christians listen to at home. If you are finding
yourself averting your eyes from inept and bizarre displays of liturgical
dance, it is because a non-trivial number of your fellow believers consider
that sort of craziness acceptable. We get what we are willing to put up with,
and we all too easily become what we tolerate.
“What have these sheep done?” asks David. Well, to start
with, they probably love being sheep. That’s a major problem.
A church with systemic issues leaves its members without a whole lot of options. Often you will hear other Christians
advise you to leave where you are if you don’t like the way they teach or
practice the word of God. But if there were a thriving, growing, biblical alternative
right around the corner, you would probably have heard of it by now. The reason
you are still where you are is that everywhere else you have looked into has the same problems or others of comparable magnitude.
Welcome to Laodicea
Welcome to Laodicea, folks. In a spiritual sense, it
probably looks a lot like Samaria prior to the Assyrian captivity, or maybe
Judah just prior to Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. Maybe it even looks a
bit like first century Judaism: so blind, corrupt and compromised that Christ
himself could walk into it and be summarily shown the door. We need to take off
David’s blinders, and recognize that the church is where it is today because
the vast majority of so-called Christians are perfectly happy with it that way.
Be advised that one day soon Christ will act in judgment not just on the false
shepherds, but on the apathetic, overly tolerant, lukewarm sheep. “Those whom
I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”
Things will not be this way forever.
In the meantime, where is the serious Christian to find
strength, hope and direction in an age of compromise and spiritual blindness? In
personal fellowship with the risen Christ. “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he
with me.”
If we cannot change the condition of our fellow sheep, at
least we can attend to our own. If our Lord and Savior is not consistently welcome in his own congregation, let him always be welcome in our hearts.
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