22 August 2011

Psalm 1, 2, 3; 1 Kings 1:1-31; Acts 26:1-23; Mark 13:14-27

Leadership abhors a vacuum. Adonijah sees the potential for a vacuum and decides to step into the breach and declare himself king. He certainly has the right to believe he will be king as he is one of David’s sons from one of the various women he had as wives. There are several who could lay such claim and quite likely that they all would indeed step forward with a plausible claim. There was bound to be much jockeying for position in the kingdom and alliances formed among various claimants. Joab chooses to go with Adonijah along with Abiathar but others, notably Zadok and Nathan, don’t follow. Nathan, the prophet who confronted David concerning his sin with Bathsheba, now counsels Bathsheba concerning how to secure her son, Solomon’s claim, which is David’s will. Will Adonijah accede?

Jesus prophesies concerning what will happen when He is no longer physically present among them. There will be pretenders and false messiahs who claim the throne. They are to be wary of any such claims and we are to be wary as well. We must always exercise discernment. Discernment is a spiritual gift but it must always be coupled with a spirit of prayer lest we rely on our own judgment. We need to be always asking God, “Is this right?” The gift is certainly not meant to take the place of prayer but to drive us further into prayer that we might have the witness of the Spirit and the witness of God in answer to prayer. We must always be on guard, always in prayer, lest we be deceived. There is but one true king and one anointed by the king, His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no room for pretenders but there will be a battle to end the dispute.

Paul’s defense is straightforward, the Gospel. He presents the Gospel to the king. There is nothing other than this at stake. There is but one king, Jesus, not Agrippa. Agrippa was himself nominally a Jew who had supported the Jews at Rome against the claims of the Samaritans. He was, therefore, uniquely qualified to understand and evaluate the particular charges against Paul and to evaluate Paul’s defense. It is, then, proper for Paul to make his defense by appealing completely to his Judaism and his understanding of Jesus. The Gospel is his defense because it makes sense contextually to Agrippa. The question turns on who is Jesus, is He the king of the Jews and therefore Agrippa as well, or is He not?

We are called to be God's prophets,
speaking for the truth and right,
standing firm for godly justice,
bringing evil things to light.
Let us seek the courage needed,
our high calling to fulfill,
that the world may know the blessing
of the doing of God's will.

Tune