Let Them Talk
Scripture Reference:
II Samuel 16:5-10
One of David’s subjects did not recieve him:
5 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came. 6 And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: 8 The LORD hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the LORD hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. 9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. 10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?
II Samuel 19:16-23
The same person who cursed David earlier is now sincerely pleading for his mercy:
16 And Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite, which was of Bahurim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David. 17 And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king. 18 And there went over a ferry boat to carry over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was come over Jordan; 19 And said unto the king, Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. 20 For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king. 21 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed? 22 And David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? 23 Therefore the king said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king sware unto him.
INTRODUCTION
One of the most important things that a person in power has to do is control the comments of the people under him
When I say this I am sure that most people, especially in the United States, can not relate to what I am saying
There are so many groups designed today to give people an opportunity to have free speech that we feel freedom of speech gives us a right to say whatever we feel wherever we feel like saying it about our leadership
This does not only include the political realm but the same thing is happening at many of our churches today
We feel that when our pastor is not preaching or teaching what we want them to say then we have a right to complain or better yet condemn them with our derogatory comments
This is a lie from Satan
That is called treason actually saints
Treason:
1. A crime that undermines the offender’s government
2. Disloyalty by virtue of subversive behavior
3. An act of deliberate betrayal
The greatest and most famous act of treason in the bible is when Judas betrayed Christ
By now we have heard the story of how Judas betrayed Christ enough times until we think that we are passed committing this crime in our personal walk with Christ
We feel that we have somehow been granted the right to talk and throw spiritual stones at our leadership and there are really no repercussions deserved
Again I warn you saints that this is treason
Although we are smart enough to not pick up physical stones and throw them at our leaders (in most cases)
We are consistently throwing spiritual stones at them with our derogatory comments
MAIN BODY
In our scripture for today we see King David being publicly and seemingly utterly mocked by one of his subjects
The people close to David thought that the only fair judgment was to behead the man for making such derogatory comments about the king to his face (verse 9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.)
How many times have we talked negatively about our leadership thinking that we are we justified for feeling the way that we do
Some are even bold enough to use the Lord God’s name in vain and say that He sent them to say what they are saying (verse 8 The LORD hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the LORD hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.)
As leaders we also have to be certain that we are not deserving and that these comments are not a correspondence from God being sent through the person speaking
Just as David did in this scripture (verse 10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?)
Although David would have been completely within his limitations of power to quickly and permanently silence the man for what he said
David was careful to use his godly wisdom to decide that he should not do anything to the man nor should he allow his entourage to harm him
Like any other time with any other person, there were probably many people who did not like David and the things that he was doing so he could not afford to allow people to think that it was safe to make outburst like the ones by Shimei
This would cause serious damage to what David was trying to accomplish because although his loyal followers would continue to be loyal to the man of God they would be serving him because of legal orders rather than a self-driven desire
Any good leader knows that he must always keep himself in a position of popular power to get all that he can from his followers
It was interesting that one of the mighty men of David wanted to go ahead and kill this man for what he said even after David had already told him not to kill him
We have to be careful of this when we are appointed to make decisions over whether or not to grant mercy
There are times when we can not afford to give mercy then there are other times that we must use the mercy of God to forgive the guilty
This is a very tough decision to make and only people who have never had the power or been in position to make these types of decisions think that this would be a “cut-dry” easy decision to make
Although later there was a situation that forced the same man to come back and apologize to David this may not always be the case when we deal with people
There may never be a time that our “accusers” feel the need or be forced to come back and beg for mercy for the comments that they made, yet we still have to be willing to get the perfect advice on all matters from God on what we should do and be fully ready to carry out whatever judgment God renders without remorse
I would like to share a poem with you that was sent to me by my cousin over the internet. It is entitled “Your Tongue Can Be Your Worst Enemy!”
YOUR TONGUE CAN BE YOUR WORST ENEMY!
Your words, your dreams, and your thoughts have power to create conditions in your life. What you speak about, you can bring about.
If you keep saying you can’t stand your job, you might lose your job.
If you keep saying you can’t stand your body, your body can become sick.
If you keep saying you can’t stand your car, your car could be stolen or just stop operating.
If you keep saying you’re broke, guess what? You’ll always be broke.
If you keep saying you can’t trust a man or trust a woman, you will always find someone in your life to hurt and betray you.
If you keep saying you can’t find a job, you will remain unemployed.
If you keep saying you can’t find someone to love you or believe in you, your very thought will attract more experiences to confirm your beliefs.
If you keep talking about a divorce or break up in a relationship, then you might end up with it.
Turn your thoughts and conversations around to be more positive and power packed with faith, hope, love and action.
Don’t be afraid to believe that you can have what you want and deserve.
Watch your Thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your Habits, they become character.
Watch your Character, for it becomes your Destiny
The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settle for.
"In the search for me, I discovered truth. In the search for truth, I discovered love. In the search for love, I discovered God. And in God, I have found everything."
(¯`·.°crystal°.·´¯)
I hope that you can see better how powerful what you say can be to your destiny and I pray that you can use this poem to help to watch what you say from now on.
CONCLUSION
When was the last time that you ever had to make a decision on what to do with the guilty party?
What decision did you make?
Did you grant mercy when you should have used an “iron fist“?
Did you use the “iron fist” when you should have granted mercy?
Only God knows if you used his wisdom to make the right decision but my prayer today is that you used the wisdom of God when dealing with these tough situations because sometimes it can be ordered by God to LET THEM TALK.
Let’s Pray:
Dear God, we ask you to grant us a higher level of wisdom when dealing with your people. We both know and understand better that their hearts are fragile and we absolutely must handle them with care. From this day forward Lord we will be careful to consult with you and hear from you before we make any decisions on how to deal with your people. This is our prayer in your son’s Jesus name.
Thank You. May God continue to bless you and keep you. Amen
Your Friend
Minister Juan D. Lane Sr.
