Ouch

One thing I love about the Old Testament, is that it doesn’t tell you how it should be interpreted. It tells you about what happened, but not necessarily what it meant. Like, how much of the killing was what God wanted, and how much was what the people thought God wanted? I’m not going to try and answer that one, but something that I have thought long and hard about is the time when David was running from Saul, and then he suddenly finds Saul in the cave where he and his men are hiding.

                  Saul had just returned from chasing after the Philistines, and someone told him where David was. Saul wanted to kill David because he saw him as a threat to his crown. The truth was that David honoured King Saul, and was not about to usurp his leadership, but Saul had embraced a lie, and because of that lie he took every opportunity to look for David to kill him.

                  Saul brought three thousand young men with him to search for David. Then he experienced the call of nature. Oh well, there is a cave right there, and that would be a good place to privately do his business. In goes Saul, on his own. What he is not aware of, however, is that David and his men are further back in the cave. What an opportunity for David!

                  David’s men recognise this as a God given opportunity. They speak to David

                  “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’”

                  Was this David’s opportunity to stop Saul from pursuing him? If it was, David blew it. He cuts off just a corner of Saul’s robe. And not long afterwards he felt guilty!! And the reason he felt guilty? He believed that Saul was the Lord’s anointed, and therefore it was wrong for David to do anything against him.

                  David was right on one count – Saul had been anointed by the Lord to lead Israel. Was he doing a good job? Was he honouring the Lord? David did not consider himself able to judge that. He had to stand back and wait for God to do anything necessary to stop Saul. My question is: how many men were killed by fellow Israelites because David didn’t want to physically stop Saul, when he had the opportunity?

                  We can’t answer that question, but I do struggle with it. It almost feels like some people aren’t important. And it feels the same way in the church sometimes.

                  My husband and I spent several years working with Youth With A Mission. There was a book we were encouraged to read that focused on this precise story, and David’s refusal ‘to touch the Lord’s anointed’. The story was used to suggest that Christians should not criticize their leaders. Maybe I’m oversimplifying it, but that was how it seemed to me when I read it.

                  I questioned this on two fronts. First, is everyone who holds a leadership role in that position because God anointed them? Or was it because man had chosen them?

                  Secondly, what exactly did it mean ‘not to touch the Lord’s anointed’? In David’s case it seems to mean to not to kill Saul, which is quite a long step from simply criticizing a leader. Not that I am suggesting that it is good to criticize a leader, but it is important that we do not ignore when someone is failing to live the way that they should.

                  I have been a Christian for a long time now, and have spent many years both attending various churches, plus serving the Lord on missions with YWAM. I loved being in YWAM, and am so grateful for all the teaching, ministry and opportunities I received there.

                  During this time of cleansing in the body of Christ, many are pointing at large groups like Bethel, in Redding, California, and pointing out some failures there. And I do agree that that church, along with several others, have failed in some situations. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

                  At one time, whilst we were in YWAM, my husband and I had some poor leaders. The wife was a bully. She was unkind to most of the people on the team. It was hard for me to experience this bullying personally, but in some ways harder to watch others hurting because of her harsh behaviour. I decided to talk to the leaders who were over her husband and her. I didn’t have a car though, and public transport was few and far between, so I decided to hitch hike out to where they lived. It took a while, but I arrived, and I was well received. They listened to what I had to say and then drove me back to the team situation in their car.

                  What happened next was painful. My husband and I, the couple who led us, and the leaders above them, all met together. The main leaders apologised to our leaders for not giving them sufficient covering. They promised to do better. Then we all hugged and went our separate ways. But nothing changed. That is, if anything did change, it had no effect on what was happening to us. In the end we had no choice but to leave YWAM.

                  We did not feel looked after. And the situation repeated itself with the couple who replaced us. It felt like the leaders were looked after, those under them were not.

                  Then about five or six years later, we joined YWAM again, only at a different location. We loved the organisation. We felt that we could grow in our walk with the Lord in that organisation. And we did. We had some great leaders, and they helped us as we sought to put Christ first in our lives.

                  Yes, some people have been hurt in Bethel. But so many more lives have been touched in a positive way. I have been blessed through the ministry of Bethel, although I have never been to the church in Redding. I was hurt in YWAM. But I recognised that God was continuing to work in that organisation, and I was able to move beyond the hurt.

                  Did I touch the Lord’s anointed when I went to higher leadership to try and get some help? I don’t think so. Things didn’t work out for me though. I think that was more because in larger organisations there is often little value placed on dealing with everyone complaints. We often see help given to the leader who stumbles. Not so much for the individual within the congregation, even if they stumble due to the fault of a leader. That was the problem in YWAM for us, and I think that could well be the problem in Bethel right now.

                  What we need to remember is that God loves every individual. He does not love leaders more than the people that they lead. After all, leaders were raised up to serve those under them. Come on body of Christ, we can do better.