A Man After God's Own Heart by Kendall R T

Author:Kendall, R T [Kendall, R T]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HRA: Religion:General
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications
Published: 2008-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

33

Why So Many Churches and Religions?

2 Samuel 2:4

Quoting Psalm 8:6, the writer to the Hebrews said that God ‘“put everything under his feet”’. Then, applying these words to Jesus, he added, ‘In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him’ (Heb. 2:8). Two thousand years have passed since Jesus tasted ‘death for everyone’ (v. 9), yet today more cults, sects and denominations exist than ever before. Why? And why do so few involve themselves in true Christianity?

Let us consider these questions in the light of 2 Samuel 2, where once again we see David as a picture of Jesus.

After Samuel secretly anointed him, David waited many years to be crowned king. Finally, the day he had longed for arrived. The Bible describes his accession to the throne like this:

The men of Judah came to Hebron and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah (2 Sam. 2:4).

Like me, you may regard this with a sense of anticlimax. The Bible simply states that they anointed David as king and does not even describe his coronation. Most disappointing of all, we learn that only one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of Judah, acknowledged David as king. Verses 8 and 9 reveal the reason:

Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-Bosheth son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. He made him king over ...all Israel.

Knowing Ish-Bosheth was a weak man, and selfishly intending to retain power in Israel, Abner had set him up as king and refused to bow down to David.

David’s first act as king of Judah was to send a message to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, thanking them for rescuing the bodies of Saul and his sons from the Philistines and giving them an honourable burial (see 1 Sam. 31:11-13). He put it like this:

‘The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favour because you have done this’ (2 Sam. 2:5-6).

It was an offer of total forgiveness intended to reach the whole of Israel. However, the Israelites treated this message with contempt and rejected the man whom God had chosen to be their king. Only relatively few, the tribe of Judah, acknowledged him.

One thousand years later once again most of the Jews refused to accept the person whom God had chosen to rule over them. Galatians 4:4 says: ‘When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.’ Finally, the Messiah, the hope of Israel, was born. Love personified, he healed the sick, raised the dead and proclaimed a message of forgiveness. But despite all this, they rejected him. Read Mark 15:6-10, 12-13:

Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested.

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