Belligerent Rebellion

 Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day? (1Samuel 22: 7, 8)

That misery loves company is exemplified by a study of rebellion

Or have you never wondered why homosexuals must create all sorts of fuss to be recognised? Or why harlots must always ply our highways and byways to publicise a purely private business?

Rebellion hates, nay, fears solitude.

A whoremonger can smell a whore from afar since there is a spiritual connection. They do not need to see one dressed the role to connect. And it is the same with a drug user.

I have written elsewhere of my shock when we would go to a very new place on assignment and you will see colleagues in their element in a very short time. The drunkard, the drug user, the whoremonger, will all have been served before you can locate a decent eatery.

Why then market something that does not need marketing, especially something that is illegal in most places?

It is rebellion that is looking for a cheering squad.

Another thing you may not know is that normal people are scared of harlots. They will not comfortably shake her hand or even want to be seen with her. Many see death and destruction in her presence and so will not run to her for a hug. She is therefore not much of a temptation in her element.

It is rebellion that pushes her to those extremes of exposure and marketing as it is marketing that would otherwise be counterproductive. And you can be sure it is the same with homosexuality.

Rebellion looks for acceptance since they have had the rejection from the authority they were placed under. They must look for acceptance whatever it takes.

Shame is nothing if it can produce some form of acceptance, any form of acceptance.

But let me state a simple but always overlooked fact about rebellion.

Rebellion can never be against a person or structure.

Rebellion is always against authority and not the persons holding that authority.

It might look for explanations to justify itself by creating excuses and smoke screens to form a narrative, but they will always be that, excuses.

The worst part about rebellion is that it is rebellion against the God who put those authority structures in place.

The clearest we get this is from the life and ministry of Moses.

I do not think there is a single time Israel or any of the rebellious leaders raised their voices against God. They always grumbled against Moses. And from his response we can clearly see why he was the meekest man who ever lived.

Moses never responded to their challenges. It is God who came to the defence of His servant, many times with devastating consequences for the rebels. It is God who took the case directed against Moses because He was the One who put him into leadership.

We do not obey authorities because they are good or even right. We obey them because they are placed there by God.

The only time we are called upon to disobey them is when they call on us to disobey God because then they have overstepped their authority.

I will probably write about this another time.

But today I want us to look at rebellion in the context of its neighbourhood.

Saul disobeyed God and as we have seen was rejected.

As you follow his story you realise that he was looking for company all the time. That is where the verse comes from. From music to an army, we will always see him seeking to surround himself with people who validated him.

Instead of dealing with his rebellion he started looking for other things to cover it up.

He created an enemy out of a loyal soldier. He even wanted to kill his heir because he was not buying his story of a non-existent enemy.

In short, anybody not supporting his rebellion was treated as an enemy.

That is the context under which he decimated a whole priestly city. Simply because they had ‘refused’ to kill or expose David though they had no idea he was the king’s ‘enemy’.

Rebellion is madness as it defies reason.

We see the same with Judas.

He was eating the offerings alone yet we see him drawing other disciples to complain when Jesus is anointed with costly perfume. But he gave himself away when he immediately left to negotiate with Jesus’ enemies since he couldn’t buy the lost opportunity that worship had snatched from him.

And even with Balaam we see the same as he then uses his knowledge of God’s nature to bring a curse on the people who had opened a door for his rebellion.

Rebellion is in the business of raising support. It is in the business of looking for a cheering squad for its rebellion.

This gets us to the devil since he is the epitome of rebellion

Do you realise that he is in the single business of populating hell which was created to deal with his rebellion?

Instead of looking for a way out of that hell by dealing with his rebellion he is very busy looking for crowds to share his punishment with.

That is what we see with Saul. Instead of simply renouncing his rebellion he is very busy trying to deal with the one person who was raised due to that rebellion.

The foundation of rebellion is immense pride and self-sufficiency. It is chest thumping at its best.

Someone recently told me that they would rather die than confess their sin to those affected by it.

That is the reason Ahithophel and Judas committed suicide instead of facing their wrong and failed choices.

Another key element of rebellion is deception, a deception that goes beyond idiotic. The delusion in their hearts is that nothing and nobody can use any evidence to convince them.

The rebellious through their rebellion are able to somehow convince themselves that they are right and even God is wrong and must therefore be forced to see sense in their rebellion. They think that anybody not on their side is completely in the wrong however clearly the contrary is proven.

Imagine Saul taking a vow from David for the protection of his posterity when David becomes king after David refuses to kill him! What nerve is that?

To imagine that he was in that situation because he was looking for David to kill him.

He promises to stop looking for David to kill him yet in the next instance is on the warpath again, looking for David to kill him.

And David again refuses to kill him.

He weeps, but they are not tears of repentance. They are the tears of regret because his heart is sold out to his rebellion. Regret because he strongly felt the tables ought to have been reversed.

He still surrounds himself with people, people who must not judge him since that is his gauge of loyalty.

An enemy who agrees with his rebellion is a better friend than the friend who confronts his sin. To imagine Saul used an alien (who in their long history was more of an enemy than a friend) to clear the priestly city when his army refused to comply is telling.

Rebellion stands at the highest hill shouting itself hoarse that it is innocent. That it should stop being judged. That all sins are equal. That his motives were right, only the product came out wrong. That it should be understood.

It doesn’t let anybody else speak or interfere with its tirade. It insists on being heard all the time.

That is why I am persuaded that there is no forgiveness for the rebellious because they even lock out God from convicting them.

Look at the harlot in Proverbs

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house. Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. (Proverbs 7: 10 – 14)

She is loud and stubborn is the actual description of the rebellious.

But we also see the aspect of worship (paid my vows)

She could have been faking that worship for all we care. But I think she really believed that her worship was genuine since her rebellion had blocked God’s voice from her experience.

Let me mention a factor driving rebellion. That is a craving for acceptance, especially on terms that were there before the rebellion.

We will go back to our fall guy, Saul.

Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. (1Samuel 15:30)

It is astounding when you go through the chapter that after his rejection is sealed, the only thing he cares about is receiving the honour of the people, the people who had no idea that he had been rejected.

In short, he wanted to forestall the rejection of the people he led.

That is the driving force of all rebellion. No wonder it is stinks so badly to God.

Someone wants so badly to appear changed without addressing their fall. They want to right things without having to admit their part in the mess.

Or like I have said severally, they want to be revived before admitting that they are dead, the only prerequisite for a revival.

Reforming without repentance is what Christ equated with whitewashing a tomb. You will end up with a very beautiful edifice that is full of death and decay beneath all that beauty.

By the way these are the initial stages of rebellion before it goes full-fledged into outwardly against God and everything He stands for. But it is important for us to appreciate this fact if we are to address the rebellion in our hearts or help the people battling it in theirs.

Rebellion goes full length to invest everything in gaining that acceptance. Look at this.

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. (Daniel 11:32)

In verse 7, we see Saul doing exactly this. I will give you; I will make you; …, just be on my side. Please help me conceal my rejection. Forgetting that probably only his general was present when the rejection was pronounced.

That is why we see harlots falling over themselves to join or even start ‘worship’ teams. That is why abhorrent characters (before God) are all over looking to join leadership in church, some even buying those positions with those fat envelopes and cheques.

That is why you see some even giving cars and lands to ministries and ministers as a cover for their rejection.

Please note that I am not against giving. I live on the giving of God’s people and know that giving originates from God.

But I have been in ministry long enough to have seen what I am writing about.

There is a great difference between generous giving and manipulative giving. There is a world of difference between worshipful surrender to God and a surrender that is a cover for rebellion.

Yet according to sight there could be no difference. But the spiritually alive can see it miles away.

I have written elsewhere about seeing pastors who were bought out of their radical preaching.

They were given a car or a house or any other such thing by this rebel. And it was in secret.

Yet it was spiritually evident that such a transaction had taken place.

That is what I am talking about here.

Rebellion is not content until it draws many others under its wing.

Remember Sodom when the angels visited? Or the cause of the Benjamite war?

Everybody had to comply with their understanding of morality (or lack of the same)

Any visitor had to comply with rebellion’s demands.

Or do you not remember the many times ‘developed’ nations threatened to cut their aid to ‘starving’ nations unless they change their laws to accommodate homosexuality?

Rebellion does not hide as sin seeks to do. Rebellion shouts from the hilltops.

But that is not the end game. The end game is bringing everybody and everything under its control, thus gaining unquestionable acceptance.

Probably that was Diotrephes’ problem in 3 John.

Rebellion wants everybody around it to lose their peace so that they can have good fellowship; the fellowship of rebels.

That is why there is no grace for the rebellious. Because they are seeking to remove everybody else from enjoying the Grace God has released to them.

Rebellion is loud and boisterous.