Prophets in their Hoods

But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. (Mark 6:4)

I want to briefly take us to a different place to make you understand what Jesus meant here.

Do you realise that in David’s initial army his tribe (Judah) contributed the fewest soldiers? They were followed by Simeon who lived among them.

Judah - 6,800

Simeon – 7,100

Levi – 4,600

Aaronites – 3,700 (Total Levites 8,300)

Benjamin, the kindred of Saul – 3,000 (for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept the ward of the house of Saul).

Ephraim – 20,800.

 Manasseh – 18,000

 Zebulun – 50,000

 Naphtali – 37,000

 Danites - 18,600

 Asher – 40,000

Reubenites, Gadites, half tribe of Manasseh – 120,000 (1Chronicles 12: 24 -37, condensed)

Even the Levites, whose duty did not involve war, had more soldiers.

Only Benjamin had fewer soldiers because the big man belonged to their tribe, making this point even more poignant.

Remember Nabal, who insulted David when he went to look for food from him during his party time? He was from Judah.

Though he would hide on Judah’s territory, his tribesmen did not consider him their leader.

Remember Jonathan surrendered his armour to David even as his elder brother was rebuking him for running from responsibility to come and watch war?

To imagine the crown prince handing over his kingdom to David even as his own brother was rebuking him for pride. It actually means that the person with the greatest reason to reject David saw and acted on the reality of David as the anointed king he should serve under when the person who had all the time and reason to verify the reality was unable or unwilling to see.

Yet these are the same people who scrambled to possess him when Absalom was defeated, saying he was closer to them than he was to the other tribes.

What does it mean to us today?

Chances of your own joining you in your struggle are very slim. Yet the same people will insist on owning you when you succeed.

You must therefore be very careful in your struggle so that you avoid impediments to your progress just because you believe that blood is thicker than water.

Incidentally that is the leading reason for the failure of many politicians and political outfits. The leaders forget the grassroots people who poured their sweat and blood to get them where they are and instead chose closeness to people, probably moneyed, who, though they were not on their side, were able to convince them they had more to offer than the crowds. They will realise too late that the temporal power must have the grassroots all the time to be sustainable.

Sadly, it is also the same with ministry and ministers. I have seen many relocate from the slums where they built their ministry when they got one or two wealthy supporters and forgot the people who gave their ministry its validity. I have seen churches built on discipleship killing the same when they ‘succeed’. I have seen churches discard the youth yet they were built on the same youth when they discover people with more resources joining them.

Allow me to leave this message here so that you can reflect