The King’s Ring

Today I want us to look at authority and what it means to have it.

I will use Haman to demonstrate the fact that authority wrongly used can be far worse that open rebellion.

Why does a king give his ring to a person in his court?

It is because he is convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the person will be acting as the king himself would. It is because the king expects that person to serve his kingdom as per his dictates.

The ring can be equated to a letterhead and rubber stamp. It can also be equated to the password, PIN, or something similar in our day.

At no time does the king expect that subject to use that authority for his individual benefit.

A father who gives the PIN for his ATM card or makes his son a signatory to his account does so because he knows that the son will use any money in his account just as the father would.

No father would release that authority to a son just because he is over eighteen.

One son can be offered that authority at eighteen while another would be denied the same even in his sixties.

This is simply because that authority presumes that the person entrusted with it not only understands the person issuing it. He must completely agree with basically everything that person represents and vow to live within its confines.

We will look at two clear examples of the same in scripture.

The first is Joseph and the second is Haman.

Two things that accompanied the issuance of that ring.

They were given complete authority over the kingdom and people were ordered to bow down in their presence. They could even change the constitution since that ring made them more or less like the king.

In Joseph’s case, the king told him that the king was higher than him only as far as being king was concerned. Mening that he could be and do everything in the kingdom except being king. Remember nobody could lift his hand or foot without his permission?

But we see him consulting the king. We even see him asking for favors from the king who had given him absolute authority.

However, when we look at Haman, we see someone who allowed power to get into his head to the extent that he almost equated himself with the king.

He starts scheming without asking the king or his wise men.

And that was his waterloo as they say.

He simply forgot why he was given that ring, that authority. He thought that it was his personal ring to do with it as he willed. And that stupidity cost him everything, and more.

What am I talking about? I know someone is wondering.

Do you realise that there are many times we are entrusted with similar rings? Do you know there are many times we are like Haman in the exercise of that authority?

How many times do we forget that that ring is a stewardship and not a title? How many times do we forget that it is a trust and not a blank cheque?

It feels nice riding that huge car. It feels nice being saluted for. It is exhilarating when everybody stands when we arrive at a scene. How nice it is when we are guided to the best seat in an event!

But we need to remember that it is not the person us that is being respected.

Look at this incident to understand what I mean.

A man in a big government office is entrusted with bodyguard and driver, a car with a flag and  being saluted all the time.

The bodyguard receives a signal that his boss has been dropped (sacked is the proper word).

In a flash he stops by the roadside and removes the flag from the car. Only politeness prevents him from kicking his former boss out of the government vehicle since he has stopped being a government employee.

In short, the king has retrieved his ring.

This is what happened to Haman.

The same people who were bowing to and trembling before him were the same who were reporting to the king where he should be hanged.    

The reality is that the king’s ring can never be personal property. It belongs to the king for the exclusive use and guided by the purposes determined by the king.

As they say, the boss’s dog is a boss, and not because he has ceased being a dog. It is that he exists for the purposes of serving that boss, bowing to his every whim according to his ability.

He stops belonging to the boss and he could be just another stray.

That is what I am talking about.

The assignment is the purpose for that ring and not our person. We will enjoy the perks that go with that assignment. We will enjoy the respect and esteem that accompany that assignment. We will go through those doors that assignment will open for us.

But only as long as we are on that assignment. Only as we are walking according to the dictates of that assignment.

Pushing our weight around because of the assignment is folly because we do not determine how long that assignment will last since it is only the king who holds the sole prerogative of the same.

There is something I need to say about that ring. And it is that there are perks associated with it.

That is what confuses many who have been given that ring.

As part of his being given the ring, Haman was also given a huge house with an enormous compound and probably farmland.

The fact that he could build gallows on that land without the permission of the king who owned the house tells you the problem many of us have with titles.

The fact that he could then go ahead to ask for permission to hang someone on gallows he had made on someone’s land without permission is clear evidence that he had allowed power to get into his empty head like it gets into some of us.

Perks come so that we can complete our assignment. They are not a reward for our doing the assignment. Otherwise, someone living in a government house ought to own that house when they retire.

Come to the point. I know someone is shouting.

Have you ever been elected to a leadership position? Have one or two friends asked you to go to do something on their behalf (would be four sending you be on their bequarter?)?

That is one of the rings I am talking about.

You will be going in their name. You will negotiate in their name. You will be favored on their behalf.

You were made a leader because they trusted you to do something for them. You actually became their ambassador.

It is the abuse of privilege to even imagine that you are representing yourself. It is folly to speak as you. And it is thieving to imagine that whatever you accessed was in your name.

You are as important as your assignment.

Let me give an example.

What is a pulpit? How do people view one? How do people respond to it?

A pulpit represents God and His word being released to His people. It is a ring given by God to His spokesman.

It is not an arena for a person to shine. It is not a forum for someone to sell his merchandise like books and songs. It is not a platform for a speaker to get followers or supporters.

Using the pulpit for a purpose other than proclaiming God’s word is akin to using the king’s ring for personal benefit. Using the pulpit to defend yourself or settle scores is abusing that ring. Fighting to occupy that pulpit is abusing the owner of that pulpit since it is telling Him that that ring is your personal property.

God will not allow anyone to own His ring (pulpit). He only allows him to use it to further the King and His Kingdom’s agenda and nothing else.

Yet that is not how many view pulpits.

Many view it as their property and treat it as that.

They jealously guard it against outsiders for fear that it could be snatched from them. They fight to occupy that pulpit to the point of slandering the occupant so that they can snatch it from them. They use any trick on all the books, fair or foul, to ensure that they occupy that pulpit.

I believe the only thing we should jealously guard against on a pulpit is false doctrine and sin, not other ministers.

There are enough instances of preachers being hounded out of a pulpit as they were preaching because they said something that did not sit well with the perceived owner of that pulpit.  And that had nothing to do with false doctrine or sin.

I know pastors who have been hounded out of their positions in church for the simple reason that they preached against sin.

The pulpit is a king’s ring. It is the King of king’s ring.

As such, we are simple stewards of that ring and should at all times seek to use it as the King Himself would have us use.

We abuse that ring if we hold on to it until our son or wife is ready to succeed us as I see many people nowadays do.

I am also talking about ministry of whatever shade. It is only that the pulpit wrongly used sticks like a sore thumb and so cannot be hidden.

We should seek to get clearer orders when God entrusts us with that ring known by the world as serving God.

We concentrate on the perks and authority we have and hold by virtue of that ring and forget the trust and responsibility we have been entrusted with.

Sadly, as happened with Haman, we will be punished for the wrongful use of that ring.

I could go on to write about other places and situations where a king’s ring is present. This because any position of trust really is not much different from having the king’s ring.

But allow me to stop with the pulpit and ministry.

I may probably build on this if God allows.

You see, this forum is also a ring God has entrusted to me and so I must be careful to use it as God would have me.