Today we study 2 Samuel 1:11-16. David takes some strong action in defence of his belief that we are not to touch the Lord's anointed. But what does that mean for us today? Check it out and give us your thoughts. Here's the link to our YouTube study: https://youtu.be/xvNh9PqUHNk
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
Sometimes I think the admonition “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” is misused in much the same way as “Judge not that you be not judged”. In the Free Methodist denomination there was a protocol in the “Book of Discipline” that called for a vote to be taken annually by the congregation to determine whether the sitting pastor should be renewed for another year. This provision was to protect the congregation from a pastor who deviated from the teaching of scripture or in some other way either brought shame on the Lord’s name or didn’t measure up to expectations in a major way. About 30 years ago we appointed a pastor who did not measure up to expectations. He was against young children memorizing scripture because he said they didn’t understand it. He refused to visit or take prayer requests on Mondays because those were his days off. There were a whole host of problems which I won’t go into here. Long story short – the congregation voted 67% to not renew his contract. He managed to get a meeting called with a church official from the convention present to try and have the vote overturned. At this meeting, someone who wasn’t a member of the congregation stood up and defended the pastor and quoted the bit about not touching the Lord’s anointed. This was wholly out of context and misappropriated in my mind. Unfortunately it swayed the mind of the church official and the vote was overturned. The upshot was that more than half the church left (including the heaviest givers) and those that remained were forced to let the pastor go shortly thereafter since they couldn’t afford to pay him. Not long after, the pastor left the ministry and divorced his wife amidst rumors of his being unfaithful in his marriage. So the bottom line is one shouldn’t start applying cherry picked scripture passages when a) they don’t apply and b) when you don’t know the whole situation to which you are applying it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think the admonition “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” is misused in much the same way as “Judge not that you be not judged”. In the Free Methodist denomination there was a protocol in the “Book of Discipline” that called for a vote to be taken annually by the congregation to determine whether the sitting pastor should be renewed for another year. This provision was to protect the congregation from a pastor who deviated from the teaching of scripture or in some other way either brought shame on the Lord’s name or didn’t measure up to expectations in a major way. About 30 years ago we appointed a pastor who did not measure up to expectations. He was against young children memorizing scripture because he said they didn’t understand it. He refused to visit or take prayer requests on Mondays because those were his days off. There were a whole host of problems which I won’t go into here. Long story short – the congregation voted 67% to not renew his contract. He managed to get a meeting called with a church official from the convention present to try and have the vote overturned. At this meeting, someone who wasn’t a member of the congregation stood up and defended the pastor and quoted the bit about not touching the Lord’s anointed. This was wholly out of context and misappropriated in my mind. Unfortunately it swayed the mind of the church official and the vote was overturned. The upshot was that more than half the church left (including the heaviest givers) and those that remained were forced to let the pastor go shortly thereafter since they couldn’t afford to pay him. Not long after, the pastor left the ministry and divorced his wife amidst rumors of his being unfaithful in his marriage. So the bottom line is one shouldn’t start applying cherry picked scripture passages when a) they don’t apply and b) when you don’t know the whole situation to which you are applying it.
ReplyDeleteBob, I totally agree with you. Thank you so much for the
ReplyDeletereal example. Ken G.