One time back in college, I was scheduled to report in a class about Michael Graves, a famous post-modern architect in the States. I like research and reporting then, so I told myself that I’ll do this project seriously (in Filipino, kinarir ko yung project). I did a good research paper. I put all my creative juices in my presentation (Powerpoint presentation was new then). I even got a short interview from Graves’ office in the States. I was so confident I would do well.
So the day came for my time to do my report. 15-minutes past and my professor didn’t arrive. So my peers and I decided to leave class and go to the mall because my professor was absent. Or so I thought. 5 minutes later, our professor came and did class. End of story: I failed the project because I missed my slot. No matter how I pleaded and explained, it didn’t matter. I thought my professor wouldn’t come anymore.
The Filipino adage that says, “Maraming namamatay sa akala (Many people are destroyed by wrong assumptions)”, is very true in my story and the next.
David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, when someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news! How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!” (2 Samuel 4:9-11)
When Rekab and Baanah learned of Abner’s death (Abner was Saul’s army commander, later served his son Ish-boseth), and felt that Ish-boseth’s reign will soon wane, they put matters into their own hands by killing Ish-boseth so to gain favor with David, Saul’s self-made nemesis.
This verse also alludes to an earlier scene when an Amalekite, whose nation is at war with Israel, came to pronounce Saul’s death in the presence of David, assuming that David will be glad upon hearing Saul and his son’s demise (2 Samuel 1:1-15).
They thought that by killing what they thought as David’s enemies (Saul and his house), that that was what’s on David’s mind, that it would please David to see the house of Saul destroyed, and what I think is the primary motivation of their actions, that David will regard them in high honor. They thought they were doing David a favor.
But they were so mistaken. Because everything they thought about who David was, is far from what was true of David. They were no citizens of David’s kingdom, lest part of David’s army. They have no direct connection or even a glimpse of David’s heart and vision. Perhaps what they knew about David was merely from faulty “second-hand” accounts of David’s enemies.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”
And sometimes, like Rekab and Baanah, we think we know the mind of God, we think our actions are pleasing God, and we think we are doing God a huge favor. Without the knowledge and the guidance of what the Word of God says about living a life that pleases God, we make our own rules, follow our own way.
For example: Relationships. Is your belief about relationships and how you are living it congruent to what the Bible says about it? Does your relationships—boy-girl, friendships, family relationships—please God? Are you sure? How?
How about in the areas of money, purity and thought life, and pursuit of success?
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
So how can we walk a way that leads to life?
1. Don’t assume. Discover and pursue what God really wants. You can only discover what God really wants when you spend Time Alone with God by reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. And once you discover what God really wants, act on it.
2. Find godly advice. Beware who you listen and look up to. Are they a picture of godly character? Do they have an intimate relationship with God as well? Rekab, Baanah and the Amalekite got their view of David from faulty, second-hand views from David’s enemies.
3. Make God’s pleasure your number one goal. We make Christ truly the Lord of our life when we align and subject our plans and desires to His plan and desires for His children. Live to make God famous. Decrease so God can increase in your life!
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