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There is no denying, gentlemen, that according to the book of Judges, after Ju- after Gideon, things began to go downhill. That, of course, we found in the second introduction to the book, where we were told a cycle constantly repeated itself, that Israel compromised with idolatry in one form or another. The Lord allowed their enemies to oppress them. They then cried to the Lord, and the Lord would eventually raise them up a deliverer who judged them, brought them back to the faith, and fought their battles.
When the judge died, the circle began again. But the second introduction makes the point that each time the wheel went deeper into the departure from God. So I, I remind you with this slide again of the situation. In Othniel, who fought the Mesopotamians, the secret of his success was his wife. Aptly so, because the reason why the Israelites had got into trouble with the Mesopotamians and needed deliverance was that they had married these foreign wives, intermarried, you'll see, and taken some of their sons as husbands for their own girls.
Therefore, Othniel was particularly suited to deliver them because his wife had been the secret of his success. When you come to the last judge, Samson, he is guilty of the very sin from which the people in Othniel's day had to be delivered. And Samson was supposed to be a judge, but the judge himself is guilty of the sin from which the people had to be delivered in the days of Othniel.
Things have gone downhill, haven't they? We saw with, uh, Ehud, who fought the Moabites, the Ammonites, and Amalek. He took the Fords of Jordan, having killed the king, and as the Moabites in the west tried to escape by running back and crossing the Fords of Jordan back to their home territory east of the Jordan, Ehud and his friends killed them as they tried to come across. They were at least killing the enemy.
Jethro, whom we must study, God willing, this evening, he fought the Ammonites. And finally, there arising a dispute between him and the Ephraimites, he took the fjords of Jordan and kill not the enemy, but his brother Israelites. Things have gone unhappily wrong when a man can't distinguish between the enemy and his brethren, and treats his brethren as though they were enemies. In the case of Deborah, Barak, and Jael, the honor of dispatching the enemy commander by a tent peg through his brain was given to a woman called Jael, right at the end of the story.
In the case of Abimelech, whom now we must study, the woman who brought his nonsense to an end was a good mother in Israel, in the city of Thebez. She was a grinding her corn for the family, which was a woman's job, and Abimelech came very near the wall of the city. She heaved the millstone over the wall, and it alighted on his head, and that was the end of him and his nonsense. But you see, Sisera, whom Jael killed through his scalp, was an enemy. Abimelech was supposed to be a judge in Israel.
And in the series, of course, he appears as a judge. Things have gone wrong when Israel have to be delivered from their deliverer, if you see what I mean. It's a melancholy story, and I almost apologize for introducing it to you before dinner. It's not a very nice hors d'oeuvre. But then I didn't write this book, and this book is Holy Scripture. We shouldn't suppose that sim- similar things cannot happen today. There is a notable case in John's, uh, epistle, the third epistle, where we read of a certain Diotrephes who loved, as the King James puts it, to have the preeminence.
He liked being first. He governed that assembly, if that's the right word to use, ruled it like a tyrant. And anybody disagreed with him, he put them out. It was a desperate tyranny, but the people in the local assembly hadn't the strength and power to deal with him. And so John writes to them to comfort them and says that he will deal with this Diotrephes when he comes. The Christian church has never been short of would-be popes, nor have assemblies.
Paul, in saying his farewell to the elders of Ephesus, said to them other things they should get heave to themselves and to the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit had set them as overseers, to protect the church of God, which God had purchased with his own blood. For after I'm gone, he says, I know quite well you will be beset by two enemies. There will be enemies from without, wolves that will come in, not sparing the flock. There will be enemies within, men who wish to draw away, and here one should follow the Greek very exactly, not to draw away disciples after themselves, but who want to draw away the disciples after themselves.
They want to boss the whole assembly, you see, and get the whole assembly under their control and eating out of their hand. So Paul warned the elders in Ephesus. It is a human phenomenon that has re- been repeated many, many, many times. We are given, therefore, this story in the ancient book of Jo- of Judges, so that we may use our discernment on it, notice how he achieved his objective.
Notice a false attempt to dislodge him. And then notice the true way that he was dislodged. Abimelech, the self-promoted king. So soon after his father, who said, I will not be ruler over you, the Lord is your ruler. It was a genuine theocracy. But notice first now Abimelech's false alternative as he made his initial uh, uh proposal to the uh men of Shechem.
He went to Shechem, says chapter nine verse one, unto his mother's brothers, and spake with them and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether is better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, seventy persons in all, rule over you, or that one rule over you. Proposal alternative number one. Is it better that seventy men rule over you, or one?
If seventy men try to rule over you, it'll be chaos. You'll never know where you are. Is it better to have seventy, therefore, or one? But it was a false alternative. As Latin says, tertium non datur. The third thing wasn't offered. Wasn't a question of one or seventy. His father would have replied, neither. The fact is it's the Lord who rules over us. Not either seventy men or one man. It's the Lord who rules over us. But the alternative was very neatly put, wasn't it?
Particularly to unspiritual people, that they had to make a choice. So they plumped for what seemed the better alternative, forgetting what the real choice was. They chose that one man should rule over them. And then he appealed, uh, do you see, to them on family grounds, ties of blood. Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother's brothers spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, he is our brother.
Now, let me make a very harsh comment, and you will forgive me, I make it within these four walls, solely within these four walls. It can often be a difficult thing when the members of a church or an assembly all belong to one family or two families. If any disagreement arises, the tendency often is that the assembly splits on family grounds instead of on the question of the truth and what is right and just. Sometimes you can't help it if an assembly is composed of the members of one or two families, and they're all interrelated.
There, there will may need be very special care. But to appeal blatantly like this for family pride and instinct was surely a very bad sign in Abimelech's behavior. But then his family supported him and his cause with contributions to his fund. They gave him three score and ten pieces of silver out of the house of, of what? Ba- Al-Barit. Wow. Didn't come out of the treasury of the Lord, by any chance.
How could it have done? This was sheer pagan politics. And funded by worldly funds. Used by Bimelek, who hired vain and light fellows which followed him. And then the massacre. And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah and slew his brothers, the son of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons upon one stone. Slaughtering his brethren in order to get to get control of the state.
Well, gentlemen, it was a common practice. You will read of some of the kings in Israel in the Book of Kings. When they came to power, they killed their brothers. That was a common thing done in those far off days, because where a king had many wives and concubines, and there were many children, if one of the men, the children had grown up, uh, uh, got the throne, he made sure that none of the other children would come disputing his right to the throne, so he executed a lot of them. Common thing. Power-hungry men. Amaziah the king is praised precisely because he didn't do that.
And the very fact he's praised for not doing it emphasizes that mostly people did that. Slaughtering his brothers so that he could be king. It's certainly not godliness, and it certainly wasn't Christianity, was it? One of the brothers escaped and spoke his marvelously vivid fable in the next verses down to verse twenty one. Now here I must pause, because this is, technically speaking, a fable.
Some, in their zeal for the inspiration of scripture, will say there are no fables in the Bible. And we know what they mean. There is at least one fable, and here it is. But it's a fable in the technical literary sense. We're all used to parables. Our Lord told parables. Our Lord didn't tell any fables, as far as we're aware. A fable is a kind of a parable, but it is a story in which things happen that couldn't happen in ordinary life.
So animals speak, or trees speak, you'll see. So in this parable, trees of various ki- uh, uh, kinds speak. We call that, in literary terms, a fable. But then it's not claiming to be history. It's a kind of a parable, and it carries a very powerful message. There are no fables in the Bible, if you mean things that pervert history. Let's listen, therefore, to this fable.
He went and stood on a hill and gave it out for all to hear. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? Notice the sarcasm in the fable. Jotham was a marvelous fable teller, wasn't he? Well, hope you enjoy it. They said to the olive, Come and be. What an absurd notion, he said.
Should I leave my fatness and, uh, wherewith by me they honor God and man? His sense of the superiority of the gift that God had given it to produce oil by which man honored God and man. Positive, beautiful, health-giving, satisfying. Why should I leave that gracious ministry to go and notice how he describes the politician, waving over the trees? Abimelech, you know, didn't like this chap, as we find out in the subsequent story.
Uh, and the trees said to the fig tree, come thou and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to wave o- uh, to and fro over the trees? And the tree said unto the vine, come thou and reign over us. And the vine said to them similarly, Should I leave my wine which cheareth God and man and go to wave to and fro over the trees? Dulce. A true sense of proportion, built into nature, if you like. Why would you want to reign over an assembly or a people?
Well, if God appoints you to do it, you must, of course. It is a sacred duty. But to shepherd, and to guide, and to feed, and to rescue, and to comfort and all these lovely things that a shepherd does. Just to be the boss. And as Jotham put it, and the olive tree put it, to wave over the others, and I control things here, is an arid ministry, if it is worth calling a ministry.
What does it mean to rule for God? And we need to ask, what does it mean to be an elder and a ruler in an assembly? Then said all the trees to the bramble, come thou and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, if in truth you anoint the ki- me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow. And if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the say cedars of Lebanon. Exquisite poetry, this is by by Jotham.
They asked the bramble to come, who contributes nothing whatsoever, other than scratches, but he thinks he's very fit to rule. Look at his thorns and how he can treat people. And a flashing memory comes back by somebody who recently, in our story, used the brambles to chastise his brethren. Harbored that apart. Notice his sense of values. If, if, if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
What those beautiful, stately trees destroyed by fire coming out of an old bramble bush. But that's his sense of self-importance, of course. And his idea of office. And once they appoint him king, how important he is. And if it's a bramble, he re- uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, burns up the cedars of Lebanon, he congratulates himself. Losing all sense of proportion of his self-worth, of course. And his self-importance, and the true value of the other trees.
And with that, you'll see he begins to apply his lesson. Now, therefore, if you have dealt truly and uprightly in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands, for my father fought for you and adventured his life and delivered you out of the hand of Midian, and you are risen up against my father's house this day and have slain his sons threescore and ten persons upon one stone, and have made Abimelech the son of his maidservant king over the men of Shechem because he is your brother.
Then you have dealt truly and uprightly with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. If not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo. And let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Millo and devour Abimelech. If you suppose you have done well in treating the house of Gideon, who risked his life for you, in murdering his sons to make Abimelech, who after all was the son of a, of a harlot, really, to make him king.
Well, then you reap the consequences of your deed. In other words, you've made a bramble your king. Let fire come out from the bramble and deal with you men who have made him king. And let fire come out from you men when you eventually find out what Abimelech is like and devour Abimelech. With that, he ran off. An exposure, of course, of the motivation of Abimelech's seizing of power.
God help us all. We all have our distinct gifts, don't we? God help us to provide the assembly, whether our gift be small or great, with sustenance, food, bolstering their faith, helping them in their weakness, helping them, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed. Than just seizing power for power's sake to con- be a control freak in an assembly of God. If people do consent to that kind of thing, the result will be mutual destruction, of course.
So Jotham ran away and fled and went to Be'er and dwelt there for fear of Ab- Abime- Abimelech, his brother. And Abimelech was prince over Israel for three years. And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech, their brother, which slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, which strengthened his hands to slay his brethren. And the men of Shechem set liars in wait for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them, and it was told Abimelech.
So now they resent, uh, and smart under their having chosen Abimelech, and they try to deal with him by this, uh, use of violence. You see. Now notice the false way of trying to deal with the man. Gael the son of Ebed came with his brethren and went over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their trust in him, and they went out into the field and gathered their vineyards and trod the grapes and held festival and went into the house of their god and did eat and drink and cursed Abimelech. And Gael the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem that we should serve him?
Is not he the son of Jerubbaal and Zebali's offer- officer? Serve ye the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him? And would to God this people were under my hand, then I would remove Abimelech. He said to Abimelech, Increase thine army and come out. I don't know what your reaction is when you hear that man talking with his solution. Why should we all buckle down under Abimelech? Would God that the people were under... my hand.
A very doubtful reformer, this. Matter of exchanging one tyrant for another, if you're not careful. And the biggest tyrant wins, of course. When Zebel, uh, you see, the ruler of the city heard the words of Gael, the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled because he was an appointee of Abimelech and was on Abimelech's side. And he sent messengers unto Abimelech craftily, saying, Behold, Gael the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem, and behold, they constrain the city to take part against thee.
Now, therefore, up by night, thou and the people that is with thee, and lie and wait in the field. And it shall be that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early and set upon the city. And behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against thee, thou mayest do to them as thou shalt find occasion. So all you've done now is to provoke civil war. How will that help? Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. And Gael the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entering of the gate of the city, and Abimelech rose up and the people that were with him from the ambushment.
And when Gael saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the tops of the mountains. Oh, and Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. Gale spake again and said, See, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one co- company cometh by way of the oak of Meonenim. Then said Zebul unto him, where is now thy mouth? That thou said, so is Abimelech, that we should serve him. Is not this the people that thou hast despised? Go out now, I pray, and fight with. Gaal went out before the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.
And Abimelech chased him, and he fled, and there fell many wounded even unto the entering of the gate. And Abimelech dwelt at Aruma, and Zebul drave out Gaal and his brothers that they should not dwell in Shechem. A way not to solve the problem by getting another would-be tyrant to fight the first tyrant. When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gao, and so forth, he first lulled him to sleep, then he taunted him, and then conspired against him and brought him to his end.
Came to pass on the morrow that the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech. And he took the people and divided them in three companies and laid wait in the field. And he looked, and behold, the people came forth out of the city, and he rose up against them and smote them. And Abimelech and his companies that were with him rushed forward and stood in the entering of the gate of the city, and the two companies rushed upon all that were in the field and smote them. And Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he took the people and slew the people that was therein, and he beat down the city and sold it, sowed it with salt.
It's warfare, all right, gentlemen. It isn't spiritual warfare, now is it? It's civil war. When all the men of the Tower of Shechem heard thereof, they entered into the hold of the house of El-Barit. And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together. And Abimelech got him up to the Mount Salmon, he and all the people that were with him, and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bough from the tree, trees, and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said unto the people that were with him, what you have seen me do, make haste and do as I have done.
And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough and followed Abimelech and put them to the hold and set the hold on fire upon them, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. What did Jotham say in his parable? You don't right and faithfully and loyally with my father, who risked his life for you. If you're right in choosing Abimelech, let fire come out from Abimelech and destroy you, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and destroy Abimelech.
Just civil war, each destroying the other in an attempt to get the mastery. Verse fifty: then went Abimelech to Thebes and encamped against Thebes and took it. It is dull reading, isn't it? Sad, sorry reading. You think of Joshua taking cities in the name of the Lord, of the pagans, and opening up the way for the inheritance of Israel. And all this Abimelech is doing is taking vengeance because people object to his tyranny and going around destroying the cities of the people of God.
As though he was serving God, of course. There was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women and all there the city and shut themselves in, and gat them up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the tower and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman casten up a millstone upon Abimelech's head and break his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man, his com- armor bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword and kill me, that men say not of me, a woman slew me. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father in slaying his seventy brethren. And all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God require upon their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal. I want you, I wonder what you think of the dear woman of Thebes. You say, was that a Christian thing to do? And put an end to all his nonsense. I find it difficult in my heart to find fault with the dear lady, but at this point, I think once more I appeal to you.
I have never been an elder in a church, and I wouldn't presume to teach elders, but I am interested because I think some of you are elders, and all of you are members of an assembly. I trust you have no experience of these things whatsoever. But I look to you now, how would you expound this passage, and you that are elders warn your younger brothers and sisters and give them the warning that you think God intended for from this particular Uh, passage? Oh, yes, somebody. I'll just make a comment that went through my mind in all this, you know, with this pivotal trajectory downward, and with, and I know I'm moving back a little bit, but I'm gonna try and come forward with, uh, Gideon, when he, back to asking for bread and, uh, demanding bread, and then chastising them for not giving what he demanded that they give them.
And I, my mind went forward to Peter in Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira, and how when they came forward to give, but it was hypocrisy. Peter himself, an apostle, said, you didn't have to do it. It was yours. You could have kept it back. Then later with Paul in Corinth, when he and his tactics, having asked them to give, said, yet I want you to do it in your heart that the Lord has prospered you liberally, that there be no collections when I come. And when we start getting into the place of this movement towards men ruling over and allowing men to rule over, and elders in assemblies are the ones that then decide how much people should give, whether it be of their time, their loyalties, or their gifts, to the work of the Lord, or their money, who they should marry, who they should shouldn't, and they have the rule, the right to tell them what to do.
It begins to, uh, bring about tremendous trouble in the assembly amongst the people of God. Mm. Thank you very much. Elders are supposed to rule, aren't they? What is the limit of their rule then? Is that what you are discussing? What is the limit of an elder's authority? Are there any limits? While you were thinking of that, we had a movement in, in Ireland in the sixties and it was called the shepherding movement. And every believer had to have a shepherd.
And one shepherd could have a lot of believers under him, because it was felt that people ought to be guided as to how they should, uh, live. It worked out that the shepherd told people what work they had to go to and what wives they should marry, and the shepherd expected them to come and mow his lawn for them, and various other such things, until of ca- of course, in the small limits of Northern Ireland, it became an absolute public scandal. And the people who had instigated eventually publicly repented of it and stopped the system.
While it lasted, it was very popular and thought to be the height of spirituality. But now talking about serious eldership. Yes, hello. I don't think. I don't think. A elder should tell you who to marry or what kind of work to do. I don't think an elder should tell you who to marry, Mm. or what kind of work you should do. But he should. But he should. Encourage you.
Encourage you. To keep your choices. To keep your choices. Based on biblical principles. Based on biblical principles. And nobody was in the game. As an example, to counsel, encourage, even forbid to marry an unsafe person. Mm-hmm. A right to do that. Which they do have a right to do that.
But I didn't have a right to tell you what girl to marry. But within marrying within the Lord, that they they don't have the right to tell you which one. No, surely they don't. Yes. Mm-hmm. Thank you very much for that, yes. There are, as you see, uh, limits, godly limits to what elders are meant to do. Hello again. Yes, I, you know, as a matter of sharing certain things, uh, a big aspect of the work that I've been involved with in Spain and Valladolid is to try and reconstruct from the ashes of what was a situation of that nature, that there was a rule, and a rule that was always claimed to be in the name of God by men, by a man, let's say.
And then you had many sincere, young, simple believers with great zeal and loyalty to the Lord that took that instruction and or that command or demand as if it was the will of God, and did it, and did it faithfully. Mm-hmm. Only to then later find out it never was God's will per se, but man's imposition. And it was the response then of fire coming out from them against the ones that put that on them to the mutual destruction and the destruction of that whole world. Well, surely, and if one may say it in all humility and sorrow, but I have witnessed it in my years.
In my hometown, there were five assemblies. Each claimed to be the only one right in the eyes of God. And they ruled their people with a rod of iron, forbidding them to go anywhere else outside their own circle. I thank God that some of them have seen the error of it and have repented of it in more recent years. Our dearly beloved and longed for brethren that have called themselves, are known as exclusives, having departed from the principle of scripture and invented other rules that have no s- authority in scripture, have ended with a disaster in many countries around this world.
At one stage, it affected my own university. To try and convenience on the university, changed its very, uh, uh, constitutional rules. But, uh, it did Christian testimony no good, of course. We do have to be careful on that side, not to invent rules that have no authority in scripture. Then what should you tell me what e- elders should positively do? Surely they should, um, exercise some control, shouldn't they?
Hello there. Um, elders should be in the word, studying God's word, and they should be in prayer before the Lord, and they should be, um, guiding the flock that is given to them, the people that are under them, into, uh, instruction of what, uh, God's word has to say. And they should be, um, helping them with understanding, um, and, uh, uh, providing, uh, uh, for a lack of a better word, a safe haven for them to be able to go to in times of of trouble.
Good. Good. Hello, all of us, there's a man right in the corner there somewhere. The relatively new assembly, but not new to works. We've tried, we've been trying to work through this very, um, issue for quite some time. Strike a balance between what scripture obviously says about elders' authority, which I believe the authority they have is to bring before you the word of God. Amen.
Not to go beyond. And yet, while not promoting a democracy, involving the assembly, particularly the men of the assembly, in, uh, in the work. And I'm not saying that we've arrived at the perfect balance of that, but, uh, we're certainly before the Lord on how, how to see that done. I confess on at this point, I, I, I'm asking some of these men who here who aren't answering to give us some help.
It's a real question. Oh, sir, if I might say so, uh, many assemblies that I have known believe not in some central organized headquarters. In that sense, they are, uh, th- uh, believe in theocracy, that the Lord is the supreme head of the church, and therefore his place is not to be taken by some human organization that some controls a whole group of churches. But where you have that situation, you'll see, then there is open this other thing that you'll get the abimeleks coming to say, which is better for you?
That seventy men rule over you or one man? Isn't it much more simple, effective, and everything else to install one man as the central control. That is perhaps why assemblies have suffered so much in that direction, from men who have pushed themselves forward to become dictators and have formed veritable denominations around the world, all the while professing not to be a denomination. It's a, uh, it's a difficult situation, and one I often have been asking myself personally here in the last years is, is again, where, where is that balance?
Because I personally have seen the two ends of the spectrum, the elders who aggressively in a meeting as lording over, and then I've also seen the meetings where the elders turn the other way, allow error and other things to creep in. Yes. They're wrong, aren't they? Yes. And then, and then to throw into the mix, you would have saints who will disagree with the rule of the elders and will leave and go and start their own meeting, which I would disagree also with that. So the leadership in the assemblies is a tremendous responsibility, you know, one not definitely not to be taken lightly, because to operate within the parameters of scripture means to, to show the love that is necessary to feed the sheep, but also to discipline with that same in the way that the Lord would have.
And I think Yes. who, who fail to do both equally. Yes, that is so, sir, and that is why I was hoping with this collection of senior men in front of me, uh, I would get some, uh, clear guidance from you on that side. Elders are meant to rule, aren't they? Meant to guide, meant to lead. And it is not right for an elder, surely, to permit things in the Church of God which Scripture itself forbids. They're not dictators, but they are meant to rule. Theocracy is not a democracy.
And in this modern world, where morals in many countries that used to be governed by what you might generally call Christian principles, now no longer governed by it at all. Do you see? And where the moral standards are loose in the world, then elders surely have a very big responsibility to s- to see that that kind of immorality is not allowed to spread in the church. I'm afraid there is abundant evidence of such things going on in the church. So now on that side, w- what would you say about the positive side of elderhood and their responsibility, in that sense, to teach and to rule?
Hello there. What we find about the elder is that, um, he's likened to a father. He's to be regarded as a father. Mm-hmm. Regarded as a shepherd. Mm-hmm. The shepherd, eh, looks after his sheep. He leads them, he feeds them, he protects them, and he corrects them. Mm-hmm. Those are four responsibilities. When it comes to the, on the qualifications of the elder, is they that rule well in their own family. And the church is called the household of faith, the church, the family. Mm-hmm. Of God, as it were.
And in as in the case of Abimelech, he was chosen based on the family name. Mm-hmm. He had no track record of his own. Oh. When it comes to the elder, it's not, it should not be based on the family name or or who his father or grandfather was, but how does he rule his own family? Is he raising his own children? Are they going on well for the Lord? Mm-hmm. If he can't rule his own family, how will he rule the Church of God with love? That is so, sir. I'm sometimes tempted to think, you'll see, in the church where sometimes the younger men feel that the elders are not quite with it as they should be.
Am I right in saying that you can do some of an elder's work without being an elder. You can be concerned for your fellow believer and share with him the riches of God's word that God has shared with you. Yes? You can seek to counsel and advise your younger members without being an elder. In other words, you can do elder work in a certain degree without being an elder, not to form divisions within the church, but doing a positive work. To use the, um, uh, illustration of the fable that Jotham used, if you're an olive tree, you can enrich your surrounding brothers and sisters with a little richness, can't you?
And so forth. But elders, uh, yes, uh, I have every admiration for them. I think it takes years off a man's life to be an elder. It was a tremendous responsibility, isn't it? But, uh, yes, on the positive side, uh, Peter tells us, doesn't he? Brothers, he says, gird yourself with humility. Because he had seen the Lord himself rise from supper, take off his outer garment, and gird himself with a towel, and kneel at the feet of his apostles and wash their feet.
Talking to the elders and to all in general, he says, gird yourself with humility. He's seen the Lord, do it. Amen. Yes. I think that's, uh, someone at the back there. I, I just want, I was, uh, just had a question. Could you expound a little bit more on the New Testament word when it comes to rule, uh, when there isn't a misunderstanding? Because at first one may think of a ruling as a king has or as a, uh, hierarchy. Uh, so I was hoping that you could expand on it in context to those, uh, in oversight. Oh, thank you for the question, yes, and thank you for the chance to, to clarify my meaning.
I'm just using, uh, the term rule, not in any political sense, as a convenient term, uh, to, to guide. And someone has got to say in the end, haven't they, uh, of a thing or a practice or what have you, that this should not be done in this assembly. That's all I mean. There has to be an authoritative decision over some matters, best taken by the elders, presumably. I don't mean to rule in any kingly sense, like, uh, like an archbishop is said to rule the church. But, um, yes. Yes, sir. Um, back to clarification on your earlier statement regarding, um, uh, ruling, uh, or authority, ruling with authority from scripture.
Uh, and just clarification that the difference between that and using scripture, and so pointing to an authority in scripture as an elder to rule, that is really a personal conviction that one has come to. To throw something out there, for instance, someone that would say that because of his understanding of scripture, the King James Version, uh, authorized is the only version that is to be used in this assembly. Amen. This is what I'm, am I communicating what I'm the distinction?
That's a very interesting example to me particularly, but yes. No, but it is a real one. In other, I'm trying to differentiate how you stated that an elder Mm-hmm. is to not make rules that do not have the authority of scripture. Mm-hmm. We all agree. Mm-hmm. Now I am trying to distinguish between what is a clear, black and white scriptural authoritative mandate and something that now goes into the area of an individual coming to a personal conviction from what he perceives in scripture, such as the King James Version is the only version God would have me use.
Mm. And then now, being an elder, impose that on the assembly, calling it a rule backed by the authority of scripture. Yes, uh, oh well, I couldn't agree with you more. I think an elder would be exceedingly unwise to make that rule, and in in fact is, forgive the term, it is nonsense. You see? But I understand why people do take that attitude. I could understand an elder saying to me, now look here, we don't want to restrict your liberty, but in this church we have some elderly dear ladies and a few elderly men.
They were brought up on the authorized version, and they don't understand all these modern things. Would you, out of kindness from them, read from the Authorized Version? You can say what you like thereafter. You see, that I can understand, protecting, uh, the weak and their inability to f- understand and and needlessly upsetting them. Uh, do you see? Uh, it's always possible. I'm happy to read from the Authorized Version. It's a marvelous translation in many places. And then to say, and folks don't mind you saying that sometimes, I notice, uh, well, it says here in the Bible, well, a little bit more exactly, it would say something else, so long as you've read it.
But to make it a rule in a modern world, it goes against all such, all against the facts, you'll see. That, uh, uh, it i- i- is a dangerous thing to do because when young pe- people find out the facts, it will destroy the so-called authority of the elder. You'll see. I remember being at a place in Northern Ireland where an assembly had put on a Bible exhibition in the town hall of the particular town. A, a very good exhibition, and they had done little competitions for the children, and the schools came in with the children, and there were to be prizes for the children who had done the comp- com- uh, little competition thing, you see?
And on the final night, there was to be a, a prize giving to the children. Then I was invited along to say, uh, to give a talk on why I believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God. When I arrived, there were lots of folks coming in, and a number of men folks giving out leaflets. They belonged to a certain Bible society, and they were trying to urge the unconverted folks not to come in. Because inside there was more than the King James Version. There were some very ancient translations, there were manuscripts of the Greek, and there were various English translations, of course.
And here they were, and we were getting unconverted folks in to be told about the Bible and its authority and why I in particular believed it to be the word of God. And these folk, imagining they were being loyal to the truth by demanding that people only read the authorized version, that they were forbidding the unconverted to come in and hear words by which they might be saved. That's very sorry. Billy has something. Billy has something. You mentioned earlier that the, uh, an elder needs to serve with humility. That's, uh, uh, I think the part of this Henry mentioned, uh, an example, which hopefully is an exception.
Yes. To, uh, what an elder should do, but an elder is not a man who has the answers to every question in scripture. It doesn't hurt for an elder to say, you know, I don't know the answer to that, but I will get back to you, and it has to be someone that's humble enough to do that, to say, I, I don't know. There, some of us know of examples where there, it seems that the elders would say, this is the way it is, you don't like it, find another place to go. And fortunately, that's just, it's a, a lack of maturity. Just admit to whoever it is that you're not sure. The job is to, to shepherd. The job is to feed.
If a person comes with a view that's not scriptural to your assembly and asks of it, why don't you do this? How come you don't have a pastor? We don't have a pastor. You want a pastor, go to the First Baptist Church. See, you don't say that. You, with humility, you take time to sit down and show, if you can, God's word, what the scripture teaches, and be willing to do that. That's part of shepherding. That's how I would deal with my children. I would manage my house well, not just to say because God said so. I mean, sometimes we say that, but some you explain to the children why you do these things this way.
This is why we do this. Mm-hmm. There there's a reason behind it. Simil- similarly, you're gonna have to be a person with humility to serve in a position where you're asked to rule or to shepherd or to oversee a group of believers, a group of adults. Yeah. Thank you very much for that indeed. I thought you were going to say to the person that said, why didn't you have a chef or a pastor, that you had three or 4. But, uh, uh, uh, uh, now I, oh, sorry, one more question. I agree that an elder can only let him in, but I agree that an elder can only what?
Cannot. I'd say only the King James Version. But on the other side, they got to be careful of what purchase they use, what paraphrase. There's a balance. Mhm. Thank you. People want to keep it only, but on the other hand, people want to say every, every person is good.
We have to have a balance. Mm-hmm. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. There's just one request, last request I would like, because the time is getting away nearly for dinner. You have heard what I have said on this, uh, chapter about Abimelech in the book of Judges. Now I want a candid, uh, a- advice from you. What will you tell me, candidly? What should I not have said what I did say, amongst what I did say. Well, I said what I s- You want us to tell you where you were wrong?
When I tried to expound, and I briefly went through the story and made some comments, did you find any of the comments I made, uh, uh, such as you were sorry that I'd made them, and I oughtn't to have made them, and I made wrong comments. I ask genuinely, my president, because this is a very sensitive subject in many places. And one wants, as this good brother here in a, in a yellow shirt, whoever he is, Jose, was u- urging us to fi- keep the balance in these things, you'll see. I'm aware of that. So if you feel that anything I said was in- ill-advised and that I spoke inadvisably with my lips, then please tell me.
Hello. The only area that I would see is when you do find yourself in this situation in an assembly where there is this diophantic rule, whether it be by one man or even a plurality of men lording it over, and then your comment, which I can sympathize with, the dear woman of Feves, that she threw the millstone on the man. That was a wonderful relief for everybody. Absolutely. But how exactly do we conduct ourselves within situations of this nature? And yes, taking the positive, being an olive tree, sharing the wealth we have, patiently waiting on the Lord for him to change things, or and when, at what point do we not take action in the sense of fighting against our brethren and trying to slay our brethren, like Gideon thrashed the elders, but where do we, when do we leave, go elsewhere, and genuinely seek the Lord's guidance, perhaps a new one?
And, when you tell a man straight, look, you cannot carry on doing this. Yes, I'm delighted you mentioned it because I was aware when I talked about the woman, you see, who threw this millstone over the wall and lighted on his head, I simply said it put an end to his nonsense, what is factually true. But whether it is a way of advising people how to deal with such men, I was expecting, I was expecting to hear from you the positive, you see. All I can say is in her favor, as well as putting an end to his nonsense, that she was concerned with milling the flour to feed the family. And a woman lost her patience, I suspect.
A mother in Israel. Why destroy a whole city? When she was concerned with maintaining the family and milling the corn, and feeding and maintaining people. So I had that to her favor, but yes, or you going to make a suggestion? Yeah. Um, perhaps in contrast to her action, we could look at, uh, the one whom the word says has a heart after God, and how David waited for the Lord to resolve the situation with Saul, uh, because he recognized that it was the Lord's anointed there, and he gave the Lord time to deal with the situation and didn't take matters into his own hands.
Well, There'd be a balance to that. Yes, that is a very interesting example, sir. And the further example that someone over here quoted, uh, uh, when uh, uh, Nabal uh, refused to give uh, food to David's troops who had protected him, he would have, he would have uh, uh, uh, annihilated him. But Abigail, his wife, Nabal's wife, pleaded with David, why should you bring blood guiltiness upon your head? David was eventually glad that he had been restrained from taking revenge, and the Lord dealt with him. The only difficulty I would find, uh, it's often been, uh, quoted in the David-Saul instance, that Saul actually was anointed of the Lord.
In spite of all his, uh, bad goings on, he had originally been anointed by God through, uh, Samuel. He was the anointed king, and David wouldn't, uh, go against that anointing. But sometimes men have been known to take, uh, tyranny over an assembly who obviously weren't anointed by the God, the Holy Spirit, or anybody, you'll say. But, yes? Isn't that part of the problem, though? I mean, Saul was another man that the people chose, and they chose him because he was head and shoulders above every man. And then the danger here in this story, here's another man they chose, Abimelech, because he was of their family.
And the difference, David being one that the Lord was raising up, and I just remember something from a dear brother some years ago when we had an issue in our assembly about eldership and men appointing elders, as these people appointed Abimelech or the people appointed Saul. And what is that, that shepherding is a work, and it will become evident in the assemblies who are the elders, because they are the people that are doing the work. And this little story here shows us the dangers of men just, uh, yeah, picking elders because they like them, they're better looking, they they they're of their family, things like that.
Instead of picking elders, we allow the Lord to raise elders up. Thank you very much, and thank you all for your comments and the serious way you have, uh, discussed the matter. Uh, I must bring it to an end because it is a quarter to, uh, six, and it's not fair to keep the kitchen people, uh, late, you'll see. I would just say, you know my address. If you don't, you can get it from Larry here, and any thoughts you have upon that wood- women- woman and her technique of putting the millstone over the wall, if you have some good ideas on that subsequently, be so kind as to drop me a postcard.
