CORRUPTION IS RAMPANT. FREEDOMS are abused. Information is twisted, and it is simply hard to know whom to believe anymore. The government is in confusion. Who is a hypocrite and whom can I trust? We’ve got to do something about this madness! Perhaps it’s time to hold a rally.
But when we get to the rally, we seem to have another problem. Not everyone at the rally even agrees. We want to stand up against our oppressors. We want to show our support for humanity. But one person thinks the solution is not wearing masks, and another doesn’t feel safe coming together without masks. One says Mr. Trump could have solved our woes had he become president. Another says Mr. Trump is racist and belligerent. Some support the police, while others hurl insults at them. A group of people storm the white house, and the whole assembly is labeled insurrectionist and brutal even though the majority probably did not agree with the violence. How are we to fight injustice with such a confused army?
One is reminded of the men who assembled to David at the cave of Adullam to escape the oppression of Saul. Scripture tells us, “And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men” (1 Sam. 22:2). Hardly could there have assembled a more motley crew. “Everyone in distress” could have included almost anyone. We are not told what distressed these men. They were rough men, and no doubt men of opinion. They had gone through a variety of life experiences and probably had a variety of responses. What was it that held them together? It doesn’t seem like their good background or their congenial dispositions gave them common ground. They had basically two things in common–debt and David. Whatever their struggles were, they had confidence in David. And it was in David they found their unity. They rallied around him and became an invincible band because they had a common leader. You cannot have a rally without a rallying point.
David was not the only man in history who successfully rallied an army in victory over their oppressors. One thinks of the people of Israel, enslaved and depopulated by a wicked Pharaoh. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law…And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” (Exo. 2:24-3:2). A groaning people, an embittered cry–here we find the same elements expressed in David’s men. And what was God’s first move? He prepared them a leader. It was Moses who faced Pharaoh for them and administered God’s plagues of justice, embarrassing the gods of Egypt. It was Moses who brought them out of Egypt and guided them through the sea. It was Moses to whom, hungry and thirsty, they complained until his rod brought them water from a rock. It was Moses’ uplifted hands which raised the standard that brought them victory in battle. And it was Moses, when the people were plagued by fiery serpents, who held up a serpent on a pole to which they could lift their eyes and find relief.
Years later, Nicodemus knew and loved Moses but was disillusioned by the hypocrisy of those who claimed to represent him. Pointing back to Moses, Jesus drew a line to Himself, showing Nicodemus that there was a living standard bearer in his day. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” Jesus declared, “even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life: (John 3:14-16). God so loved the world, that He gave them a rallying point–a point of belief through whom they could be linked to heaven. Whosoever believed on God’s given standard bearer could be saved.
The world is now engulfed in turmoil unlike any we have heretofore known. The silencing of the gospel message for a time has produced a division and unbelief perhaps never equalled in other ages. There has been no shepherd worth trusting, and the flock of humanity is scattered to its own devices, easy prey to every wolf, political or otherwise. No restoration, no gathering of the flock, is possible until there be a restoration of true leaders. Our salvation–like the salvation of Nicodemus and the salvation of the people pursued by fiery serpents–must come by turning our eyes toward that rallying standard whom God will provide.
People are sometimes disparaged for being sheep–the fact is we cannot entirely avoid being sheep. There is danger in being a sheep if you blindly follow a wolf. There is no danger in a sheep following a true shepherd. As Moses lifted up a standard in the wilderness, and as the uplifted Christ has rallied men through time, God has assured us that He will not leave us without a place to lift our eyes in the day of trouble. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood,” He promised, “the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19). For us too then, there is a rallying standard–and where there is a standard lifted, there is always a standard bearer. As flies rally to a light source, so the honest in heart will rally to truth. And prophecy tells us from where that truth will come: “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined” (Psalm 50:2).
Together we stand. But how shall we stand together without a common belief to stand on; and how shall we believe without a preacher? All the political platforms we know have failed us. They are part of the broken system, and they themselves are silencing men who speak the truth. We need a different platform than republican or democrat, conservative, liberal, or independent. We need a prophet. We need a standard bearer who can define and hold up the truth for the entire world in a followable, trustworthy way. Before God could bring the Israelites up from Egypt, He took the time to train Moses. And again, at this junction of crises, He has prepared true leaders after His own heart to whom the people can turn and find deliverance.
