To Encourage You

2 Samuel 3:17-18 “And Abner conferred with the elders of Israel, saying, ‘For some time past you have been seeking David as king over you. Now then bring it about, for the Lord has promised David, saying, “By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines, and from the hand of all their enemies.”’”

Are you a “fence-sitter” concerning spiritual things?  A fence-sitter is one who just can’t make up their mind.  They have some inclination towards following Christ, but there’s something holding them back. The fact is, while the idea of following Christ appeals to them, the love of their own sin is keeping them from it. They’re like the Israelites to whom Abner is speaking in the passage above.

Abner was the commander of Saul’s army.  After Saul died, Abner continued to oppose David and resist his inevitable ascendence to the throne.  As time went on, Abner saw the writing on the wall. David and his army kept increasing in strength, while Abner and his army kept growing weaker. It is at this time that Abner makes a plea to those who had been following him. He pleads with them to turn around and become the followers of David.  In his plea, Abner reminds them that they at one time had actually sought David as their king. They had seen that God’s hand was on him, in contrast to their spiritually rebellious leader Saul. But for one reason or another, they continued following Saul.  Maybe they feared him. Perhaps they realized that to pledge allegiance to David would make them, like David, the objects of Saul’s wrath.  Whatever the reason, Abner is telling them it makes no sense to continue on their destructive path. He tells them to make a decision, i.e., if their heart was in any way inclined to follow David, “Now then bring it about.”

It is in these words that there is a message to each one of us, and in particular to the fence-sitters in their perplexed state.  Perhaps God, by His Holy Spirit, has been at work in your own heart.  Perhaps you’ve been considering the claims of Jesus, the Son of David, but you’re just not ready to make Him your king.  You’ve been on the fence for some time now, for the cost has just seemed too high.  Or maybe you’re thinking that someday you’ll follow Jesus, but right now just isn’t the time.  Well, if these things describe you, you might want to think again. You see, the Lord has told us “My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3). These words were spoken at the time of Noah after which God commanded Noah to build an ark. God was grieved with the sin that filled the hearts of men, and He had determined that He would judge the world because of it. Over the next 100 years that Noah built his ship, the Bible tells us that he preached to men as a “herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). Yet, because the people he preached to wouldn’t listen, the day came when they all perished in the great world-wide flood.

Similarly, many Christians have been telling their own friends, family, and neighbors of the judgment that is coming in our day.  Like Noah, they’ve been heralds of their great King’s call to righteousness for any who will believe. Tragically, the Bible tells us that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3-7).

So, are you a fence-sitter? Are you one with these scoffers? Do you think things will always continue as they are and that if you ever want to change your mind about Jesus, you’ll certainly have the time? Well, if that describes you, you might want to think again, for you don’t know the day or the hour any more than anyone else in this world does. If God has been speaking to you, why not “now then bring it about”? Why wait until tomorrow to make Jesus your Lord? Why end up like the scoffers as they continue in their destructive ways?