To Encourage You

2 Samuel 15:27-29 “The king also said to Zadok the priest, ‘Are you not a seer? Go back to the city in peace, with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.’ So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.”

One of the interesting aspects of the account of David’s escape to the wilderness in the face of Absalom’s conspiracy is how he directed a number of his faithful followers to go back into Jerusalem. To each he gave a responsibility to continue to serve him in the midst of the enemy’s camp. One of those responsibilities was to defeat the counsel of those who had betrayed him and who had joined the ranks of his enemies (2 Samuel 15:34). In the passage above, David sends several priests back to Jerusalem. He tells them to go “in peace” and to continue to communicate with him about what they saw and heard. They were also to carry the ark, the symbol of God’s presence among men, back into the city.

So what does this have to do with you and me? Well, if we are believers, we know that the King that we follow has gone on before us into heaven. Although Jesus had come unto His own as the King of the Jews, “his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12).  Each and every one of His children will go to be with Him someday. Many have already done so. In John 14 Jesus said that He has gone to prepare a place for us and that one day He will come back and take us to be with him there. While we wait, we know that we are His ambassadors, citizens of heaven, but strangers and sojourners on earth (1 Peter 2:11; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21). And just as David sent priests back into the city, God has told us “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). As priests, it is our mission to share the gospel with everyone we meet, and so to defeat the counsel of the enemies of the kingdom of God. As Zadok carried the ark back into Jerusalem, by our words and our lives we are to carry the presence of God throughout the world, for we are His temple, His very presence among men (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Zadok was sent back into a city that was filled with David’s enemies, yet he was sent there “in peace.” Isn’t this but a picture of how Jesus has given believers His own peace in the midst of a world that is at war with God (John 14:27)?

Finally, just as Zadok and his sons were to keep in continual communication with David by sending word to him from within the enemy’s camp, so we are to pray continually to our King about everything. We are told to make “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings . . . for all people” that the wonderful message Christ has given us will be heard by them, for “God, our Savior . . . desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).  And as we live our lives in a world that is hostile to God, He has told us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

May God help us to be His ambassadors as we live on this earth. He has a mission for us, just like David did for his men. It’s the mission Jesus gave us as He ascended to heaven to wait for us with the words, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).