To Encourage You

1 Kings 1:41 “And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, ‘What does this uproar in the city mean?’”

Have you ever heard the following statement made about someone: “He keeps his faith to himself”?  Maybe that’s how you think of yourself.  So often when we hear this, it’s with the idea that it’s a sign of virtue.  It’s an affirmation of how nice it is that this person isn’t one, like SOME people, to cram his beliefs down someone’s throat.  And so, although this person may think things and believe things that are diametrically opposed to the beliefs of many others around him or her, they aren’t one to make others uncomfortable. They aren’t known to ruffle anyone’s feathers.  They are those who are known to leave well enough alone, and truth be told, most people like this.  

The question is, on what basis does this tendency exist, i.e., the tendency to keep one’s faith to oneself? Is that what faith should look like?  Is that how we are to act concerning the things we believe?  

Well, I suppose it depends on what those things are.  For some of the things we believe, it’s of no consequence if others know anything about them.  For example, I might believe that the best time of the day is the morning.  Good for me.  But what if some other person isn’t a “morning person.” Does it really matter to them what I think – or is it better if I keep such thoughts to myself?  Proverbs 27:14 speaks to this in the following way: “Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.” In other words, it’s better to keep quiet about such things.  

But what about other things?  What about this idea of keeping one’s faith to oneself, of never disturbing someone else’s peace because of what we believe? Is that a good thing?  Perhaps a better question is, “Does it make any sense to ‘keep one’s faith to oneself’, especially if our faith is in the wonders of the greatest story ever told? Does it make any sense to keep such things to ourselves?”  

Well, the Bible would tell us plainly that such an attitude makes no sense at all.  In fact, it’s a travesty if what we are talking about is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We see a shadow of this in the verse above from 1 Kings. It’s the account of Solomon being anointed as King of Israel during the last days of King David’s life.  David had directed that Solomon ride on David’s own mule as a way of announcing that he was the new king.  We are told it was a triumphal day, accompanied by the blowing of the trumpet, shouting, “playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise” (1 Kings 1:40). In short, it was a great uproar, and in the verse above, Joab, the former commander of David’s army who had recently defected, can’t help but notice. He wonders what in the world all the uproar is about.  The people weren’t keeping their beliefs about the anointing of Solomon all to themselves. In fact, they couldn’t help but cry out with joy regarding their anointed king.  

We have a similar situation that unfolded in Israel many years later when One, like Solomon, rode into Jerusalem, this time on a donkey.  We are told that “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet (Zechariah), saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden”’” (Matthew 21:4-5).  In Luke’s account of this event in Luke 19 we are told this: “And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’”  

You see, the Pharisees were upset at the uproar.  They wanted the people to keep their beliefs to themselves.  But Jesus was having none of it.  He would have them know that He is indeed the King of kings, something that the entire Creation can’t help but declare. If the people God has given voices to won’t speak of Him, the rocks will cry it out!  For you see even “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1-3).  But it’s not the Lord’s will that only the inanimate things of the universe declare his praise, for didn’t Jesus tell us to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 6:15)?  Indeed, how can we not proclaim to others around us the greatest story ever told?  

So, does this describe you? Or are you one who is smugly keeping your faith to yourself.  You see, if our faith is in Christ, it means we have a tremendous hope deep within us, and it’s a hope that it will be almost impossible to keep silent about.  Jesus said that “out of the abundance of the heart (our) mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  So, what is it that you are speaking about?