Dirty fighting
People of faith frequently don’t fight fair. We can be guilty of using God as a weapon. Rather than saying, ‘I don’t like you’, instead the altogether more devastating ‘I think the Lord is grieved by what you did’ – a far more serious charge which is a devastating weapon in the arsenal of the manipulator. ‘We’re not being fed’ is the religious way of telling the preacher that we’re not impressed by their sermons. ‘I sense in my spirit’ is a way of letting people know that the opinion that we’re about to express is probably shared by God himself. One leader that I know is probably about to be ejected from his church because the rumour is that ‘he has lost the anointing’. How do you defend yourself against such a nebulous charge?
Absalom uses pious language to justify his trip (‘let me…fulfil a vow to the Lord – verse 7), and offers sacrifices even as he is being crowned (verse 12). He draws in one of David’s trusted advisors as one of his allies. The inference is clear: if one of David’s most trusted confidantes has deserted him, that surely shows how worthless the king is. In the psalm that David wrote when Absalom betrayed him, he complains that he was being written off as one deserted by God Himself: ‘Many are saying about me, 'God will not save him’ (Psalm 3:2). Battered by betrayal and religious skullduggery, David finds himself on the road once more.
Let’s express our thoughts. Share our opinions. But let’s be careful of using religious words as a weapon.