“He would get up early and stand by the road leading to the city gate; and if someone had a case that was to come before the king for judgment, Avshalom would call to him and ask, ‘What city are you from?’ and he would answer, ‘Your servant is from the such-and-such tribe in Israel.’“-2 Samuel 15:2
Here in Tokyo, on my way to work, I sometimes see a politician posted right outside the train station ticket gate.
He is handing out flyers and giving speeches through a portable mic and speaker.
Of course, he intends to win support for his cause and hopefully get elected.
Well, that’s exactly what Absalom was doing when he stationed himself next to the city gate in Jerusalem.
He was vigorously trying to win the support of the people.
And since the city gate was also where legal trials were conducted, there were witnesses to what he was doing.
Now, there’s an interesting detail in the exchanges Absalom was having with the people that I want you to catch.
He would ask which city the visitors came from.
But notice the answer was not the city where they lived, but the tribe they belonged to.
This speaks volumes about the mindset of the people at the time.
They identified themselves not by a city or village, but by their tribe.
Why is this important?
It shows just how politically fractured Israel was at this time.
It reminds me of America today.
We no longer identify by the state we were born and grew up in.
We identify ourselves more by our political leanings or who we voted for to be the next president.
Or whether we were for or against the COVID-19 vaccines.
Ya feel me?
Again, this is what Israel was like at the time.
Originally, God’s chosen people were to be one nation, indivisible, under God.
David tried to make that a reality.
And he succeeded for a time.
Especially when the northern tribes (who had followed King Saul) agreed to team up with the southern tribes under David.
So things were looking good.
That is, until David started to drift away from the people.
And then came the whole Bathsheba fiasco, followed by the murder of her husband, Uriyah.
That screwed things up big-time.
On top of that, Saul’s family was still bitter that David had taken the throne.
So old grudges started rearing their ugly heads.
As a result, any semblance of one-nation unity flew right out the proverbial window.
People reverted to their tribal ways.
And the tribal leaders were more than happy to take back their power.
See, here’s the thing.
When Absalom asked the people, “What city are you from?”, this was a question based on national identity.
However, when the people answered, “I’m from this tribe” or “that tribe,” those answers were based on tribal identity.
In other words, they weren’t thinking like one nation anymore.
They were thinking like 12 different tribes again.
Ya feeling me here?
So what’s the takeaway for all of this?
So here’s what’s coming to me, homies.
The world loves slicing up humanity with its bogus, biased labels.
These divisions are based on race, religion, political leanings, or superficial things like one’s level of wealth, etc.
This is how the world judges you.
But that ain’t how the Creator of the universe makes His divisions.
The Creator divides the world into only two parts.
Saved Israel and the rest of humanity.
In other words, you are either grafted into the commonwealth of Israel through faith in the Jewish Messiah, or you are not.
From an eternal perspective, that’s the ONLY thing that matters.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“For he has set a day when
he will judge the world with justice
by the man he has appointed.
He has given proof of this to
everyone by raising him from the dead.”
-Acts 17:31
Leave a Reply