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The Self-appointed King

Malakim Aleph (1st Kings) 1:5-6 
5 Adoniyah the son of Haggit exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.”  So he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, with fifty men to run before him. 
6 And his father had never confronted him at any time by asking, "Why are you behaving this way?" And he was a very handsome man; he was born after Avshalom.

Adoniyah was the fourth son of David (2nd Samuel 3:4).  There was no reason for him to think or believe that he had a right to the throne of his father David.  In fact, there was recent family history to show him the folly of this action.  After David’s firstborn son Amnon lay with his sister Tamar, Avshalom, David’s third-born son, plotted and killed him.  Then later Avshalom plotted again, this time against the king, to overthrow him and become king in his place.  This was to end in the death of Avshalom.

Adoniyah’s father David was still alive, but he was presuming to elevate himself to be king in his father’s place.  Furthermore, there was still David’s second son Kilav, who had the right to ascend to the throne before Adoniyah did, since David’s firstborn son Amnon was dead.  King David found out about Adoniyah’s plot to become king and he thwarted it by making Sh’lomo (Solomon) king.  Nevertheless, even after David died, Adoniyah continued to plot to take the kingdom away from Sh’lomo and thus forfeited his life because of his self-exalting heart.

What Adoniyah did not understand was that it is YHWH who raises up kings and establishes kingdoms, and it is YHWH who removes kings and tears down kingdoms.

Dani’el 4:17 
The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.

It is not man who determines who will rule and reign over the affairs of man, but it is YHWH our Elohim.  The sooner we know and understand this elementary truth, the sooner we can fully trust in YHWH and obey His commandments to us without fail or hesitation.  Once a person understands this truth, he will live in shalom regardless of who happens to be standing at the head of any particular government or nation.

It was this truth that Adoniyah did not understand.  He set about to elevate himself above all others when YHWH had not decreed it.  This is the same mistake many a man throughout the ages has made:  to attempt to elevate himself to a position YHWH has not willed.  This is even so today.  Let us consider the following passage.

Qorintyah Aleph (1st Corinthians) 12:18 
But now has the Elohim set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him.

It is YHWH our Elohim who raises up leaders and sets them among His people for the building up of His kingdom.  It is YHWH our Elohim who places each person in the body of Mashiach exactly where He wants him to be.  It is His choice, not man’s.

What His people need to be wary of is one who exalts himself to a position of authority within His body.  One of the signs to look for is this:  does the person in question look out for the interests of others?  Alternatively, does that person look out for his own personal interests?  Is this person always promoting himself and elevating himself?  Is a person always looking for strokes and praise from others by drawing attention to himself and to what he has done?  Alternatively, is he drawing the attention of the people to YHWH and to what YHWH has done?  Is YHWH getting the glory and honor?  On the other hand, is someone trying to divert the glory and honor that YHWH deserves to himself?

Please note in this passage from the haftarah that Adoniyah prepared men to run before him, to declare to those who would listen that he was king.  Adoniyah wanted the praise of men, rather than to please YHWH; he pleased himself.  Likewise, so it is with those who would raise themselves up; they do what is pleasing in their own sights, rather than in the sight of YHWH.

Qorintyah Aleph (1st Corinthians) 12:11 
but all these things works the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as He wills.

It is according to the will of our heavenly Father that He places each person in the body of Mashiach.  His people need to understand this.  Each individual needs to discover where it is He has placed him.  Then each person needs be supportive and encouraging to others and help others fulfill the ministry and task in which YHWH has placed each one.  There is no reason to be jealous of one another over the position or place in which YHWH has placed others.  The only place that each one can be filled with the fullness of His joy and accomplish that which He has called him to do, is to fill up that place in which He has put him.  Furthermore, each person should be helping his brethren to do the same.  No person can stand in another’s place; he can only stand in his own place.  So what if YHWH has placed another in authority over him?  There is freedom in walking in the fullness of what He has called each one to do.  There is only bondage in attempting to walk contrary to His will.

Please take careful and solemn note of what YHWH says concerning one who exalts himself.

Yechezqel (Ezekiel) 28:6-10
6 therefore thus says Adonai YHWH; “Because you have set your heart as the heart of Elohim,
7 therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your splendor.
8 They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of them that are slain, in the heart of the seas.
9 Will you yet say before him that slays you, ‘I am Elohim?’  But you are man, and not Elohim, in the hand of him that wounds you.
10 You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers:  for I have spoken it,” says Adonai YHWH.

These few verses are rather a summation of chapters 27 and 28.  The one who exalts himself steps outside of His will and becomes as one who claims to be Elohim!  The penalty for this is death.  Furthermore, this death will be as one who is uncircumcised, which simply means that he dies as one who is completely separated from YHWH.  What hope can one have who dies separated from YHWH our Elohim?  There is no hope for such a one as that.

It is folly to attempt to raise oneself up, because in doing so, one cannot help but to step outside of YHWH’s will.  Thus, to elevate oneself is to raise oneself up against YHWH.  This surely is the height of all the folly of mankind.

Should we not take a lesson from the life of Yoseph?  He was sold into slavery and did his best to serve whomever his master was, because ultimately he understood that he was really only serving YHWH.  Thus, we see that it was in YHWH’s own time that He elevated Yoseph to the heights in which He wanted him to serve. 

Likewise, if YHWH has a calling upon your life, and He does, then do not concern yourself with how you are going to fulfill that call.  The only way to fulfill that call is to walk in humble obedience to His Voice.  Simply walk day-by-day and moment-by-moment listening for and obeying His every command.  The one thing we do not need to do is to attempt to convince another man of what our call is, for this is stepping outside of His will and we are then attempting to elevate ourselves.  What each one of us needs to do is to learn to trust Him completely, knowing that if He has called, He will make a way for us to fulfill that call. 

Furthermore, it will be in His time that He makes the way for us to fulfill our place in His body.  However, before that happens, He will take us through a training process that will include a wilderness experience in much the same way that Yoseph or Moshe went through one before YHWH opened the door for them to fulfill that which He had called them to do.

What each person needs to do then is to submit to the training and discipline of YHWH in his life so that he can fully learn those things he needs to learn and know in order to be able to do His will in his life as He opens the door for him.  Each day and each event in one’s life is a lesson to be learned, if one has the eyes to see and the ears to hear.  Each person should be tenderhearted towards Him as His Spirit trains him in the way that he should walk.  Each person needs to die to all the self-will and self-exalting attitudes that are naturally within each person from birth.  The carnal self is not going to die easily nor willingly.  Nevertheless, die it must, if one is going to be a true kingdom builder.

Let each one determine in his own life to follow the Spirit in all matters, being tenderhearted towards one another, knowing that not every person understands these things, but learning from Him and then teaching others those things, which He has taught him. 

Brethren, in these trying times let each and every one put aside all those things that divide His body and exalt Yeshua our Mashiach together, looking to Him who fills us with His Spirit that we may accomplish His will in this present world.

ABBA YHWH, we choose to exalt You and not ourselves; in the name of Yeshua our Mashiach.  Amein.

Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.com
zerubbabel@onetorahforall.com

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