And again, a lot of people, you start to talk about this, about how God is a God who takes vengeance, about God is a God who will repay it, and it's like, they don't even get it.
It's like, have you ever read the Bible? It's such a, it's a biblical concept.
God avenging his anointed is biblical.
And we could think, you know, we could probably go around the room tonight and everyone could probably think of examples, and I'll just throw out a few.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 27, 1 Samuel chapter 27.
We could think of Daniel and the den of lions.
You know, the men there had plotted against Daniel, and they found fault in him concerning his God, and he ended up being tossed into the den of lions.
The den of lions, of course, we know the story, the angel came and shut the mouths of the lions and delivered him, and he was brought out the next day, and then those guys that plotted against him were thrown in.
You know, and it's worth pointing out now that not only were they thrown in, but their families went in with them.
You know, and that's what people need to understand, that when you're attacking God's anointed, when you're doing harm to the prophets of God, you know, your whole family, you're endangering your whole family when you do it.
And they were devoured. It says their bones break before they even hit the ground. The lions were already on them, just chewing them up.
You know, think of the example of, you know, Achan, you know, in the valley of Achor, you know, a guy who coveted after the Babylonian garment and the wedge of silver, took the accursed thing from Jericho.
You know, it wasn't just him that suffered because of that.
When he went against the commandment, his whole family was burned.
And people need to understand this.
What about the Amalekites?
The Bible says, you're in 1 Samuel, chapter 27, it says, remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way.
It's talking about when they were coming out of Egypt, right?
When he were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee.
You know, that's just, that's just what, you know, these heathen reprobates like to do.
And that's what the Amalekites were, you know, they did all these wicked sins that only reprobates do, is that they like to smite, you know, the feeble behind them.
They go after the weak, those that are lagging behind, can't defend themselves.
When thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God.
You say, man, it's such a biblical concept, it's in scripture, why do people do it?
Why do people read that verse, do my prophets no harm, and then go ahead and try to do harm to God's prophets?
Because they have no fear of God.
He says that he feared not God.
Therefore, verse 19, it shall be when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it,
that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
Saying, I don't even want people to know who this guy is.
And you know what, if we didn't have Amalek written about in the scripture, nobody would know.
He wants to blot it out from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it.
Now you're in 1 Samuel chapter 27, and of course you know the story of Saul, that's what he failed to do.
When he was told to go wipe out the Amalekites for this very reason, you know, and he saves King Agag alive.
Right, and Samuel has to finish the job for him.
But then later, David is on the run, he goes into the land of Philistines to, you know, get refuge from Saul.
And he's, you know, he's actually living there in Ziklag, it was a town that was given to him by the Philistines, by the king of Gath.
And it says in chapter 27 verse 8 of 1 Samuel,
And David and his men went up and invaded the Gesherites and the Gerzites and the Amalekites.
For those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to sure even the land of Egypt.
And David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive,
and took away the sheep and the oxen, the asses and the camels and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.
Now I don't know if David knew what he was, like he knew he was kind of fulfilling, you know, Deuteronomy chapter 25.
I'm sure he did, I'm sure he understood that Saul was supposed to have done it and he didn't do it.
He's like, well I'll go, you know, I'm in the Philistines, I need something to do.
I might as well just go ahead and wipe out these people and take their spoil.
And what's interesting is that, you know, he's on the run as a man of God himself who's been harmed.
He himself, David, is a prophet. He himself, David, is the anointed of God who's being persecuted by another.
And now he's going and, you know, exacting vengeance on people who also anointed or did harm to the anointed of God.
I thought that was kind of interesting.
But again, this is another example that God avenging his anointed is biblical.
It's all throughout Scripture.
It might, you know, it took a while for the Malachites but it came around eventually.
How about the fiery furnace, you know, you think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
You know, the king of Babylon said, throw them in the fiery furnace.
And he went and threw them in. What happened to the guys that threw them in?
They got burned up, right?
How about Herod after he attempted to kill Peter?
You know, he killed James and then he, you know, because it pleased the Jews, he went further and he arrested Peter.
It was going to have him killed and the angel shows up, you know, and it says, it's a funny story whenever I think about it.
He shows up in the prison, right, and it says that he was asleep with the two guards.
You sleep on the ground, right, and it says he smote him on the side.
It's like the angel's like, get up.
It wasn't like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, Peter.
You know, there wasn't this gentle like, you know, ascending Tibetan gong like, doo.
It's like, get up, we got to go, right?
I always, I just, every time I think about that story.
But hey, what happened to Herod who reached out and touched God's anointed?
Who was trying to bring harm to the prophet of God?
What happened to him?
He was eaten of worms.
You know, that's a whole other story right there.
And again, you know, I've referred to it already, but King Saul persecuting David.
Go over to 1 Samuel chapter 9, 1 Samuel chapter 9.
You know, it's appropriate in 1 Chronicles chapter 16 that David is the one talking about, you know, not touching God's anointed, doing his prophet's norm.
I mean, that was like his life verse when he was being pursued by Saul.
Many times in the 1 Samuel, you read that, where he has Saul, you know, dead to rights.
He could take him out and he says, you know, I'm not going to touch the Lord's anointed, far be it from me.
And even after Saul's dead, you know, the guy that claims to have killed him, you know, David thinks, oh, you touched God's anointed, you're dead.
So it's appropriate that David's the one that mouthed that prayer, that mouthed that psalm and put that promise out there.
And what's interesting is that David himself, like I said, was the anointed of God and somebody that was being persecuted.
You know, Saul was trying to bring, you know, was trying to touch the Lord's anointed because he was going after David.
And did God just let Saul get away with it? No, 1 Samuel chapter 19 verse 18.
So David fled and escaped and Saul came to Rhema and told them all that Saul had done to him.
And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Nyoth and it was told Saul saying, behold, David is at Nyoth and Rhema.
And Saul sent messengers to take David and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over them,
the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied.
So he's trying to get these messengers, you know, he's sending out these people to find out what's going on.
They show up where he is and they start prophesying. And Saul sent messengers again.
It goes there and it was, excuse me, in verse 21, it was told Saul and he sent other messengers and they prophesied likewise.
And Saul sent messengers again the third time and they prophesied also.
Then went he also to Rhema and came to a great well that is at Siku and he asked and said,
where are Samuel and David? And one said, behold, they be at Nyoth and Rhema.
And he went thither into Nyoth in Rhema and the Spirit of God was upon him also.
And he went on and prophesied until he came to Nyoth and Rhema.
Now what does he do when he gets there?
So how is he being, you know, judged here by God?
Well, verse 24, and he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and laid down naked all that day and all that night.
And he said, this is a weird story. Why is he laying down naked?
It's because God is judging him. That's a shameful thing.
The Bible teaches it's a shameful thing to be naked.
So he gets there, he's like, I'm going to find out where he is and I'm going to get David.
And, you know, he's even at this point, you know, Samuel saying he's fearing for his life.
You know, he's afraid that Saul is going to kill him, too.
So he's just on this vendetta to kill, you know, two of God's prophets, two of God's anointed, Samuel and David.
And when he gets there, he falls down.
I don't think he could help himself.
He's just taken off his clothes and just falls down naked and lays there all day and all night.
And really for Saul, that was like a shot across the bow.
You know, and sometimes, you know, God does that to people.
He's like, I'm warning you. Don't do this.
And then they persist. It's like, OK, well, now this you're going to lay down naked and just be embarrassed.
It's a shameful thing.
How about another example of God avenging his anointed and it being biblical?
Think about the fact that, you know, Jesus was the anointed of God.
Jesus was a prophet of God. Right.
And he was persecuted. I mean, he was crucified.
And what does it say it's going to happen when he comes back? Revelation chapter one, verse seven.
Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him.
And they also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, amen.
And he's going to have vengeance on those that pierced him as well.
So I don't know if this is really a biblical thing.
Should we really expect that God is going to avenge those that would, you know,
take vengeance on those that would touch God's anointed and do his prophet's harm?
Well, Paul prayed for it.
You know, we see many examples in scripture. I'm sure that we could come up with others.
But Paul, you know, said, let it be for second Timothy, chapter four, verse 14.
Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much evil.
So there's this guy, Alexander, the coppersmith, and he did a lot of evil.
And again, Paul is a God's anointed.
You know, he's saved. Paul is one of God's prophets.
And here's this guy, Alex, and or excuse me, no offense to any Alex's in the room.
Alexander or Alexander's, for that matter, I think we got one of those two,
the coppersmith, and he does much evil to one of God's anointed, one of his prophets.
And what's Paul's reaction? The Lord will reward him according to his works.
Meaning this, that, you know, Paul had the right understanding that when somebody is going to do harm to God's anointed,
when they're going to do harm to God's prophets, they got what's coming.
The Lord reward them according to their works. They deserve it.
Because here's the thing, you say, oh, is it because of the man? No, it's because of what the man stands for,
the word of God, the preaching of the gospel.
You know, it's because when you're speaking out and lashing out against somebody that's taking a stand for Christ
and trying to do a work for God, you're trying to actually bring the hindrance, you know,
not just to that man, but to the very work of God.
And God's not just going to stand by and let people, you know, try to bring his work to a halt.
And he'll make examples out of people. He'll make a perfect example out of them as a warning to other people.
Don't get in my way. Because this is what happens.
You know, and it's unfortunate, a lot of those people that have these type of things happen to them
that get judged by God for this, if they just would know the scripture,
if they just understood this concept because it's biblical.