Tag Biblical Wisdom

AS A MAN THINKS: THE FOUR AIS, THE TWO CLOUDS, AND THE COLLAPSE OF GODLESS INTELLIGENCE

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

There is a single thread running from the wilderness of Sinai to the digital wilderness of the twenty-first century. It stretches from Joshua’s battlefield to Jeremiah’s prophecy, from the chambers of the Sanhedrin to the servers of Silicon Valley. It is the thread of human intelligence without God, a pattern as old as Eden and as modern as the cloud. And that thread is not historical trivia; it is a warning rope stretched across the path of a generation sprinting toward its own brilliance.

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Everything begins with thinking, because every city, nation, institution, technology, and worldview is formed in thought before it becomes action. When that thinking is wrong, the resulting ruin can be great.

The Bible gives us two Ais, two cities named Ai, and our generation has created two AIs, artificial intelligence and academic intelligence. And between them stands the contrast of two clouds: the cloud that led Israel, and the cloud that leads us.

Together, these parallels offer a cautionary pattern: societies risk ruin when human brilliance becomes a substitute for divine wisdom rather than a tool governed by it

THE CLOUD THAT LED ISRAEL AND THE CLOUD THAT LEADS US

In the wilderness, Israel was led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” (Exodus 13:21)

Israel moved or remained in camp according to the movement of that cloud.
“At the command of the Lord the people of Israel would set out, and at the command of the Lord they would camp.” (Numbers 9:18)

The cloud was not mere information but a sign of God’s guiding presence.

Today, our lives revolve around a different kind of cloud, an invisible artificial cloud we cannot see but trust without question. We follow algorithms the way Israel followed God. We move when the cloud updates. We stop when the cloud buffers. We rely on digital direction more than divine direction.

And hovering above both is a third cloud, the cloud of human pride, a fog that blinds a generation convinced it sees clearly.

The ancient cloud led Israel to freedom because God was in it. The modern cloud can lead society into dependence when God is absent from its direction.

This is the backdrop for the four Ais, ancient and modern, that reveal how thinking shapes destiny.

JOSHUA’S Ai: HUMAN STRATEGY WITHOUT GOD

The first Ai appears in the book of Joshua. Israel’s spies judged the city small enough for only two or three thousand soldiers, but the attack ended in defeat.
“So about three thousand men went up there from the people, and they fled before the men of Ai.” (Joshua 7:4)

Yet Scripture identifies the deeper cause as covenant unfaithfulness.
“Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them.” (Joshua 7:11)

Israel’s confident assessment mattered, but the narrative does not reduce the defeat to defective strategy. It roots the failure in disobedience that had broken fellowship with God.

Their intelligence was not submitted to God. Their strategy was not anchored in obedience. Their confidence was not rooted in the Lord. And so the city named “heap of ruins” temporarily defeated the people of God.

Ai did not defeat Israel. Disobedience did.

After the sin was judged, the Lord again spoke to Joshua and supplied the ambush by which Ai would fall.
“Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.’” (Joshua 8:18)

The lesson is not that planning is faithless, but that strategy must operate under God’s command and within covenant obedience.

JEREMIAH’S Ai: NATIONAL PRIDE WITHOUT GOD

Centuries later, Jeremiah names another Ai within an oracle concerning Ammon.
“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste.” (Jeremiah 49:3)

The oracle exposes Ammon’s boasting.
“Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter? Your valley is flowing away.” (Jeremiah 49:4)

Jeremiah’s Ai represents the collapse of nations that trust their own strength more than the God who judges nations.

Every nation that trusts its systems more than its Savior eventually becomes its own heap of ruins.

Across two prophets, two eras, and two cities named Ai, one message emerges: human intelligence apart from God becomes a heap of ruins.

THE SANHEDRIN: THE ORIGINAL ACADEMIC AI

The Sanhedrin was a leading religious and legal authority in Jesus’ day.
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” (Matthew 23:2)

Jesus condemned leaders who shut the kingdom in people’s faces.
“For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)

They were the ancient data center of religious knowledge, but without the Spirit of God powering it.

They were experts in Scripture but strangers to the God of Scripture, a danger as real in universities as it was in Jerusalem.

Jesus charged them with searching the Scriptures while refusing to come to the One to whom those Scriptures testified.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me.” (John 5:39)

Academic intelligence without revelation hardens into arrogance, and arrogance collapses under the weight of its own certainty.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: HUMAN INNOVATION WITHOUT HUMILITY

Modern AI mirrors the ambition of Babel.
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” (Genesis 11:4)

AI becomes Babel when brilliance becomes a substitute for obedience.

The danger is not the machine. It is the misplaced worship of the minds that built it.

Scripture commands believers not to lean on their own understanding.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

Human innovation without humility becomes idolatry, and idolatry collapses because it asks a created thing to bear the weight of ultimate trust.

THE WRONG BATTLE: ISRAEL VS Ai AND HUMANITY VS AI

Society has already ceded many habits of mind to digital systems. GPS supplies direction. Search engines substitute for memory. Notifications interrupt prayer.

People are fighting the symptom, not the system.

Israel lost because it fought the wrong enemy. We lose because we trust the wrong cloud.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10)

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1)

When Israel aligned with God, Ai fell. When we anchor our intelligence in God’s wisdom, artificial intelligence becomes a tool, not a tower. Every Ai built on pride collapses. Every Ai grounded in God stands.

THE UNIFIED MESSAGE: THE FOUNDATION DETERMINES THE FUTURE

Joshua’s Ai warns individuals, Jeremiah’s warns nations, the Sanhedrin warns institutions and modern AI warns cultures. Every Ai begins as a system of thought. Every thought system not built on God’s Word becomes a heap of ruins.

The future does not belong to the brilliant, it belongs to the faithful

The Deceiver Who Doesn’t Look Like One

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A Teaching for an Age of Cultural Unrest

We live in a time when people expect evil to announce itself loudly. Many imagine the devil in a red suit, tail swishing, pitchfork in hand, smoke curling around his feet. It is a comforting caricature because it makes deception easy to spot. If the enemy looked like that, no one would fall for him.

Scripture tells a very different story. Genesis describes the serpent as “more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Genesis 3:1). Subtle—not grotesque, not terrifying, not obvious. The first deception in human history did not come through fear. It came through beauty, persuasion, and a voice that sounded safe enough to trust.

The serpent did not frighten Eve. He flattered her. He appealed to her desire for wisdom, insight, and elevation. Genesis 3:4–6 shows the strategy clearly: “Ye shall not surely die… your eyes shall be opened… ye shall be as gods.” And when Eve looked at the fruit, she saw that it was “pleasant to the eyes” and “desired to make one wise.”

The serpent did not come with a scythe. He came with a compliment.

The Modern Face of Deception

In our cultural moment, deception rarely marches in wearing a villain’s costume. It arrives dressed in glowing language—words like justice, compassion, identity, authenticity, progress, unity, freedom, inclusion. These words are good in themselves, which is precisely why they are so effective when twisted.

Paul warned the church about this very thing. He wrote that false teachers come “with good words and fair speeches [that] deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18). He also said that Satan himself “is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). The enemy does not need horns when he can wear light. He does not need a pitchfork when he can use high‑sounding words.

This is why Paul cautioned believers: “Let no man beguile you with enticing words” (Colossians 2:4). Enticing words are the serpent’s favorite tool. They sound noble. They sound enlightened. They sound compassionate. And because they sound good, people rarely stop to ask whether they are true.

Why Flattery Works So Well

Flattery bypasses discernment and goes straight for identity. It tells people what they want to hear:

  • You’re enlightened.
  • You’re compassionate.
  • You’re morally superior.
  • You’re on the right side of history.
  • You’re brave for believing this.

Once a person receives that affirmation, they will defend the ideology that delivered it—even if that ideology contradicts Scripture, truth, or reality itself. They are not defending ideas anymore; they are defending the version of themselves the ideology promised.

This is why some people react so strongly when confronted. Truth does not just challenge their beliefs; it threatens their identity. Paul described this dynamic in 2 Timothy 3:7 when he spoke of people who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” They are not wicked people. They are unanchored people—people who drift toward whatever voice sounds the most affirming.

Eve was not foolish. She was human. And humans are vulnerable to the voice that tells them what they want to hear.

The Cultural Moment We’re Living In

Our society is not divided because people love evil. It is divided because people have been seduced by beautiful lies. Isaiah warned of a time when people would “call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). Paul foresaw a generation that would “not endure sound doctrine” but would instead gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

We are living in that moment.

The deceiver does not need horns when he has hashtags. He does not need a tail when he has slogans. He does not need a pitchfork when he has influencers, pundits, and charismatic personalities who speak with confidence and charm.

The serpent’s wardrobe has changed, but his strategy has not.

The Call for Discernment

Discernment is not suspicion. It is not cynicism. Discernment is the ability to recognize when something sounds good but is not true. Scripture calls believers to this kind of maturity. John wrote, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). Hebrews 5:14 says mature believers have their senses trained to “discern both good and evil.”

In an age where every ideology markets itself as righteous, compassionate, and enlightened, the people of God must learn to test the fruit, not admire the packaging. The serpent’s words were beautiful. The fruit was deadly.

A Final Word

If someone accuses you of being “mean” for challenging deception, remember Paul’s question in Galatians 4:16: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Truth will always feel abrasive to those who have been comforted by lies. You are not being harsh. You are being anchored. And anchored people will always look unkind to those who are drifting.

The deceiver does not come dressed in red. He comes dressed in whatever the culture currently calls good.

The task of the believer is not to admire the costume, but to discern the voice.

Accusation Without Understanding

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

The Ancient Disease Still Alive Today

There is a sickness in the public square today, and it is not new. It is the same sickness that surrounded Job as he sat in the ashes, scraping his wounds while his friends circled him with confident speeches and careless theology. Scripture records God’s verdict on their words: “You have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has”** (Job 42:7 NIV).** Their counsel did not comfort. Their logic did not heal. Their certainty did not reflect heaven. They spoke out of turn, and heaven rebuked them for it.

The One Moment They Got It Right

Before they spoke, something remarkable happened — something we often overlook. They sat with Job in silence for seven days and seven nights (Job 2:13). No accusations. No assumptions. No explanations. Just presence.

That moment of silence was the closest they ever came to true ministry. It was the only time their actions aligned with Scripture’s wisdom: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise”** (Proverbs 10:19).** Their silence was compassion. Their silence was solidarity. Their silence was the ministry of presence — the very thing Job needed most.

But then they opened their mouths. And the moment they spoke, the condition of their hearts was exposed.

When Speech Reveals the Heart

Their silence had hidden their assumptions; their words revealed them. Their silence had covered their ignorance; their speeches broadcast it. Their silence had honored Job’s suffering; their words multiplied it.

This is the same pattern we see today. Our culture rewards quick speech, hot takes, and instant judgment. People speak before they listen, react before they reflect, and accuse before they understand. Yet Scripture says, “To answer before listening — that is folly and shame”** (Proverbs 18:13)**. Folly and shame have become the currency of the public square.

False Witness in Modern Clothing

Job’s friends believed they were defending God, but their words misrepresented Him. They believed they were diagnosing Job’s condition, but their conclusions were false. They believed they were offering wisdom, but God called their speeches “folly” (Job 42:8). Their error was not merely intellectual; it was moral. They bore false witness — against Job and against God. And Scripture is clear: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”** (Exodus 20:16)**.

False witness is not simply lying. It is speaking without knowledge. It is judging without understanding. It is assuming without humility. It is offering commentary where compassion is required.

When Words Wound Instead of Heal

Instead of comforting Job, they condemned him. Instead of praying with him, they lectured him. Instead of binding his wounds, they reopened them. Isaiah describes the heart of God’s servants as those who “bind up the brokenhearted”** (Isaiah 61:1)**, but Job’s friends did the opposite. They twisted the knife. They picked the scabs. They deepened the wounds they should have helped heal.

The Reversal of Biblical Wisdom

We have become a people who speak much and listen little. We have traded compassion for commentary and discernment for suspicion. We have forgotten that Scripture commands us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry”** (James 1:19)**. Instead, we have reversed the order.

Paul gives us the mental guardrail Job’s friends ignored: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble… think about such things”** (Philippians 4:8)**.

He gives us the relational guardrail: “Speaking the truth in love…”** (Ephesians 4:15)**.

And he gives us the verbal guardrail: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth…”** (Ephesians 4:29)**.

Scripture adds yet another warning: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue”** (Proverbs 18:21)**. Job’s friends chose death. Our culture often does the same.

The Call to a Higher Standard

God calls us to something higher. Words that heal, not harm. Words that restore, not ruin. Words that bind wounds, not reopen them. Words that carry grace, not suspicion.

Ecclesiastes reminds us there is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak”** (Ecclesiastes 3:7). Silence is not cowardice when chosen in humility. Speech is not righteousness when offered without understanding. A word spoken in season is like “apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11)**. A word spoken out of turn is a weapon.

The Example of Job

If the public square is ever to be healed, it will not be through louder voices but wiser ones. It will not be through more accusations but more intercession. It will not be through the arrogance of Job’s friends but through the humility of Job himself, who said, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him”** (Job 13:15)**. Job spoke honestly before God, but he did not pretend to know what he did not know. His friends pretended — and God rebuked them for it.

The Final Word

We do not need more voices speaking out of turn. We need more hearts aligned with Scripture. We need more tongues governed by truth. We need more speech seasoned with grace. We need more people willing to speak only when their words carry the weight of heaven.

Until then, we will continue to repeat the sins of Job’s friends — confident, loud, and disastrously wrong.

WATCHMAN’S REPORT: DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

We plan as though time were ours to command, confidently declaring, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.” Yet, as James reminds us, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. Our lives are but a mist that appears briefly and then vanishes. Instead of presuming on the future, we should humbly say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13–15)

This truth calls us to acknowledge that God is sovereign over all time, and our plans must always be submitted to His will. In a world that grips the illusion of control and endless tomorrows, Scripture confronts us with the sobering reality that our days are numbered and the night is nearly over.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

The Midnight Hour and the Illusion of Tomorrow

Every night we lie down assuming we will rise again. We set alarms with confidence. We plan tomorrow as if tomorrow is guaranteed. But the Word shatters that illusion with sobering clarity. Paul writes, “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

The language is urgent. Not casual. Not optional. High time. The moment to wake up is not later. It is now.

Jesus told a parable that feels painfully relevant in this hour. Ten virgins. Ten lamps. Ten people who believed they had more time than they did. All ten slept. But at midnight—the hour no one expected—a cry pierced the darkness: “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming; go out to meet Him!” (Matthew 25:6)

Five were ready. Five were not. And when the door shut, it did not reopen.

There will be no “do over,” no second chances, and no overtime granted—just the sound of a closing door.

Jesus presses the point even further: “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:44)

We do not get to choose the hour. We only get to choose whether we are awake when it comes.

And if the midnight cry feels distant, look around—the signs are already shouting.

The Signs of the Times: A World Drifting Toward Midnight

Jesus rebuked His generation for knowing the weather better than the spiritual climate: “You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Luke 12:56)

But today the signs are not subtle. They are loud, global, and accelerating.

  • Wars and rumors of wars fill the daily news.
  • Nations align in patterns that echo ancient prophecy.
  • Economies tremble under instability.
  • Violence, corruption, and deception rise like floodwaters.
  • The love of many grows cold.
  • The Church, in many places, sleeps with its lamp half-empty.

Paul’s words ring louder than ever: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” (Romans 13:12)
Far spent. Not beginning. Not halfway. Far spent. The Watchman sees a world drifting toward a prophetic midnight while the Church hits the spiritual snooze button.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come…” (2 Timothy 3:1)

The Trumpet That Will Interrupt Every Tomorrow

Paul describes a moment that will interrupt every plan, every schedule, every assumption of “tomorrow”: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet… the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52)

There will be no warning siren. No countdown. No five-minute delay. Just a trumpet. A transformation. And a final dividing line between the ready and the unready.

Jesus said it plainly: “At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 24:44)

The Watchman hears the faint echo of that trumpet reverberating through the shaking of nations. The world is not winding down randomly—it is moving toward an appointed hour.

The Prophetic Burden of This Moment

This report is not prediction. It is pattern. It is Scripture. It is the convergence of signs Jesus told us to watch for. The Watchman bears the weight of this moment because the world is rearranging itself into prophetic patterns, the Church is distracted by comfort and routine, believers are living as if the midnight cry is centuries away, and a spiritual drowsiness is settling over people who once burned brightly.

The shaking in the nations is not random—it is a divine alarm clock.

The Call to the Remnant: Wake Up and Trim Your Lamp

The midnight cry will not wait for anyone to finish getting ready. Scripture calls us to watchfulness, sobriety, and readiness. Paul writes, “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

Jesus warns, “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find watching.” (Luke 12:37)

This is the hour to examine the oil in our lamps, to strengthen what remains, to guard our hearts, to walk in repentance, to cultivate intimacy with Christ, and to resist the spiritual drowsiness of the age. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. And the trumpet is closer than we think.

Benediction: A Call to Stand Awake in the Light

May the Lord awaken every sleeping heart and steady every trembling one. May His light break through the fog of distraction and call us into the clarity of His presence. May He strengthen the weary, revive the watchful, and stir the embers of every lamp that has grown dim. May the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps teach us to walk as children of the day—sober, alert, and anchored in hope. And may His peace guard our hearts as we wait for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer

Father, we come before You with humility, acknowledging that our days are in Your hands. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Awaken us from spiritual sleep and open our eyes to the lateness of the hour. Strengthen us to walk in repentance, purity, and readiness. Fill our lamps with the oil of Your Spirit so that when the midnight cry sounds, we will rise with joy and not with fear. Keep our lamps burning until the trumpet sounds. Keep us watchful, steadfast, and faithful as we seek Your face while it is still called today. In the name of Jesus, our soon-coming King, Amen.

WHEN THE KINGDOM TREMBLES:

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A Watchman’s Word for a Nation in Upheaval

Solomon once wrote:

“What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

If you want to understand the turmoil of our time, you don’t need a pundit. You need a Bible.

The unrest we see today is not new. The outrage, the factions, the calls for resistance, and the crowds stirred to avenge a leader have long existed. It is ancient. It is familiar. It is recorded in Scripture with unnerving precision.

The names change. The slogans change. The flags change.

But the spirit behind it does not.

THE DAY THE SONGS SHIFTED:

When Public Praise Became Political Crisis**

Israel’s political fracture began with a chant:

“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7)

That lyrics were not entertainment. It was a national poll.

It told the nation. It told Saul. The people saw something in David they no longer saw in their king.

Scripture says:

“Saul eyed David from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 18:9)

That is the moment a leader stops governing and starts defending his throne.

THE GIANT THAT EXPOSED THE KING

For forty days, Goliath mocked Israel. For forty days, Saul — the tallest man in the nation (1 Samuel 9:2) — did nothing.

Then David stepped forward and did in minutes what the king failed to do in over a month:

“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.” (1 Samuel 17:50)

This was not just a military victory. It was public humiliation for Saul.

David didn’t just silence a giant. He exposed a leader who had lost courage, clarity, and the anointing.

And insecure leaders do not forgive those who reveal their weakness.

THE RISE OF TWO CAMPS

From that moment, Israel split into two factions:

Saul’s Camp — The Old Guard

  • loyal to the throne
  • fearful of change
  • convinced David was a threat
  • emotionally tied to Saul’s past victories

David’s Camp — The New Movement

  • loyal to God’s anointing
  • drawn to righteousness
  • inspired by courage
  • convinced God was shifting the kingdom

This was not rebellion. This was discernment.

But Saul saw it as sedition.

THE POLITICS OF JEALOUSY AND FEAR

Saul’s insecurity metastasized into violence:

“Saul cast the spear… for he said, ‘I will pin David to the wall.’” (1 Samuel 18:11)

When that failed:

“Saul sought to kill David.” (1 Samuel 19:10)

He mobilized the army. He weaponized the state. He turned the machinery of government against a single man.

This is what happens when a leader loses the fear of God.

DAVID’S RESTRAINT:

The Only Thing That Prevented Civil War**

David had multiple opportunities to kill Saul:

  • in the cave at En Gedi (1 Samuel 24)
  • in the camp while Saul slept (1 Samuel 26)

His men urged him to strike. They saw it as justice. They saw it as self‑defense. They saw it as God’s will.

But David said:

“The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” (1 Samuel 24:6)

David refused to seize power by force. He refused to avenge himself. He refused to let outrage masquerade as righteousness.

He understood:

“He removes kings and raises up kings.” (Daniel 2:21)

And that sometimes a nation receives the leader it asked for:

“Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5)

And sometimes the leader it deserves:

“You have rejected your God… therefore the Lord will not hear you.” (1 Samuel 8:18)

David feared God more than he feared losing.

That is why he became king.

ABSALOM:

The Charismatic Usurper Who Weaponized Grievance**

Absalom didn’t begin with swords. He began with sentiment.

Scripture says:

“Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” (2 Samuel 15:6)

He positioned himself at the gate. He intercepted grievances. He amplified frustrations. He promised justice. He played the victim. He played the hero.

And when the moment was right:

“The conspiracy grew strong.” (2 Samuel 15:12)

A crowd convinced they were fighting for righteousness was actually fighting against God’s chosen king.

BARABBAS:

The Insurrectionist the Crowd Preferred Over the Messiah**

Pilate offered the people a choice:

  • Jesus, the innocent
  • Barabbas, the insurrectionist

Scripture is explicit:

“Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the insurrection.” (Mark 15:7)

And the crowd shouted:

“Not this man, but Barabbas!” (John 18:40)

Then:

“Crucify Him!” (Mark 15:13)

The crowd believed they were defending justice. They demanded the release of a murderer and the execution of the Son of God.

That is what happens when outrage becomes a god.

THE WATCHMAN’S WORD FOR OUR TIME

A nation becomes Saul’s camp under several circumstances. This happens when it rallies to avenge a leader who feels threatened. It occurs when crowds are stirred into frenzy. It is observed when loyalty replaces discernment. When emotion replaces Scripture and outrage replaces obedience. Moreover, when personal conviction replaces the fear of the Lord, that nation is truly Saul’s camp. That nation has become Saul’s camp.

And Scripture warns what happens next.

The Watchman’s call is simple:

Do not let your outrage become your god. Do not let your loyalty become your idol. Do not let your emotions become your prophet. Do not strike what God has not commanded you to strike.

Because if you do, you may find yourself fighting against the very thing God Himself has established.

“Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord; “I will repay.” (Romans 12:19)

Benediction: The Posture of a Child of God in a Divided Nation

May the people of God remember. Our allegiance is to the Lord. It is not to the noise of the crowd or the fury of the moment. When nations rage and factions demand loyalty, may you stand where Scripture commands — not where outrage pushes.

May you refuse the spirit of Saul that strikes in fear. Embrace the spirit of David who waited on the Lord.

Reject the seduction of Absalom. He steals hearts with grievance. Cling to the Shepherd‑King. He leads with righteousness.

May you discern the difference between the crowd that cried “Crucify.” May you also see the remnant that stayed at the foot of the cross.

May your heart be governed by the Word, not by the winds of public opinion.
For it is written:

  • “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
  • “Be slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20)
  • “Do not repay evil for evil but overcome evil with good.” (1 Peter 3:9)
  • “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God.” (Romans 13:1)
  • “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

May you walk in fear of the Lord,
not the fear of losing influence.

May you speak truth without venom,
stand firm without violence,
and wait on God without grasping for power.

May your discernment be sharper than the rhetoric of the age. Let your obedience be deeper than the passions of the crowd.

When the kingdom trembles and the factions roar, may you be found among those who act only with God’s command. Do not follow a multitude to do evil. Trust the Judge of all the earth to do what is right.

May the Lord steady your steps,
guard your tongue,
anchor your heart,
and keep you from the snares of reaction.

For the kingdoms of this world rise and fall,
but the Kingdom of our God endures forever.

Amen.