The MANY versus the FEW
Who Is Your King?
The MANY is not always correct
This lesson demonstrates that too often, the MANY still win out in the end, even though they’re still wrong. The MANY follows along with the crowd, a mob mentality. The important lesson is that the demands of the MANY leads to destruction.
Look at our society today!
Woke. Cancel culture. Inclusion and acceptance of sin. TikTok Bible lessons filled with fallacy lapped up like ice cream — as if the Father’s Word is the same as all the other 60-second drivel. False teachers — wolves in sheep’s clothing — with a million followers claiming the authority of Messiah when they do not even know Him. They’re just in it for the money. <1 Tim 6:3–5,10>
“Any old dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live fish to swim against the current.” Garrison Simons
When I was in school and teaching (and watching children’s TV with my children), pounded into my core was the concept of “peer pressure.” How it is bad and we should stand against being pressured into doing things that violate our moral standards or even the law.
Did you grow up with that peer-pressure brainwashing?
It’s real, everyone! And it is part of the “church” today.
→ Come on, everyone is doing it. It will make you cool.
I think in my older years I’ve come to hear this one a lot — disturbingly from Christians, too.
→ But it’s in the Bible.
Well, in some cases that’s a true statement. As pointed out repeatedly, the 40 days of weeping for Tammuz (also called lent) is indeed in the Bible. And YHVH calls it an abomination. <Ezk 8:12–16> Child sacrifice, adultery, murder (first degree, pre-meditated at that), stealing, usurping the authority of Elohim, changing His Word… And on and on… All these are in the Bible.
Yet we don’t use the Bible to defend doing them!
Or do we?
1 John 2:15–17 — 15) Do not love the world nor that which is in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16) Because all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. 17) And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but the one doing the desire of Elohim remains forever.
Ya’akov (James) 4:4 — Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever, therefore, intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim. <Matt 13:22; Luke 4:5–6; Luke 14:33; Rom 12:2>
Having laid this groundwork (and these verses apply to this entire series — and there are many other verses), let’s look at how the people of the nation of Israel defied Elohim and got their way. But first, a side story:
In the late 1920s, after he had suffered a debilitating stroke that left him physically incapacitated to continue running the Soviet Union, Lenin wrote a letter to the presidium that will all their might and authority should not allow Yosef Stalin leadership of the Soviet Union. He warned in clear language that Stalin was a cruel man who would deceive, torment, and annihilate the Soviet people. He warned that under Stalin the Soviet Union would come to ruin.
His letter was ignored and in 1929 Stalin began his meteoric rise to power and by 1931 was fully in control of the USSR.
Who cares? Right? That’s ancient history. The USSR collapsed.
Yes, it did. And Stalin deceived and ruled with fear and tortured the people of the Soviet Union. In the end tally, including those that died of starvation because of the collectivization of the farms, Stalin was directly responsible for the death of more than 40 million Soviet people. Human beings were wasted. Millions were terminated with a single bullet to the head and dumped into giant holes like garbage. The locations of those holes are now lost unless a river washes one open and fills a community with the corpses of the murdered. (Ob River)
But Stalin was extremely popular! The MANY loved him, adored, even. The children called him “Papa Stalin.” Children given the rare opportunity would wait in the cold for hours just to sit on his lap for a photo (you can see many of these photos with a Google search). He became the god of the Soviet Union. Even today there remains a “Cult of Stalin” within the government (and populace) of Russia. They call for the return of the gulag system, imprisonment of dissidents, gays, Jews, non-Orthodox Christians, mixed races, and foreigners living within, and to return to hard-core Soviet communism (which by definition was not but peripherally Marxist.)
Sometimes the historian in me overwhelms me. Sorry. Let’s tie this together now.
The people of Israel had no king.
Judges 21:25 — ● 25) In those days there was no sovereign in Yisra’ĕl — everyone did what was right in his own eyes. <Jdg 17:6>
The MANY demanded a king and went to Samuel, the High Priest of YHVH (there was no Temple yet), and pleaded for a King.
1 Samuel 8:4–5 — ● 4) So all the elders of Israel gathered together and approached Samuel at Ramah. 5) They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons don’t follow your ways. So now appoint over us a king to lead us, just like all the other nations have.”
Samuel, distressed and angry, said to them:
1 Samuel 8:6–7 ● 6) But [their words were] evil in the eyes of Shemu’ĕl when they said, “Give us a sovereign to rule us.” So Shemu’ĕl prayed to [ יהוה ] . 7) And יהוה said to Shemu’ĕl, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from reigning over them.
The MANY had rejected Elohim as their king, their ruler, their provider (Yeho’Vah Yirah). The MANY wanted a flesh and blood king they could see. They made for themselves a man as their king. Elohim continues:
1 Samuel 8:8–9 — ● 8) “According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Mitsrayim {Egypt}, even to this day — forsaking Me and serving other mighty ones — so they are doing to you, too. 9) And now, listen to their voice, but you shall certainly warn them, and shall make known to them the ruling of the sovereign who does reign over them.”
Go read the warning Samuel gives in verses 10–18. It reads quite a bit like how Lenin warned the leaders of the USSR about Stalin. Then read the people’s — the MANY’s — response:
1 Samuel 8:19 — ● 19) However, the people refused to listen to the voice of Shemu’ĕl, and said, “No, but let a sovereign be over us.”
1 Samuel 13:13–14 — ● 13) And Shemu’ĕl said to Sha’ul, “You have been foolish. You have not guarded the command of יהוה your Elohim, which He commanded you. For now, יהוה would have established your reign over Yisra’ĕl forever. 14) “But now, your reign is not going to stand. יהוה shall seek for Himself a man after His own heart, and יהוה shall command him to be leader over His people, because you have not guarded what יהוה commanded you.
Even though the people selected Saul over the advice of Samuel, disregarding the angry tone with which Elohim relented to their demand (since they refuse me as King, let them eat cake…), Saul could have (through genetics) reigned Israel forever. Okay, I know about the prophecy from Ya’akov in Genesis 49:8–12, especially verse 10. Elohim exists outside of time. It was a test for Saul. He failed. Be obedient, you can rule, but I have already seen the end from the beginning and know how this all turns out and I promised Yehudah would rule. But the MANY still asked for it…
Deuteronomy 12:8–9 — ● 8) “Do not do as we are doing here today — each one doing whatever is right in his own eyes. 9) “Because you have not yet entered the rest and the inheritance which יהוה your Elohim is giving you.
We aren’t there yet. We have not yet entered the promised rest of the Father. That comes when Messiah returns. So, for now, rather than following the MANY down the wide path to destruction, we must do what is right in the eyes of The Father.
1 Samuel 15:22–23 — ● 22) Then Samuel said, “Does יהוה take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as He does in obedience? Certainly, obedience is better than sacrifice; paying attention is better than the fat of rams. 23) For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and presumption is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected Elohim’s orders, He has rejected you…”
Yes, I cut the last three words off verse 23. The verse speaks to me and you. It speaks to the MANY and the FEW. For disobedience of the instructions of YHVH is as much a sin as any sin and is likened to demon worship (divination) or idolatry (adultery). There remain only two things Messiah will say to one upon judgment. To those who are faithful (obedient) and believe in Him as their Savior wholly, He will say:
Well done, good and faithful servant.
For those that rebelled, those that changed His Word, added their own forms of worship, who considered what they brought before Him better than what He desires, to them He will say,
I never knew you, depart from me you who do lawlessness. <Matt 7:21–23>
1 Samuel 15:35 — ● Until the day he died Samuel did not see Saul again. Samuel did, however, mourn for Saul, but Yeho’Vah regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
After Stalin’s death, Nikita Khrushchev read a speech before the entire Soviet congress that came to be known as, “The Secret Speech.” In this speech, he laid out all the crimes of Stalin, the atrocities, the horrific and brutal treatment of the people, and the murders. The story goes and was verified by other witnesses, but not recorded officially, (the text of the speech was not confirmed until the death of Khrushchev) that from somewhere within the massive auditorium (in the Kremlin) someone stood up and yelled at him,
Q — “Where were you when all of these crimes were taking place?”
Khrushchev pulled out his pocket watch and set it on the dais. He said aloud, “Whoever has asked me this question has 1-minute to step forward.”
The massive auditorium sat silent for the full 60-seconds.
At the end of the minute, Khrushchev picked up his watch, snapped it shut theatrically, and returned it to his pocket. He replied,
Q — “I was, dear sir, exactly where you have been for the last minute.”
The MANY in the USSR swarmed to follow Stalin, praised him, honored him, and adored him. Revered him as a god, practically. The FEW saw him for the monster, worse than any in history, (we can argue Mao another time) that he truly was. Most of them died for that.
The MANY in Israel demanded an earthly king to rule them, a man to take the place of Elohim — a papa. The FEW — or the one in this case — warned that this was not the Way of YHVH. (The Latin word for papa is popa…pope.)
Do we tell Elohim how He should do something? Do we bring sacrifices of whatever we choose to present to Him? Do we celebrate false: deities, practices, rituals, and traditions, and disregard the instructions He gave?
Who is your King?
#TheMANYvsTheFEW
1 John 4:1–6 — ● 1) Beloved ones, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of Elohim, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2) By this you know the Spirit of Elohim: Every spirit that confesses that יהושע Messiah has come in the flesh is of Elohim, 3) and every spirit that does not confess that יהושע Messiah has come in the flesh is not of Elohim. And this is the spirit of the anti-messiah which you heard is coming, and now is already in the world…
…4) You are of Elohim, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5) They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6) We are of Elohim — the one knowing Elohim hears us. He who is not of Elohim does not hear us. By this we know the Spirit of the Truth and the spirit of the delusion.
The Torah is Truth. Scripture defines Scripture, not man.
Nehemiah 9:13 — ● “And You came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from the heavens, and gave them straight right-rulings and Torot {instructions} of truth, good laws and commands.
Psalm 119:142 — ● Your righteousness is righteousness forever, And Your Torah is truth.
Daniel 9:13 — ● “As it is written in the Torah of Mosheh, all this evil has come upon us, and we have not entreated the face of יהוה our Elohim, to turn back from our crookednesses, and to study Your truth.
Malachi 2:6 — ● “The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and straightness, and turned many away from crookedness.
Romans 2:17–18 — ● 17) See, you are called a Yehuḏi, and rest on the Torah {alone}, and make your boast in Elohim, 18) and know the desire of Elohim, and approve what is superior, being instructed out of the Torah, 19) and are trusting that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20) an instructor of foolish ones, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Torah.
