Sitting at the Gate

 

After King David lamented for his dead son Absalom, and Israel had started to leave the king because he did not seem to care for anything else, Joab explained why David needed to give Israel attention quick, “Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And they told all the people, saying, ‘There is the king, sitting in the gate.’ So all the people came before the king. For everyone of Israel had fled to his tent” (2Sa 19.8).

Elders sitting at the gate is a common Old Testament expression, and David here assembled in a place where he was readily available to his people.

Likewise, elders in the church today should put themselves in places where members of the church can greet them or talk to them. Perhaps they can go to the back of the auditorium as some preachers do. Or the elders might serve as greeters.

They need to do something to make themselves visible. DR

 

God Fulfills What Is Written

 

If God said in the Scriptures that something would happen, then it did or will happen. For example, as Jesus prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem, He said, “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21.22).

Roughly forty years later, it happened just as He said that it would happen, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the magnificent temple of God.

He says elsewhere in the New Testament that a greater destruction is coming in which He shall burn the earth and the rest of the universe with fire, and He will take His followers into heaven.

Are you prepared for that event? DR

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