Its better than fighting God

Gamaliel’s Law

I have, for some time, savoured the wisdom of Gamaliel. Remember him? He’s the chap in Acts 5:34-39 addressed the Sanhedrin. This “Jewish High Court” was debating what to do with Peter and the Apostles. Gamaliel had the wisdom to advise the Sanhedrin thus in Acts 5:34-39

“But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed them: Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

What wisdom ! What wise advice !! What he was saying, in effect, was “Don’t waste your time trying to change something that you don’t understand. You may end up in trouble a lot worse than anything you currently perceive.” He added the important caveat though, that if what you see is unimportant it will die off anyway. Against this he also said that if God was behind it then they would be fighting the very one whose honour they were thinking to defend.

What wonderful advice for us today. There are more wars fought over totally unimportant trivia, both inside the church and outside, than over the truly important things. We war and split over the gifts of the Holy Spirit without any consideration of whatever the Word of God says about it. We ostracise prophets because we don’t understand prophecy. We insist that all prayer for healing is only carried out by those who are “trained” to do so. We veto moves to form an organised youth group because it doesn’t fit with OUR plans – but what about God’s plans?? All these things can, I suppose, be grouped under the heading of ‘quenching the Holy Spirit’. All the same, in very many places, no consideration is given to whether or not this or that activity is of God or not. It all has to fit in with our own plans.

We need to spend much more time before the Lord in prayer seeking His will before we stop anything. Even then we need perhaps to operate Gamaliel’s Law - Leave them alone and if they are not of God, they will fade away like all the other dross. Acts 5:34-39

Why fight each other when we can fight God and do Satan’s job for him? On the other hand, why do Satan’s job for him when you can spend your time better by advancing God’s Kingdom?

That is surely better than fighting with God ???