Tale of Three Kings

“Blessed is the one
who does not . . . sit in the seat of mockers.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season…"

The almighty, living God turned to Gabriel and spoke thusly.

"Go, take these two portions of My being. There are two destinies waiting. To each of them give one portion of Myself."

Carrying two glowing, pulsating lights of Life, Gabriel opened the door into the realm between two universes and disappeared. He had stepped into the Mall of Unborn Destinies.

"I have here two portions of the very nature of God. The first is the very cloth of His nature. When wrapped about you, it clothes you with the breath of God. As water surrounds one who is within the sea, so does His very breath envelop you. With this, the wind that clothes, you will have His power-power to subdue armies, shame the enemies of God and accomplish His work on the earth. Here is immersion into the spirit."

A destiny stepped forward: "This portion of God is for me."

"True," replied the angel. "And remember, whoever receives such a great portion of power as this is will surely be known by many. Ere your earthly pilgrimage is done, your true character will be known; yea, even revealed, by means of this power. Such is the destiny of all who wear and wield this portion, for it touches only the outward man, affecting the inner man not one whit. Outward power will always unveil the inner resources, or the lack thereof."

The first destined one received and stepped back.

Gabriel spoke again.

"I have here the second of two elements of the Living God. This is not a gift but an inheritance. A gift is worn on the outer man: an inheritance is planted deep inside--like a seed. Yet, even though it is such a small planting, this planting grows and, in time, fills all the inner man."

Another destiny stepped forward. "I believe this element is to be mine for my earthly pilgrimage."

"True," responded the angel again. "I must tell you that what has been given you is a glorious thing--the only element in the universe known to God or angels that can change the human heart. Yet, even this very element of God cannot accomplish its task nor can it grow and fill your entire inner being unless it be compounded well. It must be mixed lavishly with pain, sorrow and crushing.

The second destined one received and stepped back.

Beside Gabriel sat the angel Recorder. He dutifully entered into his ledger the record of the two destinies.

"And who shall these destinies become after they go through he door to the visible universe?" asked the Recorder.

Replied Gabriel softly, "Each, in his time, shall be king."




Chapter 1


The youngest son of any family bears two distinctions: He is considered to be both spoiled and uninformed. Usually little is expected of him. Inevitably, he displays fewer characteristics of leadership than the other children in the family. As a child, he never leads. He only follows, for he has no one younger on whom to practice leadership.

So it is today. And so it was three thousand years ago in a village called Bethlehem, in a family of eight boys. The first seven sons of Jesse worked near their father’s farm. The youngest was sent on treks into the mountains to graze the family’s small flock of sheep.

On those pastoral jaunts, this youngest son always carried two things: a sling and a small, guitarlike instrument. Spare time for a sheepherder is abundant on rich mountain plateaus where sheep can graze for days in one sequestered meadow. But as time passed and days became weeks, the young man became very lonely. The feeling of friendlessness that always roamed inside him was magnified. He often cried. He also played his harp a great deal. He had a good voice, so he often sang. When these activities failed to comfort him, he gathered up a pile of stones and, one by one, swung them at a distant tree with something akin to fury.

When one rock pile was depleted, he would walk to the blistered tree, reassemble his rocks, and designate another leafy enemy at yet a farther distance.

He engaged in many such solitary battles.

This shepherd-singer-slinger also loved his Lord. At night, when all the sheep lay sleeping and he sat staring at the dying fire, he would strum upon his harp and break into quiet song. He sang the ancient hymns of his forefathers’ faith. While he sang he wept, and while weeping he often broke out in abandoned praise—until mountains in distant places lifted up his praise and tears and passed them on to higher mountains, until they eventually reached the ears of God.

When the young shepherd did not praise and when he did not cry, he tended to each and every sheep and lamb. When not occupied with his flock, he swung his companionable sling and swung it again and again until he could tell every rock precisely where to go.

Once, while singing his lungs out to God, angels, sheep, and passing clouds, he spied a living enemy: a huge bear! He lunged forward. Both found themselves moving furiously toward the same small object, a lamb feeding at a table of rich, green grass. Youth and bear stopped halfway and whirled to face one another. Even as he instinctively reached into his pocket for a stone, the young man realized, “Why, I am not afraid.”

Meanwhile, brown lightning on mighty, furry legs charged at the shepherd with foaming madness. Impelled by the strength of youth, the young man married rock to leather, and soon a brook-smooth pebble whined through the air to meet that charge.

A few moments later, the man—not quite so young as a moment before—picked up the little lamb and said, “I am your shepherd, and God is mine.”

And so, long into the night, he wove the day’s saga into a song. He hurled that hymn to the skies again and again until he had taught the melody and words to every angel that had ears. They, in turn, became custodians of this wondrous song and passed it on as healing balm to brokenhearted men and women in every age to come.




Chapter 2

A figure in the distance was running toward him. It grew and became his brother. “Run!” cried the brother. “Run with all your strength. I’ll watch the flock.”

“why?”

“An old man, a sage. He wants to meet all eight of the sons of Jesse, and he has seen all but you.”

“But why?”

“Run!”

So David ran. He stopped long enough to get his breath. Then, sweat pouring down his sunburned cheeks, his red face matching his red curly hair, he walked into his father’s house, his eyes recording everything in sight.

The youngest son of Jesse stood there, tall und strong, but more in the eyes of the curious old gentleman than to anyone else in the room. Kith and kin cannot always tell when a man is grown, even when looking straight at him. The elderly man saw. And something more he saw. In a way he himself did not understand, the old man knew what God knew.

God had taken a house-to-house survey of the whole kingdom in search of someone very special. As a result of this survey, the Lord God Almighty had found that this leather-lunged troubadour loved his Lord with a purer heart than anyone else on all the sacred soil of Israel.

“Kneel,” said the bearded one with the long, gray hair. Almost regally, for one who had never been in that particular position, David knelt and then felt oil pouring down on his head. Somewhere, in one of the closets of his mind labeled “childhood information,” he found a thought: This is what men do to designate royalty! Samuel is making me a . . . what?

The Hebrew words were unmistakable. Even children knew them.

“Behold the Lord’s anointed!”

Quite a day for that young man, wouldn’t you say? Then do you find it strange that this remarkable event led the young man not to the throne but to a decade of hellish agony and suffering? On that day, David was enrolled, not into the lineage of royalty but into the school of brokenness.

Samuel went home. The sons of Jesse, save one, went forth to war. And the youngest, not yet ripe for war, received a promotion in his father's home . . . from sheepherder to messenger boy. His new job was to run food and messages to his brothers on the front lines. He did this regularly.

On one such visit to the battlefront, he killed another bear, in exactly the same way us he had the first. This bear, however, was nine feet tall and bore the name Goliath. As a result of this unusual feat, young David found himself a folk hero.

And eventually he found himself in the palace of a mad king. And in circumstances that were as insane as the king, the young man was to learn many indispensable lessons.


Chapter 3

David sang to the mad king. Often. The music helped the old man a great deal, it seems. And all over the palace, when David sang, everyone stopped in the corridors, turned their ears in the direction of the king's chamber, and listened and wondered. How did such a young man come to possess such wonderful words and music?

Everyone's favorite seemed to be the song the little lamb had taught him. They loved that song as much as did the angels.

Nonetheless, the king was mad, and therefore he was jealous. Or was it the other way around? Either way, Saul felt threatened by David, as kings often do when there is a popular, promising young man beneath them. The king also knew, as did David, that this boy just might have his job some day.

But would David ascend to the throne by fair means or foul? Saul did not know. This question is one of the things that drove the king mad.

David was caught in a very uncomfortable position: however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand.

And what was that?

God did not have—but wanted very much to have—men and women who would live in pain.

God wanted a broken vessel


Chapter 4


The mad king saw David as a threat to the king's kingdom. Saul did not understand, it seems, that God should be left to decide what kingdoms survive which threats. Not knowing this, Saul did what all mad kings do. He threw spears at David. He could. He was king. Kings can do things like that. They almost always do. Kings claim the right to throw spears. Everyone knows very, very well. How do they know? Because the king has told them so -- many, many times.

Is it possible that this mad king was the true king, even the Lord's anointed?

And what about your king? Is he the Lord's anointed? Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. No one can ever really know for sure. Men say that they are sure. Even certain. But they are not. They do not know. God knows. But he will not tell.

If your king is truly the Lord's anointed, and if he also throws spears, then there are some things you can know, and know for sure:

Your king is quite mad.

And he is a king after the order of King Saul.




Chapter 5


God has a university. It’s a small school. Few enroll, even fewer graduate. Very few indeed.

God has this school because he does not have broken men. Instead He has several types of people. He has people who claim to have God’s authority . . . and don’t—people who claim to be broke . . . and aren’t. And people who do have God’s authority, but who are mad and unbroken. And he has regretfully, a great mixture of everything in between. All of these He has in abundance; but broken men and women, hardly at all.

In God’s sacred school of submission and brokenness, why are there so few students? Because all students in this school must suffer much pain. And as you might guess, it is often the unbroken ruler (whom God sovereignly picks) who metes out the pain. David was once a student in this school, and Saul was God’s chosen way to crush David.

As the king grew in madness, David grew in understanding. He knew that God had placed him in the king’s palace under true authority.

The authority of King Saul was true? Yes, God’s chosen authority. Chosen for David. Unbroken authority, yes. But divine in ordination, nonetheless.

Yes, that is possible.

David drew in his breath, placed himself under his mad king, and moved farther down the path of his earthly hell.






Chapter 6


I have a question: What do you do when someone throws a spear at you?

Does it not seem odd to you that David did not know the answer to this question? After all, everyone else in the world knows what to do when a spear is thrown at you. Why, you pick it up and throw it right back!

"When someone throws a spear at you, David, just wrench it right out of the wall and throw it back. Everyone else does, you can be sure."

And in doing this small feat of returning thrown spears, you will prove many things: You are courageous. You stand for the right. You boldly stand against the wrong. You are tough and can’t be pushed around. You will not stand for injustice or unfair treatment. You are the defender of the faith, keeper of the flame, detector of all heresy. You will not be wronged. All of these attributes then combine to prove that you are also a candidate for kingship. Yes, perhaps you are the Lord’s anointed.

After the order of King Saul.

There is also a possibility that some 20 years after your coronation, you will be the most incredibly skilled spear thrower in all the realm. And also by then...

Quite mad.




Chapter 7




Unlike anyone else in spear-throwing history, David did not know what to do when a spear was thrown at him. He did not throw Saul’s spears back at him. Nor did he make any spears of his own and throw them. Something was different about David. All he did was dodge the spears.

What can a man, especially a young man, do when the king decides to use him for target practice? What if the young man decides not to return the compliment?

First of all, he must pretend he cannot see spears. Even when they are coming straight at him. Second, he must also learn to duck very quickly. Last, he must pretend nothing at all happened.

You can easily tell when someone has been hit by a spear. He turns a deep shade of bitter. David never got hit. Gradually, he learned a very well kept secret. He discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit.

One, never learn anything about the fashionable, easily mastered art of spear throwing. Two, stay out of the company of all spear throwers. And three, keep your mouth tightly closed.

In this way, spears will never touch you, even when they pierce your heart.




Chapter 8

"My King is also mad. At least I perceive him so. What can I do?"

First recognize this immutable fact: you cannot tell (none of us can tell) who is the Lord’s anointed and who is not. Some kings, whom all agree are after the order of King Saul, are really after the order of David. And others, whom all agree are after the order of David, really belong to the order of King Saul. Who is correct? Who can know? To whose voice do you listen? No man is wise enough ever to break that riddle. All any of us can do is walk around asking ourselves this question: "Is this man the Lord’s anointed? And if he is, is he after the order of King Saul?" Memorize that question very well. You may have to ask it of yourself 10,000 times. Especially if you are a citizen of a realm whose king just might be mad.

Asking this question may not seem difficult, but it is. Especially when you are crying very hard...and dodging spears...and being tempted to throw one back...and being encouraged by others to do just that. And all your rationality and sanity and logic and intelligence and common sense agree! But in the midst of your tears and frustration, remember that: you know only the question, not the answer.

No one knows the answer.

Except God.

And He never tells.



Chapter 9

"I did not like that last chapter. It skirted the problem. I’m in David’s situation, and I am in agony. What do I do when the kingdom I’m in is ruled by a spear-wielding King? Should I leave? If so, how? Just what does a man do in the middle of a spear-throwing contest?"

Well, if you didn’t like the question found in the last chapter, you won’t like the answer found in this one. The answer is, "You get stabbed to death."

"But what is the good in being speared?"

You have your eyes on the wrong King Saul. As long as you look at your king, you will blame him, and him alone, for your present hell. But be careful, for God has his eyes fastened sharply on another King Saul. Not the visible one standing up there throwing spears at you. No, God is looking at another King Saul. One just as bad-or worse.

God is looking at the King Saul in you.

"In me?!"

Saul is in your blood stream, in the marrow of your bones. He makes up the very flesh and muscle of your heart. He is mixed into your soul. He inhabits the nuclei of your atoms.

King Saul is one with us. We are King Saul! He breathes in the lungs and beats in the breast of all of us. There is only one way to get rid of him. He must be annihilated. You may not particularly find this to be a compliment, but at least now you know why God put you under someone who might be King Saul.

David the sheep-herder would have grown up to become King Saul The Second, except that God cut away the Saul inside David’s heart. That operation, by the way, took years and was a brutalizing experience that almost killed the patient. And what were the scalpel and the tongs God used to remove this inner Saul? God used the outer Saul.

King Saul sought to destroy me, but his only success was that he became the instrument of God to put to death the Saul who roamed about in the caverns of my own soul. Yes, I was virtually destroyed in the process, but this had to be. Otherwise the Saul in me would have survived.

David accepted this fate. He embraced the cruel circumstances. He lifted no hand, nor offered resistance. Nor did he grandstand his piety. Silently, privately, he bore the crucible of humiliation. Because of this he was deeply wounded. His whole inner being was mutilated. His personality was altered. When the gore was over, David was barely recognizable.

You weren’t satisfied with the question in the last chapter? Then you probably didn’t like the answer in this one.

None of us do.

Except God.



Chapter 10

How does a person know when it is finally time to leave the Lord’s anointed – especially if the Lord’s anointed is after the order of King Saul?

I never made that decision. The Lord’s anointed made it for me. The king’s own decree settled the matter: “Hunt him down; kill him like a dog.” Only then did I leave.

No, he fled. Even then, he never spoke a word or lifted a hand against Saul. And please note this: David did not split the kingdom when he made his departure. He did not take part of the population with him. He left alone.

Alone. All alone.

King Saul The Second never does that. He always takes those who “insist on coming along.”

Yes, people do insist on going with you, don’t they?

They are willing to help you found the kingdom of another King Saul The Second.

Such men never leave alone. But David left alone. You see, the Lord’s true anointed can leave alone.

There’s only one way to leave a kingdom.

Alone.

All alone.





Chapter 11

Caves are not the ideal place for morale building. There is a certain sameness to them all, no matter how many you have lived in. Dark. Wet. Cold. Stale. A cave becomes even worse when you are its sole inhabitant...and in the distance you can hear the dogs baying.

But sometimes, when the dogs and hunters were not near, the prey sang. He started low, then lifted up his voice and sang the song the little lamb had taught him. The cavern walls echoed each note just as the mountains once had done. The music rolled down into deep cavern darkness that soon became an echoing choir singing back to him.

He had less now than he had when he was a shepherd, for now he had no lyre, no sun, not even the company of sheep. The memories of the court had faded. David's greatest ambition now reached no higher than a shepherd's staff. Everything was being crushed out of him.

He sang a great deal.

And matched each note with a tear.

How strange, is it not, what suffering begets?

There in those caves, drowned in the sorrow of his song, and in the song of his sorrow, David very simply became the greatest hymn writer, and the greatest comforter of broken hearts this world shall ever know.



Chapter 12

He ran – through soggy fields and down slimy riverbeds. Sometimes the dogs came close; sometimes they even found me. But this swift feet, rivers, and watery pits hid me. I took my food from the fields, dug roots from the roadside, slept in trees, hid in ditches, crawled through briars and mud. For days I ran – not daring to stop or eat. I drank the rain. Half naked, all filthy, on I walked, stumbled, crawled and clawed.

Caves were castles now. Pits were home.

In times past, mothers had always told their children that if they did not behave, they would end up like the town drunk. No longer. They had a better, more frightening story. “Be good, or you’ll end up like the giant killer.”

In Jerusalem, when men taught of being submissive to kings and honoring the Lord’s anointed, David was the parable. “See, this is what God does to rebellious men.” The young listeners shuddered at the thought and somberly resolved never to have anything to do with rebellion.

So it was then, so it is now, so shall it ever be.

Much later, David would reach a foreign land, and a small, very small, measure of safety. Here, too, he was feared, hated, lied about and plotted against. He shook hands with murder on several occasions.

These were David’s darkest hours. You know them as his pre-king days, but he didn’t. He assumed this was his lot forever.

Suffering was giving birth. Humility was being born.

By earthly measures he was a shattered man; by heaven’s measure, a broken one.


Chapter 13

Others had to flee as the king’s madness grew. First one, then three, then ten, eventually hundreds. After long searching, some of these fugitives made contact with me. They had not seen me for a long time.

The truth was that when they see him, they didn’t recognize him. He had changed. His personality, his disposition, his total being was altered. He talked less. He loved God more. He sang differently. They had never heard these songs before. Some were lovely beyond words, but some could freeze the blood in your veins.

Those who found him and decided to be his fellow fugitive were a sorry, worthless lot: thieves, liars, complainers, fault finders, rebellious men with rebellious hearts. They were blind with hate for the king and, therefore, for all authority figures. They would have been troublemakers in paradise, if ever they could have gotten in.

I did not lead them. I did not share their attitude. Yet, unsolicited, they began to follow me.

He never spoke to them of authority. He never spoke of submission. But every one of them submitted. He laid down no rules. Legalism is not a word found in the vocabulary of fugitives. Nonetheless, they cleaned up their outward lives. Gradually, their inward lives began to change, too.

They didn’t fear submission or authority. They didn’t even think about the topic, much less discuss it. Then why did they follow him? They didn’t, exactly. It was just that he was...well...David. That didn’t need explanation.

And so, for the first time, true kingship had its nativity.


Chapter 14

“Why, David, why?”

The place was another nameless cave.

The men stirred about restlessly. Gradually, and very uneasily, they began to settle in. All were confused as Joab, who had finally voiced their questions.

Joab wanted some answers. Now!

David should have seemed embarrassed or at least defensive. He was neither. He was looking past Joab like a man viewing another realm which only he could see.

Joab walked directly in front of David, looked down on him, and began roaring his frustrations.

“Many times he almost speared you to death in his castle. I’ve seen that with my own eyes. Finally, you ran away. Now for years you have been nothing but a rabbit for him to chase. Furthermore, the whole world believes the lies he tells about you. He has come, the King himself, hunting every cave, pit and hole on earth to find you and kill you like a dog. But tonight you had him at the end of his own spear and you did nothing!”

“Look at us. We’re animals again. Less than an hour ago you could have freed us all. Yes, we could all be free, right now! Free! And Israel, too. She would be free. Why, David, why did you not end these years of misery?”

There was a long silence. Men shifted again, uneasily. They were not accustomed to seeing David rebuked.

”Because,” said David very slowly (and with a gentleness that seemed to say, I heard what you asked, but not the way you asked it), “because once, long ago, he was not mad. He was young. He was great. Great in the eyes of God and men. And it was God who made him king – God – not men.”

Joab blazed back, “But now he is mad! And God is no longer with him. And, David, he will yet kill you!

This time it was David’s answer that blazed with fire.

“Better he kill me than I learn his ways. Better he kill me than I become as he is. I shall not practice the ways that cause kings to go mad. I will not throw spears, nor will I allow hatred to grow in my heart. I will not avenge. I will not destroy the Lord’s anointed. Not now. Not ever!”

Joab could not handle such a senseless answer. He stormed out into the dark.

That night men went to bed on cold, wet stone and muttered about their leader’s distorted, masochistic views of relationships to kings—especially mad ones.

Angels went to bed that night too, and dreamed, in the afterglow of that rare, rare day, that God might yet be able to give His authority to a trustworthy vessel.



Chapter 15

What kind of man was Saul? Who was this one who made himself David’s enemy? Anointed of God. Deliverer of Israel. And yet remembered mostly for his madness.

Forget the bad press. Forget the stinging reviews. Forget his reputation. Look at the facts. Saul was one the greatest figures of human history. He was a farm boy, a country kid who made good. He was tall, good-looking, and well-liked.

He was baptized into the Spirit of God.

He also came from a good family. In his lineage were some of the greatest historical figures of all humanity. Abraham, Jacob, Moses – these were his ancestors.

Do you remember the background? Abraham had founded a nation. Moses had set that nation free from slavery. Joshua gave those people a toehold in the land that God had promised them. The judges kept the whole thing from disintegrating into total chaos. That’s when Saul came along. It was Saul who took these people and welded them into a united kingdom.

Saul united a people and founded a kingdom. Few men have ever done that. He created an army out of thin air. He won battles in the power of God, defeated the enemy again and again, as few men have ever done. Remember that, and remember that this man was immersed in the Spirit. Furthermore, he was a prophet. The Spirit came on him in power and authority. He did and said unprecedented things, and it was all by the power of the Spirit resting on him.

He has everything people today are seeking to be...empowered with the Holy Spirit...able to do the impossible . . . for God. A leader, chosen by God with power from God.

Saul was given authority that is God’s alone. He was God’s anointed, and God treated him that way.

He was also eaten with jealousy, filled with self-importance, and willing to live in spiritual darkness.

Is there a moral in these contradictions? Yes, and it will splinter a lot of your concept about power, about great men and women under God’s anointing, and about God himself.

Many pray for the power of God. More every year. Those prayers sound powerful, sincere, godly, and without ulterior motive. Hidden under such prayer and fervor, however, are ambition, a craving for fame, the desire to be considered a spiritual giant. The person who prays such a prayer may not even know it, but dark motives and desires are in his heart...in your heart.

Even as people pray these prayers, they are hollow inside. There is little internal spiritual growth. Prayer for power is quick and the short way, circumnavigating internal growth.

There is a vast difference between the outward clothing of the Spirit’s power and the inward filling of the Spirit’s life. In the first, despite the power, the hidden man of the heart may remain unchanged. In the latter, that monster is dealt with.

Interesting about God. He hears all those requests for power, which fervent young men and women pray (in every generation), and he answers them! Very often he grants these requests for power, for authority. Sometimes, in answering them, he says yes to some very unworthy vessels.

He gives unworthy people his power? Even though they are a pile of dead men’s bones inside? Why does God do such a thing? The answer is both simple and shocking. He sometimes gives unworthy vessels a greater portion of power so that others will eventually see the true state of internal nakedness within that individual.

So think again when you hear the power merchant. Remember, God sometimes gives power to people for unseen reasons. A person can be living in the grossest of sin, and the outer gift will still be working perfectly. The gifts of God, once given, cannot be recalled. Even in the presence of sin. Furthermore, some people, living just such lives, are the Lord’s anointed . . . in the Lord’s eyes. Saul was living proof of this fact.

The gifts cannot be revoked. Terrifying, isn’t it?

If you are young and have never seen such things, you may be certain that sometime in the next forty years you will see. Highly gifted and very powerful men and women...reputed to be leaders in the kingdom of God, do some very dark and ugly deeds.

What does this world need: gifted men and women, outwardly empowered? Or individuals who are broken, inwardly transformed?

Keep in mind that some who have been given the very power of God have raised armies, defeated the enemy, brought forth mighty works of God, preached and prophesied with unparalleled power and eloquence . . .

And thrown spears,

And hated other people,

And attacked others,

And plotted to kill,

And prophesied naked,

And even consulted witches.