MADE TO BE GREAT 9: RUN FROM OFFENCES
After an amazing meeting, we had the opportunity of a heart-to-heart conversation with my Spiritual Father. We were there for over an hour. I knew it was an opportunity to learn.
That was the night he said to me, “Do you know the Yoruba word for ‘Offense’? It is ‘Ikose’ which means stumbling. The consequence of stumbling is falling. Make sure you run away from offences”.
He then told us, “If you stumble once, it can be a mistake but if you keep stumbling again and again, it has become a pattern. I am surprised at those who get offended every time. Can you imagine you are stumbling at all times? That would be unwise”. We took the lesson and it has helped us for years.
Offence is a terrible thing. Hidden somewhere in the book of Isaiah are the stages of offence. Have a look:
Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
Isaiah 8:15 NIV
Stumbling (Ikose, Offence)
Fall
Broken
Snared
Captured
When you are offended but refuse to heal, you will be captured. The end is not always good.
One way offence shows up is when a close friend inflicts a deep wound on you. It happened to a man called Ahitophel. How did this happen?
David slept with Bathsheba and killed Uriah. David eventually reconciled his ways with God but there was someone who was deeply offended.
• *Ahitophel was David’s counselor*.
Ahithophel was the king’s counselor.
1 Chronicles 27:33a NIV
• *He partnered with Absalom when Absalom conspired to remove David from the throne.*
While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing.
2 Samuel 15:12 NIV
• *He counseled Absalom to sleep with His father’s concubine on the roof of the palace in the sight of all the nation.*
Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give us your advice. What should we do?” Ahithophel answered, “Sleep with your father’s concubines whom he left to take care of the palace. Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself obnoxious to your father, and the hands of everyone with you will be more resolute.” So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
2 Samuel 16:20-22 NIV
• *Why did Ahitophel give that counsel? That was the exact spot where David slept with Bathsheba.*
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
2 Samuel 11:2-3 NIV
• *Bathsheba was the daughter of Eliam who happens to be the son of Ahitophel. Bathsheba was Ahitophel’s granddaughter.*
Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
2 Samuel 23:34 NIV
Even when God forgave David, Ahitophel could not. He wanted to see David hurt so badly and put to shame that he joined Absalom. Beware of support that has a poisonous agenda in it. Absalom was just a weapon in Ahitophel’s hands.
• *Ahitophel committed suicide when Absalom did not take one of his counsels which could have led to the murder of David*
Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.
2 Samuel 17:14 NIV
When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his house in order and then hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.
2 Samuel 17:23 NIV
Are you on the same kind of journey as Ahitophel? Did you see how offence destroyed a great man? He stumbled. He fell. He was broken. He was snared. Death captured him at last.
Deal with the offence today. It is a dangerous slope.
temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa