Rejection

"When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (I Samuel 8: 1-6 NIV)

The Lord's servants experience rejection throughout their lives and such rejection is often painful to the soul. No one likes being rejected.

Samuel felt that the people were rejecting HIM, and to some extent they were, for they judged him too old and his sons too wicked. It grieved Samuel. God came to Samuel as a friend and comforted him, saying - "Samuel, they are not really rejecting you (first and foremost), but they are rejecting me that I should not reign over them."

Joseph's life was also one of rejection from his brothers, who in jealousy sold him into slavery in Egypt and told his father that he was dead. No doubt this grieved Joseph greatly, especially all those years when he was a slave and innocently jailed in Egypt.

"And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons...This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush...This is that Moses...To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." (Acts 7: 24-29, 35, 37, 39, 40 NIV)

"This Moses whom they refused (rejected)" was the very one Lord God sent to save them! So ironic is it not? How many times has the Lord sent saviors (judges) to the people to deliver them (Book of Judges) and yet the people either did not accept or recognize them! Moses knew what it meant to be rejected and in this sense he is truly a type of Christ.

"For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee." (Jeremiah 12: 6 KJV)

To a great degree the prophet Jeremiah was also rejected, by some in his family, and by some in his nation. Not only did they reject him, even though God had sent him to them, they hated him and sought to "deal treacherously with him," speaking "fair words" to him when they really only sought his harm and ruin. It is certain that Jeremiah, the "weeping prophet," no doubt shed many tears over this heartache of being rejected, especially by his own. The KJV translates - "Your brothers, your own family—even they have betrayed you."

He described this in greater detail later in his prophecy, saying:

"For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause. " (Jeremiah 20: 10-12 KJV)

Jeremiah knew what Samuel did not know at the first. Jeremiah knew that the people in rejecting him were rejecting Lord God, and bringing destruction upon themselves. He knew that their mistreatment and rejection of him would bring the wrath of Jehovah down upon them. God says in his word - "Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." (Psalm 105: 15 KJV)

"But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." (Mark 6: 4 KJV)

Jesus knew the careers of all the Hebrew prophets. He knew how everyone of them met with stubborn resistance from their own families, from their own tribes, and certainly from their own nation. He also knew that he would experience the same. He knew he would be rejected by his own family.

"After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jew's feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7: 1-7 KJV)

His brothers, or half brothers, who were sons of Joseph and Mary after Christ was born, did not believe on him at the first, though some of them did believe on him after his glorious resurrection. Two of them, Jude and James, even wrote two books of the New Testament. But, in the beginning, his family, except perhaps for Joseph and Mary, did not believe he was a prophet, certainly not "that prophet," nor that he was anyone great. They did see his miracles, and all they could wish is that he would make himself (and them) rich and famous.

It is certain that this rejection by his family was displeasing to the Lord. It no doubt grieved him in his heart.

"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." (John 1: 10, 11 KJV)

This could also be said about all the prophets too. They also came to their own as prophets, and yet their families did not receive or recognize them! Others, outside the family, did hear and receive the prophets generally, but not so with the prophet's own kin.

This same principle is seen in churches today and throughout the history of the Christian church. How many times has God raised up a spiritual leader or teacher in a church and yet the church does not recognize them? Sometimes they reject prophets in their own midst and go looking far and wide for one!

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" (vs. 51, 52)

If one studies the context of these remarks, from the martyr Stephen's discourse to his Jewish brethren, he will discover that Stephen gave several examples (as we have here in this study) of God's prophets who were rejected by their own family and neighbors. It is a universal principle that men will reject prophets in their own families, at least at the first, and do not generally become believers in the prophet en masse.

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." (Luke 4: 16-21 KJV)

This little sermon was preached to his fellow townsmen who knew him well. Little did they know, while he was growing up among them, that he was a prophet, yea the "great prophet" whom Moses said would come. Others, not of his family or town, would hear his words and be amazed and believe in him, but his own family and neighbors in Nazareth would reject him.

After he had preached a little more to them about the sovereignty of God, it is recorded:

"And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way." (vs. 28-30)

If you are a prophet or teacher sent from God, then do not be discouraged if your own brethren, your own neighbors or church, do not recognize it. Perhaps you should realize that you should seek converts in other families and towns, as did Jesus. Preachers who wish to start a church should remember this too. To try to start a church with family members may not always be the best.