Godly Conflict Resolution

Well, today, I'd like to talk to you about resolving conflicts as a Christian. But we're going to do this in a little bit of a different way. This world that we're part of is all about conflict. It's all about relationships that are being impacted by sin. All humans are liars and cheats and thieves and murderers. And if they don't do it themselves blatantly, that is their form of entertainment. And we are now, as a culture, getting ready to go out and celebrate Satan and his mechanisms, and teach our kids to go out and hold others hostage.

We don't get what we want. We're going to do them evil and harm. And the result of all this mentality is people who harbor resentment towards one another. It's not a new thing. It's not a modern thing. It's a global thing. Mankind has no legacy of unity. In fact, mankind everywhere is at odds with each other. If we look at the world around us, we see modern nations that have a history of fractured relationships, old grudges that go back and flare up and cause wars over times.

Sometimes generation after generation continues to fight the same culture, have the same grudges that come back. One race against another, one language against another, one family against another. This week's commentary on the United Church of God website begins this way. Once considered the banking capital of the Arab world, Lebanon was widely known as the Switzerland of the Middle East. A beautiful, beautiful country. They're just north of Israel. However, Beirut, this former Paris of the Middle East, has been devastated down through time. And you know the so-called civil war that took place there in the 70s and just trashed it into a heap of ruins.

And it's tried to sort of reconstruct itself over time. But what caused Lebanon's tragic decline, this commentary says? Well, repeated waves of immigrants, refugees, invaders, the demographic change from a Christian population to a predominantly Muslim population, and civil war inside the country and wars against Israel. So all of this influx and all of this fighting has just decimated a country into nothing.

And now they want to move from Lebanon to other countries with this militaristic mentality and involve clashes and killings and wipe out anybody that's not of their mindset. Well, that's not so uncommon because our world is a hotbed of conflict. It's everywhere. Right now we hear on the news the threat of a nuclear Middle East is becoming more and more real.

And if Iran ever gets a nuclear weapon, all of the Middle East countries will get nuclear weapons because they all will need them to supposedly defend themselves against the Iranians. Well that's sort of nothing because there are so many Easts and Wests and Norths and Souths that are fighting and divided in countries around the world. This is just humanity. It's the way of Satan. Ever since Cain killed Abel, we find that mankind has had a response to conflict, and that is to get even.

To get even. Vengeance. So in a world of conflict that you live in, how do you react? How do I react? How are we, as God's called children, reacting when it happens to you? And it does happen to you, and it happens to me. How is a child of God to conduct himself or herself in this age of conflict? Today we're going to take a look at some Bible history and see how events of the last 3,500 years are culminating into some of the things that are shaping up for our future.

The Bible includes a lot of history of relationships. An example of that is written in Ezekiel chapter 25 and verse 15. And what is important here is the mindset, the mentality, not necessarily the players. It simply states this. The Philistines dealt vengefully and took vengeance with a spiteful heart to destroy because of the old hatred. See how that goes? You've got an old hatred, you've got old wounds, and so you go back and vengefully go back and try to destroy. Well with that mentality that humans have, it's very easy to see how this world gets its mentality of conflict and solving conflict.

Let's go back in time now and see some underlying causes for the feelings that have existed in Scripture. We can take a look, for example, at Esau and Jacob. Remember how that worked out? Jacob took his brother's birthright. And what happened? His brother wanted to kill him and Jacob had to run away. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery.

They were jealous, and so they sold him off into Egypt, into slavery. Later, of course, we see Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, rising up, and Ephraim is actually the name by which Israel would be called. When Israel came out of Egypt, they were led by the legendary Moses. It doesn't get bigger than Moses. Moses was an individual that God worked through. He did mighty works through him and his brother Aaron.

And God, through him, established a priesthood. That priesthood would be the only ones allowed to serve in the tabernacle. They were the only ones really in the power. The Levites, who were the priests, included Moses and Aaron, who were also Levites. So suddenly you have a shift in what had been for 450 years the role and the right of Ephraim, the descendants of Joseph, to be the leaders and the ones who really gave the provisions to the children of Israel. Suddenly it shifts to the Levites. And now Moses and Aaron and the Levites are all empowered.

This was kind of challenged at one point in time. You can see that an individual named Korah would rise up and challenge that government. And Korah really was one who got a couple of other tribes involved in this skirmish, as it were, for power. And he said, Moses, you and the other Levites, you take too much upon yourselves. And someone from Naphtali, and I forget the other tribe, got involved as well.

Now after Moses had been the leader for 40 years, the Levites had been in for 40 years, Aaron, 40 years, this was well entrenched. A whole generation had died out. Remember, 40 years in the wilderness, everybody died out. A new leader was picked. You remember who that was? Joshua. Joshua, who had assisted Moses during that time, was chosen to lead Israel into the Promised Land. Joshua was a little different than the others.

Let's go to Numbers 13, verse 8. Numbers 13, verse 8. From the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshiah, the son of Nun. Now that speaks volumes. It used to be Ephraim and Joseph. And then for 40 years it was the Levites. It probably seemed just fitting that Moses would choose an Ephraimite. And now we've rolled back to the Ephraimites. The Ephraimites are back in charge. As they leave Egypt and go into the Promised Land, God is with Joshua. And he fights battles through Joshua and the Israelites.

But he was an Ephraimite. Joshua replaced Moses. Now this Ephraimite could, in a sense, be seen by the other descendants of that area, which would be Ephraim and NASA and Benjamin, as fitting replacement, as it were, for Moses. Let's go to Genesis 48 and see Ephraim's perceived role here, because they were well aware of this blessing that God gave. In verse 14, in this whole chapter, God inspired Jacob to give a blessing to each of his sons.

But when he got down to Joseph in verse 14, there's an unusual event here. Genesis 48 and verse 14. Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. So here you have two brothers, one who was younger being promoted. And he blessed Joseph and said, dropping down to verse 16, in the middle part, let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

So there was a blessing that came here to Joseph, and these individuals knew it. And ever since Joseph was the great leader in Egypt, under the Pharaoh, and all down through time to the time of Moses, we saw, we assumed that there was a leading role there for these individuals. The Israelites were even called Ephraim by name. In verse 20, God set Ephraim before Manasseh, and the nation of Israel would be called by your name.

So that's a very important role. Let's fix this in our mind for a minute. We now understand this is a blessing. This is a promise from God. This is a statement that rises Ephraim up to the very, very height, the very top, only to be unseated by Moses and Aaron and the Levites for a while, but now essentially restored to Joseph. Genesis 49 and verse 2, "'Gather together in here, you sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.'" The two tribes in verse 25 will drop on down. We get down to here. Joseph, verse 22, is a fruitful bow. Verse 25, "'By the God of your Father, who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you, with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb, the blessings of your Father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.

They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.'" This is pretty heady stuff, big stuff, if you are a descendant of Joseph. In other words, Ephraim or Manasseh. Now let's go to this wilderness trek. The Israelites are out for 40 years in the wilderness, and they had to move around.

Levi, of course, is the most prominent. Levi is the priests. The Levites are the leaders. But that was contested, as I said, by Korah, and the leaders from Reuben and Zebulun, in Numbers 16, verse 3. When they asked, Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? Why is it that Levi is being exalted? Why are you leaders here being exalted above the rest of us? This doesn't make sense. Now, in that event, God clarified who the leaders were. You can read the account and find that those who rebelled got swallowed up by the earth. But other jealousies were going on as well. The tribes had assignments for how they moved and where they camped. Numbers 2.

You want to go to this book of Numbers? Numbers 2, chapter, shows that these three million or so people were grouped into areas. Now, if you had the tabernacle and you had to go up to worship at the tabernacle and you inhabited a city about the size of Phoenix, proper, and it was your turn to... You had to go into the tabernacle. How would you like to walk a few miles versus being ones who were real close? When you had to travel across the desert, how would you like to be the ones that followed everything that was on the ground in front of you from the three million people and animals ahead of you? There are a lot of things going on that probably don't meet the eye.

Here we see in the second chapter this grouping, second chapter of Numbers. We'll start in Numbers, chapter 2. Every one of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard. So a standard is that pole has got your flag on it. This is who we are. We're with Zebulun or Issachar or Judah or whatever. You're going to camp by where the standard is set.

Beside the emblems of his father's house, they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting. And it goes there about how this would take place. This was broken down. The twelve were broken down into four groups, and one tribe was a leader of three other tribes in that group, twelve divided by four. So if your group of four had three, and your tribe was the leader of that three, well at least your tribe was prominent within your group. And you can read on down how this all worked. But we're going to drop down to verse 9. And those who were numbered according to their armies of the forces with Judah, it gives the number there, These shall break camp first. Aha! So when it came time to march, and you packed up all your stuff, Judah got to lead the line. When they went traveling, Judah got to break camp first. That was pretty special. Judah got out in front. Okay, you think, well, the rest of it is no contest. Judah gets the front. Well, not so.

It didn't quite work that way. Anytime Israel went anywhere, Judah got to go first. It is an example. Let's go to chapter 10 and verse 13. Numbers chapter 10 and verse 13. So they started for the first time according to the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses. The standard of the camp of the children of Judah set out first according to their armies. Where their army was Naeshaham and whatever.

And it gives everybody's army and who was over them. Now the next group that follows was Reuben in verse 18. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set out according to their armies. And if you'll find there was the following in that group was Simeon, the tribe of Simeon, and the tribe of Gad. And verse 22. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set out according to their armies. With Ephraim was his brothers Manasseh and Benjamin.

Keep remembering this. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. They are going together. Verse 25. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan, the rear guard of the camps, they went out according to their armies. Of course, they had Asher and others with them. So Judah got to be first in that group.

Ephraim got to be first after the tabernacle. That's not quite good. You know, if you're third pack to leave, that's not good. But what happened was Levi was traveling right in front of Ephraim. So Ephraim, actually the leaders of Ephraim are right with the temple. It's traveling, or the tabernacle, it's traveling right in front of them. So that's pretty good, right?

This church or congregation in the wilderness was ex-slaves. They didn't really have a lot of history. They didn't have homes, they didn't have property, they didn't have many possessions at all. Their, probably, individual skills and education levels were very shallow. What do you think they were thinking about a lot of the time? What is their human, carnal, self-worth going to come from? You've got to pull it from somewhere. What are their egos flaming about if you're an ex-slave marching around in the wilderness?

You're going to be thinking of where you are, what your stature is, what your position is, how much respect you're getting, etc., etc. What if your tribe wasn't one of the Big Four? What if you had to follow the standard of another tribe? What if your tribe was of the Big Four? Which was the greatest of the Big Four? Was it the Jews in the front? Was it the Levites, who also had to do a lot of the work? Was it the Ephraimites? Who was it? How did the egos flare up in these various groups? When Israel crossed the Jordan, finally that whole generation died out.

When Israel finally crossed the Jordan, the walls of Jericho fell. It was a great event. Ephraim's preeminence in Israel was unquestioned. Their man was Joshua. He was an Ephraimite. Look what our guy did. He lived in Ephraim once they settled. In Joshua 18 and verse 1, we're going to read this, Joshua 18.1. And finally, maybe one of those few times in life when you get to use your Bible maps, we'll get you to turn back if you have maps in your Bible. But notice here in Joshua 18 and verse 1.

Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meeting there, and the land was subdued before them. If you'll turn to your Bible map from the time of the 12 tribes in Canaan, might be your third map somewhere around there.

Here you'll see the 12 tribes listed. What you're looking for is pretty much in the middle, and the town of Shiloh. It's in Ephraim. Shiloh is a little north and west of the Dead Sea. So here is Shiloh. Notice when they came into this area, Jericho had fallen, and kept marching north up to Shiloh. And here's where they set up an assembly.

They set up the tabernacle of meeting there, and the land was subdued before them. So this is a pretty big event. It takes place in the tribal territory allotted to Ephraim. Moving on in chapter 19 and verse 49. When they had made an end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their borders, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua, the son of Nun.

According to the word of the Lord, they gave him the city which he asked for, Temnath, Sarah, in the mountains of Ephraim. So the great Joshua here is given a city in the mountains of the tribe of Ephraim, and he built the city and dwelt in it. So again, we see the prominence of Ephraim.

The center of power, the center of worship, the center of everything is in Ephraim. In Joshua chapter 24 and verse 29, Joshua 24 and verse 29, Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Temnath, Sarah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaiash.

The bones of Joshua now reside there, and the book of Judges begins. In Judges chapter 4 and verse 4, we find the famous Deborah. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in the mountains of Ephraim.

She was an Ephraimite, and that's where she did the judging. And all the children of Israel came to Ephraim for her judgment. See what's going on here. There's a long-term history within the children of Israel. Samuel, the greatest judge ever in Israel, came right from the center of the tribe of Ephraim. His mother, Hannah, was an Ephraimite.

He served there in Ephraim. The theme continued with minor variations. For instance, when Gideon of Anasite won a victory against the Midianites, then the men of Israel said to Gideon, rule over us. That's found in Judges chapter 8 and verse 22. All of Israel says to this son of Joseph, you rule over us. There's a mentality there. Now we come to a little question. Why would God choose Saul to be king of Israel? Why would he pick Saul? I have a theory about that. The lineage of Jesus Christ would come through Judah, whom as of yet has not appeared to be anything except leading the column out of Egypt.

Well now we've seen everything really has been about the sons of Joseph. And yet Jesus Christ would be born through a descendant, through David, a descendant of the house of Judah. David, it said, would never lack a son to sit on the throne of Israel.

So God was going to transfer the focus and the power away from the sons of Joseph, away from Ephraim and that country, all the way down to Jerusalem, down to the area of Judah, to an old rival. The king, as it says in 1 Chronicles 28.4, would be king over Israel forever, for he has chosen Judah to be the ruler and of the house of Judah.

God chose Saul from a tribe of Benjamin. Remember what Benjamin was? Benjamin was with Ephraim and Manasseh. Benjamin was always with those two. And now in walking this rulership changed south to Judah, God moves it from Ephraim to the next tribe south, to Benjamin, whom Ephraim could probably live with because they were under the same standard in ancient times, but also conditioning them for the time when it would move all the way to Judah.

Probably so that the foundations of the country were not totally shattered. Judah was the strongest tribe of the southern kingdom, or what would become the southern kingdom. A king residing in the area of Benjamin would give both the north and the south peoples equal access to him.

And perhaps this transition was more palatable and prevented a civil war from taking place at that time. But eventually God would replace King Saul with King David. Now here's an interesting question. When David was being pursued by Saul for his own life, remember Saul would want to kill David and now he's chasing him all over the country. To which tribe did David flee?

Did he go to Judah where he's from? Did he go to Ephraim? He didn't go to any tribe, actually. He went to the Philistines. All the way to the Philistines. You can see the contention that was existing in Israel at the time where David had actually leave the country. It was pretty tough. He went to an old enemy that had conquered Israel and actually ruled over them a lot during the time of the Judges and during the time of Samson.

But the climate of competition and jealousy that existed in Israel actually worsened during this period of time. We go to 2 Samuel 2 and verse 4. We can see some of this. Second Samuel 2 and verse 4. Some of the conflict that exists in our world has roots that go a long way back. And so by looking at a biblical example here and seeing the roots and the contentions, we can better understand some of the events that would take place. In 2 Samuel 2 and in verse 4.

Then the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. Notice what happened? They anointed him king over the house of Judah. They anointed him king over Israel. Just over Judah. And they told David, saying, the men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul, etc., etc. So, we have now a lot of strife and David has been anointed king over a competing part of the kingdom.

David lived and reigned in Hebron, south of Jerusalem, deep in Judah. And he reigned there for a number of years, over his own sort of kingdom of Judah. How do you think Ephraim and Manasseh felt about that? They had a long history of preeminence. What was this David doing down there? Trying to reign and rule and who gave him this kingdom, etc., etc. Verse 8 of chapter 2. But Abner, the son of Nur, commander of Saul's army, took Ishbusheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Manahem. And he made him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin and over all Israel.

So here's the rightful king. This guy should rule over the whole Israel because he is our man. Verse 11, "...and the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months." These old rivalries really go back and they really had a polarization over the nation of Israel before David ever came to power over the country as a whole. And chapter 3 in verse 1 says, "...now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David.

Now there's between these kings and these tribes there was a long war." There's a civil war going on. But David grew stronger and stronger in the house of Saul, who had died already, grew weaker and weaker. How do you think the Northerners felt about that? You know, when you go to war, what do you do? You kill people's friends. You kill people's family. You destroy their possessions. You take their land. The reprisal is always at the forefront of somebody's mind.

You've got resentment. You have revulsion. You have reprisals. This is the mentality. It doesn't matter who wins or loses. The feelings grow and they're strong. And if somebody conquers somebody else, it is with resentment that they are here. You can see this played out in world history and even today. This biblical example is just one. In the North, Ishpeshath has a general named Abner, and his popularity is now rising dramatically with the people of the North.

Verse 6, feeling some dirty politics. Somebody tries to intervene here. So it was, while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner was strengthening his hold on the house of Saul. Well, that's no good because you have Ishpeshath, right? So Saul had a concubine whose name was Risba, the daughter of Allah. So Ishpeshath said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? And so on and so forth.

What we end up with here is verse 8, And Abner became very angry at the words of Ishpeshath and said, Now notice these words. This is clue. This is key to the story. Am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? That's how the Northerners describe the house of Judah in the South.

Am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? See what's going on here within the people of Israel. God's people. God's nation of Israel. King David, the man after God's own heart. The place where God is dwelling in his tabernacle. These things can take place, brethren, in anyone, in any of us, in any country, any group, if we're not careful. This whole thing backfired and eventually Abner became a vehicle that actually stuck the North and the South together, stitched them together. And so it was that David finally ruled Israel from the heart of what the Northern tribes considered enemy territory.

Judah is now the head country, the head territory. David would eventually move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem in Judah. Jerusalem became the place where the king's palace was, the city of David. Jerusalem became the place where after David died, the temple would be built. And everything would, the center of worship would transfer there. Not only that, it's where the Ark of the Covenant was. It's where the government was.

Jerusalem became the center point of the civil government and also religion. And that was something that stuck in the craw of the Northern tribes the entire time. How do you think the people felt about that? Well, David brought a certain amount of stability to the situation. During David's reign and event in the book of Samuel shows how sensitive this North-South mentality was. In 2 Samuel chapter 20, moving back, 2 Samuel chapter 20 verses 1 and 2, There happened there to be a rebel whose name was Sheba, the son of Beechi, a Benjamite who lived in the mountains of Ephraim.

Okay, so you have a Benjamite. Remember that's the standard. Up north, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Asa. And you have this Benjamite. And he blows a trumpet. Verse 21 says that he lived in the mountains of Ephraim, by the way. And he blew a trumpet and said, We have no share in David. Notice this. We have no share in David. Nor do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse.

So every man to his ten so Israel. So every man of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba, the son of Beechri. See how fragile this whole thing is? See how contentious it all is? The north versus south mentality? We don't have any role or right or inheritance in what's going on down there in the capital. Think of this. The taxes of the tribes of Israel in the north were sent to Judah. They all went south to Judah. You had to pay taxes. Remember David taxed everybody. Solomon taxed even more.

And all your taxes weren't being spent locally. It wasn't building up Ephraim and Naftali and Gad and all these other provinces. They all went to Judah. They were building king's palaces. They were building temple mounts. They were funding the wars, etc., etc. There was an ambitious building program, but it was in Judah. There was an extravagant lifestyle by the leadership down there in Judah. Solomon's great deeds brought a lot of focus on Judah. His renown, his buildings, everything. Solomon was a wise Jew. So it was. The money was coming from Ephraim and Naftali, and the people were being taxed very heavily for something that they were somewhat disassociated with in their own mind.

While Solomon was doing these things for God, he was also doing things for other gods. Solomon built a lot of other temples. He had lots and lots of other wives. They took his heart into different directions. Archaeology today has found many temples that Solomon built, or back during that time, spread all around the country for other local deities. What this did was, it gave Israel many other gods to worship. They also had the true God down in Judah. If you want to go down there, think of this for a minute. Do you as a Northerner want to go down and worship that God?

Or remember Solomon's opened up some other little gods up here, too. Do you want to go worship at your local temple to your local deity? You can almost hear those Northerners, can't you? It doesn't matter where you worship. As long as you worship. It doesn't matter what day you worship on. As long as you worship on some day. All priests are real priests, not just the Levites in Jerusalem. The true God, you see, had brought together a unified nation under one system, one order, one religion. And yet, the jealousies of the past, which had been set aside in order to worship this one true God, now were given fuel to reignite because you had your own local gods. And when Solomon died, the people were resenting the leadership in Jerusalem and the work being done somewhere else that really didn't involve them. And so, in chapter 12, and let's go on to, hang on there, just a second. Reoboam became king after Solomon's death. Now what happened was, all of Israel and making him king went to Shechem. You have your map out again? Let's go find Shechem. The twelve tribes. Shechem is northwest of Jerusalem, and all of Israel went there in 1 Kings 12, in verse 1. 1 Kings 12, and verse 1. Reoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. So what happened when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard it? He was still in Egypt, for he had fled from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt, that they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Reoboam. Now what's interesting here is, you've got a big, big, big issue. This didn't just sort of flash up and happen overnight. It's a huge, huge issue. You don't just meet to... they didn't just meet with Reoboam. They sent all the way to Egypt to get Jeroboam to come up, and it was Jeroboam who talked to Reoboam. I don't know how long it takes somebody to run down to Egypt, find the guy, convince him to come back, and go all the way back up to Shechem to have this particular conversation. But Shechem here, again, is deep within Ephraim's territory. It's close to Manasseh. And Reoboam is challenged with some tough questions. What are the questions? Questions are very simple. How much are you going to cost us, and what are you going to do with the money? That was basically it. They didn't really like the answer, as you know. When Reoboam's response was perceived as impertinent, their reply was, What share have we in David to your tenso Israel? See to your own affairs, O Jesse, in a sense. In 1 Kings 12 and verse 25, this Jeroboam, who is now the king of the north, Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, a restoration of power, and dwelt there, and he went out there and built pinuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. If these people go up and offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord of Jerusalem, then the heart of this people return back to their Lord, Reoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back. Therefore, the king asked advice, make two calves of gold, etc., etc., and he says, Is it too much for you to go up to Jerusalem? Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you out from the land of Egypt. So it wasn't important who, where, or when you worshiped, just that you worshiped, and everybody seemed to buy into that.

This split was complete. This split had really existed mentally all the way down through the time of the children of Israel. There was never such a time as the United Kingdom, you'll find in archaeology, the period of the United Kingdom, no such thing, not mentally. For a very brief time, the two kingdoms were united. They weren't totally divided, but immediately they went back to a mental condition that split them.

Something that began over petty jealousies.

Things like selling your brother, who was a little braggy and a little naggy into slavery, and petty jealousies that came down over time grew, grew into factions, which divided a country into fractions. That was the end of it.

In James chapter 4 and verse 1, this mindset is examined when it says, where do wars and fights come from among you? How do you divide a northern and a southern kingdom and set them at war against each other? And eventually, everybody goes off into slavery, captivity, never to be reunited again.

Where do these wars and fights come from among you?

Verse 2, you lust and do not have... Start with something very small. You lust and do not have.

You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight in war.

Verse 3, you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Your pleasures.

We're not to be, as it goes on in the next verse, a friend of this world's mentality of selfishness, of hurting others, of fighting and warring.

That's not to be us. We are the new Israel. We're a spiritual Israel, not physical Israel. We're not of the people that were told, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

You know, you go out and duke it out. You go out and duke it out. No, that's not what we've been called to do.

Wars and fights can come anywhere there are two or more people.

It can come in marriage.

It can come in families.

It can come anywhere. Anywhere there are two or more people.

Business is commonplace for divisions and fights and wars.

Teams. If you look at sports teams, what are the mascots usually? Something that will fight and devour somebody else. They're very common.

Religion.

The things of love will become things of hate, which will go and fight and kill in the end.

There are cultures that are fine and wonderful, but when they get offended, or the countries that they're in.

But besides all of these things, two other entities can become separated and in conflict. And that is you and God.

There can become a conflict between you and God. Let's look in 1 Peter 2, in verse 33.

This is the worst of all separations. The worst of all conflicts.

You certainly want to fear getting in a conflict with God.

The 1 Peter 2, verse 23, talks about Jesus Christ, who when He was reviled, did something different. He had a different mentality. He did not revile in return.

And when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.

You know, this is an example that is in stark contrast to anything that we see within the human realm.

This response is very, very unique.

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on a tree. You talk about being accused falsely. Jesus Christ was accused falsely by every sin you ever committed, along with mine and everybody else's. And He bore them.

He says, yes, I'm guilty.

That we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness.

By whose stripes you were healed? Not you are being healed or will be healed. You were healed because we had a relationship with God that was separated.

We got in contention with our God. We were enmity or enemies with God.

But He was, in a sense, shredded by His stripes. So that we could be stitched back together is what that Greek word means. Healed means to be stitched back.

Because, verse 25, you, like sheep, were going astray.

But now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your lives.

This Jesus Christ, this wonderful one who is about stitching together and such a great example of conflict resolution, has instructions for us in Matthew 18 and verse 15.

Let's go there. Matthew 18 and verse 15.

Totally different than the legacy or the example of the Israelites was that if your brother sins against you, don't settle the score.

Don't go after him.

Instead, go and tell him his fault between him and you. Let him know what he did or she did.

Maybe you'll get some empathy, some understanding, maybe an apology. If so, it hears you, you've gained your brother.

But if not, and this whole section here goes down through verse 20. It's all about the same thing.

It's about trying to reconcile and how much God wants reconciliation.

But if he will not here take one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. Make sure you have proof, in other words. Don't just be saying, well, he did that to me.

You take two or three witnesses, not two or three friends that you sort of indoctrinated with your view, two or three witnesses. Otherwise, you'd better be asking yourself a question. Did this really happen? Am I really seeing this thing clearly?

And if he refuses to hear them, then tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church...

Now, this is the point where everybody tends to let loose, but let's stay here. If he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Continuing the thought on, assuredly I say to you that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In other words, God is saying, I am a relationship-driven individual. We are stitching relationships here. And I want you to use this process, and I'm going to support those things from heaven, the binding and loosing. Again, I say to you, again, this is still in the same thought, conflict resolution, that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.

This is all about conflict resolution, and God is in the midst of two or three who are trying to work things out, and he's trying to help the church who's trying to work things out. You get the idea here that conflict resolution is primo to God.

It is a very, very important thing.

Now, some people go in here, and they'll pick out a little verse and say, oh, you know, two or three gathered in my name, I'm there with you in church.

There's nothing whatsoever to do with that. It's talking about this process and involvement, because this is what Jesus Christ was crucified for, our sins, but also he was scourged so that we could be stitched together.

John 17 talks about God and the Father as being one and wanting us to be one with them.

In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 9, it simply says this about the children of God who will be in his kingdom.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Peace-making is what Jesus Christ is about and God the Father is about. They get involved in that where two or three people are working together in God's name. They will be in the middle of them trying to reconcile and resolve and forgive.

In conclusion, the end time is coming, and the end time is all about conflict. You can't talk about the end time without talking about conflict. Wars and rumors of wars and conflict that escalate so much that no flesh would be saved alive if Jesus Christ did not intervene. Let's go to Psalm 119 and verse 165.

Psalm 119 and verse 165. We look forward to this kingdom of God, which is all about peace. A very, very stark contrast to the way that this world is, the mentality of conflict, and its waging of retaliations for those who bring it problems. The new government that's coming, which you and I want to be part of, is described here in Psalm 119 verse 165.

Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.

No conflict cannot be resolved among those who have God's Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ died and gave his physical body in a horrible disfigurement so that conflict could be resolved.

You and I need to be very, very serious about conflict resolution, about peace, about loving peace, about loving God's law.

The Prince of Peace is coming back. We need to be aligned with the Prince of Peace. If you've been offended, or if you've offended others, need to repent.

Need to repent of any feelings of revenge, or hard feelings towards others, or hatred. Because Jesus said, love your enemies.

Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who despitefully use you. That's the mentality of God.

I'd like to close with a scripture that instructs us for resolving and dealing with conflict.

Romans 12 and verse 17.

Romans 12 and verse 17.

This passage would have solved ancient Israel's problems, and it will solve your and my problems today. And it will help us be better children of a loving father and helpers of the great Prince of Peace.

Romans 12 and 17 says, Repay no one evil for evil.

When that mindset pops into your head, get rid of it.

Doesn't matter who it is. Repay no one evil for evil.

Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves.

But rather give place or no place to wrath.

For it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. We just put that out of our minds, leave that with God. It's not that we even want vengeance, because we ask for others to be forgiven in the same manner we forgive them. We just set all that aside and put our minds on things that are good and lovely and pure, things that are hopeful.

Therefore, verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

That's what we're to do.

If he's thirsty, give him a drink. Where have we heard these words before?

The great shepherd that's going to divide the sheep from the goats.

For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.

But that's not why you would do it.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.