(The Law of the Holy Spirit) Examples of Christ's Humility — Zac Poonen

Christ’s Humility and the Fragrance of His Life

Means to spread the fragrance of Christ in his humility, particularly. The reason why Jesus received grace was because he humbled himself. One of the great truths that we need to be gripped by is that when Jesus became a man, he became 100 like us, except for sin.

I mean, if you could take sin out of you and me, that's exactly how Jesus was. With all the limitations, the possibility of temptation, everything, the weakness, everything. But many Christians have not seen him like that.

And when you don't see him like that, you lose out on something. And so I want to encourage all of you, if you have not seen that very clearly, to ask God to reveal this to you. You know, a lot of these things come by revelation.

In my own life, I knew, theoretically, that Jesus Christ became a man for 35 years before it became a revelation to me one day. It hit me. Hey, he was just like me. He was tempted, just like me, and he didn't sin.

And there's nothing that the Father did for Jesus because he was his son, which he wouldn't do for you and me. That's the thing that really encouraged me to believe that I could reflect the glory of Jesus.

Otherwise, it looks like an impossible thing. How can I, in my earthly life, live in the same way Jesus lived? It says in 1 John, in chapter 2, and verse 6. You know, there are numerous commands in the Bible, which I think a lot of Christians don't even bother to try to obey, leave alone obey it.

And this is one of those verses, 1 John 2, 6. The one who says he abides in Christ. Now, let's stop. Do you say that you are in Christ? You're a child of God. You're in Jesus Christ. Well, then here is a verse for you.

You ought to walk in the same manner as he walked. Do you think God would ask you to do something that's impossible? Would you ask your son to carry a 1 ,000 pound weight on his head? Would a loving father ask me to walk in this difficult earth with all the pressures and circumstances and evil around me to walk as Jesus walked if he knew that is impossible?

I don't think there's a single father here who would ask his son or daughter to do something which you know is impossible, or which you can do, but your child is too small. I mean, we're big men. We can carry a 50, 60 pound weight.

But your little five-year-old can't carry that. You won't ask him to carry it because he'd say, he can't do it. I can do it, but he can't. He's too small. He's too weak. What about our loving father in heaven?

Does he have that consideration? Or is he challenging us, you know, like we challenge our children? Hey, you can do it. Think if you have a child who's afraid to learn to ride the bicycle, or afraid to get into the swimming pool to learn swimming.

What would you do? You'd say, oh, it's OK. Never mind if you never learn it. You'd encourage him. Hey, you can do it. Don't be scared. And you know how those children can stand beside a swimming pool and be scared to go in because they know they'll be dragged down.

And then you encourage them and encourage them, and one day, they're thrilled. Because you encourage them, they learn to swim, to overcome gravity, and not allow them to be pulled down to the bottom of the swimming pool because you encourage them.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ

That's the way the Lord is encouraging us. There is a law of gravity that's pulling us down in this world. It's called the law of sin and death. And what we read in Romans 8, verse 2, is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus will set us free from that law of sin and death.

You can't overcome that by laws. No. Any amount of rules and regulations won't help you to overcome the law of sin and death. That'll just make you look holy on the outside, but not holy on the inside.

But when it says you've got to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked, it's talking about an inner value system that Jesus had, by which he took decisions in his life. See, walking is a conscious act.

We take one step, and then another, and another, and another, and another. So think of walking as Jesus walked as different decisions that you're taking in your life. And each decision is made based on the same value system that Jesus had.

That's what it means to walk as Jesus walked. We don't have to be bachelors or carpenters like he was. It's not relating to the external things in his life, or live in Nazareth, or any external thing in his life.

It's the inner principles by which he lived his life. And every decision he took was based on a value system that he got from his father. And the world has got a completely different value system. And that's why the Bible says, don't be conformed to this world, but be renewed.

Be renewed in your mind, and you'll be transformed and conformed into the likeness of Christ, Romans 12, verse 2. So we need to allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to change our way of thinking so that this life of Jesus can come forth more and more in us.

So to walk as Jesus walked, it begins with what we read in Romans 12, verse 2, 1 and 2. First of all, Romans 12, 1, I present my body to God. Say, Lord, I want you to take all of my body. From head to foot, I want the Holy Spirit to, I'm presenting my body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's like, you know, in the world, they build a church building, and they have a dedication service where they say, OK, we're dedicating this church building to God. You need to have a dedication service where you take your whole body and say, Lord, this is dedicated now, from now on, for the use of the Holy Spirit.

It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's the real church, your body. And you're dedicating it to God and saying, Lord, everything, my eyes, my tongue, my hands, it's all for you now. And if I ever slip up in taking it back for myself to use for myself, I want to repent immediately and come back to you and give it to you.

And inside this body, verse 2, we have a mind. And I must allow the Holy Spirit to change my way of thinking, change the values that I have to make them aligned with the values Jesus had. I want to tell you that's the only way that you'll ever be able to live the Christian life.

That's the only way you'll ever be able to build a Christian home. And that's the only way you'll be able to build your local church as an expression of the body of Christ. There's no other way. So to walk as Jesus walked, I have to, first of all, give my body to him, which I've used by myself all these years, my tongue, my eyes, my tongue and eyes especially, because I think we sin most with our tongue and our eyes, so more than with other parts of our body.

So if I give my tongue and my eyes to God, then I say, I don't want to look or read anything which you wouldn't want me to read. I don't want to speak anything you don't want me to speak. Particularly, Lord, I want to be careful with my tongue and my eyes.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

In the New Testament, we read of two things which are like a flame of fire. On the day of Pentecost, there was a tongue on top of the disciples like a flame of fire. And in Revelation, we read of Jesus having eyes like a flame of fire.

There are two parts of your body which need to be set on fire by God. And if you examine your life, you find that a lot of people who say they have accepted Christ as their Savior, the two parts of their body they have never given to God is their tongue and their eyes.

Well, then it says here, it says you can't be a worshipper. You know, in the Old Testament, whenever people worshipped, they fell down on their face before God. That was an act of worship. And what you see today in Christendom of people laying hands on people and making them fall down is the exact opposite of worship.

They're showing their feet to God. And anybody in an Eastern culture knows that to show your feet to somebody is almost the greatest insult you can show him. And the devil has a big laugh when he sees all these people being pushed down on the platform and says to God, have a look at these fellows showing their feet to you.

And they think that's the Holy Spirit. Well, I'm not fooled by that. The worshippers in the Old Testament did not show their feet to God. They didn't fall backwards, they fell forwards. The only people who fell backwards were the demon-possessed ones.

When Jesus cast out a demon, the demon would throw them on the ground. And I've seen that happen. I've seen that happen when demon-possessed people are cast out, they get thrown on the ground. Or they wiggle like snakes on the ground.

And then when the demon is cast out, they get up. Or the demon throws them down. Gee, the Holy Spirit never throws people down, He always lifts people up. So in the Bible, you read about people falling down and worshipping, and what they're saying is, God, here is my whole body.

This is my act of worship. From head to foot, it's yours. That's what He's saying in Romans 12 .1. And the NASB is a very beautiful translation, which says here that present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

This is your worship in the Spirit. This is your spiritual worship. You remember what Jesus told the Samaritan woman? That the Father seeks for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And you wonder, what does it mean to worship in spirit?

Well, here it says. This is what worship in the Spirit is. First of all, to present my body. And think especially of your tongue and your eyes. And I want to ask you not just to listen to this, but will you right now say, Lord, I have sinned so much with my tongue and my eyes.

I have spoken angrily. I have gossiped, backbitten against people, and murmured and grumbled. I have not given my body to you. Many of you come from conservative churches where you're very particular about the dress you wear.

I'm all for that. I believe that women should be dressed modestly because they should not unnecessarily provoke men to lust. But I say you can be dressed modestly. And that body which you're dressing so modestly with clothes, you go home.

And with that body, you argue and grumble with each other at home and speak evil of others behind their back. And with that body, you use your eyes to read stuff which Jesus would not want you to read or look at.

I say, what's the use of that? You glory in the fact that your external appearance is good. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup. The inside is all dirty. Of course, we must have the outside and inside clean.

But if you have a choice, it's the inside that's important. When I go down to the villages in India and to the really poor people, sometimes they offer me a cup of tea. And the cup is pretty dirty. But I only make sure that the inside is clean.

It doesn't matter to me if the outside of the cup is not so perfectly clean. If the inside is dirty, then I would not drink that because it could bring me sickness. The inside is more important. We know that.

That's the example Jesus was using. You clean the outside of the cup, but you don't clean the inside. So let me turn you to that verse. It's very important. Matthew 23, verse 25. You hypocrites, Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish.

But inside, it's full of self-indulgence. Self-indulgence means I want to please myself inside. I speak what I like. I read what I like. I look at what I like. But the outside, I look very clean and holy.

I remember once in our church, I was saying to try and highlight the importance of the inside. I said, I would rather have a sister here who's cut her hair short, never veils her head, wears jeans, but modestly dressed, and wears lipstick and mascara and everything else, but never gossips at home, submits to her husband, never speaks evil of others, helps the poor, and controls her tongue, and doesn't waste her time reading romantic novels, uses her eyes for God, rather than have a sister who's also holily dressed with long hair and veiling, and goes home and doesn't submit to her husband, and gossips and backbites and murmurs and grumbles.

Give me a hundred of these other sisters who wear jeans and who are God-fearing than these so-called holy sisters who are dirty on the inside. Any day, I'll build my church with them. That's the meaning of what Jesus is saying here.

How many of you have understood it? You clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is full of self-indulgence. You speak what you like. You read what you like. You do what you like. And outside in the church, you have such a testimony.

And you're so keen that everybody should be modestly dressed. I'm all for it. But what is important? I remember one young girl from a Hindu home who had accepted Christ. She came to me in my home one day and said, Brother Zach, I've accepted Christ.

I don't know whether I can come to your church. I said, why? You're welcome. She said, because I wear jeans. And the only clothes I have, I'm from an unconverted home. I've been only recently converted.

I don't have any clothes except jeans. And my parents will never buy me a new set of clothes for me to go to church. So what do I do? Can I come to your church with jeans? I said, sure. And if some stupid, immature person questions you about it, tell them that Brother Zach told you to come with jeans.

Because I want you to hear the word of God. I don't want you to sit at home and miss the fellowship of God's people just because you don't have proper clothes. You know how we can be so judgmental? You see somebody in a certain dress, and you don't know what is it.

I mean, if other people had seen that girl in our church, they'd say, ah, look at that girl. They don't know that that poor girl doesn't have income. And her parents won't give her any money. And her only alternative, if she didn't wear those clothes, was not to come to church at all.

That would not occur to our mind because we've got a judgmental spirit. We look at people with a judgmental spirit, and that's one mark of our pride. A humble person will always put the best construction on something.

Maybe there's some reason why that person is like that. That's how it was with Jesus. That's what I mean by changing our value system in our mind. We have grown up in a world which has got a system by which we judge by what we see.

Righteous Judgment and Humility

That's the one thing Jesus commanded us not to do. He didn't say don't judge at all. That would be unrealistic because if you don't judge at all, you'll just go to some other non-Christian religion. Or you may go to some corrupt version of Christianity, and there are lots of them in the world.

But Jesus said in John 7, verse 24, that we must judge. There's one sentence there in John 7, 24, which says don't judge like this, but judge like this. Do not judge according to the outward appearance.

That is the way I'm not supposed to judge a person. But I must judge with righteous judgment. And that's part of the humility of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you honestly, in the early days when I was a Christian, I grew up in a very legalistic Christian church, and I was judgmental just like all my other brothers and sisters around me.

I absorbed their spirit. I thought I was not worldly because I wasn't watching television. I was going to meetings and services and studying the Bible. But my judgmental spirit corrupted everything. What was the use studying the Bible if I had a judgmental spirit?

And that's what a lot of Christians have today. They've got a very good way they dress, their doctrines are right and so many good things, but they corrupt the whole thing with a judgmental spirit of other people.

It's like making a very tasty bowl of soup and putting a dead lizard inside it. Why in the world did you go and put that dead lizard after you took so much trouble to make such a lovely bowl of soup? That's exactly how it is when you do everything right in your life.

You dress godly, you behave godly, you go to the services and then judge others. That's the dead lizard. Do you know how many Christians they offer that to God and God says, I don't want it. Throw it in the trash.

He won't accept it. Do not judge according to outward appearance. One of the most disobeyed commands by Christians and especially by conservative Christians, perhaps the most disobeyed command in the Bible by conservative Christians, do not judge according to outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

Are we supposed to judge? Yes, we judge with righteous judgment. That requires humility. It requires the humility of Jesus. See what it says about him in Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11, what is the mark of the fear of the Lord?

The Spirit’s Work in Teaching Discernment

The Holy Spirit. We are talking about the Holy Spirit bringing the life of Jesus in us. One characteristic of the Holy Spirit is he brings in us a fear of God. Now, I don't know, if I were to ask you, can you give me one or two examples of the fact that you fear God?

I mean, you may say some very good things, which are marks of the fear of God. You say, well, I won't tell any lies. I won't cheat anybody. And I won't watch a pornographic movie. Good, all marks of the fear of God.

But how many of you would think of this mentioned here as one of the marks of the fear of God? Listen, Isaiah 11, speaking of the Holy Spirit, verse two, resting upon Jesus, the sevenfold spirit, the spirit of Jehovah, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

And that one aspect of the Holy Spirit's ministry is expanded in the next verse. And this spirit of the fear of the Lord will make Jesus delight in the fear of the Lord. And when he delights in the fear of the Lord, he will never judge according to the outward appearance.

He will never judge anyone by what he saw or by what he heard about that person. He will not judge by what his eyes see. And he will not make a decision by what his ears hear. Does it mean he will not judge at all?

He will judge with righteousness. Verse four, with righteousness he will judge. This is the exact equivalent of what we read in John 7, 24. Do not judge according to the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

And Jesus is the example there. Now, if we look at our own life from childhood, all the information we have got in our mind, we've got through our eyes and our ears, almost all. I mean, we got a little bit by touch and taste and smell also, but that's minimal compared to the information that is in our brain right now, which went through our eyes and our ears.

All our education in school and observation in society, eyes and ears, eyes and ears. We're getting information all the time. People are telling us things. We hear things. We read things. Eyes and ears, eyes and ears, eyes and ears.

And a lot of that information is wrong. A lot of things, I'll tell you whether you know it or not, a lot of things which you read in the newspapers are not absolutely true. There's partial truth in it, but it's written by journalists who are paid by newspaper owners to influence people to think in a certain way.

It's the same thing with a lot of internet news and everything. It's not really true. And it's amazing. Television news programs and all, we think we're getting the truth. It's influencing us in a certain direction, to vote in a certain direction, or to have a certain attitude towards gay marriages or things like that.

It's all designed to influence people in a certain direction. And not only in these matters, but in many other areas, our thinking has come from what we have absorbed from childhood, from others around us, from advertisements and so many things.

Living by Christ’s Principles Instead of Consumer Pressure

Why is it, for example, people buy so many things which they cannot afford and get into credit card debt? I mean, so many people in this country are just riddled with credit card debt, mainly because I'm not talking about those emergencies where they had to pay a hospital bill, which is unavoidable.

I'm talking about a whole lot of purchases which could have been avoided, but they didn't. It's because of the influence of media, which says, you can't live without this. Whenever you hear that, say to yourself, man lived without that for 5 ,000 years, so I can live without it.

I'll buy it when I can afford it, but not when I can't afford it. I tell you, this one simple principle can save you from a lot of problems. I mean, that's a principle my wife and I followed. I'm 71 years old.

I've never been in debt for a single day in my life, not because I had plenty, but because we learned to live with very little. And when we couldn't afford it, we didn't get it. If we couldn't afford to buy new clothes, we didn't get it.

If we couldn't afford to buy new clothes for our children, we'd say, sorry, it's your birthday, but we don't have money to get you a new set of clothes today, or any gift. When your clothes wear out, we'll get you another one.

Oh, Brother Zach, your children will grow up terribly rebellious. They didn't. They all grew up to follow the Lord, every single one of them, and to serve the Lord. Don't let the devil fool you. Live by the principles of Jesus, and in everything, to walk as Jesus walked.

I asked myself this question. I'm not telling you what you should do. I'm saying, I realize there are certain situations in business, or in medical emergencies, where maybe you have to, I've never done business, so I don't know, but you have to borrow, and I'm not talking about those things.

But what I'm saying is, don't buy what you don't need, and don't think you have to get the latest model of something. The old model will work for some more years. Stick on to it. Never mind if it's not up to date with everything around you.

It's much more important to please God, and it doesn't matter if the house is a little smaller than the houses of your friends. If you live in a smaller house without debt, it's far better, and I'll tell you, you'll set a good example for your children to live by the principles of Jesus.

When Jesus, he grew up in a poor home. The Father allowed him to grow up in a poor home, and he lived like that. He wouldn't allow himself to be influenced by society around him. He would not judge by what his eyes saw, or his ears heard, but he would listen to the Father.

Jesus’ Humility in Rejection and Offense

There are some amazing examples of that. I see, for example, in John chapter seven. You know, when you look at the glory of Jesus and his humility as a man on earth, how he lived, it's been a tremendous challenge to me.

Why do we need to see this? Because that's the place of grace, where the Holy Spirit comes. God gives his grace to the one who's humble, and if I humble myself like Jesus, I can be absolutely sure the spirit of grace will rest upon me all the time.

I want it to rest upon me all the time. I don't hesitate to say that. I want the spirit of grace. I don't want to have one baptism in the Holy Spirit. I want to be immersed in the Holy Spirit every single moment.

There's hardly a day that goes by in my life without my praying to Jesus that he'll fill us with the Holy Spirit. Almost every time when my wife and I get up together in the morning and pray, we pray that God will fill us with the Holy Spirit.

To me, it's the most important thing in our life, and it's not a once-for-all experience. We read in John chapter seven, it speaks of a time when Jesus was in Jerusalem and he preached a long sermon, and a lot of people were blessed.

They were so blessed that even the people who came to, they said, this is the son of David. It's verse 41. Some were saying verse 40, this is the prophet. Verse 41, this is the Christ. There were so many people who listened to his message and said, this is the Messiah.

This is the prophet of God. And even the people who came to capture him, some people were sent to capture him, they said, boy, verse 46, never man speak like this man. But when the sermon was over, all the people went away to their own house, it says.

Verse 53, everyone went to his own house and nobody bothered to ask Jesus, where are you staying tonight? Jesus was not from Jerusalem. His home was in Capernaum. That's a long half-day journey. Imagine that, I've often thought of that.

I said, Lord, it's never happened to me that I spent a day preaching and nobody asked me where are you staying tonight. But nobody asked you, and what did you do? And then it says in verse one of the next verse, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

We had no complaints. If my father has not allowed anybody to invite me to their home to stay with them tonight, well, it's not raining. The trees are a lovely place to sleep under, my father's house.

And he slept under the trees. And he came back next morning, early in the morning, to preach again in the temple, and nobody asked him, by the way, where were you last night? He never got offended with that.

I said, Lord, make me like that. Make me like you where I won't get offended if I've gone somewhere to preach and everybody goes home and I'm left alone there. It's never happened to me, but if it does one day, I pray I will not be offended.

I said, Lord, that's an opportunity to walk in your footsteps. Dear brothers and sisters, do you get offended? Because somebody didn't show you some consideration in some situation? You think you're a great man of God and people should show you consideration?

Or you think you're the husband, so your wife should show you consideration? Learn from Jesus. You'll know now why you don't get grace, why you don't get filled with the Holy Spirit. Because you don't have a spirit of humility to recognize I'm nothing.

I deserve nothing. If I ask God to give me what I deserve, it's hellfire. The one who recognizes that will never have a complaint or get offended. I see there. Okay, who said I need a bed? Can't I sleep on the floor?

Can't I sleep on the earth under the trees? That was Jesus' attitude and no complaint about it. I love another place where it says in Matthew chapter 12, you know, these are the little glimpses I get as I read the scriptures.

The Holy Spirit shows me the glory of Jesus. Many people just read it as history. I read the scriptures to see the glory of Jesus because I know the Holy Spirit wants to make me like that. And once I see it, I say, Lord, I wanna be like that.

It's great to have an example. I thank God I'm not living in Old Testament times where I just get commands, commands, commands, commands. I get worn out with commands. But I have an example. This is not an exhortation.

This is an example. And I see in Matthew chapter 12, where again, a lot of people were very excited because Jesus cast out a demon in verse 22. A demon who has made a man blind and dumb. And I mean, you'd think that everybody should be excited if a blind and dumb person suddenly could see.

And most people were. The multitudes were amazed. Verse 23, Matthew 12, 23. They said, this must be the son of God, son of David. But the Pharisees who were jealous. It's amazing what jealousy can do to you.

When you're jealous of someone, it can make you completely blind. Even if he's the greatest servant of God on earth, you will think he is the devil. That's what happened. He was the greatest servant of God on earth.

And the Pharisees, they heard it, they said, no. This must be the ruler of demons. He's the devil himself. Beelzebul, another name for Satan. Now, how did Jesus react? How do you react if somebody called you the devil?

Or you heard that a whole lot of people called you the devil. I mean, we've faced lesser insults than that and we got offended. Imagine someone calling the son of God a devil. And all Jesus says is, verse 32.

Have you spoken against me? You're forgiven. Just make sure you don't speak against the Holy Spirit. He who was equal to the Holy Spirit says, it's okay you speak against me. I'm now here as a man. And he called himself the son of man and my translation of that is an ordinary man.

That's whenever I read son of man, I say an ordinary man. And I see Jesus, the son of God saying, verse 32. Have you spoken a word against an ordinary man like me? That's okay, you're forgiven. Just make sure you don't destroy yourself by speaking against the Holy Spirit.

You see the glory of his humility there? That's how we're supposed to walk. Who said we can't walk like him? We can if we just get rid of our pride, that's all. We say, oh, it's so difficult. It's difficult because we are proud.

We think too much of ourselves. We think we are superior to others. We think, how dare anybody call me like that? That's why we can't walk as he walked. It's only because of pride. And I see another thing here, as I read carefully in Matthew 12, 32.

He didn't just forgive them. Here is a blanket forgiveness for anybody who speaks against Jesus for 2 ,000 years. Do you see that? Whoever, anytime in history, speaks a word against me, an ordinary man, is forgiven.

So I say, Lord, what about all these guys who make movies about you, saying you were homosexual or you married Mary Magdalene and you had children of your own? What about all these people today? Well, I forgave them 2 ,000 years ago.

No Christian has to go and burn down those theaters or things like that, like some people of other religions do. No. Our Savior can handle insult. He can handle people calling him the devil. He forgave them 2 ,000 years ago.

What about you? Are you a proper, accurate representative of this Savior? I want to be. I want to be that. I want to live a life where I'm never, never offended by anything that anybody says or does to me or does not do or say to me, like they didn't take Jesus' homes when He was to give Him a bed.

What they didn't do or what they did do, we saw both examples here, He was not offended. We can walk as He walked if we are willing to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and say, well, God permitted that and I want to bow down before God and accept it.

David’s Submission to God’s Sovereignty

You know, there's a great example in the Old Testament of the man after God's own heart who one day when his own son, David, his own son chased him out of the throne, Absalom, and David had to run for his life, 2 Samuel chapter 16.

Here's old King David, I don't know how old he was, maybe 50 or 60, somewhere around that age. We know that he was 52 when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and this was after that, maybe around 60 years old, and he is running for his life and on the way he meets a relative, the old King Saul, who was so angry that his influence in the palace had gone because Saul had died and David had replaced him and he was waiting for a chance to get at David and now was his chance, 2 Samuel 16.

It says in verse five, when David came to Bahurim, there was a man from the family of Saul's house who was so delighted that at last this guy is suffering because his son had thrown him out. You know, this is the mark of a lot of people in the world, they're very happy when they see their enemy suffer and Shimei comes and it says here, he cursed him, verse five, continually.

In verse six, he threw stones at David. This is the king, remember, God appointed king. He threw stones at him and he said, get out, get out, verse seven, you man of bloodshed, worthless fellow. The Lord has brought upon you a revenge for all that you did for him.

And there are a lot of Christians who speak like this. I've heard them who are quick to pass judgment on why some poor believer is suffering and one of David's generals, verse nine, said, why should this dead dog curse my Lord, the king?

Let me go and cut off his head right now. And the king said, nothing doing. And listen to this amazing word, verse 10. If the Lord has permitted him to curse me, who am I to lift my hand against God and say, how dare you let him curse me?