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Conrad Mbewe
If there has been a phrase in the Bible that has been recently tortured until it confesses a lie, it is the phrase: “Touch not the Lord’s anointed.”
I hear it a lot in Christian conversation today. Usually, the phrase is meant to caution anyone who is criticising the questionable teaching or way of life of a famous preacher or church leader. That is meant to be a no-go area.
The phrase is meant to caution anyone who is criticising a famous preacher.
The popular understanding of this phrase is that if you say negative things about “an anointed servant of God,” something nasty will happen to you.
You may even die a horrible death. This is African traditional religion creeping into the church through the back door. In Africa, it is believed you do not say anything negative against an elderly person or a chief or a witchdoctor. If you do, something nasty will happen to you. You can even grow a beard at the back of your neck!
Where this teaching is found
“Touch not the Lord’s anointed” is found in Psalm 105:15 in the first person. Its full statement is: “When [the Israelites] were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!'” (Psalm 105:13-15). Here it referred to Israel as a nation; and, more specifically, the prophets whom the Lord had sent to minister among his people.
This is illustrated a number of times in the life of David when he had already been anointed as the next king of Israel. King Saul did not want him to succeed him and so he tried every trick in the book to kill David. Through a turn of fortunes, it was David who ended up with a number of opportunities to kill Saul. However, David desisted from doing so saying, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6; see also 1 Samuel 24:10; 26:9-11).
David, as it were, left it to God to deal with Saul in his own time.
What makes this even more poignant is that Saul was by this time already forsaken by God because of his disobedience. Yet, David still desisted from dethroning him. David, as it were, left it to God to deal with him in his own time—which happened a few years later in battle.
The lesson is apparently sealed beyond debate when the individual who finished off the wounded Saul in battle is killed at the command of David (2 Samuel 1:14-16). This person thought David would commend him for getting rid of his enemy. But instead David instructs his guards to kill him because he had killed the Lord’s anointed.
When this is applied to today’s preachers, what is the correct application? Does what God taught in Psalm 105:15 and what David did in 1 and 2 Samuel teach that we should not express any negative views about pastors and that if we do something bad may happen to us?
If criticising ‘the Lord’s anointed’ was wrong, Samuel would have been wrong to rebuke Saul.
The first test that such a view fails is in I Samuel itself. Was Saul ever criticised when he did something outrageously wrong? Yes, he was. Samuel himself criticised Saul a number of times, until he was told that God had rejected his kingship. Saul still continued to serve as king but God had long forsaken him. If criticising “the Lord’s anointed” was wrong, surely Samuel would have been wrong to rebuke Saul and Nathan would have been wrong to rebuke David in 2 Samuel 13.
“Touch not the Lord’s anointed” is about harm, especially physical harm. It isn’t about legitimate criticism. Public teachers must be above reproach. That is one of their qualifications. If they meddle in heretical teaching or immoral living, they disqualify themselves.
I am not justifying libel or slander.
But that is not the issue here. The phrase “touch not the Lord’s anointed” is not being used against character assassination. Rather it is being used to stop people coming forward to testify against immoral and heretical preachers.
Corruption in the church is multiplying while the silent majority dare not speak out lest they touch the Lord’s anointed.
It is an epidemic! Extreme charismatic pastors are emptying church coffers to line their own pockets and impregnating girls in the churches but those who have the evidence cannot speak out lest they touch the Lord’s anointed and something bad happens to them. That is the issue at hand. Clearly, that understanding of Psalm 105:15 and 1 Samuel is wrong.
Love should cause us to not keep quiet when the faith of many is being ruined.
Conrad Mbewe is the pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia and is a Council member of The Gospel Coalition Africa. Conrad is the Founding Chancellor the African Christian University in Lusaka.– TGC
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