Deception of the Noises
By Pastor Reindorf Mantey

1Sm 4:1 5 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hopni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout they said, what meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.

Israel lost out to the Philistines in the first engagement of battle when they tried to confront their aggression. They were left with four thousand dead casualties. Israel attributed such defeat to the absence of God in their camp. They knew that there was no way they would have lost the battle if God was with them. Feeling threatened of losing the war altogether, the elders of Israel instigated the people to fetch the ark of the covenant from Shiloh to give them the supernatural edge to turn the tide against the Philistines. The Israelites believed that the edge they needed over their aggressors was the presence of God. Hence they sent for the ark which symbolized the presence of God (Num10:35, Jos 6:6) believing that the God of covenant will accompany His ark to what ever destination it was sent. They believed that God will honor His symbolic material especially the ark of covenant which testified of His covenant promises. They placed their faith in the ark expecting it to make manifest the covenant promises of God. With this conception, the whole army of Israel shouted with a rapturous praise at the sight of the ark apparently believing that God had come in their midst. They became excited and enthusiastic being assured of victory by the presence of the ark. The ark has now become their vehicle of salvation. Their thunderous shout sounded powerful and gave the impression that they had received the necessary divine artillery or arsenal against the enemy. But did they?
When the Philistines on the other hand heard such noise, they questioned its significance. “what meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews”? they wondered. How could Israel be shouting having been defeated in the first engagement of battle. They investigated this strange noise through their spies and found out that the ark of the covenant was the cause of Israel's sudden enthusiasm. The ark sparked terror in them for they had heard its association with Israel's mighty gods who had brought them from Egypt with signs and wonders. Nonetheless, they summoned their courage and fought the Israelites defeating them at the next confrontation of battle. The defeat of the Israelites inspite of the ark of covenant in their midst debunked their superstition or myth that God was attached to His consecrated symbolic materials. They found out that the presence of such symbolic materials does not necessarily guarantee His presence. Hence any shout or expressions that is prompted by such symbols does not necessarily mean that God is present. Their thunderous roar therefore was very insidious and it was unfortunate that they had to find that out in the midst of battle.
The church of today must learn a great lesson from this narrative. Have we dared question the spiritual significance of our utterances that we supposedly utter in honor of the Lord? What is the worth of our rapturous praise, our pious worship and our transcendental teachings before God? What is the bases or foundation of our homage to God? What is the intent or purpose of our religious excitement or enthusiasm? Is it a reflection of God's presence or an expression of our confidence in a religious symbolism or sacrament.? For without Him, our expressions of piety are empty religious sentiments and are deceptious noises without any spiritual worth. It is the presence of God that adds value to our homage. Without His presence our expressions of faith are mere noise and bears no spiritual significance. It is God that determines whether our religious expressions are noise or music in the spiritual realm. He is the absolute with which to test the veracity of our spiritual melody. In His absence, our religious sentiments are insignificant and has no spiritual impact against the enemy.
Unfortunately, many have been deceived into placing their confidence in a denominational doctrine or structure, sacrament, ecclesiastic tittles, well designed and furnished sanctuaries, religious theatrics, the size of the congregation as the bases or veracity of God's presence. Hence they express their piety with such as reference of godliness. They therefore launch their spiritual expressions with this as spring boards apparently deluded of the spiritual insignificance of such expressions without God. Many of such have been left without the right arsenal to stand against the enemy as a result of their false confidence in a religious symbolism without the presence of God. Such delusion must be corrected otherwise many of such will end up as spiritual casualties at the day of adversity. Paul the Apostle had to write to the Church at Corinth to correct such misconception. He stated:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing”. 1Cor 13:1 3

The Corinthians were mesmerized with the eloquence of their teachers, their poetic oratory, transcendental wisdom and the charismatic gifts of the Spirit but were less emphatic of their divine character. Ignorant of the insidious nature of such practice, they laid their confidence in such as foundation of their spiritual expressions and digressed from divine character. Paul had to write them to wisely turn their attention to the more excellent sovereign way of Christian love. He was not depreciating their spiritual gifts or their rhetoric but was rather appreciating spiritual character to be incomparable. The indispensable character of divine love is that which makes valid all other spiritual expressions. Without it, our wonder working faith, devoted works avail nothing. The lack of godly love makes all other gifts without value. This is because godly love is the authentic proof of God's presence. It takes God for one to express divine love. Hence lack of divine love indicates His absence. Without God, our thunderous "tongues", deep revelations, transcendental wisdom, prophetic insight, self sacrifice etc has no spiritual impact. They are just like noisy resounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Though these expressions might sound powerful and godly, they cannot stand the aggression of the enemy at the day of adversity.
Unfortunately many have not been made aware of such deceptious noises until they end up as spiritual casualties. Such was the case of a ruler of the synagogue who had previously placed his confidence in his religious formalism and tradition as base of his spiritual expressions but found himself without the power to help his daughter when she was attacked by the enemy.

Mt 9:18 19 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

Mt 9:23 26 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

This man was the ruler of the synagogue, a highly respected position in the community. He had the care of external order of the public's worship and the supervision of the concerns of the synagogue in general. Among his functions was that of appointing who should read the scriptures and the prayers, of summoning fit persons to preach and of seeing that nothing improper took place in the synagogue. He was responsible in maintaining and propagating the doctrinal traditions with its formal prejudices. This had been his foundation of piety and the springboard of his spiritual expressions. Unfortunately this expressions did not help her daughter's ailment. This sickness exposed the inadequacy and the insignificance of his piety. The attack of the enemy laid bare his deceptious expressions. Aware of the ineffectiveness of his formal concepts and traditional teachings to change the condition of his daughter, he took off searching for Christ. He was now in search of results and was ready to tolerate any ridicule and accusation from his contemporaries in doing so. After all he was the one suffering from the attack of the enemy. He was fed up defending an insignificant religious expression.
There are many believers who have been exposed to the ineffectiveness of the rhetoric, theatrics, the sensationalism with all its expression against the assault of the enemy but unfortunately fail to do something about it. Many of such are still tolerating such delusions. It is about time many of these people begin to seek Christ through prayer so He comes to demonstrate results in their lives.
When Christ and His disciples came to the house of the ruler, the elaborate traditional ritual of Jewish mourning had began. This included the hired minstrel who sang dirges with flutes and pipes to stimulate the people to wail for the deceased and her family. The minstrels prepared the people through their songs to get them ready for the burial of the ruler's daughter. Their songs were songs of death though it was melodic, stimulating, sensational and emotional. The songs were not intended to resurrect the dead girl but to bury her. The whole people were caught up in the melody of the minstrel when Christ arrived. It is surprising to note that Christ judged such songs as noise. He saw through the theatrics, melodic dirges, sensationalism to the insignificance of such songs. Such songs though it was melodic to the minstrels and the guests at the ruler's house, it was noise to Jesus. Noises are insignificant and hence ineffective in raising the dead. Without Christ all their songs had no spiritual significance and ineffective against the assault of the enemy. Such songs were just noise to God. Without Christ our expressions of ideas and emotions are insignificant to God. If our religious expressions is not uttered with Christ as the bases or foundation, it has no value before God.

Amos 5:21 24 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

God considered the melody of the Israelites as noise because they lacked judgment and righteousness. They had obviously substituted these indispensable virtues with fat offerings, sensational solemn assemblies. Without judgment and righteousness what ever religious expressions that were offered, though it might sound melodic to man, is insignificant noise to God.
It is unfortunate to note that many have failed to discern the absence of Christ's presence in most of our sensational meetings. We have failed to assess our gatherings according to His Spirit hence we all join in the songs of death that has been ineffective in transforming the life of people. Many are still dead in their trespasses, being oppressed, afflicted and bullied by the enemy in the midst of our melodic meetings. Since we have not discerned by the Spirit of Christ, we take any thunderous preaching with its rhetoric and theatrics, angelic psalms, rapturous praise as powerful. Yet this has failed to impact life to people. God is calling upon the church to see as Christ sees. If we fail to assess our expressions with the discernment of Christ's Spirit we always be living in deception. With the Spirit of Christ we will be able to dissect to distinguish between that which is soulical and spiritual. Without Christ we will embrace every expressions as godly obviously ignorant of any deceptions. Without His presence we are not in sync or harmony with divine order and hence our expressions are all discorded. Any expressions of piety in such a state is noise. Immediately Christ came to the house He set out to put things right.

Mt 9:24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

Christ set out to put the general ideology of those in the house right. He indicated that the girl was asleep and not dead. There was still hope for this girl and His presence was to make available such hope. This stirred up ridicule among the mourners because they did not believe Him. Christ had to put this mourners out before He could help this girl. He asked them to give place. Obviously they have occupied the position Christ needed to operate from. They had set themselves in the place that ought to had been reserved for only Christ. They substituted the position of Christ for their formalism and traditions. They sung their dirges and wailing with such as their foundation. Their unbelief occupied the place of Christ hence He had to ask the ruler to put these expressions off. Such expressions were an impediment to Christ's movement. Their formal ways served as a hindrance to what Christ intended to do. Their theatrics, wisdom of words that was launched from a foundation of formalism nullified the power of resurrection of Christ. For this power to be set into operation all these must give place to Christ. And when they did, Christ entered in.
Obviously all this time, the minstrel and the mourners had not gone in to see the girl. Probably they did not want to be ceremonially unclean hence they sang their songs outside. Their melody and their wailing just affected the people outside but had no effect on those inside. They stimulated the outside senses but failed to affect that which was inside. The minstrel entertained those outside but had no impact on the girl that rested in the room. It was only Christ that entered in. All our spiritual expressions without Christ can only affect the outward senses. It will only take the Spirit of Christ to impact the spirit of man. Our eloquence, rhetoric is only able to touch the intellect, stimulate the emotions, strengthen the will but they fail to enter in to the spirit to impart life. Without the Spirit of Christ all our ministrations will be just soulical and peripheral. It takes the Spirit of Christ for the spirit of man to experience the things of God.

1Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Without the Spirit of Christ we will never experience anything of God.
After the people had been put off Christ went in and raised the dead girl.

Mt 9:25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

Christ alone had the power to resurrect the dead. All the theatrics and wailings of the mourners was impotent to take hold of the dead girl. Their noises had no power to raise the girl. It was only Christ who has the power to get into the core of the problem and take care of it. He has the power to take hold of every demonic aggression. Hence for one to minister the power of resurrection he needs to be enabled by Christ, setting himself out of the way and allowing Christ to do what He alone can do. We must give way to Christ to raise people from the death of their sins and trespasses, deliver them from the afflictions and bondages. Without Him, we cannot minister life to the people. Christ must be the foundation of our confidence so that our spiritual expressions will be empowered by God to dissipate His life.

2Cor 3:4 6 And such trust have we through Christ to God ward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

After Christ raised the girl from death, His fame spread throughout the land. What occurred in the house of the ruler gave Him national exposure. The media took notice of such supernatural feat. If the church of Christ will earn any respect in the secular world, we will need to demonstrate the resurrection power of Christ. This can only be done by His presence in our life. Such presence must be evidenced by godly character. With godly character as our foundation of spiritual expression we will be enabled by the Spirit of Christ to minister life to the dead. If we do otherwise we will be living a life of deception and hypocrisy because we will be confessing what we are not. Let us discard our insignificant noisy expressions and reinstate Christ as the foundation and confidence of our homage. It is herewith will our fame spread throughout the land.

Reindorf Mantey

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