A Man After God’s Own Art

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Ephesians 5:11

Samuel said to the Christian Singer, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you to write and lead songs of worship in His Church; so listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Blasphemous Singers for what they did to my children when they waylaid them as they came up from that world of sin. Now go, oppose those Blasphemous Singers and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death their lyrics and their lies, their instrumentals and their melodies, their curses and their choruses.’”

So the Christian Singer summoned the worship team and the evangelists. They went to the clubs and radio stations where Blasphemous Singers ruled and reigned and ambushed them with the message of the Gospel. Then he said to the Compromised Christians who were associating with the Blasphemous Singers, “Go away, leave the Blasphemous Singers so that God will not destroy you along with them; for you have shown kindness to all the Christians who have come up out of this world.” So the Compromised Christians moved away from the Blasphemous Singers.

Then the Christian Singer opposed the Blasphemous Singers all the way from the nightclubs to the radio stations, near the border between the Church and the World. He took the most gifted Blasphemous Music Producer alive, but all his blasphemous content he totally destroyed with the sword of Gods Word. But the Christian Singer and the evangelists spared the most gifted Blasphemous Music Producer and the best of the lyrics and lines, the catchy melodies and tunes  – EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOOD. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but all the lyrics that were despised and directly blasphemous, they totally destroyed.

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel:“I regret that I have made this man a leading Christian Singer, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet the Christian Singer, but he was told, “The leading Christian Singer has gone to the Christian Music Awards Show. There he has picked up a trophy in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to the Hall of Fame.”

When Samuel reached him, the Christian Singer said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

But Samuel said, “What then is this beat of blasphemous song in my ears? What is this melody and parts of the lyrics from worldly songs that I hear?”

The Christian Singer answered, “My worship team brought them from the World; they spared the best of the lyrics and lines to sing to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

“Enough!” Samuel said to the Christian Singer. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” the Christian Singer replied.

Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the Worship Team in your local church? The Lord anointed you lead Singer over His worshipers. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely oppose those wicked lyricists, the Blasphemous Singers; wage war against their blasphemies until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the catchy tunes and lyrics and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

“But I did obey the Lord,” the Christian Singer said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely opposed the wicked lyricists and brought back their most gifted Blasphemous Music Producer. The worship team took the catchiest tunes and lyrics from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sing them to the Lord your God at the Hall of Fame.”

But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in great lyrics and catchy melodies as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than singing, and to heed is better than the the beat of a song.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as a Christian Musician.”

Then the Christian Singer said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as the leader of His worshipers!”

As Samuel turned to leave, the Christian Singer caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the His church from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

The Christian Singer replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before the church; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” So Samuel went back with the Christian Singer, and the Christian Singer worshiped the Lord.

Then Samuel said, “Bring me that gifted Blasphemous Producer that you spared.”

The Blasphemous Producer came to him in chains. And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

But Samuel said,

“As your lyrics have degraded and objectified women, so will your mother be degraded and objectified among women.”

And Samuel put the most gifted Blasphemous Producer to death before the Lord at the Hall of Fame.

Then Samuel left for the sanctuary where He had first heard the Gospel and been born again, but the Christian Singer went up to his Music Studio. Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see the Christian Singer again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made that Christian Singer the leader of His worshipers.

“It is much easier to bring a bullock or lamb to be burned upon the altar, than to bring every high thought into obedience to God, and to make our will subject to his will. Those are unfit and unworthy to rule over men, who are not willing that God should rule over them.”

~ Matthew Henry ~