This week’s weekly devotional is a parable, inspired by a message I sent out last year, called “Believe This!” (You can click on this link to read it again)
An Old Wise King was once at war, as kings often were, in those days. The Old Wise King, being Old, was not in the fray, but, being Wise, he was following, with great interest, every move of his two most highly positioned generals, leading the war. His well-trained messengers were running to and fro daily, bringing him reports and delivering his advice.
His interest in the war was not so much for whether or not he would be victorious, for he had seen many wars, and the outcome of this one was clear to him from the beginning. No, his interest was mostly in observing the behaviour of his two generals. The man who had served him as his Chief of Defense from his youth, had grown old like himself, and had asked to be allowed to spend his last days with his children and grandchildren. And so, the Old Wise King was using this war, to select his next Chief of Defense.
The Old Wise King’s enemy was no novice to war either, and he soon perceived that he was fighting not so much against these two generals, but against the wisdom of the Old Wise King. So he started a campaign of carefully intercepting some of the messages that were coming from the Old Wise King to his two generals, altering these, and then sending them on their way again. He had succeeded in bribing some of the enemy’s messengers, and so he could get his altered messages delivered by the Old Wise King’s very own messengers.
The two generals soon became aware of the fact that this was happening, but they found it very difficult to know whether the messages they received were their own Old Wise King’s real instructions, or whether they had been altered.
The Old Wise King, in the meanwhile, also found out about this, and he greatly increased the number of his communications to his two generals. He thought about every communication carefully, and created such a consistency in his communication that it would become possible for someone who had worked with him before, like these generals had, to follow his instructions correctly in general, even if some of the details might sometimes be altered. He knew that it would be impossible for his enemy to intercept all of, or even the most of these instructions, and so he felt confident that enough of his instructions would reach the front unaltered, to ensure the victory.
The one general was very experienced and considered himself very wise. He had fought many wars, and as soon as he learnt of the fact that messages were being altered, he decided to begin to ignore most of the communication from the king. He began to fight the war using the wisdom and experience of his years. He would still read the communication, but would only follow the advice that confirmed decisions he was already planning to execute.
The other general, being much younger and less confident in his own wisdom and experience, started studying every message very carefully. He began to keep the messages, and studied them so well that he could almost recite some of them word for word. He soon noticed the increase in communication, and he also noticed that although there were some messages that he couldn’t always quite fit into the plans, a large number of the messages seemed to form a consistent message. And so he decided to place his confidence in his Old Wise King’s ability to get the messages to him. He would make every effort to identify the messages that were clearly out of line, and often questioned the messengers extensively, but generally, he continued to respond to the messages as well as he could.
“It is my responsibility to fight this war. It is the Old Wise King’s responsibility to get his messages to me clearly.” He said to himself.
The wise old general fought a good war, and with a few mishaps here and there, prevailed and eventually drove back the enemy on his front.
The young apparently less wise general also had a few mishaps, as he sometimes followed instructions that had been altered, and so led his people into a few ambushes. But with the wisdom that he’d gained from following the other instructions, he succeeded every time in getting them out of those, and after some time, he also prevailed.
The two victorious generals returned to the city of their Old Wise King, and were welcomed with great fanfare. The very next day, the Old Wise King called them and listened carefully to their accounts of the war. He took a special interest in their response to the interception of the messages.
He felt a sense of gratefulness for the wisdom of the young general, who had so much trust in his Old Wise King that he continued to make every effort to follow the instructions. And so he appointed him as his new Chief of Defence. As for the older and wiser general, having no urgent wars to fight, and being older, although not quite very old yet, he sent him on early retirement.
Lots of Love
Ashton
