Flesh and Blood

By Kunle A. Omowumi

Brother Kunle Omowumi has been diligently serving the Lord in various
Christian leadership positions for over a decade. He is a member of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), New Life Centre, UK and has
passion for prayer. Kunle has a love for studying the Bible and applying it to
everyday life. Gifted with ability to teach, he believes the Bible has the solution
to every human need, challenge and puzzle.
He has an MBA in Management and MA in Human Resource Management
Business Partnership. He was formerly a banker in Nigeria but now a Human
Resources and Project Management practitioner (Prince2 Qualifi ed) in UK.
He is married to Sister Toyin Omowumi and blessed with children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Sep 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465304193

Kunle A. Omowumi

Brother ‘Kunle Omowumi has been diligently serving the Lord in various Christian leadership positions for over a decade. He is a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), New Life Centre, UK and has passion for prayer. Kunle has a love for studying the Bible and applying it to everyday life. Gifted with ability to teach, he believes the Bible has the solution to every human need, challenge and puzzle. He has an MBA in Management and MA in Human Resource Management Business Partnership. He was formerly a banker in Nigeria but now a Human Resources and Project Management practitioner (Prince2 Qualifi ed) in UK. He is married to Sister ‘Toyin Omowumi and blessed with children.

Book preview

THE CONSPIRACY OF ABIMELECH AND THE PEOPLE OF SHECHEM

Judges 9: 1–57

Jesus answered and said, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 16: 17).

According to the Scriptures, blood is life (Deut. 12: 23), and that is both literarily and spiritually. Without blood, man cannot survive. However, when we examine the spiritual meaning of flesh and blood as revealed in the Word of God, we need to be careful how we allow flesh and blood to influence our choices, decisions, and desires. No wonder the disciples were astonished after hearing Jesus say, ‘It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They said to themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’ (Mark 10: 24–26).

‘Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerubbaal’s sons rule over you, or just one man? Remember, I am your flesh and blood’ (Judg. 9: 1–2).

As human beings, whenever we want to pursue selfish ambitions, flesh and blood plays a crucial part. Abimelech knew that the good records of his father Gideon (Judg. 8) would definitely make the people prefer one of his seventy sons to rule over them. Sensing that he did not stand a good chance of being chosen to be ruler of the people, Abimelech decided to engage in flesh and blood tactics. He did not have to go far; his mother’s brothers and the house of his mother’s father became the proverbial ‘idle hands that immediately became a tool for the devil’. He appealed to their sense of greed and self-centredness, and they fell for it. It is there in all human beings—that natural tendency for anything that will bring personal gratifications. The temptation to have their kinsman at the helm of affairs was too tempting to resist. It gave them a sense of security to have ‘their man’ in the seat of power.

Flesh and blood is natural, designed to keep and satisfy the needs of the body and the senses rather than the spirit and the soul. In contrast to God, Who is Spirit, flesh is considered as unregenerate and unsanctified when not under the control of the God of all flesh. To be able to relate to God, it must be circumcised and crucified. If the flesh is abused, it becomes tired, weak, sick, and dies; if well nourished, it radiates beauty and health; and if over-pampered, it becomes uncontrollable and dictatorial. Its works, when not regenerated in Christ, are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like (Gal. 5: