Evangelicals often use the phrase, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” to mean that it’s wrong to ever correct, critique, or criticize pastors. This is nothing but spiritual manipulation and abuse.
Speaking Against God’s Servants
Recently, I posed a question to my social media friends, asking about manipulative phrases that pastors use from the pulpit. I was looking for the kinds of expressions where the pastor exercises control over the congregation. Some of the answers I received assisted me in writing “Evangelical Tricks of the Trade: Manipulations from the Pulpit.”
One person commented, “I would like to encourage you to be very careful with this. As knowledgeable as you are about the Bible you know what it says about speaking against God’s servants.” Then, they promptly unfriended me. While they didn’t use the common phrase, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed,” this is what they meant.
“Touch Not the Lord’s Anointed!”
Usually, if you hear the phrase, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed,” it’s used by Evangelical pastors who are putting themselves up on a pedestal. Sometimes their supporters say this as well. Don’t get me wrong – I believe in supporting your pastor as long as you can do so in good conscience, and as long as they are not abusing their leadership role. But people who use this phrase typically express an unwavering, unquestioning, unthinking loyalty to someone whom they believe God has especially chosen. It’s the kind of language that drones use to protect their queen. And it’s the kind of language that a queen bee uses to keep the drones in line.
Biblical Context
To find out whether this quote is being misused, let’s take a look at the biblical context of this phrase. It’s found in 1 Samuel 24. David has been on the run, with King Saul pursuing him. When David hides in a cave, he is amazed to find that Saul stops in the mouth of the cavern to relieve himself. David’s men pressure him to slay the king while he is indisposed, but David lets the king live. He simply sneaks carefully up to the king, cuts off the corner of the royal robe, and slinks back into the darkness. Later, once Saul is at a safe distance, David hails the king and waves the corner of the robe. He tells Saul that he could have killed him but had mercy instead. In verse six, David says, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.”
Kings as the Lord’s Anointed
Several important things must be noted about this biblical story:
- This passage refers to the king of Israel, not to pastors. People who use it in reference to pastors confuse earthly power with spiritual influence.
- This scripture refers to David’s abstention from physical violence against the king. It has nothing to do with correction, critique, or criticism.
- In this instance, David critiques the king’s ill-treatment of his servant David. David highlights his own loyalty but publicly calls attention to Saul’s unreasonable behavior.
- David never falls back on this kind of statement when he himself comes under criticism as king. When Nathan the prophet rebukes David about his sin with Bathsheba, the king never defends himself by reminding the prophet that the Lord’s anointed is above reproach. Instead, he receives the criticism with humility.
Those who employ this phrase in reference to ministers are clearly trying to set pastors up as kings of their congregations. But if you cannot touch the pastor as the Lord’s anointed ruler of a church, then the pastor becomes a dictator. This is not the kind of church I want to join!
The Nation as the Lord’s Anointed
David’s statement that he would not touch the Lord’s anointed clearly referenced the anointed king. But there’s another group that 1 Chronicles 16:21-22 calls “the Lord’s anointed.” In this passage, the entire nation of Israel is called God’s anointed. The chronicler also calls the whole nation “prophets.” This is clearly hyperbole, as the whole nation was neither anointed with oil, nor did all speak direct words from God. The psalmist quotes the chronicler word-for-word in Psalm 105:15. The interesting thing to note here is that both passages are quotes from David himself! So, it’s clear that David never thought of pastors (which didn’t exist in David’s day) as the “Lord’s anointed.”
Prophets as the Lord’s Anointed
1 Kings 19:16 references an anointed king, and also an anointed prophet. Typically, this word is used literally to refer to a ceremony in which oil is poured on a king’s head at his coronation. In this case, it seems that Elisha was anointed as a prophet. Prophets are metaphorically anointed as God’s mouthpieces. The difference between a pastor and a prophet is that a prophet supposedly speaks God’s message word-for-word. A pastor as a caretaker of the flock teaches the Bible but is not viewed as a direct messenger of God in the same way. Pastors who set themselves up as prophets misunderstand the nature of God’s call to ministers. They also grasp after spiritual authority that pastors were never meant to have.
The Messiah as the Lord’s Anointed
The Hebrew word for “anointed one” is Mashiach, or Messiah. This word was used for kings and other leaders. It is even used for the Persian king Cyrus, who released Israel from captivity in 538 CE. The term also came to be used in reference to a hoped-for leader who would one day emerge to govern Israel with justice.
Later, Christians used the word to describe Jesus. Acts 10:38 says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” When the Gospels were written in Greek, this Hebrew word was translated as Christos or Christ.
When a Pastor is Seen as the Lord’s Anointed
When my friend warned me against “speaking against God’s servants,” she followed the tradition of those who say, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” in reference to pastors. I had to laugh at the irony, as I used to be this woman’s pastor, and she was criticizing my criticism of certain kinds of pastors. She didn’t realize that (according to her own rules, not mine) she was “touching the Lord’s anointed,” by criticizing me. But even more than the irony, I found it sad that somebody had manipulated her into believing that pastors are above reproach.
When the pastor calls himself or herself, “the Lord’s anointed,” they are setting themselves up as a prophet (direct mouthpiece of God), the monarch of the church, or as the Messiah. Any one of these is dangerous for a religious leader. If the minister is “the Lord’s anointed,” then no one can question the pastor’s interpretation of the Bible or their leadership of the congregation. This sets the pastor up to become abusive. Victimized congregants who use the phrase, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” are in essence saying, “Thank you, Sir; may I have another?”
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I am not anti-pastor by any means. In fact, in over a quarter-century of ministry, I received so much resistance and even abuse from church members that it would have been nice to throw around a phrase like this that gave me ultimate authority. But in good conscience, I just couldn’t do it. The pastor is not the dictator of the church. The minister is not the monarch of the congregation. A good pastor leads with influence rather than authority. Instead of lifting themself up as the Lord’s anointed, a good pastor lifts up the name of the Mashiach, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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