The Joy of Glory

1 Samuel 8:1-22 (click here)
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him… “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them…only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations…” (1 Samuel 8:4-5, 7, 9, 19-20)

Reflection
“like all the nations…”

Make us like everybody else. That was Israel’s essential request. They had been led out of slavery by God… redeemed by God… brought to a new land by God… established their nation by God… forgiven by God as they forsook him over and over again… they belonged to God!

The very purpose for which he had saved them was so that they might be different from all the other nations of the world… set apart as his people… a holy nation.

Exodus 19:6, “…you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

But they did not want to be a city set on a hill for all the world to see and behold the light of God through his people. No… they wanted to be in the valley where they could hide their light under a bushel and party with everyone else.

They rejected the kind of community their King had created them to be.

And they were warned.

Through the prophet Samuel, God warned his people that there is no such thing as life without a king, and any option aside from himself will eventually fall short. But they didn’t care… and all too often neither do we.

Life without a king simply doesn’t exist.

Everyone has a ruler, even if they believe it to be themselves. As Christians, we have been recreated as a community of king Jesus! We’ve been set apart, made a city on a hill, that through our sacrificial love for one another the world might see a reflection of the sacrificial love of God most clearly displayed through the cross.

But oh how strong is the temptation to want to be like all the other people of the world. In our own western culture, that temptation specifically takes shape in the desire to be our own king and captain of our soul.

Oh people of God, hear the warning of God through the Word of God… we make bad kings! You have been freely given the greatest king who offers you the greatest joy… himself! You… we… have been given Jesus! May we be a people, a community who cling to our king!
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Ruth 1:1-18 (click here)
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. (ESV).” (Ruth 1:16-18)

Reflection
This is strange.

We might laughingly agree that a daughter-in-law pledging such love and devotion to her mother-in-law is indeed strange, but this goes deeper than in-law jokes.

In the ancient near-east, a young widow like Ruth would return to the home of her parents in hopes of remarriage. Without marriage and children, her future in this patriarchal culture would be extremely bleak. There were not many occupational options for women, thus, there was a dependence upon their husbands and eventually their sons for provision.

Ruth had neither.

Naomi, her mother-in-law, lovingly asked her to return home for the sake of her future livelihood, but Ruth lovingly refused. Such a refusal was tantamount to embracing a life of poverty and social ostracism, but Ruth was willing to do so for the sake of loving Naomi and refusing to allow her to live out her days alone. Ruth would sacrifice herself in love for a woman the world would see as worthless.

This is cruciform community.

This is a love that mirrors the love of Christ in the cross, who left his Father’s side to rescue us from our sin… sin which ostracized us from our God and threatened to leave us alone forever… sin which made us feel worthless.

But Christ took on our sin, embracing our spiritual poverty as if it were his own… he put our worthlessness to death and brought us spiritual riches beyond anything we could ask or imagine.

Now, as his people, we love as he loved. We sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our brothers and sisters and the world. Our lives have been transformed and become cruciform.

Like Ruth and Naomi, the church is a cruciform community as a witness to the world.
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Joshua 24:1-15 (click here)
I took your father Abraham from beyond the River…
I gave him Isaac…
I gave Jacob…
I sent Moses and Aaron…
I plagued Egypt…
I brought you out…
I brought you to the land…
I gave them into your hand…
I delivered you…
I gave you a land…

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:various selections and 14-15)

Reflection

As the people of God, we have a history… a history of God’s faithfulness to fulfill all his promises.

Yet, we are each under constant temptation to forsake the Lord, often because we have bought into the lie that he has forsaken us.

When Israel finished conquering the promised land, Joshua, their leader, knew that the temptation would be strong upon the people to return to the foreign false deities their forefathers had so often served in Egypt. He knew that as the people experienced individual hardships, they may think the Lord had forsaken them. Or… as they experienced individual blessings they may think they had gained everything in their own power and didn’t need the Lord.

So what did Josh do?

He reminded the people of their history… a history of God’s faithfulness to fulfill all his promises.

He reminded them of how God had not forsaken them as a people, but had worked on their behalf generation after generation. Even if they were to experience individual circumstances that felt like God was absent, they could stand amongst the people of God and look over their collective history to see that the Lord was always present and faithful to his people.

Joshua reminded them of how all their blessings had been given to them by the Lord. Even if they were experiencing individual success, when standing amongst the people of God, hearing their history, they should recognize that all success belonged to the Lord… the glory was his alone!

This is one of the reasons the church community is so vital for us as Christians. We will all experience various times in our lives when we believe the Lord has forsaken us. We need to stand amongst the people of God and hear the whole of our story. God’s faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob IS his faithfulness to us as well!

We will also likely have times of success, and we will be tempted to take all the credit and forget the Lord. Who needs to rely on God when they can rely on themselves? We need the community and our collective history to remind us that all blessings come from the Lord.

In light of our history and all God’s faithfulness… in light of all his goodness… in light of him and amongst his people… it is form that perspective that we should and must choose who we will serve each day.

As for me and my house… we will serve the Lord.
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.