2013-03-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, the Holy Spirit led me to write about learning to have self-control when wronged and to put our concerns on the Lord’s ample shoulders. He is our Covenant-Partner and the only One to have the right to exact revenge [RO 12: 19-20]. We are to “Love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us” [MT 5: 44-45a]. Those who obey the Lord’s teaching here are victors in Christ’s name.
Today, I am led to begin with where the loyalty of a true believer and covenant-partner should be in the Lord’s eyes. If we review the story of Jonathan’s and David’s covenant of friendship, we will see in the series of events covered in 1 SAM 18, through Jonathan’s death [1 SAM 31] and with David’s life beyond it through Mephibosheth’s life in David’s home [2 SAM 9], we can see the practice of placing one’s covenant partners as a first priority after one’s own family. Despite his personal foibles, David lived out an honorable life in the Lord. He will be remembered for that, most especially by the Lord in keeping to the Davidic covenant of 2 SAM 7: 12-13, in which a Descendant of David will occupy the throne of His Kingdom forever. Now we must review individually our covenant relationships with others and, of course, with the Lord Jesus. We must look at them to see where our true loyalties have been. No one can do that for us; we must do it for ourselves.
We can view what happens when one’s loyalty doesn’t follow this ideal with the example of what happened to Israel when the decision was made to replace God, Himself, as their political leader with a human king, i.e. Saul in 1 SAM 10: 1. “Then Samuel [the prophet] took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you leader over His inheritance?’” Later in (9-10) Saul was officially made king. “As Saul hurried to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart and all these signs were fulfilled that day. When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying.” Israel’s hopes were elevated at the time, but we know from our studies that Saul later was bedeviled with what I truly believe was Bipolar disease. This led him to make poor choices, like beleaguering David, chasing the later around the countryside, alternating with loving the latter and trying to kill him. 1 SAM 15: 7-9, Saul attacked Israel’s enemies, the Amalekites, but disobeyed God by sparing their evil king, Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle. 1 SAM 15: 26b sealed Saul’s fate. “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel.” God, Who has ultimate charge over who rules a kingdom [see DN 4: 17] decided to depose Saul. With Saul’s rejection, the Lord, Samuel helps Israel find it’s next king, the handsome son of Jesse, David. 1SAM 16: 13, “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.” Our need to place our first loyalty with the Lord, being faithfully obedient to Him, is the clear lesson of Saul’s failure. What applied to him and David, also applies today to us, for the Lord’s teaching is “the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow” [HE 13: 8]. God also punished Saul afterward, as we see in 1 SAM 16: 14, “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.”
Disobedience to our Covenant-Partner causes a great deal of trouble in people’s lives. Jonah’s story is a great example. God ordered Jonah to go to Ninevah, the Assyrian capital [JON 1: 2], and gave him the power to bring these enemies of Israel to faith in Him. Instead, Jonah gets on a ship headed in totally the opposite direction for Tarshish (3). We all know the story of how he was tossed overboard in a storm (4-5) and ended up in the belly of a big fish for three days (17). Eventually, in response to Jonah’s prayers to escape this fate, he is given a second chance and is heaved up by the fish to where he could escape this fate [JON 2: 10]. Once he gets to Nineveh, the people there are converted to faith in the One and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [JON 3: 4-6].
We need to look back on our own lives to see where and if we have been disobedient to God. It’s tough to do this with openness and honesty, because it forces us to look at our spiritual warts. Whatever pain we have in this kind of examination is worth it. This need not be done with provoking guilt, for that isn’t the Lord’s intent. Instead, it is to bring us to consciousness of where we need to make changes and our need to confess to Him these sins, bringing a halt to their evil power over our lives. Excessive pride, making snap-judgments, arrogance, destructive anger, and impatience have been bugaboos in my own life. These are things I am working at eliminating from my life. There are probably more sins that I will be working on in the future. Re-read MT 7: 1-2. It’s so easy for us to pre-judge others, and yet we must cease that attitude, the one of making snap-judgments, and take the time God has given us in working on our own sins with Him. Ask for His help, and He will give it to us. Remember, this is our Lord, Who loves us and wants nothing more than to bring us back to Him for a life of eternal bliss and fellowship with Him [JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5].
PRAYER: O Lord, You are our Strong Tower, our beloved Covenant-Partner. You have shown us that our first loyalty should be to You and our human covenant partners. There are so many lessons You teach us every day through Your word [2 TIM 3 :16-17] and prayer [PS 86: 5, 7]. Our time during our earthly lives is meant to be taken up in worshipping You in the many ways You have given us. This can be done corporately in church and individually in the way we live our lives. In church, we can worship with others who believe, help, by the ethical example we set and by our service, to strengthen their faith and our own. We can serve missions, use musical talents, attend and/or teach Bible studies, visit the ill and home-bound, and a myriad of other godly interactions to live out our belief in You. At home, we can raise our children to love the Lord Jesus, act with loving and loyal ethics toward our spouses and families, and we can serve in our careers and communities with Your teaching always in mind. At times when necessary, we need to review our lives and relationship with You. There are times when You will order events and relationships we have in order to teach us important principles You want us to know. We pray IS 50: 4, “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like the one being taught.” Lord, we pray we are always teachable, always ready to learn from our lives and covenant relationship with You. We thank and praise You for Your faithfulness to us, and offer these prayers in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit has more for me to discuss on the subject of what went on between Saul and David. There was unusual loyalty on David’s part, because Saul had been king of Israel. The remarkable and protective behavior was an outgrowth of David’s desire to be loyal to both his covenant partner, Jonathan, and his Covenant Partner, the Lord God. It’s an interesting study of human interaction. In the meanwhile, we must know that even the painful examination of our own sins and action taken to stop sinning is watched with great interest by our Covenant Partner/Strong Tower. His love for us and care is expressed in PS 37: 23-24, “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Through they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” If we think about it, we are richly blessed to have a Covenant Partner, Who wants what is in our best eternal interests. He wants us to seek Him out, to give us a great future, and to begin to see our lives and the world from His lofty perspective [JER 29: 11-3; 1 PET 1: 4, 6]. He offers us comfort and promises to make us stronger and better than ever [PS 71: 20-21]. He gives us mercy and compassion, as a loving Father [PS 103: 13] does for His children. He grants us peace and strength [PS 29: 11]. And when we are worried, He wants us to place our burdens on His shoulders [MT 11: 28-30]. The only logical and right thing to do in the face of this kind of love is to offer Him our loyalty, honor, glory, praise, and utmost thanks for His presence and intervention in our lives. Thus, I end this devotion with PS 9: 1-2, “I will give thanks to You, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing the praises of Your name, O Most High.” Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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