Topic: How can I be faithful in a world of distractions?
Personal Piece: This week has been quite the whirlwind. My sister returned from nine months working in India. My family is always looking for excuses to get together so her return turned into a week long family reunion. Between surprise birthday parties, dinners, church, movies, board games and lots of laughter it was a very wonderful week. Just what the doctor ordered. It's so easy to get caught up in the monotony of life and get lost in my own head. I'm always thankful when I have sometime to be with my family, take off the mask that so many expect me to wear and just be myself for a little while.
Thought of the Week: This month I have been talking a lot about this concept of priests and kings and what God's intention was when he established Israel as a nation. When Israel was first established they had no king. It was God's intention that the people seek his face for their guidance. In the early days the prophetic mouthpiece that God had set up was considered to be the highest position in the land with the high priest not far beneath him. These two men were responsible not only for the natural well-being of the nation but even more so for their spiritual well-being. God spoke to these men directly until the nation became so corrupt that they demanded a king. They didn't want God's direct leadership anymore. So God gave them what they asked for and the people became even more separated from God.
But God had given King David a promise that one of his descendants would always be on the throne. I'm sure the people of Israel believed Yahweh had broken his promise when Israel fell and a Babylonian king took over who had no connection to David. For nearly 1000 years the people were under the rule of foreign nations rather than a son of David. I can't even imagine that. So often God gives me promises and I feel like I've been lied to after just 5 min of the promise not being fulfilled. The next day I feel like an idiot wondering why I ever allowed myself to hold onto a promise that was so unrealistic. The people of Israel waited A THOUSAND YEARS. The man who God had given the promise to wasn't even alive to see its fulfillment and yet his faith did not waver. He knew God's word was good.
The people were waiting for a king to rise up and take his place in Jerusalem. A strong warrior who would take back the nation from captivity and establish them as a world power once again. Looking back we can see how small minded they were (aren't we all). It's often only after God has finally fulfilled his promise in his own way that we can look back and see how he was moving in his own direction all along. God had no intention of establishing a king. That had never been his intent from the time he had initially established Israel. Israel was meant to be led by a priest and who better to lead Israel in holiness then...God himself.
God became a man and lived among humanity. He taught them the truth, showed them his heart and opened his arms to any who were willing to come. Many people look down on Judas for betraying the Messiah but how many of us can honestly say that we wouldn't have done the same thing to a man who was going against everything we had grown up to believe. Many of the people who followed Jesus, did so with the expectation that he would one day pick up his sword and rescue them. When Judas realized that wasn't the case he believed that Jesus was a heretic (he did after all claim to be God) and according to the law heretics had to be killed.
How many of us can say that we have not done the same thing in our own lives. We have these expectations for Jesus. We expect that once we become Christians our lives will become miraculously better. We expect that bad things will stop happening and that our lives will somehow become perfect. When it turns out that that isn't the case we blame God, we declare him a liar with our actions. We deny him or turn our backs on him and his laws And it all comes down to our developing an opinion of God that isn't accurate. As my brother and sister-in-law would say "You think you know but'cha don't". None of us truly can and that's part of the adventure.
Jesus came and established himself in a priestly and prophetic role long before he established himself as any kind of king. Though he is more than worthy to be king, it was more important to him that the people be reminded of what holiness looked like. He wants all of us to come to him first as the priest that stands before Yahweh on our behalf. He wants us to see him as the one who came to direct us in paths of holiness and who came to show us how to live amidst the distractions. Jesus was the priest who became king. The only man who could ever be both. He became the permanent bridge between us and God as Moses, Joshua and David had once been.
This world can be so distracting we install faster technology so that we have more time but then realize we don't really know what to do with all that time so we plug into louder and louder entertainment until we can no longer hear his voice. Jesus came to teach us how to slow down and enjoy life. He came to show us what's of true importance. And he made it simple and timeless. "Love God and love others". How do we remain faithful in a life of distractions, we simply love God (our high priest) and we love others (directing them to the high priest with our example). God is a king but he is first and foremost a priest. It's what he wanted the people of Israel to see and it is what he still wants us to see today.
Digging Deeper: For more about priests and their duties check out the book of Leviticus. The book of Hebrews gives an in depth examination of how Jesus fulfilled the role of priest
Challenge: Keep a log with 3 columns. In the first column mark the ways you showed your love for God throughout the day. In the 2nd mark the ways you've shown your love for others and in the final column write down the distractions that may have taken away from the first two. After a week examine how the three columns balance out. Is one column longer than the other. Keep in mind that some things that we use to "recharge" should be placed in the distraction section. Though it may not seem like it the only true way to recharge is to spend time with God and let that time overflow onto others. If you do a second week ask yourself how you can re-balance your columns so that you are "charging" with the right "outlets"
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