Grace in the Wilderness by Wagner Francis;

Author:Wagner, Francis;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CareNotes

Whom Will You Serve?

We hear a lot today about separation of Church and state. There is considerable tension between the two—and at times, either corrupt collusion or catastrophic conflict. At its core, however, the issue is nothing new. Only the circumstances have changed throughout human history.

In a very real sense, such a tug of war is our own doing. We have created the conditions against which we strain. The real question may be: “What does this perpetual struggle tell us about ourselves, about what we value, about what we desire and strive for?”

From a biblical perspective, the sacred writers relate the answer to us quite clearly:

What does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.… Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear.

—Deuteronomy 10:12-13; 6:6, 12-13

Later, Joshua tells the chosen People of God: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” And the people respond by saying they will serve the Lord, “for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed” (Joshua 24:15, 17).

From the very beginning, humanity was not meant to be governed by anyone but God. The Lord God was King. But our ancestors in the faith, like us, had short memories. It wasn’t long before they envied what pagan nations had and chose against God. They pleaded with the prophet and judge Samuel to give them a “real” king: “We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).

Samuel resisted, but God told him, “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” Give them a king, he told Samuel, but warn them what that will mean (1 Samuel 8:6-9). So, Samuel told the people that if he anointed a king over them, their rulers would become greedy, cruel tyrants and thieves, seeking to conquer only for their own personal survival and comfort. Still, they insisted: “Give us a king!”

“Crucify him!” would be the cry many years later, essentially saying the same thing: “We want a king after our own image—to rule ourselves. We don’t want God.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.