Psalm 30, 32; 1 Kings 12:1-20; James 5:7-20; Mark 15:33-39
The word of the Lord comes to pass in the next generation after Solomon’s apostasy. For all the wisdom Solomon possessed, none of it seems to have passed on to his son Rehoboam. He received counsel from the older men that he could have the love of the people if he would lighten their burden and treat them with respect and care but he listened to the idiots who were young men who counseled him to increase the burden and be a harder taskmaster than his father. That decision cost him the kingdom of his father and grandfather, left him only with a kingdom of one tribe, just had been foretold to his father. Not only would Rehoboam not keep covenant with the Lord, he would break covenant with the people and they with him.
As opposed to Rehoboam, Jesus lays down his life, taking on our burden, the burden of sin, that we might take up his light yoke. A yoke teams two animals for work. God’s way is not to lay onerous burdens on us but to give us the light yoke walking and working with Jesus Himself as our yoke-fellow. He died on the cross that we might indeed never truly die, only pass from this life to the next, more abundant life. The crowds taunted not to take down His body, let’s wait and see if Elijah comes and takes Him down. They simply didn’t wait long enough to see that miracle. He was indeed entering into His eternal kingdom and inaugurating a new one where He is no longer simply King of the Jews, but King of all who believe, from every tribe and language and nation.
Patience is a difficult thing. It is hard some days to wait for the coming of the kingdom in its glory but most days I don’t give it that much thought, I lose sight of the most important thing because of the most pressing things or because of something I want in this life more than I do the kingdom of God to come. Do you want to see the coming again of Jesus in glory? Do you really want to see that? I think the truth is that we spend relatively little time longing for and praying for the kingdom of God because we live in a time and a land of plenty in the United States and we allow ourselves to be consumed with thoughts of this kingdom. We allow ourselves to obsess about whether we are taxed too much or whether the other guy is taxed too little, whether government is spending too much money or too little money and we should know that those thoughts are about the kingdom of this world. Our leaders are concerned with this kingdom rather than that kingdom. Let us be more like Jesus, keeping our eyes on the true, eternal kingdom and living for that kingdom today. If we don’t value that kingdom then why should the world give it any thought at all?
Sure as Thy truth shall last,
To Zion shall be given
The brightest glories earth can yield
And brighter bliss of Heaven.
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