Rarely does God say to anyone, “obey the voice” of
another. He told Abraham to obey the
voice of Sarah with respect to the sending away of Hagar and Ishmael but you
don’t see that often. Normally, the only
voice He commands us to obey is His voice.
In this matter of a king, Samuel objects to the people’s demand but the
Lord tells him to “obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you…” In doing so, Samuel will be obedient to the
voice of the Lord. Samuel had some blame
in this whole episode. He, like Eli
before him, had failed with his own children, failed to ensure that they kept
to the ways of God, and this failure led the people to desire a king, the
judges weren’t trustworthy. Why anyone
thought a king would be the solution is a mystery but at least it had the
promise of making it all simpler. The
Lord was clear, however, what kind of king they would have. His greed would be rapacious, the people
would be his subjects, with whom he could do as he pleased, and he would take
all the best for himself. How in the
world, after that warning, could they have said, yes, but give us a king. The rejection of God couldn’t be more
evident.
Jesus knew that once He was gone the people would look to
the apostles for leadership and teaching.
He also knew that they needed to understand how to exercise those
ministries properly. He spoke of how
kings of other nations, the Gentiles, exercised authority in their kingship and
said, it isn’t to be like that with you.
If you would be truly great, be one who serves. We have made a great many mistakes in
leadership in the church down the centuries and even in the church today we
remove leaders from roles of service, even in churches that are
non-hierarchical. I am more convicted
every day that we create false separations between clergy and laity that will
fail to exist in eternity. We have to
learn to relate as co-laborers and brothers and sisters whatever roles we may
have in the church. Jesus called them
brothers and not servants, we should learn from His example.
Did the leaders need a history lesson from Stephen? Why in the world did he answer them in this
way? It helps to go back and remember
the charges laid against him. “We have
heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” “This man never
ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard
him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the
customs that Moses delivered to us.”
Setting the record straight, defense, then, requires affirmation of all
that has gone before. His narrative
points somewhere, he begins in the beginning and tells the story, emphasizing
that what he is going to say is in continuity with the history of Israel, it is
not disconnected. We need to understand
that continuity as well. The incarnation wasn’t just in space and time, it was
in a particular place and a particular time.
Their ancestors, beginning with the patriarchs as Stephen points out,
have always rejected the rightful leaders, men like Joseph. Let us be leaders like Jesus and let us only
accept as our leaders men like Jesus.
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