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Pray for Wisdom, July 27, 2020

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

As many of you who have listened to my podcasts for a while know, I often use a scripture from the lectionary for the focus of my thoughts. I’m amazed how often the scriptures seem to point to the very things I need to hear. And as I hear from others of you, it seems the scripture often relates to something going on in your life at the time as well. It is uncanny the way God works, but he is God after all.

Well, this week’s Old Testament focus was no different. It comes to us from 1 Kings 3 as Solomon takes the throne succeeding his father David. You’ll remember David became the model against whom every other king was measured. He wasn’t perfect by any means. We know about his adultery, his attempts to hide it, and ultimately his plot to murder his mistress’ husband to cover his sin. David’s life wasn’t one spent in dark, hooded robes mumbling prayers in the sanctuary. He was king. A battle-hardened warrior. He expanded Israel’s territory and rooted out it’s enemies from its cities. But God called David a man after his own heart.

Now Solomon has gained the crown. God comes to him and we pick up the story from there as Eugene Peterson describes it in The Message:

^4-5The king went to Gibeon, the most prestigious of the local shrines, to worship. He sacrificed a thousand Whole-Burnt-Offerings on that altar. That night, there in Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream: God said, “What can I give you? Ask.”

⁶Solomon said, “You were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right. And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this very day!—a son to sit on his throne.

^7-8“And now here I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job. And here I am, set down in the middle of the people you’ve chosen, a great people—far too many to ever count.

⁹“Here’s what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?”

^10-14God, the Master, was delighted with Solomon’s response. And God said to him, “Because you have asked for this and haven’t grasped after a long life, or riches, or the doom of your enemies, but you have asked for the ability to lead and govern well, I’ll give you what you’ve asked for—I’m giving you a wise and mature heart. There’s never been one like you before; and there’ll be no one after. As a bonus, I’m giving you both the wealth and glory you didn’t ask for—there’s not a king anywhere who will come up to your mark. And if you stay on course, keeping your eye on the life-map and the God-signs as your father David did, I’ll also give you a long life.” (1 Kings 3:4-14 TM)

What maturity Solomon showed as he expressed his wish. Give me wisdom to judge these people. Help me to know the difference between good and evil. If you want me to lead, then give me a listening heart.

Don’t you wish more of our leaders would pray for a listening heart to know the difference between good and evil? It seems we live in a time more like the beginning of the book of Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This “cancel culture” that sprang up from somewhere that decided if I don’t like what you say or what you do, you become invisible. We make you disappear from the world. What you stand for doesn’t count. What you believe doesn’t matter. You are hereby cancelled.

How does that fit into what God wants for us? Do we think we can add him to part of the “cancel culture?” I know there are those trying – pulling down statues of Jesus, desecrating churches, synagogues, temples, and other houses of worship. We see an “I believe in me” culture rising. But God cannot be cancelled. Nations tried before to their destruction. We can try to rewrite the past. We can try to remake a belief system. We can declare we will rise on our own strength. Many tried. Many failed.

A relatively small group decided they want a different government here. I’ve heard too many times, “We’ll burn it down if we don’t get what we want.” How does that help anyone? If everything has been burnt to down, who will rebuild? Who will expend the energy to watch it come tumbling down again? Who wants to risk the threat of careless vandals destroying a life’s work again? And who will have the funds to do so? When the government changes, so does the money. The meaningless coins and paper that we pass to one another in exchange for something. We think money has value, but it doesn’t.

If you think money has value, ask the Argentinians who went through month after month of triple digit inflation when prices became so high the last three zeros on every price tag were removed. But salaries didn’t change. Income didn’t rise with the same inflation. Ask the Venezuelans who experienced triple digit inflation not so long ago. Money didn’t mean anything anymore. Did the government help? No. Did the change in leadership make things better? No.

It seems to me we have an awful lot of people trying to get into this country for it to be such a terrible place to live, work, and raise a family. I see millions trying to come in every year, but I don’t see millions trying to leave to go to some other country. Why is that? Maybe it’s because in the past we thought about more than ourselves. Maybe in the past our elected officials remembered their office wasn’t about making money or becoming popular or even getting reelected. Their office was to pray Solomon’s prayer and ask for discernment so they might have a listening heart.

As I watch most votes in the House and Senate, it seems no one has a listening heart anymore. Most votes split across party lines. Why? Because no one listens. Is every Democrat good? No. Is every Republican bad? No. We will find good and evil among every party, every race, every economic stratum. We will find racism in the same places. No section is exempt. I will say, or write, or do something that I’m sure someone will think is racist. So will you. Why? Because we are. We think in the culture in which we live and work and play. And whenever we come in contact with another culture, it doesn’t matter what color their skin or what language they speak, we will do something someone in that culture could take as offensive.

But when do we act like Solomon and stop and listen with a discerning heart? When do ask the question, “What do I have to think about the person I know to believe he or she said or did whatever it was to intentionally hurt me?”

When we ask that question before we blurt out a response, most of the time, we know the answer will be they didn’t intend harm. I took something wrong. I didn’t understand. There is miscommunication between us. How can we learn from each other so we can avoid bitter feelings? Then talk to each other and listen to each other – but not on Facebook. Pick up the phone. Go to lunch. Really communicate. Don’t scream that you know what the other person thinks. You don’t.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived knew he needed a listening heart to discern the good from the bad. How much more do we need to pray for such a thing in this day? How much different would the streets of our city be tomorrow if all of us sincerely asked for a discerning, listening heart, then sat down with those not like us and heard their story. Maybe we would learn something. Maybe we would care. Maybe we would find some directions to take that would ease the growing tension in a country where millions come to find freedom from oppressive governments.

Is our nation perfect? Not by any means. Is it terrible? Talk to those who escape from those nations led by dictators and politburos. Can we make improvements? Not until we stop and listen to each other and decide we want to do what is right, not what is politically advantageous. As we begin to approach elections in the fall, I encourage you to get information about the candidates. Don’t listen to the news or social media or the campaign adds. Find out about their character. How did they vote on critical issues and why? What do they say they believe and do their actions support it?

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible-based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

Scriptures marked TM are taken from the THE MESSAGE: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH (TM): Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH, copyright©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group

No one said it would be easy, July 1, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

As I read the scriptures from yesterday’s lectionary readings, there are some disturbing verses. Words that you probably wouldn’t search out to win someone to the Christian community. But I think we sometimes fail to give the whole picture of what it means to follow God and in so doing lose a lot of people who would follow him if they understood that he doesn’t necessarily remove us from the difficulties of life, but rather he walks through them with us.

Let me give you a sample of what was in the readings yesterday.

From 1 Kings 19 as Elijah commissions his replacement, Elisha he utters these words in verse 20. ‘He [Elisha] left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?”’

Then in Luke 9 we find these words:

As they [Jesus and his disciples] were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

These are tough verses to hear if you are a new Christian. The disciples had been following Jesus for three years and heard him talking about his upcoming destiny in Jerusalem. I’m not sure they believed he would be crucified. I think they still hoped he would be the physical, political, and religious leader they wanted him to be. But they had heard his message and heard him proclaim that he would be hung on a tree just as Moses hung the snake on a pole in the wilderness, when the Israelites wandered in the desert those centuries earlier.

Jesus puts a damper on a lot of folks who made the claim they would follow him anywhere. He didn’t say they couldn’t follow him, but he questioned their ability and their commitment to do so. In effect, he told them, it isn’t just words. To follow him, it’s a life changing event. Everything else in life must become secondary to him. He will be first or he will not be at all. He will not be second place in life. Period. He won’t even be tied for first. Nothing can come close to his sovereignty in your life. Why? Because he is God, that’s why.

God deserves that position in our lives because he made us. We don’t like to think in terms of slavery and someone owning another person. It rubs against us because of some of the horrid conditions and the abuse that some owners imposed on slaves. And it’s true. Our history shows that some owners were unkind to slaves, treated them poorly, didn’t see them as human. But not all slave owners felt that way throughout history. In fact, as you read documents from ancient times, you find accounts where people indentured themselves as slaves. Did this happen often? I don’t know. But it did ensure survival for many that would not have survived otherwise.

Slavery has been a part of the world throughout its history and is still happening today. Is it wrong? I don’t think one person should own another, but I know that many of those owners saw their slaves as assets like they we would see many of our assets in business. They took care of them if for no other reason for the economic value the assets brought to their business and their home. Greece would not have become the intellectual and philosophical giant it became without the slave labor it had. Rome would not have created the network of trade and commerce had slavery not been used to make it happen. The United States would not have fed itself in its infancy had slaves not been around to work in the fields.

The face of our world would be very different had slavery never happened. Am I a proponent of slavery? Absolutely not. I only make this point about history to note that I don’t think we in our particular point in history we fully understand the ramifications of what slavery has done or not done to the history of mankind for good or bad. People of every race have been enslaved at some point in history. And I point out the magnitude of slavery throughout man’s history because of its use as an example the New Testament writers choose for our relationship with God. We are slaves either to him or to Satan. Those are our two choices. But we are slaves nonetheless.

The penalties for runaways have always been harsh. There has never been real freedom for slaves. But as we think about the two masters, God and Satan, which would you choose to serve? Satan says you are free and in control of your life, but as we mentioned last week, you are not. We can control so little. We have an illusion of freedom, but we are not free. The chains of sin that bring guilt and pain and separation from God bind us in ways we try to push aside with self-help, drugs, short-term pleasure, and all kinds of gratification that never works.

When we are slaves to God, though, we are freed from the guilt that comes from our disobedience, our sin. We are forgiven and made a part of his family. We are treated as sons and daughters of the King of kings. We begin to experience the right to live abundantly. Not necessarily with material things, but with the assurance that we will see God face to face one day and that he will never leave us while we journey through this life. As his slaves, we know he cares for us. We know he has our best in mind in all that happens around us. We may suffer, but it is not because of him. It is because of the sin scarred world that continues to plunge toward its ultimate destruction and rebirth as the new heaven and new earth Jesus describes.

Life was as hard for Elisha as it was for Elijah. He lived much of his life in the wilderness on the run from those who tried to destroy him because of his messages from God against the wickedness that prevailed among the leaders of the nations. Elisha never enjoyed a fancy place to live, fashionable clothes, or popularity with the in-crowd. But Elisha listened to and followed God’s commands.

When we follow Jesus, life will not necessarily be easy. In fact, Jesus promised his disciples, and that includes us, that the world would hate us because of him. Satan lured Adam and Eve to disobey God and he has been doing the same to every person ever born ever since that day. He does not want us to follow God. He does not want us to give ourselves to God’s sovereignty. Satan abandoned God and wants us to do the same. But the price is eternal separation from the only one who really cares about us. The one who made us is the one we need to listen to and follow.

No one, even God, never promised life would be fair or easy or fun or pain free or full of only happy times. In fact, the closer we get to the end of time, the worse the conditions will be for those who give their allegiance to him. The world seems to be getting pretty close to the time of delivery as Jesus describes these birth pangs of earthquakes, famine, floods, wars, and things that seem to tear us apart. Just look around and note the intensity and velocity of things happening around us compared to just a few years ago. I don’t think it’s climate change. I think God is counting down the days until this old earth gives birth to a new one. Read Matthew 24 and 25 and then compare today’s news to Jesus’ description of the end times.

It won’t be long. Get ready.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

We can trust him, June 24, 2019

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

If you didn’t grow up in the church, you might not know much about the prophet Elijah. There are some pretty interesting stories about him and his exploits in the Old Testament. He did some things that would make Harry Houdini, David Blaine, and David Copperfield look like kindergarten magician wannabes. But one of his most famous exploits is found in 1 Kings 19. It tells of his confrontation with Jezebel’s prophets of Baal. He faced off against 450 of them and set the conditions for the contest. Both teams would set up a sacrifice and the god who answered by fire would be the God the Israelites served.

The Baal prophets and priests danced and prayed and cried and screamed and cut themselves, but no fire fell. Then at the time of the evening sacrifice it was Elijah’s turn. He built the altar, killed the bull, placed the wood and the sacrifice on the altar, then did what everyone thought was really stupid. He poured twelve barrels of water over the whole thing until everything was drenched and even the trench around the altar was full of water.

Elijah then prayed a simple prayer. God, show these people who you are, consume this sacrifice with fire. Fire fell from heaven and suddenly the sacrifice was burned to a crisp, the wood was gone, the stones of the altar were burned up, and the water in the trench was boiled away. There was nothing left of the sacrifice but a smoking pile of dirt where everything had been.

“So who will you serve? Who is God? Don’t let any of those false prophets escape!” Were the next words from Elijah.

So God did this miraculous thing for Elijah. He showed him time and again how powerful he was and how he would protect him. But right after this a strange thing happens. Elijah hears that Jezebel is unhappy that Elijah bested her priests and prophets and put a price on his head. And what does Elijah do? He shakes in his boots and runs away to hide.

God just showed his incredible power. God just demonstrated how he would answer Elijah’s prayer in time of need. God just got Elijah out of a spot that would surely have meant his death if his opponents had been successful. But now the queen says she’s out to get him and he is afraid she might. Elijah doesn’t trust God to take care of him. He doesn’t think God is bigger than this wicked queen. A pretty amazing story isn’t it.

We can look at Elijah and laugh at him. What an idiot! Why can’t you see that God is bigger than your problem? Why can’t you see that God is going to take care of you? Why can’t you see the connection between what he has done for you in the past and what he will likely do for you in the future? Well…

Maybe we should look in the mirror before we start throwing rocks at the poor fugitive.

I have to admit, God has done some really cool things in my life. He has taken me through some pretty rough times and gotten me out to the other end better than I could ever imagine. I would like to think I would use all that experience and tell you I never worry about anything. I’d like to tell you I always act like God has everything under control and I’m absolutely confident the outcome will be exactly right. I’d like to tell you to watch me and you’ll see a perfect example of perfect faith in the God who specializes in miracles. But I can’t.

I’m broken and flawed and sometimes forget all those things God has done in the past. I sometimes forget he is in the miracle working business. I know it in my head, but my actions show that my faith isn’t perfect. I still want to trust me more than God sometimes. Every now and then, just like Elijah, I find myself fearing the future I think is around the corner instead of keeping my eyes lifted up and focused on him. I end up running into the wilderness thirsty, hungry, exhausted, looking for an escape from something that really isn’t there, but I’m afraid it might be.

Have you ever experienced that? It’s the place too many of us find ourselves and don’t know how to get out of it. We, like Elijah, let ourselves get into the mullygrubs over stuff that God has already fixed if we would just stop and listen to him. Take a look at the rest of the story.

Elijah fell asleep under a broom tree, exhausted. An angel woke him up and told him to eat some food and drink some water from the little brook by him. Then he slept some more. The angel woke him a second time and told him to eat and drink. Then Elijah got smart and went to the mountainside to find God. There Elijah learned a powerful lesson about finding God. He wasn’t in the thunder and lightning. He wasn’t in the tornado like wind. He came as a whisper in the gentle breeze and assured Elijah he had his back. He let Elijah know he wasn’t alone in the world or even in his little piece of the world. Elijah thought he was fighting all the battles by himself against this wicked royal couple. Has wrong. Hundreds were hidden away ready to help Elijah in the cause of ousting this corrupt monarchy. God had plans for Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah would be a part of that plan, but God would be a bigger part. He would exact his vengeance so that all would remember it was God who took care of the wicked team.

So what do we learn from Elijah? We can trust God when the going gets tough. He didn’t take Elijah out of the situation. Jezebel still had a bounty out for his head. Jezebel still wanted the prophet dead. Elijah still lived in the wilderness instead of a palace, but God took care of his needs. I’m sure he would have enjoyed a more comfortable bed or a warmer place to sleep every once in a while, but God took care of his needs. And that’s the point.

The second thing we learn from Elijah’s encounter is that too often we look for the grandiose, the loud and boisterous, the spectacular, to figure out where God might be. But more often than not, he is waiting for us to quiet ourselves so we can hear his gentle voice. It’s a technique my father taught me a long time ago and I’ve used it often as a leader in the military, as a pastor, and as a father myself. If you really want someone to pay attention to what you have to say, you don’t scream at them. That only elicits a fight or flight response built into the primal survival instinct in our brain. No, if you want someone to pay attention to you, you get quiet. Make them strain their ears just a little to understand you. It forces the brain to put the sounds together and comprehend what the words mean.

God does that for us. He doesn’t scream at us. He speaks to us in a gentle whisper. He wants our attention, not our fear. He wants us to tremble in awe when he speaks, not because of the noise, but because we recognize he is God and choose to speak to sinners in such a calm and gentle manner.

It’s beyond belief. It’s past just mercy. It’s grace. It’s God extending his love to us in such an extraordinary way that it’s hard to even imagine that he would stoop so low as to give us attention in the first place, let alone speak to us and care about us. But that is who he is. He wants so desperately to have an intimate relationship with us that he wrapped himself in human flesh and lived with us for more than thirty years on this filthy, sinful planet. He showed us love. Even when we killed him, he loved us and proved his loved for us through that execution and the forgiveness he offers even through his death and resurrection.

So why do we have such a hard time believing God will take care of us? Why do we have trouble thinking we know better than he does about what we need and how best to figure out the next steps to take in our lives? Why are we so sure we have the answers to life’s questions? Sometimes I think God made us too smart. Sometimes I think we might be better off if we couldn’t think and just went about life the way the dumb animals do, operating on pure survival instinct. But then we would no longer be considered God’s highest creation, would we? Instead, we need to stop and use the grey matter God put between our ears and get our head and heart to work together to understand who God is and who we are in relation to him. He is the creator. It isn’t hard to understand that everything had to come from something in the beginning. There must have been a starting point. But if you go back far enough, it starts with nothing, just as Genesis says. Some will tell you it started with a big bang. Okay, where did the Big Bang come from? If there was nothing there, how did the bang happen? The answer is God. He spoke and bang, the beginning. There was light and dark, the first day.

And from that very first word from his consciousness, his design was to create us to have an intimate relationship with him. He wanted a higher created being to worship him. His God. We are not. We get that confused because we listened to the voice of that deceiver, Satan in the Garden of Eden the first time. And ever since Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be lured by the lies, we have also fallen prey to Satan’s schemes. We believe we can be as wise as God. We believe we can rule the universe.

We can’t. We can’t rule the universe or our tiny little planet or even ourselves most of the time. We have so little control over most everything around us, but we believe the lie that we are in control. The truth is I have almost no control over anything. I can control me sometimes, but that’s it. And most of me, I can’t control. I can only hold my breath a few seconds before my brain says breath and I can’t help but suck in air. I can’t stop my heart by just wishing it. I can’t make my eyes stop blinking. So much of me, I don’t even control. And try to control someone else? Forget it. Control the world around me? Try to grab a tornado by the tail or stop a volcano from blowing its top. Right!

But God can do any or all of those things with a word. He is God. He knows us. He made us. He loves us. Because God is who he is, Elijah learned to trust him. Did he slip up at times? Sure. The story we heard today shows us he did. We can learn to trust him, too. Will we slip us at times? Sure. But we can trust him because he is God. Give yourself to him and watch what he can do.

The runt of the family makes good, November 13, 2017

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Bible Reading Plan – www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 11; You Version Bible app Engaging God’s Story Reading Plan Days 71 through 77

Whether you are a church goer or not, you probably know the story of David and Goliath. David the giant killer. This 16 year-old shepherd goes to find his brothers in the army, take them some home cooked food, and see how their fight with the Philistines is going. He comes into the camp and hears the taunts of the Philistine champion, Goliath, daring anyone in the Israelite army to come out and fight him. All the Israelite soldiers hide behind the rocks and trees and bushes or in their tents afraid to face this giant of a man who stands almost ten feet tall.

David also hears about the reward for taking on this barbarian and killing him. Whoever kills the giant gets to marry the king’s daughter and he and his family lives tax free the rest of their lives. So David goes to king Saul and volunteers. Saul loans David his armor, but since Saul is a head taller than everyone else in the kingdom, of course the armor just swallows David. So David sets the armor aside and faces the giant with the weapon with which he is most familiar, his sling.

I think sometimes people get the wrong impression of David and his sling. We sometimes think of David as this scrawny 16 year-old kid with pimples and stringy hair, like the Shaggy Rogers character of Scooby-Doo fame. But don’t kid yourself. Jesse’s boys seem like the start of a mafia crowd to me. As a teenager, David killed a bear and a lion barehanded.

David’s brothers were all part of his band of 30 mighty men. Those were the elite of his army who characterized themselves by extraordinary deeds like killing a hundred men or more in one battle by themself. And David was their leader. To be the leader of these kind of men in those days, you won fights against them yourself. So, I have a feeling David was no slouch when it came to his physical frame or his fighting abilities.

David also came from Bethlehem. Warriors from Bethlehem were known for their ability to use slings. They learned as kids. These weren’t toy slingshots that we get in the store here. They weren’t the Y-shaped stick with a rubber strap you pull back and release. These were real slings. A leather pouch connected to two flax cords that would be swung over the head and then one of the cords released at just the right moment to release the stone held in that pouch. The stone would reach speeds of well over 100 miles per hour.

Imagine being hit by a rock moving one and a half times faster than the best pitchers throw their best fastballs. A good fastball can break a bone. If hit in the head, expect at least a concussion if not a fractured face. Now reduce the size of that projectile, increase the speed by 50% and put God behind the placement of that projectile. Pow! Right in the forehead. Down for the count! Whether immediately dead or just unconscious and giving time for David to run over and cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword. The sling was the perfect weapon. David could project that stone farther than the length of a football field.

But God was behind it all. The visit of David to his brothers. The confrontation between His people and the Philistines. The armor that was too big. The skill with the sling. The trajectory and impact. The fear Goliath’s defeat created for his countrymen. The defeat of the Philistine army. God intervened in the life of this unlikely character to unfold His plan and show us His greatness.

Who would have picked this 16 year-old as Israel’s champion that day? No one but God. Who would have expected this shepherd who have never lifted a sword to kill a nearly ten foot giant and rout an entire army? No one but God. Who would have thought anyone would go out on the battlefield against this champion without armor and face him with only a shepherd’s sling in his hand? No one but God.

God empowered David and David knew it. God cuts giants down to size and David knew it. God takes the impossible and makes it possible and David knew it. God can intervene in what might seem to be the most difficult of circumstances and turn those circumstances into good for us and David knew it. So David could walk out onto that field. Pass by the stream and pick up five smooth stones. One for Goliath and four more for Goliath’s four brothers just in case they decided they wanted to play, too. David could declare with confidence God was on His side and God would do the impossible to prove He was God.

Was David special? Not really. What was special about him was that He turned to God in the good and the bad times of life. When he made mistakes, and he did, he went to God and repented. He tried his best to live the way God wanted him to live. He read and meditated on God’s word. He read the scriptures that were available to him. He listened to the prophets that came to him and advised him. He prayed. He talked to God and listened to God. And he did what God asked him to do.

Does that make him special? I suppose it makes him different than most of the people around us. Because most of the people around us do what they want instead of what God wants. That’s the difference. What course will you follow? Yours or God’s? What giants do you face? Will you step out and let God defeat them with you or will you cower in the tents and let them continue to hold you back and make life miserable for you?

God is still in the business of showing who He is to those who will listen to Him and obey His word. All you have to do is step out on the battlefield. He pretty much does the rest. And He always wins. Always. Romans 8:28 is true when we meet those two conditions it holds. All things do work for good when we love Him and when we align our lives with His plan. Look up and let Him work in your life the plans He has for you. You won’t regret it. He promises.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more about The Story and our part in it. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

The King’s Son and His power (John 8:34-36), February 25, 2017

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Today’s Podcast

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
There are few true monarchies any more. Most are democracies with a monarch as a head of state, like in Great Britain or Monaco. But we are fascinated by their ancestry, who is next in line for the throne, the hidden secrets of the royal family. We love stories about the palace, don’t we?
Scripture
1. John 8:34-36
2. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.
Devotional
1. Even in America, we get a lot of buzz about Prince William and Kate. They have revitalized the monarchy in Great Britain in the last few years. Every generation of the monarchy, tracing its history back to Egbert of Wessex reign about 800, looks for that first born son to rule as king of the united empire.
  1. See the authority used wisely and foolishly
  2. Always in the news
  3. People are interested in their lives because their lives influence them in a direct way
  4. Much more so in the past than today, but still they play an important role in the politics of the nation as the head of state for the country
2. Everyone keeps up with the descendants
  1. Who is next in line if something happens to William?
  2. What if both he and his brother died at or near the same time?
  3. Who is next in line for the throne?
  4. What is their character and how will they lead?
  5. Not so anxious for Charles to take the throne, but excited for William to lead because of his appeal to the common people.
3. King carries tremendous weight in a monarchy
  1. We don’t understand it in our democracy
  2. We elect representatives to write and execute our laws on our behalf
  3. True monarchies have a king that decides it all. The king rules.
  4. He determines who lives and dies and how people progress between those two points of birth and death
  5. Generally the kingdom passes down to the heir unless overthrown in battle or he abdicates the throne for personal or political reasons
4. Those listening to Jesus thought they could stand on their pedigree, their ancestry as descendants of Abraham to do as they please just as a prince might extend his rights because of his position to the throne.
  1. Jesus stops their argument
  2. Commands come from the real King of kings, creator
  3. Jesus, His son has power they do not have because they are only human, not divine
5. The question is who is your father? God or Abraham? Heavenly or earthly? Divine or human? Who do you follow? Your choice
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

Faithfulness to God pays off (2 Kings 19:1-19), July 21, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 2 Kings 19:1-19

Set – 2 Kings 19; James 5

Go! – 2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chronicles 32; James 5

2 Kings 19:1-19
¹ King Hezekiah tore his clothes after he heard what had been said. He then covered himself with sackcloth and entered the Eternal’s temple. ² Hezekiah dispatched the palace administrator, Eliakim, along with Shebna the lawyer and the priest-elders, to go meet with the prophet Isaiah (Amoz’s son). Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders all went wearing sackcloth.
Eliakim, Shebna, and the Elders (to Isaiah): ³ This is Hezekiah’s message: “Today is filled with hours of sorrow, pain, anxiety, and reproof. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴ It may be that the Eternal One your God will disprove the words of Rabshakeh, whom Assyria’s king has sent to taunt the living God. So pray hard that your God, the Eternal One, will rebuke those words and save His few children who remain.”
⁵ King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah, ⁶ and Isaiah spoke to them.
Isaiah: Go back and tell your master, “This is the Eternal’s urgent message: ‘Have no fear of the blasphemy which the servants of Assyria’s kings have spoken. They are merely empty words. ⁷ I am going to infect Assyria’s king with a spirit, and he will hear a rumor and go back to his homeland. There I will cause him to die by the sword.’”
⁸ Rabshakeh returned to the Assyrian king who was now battling against the city of Libnah because he had heard that the king had abandoned Lachish.
^9-10 Sennacherib then received word about Tirhakah, Cush’s king: “He is preparing to fight you.” So Sennacherib sent a message again to Hezekiah.
Sennacherib’s Message: Hezekiah, king of Judah, I warn you not to be fooled by your God, on whom you rely, when He says, “Jerusalem will not be conquered by Assyria’s king.” ¹¹ Surely you have heard about how the kings of Assyria demolished all the nations completely—every last one of them. Do you really think you will be rescued? ¹² Were the people of those nations saved by their gods when my fathers attacked? Were Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s sons in Telassar ever rescued? No! ¹³ And what happened to the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim’s city, Hena, and Ivvah?”
¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and then placed it before the Eternal in His temple.
Hezekiah (praying to the Lord): ¹⁵ O Eternal One, Israel’s God, who sits above the winged guardians, You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth, the One who made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Eternal One, open up Your ears and Your eyes so You may hear and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib uses to reject the living God. ¹⁷ Eternal One, I certainly know that the Assyrian kings have destroyed the nations and lands. ¹⁸ I know how they have thrown the gods of the nations into the flames of the fire and destroyed them, but those gods were created out of wood and stones by men. ¹⁹ Eternal One, our True God, I pray You save us now from Sennacherib’s conquest—the fate that all the other nations have suffered—so that every nation on earth will know that You alone, Eternal One, are God.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

You’ve been hearing about faith and the need to take action to demonstrate your faith the last few days. Hezekiah’s story shows again the power faith with action can have against insurmountable obstacles. Sennacherib’s message was true. No other nation had stood against Assyria’s might. They were the dominant force in the world at the time. They took the idols of the nations they defeated and threw them into fires built with the wood of the altars and temples they destroyed. No one and no gods they came across could stand up to them.

But Sennacherib had not advanced against any who believed in Me. None of the nations he faced worshiped the One True God, Jehovah, the Eternal One, Commander of the angel armies. When I release My forces in defense of My people, I win. Period. When I brandish My sword, the mightest fall to the face in fear because they know the outcome of the fight.

Hezekiah had seen My power. He knew what I could do. Hezekiah did exactly what he should have done when he saw the threat of the Assyrians. He didn’t run. He didn’t cower. He just took immediate action. He went to the Temple and laid out his concern before Me. He asked for My protection for My people and for My glory to be seen amongst the rest of the nations of the world.

Hezekiah’s walk with Me was genuine. His love for Me was pure. His actions to try to purge the nation of the idols and shrines set up by his ancestors thrilled Me. He led the people by example in his worship of Me. So I wanted to show My people that I honored Hezekiah’s faithfulness. Sennacherib was in for a shock. Despite the message he sent back to Hezekiah, Sennacherib would never return to Jerusalem. Assyria would fall victim to the same fate they inflicted on the nations they conquered. They would become slaves to Babylon as a greater force would defeat them and take their people into captivity.

If only Hezekiah’s descendents would have mimicked his faithfulness Jerusalem could have been spared the tragic end it faced not many years later. But greed, lust, selfishness, injustice, pride, all those base carnal emotions crept into their lives and they failed to honor Me as their God. In not too many years, Israel would lose its identity as a self-governing nation for more than two millenia.

Faithfulness to Me pays off. Unfaithfulness carries dire consequences.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Stay on the path (2 Kings 2:1-18), June 19, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 2 Kings 2:1-18
Set – 2 Kings 2; Psalms 82; 1 Timothy 1
Go! – 2 Kings 1-3; Psalms 82; 1 Timothy 1

2 Kings 2:1-18
¹ Elijah and Elisha were leaving Gilgal when the Eternal One planned to snatch Elijah up into the heavens by the power of a fierce dancing wind.

Elijah (to Elisha): ² I ask you to remain here. The Eternal has commanded me to go all the way to Bethel.

Elisha: As certain as your own life and the life of the Eternal, I refuse to abandon you.

So the two men traveled down to Bethel together, ³ where Elisha was approached by the prophets’ disciples who lived there.

Prophets’ Disciples: Are you aware that the Eternal One is going to snatch Elijah, your mentor, away from you today?

Elisha: Yes, I am aware of this. I want you to keep quiet about it.

Elijah (to Elisha): ⁴ I beg you to remain here. The Eternal has commanded me to travel to Jericho.

Elisha: As certain as your own life and the life of the Eternal, I refuse to abandon you.

The two men then traveled to Jericho together, ⁵ where the prophets’ disciples living in Jericho approached Elisha.

Prophets’ Disciples: Are you aware that the Eternal One is going to snatch your mentor away from you today?

Elisha: Yes, I am aware of this. I want you to keep quiet about it.

Elijah (to Elisha): ⁶ I beg you to remain here. The Eternal One has commanded me to travel to the Jordan River.

Elisha: As certain as your own life and the life of the Eternal, I refuse to abandon you.

So the two men then traveled to the Jordan River together.

⁷While Elijah and Elisha were standing near the Jordan River, 50 of the prophets’ disciples from that area stood at a distance from them on the other side. ⁸ Elijah removed his cloak and rolled it up; then he struck the water with it, and the water divided. Elijah and Elisha then walked across on dry land. ⁹ After the two had made it to the other side of the Jordan, Elijah spoke to Elisha.

Elijah: Tell me what it is you would like me to do for you before I am taken away from you.

Elisha: Please, I wish to receive a double portion of your spirit. As your successor, I want to have twice the portion of your power.

Elijah: ¹⁰ What you have requested of me is challenging, but it will be done if you witness my departure. But if you do not watch, then you will not have your double portion.

¹¹ Now as the two continued walking along and talking as they normally did, something incredible happened. A blazing chariot pulled by blazing horses stormed down from the heavens and came between Elijah and Elisha. Then Elijah was swept up into heaven by the fiery storm. ¹² Elisha witnessed this amazing spectacle.

Elisha: My father, O my father! The chariots and riders of Israel!

Elisha never saw Elijah again. Elisha grabbed the clothes he was wearing, and he ripped them in half. ^13-14 He picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had dropped to the ground when he was taken up into heaven, and then he went back to the Jordan riverbank and stood. He struck the water with the cloak.

Elisha: Where is the Eternal One? Where is Elijah’s True God?

After Elisha struck the water, the Jordan River divided, just as when Elijah had struck the waters. Elisha then walked across on dry land.

¹⁵ The prophets’ disciples at Jericho standing on the opposite shore were watching this.

Prophets’ Disciples: Elijah’s powerful spirit now rests upon Elisha. Elijah’s cloak now clothes Elisha.

Then the prophets’ disciples at Jericho approached Elisha and humbled themselves before him.

Prophets’ Disciples: ¹⁶ There are 50 strong men along with us, your servants, who could go looking for your mentor. Perhaps the Spirit of the Eternal inside the whirlwind swept Elijah up into heaven and left him on some mountaintop or in some valley of the lowlands.

Elisha: That won’t be necessary.

¹⁷ But they kept asking his permission for a search, and he felt ashamed, so he finally agreed. They sent out a search party of 50 men who spent three days looking for Elijah, but they found no trace of him. ¹⁸ The search party came back to Elisha while he was still in Jericho.

Elisha: I told you not to go. He’s gone from the earth.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Elisha made what seemed a simple request of his mentor, Elijah, a double portion of his spirit. Elisha didn’t understand what he asked, but Elijah granted the request only on condition that his protege see him depart this life. Elisha promised and from that day, never let Elijah out of his sight.

On the day I took Elijah to heaven, he tried to dissuade Elisha from following him. The scripture describes a journey on that day from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho. A short walk to the Jordan River, a miraculous crossing and then My chariot of fire took Elijah to be with Me.

Unless you’ve been there, it sounds like an easy journey, but the 10 miles from Gilgal to Bethel and the 15-mile return to Jericho is anything but easy for a day’s journey on foot. The mountainous terrain, the bandits in that day, the heat and rugged roads made the day’s journey torturous for the pair. What might be an easy day’s walk in Florida or Maryland was almost impossible to complete in a day in Israel.

Elisha wanted that double portion of My spirit, though. He didn’t want anything to interfere with his getting it. Elisha was prepared to do anything to keep his promise to Elijah to get the kind of spirit he saw in his mentor and would not leave his side regardless of how difficult the journey.

Do you seek Me the same way? Do you want Me in your life bad enough to keep going over the rough roads and mountains of life to stick by My side? Do you keep at it when you’re tired and hungry and hot and cold and ready to give up? Do you just keep going because you realize the prize is worth it in the end?

That’s the attitude Elisha kept as he trudged along beside Elijah. That’s the attitude that will keep you strong no matter what you might face along the path of life. The prize is worth it. Keep walking beside Me. I’ll take you with Me one day.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Prayer from the heart (1 Kings 3:1-15), May 18, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Kings 3:1-15
Set – 1 Kings 3; Psalms 78; 2 Thessalonians 2
Go! – 1 Kings 3; 2 Chronicles 1; Psalms 78; 2 Thessalonians 2

1 Kings 3:1-15
¹ Solomon then arranged a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, Egypt’s king. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David. He kept her there while he constructed his own house and the Eternal One’s temple and completed the wall surrounding Jerusalem. ² However the people were still offering sacrifices at the high places because a temple had not been constructed for the Eternal until then.

³Solomon’s heart belonged to the Eternal. Solomon abided by the same laws as his father, David. The only difference was that Solomon offered sacrifices and incense at the high places. ⁴ Solomon went to Gibeon—the great high place—and presented 1,000 burnt offerings at the altar.

⁵ The Eternal revealed Himself to Solomon in a dream while he was still in Gibeon.

Eternal One: Tell me, what is your request of Me?

Solomon: ⁶ You have already revealed Your loyal love to my father, David, for he lived by Your truth and righteousness and honor during the days of his life. You have continued to show this loyal love to him by giving him a son who now reigns upon his throne. ⁷ Eternal One, my God, You have allowed me to serve as my father David served, but I am still young and inexperienced. I don’t know much about anything, ⁸ yet I am supposed to lead Your chosen people who are innumerable and even uncountable. ⁹ Please give Your servant a listening heart for judging Your people and for knowing the difference between what is good and what is evil. Who is capable of judging Your chosen ones, a great people?

¹⁰ The Lord was delighted by Solomon’s request.

Eternal One: ¹¹ Since you have asked for wisdom and not for an extended lifetime or for personal wealth or for the annihilation of your enemies, since you have instead asked for the ability to understand justice, ¹² I will honor your request. I have planted the deepest human wisdom into your heart. There has never been nor will there ever be a man like you.

¹³ I have also given you the things for which you have not asked—wealth and an honorable reputation. There will be no other kings like you for as long as you live. ¹⁴ If you live a life devoted to Me, if you remain loyal to My laws and commands just as your father David did, then I will add days to your life.

¹⁵ Solomon woke up from his dream. He then returned to Jerusalem and visited the Eternal’s covenant chest and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he prepared a great feast for all those who were in his service.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Asking from your heart for what is truly important makes a difference with Me. Solomon came to Me with a petition I didn’t refuse when he became king of Israel. He could have asked for anything. Israel still found itself surrounded by enemies. David defeated all of them and they all paid taxes to Israel, but now Solomon sat on the throne and all were eager to test this new young king and see if he would be the same kind of king they saw in his father. He could have asked for the defeat of all his enemies. But he didn’t.

Solomon could have asked for great wealth. His father spent great sums on the materials for the Temple he told Solomon to build and he gave to his friends lavishly. He brought Mephibosheth to his table and several others that didn’t deserve his benevolence, yet he still fed them and cared for them because of the grace and mercy I showed him an do he showed others. Consequently, David didn’t have great sums of personal wealth to give to Solomon, so he could have asked for wealth. But he didn’t.

Solomon could have asked for power or fame or glory or knowledge. There are many things the world held in esteem that Solomon could have asked for in his prayer to Me that day. Instead, he understood the task ahead of him as king of My people and he humbly came to Me and asked for the wisdom to rule My people. He grew up in the palace and saw some of the mess his father had made, and some of the good decisions his father had made as well.

Solomon knew he wasn’t smart enough or wise enough to take on the burden of ruling this kingdom alone and came to Me with a humble heart. I knew his prayer was genuine at the time, because I can see inside your heart and mind. I know genuine when you cannot. His prayer was genuine then. And I granted Solomon’s request. And I gave him everything else he didn’t request. I defeated his enemies, gave him great wealth, fame, power, and knowledge like no one before or since. I knew his heart and at the time it was genuine.

I’ll answer your prayers, too. But you must also know that when your mouth says, “Give me wisdom.” But your heart says, “So I can gain wealth.” I know your heart. It’s your heart, not your mouth, I listen to most. I cannot be deceived. I know what is best for you, too. Often, wealth is not what you need. Remember My words when I walked with you? “It’s harder for a rich man to make it into the kingdom than a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” You might not want to be rich after all. This world’s riches aren’t so great when you think about it in those terms.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Saul lacked only one thing (1 Samuel 31), Apr 25, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Samuel 31
Set – 1 Samuel 31; Matthew 12
Go! – 1 Samuel 30-31; 1 Chronicles 10; Matthew 12

1 Samuel 31
¹Meanwhile the Philistine and Israelite armies had clashed. The men of Israel ran away, but many of them were killed on the heights of Gilboa. ² The Philistines even followed Saul and his sons and closed in on them; there they killed his sons, Jonathan (the beloved friend of David), Abinadab, and Malchi-shua.

³ The battle closed in around Saul, and he was shot with arrows and badly wounded.

Saul (to his armor-bearer): ⁴ Please take out your sword and thrust it through me. Don’t let these uncircumcised dogs come and put their swords and spears into me for their sport.

But his armor-bearer was afraid and would not do it. Saul drew his own sword and fell upon it. ⁵ When the armor-bearer saw this, he also drew his sword and fell upon it and died. ⁶ So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together on the same day.

⁷ When the people of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and even those beyond the Jordan River, learned that the Israelite army had been defeated and heard that Saul and his sons were dead, they left their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ The next day, as the Philistine army was looting the bodies of the fallen Israelites, they found Saul and his three sons dead on the heights of Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off Saul’s head, stripped his body of his weapons, and sent messengers with the good news to the temples and to the people throughout Philistia. ¹⁰ They put Saul’s armor in the temple of Astarte and nailed his body to the wall at Beth-shan.

¹¹ But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard about this indignity done to Saul by the Philistines, ¹² the brave men among them rose up and traveled through the night. When they arrived, they took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall at Beth-shan. They returned to Jabesh and burned them there. ¹³ Then they took their bones and buried them in Jabesh beneath the tamarisk tree, like the one where Saul had held court in Gibeah, and for seven days they fasted and mourned.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Saul did a lot of things wrong and caused Me to reject him as king over Israel. But he also did a lot of things right. He remembered the rules I gave Moses about kings and what they should and should not do as leaders over My people. Saul didn’t want to be king, but I chose him over all the other Israelites to be the first king. I chose him for a reason.

If you look back through Saul’s reign, you’ll find he never taxed the people he served. All the other kings did. He never conscripted soldier to fill his army, he only asked for volunteers to fight with him to defeat the Philistines who invaded the country. All others except David conscripted young men to fill the ranks of a standing army. Saul came from a poor family and took care of the poor in many circumstances and with the way he targeted rewards for various activities.

Saul exercised his leadership well throughout his reign in almost every area only failing in the most important one. He failed to obey My commands. When I told him to destroy all evidence of the Ammonite inhabitants, leaving nothing behind to attract his soldiers or the rest of the Israelite people to any of their belongings or idols, he failed to do so. The idols and possessions his soldiers brought back with them began a downhill process from them in which they switched their loyalties to pagan gods instead of Me.

Had Saul kept his eyes focused on Me and kept the commands I gave him. There is little doubt he would have been regarded as one of Israel’s greatest kings. As the first king, he established many precedents in how the kingdom would run. How kings would operate on a daily basis. How they should be viewed by the populace and by other nations. Saul did many things right.

The intervention by the men of Jabesh-Gilead at his death provide an indication of how good a king Saul was. Those men risked their lives and the lives of their wives and children to retrieve the bodies of Saul and his sons after the Philistines hung their bodies on the wall of the city fortress of Beth-shan. They risked their lives, brought back their bodies and gave them heroes burials to honor them after the battle despite their defeat at the hands of the Philistines.

I rejected Saul because of his unfaithfulness to Me, but his faithfulness to his tasks as king should not go unnoticed. He served well, he lacked one thing to live well. He just needed to honor and obey Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Politically privileged around a long time (Deuteronomy 17:14-20), Mar 11, 2015

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Set – Deuteronomy 17; Galatians 2
Go! – Deuteronomy 16-18; Psalms 38, Galatians 2

Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Moses: ¹⁴ Once you’ve gotten into the land the Eternal your God is giving you, and you’ve conquered it and settled there, you may say to yourselves, “Let’s appoint a king to rule our country, just as all the nations around us have!” ¹⁵ If you do have a king, remember you must enthrone the king He chooses. It must be a fellow Israelite whom you enthrone; you must not enthrone a foreigner who is not a fellow Israelite. ¹⁶ Although an Israelite, he must not try to build a strong army by collecting large herds of horses for his cavalry troops and a chariot corps. The king must certainly not send people back to Egypt to get large herds of horses, because the Lord has commanded you, “Don’t ever go back that way again!” ¹⁷ This king must not have many wives. If he takes foreign wives in marriage alliances, they could turn his heart away from the Lord and lead him to worship foreign gods. And the king must not accumulate great quantities of silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ As soon as this king takes the royal throne, he must write out a copy of this law for himself on a scroll with the Levitical priests looking on. ¹⁹ He must keep this copy with him and read it every day, so that he will learn to fear the Eternal his God and to obey everything in the law and remember all these regulations very carefully in order to do them. ²⁰ That way he won’t think he’s privileged and oppress and exploit his fellow Israelites. He won’t deviate at all from what the Eternal has commanded, and he and his descendants will rule over Israel in a long dynasty.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I see a problem growing up in almost every nation around the world. It’s the problem of the politically privileged. Those in power, whether by election or decree, who think themselves above the law of the land. They exempt themselves from the rules everyone else must follow. They hold themselves above the law since they think they created it. What they don’t realize is just how precarious they stand in their positions.

You see, lawmakers don’t create the law. I did. Centuries ago I determined humankind needed relationships to survive. Those relationships meant order must reign within households and among families. To keep order, those families must establish rules and those common rules within and among families became laws. Laws I taught the first families who walked the earth. Those rules have been handed down through the generations until now. When people keep them, there is peace and order and society advances and grows. When people decide to create their own laws to advance one sector or one people over another, society falters.

I’m the one who allows those troublemakers to hold their positions. But I allow them to hold those positions and create trouble because the people across the nation have forgotten Me. When I am not lifted up in the home and My principles do not become a way of life for the family, the selfish nature of humankind jumps out and those politically privileged make promises to the weak that can never be kept. So they seek their own advancement and forget about the promises made. They forget about how they found themselves in their position. They forget Me.

It happened in Israel. King Saul started the problem. He built an army around him. He gathered horses and chariots. King David, one of My favorite kings, married foreign wives to keep peace. King Solomon gather more silver and gold than any other king before or after him. The line of kings in Israel just followed their lead and continued to act the part of the politically privileged until I destroyed the nation. Then their priests did the same until I had to come in the flesh and show humankind what a farce Israel’s religion had become.

There is a solution to the politically privileged. Make My word required reading for every person in power. Elect only those who truly believe in Me. Not those who say they do, but those whose actions demonstrate it. Take away the laws that do not conform to My word or pass the filter of the Great Commandment: “Love Me with all your heart, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Is it possible to turn political privilege around? It is possible. But it will take a great revival in this and many other countries around the world. I have told you in My prophecies time will come to an end when certain things happen. Look around. Most already have passed by. The rest could happen very quickly or I could continue to take My time about coming back. It’s partly up to you. How much do you want revival in the land? Are you willing to pay the price for it? It won’t be easy. But all things are possible for those who believe in Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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