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Stayed Or Starved: A Matter Of Kingdom Rule Mr. Lee was terribly overweight, so his doctor put him on a diet, saying, “I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you’ll have lost at least five pounds.” When Mr. Lee returned, he shocked the doctor—he had lost 20 pounds! “Why, that’s amazing!” the doctor said, “Did you follow my instructions?” Mr. Lee nodded. “I’ll tell you though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day.” “From hunger, you mean,” asked the doctor. “No, from skipping.” Without a doubt, somebody misunderstood! But, Oh, what would be the result if people would take seriously—and even literally—what Jesus, the Great Physician, says? Now, I don’t know if the above-prescribed diet is a good one, but I can tell you this—you can trust Jesus to know what each and everyone of us needs. Oswald Chambers once wrote, “Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life. If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you—He already did that at the Cross. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved.” Stayed or starved—which will it be? Right after Jesus had fed thousands of people with only five small loaves of bread and two tiny fish, people’s minds were stayed on Him—but for the wrong reason: “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” (John 6:14) In other words, they saw Him as just a miracle worker, even a great man—but not God Himself. He would, therefore, be a great one to follow, but because He isn’t God, we won’t really have to obey Him totally or surrender to Him fully. And this is precisely the problem today—Jesus is presented as anything from a great guy to a best buddy—but often not God! And yet, this is precisely the purpose of this gospel and the miracles within it—to manifest Him and make it very obvious that He is indeed the Lord of the Universe, even God Almighty! The people’s misperceptions become clear in the next verse: “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force, to make Him a king, he departed again into a mountain Himself alone.” (vs. 15) And this is where the problems really begin—making our own king! “Force,” in the original Greek, means to seize, spoil, and snatch away—it is a violent robbing, done in the open and not in secret behind closed doors. Obviously, this is not a good thing. Jesus is already King of kings and Lord of lords—to “force” Him is demanding He be the kind of king we want. Actually, when we make up our own, we begin to starve ourselves, because we are not stayed on the only One who can truly feed us as we need to be fed. And now comes the test—would these, His followers; yes, even the church, see Jesus like the others did? Or would they submit to His Kingship, His way? Matthew 14:22 tells us that before He went away to pray, He, “…constrained, (that is, forced) His disciples to get into a ship and go before Him unto the other side.” But how would they do it—trusting in Him to be King, or relying upon their own strength? As it got darker, the wind kicked up and the waves swelled. They tried to row, but it was no use—they were doomed! You see, their “rowing,” in the Greek, is a driving, impelling, urging on—the opposite of this is to “abide.” They tried to handle the situation in their own strength, trusting in human abilities—they would be king! The tragedy of this is depicted all through the Scriptures, but perhaps no more vividly than in 1 Samuel 8. God had always intended that He would be Israel’s King, but the time came when they wanted to make their own. They told Samuel, the prophet, “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5) In other words, Samuel, even though we are the Church, we believe we have the right to be just like everybody else. Samuel, of course, was “displeased”—the Hebrew takes it further…he was spoiled and ruined, good for nothing—broken even into pieces. Of course he was; what true man of God wouldn’t be? Just look at the earlier definition of “force,” and now see its result. But God responded differently: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” (vs. 7) This, however, is not just taking His hands off the situation. No, He still strongly warns them of the consequences: “This will be the manner of king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.” (vs. 11) The Scripture goes on to explain that the king will also take their daughters, their fields, their vineyards, their oliveyards—and not just some, but all of them, even the best. He will take their crops, their servants, and ultimately—even they themselves. In other words, when they make up their own king, they will be the ones to suffer—even starve. But they would not take Him seriously: “Nay, we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go before us, and fight our battles.” (vss. 19,20) Do you see the real problem? No matter the cost, they didn’t want God telling them what to do. This is a huge problem today, too. Many look to the pastor to be that king—the paid Christian, as it were, to pray and live a godly life, so they don’t have to. Oswald Chambers once wrote, “We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him directly. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don’t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified of it? It is because we know, deep down, that when God speaks, we must either do what He asks, or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of His servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative.” And it isn’t just spiritual leaders—just about anything or anyone can be an idol, forced to be king. Some do it with husbands, wives, children, other family members, friends, etc.—people and relationships given a place of kingship and rule they shouldn’t have—and all under the guise of “submission.” It is interesting, if not ironic, that the very aspects of our lives that we lose to the crushing rule of a made-up king—the rightful place of families and friends, subordinate to our relationship with the Lord—are actually lost, simply because we have turned them into king. Even the unsaved are given a place of rule over our spiritual lives, as we allow them to govern every move. King Saul’s disobedience brought demon possession, and, in the end, he committed suicide on the battlefield, was beheaded, and nailed to the wall of the enemy’s city. And if that happens to the king, what about his followers? Centuries of disobedience put the people of Israel, and all of humanity, in need of another king. In fact, the rightful King would now return to His Throne. During the Passover, Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, brought Jesus back out before the people, saying, “Behold, your King! But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:14,15) What about today? What will be our cry—I have no king but family? I have no king but compromise? I have no king but my own understanding? I have no king but myself? If it’s any of these, it will ultimately be the latter, because when we make anything or anyone else king, we have set ourselves on the throne of our minds and hearts. Let it be your prayer, as we begin the Lenten season, that you would say, as well as mean, only this: I have no King but Jesus! He is indeed King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is the only one who can feed you what you truly need—not just keeping you from starving, but filling you to the brim—even with Holy Spirit! As the disciples trembled in fear through the storm, they saw someone coming out to their boat—a ghost, they thought. But then they heard Him—“It is I; be not afraid.” Yes, it was their King, and we are told they “willingly received Him”—a matter of active volition and purpose. In the Greek, it means they had Him in mind! He alone is the one who “wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26: 3,4) Immediately, the boat was at the other side of the lake—no rowing, no struggling, just Jesus. The King and His transformed kingdom—tested, forgiven, and now together—ready to take Him seriously and literally, but would they? And what about you? Copyright (c)
2005 Christ Our Rock Bible Church. |
