Mighty Through God, Part 2

[To derive the most benefit out of this study, please go back to previous posting to begin at Part 1.]

Two Kingdoms in Conflict:

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:19-24)

There can never be two final authorities. We might think it is possible to have two, but in fact, there can only be one. For, unless they agree completely so much that they are in fact one authority, it will be necessary at some point to choose one over the other; in which case, only one is the final authority. So I say again, there can only be one final authority.

The problem is that many Christians live as though there are two. They pay homage with "the praise of their lips" to one authority, but their hearts are ruled by another. In the scripture above, Jesus addresses this very problem.

I looked up the word "mammon" in the Greek the other day, and although it is used here to denote wealth or riches, the actual definition in the Greek is "confidence" or "that which is to be trusted." It's a bit of a shame that the King James (and perhaps other translations) make it appear to be all about money, when it fact it is rather anything in which we place our confidence or trust. That can be money, of course, but it can be any number of other things as well.

We can have confidence in our careers or job titles, in our houses or automobiles, in our intelligence and our opinions. We can place our trust in any one of these things and so much more, but if our trust is in these things, it cannot also be in God. For the confidence, trust or final authority can only be found in one place at a time for us Christians: either in God or in ourselves, in God or in the world, in God or things.

And depending in whom or in what that trust is placed, that trusted entity becomes ruler of our lives, or I like to think, a king. But choosing a king can be a dangerous thing, especially if you choose the wrong one; as the Israelites did in the passage of scripture to follow. The time period is after the time of the Judges; in fact, at the end of the book of Judges, the Word of God says that it was a time when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." In other words, they were not living according to God's standards, but according to their own. (Sounds a little like folks today.) God raised up a prophet by the name of Samuel, making him the judge of Israel; but the people determined that they would have a king instead, so that they could be like the other nations around them. Mind you, God had called them to be a separate people, bearing no similarity with those pagan nations of the world, in exchange for which, God Himself would take care of them; but here they were, wanting to be exactly like the world, and prepared to replace God's prophet Samuel with a king instead. This attitude towards God displeased Samuel greatly, but God spoke to him, telling him that it was not Samuel that they were rejecting; they were in fact rejecting God. So, listen to their demands, God said, but warn them of the manner of king that shall reign over them. And here is what the people were told by Samuel, according to what the Lord had spoken to him:

"This will be the manner of the 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. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but 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 out before us, and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king." (I Samuel 8:11-22)

Doesn't sound to me like such a good trade: the protection of a mortal man versus the protection of God, and slavery versus freedom. But this king idea was "right in their own eyes."

Wouldn't you think they could have seen what they were asking for, what they were getting themselves into?

Do we?

Let me take it to a more personal level. When I began trusting in food, versus trusting in God, did I realize what I was creating for myself? Did I realize that the "king" that I had chosen to replace God in my life was going to make me a slave to him? I could have known, had I heeded the Word of God where truth is found. I have no excuse. None of us do when we allow sin to rule in our lives. And when I cried out to God, He didn't hear me; at least, not until I was ready to recognize and confess my sin. Then He was quick to both deliver me from and forgive me of my sin.

You see rebellion against the authority of God is SIN, it's disobedience to His Word which IS His authority as we will understand as we get further into this study. And it is "our desires" that cause us to rebel against God.

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:13-15)

These are our lusts, the desires of our flesh, in one form or another, that provide fertile ground for rebellion to grow. It has been that way since the Garden of Eden. Look for the cues for "lust" in this passage:

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." (Genesis 3:1-7)

Eve "saw that the tree was good for food" (sounds like the beginnings of gluttony to me) and that is was "pleasant to the eyes" (lust of the eyes for beauty) and "desired to make one wise" (pride? In one's own intelligence?). These lusts are common to mankind still today. The resulting rebellion is the same today. And the end result for man in rebellion to God today is the same as it was for Eve and Adam: death. No longer life immortal, but death.

"…the carnal mind is enmity against god: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8:7-8)

Next posting: "Authority by Virtue of Creation" as we continue in Part 3 of this series entitled "Mighty Through God."