06/03/2019
Where do you make your spiritual home, and what do you do in service of the King... our God? Sometimes those whose job seems menial on the surface are of great value to God. Those who do things that are of value to the Lord live in many places, but those that serve His personal needs such as the servants that set His table, and prepare the meals, live with the King. However, the Lords who manage His lands live elsewhere... scattered across the Realm. So do you serve God, and if so where do you dwell?
“These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.”
1 Chronicles 4:23 KJV
This is an interesting verse that has two translations. It has this one, which we have just read from the King James Translation, and then it has another which seems to be the most widely accepted, and is recorded in many of the other versions in this way...
“These were the potters who were inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah. They lived there in the king's service.”
1 Chronicles 4:23 ESV
Either way, the potters were important enough to be specifically listed with the genealogies of the tribe of Judah. The implication here is that they live with the King. Their job was to provide such everyday items as plates, bowls, lamps, and jars, for the King, and his subjects... yet despite the fact that they toiled in mud, and we would in no way considered them noble... even so, they are mentioned prominently, and the King kept them close at hand.
What is the service you provide for the Lord? Do you manage a Providence and live in the outreaches of His territory? Do you shepherd His flocks and roam the pastures throughout the kingdom? Or do you serve Him personally and live within His palace... in His home? We tend to think that the more authority we are given, or the more power we wield, makes us greater, but that isn’t true. Those who wash the Master’s feet, sweep His floors, make His clothing, blow the ceremonial horns, and prepare His meals, are kept close at hand by the King. The more humble and personal your service, the closer you are kept.
A most telling Bible story is in 1st Samuel in which God sends Samuel to select a king from the sons of Jesse. When Samuel arrived he looked on the strongest and most handsome of Jesse’s sons and God instructed him further... read this account...
“When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord 's anointed is before him." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here." And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he."”
1 Samuel 16:6-7, 10-12 ESV
The new King who was chosen was the least of Jesse’s sons. Jesus also gives us an indication of how God views worth when He says this in His parable regarding the neediest in the kingdom...
“And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'”
Matthew 25:40 ESV
So what do you do in service to God, and do you feel that it is insignificant, or that you are without worth? Perhaps you are using the eyes of a man to look at what you do. You might wash feet at the threshold, sweep the floors of the church, clean up the grounds, or wash the toilets, but God sees great value in the humble things we do for Him because they place a love for Him before ourselves. Men who are rich and prideful find it nearly impossible to stoop low enough before the Lord, but those who are weakest...
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV
Take heart you who serve in humility. Your strength, like that of Jesse’s sons, is not what God looks at as value, and Jesus has the same eye as His Father. It does us well to read the words of Our Savior in Matthew 23:11-36, but listen to how they begin as He tells us to be humble as we approach God through His Word, not to make it serve us, but to live within it...
“The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Matthew 23:11-12 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the humility and personal service that you take value in. I thank you for your servants that earthly men see as weak, but that you find great worth in, and surround yourself with. I thank you for the potters that live within the plants and hedges which are the borders of your house, and those who go with you to Netaim and Gederah, where You live. Humble us Father that we might serve in your house forever. Honor us Holy Father by placing the feet of your least in our bowl, and letting us wash them as if they were yours. Teach us how to lay prostrate before you as we call out your name in prayer. Lift us up, and set a table for us before those who mock us, and belittle our service to you. In my humility, and in my weakness then...
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalms 23:6 ESV
Holy, Holy, Holy are you our God who makes the least of men to come first, and the greatest to be last. Praised be your name for showing us the value of humble service, and teaching us to let go our selfish pride. Great are you in your grace which saved us, and for giving your Son as a sacrifice for us, even in the throes of our sin. All glory is yours Holy Father, as you lift up the least of us and make a room for us in your house forevermore.
Rich Forbes