June 27, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I asked, ‘What are these coming to do?‘ He answered, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise their head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.’” (Zechariah 1.20-21)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Since we do not know exactly who God identified as the “four craftsmen,” we certainly know what their purpose is. That was yesterday’s reflection on being called to “throw down” the horns of the nations who lifted their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people. This may actually lead us to consider that whatever it is we are doing in concert with others is to do this very thing. It wasn’t for manifesting glory for themselves. It wasn’t for being told they were the “greatest of all time.” It wasn’t for collecting pay for doing what they were supposed to do as if they were the only professionals emblazoned with power, ingenuity and boldness. It wasn’t because they had special gifts, talents and abilities. It wasn’t because they were better than all the rest. In the world, the field of competition and competitors is growing and becoming more and more self-serving. Jesus warned His disciples about such a culture and climate as this. He did so by taking one of the children who had been brought to Him for healing and setting that child up as a vision for the Kingdom of Heaven. He said, “Let the one who desires to become like a child again know that they shall gain the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18.2-4) Later, Jesus would teach the disciples (Mark 9.35) “Whoever desires to be the greatest must become the least; the servant of all.” In Matthew 20 and Mark 10 we read the words of Jesus, “For the Son of Man did not come into the world to be served but to serve; to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Let’s put all of these together in a connection that can most certainly empower us and challenge us in our own work for the Kingdom of God.

Like a child: Servant of all: Child of God: Sacrificial living

Now children do many things wrong. They are born into a learning process which is intended to transform them from being a child to being an adult. The Apostle Paul professes this in his letter to the Corinthian community of faith in Jesus as the Christ. He says, “When I was a child, I thought, spoke and acted like a child. However, when I matured into adulthood, I put away childish things and began to think, speak and act like a man of God.” Don’t hurry and get offended as so many in this day and age are wont to do. If Paul had been Pauline, she would have professed to maturing into a woman of God. Regardless of that silly argument which borders on childishness as some claim genderism as their highest goal of purpose, let us further consider that it is Paul who says, “In Christ there is no east nor west, south or north; there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female; there is only a oneness we should celebrate in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3.28) This is not an opportunity to promote the confusion of genders as we see it today. What Paul did and would do today is to put our focus on our primary identity which is to “serve God and one another.” If this sounds familiar to you, it should as we have already reflected upon the Shema as the “two greatest commands.” If they are God’s commands given to us, then we are under His command and thus His servants. Yes, we may have opportunities to lead, but our leadership is only as good as our “followership.” That is, our leadership is dependent upon our embracing of the servant role as a child of God. This is what children can do right in the midst of the many wrongs they may do: they love to serve and they serve to love.

Now while children may do many things wrong as children, they are given to those who are to lead them in the way they should go. What is that “going”? It is to do more good than harm, more right than wrong; more building up than tearing down; more living than dying. The wisdom of Solomon revealed this to the nation of Israel (Proverbs 22.6): “Train a child in the way they should go and even when they are old they will not wander far from it.” That training which Solomon alluded to was becoming discursive with the Word of God as it had been revealed in the days before him by his father (David) and back to the days of Moses to whom the Law of the Covenant (the rules of righteousness) had been given. This included the wisdom literature and the annals of history which showed the successes and failures of their forebearers to whom the presence of God had been revealed in mighty and wondrous ways. As Solomon was given the wisdom to understand the ways of God, he passed them on to his son. His greatest purpose, though he failed at times as did his father (the apple didn’t fall far from the tree), was to honor and glorify God in his leadership of the nation of Israel. It was not a political event but a spiritual one. It was not politics which moved mountains but faith. And in Zechariah, it is the reestablishment of the profile of faith which would have the greatest and final impact on the world. It was time to train up the new and next generation of world leaders not from a political point of view but from a faith perspective. It was not an external change that would truly make a difference in the world. It was an internal transformation that would best fulfill the will and desire of God. Paul would profess this, too, in his writing to the Roman community of faith throughout the Roman Empire (Romans 12.2) where he said, “Do not be conformed to this world; rather, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.” Mighty ones of God, it is the call upon those who are “children of God” to confront, throw down and build up the generations of people who are living in the world at any given point in time. Whatever group of people is gathered together in God’s name, in the name of Jesus the Christ, it is expected to be for the purpose of promoting, witnessing and doing the will of God in honoring Him and in loving one another that they, too, will honor Him and love one another.

So, while we do not know exactly who the craftsmen were, we certainly know the “what” they were to supposed to do. That “what” is our “what,” too. We are called to be transformed and transformers. We are called to be perfected in our craft with a daily walk of faith in and through the world knowing it is more like a valley of the shadows of death than the beautiful home which awaits us in the Day to come. This is our calling, our charge, our opportunity and the only life worth living. In the end we will not be “weighed and measured” by the things of this world which have come into our possession or by the things of this world we failed to acquire. No, in those things we will be found wanting for they will not matter as possessions in determining our place in Heaven. It will be by the treasures we have laid up in Heaven that will matter most and stand as a testimony for us. Those things are what we have done to honor the name of God, glorify His presence on earth and how we have loved one another (friend, neighbor, colleague and enemy). It is time for us to be challenged ourselves as a Church and as individual members of it. Are we tearing down and scattering? Are we building up and drawing all people to the dwelling place of God?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.