Let us run with endurance the race marked out for us...

 

“They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests.  The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the Lord about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.”

 

What disqualifies you?

 

Here these priests were told they had to take a step back and could not serve as priests.  They were not going to be paid wages from the temple in the form of their share of the food from the temple sacrifices.  They needed to find more common jobs, at least for the time being.   

 

It would be easy in this situation to become frustrated and discouraged.   One could stand on the sidelines and feel that they were treated unfairly.   Ever been there?  Something happened that did not feel fair and it discouraged you?  You lost perspective on the overall goal and become focused on your own personal situation instead?

 

As the people returned, they settled in the towns with a unified purpose – rebuilding the altar of God so that they could sacrifice burnt offerings on it morning and night, and restoring the temple (Ezra 3:1-2).  We see some of the family leaders made voluntary offerings towards rebuilding the temple on its original site, giving each one as much as he could.  (Ezra 2:68-69).  Each one, building into the future for themselves, their family lines and their future legacy.

 

What qualifies you?

 

We know that the easy answer is that we are all qualified from being born again into the family of God.   We are given an extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit and have the blood of Christ running through are veins.    He paid the full price for us and there was nothing left out of this.   We are to look to from those from whom we are hewn, our ancestors Abraham and Sarah.   We are given this amazing heritage and none of us are left out of this.  We are all given purpose.

 

There is a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 20 about workers.   There were several workers that were hired at daybreak to work and agreed to a wage.   As the day went on, the farmer went out and brought in more and more workers, until the very end of the day while they were just wrapping up.    Then as the farmer paid them, paying the last ones first, he gave them all the same agreed upon wage.  Upon seeing this, the workers that had worked all day became angry as they had worked through the heat of the day.   The farmer told these workers, “Haven’t I the right to do what I want with what belongs to me?  Or do you begrudge my generousity?  Thus the last ones will be first and the first last.”  (Matthew 20:15)

 

Later, in Matthew 20:26 Jesus talks further about the last being first.  He tells his disciples, “Whoever among you wants to be a leader must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave!  For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve—and to give his life for a ransom of many.” 

 

There is a point being made in this.   In the Kingdom of God, we need to put ourselves and our personal desires last and serve God’s unified purpose.  When we put ourselves first and our personal desires to stand out or receive ‘wages,’  we hinder the purposes of God and end up being last rather than first in the Kingdom.  

 

The Word tells us that many are called out into God’s unified and divine purposes but few are chosen (follow their calling).   Coming back to Ecclesiastes 7:28-29 from last week’s post, less than 1 in 1,000 are living fully into their divine destiny.   

 

One of the greatest derailers for fulling God’s purposes can be, like mentioned in the parable in Matthew 20, begrudging His generousity to others as we want this for ourselves.   We may look at the blessings in the life of the person next to us and wonder why we are not receiving the same as them.   We start counting the cost and our eyes get off His unified purposes and onto ourselves.  Suddenly, our focus becomes all about the other person getting more than us or what we feel is fair.  Like in the parable, we are looking at our wages rather than about achieving an incredible unified purpose such as harvesting the field (which is what all the workers were set out to do).  

 

We see this story over and over and there is a warning for us in it.  We can potentially lose our contentment with fulfilling the purposes of God and turn to desire and want for personal reward and recognition.  We see this with the parable about the prodigal son as well.   The older brother begrudges that the father ran out to meet the brother and put a ring on his finger, a robe on him and threw him a party.  He was insulted and told his father, ‘you don’t do this for me!’   The father responded that all he had was already the older brothers’ as well.  

 

John the Baptist is a great example of navigating around this testing and keeping his eyes on kingdom purposes.   When John was baptizing and was drawing a crowd, Jesus later began baptizing as well and suddenly John’s ministry shrunk.   It became small as folks were drawn to Jesus and John’s disciples began to follow Jesus directly.   Rather than get caught up in his own significance, John gladly rejoiced as Kingdom purposes were being accomplished.  

 

Can you imagine what the job posting would have looked like for John?   Wanted: Someone to live a hard life in the heat of the desert seeking after me day and night with limited food selection; establish a ministry and watch it shrink to nothing as all those you invest in leave for another ministry; then be thrown in prison alone to die from beheading.  Payment: before you die, you will know that Kingdom purposes were being accomplished through your work.  

 

John would have gladly taken this job over and over again.  What these stories tell us is that we cannot be in it for external rewards.   We may or may not receive external rewards from seeking after Him but seeking them can derail us from serving the overall purposes God has for us.  Our heart needs to be fixed on accomplishing the purposes of God out of love and devotion with a desire for greater Kingdom purposes to be served and not an expectation of reward.

Coming back to the original story about rebuilding the temple in Ezra, are we, pressing into God’s Kingdom purposes for this hour of creating space for God to be central or are we becoming discouraged when we are sidelined or overlooked?  Are we united in purpose around building the altar of God or do we have personal agendas?  

 

In the story of initially building the temple, Solomon was chosen to lead the initiative.   Solomon loved the Lord with his whole heart and followed all his father David’s instructions on how to serve Him.  Worshipping the Lord, Solomon offered him a thousand burnt offerings on the altar at Gibeon. Afterwards, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and “told him to ask for anything he wanted, and it would be given to him!”  (1 Kings 3:5).   We all know the story that Solomon responded by asking for wisdom to lead the people as it felt huge and way beyond his capacity to do in his own strength.  

 

The Lord was pleased with this request and gave it to him plus more.   Solomon spent his finances, strength and all his effort on building the temple of God and putting God first.   Solomon found wisdom in serving the Lord and valuing His purposes and accomplished huge things for the Lord.

 

Notice that while Solomon accomplished big things, he did not start big.   It actually started way back with his father’s devotion to the Lord and desire to give all in serving kingdom purposes.  Through this relationship and David’s faithfulness, the Lord promised that his son would also have a place in serving the kingdom.   David also acquired much of what was needed for Solomon to serve faithfully and accomplish the purposes of rebuilding.

 

Solomon then started out small.  He started with just loving the Lord with his whole heart and worshipping the Lord with all he had.  Solomon chose obedience in all the small things, following his father’s instruction on how to serve the Lord.   Because Solomon did this well and chose to give of himself generously to the Lord in honor of Him, the door of opportunity opened to him.

 

We cannot expect God to give us big opportunities if we are not faithful in the small ones.

It was because Solomon had been faithful in serving the Lord in the small things right before him that he was able to answer wisely when the door of opportunity opened.   Solomon affirmed his desire for Kingdom purposes first as he was tested and could have asked for personal gain instead.  Solomon had a huge Kingdom impact as the temple was central to God being among his people permanently. 

 

In his and the people’s obedience to serve God’s bigger purposes, all the people of God were incredibly blessed.   In 1 Kings 8:10 it says, “Look! As the priests are returning from the inner sanctuary, a bright cloud fills the Temple!  The priests have to go outside because the glory of the Lord is filling the entire building!”

 

After praying Solomon prayed a blessing over the people, “Blessed be the Lord who has fulfilled His promise and given rest to His people Israel; not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises proclaimed by His servant Moses.  May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers.” (1 Kings 8:56-57)

 

 

Lord, I admit, I sometimes get discouraged.  I look at my circumstances and can be disappointed that they are not all that I hope at times.  Forgive me.  At the same time, I have been given more than I could ask, imagine or possibly hope for.  Your goodness to me has been extravagant.   Help us to trust You for what we need, keep our eyes on Your unified purposes and not on ourselves or comparisons with what You are doing for others.   We love You and want to give You are all.