By Jerry D. Ousley
If you like a good action movie, a drama, maybe some mystery, sabotage, or perhaps even some comedy, you need go no further than the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Bible. The stories of the Kings of Judah and Israel not only provide interesting reading but also some very valuable life-lessons.
Some of them served God faithfully, and experienced great victories, conquering enemy nations. As a result, they experienced not only a great name but also great possessions and riches. Then there were some who failed God miserably, even turning away from Him and serving the false gods of their enemies.
Ahab, a king of Israel, not only served false gods but married a pagan woman, Jezebel, who was noted as an infamous queen over Israel. But I suppose one of the worst was a king of Judah, Manasseh by name. He not only served false gods but actually set them up in the temple, the building dedicated to the sacrifices to the Great God Jehovah, who had let them from slavery in Egypt to being the great nation they had become.
Despite all their ups, downs, successes and failures, God had chosen the Jewish people as His people and even through their rebellion, always led them back to Him. Sometimes it was through great difficulty and punishment for their sin and wrongdoing, but He always brought them back. Manasseh, though notably the evilest king to ever rule over Judah, also repented at the end and returned to the God of his fathers.
Yet today, God has His hand on Israel. There are those who have taught that all the promises given to Israel in the Old Testament are now redirected at Christians and that believers in Christ have replaced the Jews.
While the Church is most certainly made up of the people of God, there is nowhere in scripture that suggests He ever took His hand off of the nation of Israel. Yet today, they remain as God’s chosen people and it would serve the rest of the world to take note of and acknowledge that. Right or wrong, good decisions or bad, they are God’s people.
But before we judge those kings of Judah and Israel, we need to take a good look at our own lives. It is easy to judge what these men did or didn’t do in retrospect, but an examination of our own lives will prove that we are no better. We, too, have our ups and downs, our successes and failures, our good and notable accomplishments, and also our blunders that we’d rather not talk about.
Typically, when we use the phrase, “Living Like Kings,” we mean that we are living in luxury, with a table full of delicacies, a bank full of money, and a life of ease and tranquility. However, life more accurately involves our living like those kings of Judah and Israel. We have our good moments and our bad moments. We have times of blessing during which we seem to have plenty. We also have times when we have miserably failed.
I suppose we could say that living like kings isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It isn’t always glorious. What we really need to be seeking is not to live like a king, but to live for the King. You see, whether we are successful or a miserable failure in life, none of it is really good enough for God. Compared to the perfection of the Almighty God of Heaven, even our very best, our most expensive, and our most elaborate accommodations, could never be good enough for God.
In our own righteousness, and with our best of behaviors, we are still inadequately doomed to eternal destruction. Because of our helpless condition, and being hopelessly lost in sin, God came to earth as His own son, paid the death penalty for our sin, rose from the dead and made the way for us to be free from our eternal debt, our hopeless condition, and our doomed state to eternal death. Now all we must do is to accept the free gift of salvation by acknowledging the true King, Jesus our Savior, the Messiah of the world.
When we do this, now, by serving the true King – the King of kings – then we can know what it is really like to live like kings.
—————
Jerry D. Ousley is the author of “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey”, “Ordeal”, “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Newer books include “Finality” and “Dividing God’s Church.” Visit their website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.
If you like a good action movie, a drama, maybe some mystery, sabotage, or perhaps even some comedy, you need go no further than the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Bible. The stories of the Kings of Judah and Israel not only provide interesting reading but also some very valuable life-lessons.
Some of them served God faithfully, and experienced great victories, conquering enemy nations. As a result, they experienced not only a great name but also great possessions and riches. Then there were some who failed God miserably, even turning away from Him and serving the false gods of their enemies.
Ahab, a king of Israel, not only served false gods but married a pagan woman, Jezebel, who was noted as an infamous queen over Israel. But I suppose one of the worst was a king of Judah, Manasseh by name. He not only served false gods but actually set them up in the temple, the building dedicated to the sacrifices to the Great God Jehovah, who had let them from slavery in Egypt to being the great nation they had become.
Despite all their ups, downs, successes and failures, God had chosen the Jewish people as His people and even through their rebellion, always led them back to Him. Sometimes it was through great difficulty and punishment for their sin and wrongdoing, but He always brought them back. Manasseh, though notably the evilest king to ever rule over Judah, also repented at the end and returned to the God of his fathers.
Yet today, God has His hand on Israel. There are those who have taught that all the promises given to Israel in the Old Testament are now redirected at Christians and that believers in Christ have replaced the Jews.
While the Church is most certainly made up of the people of God, there is nowhere in scripture that suggests He ever took His hand off of the nation of Israel. Yet today, they remain as God’s chosen people and it would serve the rest of the world to take note of and acknowledge that. Right or wrong, good decisions or bad, they are God’s people.
But before we judge those kings of Judah and Israel, we need to take a good look at our own lives. It is easy to judge what these men did or didn’t do in retrospect, but an examination of our own lives will prove that we are no better. We, too, have our ups and downs, our successes and failures, our good and notable accomplishments, and also our blunders that we’d rather not talk about.
Typically, when we use the phrase, “Living Like Kings,” we mean that we are living in luxury, with a table full of delicacies, a bank full of money, and a life of ease and tranquility. However, life more accurately involves our living like those kings of Judah and Israel. We have our good moments and our bad moments. We have times of blessing during which we seem to have plenty. We also have times when we have miserably failed.
I suppose we could say that living like kings isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It isn’t always glorious. What we really need to be seeking is not to live like a king, but to live for the King. You see, whether we are successful or a miserable failure in life, none of it is really good enough for God. Compared to the perfection of the Almighty God of Heaven, even our very best, our most expensive, and our most elaborate accommodations, could never be good enough for God.
In our own righteousness, and with our best of behaviors, we are still inadequately doomed to eternal destruction. Because of our helpless condition, and being hopelessly lost in sin, God came to earth as His own son, paid the death penalty for our sin, rose from the dead and made the way for us to be free from our eternal debt, our hopeless condition, and our doomed state to eternal death. Now all we must do is to accept the free gift of salvation by acknowledging the true King, Jesus our Savior, the Messiah of the world.
When we do this, now, by serving the true King – the King of kings – then we can know what it is really like to live like kings.
—————
Jerry D. Ousley is the author of “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey”, “Ordeal”, “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Newer books include “Finality” and “Dividing God’s Church.” Visit their website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.
Doing Good to All
By Tim Brown
Read: Acts 27:27-44
“As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.’” (v. 33)
Everything about Paul’s demeanor and his actions challenge me to be more like him — as he, in turn, is being shaped so much like Jesus.
In Matthew’s gospel we are given this moving description of Jesus’s attentiveness to the crowds who followed him: “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat” (Matt. 15:32). Compare that with Paul calling out to the sailors, who I hasten to remind you were his captors (Acts 27:33). What compassion. And this gives us an insight into
the apostle’s admonition to the brothers and sisters in Galatia: “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone” (Gal. 6:10).
We, as followers of Jesus, are being summoned to act like him. We are the hands and feet of Jesus in the places we live and work. Every action we take and every relationship we have with those who neither know nor love Jesus is our opportunity to play the role of Jesus in our world.
C. S. Lewis puts this so poignantly in his book Mere Christianity: “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
Jesus had compassion on the crowds. Paul cared for the sailors. Now it’s our turn.
As you pray, ask God to shape you to be like him.
—————
Dr. Timothy Brown is the Henry Bast Professor of Preaching and President Emeritus at Western Theological Seminary, where he served from 1995-2021. Tim continues to actively coach and encourage former students and pastors who seek help in their preaching life.
Read: Acts 27:27-44
“As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.’” (v. 33)
Everything about Paul’s demeanor and his actions challenge me to be more like him — as he, in turn, is being shaped so much like Jesus.
In Matthew’s gospel we are given this moving description of Jesus’s attentiveness to the crowds who followed him: “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat” (Matt. 15:32). Compare that with Paul calling out to the sailors, who I hasten to remind you were his captors (Acts 27:33). What compassion. And this gives us an insight into
the apostle’s admonition to the brothers and sisters in Galatia: “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone” (Gal. 6:10).
We, as followers of Jesus, are being summoned to act like him. We are the hands and feet of Jesus in the places we live and work. Every action we take and every relationship we have with those who neither know nor love Jesus is our opportunity to play the role of Jesus in our world.
C. S. Lewis puts this so poignantly in his book Mere Christianity: “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
Jesus had compassion on the crowds. Paul cared for the sailors. Now it’s our turn.
As you pray, ask God to shape you to be like him.
—————
Dr. Timothy Brown is the Henry Bast Professor of Preaching and President Emeritus at Western Theological Seminary, where he served from 1995-2021. Tim continues to actively coach and encourage former students and pastors who seek help in their preaching life.
