In the world we live in certain
jobs and certain looks and certain abilities are honored and highly
regarded. Whilst other tasks and jobs are looked down upon and
considered of less value. That is how distorted our lives have
become. But that has been that way since the beginning of time. As
I have discussed, the Lord has a special place and a special task
for each of us. Some might be considered more important and some
might be considered less important in the eyes of the world. But to
the Lord they are all equally important and if you do the best you
can with what is required of you, you will be rewarded in
heaven.
You all know the parable Jesus told
of the man who gave five bags of gold to one servant, two bags of
gold to another and one bag of gold to yet another. He went on a
trip and told his servants to invest the gold while he was away.
The servant with five bags of gold quickly doubled it, as well as
the servant with the two bags of gold. However the servant with the
one bag of gold hid it in the ground till the master returned and
didn't do anything with it. When the master returned he praised
both servants who doubled their bags of gold. Note here that he
didn't expect the one with the two bags to suddenly also have ten
bags like the servant who initially got five. No, he simply
expected him to do his best with what he had. He praised both of
them equally for doubling what he gave them. The only one he was
unhappy with was the one that didn't do anything with what was
given to him. Now the same applies to us. The Lord wants us
to be faithful with what we have and do what He requires of us. He
doesn't want us to look at the others and feel that He expects the
same from us. Or look at others and wish we could be doing what
they are doing. No, all He wants is that we do something and not
stagnate. I want to illustrate this further with two examples out
of the Bible, one where someone got jealous of another's calling
and one where he didn't.
The first example where they got
jealous of someone else's calling was Miriam (Moses' sister) and
Aaron (Moses' brother). While the Israelites were at Hazeroth,
Miriam and Aaron started criticizing Moses:
Numbers 12:2 "Has the Lord spoken
only through Moses? Hasn't He spoken through us too?"
Now at that stage Miriam was a
prophet and a composer. She sang and danced a song of deliverance,
after the Lord saved them from the Egyptians. She was therefore not
an ordinary person and Aaron was the first High Priest. They were
therefore two important people and had important tasks to complete,
but they were jealous of Moses and his special relationship with
the Lord. They were jealous of his authority, they were jealous of
his god-given task. And how did the Lord react to their jealousy?
He called them and reprimanded them, He even struck Miriam with
leprosy. Moses interceded for them and he managed to save their
lives. The point is that the Lord doesn't take it very lightly. We
should be happy with what He has given us to do. We shouldn't look
at others and sneer at what the Lord has entrusted them to do. We
are all equally important in Him sight and should do our best with
what we have.
The second example is a beautiful
example of someone that was not jealous of another's task
but even assisted him in accomplishing it. And that was Jonathan.
Jonathan was the son of the first king of Israel, namely Saul. He
was therefore the rightful heir to the throne and was next in line
to become king. But Saul sinned in the eyes of the Lord and the
Lord rejected him and instead anointed David as king. Now as you
probably know, Jonathan and David became best friends. They were
very close and loved one another dearly. But it soon became clear
to Jonathan that David has found favor with the Lord and that the
Lord was using David in a mighty way. Saul became very jealous of
David and tried to kill him on a number of occasions, but not
Jonathan. He helped his friend whenever and wherever he could. He
realized that David was going to be the next king and not he. Now
think about it for a second. Here you are, destined to become king
and lead a life of royalty. And now here comes another guy and the
Lord decides that he would be king instead of you. How
would you feel? I must admit I think I would have been a bit
jealous, because David was going to live the life I was destined to
live. He was going to be the famous king of Israel and not me. He
was going to take my rightful place.
But Jonathan was not like that. He
was a man who trusted in the Lord and knew that the Lord's ways was
the best. He defended his friend till the end and never tried to
undermine him or even speak evil of him. Jonathan was truly someone
to look up to. Someone who was not jealous of another's calling
even though he had the right to be, someone who followed the Lord
his whole life. He is a true hero to me, someone who lived his
calling fully. We therefore need to be more like him. Look at what
the Lord is doing in your life, don't look at what He is doing in
the lives of others. Your calling is most suitable to you. The Lord
knows best, don't try to enforce another's calling on yourself.
Instead, be like Jonathan and help others in their walk with the
Lord.
Lord, help us to look at what You
want us to do. Help us not to be jealous, but to follow Your
calling for our lives. Amen