Things turn out differently from what mankind ever expected. ‘You will be like God,’1 the fallen angel had said to the Adam and Eve in Paradise. How deep they fell when they chose for themselves and against God. But how great is God’s Grace and how impressive is His plan with mankind and for us, human beings. We will bear His Name and be the reflection of His being! ‘We shall be like Him!’ says John2—not by way of revolt, uprising or revolution – or choosing for ‘self’ and ‘ego’ – but by way of faith, trust and submission. Full of love for God. This had been God’s intention. And this is how His servants will be. Those who point to Heaven with clenched fists find nothing. Those who confess guilt and ask forgiveness find everything. God begins a wonderful work of Grace in them. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” The body ages and is struck by accidents. I just received a telephone call as I was writing this: a mother of three children, one of whom she was still breastfeeding, had been hit by a heavy branch that suddenly fell from a tree in broad daylight and on a day without wind. She sustained a wound to her head and a broken vertebra. Will she remain paralysed? Why, Lord? The telephone had rung previously this morning: a 74 year-old man had stepped into the shower early in the morning and was later found there, dead. Just two examples from everyday life. They were both Christian believers. Between these two telephone calls I paid a visit to a man whose body is starting to succumb to cancer. He was in a lot of pain. He says: ‘I have prayed to the Lord to ask Him to lighten the pain, which has become almost unbearable, and He has heard me. I feel lighter. How nice it is for you to come just now.’ Situations like these leave you often bombarded with questions. Yet there is only one way: folding your hands and closing your eyes and finding a refuge in Him with all your needs and questions, safe in the arms of Jesus in the heat of the battle, serving Him in the midst of the strife, walking hand in hand with Him. Just as He served us and washed our feet which was the lowest, in fact the most humbling service one could perform for another, the work of a slave3. We should step down from the throne of ‘self’, and ‘me’ and ’I’ of our lives and humble ourselves in complete submission to God’s will, just as Jesus did, humbly, without selfishness or seeking of honour. That is how He served and completely finished the work of God to which He was called to do. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.4 The ‘kernel of wheat’ had to fall to the ground and die in order to produce much fruit.5 It always goes through the depths, through suffering, through death. There is no other way. Demolition is necessary before construction begins. Jeremiah is called ‘to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant’.6 This will soon come to an end however. When the Heavenly ‘sculptor’ has completed His work on us we shall bear His image.7 The process is painful; with sharp chisels and a hammer He hacks and carves off big chunks and small splinters from the block of marble He is working on. After the big chisel come the sharp small ones and finally the polishing by sandpaper and water! But the end-result is splendid! Those who bear the ‘image of the ‘beast’ will disappear. Those who bear his ‘mark’, his ‘sign’, will die. But those who have been ‘demolished’ and ‘shaped’ by God are being rebuilt and will live forever! The night on earth will soon be over. His light will then be everywhere. And His servants will become kings, to serve Him – being like Him – and alive forever. Adam and Eve should have lived forever, but instead chose for themselves instead of for God. We shall turn away from our old ‘selves’ and return to Him, to be inspired by Him to achieve our true goal, to develop and use all our faculties and capacities in full, to the Glory of God, the Father. Read the wonderful story of the ‘lost son’ in Luke 15:11-32! In the end it becomes clear that actually both sons are ‘lost’. So the title of the parable should be: the story of the loving Father!
• The word ‘reign’ also points back to Creation.8 The phrase ‘give them light’ points to the High Priestly Blessing.9 The phrase ‘they will reign’ does not mean that they will rule over one another, ‘suppressing one another’.10
• ‘Reign’ refers to taking care of Creation, not to subdue other people. Not to be a ‘supreme race’ that rules over other nations but it means that we by ‘serving and helping’ one another accomplish our God-assigned tasks together. For Christ reigns. And the Father reigns. And we will reign with Christ to the Honour and Glory of God the Father.
• Reigning as kings is about authority, inspirational leadership, so that others achieve their potential. You serve Him in doing so. This is not dictatorial ordering or domination over others. This is ‘serving’ one another, not by power but by My Holy Spirit, Zechariah 4:6.
Bible References:
1.Genesis 3:5 2.1 John 3:2 3.John 13:1–17 4.Philippians 2:1–11 5.John 12:24 6.Jeremiah 1:10 7.Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 1:16 8.Genesis 1:2 9.Numbers 6:24–26 10.Matthew 20:25–28, 23:8, 10–11
