Obey the King

Ecclesiastes 8: 2-7 (NIV): Obey the king’s command, I say, because you took an oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. Do not stand up for a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. Since a king’s word is supreme, who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?

You may read this and wonder what is has to do with you. After all, America doesn’t have a king, even though 43 countries (at this time) do. Throughout History, many people have lived their lives under the control of a king.

    But I remind you that you do have a king. If you said the Lord’s Prayer today, you said, “your kingdom come, your will be done.” Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). He is the king of the universe, and you have taken an oath to obey him and to please him, if you have surrendered your life to him.

    Jesus tells a parable of what it’s like to have a Lord (a king). He  said, “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ” (Luke 7:7-10). God isn’t our boss, who tells us what to do eight hours per day, he is our Lord, who owns us twenty-four hours per day.

    So, surrender your will to your king. Don’t question what he is doing, but trust that he is always up to something good.  You are either God’s slave or a slave to sin, according to Jesus (John 8:34), but right after this, he says if he sets us free, we are free indeed.

    It is one of life’s ironies: the best way to be free is the be a servant of the Most High God.