Left Standing on the Cliff
1 Samuel 8:1-7
And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beer-Sheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre (loo-ker), and took bribes, and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”
After the death of Joshua, God called certain people from the Israelites to speak for Him to the people, to be God’s spokesman, to listen to disagreements, and to be a judge for the people. The last of these judges, Samuel, once he had gotten old, appointed his two sons to be his successors. His sons were not Godly people and sold their judgments to some people, and distorted judgments on others. The elders of Israel finally got tired of this and came to Samuel, and demanded that he anoint someone to be their king, so they could be like other nations. Although this saddened Samuel, it wasn’t Samuel the Israelites rejected, it was God.
The Israelites had a habit of rejecting God in favor of other things. During the Exodus the Israelites had Aaron make a golden calf and worshipped it. During the time of the Judges, it is recorded on numerous occasions they would worship the gods of the surrounding peoples, only to incur God’s wrath and subjugation to those other nations. It should have been no surprise to anyone the Israelites once again rejected God’s rule over them in favor of something else.
God was not surprised by this. When Moses was giving his final words to the Children of Israel through God’s inspiration he warned them in Deuteronomy 17:14, “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us”. God warned the people that a day would come when they would reject God’s rule over them. But God continued in verse 15, “be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses”. Even though the people refused God, He wanted to make sure that He would still be there ruling through a man that would listen to Him.
But the Children of Israel did not just reject God because they didn’t want Him anymore, they rejected God’s rule so they could be like other nations, other nations that did not listen to God’s word; that did not obey God’s laws; that did not worship God. Samuel’s sadness over his people’s request for a king is understandable, because it wasn’t for any good or Godly reason did the people demand a king, but so that the nation of God’s chosen people, the one He created and set apart from the rest of the world, could be just like everyone else. The kings of Israel ruled the area for many years, some were Godly men and ruled well, most were not Godly and ruled poorly, but all were flawed and all made mistakes. After the reign of Solomon, just their third king, one of his sons and an aide to Solomon both assumed the title of king and split the nation in two. The northern area abandoning God completely to be known as Israel and later as Samaria, the southern area, comprised of the tribal sections, Simeon, Benjamin and Judah, and which ever Levites who still served God, remained faithful to God for the most part, and was known only as Judah. And all this was the result of wanting to look just like everyone else.
This desire to not stand out, to be like everyone else, is not something that was exclusive to the Israelites, but something that all people want to do. There is probably not one person who has wanted to do something with their friends because “everyone is doing it”. And I’m sure that everyone has been told by their parents “And if everyone jumped off a cliff would you jump too?” While we might have answered “no”, we know without a doubt that if all of our friends were jumping off a cliff, we would not be the only one there by ourselves. Growing up we had a pool that was kind of close to the house. I say kind of because you could climb on to the roof and jump in the pool, as long as you got a running start. My brother and I showed my dad this, and he jumped into the pool with us because, as he told my mom later, “I wasn’t going to be up there alone.”
All facets of life have this desire to be like others. Businesses all function just as their competition does. One bank operates like another bank. Television shows are just about all the same, just different actors and actresses playing the parts. As far as fast food restaurants go, the only real difference is how the food is named, usually not in how it’s made. And this desire to be like everyone else is showing up in the Church. Church leaders are looking at what everyone else is doing and following the trend. The doors of the church are being opened and the world is allowed to bring their ways inside. When people come to church, there is no difference between it and the outside world, things are the same, and because things are the same, people are more accepting of church.
We as Christians most times follow this action. We watch how the world acts, how everyone else acts, and follow suit. We talk the way the world talks, we laugh at the jokes the world laughs at; we find the entertainment the world wants us to have; we seek after that which the world defines as important. We know what God wants us to do, but we do not want to be that different person and be the only one standing on the cliff. If these actions go against our beliefs as a child of God, well hey, at least we’re just like everyone else, right?
We all know those people who stand out, those people who march to the beat of their own drum. Those people who don’t dress the way everyone else does, that don’t talk the way everyone else does, that don’t act the way everyone else does. These people are generally shunned by others, not accepted, told to change who they are, because they are not like everyone else. I once was a member of a bank called the Antelope Valley Bank, and while it did operate the same as others, at each teller station was a padded chair for the customer to sit and conduct business. Not a major difference, but a nice one. This institution was bought out by another bank and one of the first things done was to remove the chairs, I guess to be like the others.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that we are the lights of the world. We are meant to illuminate, to shine in the world, and lights don’t “fit in”, lights stand out! Even in places such as New York or Las Vegas where there are literally millions of lights shining all over the place, they stand out. During His life Jesus was not like everyone else, He stood out. John the Baptist who heralded Jesus’ coming was very different. While I find nothing in Scriptures to support this us, I believe that when people met the Apostles, they knew there was something different about that man. Whether people liked or disliked them, everyone knew they was different, thee stood out, their light shined.
This is what we are called to be. We are called to be different; we are called to stand out; to be the ones left standing on the cliff. The world will say if someone wrongs you, you are supposed to get even, to get revenge. We are told by our God not to seek revenge and to forgive the person who wronged us. The world will tell us it is ok to get money in less than honest ways, but we have been told to work at our best and earn what we gain. The world will tell us it is acceptable to abort an unwanted or inconvenient child, but we have to stand on the cliff, alone if necessary, and say this is unacceptable.
To be one of God’s children means we have to leave the world behind. Jesus tells us “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other”. We cannot follow the ways of God and the ways of the world. We cannot hide the light of God that is supposed to shine through us for the sake of gaining acceptance in the world. We cannot be like others. We have been called out of the world by Jesus sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. Because of this calling, our sins have been forgiven and we are now citizens of heaven, this place is no longer our home, we are just passing through. We are not meant to blend in with the local population. Just like any visitor who passes though our home town and stands out, so too are we to stand out. We should, and with God’s help will, stand out for the better, for we will stand out for God.
“Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” The Children of Israel made a very big mistake when they demanded a king to judge over them, it was one that ended up costing them their kingdom and their freedoms. The kings that abandoned God dominated the people and when the kings grew weak other empires conquered the territory and enslaved the people. Also the people were lead astray, they allowed themselves to be moved away from God and His Word because there were very few people who stood out and shined for the Lord. Since we are God’s own and no longer of the world, we should do all in our God given strength to stand out, to be the beacon God needs us to be to help bring others to this saving light. Once everyone else has jumped, we need to be the ones left standing on the cliff. Amen.
