I am tempted every time I see the ad in the paper. I am tempted to go to the Orleans and see Tom and Dick Smothers. I can’t believe they are: 1) still alive, 2) still milking that tired old routine—“Mom always liked you best.” I guess they’ve struck a chord. Everybody feels the slight of favoritism, because nobody can be the favorite at every stage of their life. So I guess that is why Tommy and Dicky are still getting people to pay to see their show.
But I never succumb to the temptation to see them. I don’t want to see how old they look. I still remember them from their short stint on CBS, when variety shows were something they broadcast instead of what you had to pay to go see at some casino. If I went to see them, I’d realized how much time has passed. Me, I see me every day in the mirror and am so accustomed to the minute monthly changes I can fool myself that they don’t exist—I’ve always looked like this--stunningly handsome! But if I saw Tommy and Dicky, well, I’d realize Father Time, unlike Mrs. Smothers, doesn’t play favorites.
Neither does God. As we look at the final recounting of Solomon’s life in the sacred history, we’ll see yet again, that there are
No Favorites With God.
1.No winks to the mighty (26-36).
2.No snubs to the meek (37-43).
“Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statues and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did (29-33).”’”
Wow! Solomon was going to lose his kingdom! But how could that be? Look at all the good he had done for the Lord. He had built the Temple, built a nice palace that really spruced up the neighborhood, expanded the wealth of God’s people and plunged into a frenzy of public works, (we’ve got one mentioned in our text for today that arguably is one of the most ambitious building projects in Palestine, filling in an entire valley with a terraced wall connecting the Temple mount in Jerusalem with the Old City where the palace and residential areas were). If anyone deserved a pass for good behavior, Solomon would have been it! And then add to the fact his wisdom and wit and the money. Look at all the money he had! Certainly the rich, like Mel Gibson, are entitled to a wink and a nod when they sort of step out of bounds.
You don’t think that’s the case with human beings? Then why do judges automatically have to recuse themselves, refuse to hear a case, when one of their friends are involved in it? Favoritism runs deep. If a French bicyclist had won the Tour de France and tested positive, we’d be screaming for his blood, but Landis, an American? Well, these things happen.
There is no favoritism with God. He can cut down the tall tree just as easily as he can clear out the brushwood. Solomon has led his people astray by his actions, actually worshipping the disgusting false gods of Sidon, Ammon and Moab, gods so disgusting and worthless we don’t even have any cute fairy tales about them or beautiful marble statuary depicting them like we do the Greek and Roman gods. So serious is Solomon’s sin that his family is going to be left with only a token kingdom—the ranchland of western Texas—that’s about what Judah was, dryland pasturage and a wayside stop on the caravan route, the ancient version of I-10. And even that is not because Solomon is such a great guy—it is because the Lord made a promise to bring a Savior into the world through David’s royal family. That’s why he said, “I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever (39).” When the herald angels sang on that first Christmas night above Bethlehem’s hills, the humiliation was over.
So, if Solomon couldn’t get away with it, do we think we can? Just because we are the husband we can ignore our responsibilities and still have great children and a contented wife? Think again. Just because we are mothers and everybody is depending on us so, we can be excused the slip-ups when we loiter way too long among the video poker machines or the bad moods when we snap at everybody and would find fault even with Jesus if we were married to him? Think again. Just because we are kids and didn’t know what we were getting into? Think again. There is no favoritism with God. He loves everyone equally and he is going to see to it that all of us suffer from self-inflicted hardships and heartaches, he is going to see to it that he himself makes our lives miserable, hemming us in in front and behind with problems, until we wake up, smell the coffee and turn to the Savior who alone can take away the sins that so beset our lives.
There is no favoritism with God. That means there are no snubs to the meek.
Let’s take a look at this Jeroboam. He wasn’t from a royal family. Not even from a rich family. His father had died so early in Jeroboam’s life that the Bible doesn’t even record his name. Jeroboam was raised by his widowed mother, Zeruah. And he certainly didn’t have a lot of cash to buy friends and influence legislation, like Detroit’s Ford boys can and have done. He “was a man of standing,” the Bible says, because of his raw abilities. His attention to details caught Solomon’s eye. Solomon put him in charge of all the conscripted laborers of the north, the “house of Jacob.”
To this one Ahijah, sent by the Lord, comes. To this one he promises a kingdom. “As for you, I will take you and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statues and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you (36-38).”
A nobody gets a better shake from the Lord than Solomon, born to the purple. He gets a bigger kingdom—all of rich Israel, the Ten Northern Tribes, the industrial, retail and manufacturing heart of the nation. He can rule over even more than that, if he wishes, because the foreign nations David put under tribute are still sending their tax money in and he will have the power to both protect them and tax them if he wishes.
And God promises him a ruling dynasty as enduring as David’s if he walks with the Lord. Those are the same earthly conditions God gave to David’s family. And Jeroboam is the son of a widow, an obedient civil servant under Solomon who will become a king surpassing Solomon’s son in wisdom, power and riches. And add outlaw, refugee and exile to that list. When Solomon finds out, he “tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king and stayed there until Solomon’s death (40).”
There are no favorites with God. Our lowly condition does not make him pass us by and disdain us. His eyes are upon the widow and the orphan, the Bible says. He takes the part of the oppressed and the down-trodden. He heals the sick and calls sinners to repentance. Doesn’t Jesus’ ministry show this? Unlike some modern day celebrity preachers, Jesus didn’t hobnob with the high and mighty, getting in snippets of Gospel advice between the putting greens. He healed the lepers, those so loathsome because of their hideous disease, no one wanted to get near them. He stooped down to lift up those crippled from birth, the very people the high and mighty had condemned of terrible sin for them to have been born that way. He, the Lord and Author of life, made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant to his heavenly Father’s will as he bore the shame of death, even death on a cross!
In the eyes of the world—the Roman governor Pliny couldn’t even spell his name right—he was a nobody.
But in God’s plan, this nobody made everybody a somebody through forgiveness.
Can that work for you? Is that offer still good for me? “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted,” Jesus promises (Matthew 23.12).” Whoever. It is what it means. Whoever. You, me, all of us are included in that blessed whoever. There can be no favorites with whoever. Our God watches over us. Our God protects us. Our God guides us. Our God forgives us and when our last hour comes, when we can’t fool ourselves in the mirror any longer by thinking that we look good for our age or that the passage of time has been kind to us, when death is ready to do its worst on us, our God will take us to be with him in heaven for all eternity.
I know this is so, even though I am a nobody, because there are
No Favorites With God.
1.No winks to the mighty (26-36).
2.No snubs to the meek (37-43).
Come to think of it, Tom and Dick Smothers could have been real smash hits if they just would have changed their shtick to “God always like you best.” That would apply to everybody! He liked, no, loved, you best, so he never fails to point out our sins to us. He loved me best so he always offers me his Gospel forgiveness. He loved you best so he moves you by faith to hold on to is promises. I wouldn’t even mind seeing them if they had that shtick, if, if they looked as old as Burt Bacharach!
Rev.Don Pieper is a minister in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has devoted his life to
sharing the Gospel of Christ to all of Gods people. For more information about the Green Valley
Evangelical Lutheran Church visit us at
www.gvelc.com or call 702-454-8979 .
Ask for Pastor Don or Pastor Matt.
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