Since I am on vacation this week I am trying to take it easy. I don’t anticipate another vacation for many months, so I’m relaxing down here in Atlanta as much as I can. So you’re just getting a brief reflection today! As I did my Bible reading the other day I came across Jeremiah 25:9. It’s one of those books I don’t read nearly often enough and this verse is proof that I should read it more. I’ll quote verses 8 and 9:
Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the LORD , “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin.
What jumped out at me in those verses are the words “my servant Nebuchadnezzar.” If you’ve read the account of King Nebuchadnezzar as it is found in the book of Daniel, you’ll know that he wasn’t a man who gave his life to God. While at a point in his life he did acknolwedge that Daniel’s God was the true God, he never submitted to His authority and acknowledged Him as the only God. There is little reason to doubt that Nebuchadnezzar died unregenerate and faces an eternity of seperation from God.
Despite Nebchadnezzar’s sinfulness and his rejection of God, we see that God calls him His servant. I am acustomed to think of God’s servants in the way Paul speaks of himself – a bond servant dedicated to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Yet here we find an unrepentant servant being likewise called a servant. I suppose this should come as no surprise. Jesus Himself spoke of “wicked servants” in his parables, showing that there are two types of servants – the willing servant and the unwilling servant. In either case, the person is subject to God and must bow before His authority, whether He admits it or not.
So the question that has been playing in my mind is this: will I be God’s willing servant? Will I be a servant who bows before God as my Master and seeks to lovingly and obediently carry out His will? Or will I be the wicked and evil servant who is subject to God, but refuses to acknowledge His superiority? Will I be submissive as a servant should be or will I seek to usurp the role of the Master?
God help me to be a faithful, submissive, willing servant.
