God's Will be Done

 Matthew 10     Psalm 99     Judges 14-16

The song today reminds us that God ultimately will lead us so who we follow is important. God has been great, powerful, forgiving and the model of justice throughout history. When we have cried out to God he was forgiving and yet avenged those that reject him. Our call is to put our trust in God and exult him at all times.

When I look at the Jesus model of leadership today’s gospel reading is a great example. Jesus called those he was teaching by word and example and selecting those closest to him sent them out to experience taking the good news into the communities around them. They were to go to the lost, first to those that should most understand his message, the wayward who had learned the law of God throughout their lives, the people of Israel. When their message and teaching was welcomed, they were to bless that community with peace and learning, if rejected to leave and make clear they were being left on their own. Jesus said they would be worse off than the worst cities that had rejected the ways of God.

Jesus made is clear that he was sending them out where they would be rejected, and their lives would be endangered. It would even mean that those closest to them, their immediate family, would turn on them and seek to destroy them. This will open doors to be able to speak to the most powerful people in the nations where you will go. Don’t worry about what you will say, the Spirit will lead you.

We are called to not fear those that can destroy our body but the one that can destroy our body and soul. The cost of following Jesus is high, putting our lives on the line. Those that work hard to keep their life will lose it but the one that trusts in the Lord will keep it for eternity. Our call is to lead others in word and deed so that they see the love of God as we saw in Jesus. Those that do can never lose their reward.

The old testament reading is one of those childhood stories we learn when we are very young. At least part of it. The Samson story is one of those we like to tell the part about his superhuman strength. We are more hesitant to tell the story of the decisions that he made, really self-centered ones, that would become the focus of God. While he is blessed with super-human strength, it is because of his mother’s and then his obedience to God. His interactions with those that are enemies of God’s people and demands that his wives come from there lead to his downfall. In the end he chooses to end his own life as well as those that are the enemies of Israel.

Whether God interacts with us directly or through the hands of others we are remined that God’s will will win in the end. The cost of putting our lives in the hands of non-believers is great and can lead to death. God places in power those that will best showcase his power, rule over us and the beauty of following in his way of life.