Preferential Treatment

09.21.11

Luke 4.25-27 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” NIV

What they knew, and what they thought they knew, were two different things. They knew they were God’s chosen people; they knew they were His holy possession; they knew they were set apart from all the other peoples of the earth, but they thought because of their status they were guaranteed preferential treatment. A Sidonian widow and a Syrian warrior just didn’t add up in their theology. Jesus, are you saying God dealt better with them than He did with us!!??

We must be careful that what we know adds up with what we think we know. Otherwise we can get into some pretty stinky thinking if we’re not careful. Thinking like this causes marriages to fail, leads to oppressive government regulations, and is a breeding ground for pride and arrogance. There is an ancient persistent misunderstanding on the part of the Jews of what God really called them to, and what His intentions for them really were. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just that they never seemed to have completely understood God’s love for them and His sovereign treatment of others. That’s why the ministry of the Holy Spirit is so vital to the life and spiritual health of the believer enabling them to ask, “God, what do You really want from me?”

I think what God really wants is unquestioning love because of His tangible demonstrations of His love. Like any good parent, I think God wants His kids to love Him, accept Him, and obey Him with trusting, willing hearts. I don’t think the formula is all that complicated. Sin complicates, love simplifies.

For me it seems I must accept life as I have it and not as I want it. I have it the way I have it because of God and therefore must continually conclude that what I am and where I am is what God has willed for me. That doesn’t mean I can’t ask Him to take away what I think is too difficult, but I mustn’t gripe and moan when He doesn’t. I must after asking, remember that I prayed about it and leave the results to Him. Trying to strong-arm God is futile. Wouldn’t unquestioning love be better than always suspecting that He gives bigger pieces of cake to others?

It all boils down to the condition of the heart and life, under God’s care, is conditioning. Life is designed by God to knock our rough edges off and to bring us to that place of unconditionally trusting God. So today, I must accept from God all that He brings and be careful not to expect preferential treatment according to my terms. I do, in Christ, get preferential treatment – it is according to His terms. Accepted in the Beloved…