“O Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone we bring to remembrance.” [Isa 26:13]
When the prophet, Samuel, was old, the people of Israel asked him to appoint over them a king. He warned them against this but he consulted God and God told him to listen to the people.
Relying upon kings resulted in the division of the nation and the kings led the people away from God. In the end, God took the people from the land and put them into captivity, where they served other lords besides their kings. As John Milton put it, God appointed kings in His anger and took them away in His wrath.
Man has not changed nor have we learned the lessons from history. We look for kings. Rather than rely upon God alone, we seek the aid of government or fraternities, where we submit to rules for the sake of benefits. Nonetheless, it is clear, everything we have accomplished, God has done for us (verse 12).
Why do we look to man? Over and over, the Bible tells us it is better to trust in God than to trust in man; it is better to trust in God than to trust in princes or government (Psa 118:8-9, et al). But we crave fraternity and we seek the approval of man. And, just as Shechem argued for his people to intermarry with Jacob’s, saying won’t his wealth become ours, so too, we all desire success and we see this success as the fruit of fraternity.
Jesus asked the question: How can you be saved if you seek the approval of men rather than the glory of God? (Joh 5:44). But we ignore this rebuke and we syncretize the Word and the world. We adopt the wisdom and traditions of the world, sometimes under the pretext “to earn the right to speak” but always because we are seeking success or approval. We submit to the kings of the world.
Oh when! When do we bring to remembrance our King; the King of kings? We can do nothing without Him. Yet, we spend more time seeking the world and little time seeking Him. Jesus said unless the branch abide in the vine, it cannot produce fruit. We cannot produce fruit unless we abide in Christ. And the branch, the professing Christian, who does not produce fruit is thrown into the fire – the fire is Hell (Joh 15:1-6).
Many, if not most, professing Christians are not saved. They seek success or approval in the world rather than the glory of God. Many professing Christians have “done great things for Christ” but Christ, Himself, will say depart from Me, I never knew you (Mat 7:21-23). We need to examine ourselves according to the Word, to make sure we are in the faith (2Co 13:5).
Do we bring God, alone, to remembrance? Do we know we have done nothing without Him? Do we know He alone is our provision? Do we submit to Him only; He is our King; He is our Lord; He is our Master. Do we stand against these lesser kings? Do we repent for chasing after other kings?
“but Your name alone we bring to remembrance.”
