PEOPLE CONNECTIONS, PART 1: LIKE GOD

1 Samuel 12:12-25 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
6 March, 2005
All Rights Reserved

In the classic novel, Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore, a farmer's son in old England meets a beautiful young woman who is a member of a clan, the Doones, which has been oppressing the people of the region for years. John Ridd falls in love with Lorna, not knowing that she is a Doone. Even when he discovers that she is a member of the clan which murdered his father his love will not let her go. A complication is that Lorna does not know that she is a royal child who has been kidnapped by the Doones in the attempt to marry into royalty. Old Ansar Doone, head of the clan, plotted for decades, carefully protecting her so that she would eventually marry his brutish nephew, Carver.

In an act defying death, John sneaks into the Doone valley to approach Ansar and ask for Lorna's hand in marriage. Imagine the resistance in Ansar's heart! Not only would he think it wrong for a high-born woman to marry a commoner, such a betrothal would foil his long plot to return to a position of wealth and power. But John knows only of his strong and chaste love connection to Lorna, and she to him. So he faces Ansar Doone and presses his case. Ansar is furious. "I could kill you now!" he shouts. Ansar asks Lorna if she would consent to marry anyone else, and she answers that she would not. Finally, out of love for this girl whom Ansar originally kidnapped, he relents and permits the marriage and then tumbles into the pit of despair which he dug for himself.

We have come to expect powerful connections between young people experiencing the bloom of love. They will leap all sorts of barriers for the sake of their loved one. It is a connection which rides on the wings of the strongest emotions and so it may be the easiest people connection to keep strong. Other connections require more maturity, and demand more of us. It is easier to face down an angry clan leader one time than it is to lay down our lives for others day after day, year after year.

Any survey of human relations will tell you that people connections are breaking down all over the world as we enter the third millennium since Christ. The majority of children in America will graduate high school having experienced the loss of a parent to divorce. In some subcultures in America the majority of children are born to single parents to begin with. People change churches like suits of clothes. Pastors move from pulpit to pulpit. Headhunting has become a way of life in business and even in the church. Our people connections are breaking down with disastrous consequences.

This pattern has taken a tremendous toll on the credibility of the church. How can we presume to instruct lost people about faith and faithfulness when we ourselves break relationships at the drop of a hat? If we are the book that people read to discover the nature of God, what can they possibly conclude when we indulge infighting, church splits, and marriage breakdowns? One very well-known Bible preacher has lost his marriage as of this writing. He has a multi-million dollar radio and television ministry. He previously vowed that if his marriage dissolved he would step down. Then it happened, and he did not. What message about God's truthfulness and faithfulness are we sending in that way? People have every right to question our message when we break our people connections and break our word. They think: "Maybe God isn't trustworthy after all."

The solution to this problem is to get our eyes off other people and walk in our people connections with our eyes upon the Lord. It will take level of spiritual maturity which few American Christians have attained. We are called to learn the pattern of people connections from Christ our Lord, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:1-2: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." This principle of imitation means that we are to learn the character of God and treat people the same loving way he does, so the whole Bible becomes our textbook for maintaining people connections.

1. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONNECTION

In the days of the prophet Samuel the people of Israel gave God every reason to abandon them but he would not. He set them up to function as a theocracy. He would be their ruler and his rule would be administrated through priests and sometimes judges when the priests were out to lunch. And it worked! When Israel acted in unbelief he would discipline them, but he would always deliver them, as it says in 1 Samuel 12:11: "Then the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel, and delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around, so that you lived in security."

But Israel rejected God's perfect rule and demanded a king. God gave them one as a punishment for unbelief. Why would anyone pick a weak, fallible, ignorant human over the almighty, faithful, and all-wise God? If God was a vindictive human like us he might say: "That's it! If you don't want the theocracy, then you can't have me at all." Instead we read what God actually said as he proclaimed the principle of divine connection in the first part of 1 Samuel 12:22: "For the LORD will not abandon His people..." God took the slap in the face, sucked it up, and said: "I'm not going to abandon you."

As children of God, we're supposed to be like him. Obviously we cannot be divine but constancy is a quality of holiness which we are commanded to imitate. Never throw your people away! They may run away or destroy the connection between you, but so far as it depends upon you, never willfully discard your people.

Some church growth principles are based upon throwing people away. Many seminars and books urge pastors and elders to shove certain kinds of people out of the church. Doesn't that violate the principle of transformation--Christ molding us into his image? Do you think God picked us for his church because we were the kind of people upon whom he thought he could build a church? No, apart from Christ we are ignorant, naked, and dead.

My wife and I know a Christian couple who had friends who were told by their therapist to fire them as friends! I do not dispute the need to get some distance from toxic people, but our friends are two of the sweetest, most loving, Biblical Christians we've ever met. Do you see the false logic of that therapist? "You'll only become whole when you get out a big axe and chop some of God's people out of your life." Did that advice come from heaven or from the "other place?"

I have become convinced that personal and church spiritual health hinges upon walking in holiness in imitation of our heavenly Father and choosing never to throw our people away. I think our transformation into the image of Christ has been stunted by our propensity to walk away from our people connections in the church and in our families. It's like spinning the "bankrupt" card on Wheel of Fortune, or sliding down a chute by accident in Super Mario Brothers. All of God's connection-building work gets zeroed out.

2. THE REASON FOR CONNECTION

The prophet Samuel went on to explain why we should not discard our people: "For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name..." (1 Samuel 12:22a). God remains connected for the sake of his glory, for the renown of his name in heaven and on earth. And how long will God be concerned for his great name? Forever! He'll never say, "Oh, I don't care anymore about my glory--you can all go."

When we begin to imitate God in this way we discover the most durable reason for every one of our people connections. We are connected in order to glorify God! That is often the last thing on our minds in our relationships, isn't it? We tend to stay connected for our own reasons and they almost always fail. If we connect with people only because we like what we are getting out of it we have programmed ourselves to abandon them when we don't like what we are receiving. Human motivations are woefully insufficient to maintain our people connections.

To put it another way, there is no connection we have with another human being which we are free to consider on only a human level. Paul wrote: "Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh..." (2 Corinthians 5:16). Every human connection must be viewed from the standpoint of God's purposes. Specifically, the strength and endurance of our people connections is derived from entering the pursuit of the glory of God in them. Our daily interaction with people must never be only on the basis of human perspective.

Do you think God got a "good deal" by choosing Israel? The majority of them abused him most horribly for thousands of years. Some theologians use that fact to argue that since Christ has come God has discarded Israel. On the contrary, Paul wrote: "I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew..." (Romans 11:1-2). The remnant of genuine believers in Israel will be revealed when they come to faith in their Messiah at Christ's second coming. Then he will set up his millennial kingdom with them. God never throws his people away--and neither should we. The matter of eternal destiny is too important.

3. THE BASIS OF CONNECTION

In the third part of this same verse Samuel answers the question: What is it which actually connects us? "For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself" (1 Samuel 12:22). In short, we are connected because God chose us to be connected. God has made all believers into a people for himself. It is unfortunate that the church today has made the doctrine of his choosing us a divisive issue. It should do the reverse. We should look at every believer in Christ, no matter how different from ourselves, and say: "We are connected forever because God chose us and made us into his people." That should be a connection which transcends even an argument about differing views of the way God chose us! But Samuel's point is not to explain how or why but simply that God's connection to us is based on his choosing us.

I think one reason God emphasized his choice of us is to place our people connection in the church on a level above the human. We are not connected together because we happened to choose this particular fellowship, that we like the people, the programs, and the color of the paint. We are connected as an act of God. He has gathered us as a people, and so we are not free to undo what God has done because it becomes difficult at times. Here's what we say at every wedding service: "What God has joined together let no one tear apart." The same is true of our people connections in the church. Paul wrote about this to the Corinthians who were always in danger of breaking relationships: "Do you not know that you [all] are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you [all] are" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). The plurals of the word "you" tell us that this passage is about breaking up a church, not individual suicide.

I conclude that our people connections define our fellowship together in Christ. How silly to build a church on programs or earthly benefits. How useless to attend church but pretend no connection to the people. The people connections in Christ's church are fundamental and they are eternal. God has no other plan.

4. THE BEHAVIORS OF CONNECTION

So what does a person look like who recognizes the significance of people connections in the Lord? Samuel is a good example. First, we see him performing the duty of chastening or disciplining: "When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the LORD your God was your king. Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen, whom you have asked for, and behold, the LORD has set a king over you. If you will fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God. If you will not listen to the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the command of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers. Even now, take your stand and see this great thing which the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, that He may send thunder and rain. Then you will know and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for yourselves a king.' So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel" (1 Samuel 12:12-18). Out of love and faith Samuel said the hard words and did the hard things. I know that many preachers insist that God would never do such a thing, but here he deliberately destroyed Israel's crop of wheat in order to produce repentance. A church without such discipline, both formal and informal, is a church without love and without strength of connection.

Secondly, we see Samuel pointing the people to God: "Then all the people said to Samuel, 'Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.' Samuel said to the people, 'Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile" (1 Samuel 12:19-21). We need to do this for each other all the time! I do not know a single pastor who is offended when someone pipes up and says: "Hey, let's pray about this right now."

Thirdly, we see Samuel offering the reassurance of personal commitment: "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you..." (1 Samuel 12:23). Notice that the reason for Samuel's commitment is not based on his own character but the Lord's command. It is the divine connection which makes our people connections stable, steady, and enduring. God's power is released through those connections!

Fourthly, we see Samuel teaching and admonishing the people: "...But I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away" (1 Samuel 12:23b-25). We all need constant teaching and reminders of the significance of the things of God for daily life, so we all need to give those reminders to one another. To summarize, our people connections in the church can be seen by these behaviors: That we teach each other, warn each other, express our personal commitment, pray for each other, and discipline each other when necessary. There can be no church without these.

CONCLUSION: When John Ridd and Lorna Doone looked old Ansar Doone in the eye and expressed their total commitment to each other the world changed around them. Doone relented, and everything shifted. The world that would have been had Lorna married Carver Doone no longer existed. The connection between Lorna and John would be sorely tested in the days to come but in the end they passed the test. Do you want to change the church? You can't! But God will change the church around you when you imitate him by keeping strong people connections according to his will. You will be sorely tested, but know this: "Blessed is the man [or woman] who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him" (James 1:12, ESV).