Service is Foundational
For some time now, Americans have been moving away from high crime areas and into safer cities or states. Why? The answer is both obvious and timeless. Solomon wrote: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18). When people lose sight of God and His law – chaos ensues. And chaos is a product of those who serve themselves more than God or others.
Such a generation arose in Israel after the death of Joshua. “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). This new generation did not know God and therefore had no understanding of one of His main identifying characteristics. They did not know the work that God had done for them. In other words, they didn’t know the tireless service God had provided for them in coming out of physical slavery in Egypt.
Service to others defines the heart and character of our God, as does the keeping of His benevolent law. It is foundational to living His way of life. When explaining the difference between carnal authority and His own, Christ said: “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The object of His whole physical life was to serve others for their good.
A peaceful and safe, service-oriented society based on God’s spiritual law is what Americans and, indeed, all people innately desire, but do not know how to attain. Consequently, a generation is arising today that does not know God, much as in ancient Israel. So, how is it that such a thing happens? It happens a little bit at a time and it begins with parents, the ones who are to model God’s service-oriented way of life to their children.
In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, it is written that Israel, upon arrival in Caanan, was to be careful to observe every commandment given them by God. They were to remember that it was God who led them through the wilderness in order to humble and test them. It was He that fed them and sustained them. It was all a part of His characteristic service. Because He was with them constantly, He knew exactly how to chasten them in love just as a father is to do with his own children whom he is working to mold and shape. God was modeling for them and for us today, what it takes to pass on the God-fearing, internal dynamics of service to others of the next generation.
Service is foundational to the spiritual development of young people, When Samuel, the prophet and judge was very young, the people of Israel were forgetting God and casting off restraint and yet he was developing spiritually. “Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation” (1 Samuel 3:1). According to the historian, Josephus, Samuel was just twelve years of age when God began working closely with the young man. He had been developing internally on the foundation of active service to others. There is a cause for every effect.
Service is foundational to each of us. We are all developing as servants of God. Christ said: “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37). Service to others is a family trait within God’s family that will never be forgotten!
Marshall Stiver
