Date: 20 April 2002
Subject: Sons & Daughters and NOT Servants

Shalom, Boker-Tov,

I had wanted to share on something else this week but the Lord impressed on me to address another important issue; that of sonship vis-a-vis servanthood.

In Genesis 15: 1 - 4, we read of a dialogue between Abraham and the Lord God over the subject of heritage. At this point of history, Abraham was already a very wealthy man owning many camels, cattle, sheep and servants and he had much gold too.
1. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram, OI am your shield, your exceeding great reward."
2. But Abram said, "Lord God. what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3. Then Abram said, "Look, You have give me no offspring; indeed one ( a servant ) born in my house is my heir!"
4. And Behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."

Abraham was a very old man by now and extremely wealthy and he had no heir. And so he was a bit disappointed with himself because of the situation he was in and he seemed resigned to the fact that the inevitable passing of his wealth to his head servant Eliezer seemed imminent. Yet observe what the Lord God told him; Abraham was to have his own son to pass the inheritance to. Jewish culture, very similar to our own Eastern culture, dictates that a person's inheritance passes over to his children ( preferably the son(s) over the daughters ) and it is almost unheard of that the servant gets anything by way of inheritance. If at all, the portion given in the dying person's testament to the servant is often seen as a special bonus, never an entitlement on the part of the servant.

Therefore, in the light of that culture, if you would now turn over to the New Testament, in John 15: 12 - 17, we read of the conversation that Jesus had with His disciples over supper on the night before He was crucified.
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another."

Isn't it beautiful to know that Jesus does not call us servants any more? The apostle John wrote in John 1: 12 - "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. Again, the apostle Paul picked up the subject and mentioned that those who have received Jesus into their hearts are filled with the Holy Spirit and are therefore more than friends; they are now sons of God. ( read Romans 8: 14 - 17 ). And because we are sons (and daughters) of God, we now stand to inherit all the blessings that belongs to us as children of God. God does not treat us as servants. He never did; otherwise He would not have sent Jesus to die for us.

Therefore since we are children and not servants, we have that special relationship with the Father which a servant will not enjoy. Members of a family share experiences and secrets. They spend time together for bonding of relationships. I remember when our children were younger. We would lie down each evening and tell Bible stories and share jokes, experiences together and we would laugh and really enjoy the time together. Now that is the type of relationship which I believe Jesus was referring to; that we spend time with the Father reading and recounting the stories of great men of faith in the Bible and sharing valuable time with Him. I believe that our Father in Heaven looks forward to us running to Him as often as we want and really lie down by His side and listen to the stories as told by the Holy Spirit.

Often we omit to do that because we are either too busy running around doing our own bidding, or we fail to remember that our Heavenly Father values our time spent with Him. Do not be mistaken that we need to spend hours and hours with Him. No. I do not believe there is any minimum or maximum time slots we should set aside for Him. As much as we want to spend with Him, He will always long for our time together. I remember there were times when I only had five minutes with my children and at other times we spent days together when we were in holiday; the important thing was that we were together.

When was the last time we spent quality time with our Heavenly Father? Come, let us go to Him as often and as much as we can and enjoy His Presence. Learn to draw from Him - the Lord is limitless and His love knows no barrier - and in the process, we will become better children because we have learnt the secret to life. When we have learnt to rest on Jesus and allow Him to fight our battles for us, we can say, "No sweat" and move on and enjoy His blessings.

The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26

Shavrou-tov shalom,
Andrew L W Lee