It's All About You, Means It's Not About You

Hannah was a great woman of God, and her son Samuel was a great man of God, but even great men and women of God have blindspots, prejudices and selfish motives sometimes.  Samuel's sons were not great men of God, but that didn't dissuade Samuel from appointing them as judges in Israel.

When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel...yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.

The Philistines had a king, as did the Moabites, the Amonites, the Amalekites, even Egypt [Pharoah], but not Israel.  For 450 years Israel has been governed by court system of judges, and now, when Samuel, who has judged Israel for many years gets old, he appoints his corrupt sons as judges.  

We are not told anything about Samuel's motive in this appointment.  Maybe he really was, as many parents are, blind to the character flaws of his boys, or maybe he just looked the other way.  What we do know is that it caused a terrible problem in Israel.  You can imagine can't you?  Corrupt judges who take bribes and pervert justice are a stench to honest God-fearing people.  So the elders take the problem to Samuel.

 

 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

So why do you think it displeased Samuel?  Why did it upset him?  I mean, we all hate corrupt judges right?  Samuel loved Israel, surely he didn't want them to suffer at the hands of unjust judges?  Actually, the next sentence tells us why Samuel was upset.

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me

You see, Samuel was upset because he felt rejected by Israel.  HE was their prophet.  HE was their judge.  HE appointed his sons.  It is the same mistake that Moses made when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it [Numbers 20].  He got his eyes on the wrong person.  He took Israel's rejection/rebellion personally, and here God tells Samuel, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me".  It really wasn't about Samuel, it was about God, but the rejection felt personal and Samuel made the mistake of thinking this was all about him.

The reason I wanted to blog about this today is that I think one of the main reasons we don't talk to other people about Jesus is that when they reject what we say, we think they are rejecting us.  We feel their rejection personally and no-one likes to feel rejected.  One time, years ago, when I was working in an evangelistic campaign a woman in the church asked me about a successful campaign in another congregation.  I explained how the members of that congregations had worked together as a team all reaching out to their family and friends who were not Christians, setting up appointments for us to teach them about Jesus.  She responded "Oh I could never do that.  My friends have their own beliefs and I don't want to lose our friendship."  You see, she was worried about the reaction of her friends toward her.  In her mind, the rejection would be personal.

 

Jesus told his disciples: 

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

 

Jesus was telling them a fundamental truth, and it was the same truth given to Samuel so many years before.  "They have not rejected you, but they have rejected me".  

 

 

By the title of this post, I mean that everyone responds to those around them for personal reasons.  If I get angry about something you did, I'm likely to say "You made me angry" but that's really not true.  You could have done the same thing to other people and they wouldn't have become angry.  I get angry because of

what is going on inside me, not because of what you've done.  I'm convinced the same thing is true about one's acceptance or rejection of Christ.  

 

When people reject your mention of Christ, if you have not been offensive in your approach, they are rejecting Christ, not you.  They are accepting or rejecting based on what is going on within them, not because of you.  It's really all about them, how they respond to the gospel, which means it's not about you. [note:  You must remember to not offend by the way you talk to them about Jesus.  If you are rude and arrogant they may reject Christ because of your attitude"] 

 

And when it comes to telling others the gospel of Jesus, it's all about you, not them.  If you don't talk to them about Christ, that isn't because of them, it's because of you.  The take away here is that I  want you to quit thinking about yourself, and instead think about Jesus and those around you who need the gospel.  So is there someone you've needed to talk to, but have been afraid of their rejection?  Just remember Samuel!