Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Different generation
Acts 13:36
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption
There is an old chorus that pops up every now and then that really annoys me. People like to sing it and somehow think that it is a holy declaration. Don’t tell my superiors, but I have issued threats to the worship leaders around me to ensure that we don’t sing it at Living Stones.
It’s about old-time religion and goes like this “Give me that old time religion / Give me that old time religion / Give me that old time religion / It’s good enough for me. / It was good for Paul and Silas / It was good for Paul and Silas / It was good for Paul and Silas / It’s good enough for me.”
It even gets worse when we sing “It was good for the Hebrew children” and “It was good for the fiery furnace” and so on. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea what “Old Time Religion” is and I rather doubt that it is good for me.
In the Old Testament, after David had established the kingdom and had settled borders with his neighbours, He got about making significant reforms in the governance, social, and religious aspects of Israel’s life. The religious reforms he instituted would go on to change the way worship was conducted especially as the temple got built by his son Solomon. “David and the captains of the army separated for the service some of the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, stringed instruments, and cymbals.” 1 Chronicles 25:1.
Importantly, when David was laying plans for the construction of the temple at the threshing floor of Ornan, the tabernacle that Moses made was at Gibeon, and the Ark of the Lord was someplace else, under a tent at Mount Zion. In that situation, worship could not take place as it was intended. David set about to resolve this situation by the construction of a permanent central sanctuary to house the ark and with an altar for sacrifice. A lot was about to change in Israel’s religious life. No more Old Time Religion.
David didn’t settle for the way worship was organised and conducted. In the new circumstances he confronted, changes were required. Also, as king, he recognised that through his efforts the resources for temple construction were now in place and, given the geopolitical advances he had achieved there were manpower changes that could be made in military deployments.
Our key verse today, Acts 13:36, was not intended as a commentary on the nature of religious worship. In its context, the apostle Paul was preaching to the Jews at Antioch trying to point out to them that David, the king and psalmist was a prophet. He made this case by pointing out that what David said in Psalm 16:10 was prophetic since David, having died, could not have been speaking about himself but about Jesus, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
Nevertheless, the reference to David serving his generation by the will of God allows us the opportunity to take a look at what David did. When it comes to matters of worship traditions David was always pushing the envelope. David never distorted truth but he certainly challenged the rules and understanding of everyone, including the priests.
A good example of this is when David and his men were hungry, he asked for food and the priest told him that he only had the holy bread from the tabernacle. David argued with the priest that they were qualified to eat the showbread and that the bread, having been removed was no longer holy anyway. The law said that only the priest could eat this bread, however, “the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.”
Jesus then turns up with his disciples walking through the grain fields on a Sabbath and His hungry disciples start picking and eating some heads of grain. This created the usual ruckus with the Jews about religious rules and laws. Jesus challenges them on the basis of what David did with the showbread. “He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?” Matthew 12:3,4.
We like to quote 1 Chronicles 12:32 about “the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do,” but often in our approach to ministry and communicating the Gospel we remain stuck in ways that reflect “Old Time Religion.”
We have to be diligent to understand the times in which we live and, more importantly, the times that will face the generation of Christians after us. The children being born today will live in a time of ubiquitous robotics, and conversational AI, where machine prevalence will leave people searching for empathy and compassion. The ministry context will change dramatically. In many ways, we are not geared for it now. Our focus has been on adopting technology in church and not addressing the gospel to a generation on technology.
We have to forget Old Time Religion and work harder to serve God in our generation and to prepare the next generation of ministers.
Think on these things:
- How do you use today’s technology in your personal life and activities?
- Have any new technologies influenced or affected the way you worship or participate in church activities?
- How is your church or ministry preparing for the technological changes that are on the horizon?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that with the help of the Holy Spirit we would serve our generation effectively by the will of God.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
