Title: Loyalty feeds me
Judges (45) Loyalty feeds us (Judges 18:11-20)
< A young priest who forsakes his loyalty >
Hearing the reports of the spies about Laish's situation, six hundred men from the family of the tribe of Dan took up arms and set out for Laish (verse 11). Then he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim and greeted the young Levite priest (verses 14-15). And when the spies entered the shrine of Micah's house and came out with the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the young priest was astonished and asked, “What are you doing?”
The spies answered that question. “Shut up! Put your hand to your mouth! Come with us and become our fathers and priests! Which is better, that you should be a priest of one man's house, or that you should be a priest of one tribe of Israel?" Hearing the proposal, the young Levite priest was delighted and rather actively received the ephod, the teraphim, and the carved image, and brought it into the midst of the people (verse 20).
How mean, cowardly, and disrespectful is the priesthood? In the end, the young priest, deceived by better conditions for ministry, breaks the covenant with Micah, forsakes his loyalty, steals idols and religious objects, and accompanies the tribe of Dan. A person who has betrayed him once, captured by his lust for materiality and power, will betray him again later. Also, how will the future of the tribe of Dan, which has made such a wage-earner priest the priest of their tribe, be a bright future? If you abandon your loyalty, a meaningful life will not unfold in front of you.
< Loyalty feeds me >
There are many shepherds today. Some shepherds give you trust, and some shepherds don't. Why is there such a difference? Because of the difference of mind. The head does not produce martyrs. A life that gives life to love and loyalty is a life that comes from the heart. To be faithful, courageous devotion is required, and that devotion is also supplied by the grace of God. In particular, we need the heart of a shepherd, that is, the spirit of a shepherd. Lack of that spirit makes the followers uncomfortable.
Satan's cutting-edge weapons that undermine such a shepherd's spirit are material lust and power lust. Therefore, the shepherd should not be attached to material things under any circumstances and should not beg for offerings no matter how difficult it is. Such an attitude is a great disappointment to the flock. Of course, shepherds often face economic and psychological difficulties and become discouraged. Still, it shouldn't show any swaying. When the shepherd shakes, the flock becomes uneasy.
Leaders should not show attachment to material things and power. Furthermore, it is even worse if we show that we are abandoning our loyalty in pursuit of materiality and power. In that sense, the movement of the pastoral site should be carried out very carefully. This is because they can be seen as wage earners running away from the flocks God has entrusted to them to live for themselves, to be comfortable with them, and to satisfy their own desires.
Some people even write books, claiming that "Life is fun if you're a little bit cowardly." But living such a cowardly life can be fun for a while, but you lose more in the long run. There is no love without sacrifice. You must be able to give your life to stay in the depths of the other person's heart. People usually seek rewards rather than sacrifices. If you go against such a situation and seek sacrifice rather than reward, you will experience deep peace and self-transcendence, and in the end you will get more.
The biggest problem in the Korean church right now is that there are more and more believers who are not able to receive grace and repay it. Acting according to interests and even giving a pincup to a person who wants to live a life of loyalty, saying, “Does your loyalty feed you?”, often leading to a life of treachery. Even in such an environment, keep the faith with the belief that “loyalty feeds you.” In the end, you will experience loyalty to food.