Everybody likes the idea of someone being there for them when they're in need

Everybody likes the idea of someone being there for them when they're in need. Anyone who doesn't is lacking in something that is natural to mankind. God has always been the ultimate 'there for you' person, and by and large man has sneezed at that for six thousand years. Now he has sent his Son to suffer and die for us, to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that he is there for us in all things at all times. Jesus died and rose again so that we could have a pure and intimate relationship with him and the Father. That's how much he was and is there for us, to help us in every conceivable way, and then some. In comparison to how many people have just shunned what he has done, and refuse to allow him to be there for them, there are few who do. This has to be a source of tremendous grief, both to Jesus and the Father. Were God not God, and were Jesus not who he is, I believe there would be no way to handle that kind of circumstance and that kind of sadness. Samuel, who was the last of Israel's judges, experienced this same grief when after long and faithful service to God and to Israel, they demanded that he give them a king to judge them: "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make 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 unto the Lord" (I Sam. 8:4-6). Samuel was naturally despaired over being rejected and despised by the very people that he had lived his life to serve, and had done so in a valiant way. But God let him know that he was being despised because he was identified with God, and they had despised God of a long time already: "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee" (I Sam. 8:7,8). Samuel had 'been there' for all Israel for a long time, his life being dedicated at a very young age to serve God and his people; but Israel simply didn't appreciate Samuel because they did not appreciate God for all that he had done for them. So Samuel found out the hard way what it means to be closely identified with God, and he wasn't the first or the last to do so.

Elijah was a faithful servant of the Lord and of his people, only to be rejected, isolated, and alone. He too expressed his grief over the matter to the Lord: "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers... And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away" (I Kin. 19:4,10). There was none in Israel who had the heart and the capacity to be of help to his brethren like Elijah did, but the people simply didn't care about that. As we can see by Elijah's confession here, that can be a very despairing thing to deal with. If we walk with the Lord steadfastly like Samuel and Elijah did, we will encounter things like they encountered. We just need to remember that we are not the first or the last to encounter these things, and also that we have encountered nothing like God and his Son have had to deal with. Something else we should remember as well, that Jesus said: "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets" (Lk. 6:22,23). We may also sometimes have to painfully remember another thing that Jesus said along these lines: "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Mat. 10:36). Everything we have seen here about the despising of Samuel and Elijah was about those of the household of God, meaning his covenant people, despising God. Seeing that God isn't here in person, that despite will always go right to those who are walking with him and being led by his Spirit: "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children... and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me" (Psm. 69:8,9). That is the Spirit of Christ in prophecy, and that my friend is just the way it is, and the way it has always been. "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:17,18). That's the good news in the midst of sadness and grief. Amen.