A servant is a person who is working in a subordinate position under the authority of a superior. They are at the service of another either voluntarily or involuntarily. Servants carry out the plans of their employer. God chose many men and women to be His servants down through time. They are considered great people of God. Let’s look at some of the servants He was able to use for His purposes and His glory. Some are well-known, but some may surprise you.
MOSES
“And He [the LORD] said, “Hear now My words: If there
is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make Myself known to him in a vision and
I will speak to him in a dream. But it is not so with My servant Moses; He is entrusted and faithful in all My house.
With him I speak mouth to mouth [directly], clearly and openly and not in
riddles; And he beholds the form of the LORD. (Numbers 12:6-8 AMP)
Moses was a trusted servant of God. God was able to speak
“face to face” with Moses unlike anyone else. Although reluctant at first,
Moses was an obedient servant of God. He listened to what God spoke to him and
followed His words. In all the years Moses followed the Lord, there is only one
reference of disobedience.
God
used Moses to bring His people out of Egypt. He had planned this deliverance
long before Moses was born, and it was carried out to fulfill the promise He
had made to Abraham many years before.
Long
before Moses was ever born, God had told Abraham: “Know certainly that your descendants will be
strangers in a land that is not
theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred
years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge;
afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” (Genesis 15:13-14)
Moses
followed God’s will and accomplished all he was called to do. He not only
delivered God’s people, but took part in the fulfillment of the promise God had
made to Abraham. He was part of something much bigger than what he could see.
He was working with God to fulfill His Word to Abraham and to fulfill what He
had spoken to Moses. The past sets the stage for the present and God is in
control of it all. We can join Him in fulfilling His plan.
DAVID
God also spoke to His servant Samuel to anoint
David as king while Saul was still sitting on the throne. A lot of years went
by before it actually came to pass. But after Saul and his family were killed
in battle, Abner said to the elders of Israel, “In time past you were seeking
for David to be king
over you. Now then, do it! For
the Lord has
spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of My
servant David, I will save My people Israel from the hand of the
Philistines and the hand of all their enemies.’ ” (2 Samuel 3:17-18 AMP)
When
David became king and God told him that he would have an everlasting kingdom in
his family line, David remembered the past that had brought Him to this day. He
said “What one nation on earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to
redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do great
and awesome things for Yourself and for Your land, before Your people whom You
have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? You
established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your people forever, and You, O
LORD, have become their God.” But there was more to come. David recognized He was
just one part of the fulfillment of God’s total plan. Yet he looked back at
what God had done, what He was doing, and what He would do in the future. He
saw it was all related.
God
strategically places His servants, those who will be obedient to Him, in places
where they can be used to bring about the purposes of God. How exciting it is
to be part of what God is doing in the earth. Every one that truly serves God
according to His will is a link in the chain that began back in the Garden of
Eden. Now David is part of that chain linking this great nation to the coming
King Who would be forever on the throne. This King is the Lord of Glory Who was
born in the flesh through David’s lineage, and Whose Father was God.
JESUS
Luke 1:32 speaks
of Jesus saying, “He will be great,
and will be called the Son of the
Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His
father David.”
God’s promise to David of an everlasting kingdom is fulfilled
through Jesus. Yet, even Jesus Himself came into this world
as a servant. He was under the authority of His Father. He spoke what the
Father told him to speak and did what the Father told Him to do.
Matthew 12:18 says: “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.” Jesus brings all of us who surrender to His
Lordship into God’s nation (kingdom).
Yet, even
Jesus spoke of Himself as a servant of His Father as He came to this earth in
human flesh. He said, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall
be last of all and servant of all.”
(Mark 9:35) He also said, “Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” ( Matthew 20:27-28)
And He invites us to be servants of the Father.
We can be a link in the chain of God’s kingdom in this earth. It is a great
honor to work alongside God.
THE PROPHETS
God
said, “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this
day, I have [persistently] sent you all My
servants the prophets, sending them daily, early [and late].”
All
of these knowingly and willingly followed God. They put aside their plans and
desires for their lives and joined together with others who were a link in the
chain of God’s servants who were used mightily of Him and rewarded greatly. They
were part of moving the plan of God through toward its fulfillment. Now it’s
our turn to keep the flow going.
But there were
some that God called His servants that were unknowingly fulfilling God’s
prophecies and were the catalysts of turning God’s people back to Him.
God’s people had
forsaken Him. And although He warned them over and over through the prophets,
they would not return to Him. “Yet you have not
listened to Me,” says the LORD, “so that you have provoked Me to anger with the
work (idols) of your hands to your own harm.”
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
So
God used Nebuchadnezzar to conquer His people and take them away from
Jerusalem. God said, “I will send for Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, My servant [to enact My plan], and I will bring them
against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding
nations; and I will utterly destroy them. This whole land will be a waste and a
horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:7-11 AMP)
God
used as His servant a pagan king to punish His people for their sins. But after
70 years He used another pagan king to return them to their homeland that God
had given them. As a result, they never served idols again. Cyrus did the
Lord’s bidding without even knowing Him.
CYRUS
God
said, “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd (ruler), And he will carry
out all that I desire, Saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall [again] be built,’ And
of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall [again] be laid.’ (Isaiah 44:28 AMP)
“This
is what the LORD says to His anointed,
to Cyrus [king of Persia]… For the sake of Jacob My servant, And of Israel
My chosen, I have also called you by your name…There is no God except Me. I
will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me, That people may know
from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over] That there is no one
except Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:1-6 AMP)
What
does God say when He sees us? Can He say, “That is My servant!”? Are we listed
among the servants of God, carrying out His Word as He speaks to us? Are we
following the path of Jesus?
Jesus
gave up His privileges to do the will of the Father. “He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the
death of the cross.” (Philippians
2:6-8)
If we want to be
great in God’s kingdom, we need to be servants!
