WEIGH YOUR OPTIONS

TEXT: Judges 9:8-15

⁸ One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. 

They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’

⁹ “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both Gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁰ “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’

¹¹ “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’

¹² “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’

¹³ “But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁴ “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’

¹⁵ “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade;but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

God gave you freewill and we live in a world full of options, but regardless of the circumstances and the situations, I want to encourage you that we should weigh our options. In this story of the search for a king among the trees, there is a great lesson to learn and I believe it would help you as an individual as you continue on this journey of faith. You need to appreciate that whatever you have to the glory of God instead of longing after worldly accomplishments. It is evident that all the trees contacted value their products and its benefits to God and man than taking the position of being the king where they may or may not have any impact in the society. As a believer and/or worker in the vineyard, you need to take a deep look into who you are and why you are engaging in what you are doing, as well as consider its benefit of what you are about to do, or doing to the advancement of the gospel to the body of Christ, rather than running after what the bible calls perishable things like fame, wealth, position etc. How many times have you heard anointed men and women of God that are hyped up and they begin to prophesy millionaires in the congregation, as if that is the only way to live our purpose in life?

We need to continuously approach God in our daily undertakings for direction in order to weigh our options. The essence of our existence should be to glorify God as occasioned in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. A whole lot of people have taken the high way, the only way and the end result has been very ignoble as well as catastrophe. We see firsthand in the first few verses before the passage of what Abimelech got into for the sake of position that did not glorify God. Just as the position of the bramble, which somehow figured out that the intent of the trees seeking his ascension, as king was not real, so was the end of Abimelech. No wonder the bible says in I Corinthians 6:12a that All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.

In our contemporary days, we have heard of several rich, famous and wealthy individuals, like the wall street stakeholders, respective political leaders etc. who enjoyed fame and affluence, having fed the public with lies, but ended up in jail where all their acquisitions would mean nothing to them. Likewise, how many times have we seen men and women of God who are gifted in certain areas of ministry where the glory of God would radiate but for title as first lady, senior pastor, bishop etc. they neglected their callings and sit on congregation where their so called anointing runs dry? As a children's teacher or a choir leader, just like the trees pointed out, the body of Christ would have been impacted more gloriously than answering the call of first lady, or first daddy, or senior pastor over no pastor, or whatever it is. As you weigh your options, I want you to always remember the counsel of brother Mark when he said “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”(Mark 8:36). Just think about that and weigh your next action in the options before you. Will it glorify God or just because of your selfish ulterior motive?

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