Theme: PROMOTION
Text: “The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory… – 1 Samuel 2:7, 8.
Comment: Promotion and demotion are as allowed by the Most High God. He brings some low and lifts up others (Psalm 75:6,7); he humbles the proud and gives grace and honour to the lowly, “That he may set him with princes, even with prices of his people.” – Psalm 113:8; James 4:10.
Promotion comes not by chance, but by the will of God which often prefers those that were very unlikely and that men thought very unworthy. (1 Samuel 16:6-13) Joseph and Daniel, Moses and David, were those advanced beyond expectations of men – from a prison house to a palace, from the sheep cote to the palace. The princes these men were set among may be tempted to disdain them but God established the honour given to them and made them to “inherit the throne of glory”. (1 Samuel 2:8) Those whom providence has thus preferred must not be upbraided or reviled with their past from which they were raised out of, for the meaner their beginnings were, the more they were favoured. God is glorified in their advancement since it is by lawful and honourable means by His grace. Speaking through the Prophet Moses, God declared: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” And St. Paul commented: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” – Romans 9:15,16.