James, the son of Zedebee: a man who struggled and yet showed courage in service to Christ

James is one of the first disciples called by Jesus along with his brother, John, and friends, Simon Peter and Andrew. A fisherman working with his brother and their father, Zedebee, James would become a member of the core group with Peter and John for special training as each would play a key role in the early church. Peter would be the great speaker, John the majority writer and James would be the first to die for his faith. While he was chosen to be among the inner circle, little is known about James after the events in the Book of Acts. Who was James, the son of Zedebee? What were his strengths and weaknesses? What is the key lesson we can take from his story?

James is described as ambitious, short-tempered, judgmental and yet deeply committed to Jesus. Ambitious as he, along with John, asked Jesus for a place of honor in his kingdom, specifically a seat on his right and left (Mark 10:37). Jesus rebukes them, telling them both that they do not truly understand what they are asking. As with all the disciples, James did not understand Jesus’s true purpose. They envisioned Jesus overthrowing the Romans and restoring Israel’s to her former glory. Regardless, James knew he wanted to be by Jesus’s side. He had found the right leader; he was just wrong about the timetable. It would take Jesus’s death and resurrection for true understanding. James would have an outburst of temper. In Luke 9:54, he and John asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down first from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village after they refused to welcome him (verses 52-53). He wanted quick retaliation. In Acts, he would speak at the First Council and agreed that Jesus had come for Gentiles as well as the Jews (Acts 15:13-21) as the requirements of faith that we follow are set by God and not by man. 

James would be the first to die for his faith. He was willing as he saw Jesus conquer death and open the doorway to eternal life. James was a man with strengths and weaknesses. His strengths are simple to understand. He was one of the 12 disciples and one of the inner three. He would be the first to die for his faith. However, it is in his weakness that we can see ourselves. His two outbursts indicated that James struggled with a temper and selfishness. When he left a wrong had been committed, he wanted quick payback. A feeling that many of us have experienced from time to time. Something happens which is unfair or undeserving and we want the person to feel the same pain and disappointment that we do. However, in Romans 12:19, Paul reminds us that revenge is the Lord’s, he will play, quoting Deutoronmy 32:35. We are not to overcome evil with evil, but with good (Romans 12:21). And like James, we experience moments of selfishness. It is a part of being human. As selfishness is the root of sin and conflict, we need to actively focus on humility and putting others before ourselves in order to overcome this natural response. Paul writes in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” 

Jesus promised eternal life to those willing to trust him (John 3:16). If we believe in this promise, Jesus will give us the courage to stand for Him and face whatever challenges that come our way, even during the most dangerous times. The key lesson from James’s story is that the loss of life is not too heavy a price to pay for following Jesus. In Matthew 10:17-42, Jesus prepared his disciples, and us, for persecution, in which he says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (verse 39).” Even Paul writes in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” To live meant to have time to tell others about Christ and to become more like him. To die would be the end of the worldly troubles and to see Christ face to face. As times get harder and the world increasingly puts pressure on believers, will I be able to stand when death would be the result? I don’t know. I can only pray that if (or when) that moment comes, I can say “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” 

In conclusion, James, the son of Zedebee, was a fisherman who left life as he knew it to follow Jesus. Even though he was one of the 12 and one of the inner three, he struggles with his ambitious nature, a temper and selfishness. Through his faith and trust in Jesus, he realized the true mission of Jesus’s life and death, he would spend the rest of his life telling others the good news. He would be the first to die for the faith and he certainly wasn’t the last. James is an example of the courage in service to Christ is important as we spread the gospel. That courage can also make us a target for persecution. We need to be bold for Christ with courage and humility. 

First and Second Kings: lessons from the lives of the kings

First and Second Kings is the story of the kings of Israel and Judah. It is the story of how David’s kingdom was split into two and the actions of the kings which followed him. Some of the kings did right in the eyes of the Lord and others did incredible evil. For the purpose of this post, I will profile three kings: Solomon, the wisest king, Ahab, the evil king and Hezekiah, the reformer king. There many important lessons to learn from the lives of these men. For each king, I will highlight one important lesson. The lesson of how your personal life can invalidate effective leadership. The lesson of how selfishness can lead to great evil. And the lesson of how reforms can be short-lived when plans aren’t made to preserve them for the future.

Everyone is familiar with Solomon. The wise king who discovered a way to determine who the mother was the surviving child was (1 Kings 3:18-28). The wise king who the Queen of Sheba traveled from afar to challenge him (1 Kings 10:1-13). The son of King David and his wife, Bathsheba, Solomon was God’s choice for David’s heir. Despite his wisdom, his effectiveness as a leadership was nullified by his ineffective leadership in his personal life. Solomon had the sense to recognize his need for wisdom; however, by the time he asked for wisdom, he already a habit that would make his wisdom ineffective in his own life. First, he sealed a pact with Egypt by marrying the daughter of the Pharaoh (1 Kings 3:1). Solomon would continue to marry foreign wives despite the Lord’s command not to intermarry with other nations (Exodus 34:16). Solomon would marry 700 women from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidonia, and Hittites. His wives led him astray. As he grew old, his wives were able to turn his heart to other gods. The Lord tells Solomon that since his has not kept His commands, the Lord will tear apart the kingdom (1 Kings 11:11), which occurs after Solomon’s death, the kingdom is split in two: the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. Due to Solomon’s lack of leadership in his personal life, it began to effective his leadership in the kingdom. To which the kingdom was split in two and would be at odds for generations. Even leading the people into exile because the wise king didn’t have the commitment to apply his wisdom in his personal life and resist the temptations which led him away from his devotion to the Lord.

King Ahab was ruler over the kingdom of Israel. If there were one word to describe Ahab, I would use selfish. He was so used to getting his way, he would pout and become depressed when he didn’t. The best example of this is when he desired a vineyard and when the owner, Naboth, refused, Ahab “went home, sullen and angry” (1 Kings 21:4). Jezebel, his wife, then sets Naboth, up to be killed leaving his land for the taking (1 Kings 21: 8-16). Sullen and angry would be used to describe Ahab in 1 Kings 20:43 after he fails to defeat the king of Aram. He also blamed the prophet, Elijah, for his troubles rather than his own actions. He surrounded himself with people who encouraged him to do what he wished, regardless of the consequences. He only listened to the prophets when they brought good news and his propensity to listen to the majority leads to his death. Ahab is an example of a childish man who only wanted to hear “yes” when making decisions. He took advice which should have been ignored when weighed against God’s commandments. Selfishness can lead to great evil, either by the person himself or by others in response. The best example of this would be Ahab’s wife, Jezebel. She did great evil in response to her husband’s selfishness. Not only did she set up Naboth to be killed but she also killed thousands of God’s prophets (1 Kings 18:4), when she threatened to kill Elijah after he killed her prophets of Baal and being a general thorn in their side for his prophecies against them (1 Kings 19:2). Jezebel ranks as the evilest woman in the Bible. Ahab is the selfish king who did not consider the consequences of his actions, only his own desires.

King Hezekiah is the reformer king. A king who had a close relationship with God when kings around him and before him did not. He removed anything that could be used as an idol and restored the temple as a place of worship. Passover was celebrated for the first time in generations and a revival swept the kingdom of Judah. After Hezekiah received a letter from Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who tried to discourage his faith that God will protect Jerusalem, Hezekiah does something other kings did not. He prayed. My favorite verse of his prayer is in 2 Kings 19:19, “Now O Lord, our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.” Hezekiah’s prayer is an example of his faith in God. He was not afraid to approach God with his request for protection and deliverance. However, while he focused on the present problems, he did not take measures to ensure his reforms would be in place for the future. While he removed the images and practices of paganism from the kingdom, he did not think of the future, long after he was gone, for the kingdom to continue on their path with God. Due to his success and prosperity, Hezekiah became proud and failed to credit God’s blessings when envoys of Babylon came to the kingdom (2 Kings 20:12-13). He proudly showed off his wealth and treasures. Isaiah prophesied that the wealth of Judah would be carried off to Babylon and Hezekiah’s descendants would be carried off as well (2 Kings 20:16-18). This prophesy came to pass as Nebuchadnezzar laid waste to Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah was no more (2 Kings 25). While he restored God as the source of worship in Judah, Hezekiah soon became prideful which led him to ignore plans for the future to ensure that future generations would carry on his reforms.

First and Second Kings is filled with the stories of the good, bad and evil kings of Israel and Judah. King Solomon was known as the wisest king of all but he failed to put his wisdom to practice in his own life. This lack of attention to his personal life caused him to be led away by his pagan wives and caused his kingdom to be split into two. King Ahab was a selfish man who desired what he could not have and in order to please him, his wife did great evil. King Hezekiah failed to provide for the future because he was shortsighted by his present success. To apply the lesson of these three men would be: wisdom needs to be applied to all aspects of life, selfishness can have disastrous consequences and keep future generations in mind while working on the problems of today.