Course Content
On her twenty-first birthday, Queen Elizabeth (then a princess) pledged to spend her life in service to the crown and to her people. Like her, as followers of Jesus Christ, we have pledged ourselves to a life of service.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II gives us a unique moment to think about what it means to have a life well lived. There are matters that we can learn from her life that can help us understand some biblical truths. The Bible clearly tell us something about the destiny of those who are called, the saints, the disciples who endure to the end; it says that they will reign and rule with Christ on this earth. And that is a key truth of Scripture that’s little understood.
In Luke 22, beginning in verse 24, the disciples were having a bit of an argument over who would be the greatest among them. Christ addressed them in verse 27, “For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”
And so, Jesus put Himself in a role of a servant, not sitting at the table, but serving those who did sit at the table. And He says that, “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 22:28-30).
This promise carries throughout Scripture into the book of Revelation, “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” This is speaking of the resurrection of the just who will live with Christ and sit with Him on His throne for that 1,000-year millennial period after His second coming. This is just one passage that confirms our destiny as rulers with Jesus Christ in His coming Kingdom.
When we look at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s second longest reigning monarch, more than 70 years, it gives us an opportunity to think about the qualities on which we can fashion our life. God is seeking those that will live their lives in obedience to Him; and part of that obedience is a life of service to others. If we do this, if we fashion our lives in obedience to Him, we will become the people that God can use in His coming Kingdom. This is what Jesus spoke to when His disciples had that question; that he who is greatest among you will be their servant.
In 1947, on her 21st birthday, Elizabeth (not yet queen) made a pledge to her people, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” Just five years later King George VI and she became the queen, she had the opportunity to live up to what she had pledged. She kept that promise.
The seven decades following that promise, she went about the often-unglamorous job of the day to day work of a working royal; interspersed with the glamorous duties of a reigning monarch. She lived her long life, to age 96, working every day, almost literally to the day she died. Her long life included times of trial, times of peace, laughter, and tears.
She rejoiced and sorrowed, she dreamed, and she knew disappointment. She was loyal and she suffered those who were disloyal to her. She looked at the world through the windows of a palace, and you have to wonder, did she ever wish that her life could have been perhaps of a normal teacher, shopkeeper, or just a mother without any title that would go with it?
Early on, she knew that her life would be different, which is why she made that pledge at 21. She determined to live her life as one of service. As disciples of Jesus Christ we must live our life defined by the Word of God; a life of service. Our life, whether short or long, should be one of service to God.
Remember, Christ said that the greatest among His disciples would be the one who served. We have an example before us of a queen who served, and an example that we can bring into our everyday life as we prepare for the future that we have with Christ sitting with Him on His throne.
Darris McNeely works at the United Church of God home office in Cincinnati, Ohio. He and his wife, Debbie, have served in the ministry for more than 43 years. They have two sons, who are both married, and four grandchildren. Darris is the Associate Media Producer for the Church. He also is a resident faculty member at the Ambassador Bible Center teaching Acts, Fundamentals of Belief and World News and Prophecy. He enjoys hunting, travel and reading and spending time with his grandchildren.
