Tag: prophets

Prone to Wander, Lord I Feel It

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I am catching up on my Scripture reading after a 9-day vacation in the north woods where my reading was sporadic. I am reading through the Bible chronologically. I am in Isaiah and Hosea as the prophets begin to address the coming doom for Israel and Judah who have continuously wandered in their faithlessness to God since they left Egypt.

Their’s is a spotted history, marked more by failure than success. The began grumbling and complaining soon after God led them miraculously out of Egypt. They made an idol of a golden calf even as Moses was meeting God on the mountain to receive God’s covenant. They failed to drive all the wicked people out of the promised land as God instructed, and they were influenced by them all the days they inhabited that land.

They set up idols in the high places where they offered sacrifices to the foreign gods despite all the efforts of God to establish a people for Himself to whom He could pour out His blessings and, through them, bless all the nations of the earth (such was His promise to Abraham). The cycle of sin and straying from relationship with God was growing ever worse as God raised up prophets to warn them.

The promised land, filled with milk and honey and all good things as it was, afforded the people wealth and comfort. In their abundance, they wandered further still from God.

“Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars.” (Hosea 10:1)

Those altars were the structures on which they offered sacrifices to foreign gods – idols. The practice of sacrificing on altars seems strange to us today. We don’t make golden calves or build altars to gods. We aren’t like them. Right?

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Questions for the Church in America

There were many so-called prophets who said what the people wanted to hear, but they weren’t the real prophets of God.

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The NPR headline reads – Survey: White Evangelicals See Trump As ‘Honest’ And ‘Morally Upstanding’. The tenor of the article runs counter to what the polled “white evangelicals” espouse. Some of the comments on social media reflect the same sentiment: “Nothing new to me as they are all my racist, homophobic relatives”; and “Scary”.

I am reading through the Old Testament in 2020 in chronological order this year, and I am currently slogging through Kings and Chronicles. It’s a tough go, and especially tougher as I think about the current political and religious landscape in the United States. It’s hard to know where religion ends and politics begins.

The depressing thing about Kings and Chronicles is how far the people of God go off the ranch. Starting with King David, the man after God’s heart, it’s a steady downward spiral with a few brief interludes of an effort to rid the kingdoms of idols, injustice, and immorality.

I say kingdoms (plural) because the people began to polarize under King Solomon, and they formed two kingdoms immediately after he died: Israel and Judah. They spent much of their time after that and before the Babylonian captivity fighting and killing each other!

Let me just say this before I go further: the United States is NOT a nation of God’s people like Israel (and Judah) was. Yes, we have been blessed by God. Our “founding fathers” honored God (more or less) and used some biblical principals (among other things) on which to form the Constitution and laws by which we are governed. BUT, the USA is not God’s chosen people like Israel (or Judah) was.

We shouldn’t flatter ourselves that way. The Roman Empire became a Christian nation, too, after Constantine. England, and France, and most of the European countries were Christian nations at one time – even more than the US is today because religion and state were combined. Church and State were married together in governance through the Middle Ages (though it didn’t stop them from warring with each other either).

There is only one people to whom God chose to reveal Himself and to enter into covenant relationship for the purpose of blessing all nations. He did this to set the stage for His own humble entry into history and eventual sacrifice for our sins. Those chosen people aren’t us.

God already accomplished His purpose for which He chose those people. Now He is on to the blessing of the nations part – the redemption of the world through all who follow Him.

We can say with biblical confidence that God ordained Donald Trump as President (Romans 13:1), but for what purpose? Certainly God is working out His purpose, but it may not be what people think.

God gave Israel King Saul when they demanded a king, but their demand for a king was a rejection of God. Is Trump the king we wanted? Not that God is thrown off by those things. He works His purpose regardless of the vagaries and ambivalence of His people.

I am not concerned about God accomplishing His purposes. He will! But what about the church in America? Where do we stand in all of this?

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Honest Liar or Dishonest Priest?

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Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’  But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’  So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:   “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'” Matthew 15:1-9 ESV

And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”…. Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:10-11, 17-20 ESV

Jesus leveled his criticism at people who seemed to honor God in the way they spoke and acted, but they didn’t honor God in their hearts. He quoted the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel who carried a similar theme in their writings. The prophets were as harsh on the religious and political leaders of their day as Jesus was in his day.

The statement, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, seems to miss the mark in light of the importance Jesus places on the heart, does it not? Not that what we do isn’t important. It’s just that what we do starts with who we are, and who are is in our hearts.

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