King Hezekiah is known first and foremost as a king who trusted God. In fact he is described as a king who trusted God more than any king before him. Not even great kings David or Solomon are said to have had the trust of Hezekiah. And neither of them is described with as glowing a terms as Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah wasn’t perfect. We didn’t read about the whole of his reign. Late in his reign he does make some absolutely idiotic political blunders, and he makes an international alliance with the Babylonians which was both truly foolish and questionable in its faithfulness. Nevertheless, Hezekiah is described as a truly good and trusting king.
As an historical aside, these chapters of the Old Testament, which we seldom read, are among the most repeated and historically verifiable parts of the Bible. A similar independent account is found in 2nd Chronicles 29-32. Isaiah 36-39 also has a similar and independent account. Further, outside the Bible, Assyrian documents also speak of this.
For some reason, however, these chapters are often left in obscurity. We do well to read them because they teach us something very important for our lives. Perhaps they are left obscure because we do not really like what they teach us.
The sermon I wish I could give was this: And God saw the trust in King Hezekiah and because of it he blessed him and made him prosperous. His kingship was trouble free and the nation grew and became strong. Their flocks and herds grew. They had abundant harvests. The population all pulled together. They reduced corruption and crime. All the people worshipped and praised God for the blessings they were enjoying. And God used them as an example to all other nations. They were an example of how blessed life was for those who trusted in the Lord.
But is that what happened? Nope. That would be what we call a theology of glory. The theology of glory teaches that those who are faithful are prosperous and happy. The theology of glory is appealing, but it is a lie. If it were true Jesus would have been the wealthiest and most powerful man ever, and he never would have died.
Prosperity and ease is not how the story of Hezekiah goes. Theologian Choon-Leong Seow says this, “In the real world, even those who trust in God are confronted with political realities. For all his trust in God, Hezekiah had to suffer humiliation at the hands of a foreign intruder, and he even had to strip the Temple of its wealth, removing gold from the doors and doorposts of the Lord’s house in order to pay off the bully (18:13-16). Trust in God will not necessarily stave off actual political threats. Trust in God may not have immediate or manifest results.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 3, Pg. 273)
Ultimately, however, it is trust in God that brings about the leaving of the Assyrians and the elimination of the threat.
You see, God had made Hezekiah a capable leader. Hezekiah had the skills to lead and to lead pretty well. He knew how to keep his people together while under threat of destruction from an enemy. He knew how to negotiate. He knew when to bend and when to stand firm. He knew how to bring about God’s will in the nation and rid it of many destructive practices.
It is perfectly fine to pray to God for solutions. It is fine to hope for supernatural ones. But also remember just how capable God has made you to be.
Ourselves as individuals, and even more so as a community, have many God-given skills and abilities. We should recognize them, grow them, and use them.
I know it can all be very frustrating. Sufferings are real. Pain from a medical condition can be intense and long lasting; permanent even. We may pray for relief. And we can hurt so deeply from grief or shame or loss. Fear and anger are powerful forces in our lives. We may wish that God had not made us able to feel as we do and hurt as we do. I do not minimize how tough and painful life is for many people. But in all of that, we must remember how capable God has made us to be. We can solve problems. We can overcome obstacles. We can ease pain, and support the broken, and help the helpless.
Perhaps an important lesson from King Hezekiah is to realize just how powerful and capable God has already made us to be. So yes, like Hezekiah, pray to God and ask for help. But also recognize the incredible resourcefulness and creativity God has already given you.
Faithfulness to God and earthly ease and prosperity do not go hand in hand. Faithfulness will not protect you from tough realities. But faithfulness will give you the framework you need to live in the capable way God created you to live.
Even if everything does fall apart – indeed in time it will for the people of Judah – our sovereign God is still in control. We can trust in that!
Monday, August 24, 2020
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
August 16, 2020 Bad Kings 2 Kings 8:16-27
A refrain you’ve been hearing from me for weeks as we’ve looked at the kings of the ancient Israelites is that God stays true to promises made even when people are perpetually unfaithful. We could take that approach again today. Last week we took a glimpse of the kings of the northern kingdom, which had the name Israel. And we realized that after the nation split into two the north pretty much had a series of kings that the Bible describes as “evil.” The kingdom of Israel was ultimately destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. That left the southern kingdom of Judah; one lone tribe that stayed faithful to the Davidic dynasty of kings. Our passage from 2 Kings today shows us a few things:
We see the reality that the two nations – Israel and Judah – were not always at war with one another. Sometimes they cooperated. Sometimes they made alliances. Sometimes the leaders intermarried.
We also see that the southern kingdom of Judah started off small and then slowly lost power over time. Bit by bit surrounding territories either rebelled and left or were conquered by other nations. To live in Judah during those centuries was to be living in a country that was dwindling a bit more away each and every day.
The third thing we see is that, at least from the author’s perspective, the northern kingdom of Israel did not have a monopoly on bad kings. The south had it’s share as well. In fact, of the twenty kings Judah had after Solomon twelve of them are said to have “done what was evil in the sight of the Lord” and only eight of them are said to have “done what was right.” We’re going to spend the next three Sundays looking at two of these good kings. Today, however, we note the bad ones. We are going to look at what a king had to do in order to be classified as “evil”.
Certainly things like greed, exploitation, and injustice were things that would get a king on the evil list. But it appears that chief among the reasons was if that king also worshipped foreign deities.
Early on Judaism was hardly an organized religious belief system. Much of ancient Judaism can be traced to things coming from ancient Canaanite religious beliefs active in the same area. Many of these Canaanite religious had rituals on the “high places” which were usually altars, or rock piles, set up on a hilltop or mountain. These ancient Canaanite religious can be classified as fertility religions. Practices often included ritual prostitution, child sacrifices, animal and grain sacrifices, the burning of incense, and the worship of the Canaanite god Baal. Baal was a weather god associated with thunderstorms.
While the Bible’s main storyline is that God called the people from slavery in Egypt and returned them to the promised land, a close reading shows that’s not the only story. There is a significant branch of ancient Israel that always was in the promised land. Their religious rituals and worship sites weren’t all that different from the Canaanites. In fact the worship may have been mixed together. Certainly before the temple was built in Jerusalem and became the religious center for Judaism Jewish worship also generally took place on the high places.
Inevitably there was a great deal of confusion and mixing of religions between the Canaanites and the Israelites. How a king handled the high places and Canaanite religion became a key measure in whether a king was considered good or evil.
Today’s reading doesn’t specifically mention high places or Canaanite religion, but it does raise the fact that King Jehoram of Judah has married the daughter of King Ahab of Israel. That would make her the daughter of Ahab’s wife Jezebel. Jezebel was a strong supporter of Baal worship and one of the Bible’s greatest female villains.
It appears as if the kings of Judah who were considered evil tended to worship, or at least allow the worship, of Baal in addition to their worship of the Jewish God Yahweh.
In this age of pluralism and tolerance we may find this forbiddance of another religion to be close minded and antiquated, especially since both Judaism and the Canaanite religions had similar roots. But let’s realize something more carefully. These actions of these evil kings have things for us to learn.
When we define a “god” as something supernatural that is “out there” beyond time and space we are missing something. A god is anything to which you turn for trust, hope and guidance. The ancient kings were consulting other gods for guidance and for help. Perhaps we do not have high places where we burn incense and offer sacrifices, but the temptation to have multiple gods is still there.
Where do we put our trust? With the current pandemic I hear a lot about the economy. Based on the conversations I hear I’d say that if America has any god it is the economy.
Now, I don’t want to speak against the prudent use of economic policy to make sure the goods and services people depend upon are available and robust. However, consider this. Perhaps we don’t have “high places” but what are you doing when you go to consult with a financial planner? Are you not going to a place, and is the financial planner not in some ways like a priest who is an expert at the religion of finance, and are you not working with that person to develop strategies to put you in a financial place that will take you to a place that is stable and secure?
I don’t mean to trash financial planners and professional investors, but I hope you get the point. How many times do you think people consult financial planners with this scenario: a person just inherited $800,000 and wants guidance about how to invest it in ways that promote racial justice and environmental sustainability. Not too often, is my guess!
Similarly, if you go for career advice are you not also going to a place, consulting with an expert of sorts, and using that experience to set your life’s direction. How often do you think career consultants are approached by someone who says, “Help me connect with ways to serve God.” Not too often is my guess!
Or one more from the world of insurance. Is not insurance protection from the unknown and uncontrollable. Again, I don’t mean to trash the insurance industry, but it can have religious, or god-like qualities. You go to the “high place” of the insurance agent, or perhaps the agent comes to your home – a mobile priest; and the agent (an expert in the profession or “religion”) helps you to critically determine how you want to protect your life and your assets.
There are other examples I could create too. My point is, perhaps the evil of these ancient kings isn’t so distant after all. And perhaps their “evil” wasn’t as offensive as we might be tempted to think at first. I hope you are sensing there are parallels to our lives too.
Yes, we need to be responsible people. We need to work hard. We need to contribute to the economy and have career plans and have insurance on things and invest wisely. But let us also realize all of these things can be gods. They all have their high places. They all have their “priests”. And we can very easily put our trust in them rather than in our own God.
If someone were to put a summary of our lives in the Bible may they say, “And she/he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Rather than, “she/he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” For our God is the one and only true God. God is the only secure place to trust and have faith.
We see the reality that the two nations – Israel and Judah – were not always at war with one another. Sometimes they cooperated. Sometimes they made alliances. Sometimes the leaders intermarried.
We also see that the southern kingdom of Judah started off small and then slowly lost power over time. Bit by bit surrounding territories either rebelled and left or were conquered by other nations. To live in Judah during those centuries was to be living in a country that was dwindling a bit more away each and every day.
The third thing we see is that, at least from the author’s perspective, the northern kingdom of Israel did not have a monopoly on bad kings. The south had it’s share as well. In fact, of the twenty kings Judah had after Solomon twelve of them are said to have “done what was evil in the sight of the Lord” and only eight of them are said to have “done what was right.” We’re going to spend the next three Sundays looking at two of these good kings. Today, however, we note the bad ones. We are going to look at what a king had to do in order to be classified as “evil”.
Certainly things like greed, exploitation, and injustice were things that would get a king on the evil list. But it appears that chief among the reasons was if that king also worshipped foreign deities.
Early on Judaism was hardly an organized religious belief system. Much of ancient Judaism can be traced to things coming from ancient Canaanite religious beliefs active in the same area. Many of these Canaanite religious had rituals on the “high places” which were usually altars, or rock piles, set up on a hilltop or mountain. These ancient Canaanite religious can be classified as fertility religions. Practices often included ritual prostitution, child sacrifices, animal and grain sacrifices, the burning of incense, and the worship of the Canaanite god Baal. Baal was a weather god associated with thunderstorms.
While the Bible’s main storyline is that God called the people from slavery in Egypt and returned them to the promised land, a close reading shows that’s not the only story. There is a significant branch of ancient Israel that always was in the promised land. Their religious rituals and worship sites weren’t all that different from the Canaanites. In fact the worship may have been mixed together. Certainly before the temple was built in Jerusalem and became the religious center for Judaism Jewish worship also generally took place on the high places.
Inevitably there was a great deal of confusion and mixing of religions between the Canaanites and the Israelites. How a king handled the high places and Canaanite religion became a key measure in whether a king was considered good or evil.
Today’s reading doesn’t specifically mention high places or Canaanite religion, but it does raise the fact that King Jehoram of Judah has married the daughter of King Ahab of Israel. That would make her the daughter of Ahab’s wife Jezebel. Jezebel was a strong supporter of Baal worship and one of the Bible’s greatest female villains.
It appears as if the kings of Judah who were considered evil tended to worship, or at least allow the worship, of Baal in addition to their worship of the Jewish God Yahweh.
In this age of pluralism and tolerance we may find this forbiddance of another religion to be close minded and antiquated, especially since both Judaism and the Canaanite religions had similar roots. But let’s realize something more carefully. These actions of these evil kings have things for us to learn.
When we define a “god” as something supernatural that is “out there” beyond time and space we are missing something. A god is anything to which you turn for trust, hope and guidance. The ancient kings were consulting other gods for guidance and for help. Perhaps we do not have high places where we burn incense and offer sacrifices, but the temptation to have multiple gods is still there.
Where do we put our trust? With the current pandemic I hear a lot about the economy. Based on the conversations I hear I’d say that if America has any god it is the economy.
Now, I don’t want to speak against the prudent use of economic policy to make sure the goods and services people depend upon are available and robust. However, consider this. Perhaps we don’t have “high places” but what are you doing when you go to consult with a financial planner? Are you not going to a place, and is the financial planner not in some ways like a priest who is an expert at the religion of finance, and are you not working with that person to develop strategies to put you in a financial place that will take you to a place that is stable and secure?
I don’t mean to trash financial planners and professional investors, but I hope you get the point. How many times do you think people consult financial planners with this scenario: a person just inherited $800,000 and wants guidance about how to invest it in ways that promote racial justice and environmental sustainability. Not too often, is my guess!
Similarly, if you go for career advice are you not also going to a place, consulting with an expert of sorts, and using that experience to set your life’s direction. How often do you think career consultants are approached by someone who says, “Help me connect with ways to serve God.” Not too often is my guess!
Or one more from the world of insurance. Is not insurance protection from the unknown and uncontrollable. Again, I don’t mean to trash the insurance industry, but it can have religious, or god-like qualities. You go to the “high place” of the insurance agent, or perhaps the agent comes to your home – a mobile priest; and the agent (an expert in the profession or “religion”) helps you to critically determine how you want to protect your life and your assets.
There are other examples I could create too. My point is, perhaps the evil of these ancient kings isn’t so distant after all. And perhaps their “evil” wasn’t as offensive as we might be tempted to think at first. I hope you are sensing there are parallels to our lives too.
Yes, we need to be responsible people. We need to work hard. We need to contribute to the economy and have career plans and have insurance on things and invest wisely. But let us also realize all of these things can be gods. They all have their high places. They all have their “priests”. And we can very easily put our trust in them rather than in our own God.
If someone were to put a summary of our lives in the Bible may they say, “And she/he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Rather than, “she/he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” For our God is the one and only true God. God is the only secure place to trust and have faith.
Monday, August 10, 2020
August 9, 2020 Northern Kingdom – Israel 1 Kings 15:24-35
I've recently been the victim of my own cleverness; or perhaps, my attempt at cleverness. Those of you who have mowed the church lawn know that it is no easy task. Not only is the lawn large there are steep banks along the roads, the ponds, and the stream. While the commercial Ferris mower we have is an amazing machine and it can handle some touch terrain, I believe just about everyone who’s ever mowed has a story of getting it stuck; and the embarrassing call for help to get it back out. Fortunately no one’s ever sunk it in one of the ponds!
There are lawnmowers made that you can tow behind a little lawn tractor. They can be swung off to the side to let a little lawn tractor mow a wider swath. I’ve long thought it would be great if the church had one. Since we also own a little lawn tractor I thought someone could drive the tractor on a level place and the mower could be towed off to the side and down over the bank. The problem is such mowers aren’t exactly cheap. The lowest cost ones I’ve found run around $1600.
Earlier this year I came across an ad on Craigslist for two of them. Neither ran and they looked to be in pretty rough shape. But the guy wasn’t asking much and I decided to take a look. Now, smart person that I am (or so I tell myself), I took a guess as to what parts would be needed and priced them before I even looked at the mowers. When did go to see the mowers I looked them over what I thought was pretty thoroughly and felt that despite the fact that they were in truly bad shape I could combine the two of them into one good mower. And I could do it with minimal parts and expense.
I was even more proud of myself because I thought I probably wouldn’t have to do a lot of the work. I decided I’d let my son’s Boy Scout troop do it as a service project. It would be a fun project for them and be educational. Plus since being thrifty is part of the scout law it would fit that too. Oh how I can fool myself into thinking I’m wonderful!
So I brought the mowers home and decided to do some preliminary work. I order the couple parts I thought would be needed to get one of the engines running. Two of the parts fit on perfectly. The third, however, the “standard” carburetor, did not. It turned out that the standard part did not fit and I had to buy a special one – which cost four times the amount of the standard one. Ouch.
At that point I decided I’d better make a detailed list of all the other parts I needed before spending any more money. As I made my list I discovered indeed the main parts I knew I needed all along were actually pretty cheap. But there were numerous little adaptors and specialty parts that were expensive.
Now this wasn’t looking so cheap after all. I’d be at the price of buying a good used one by this point.
But I’m undeterred. I have some basic metal working skills and the mowers are pretty straightforward. I decided I’d just buy some generic parts and make some modifications to make them work. So, as I start taking detailed measurements I began to see just how deeply rusted the underside of these mowers really are. There was just no way to combine them and add some generic parts and get a decent mower at a reasonable cost.
Reluctantly I gave up. Last Saturday my son and I took them up to Alpco and sold them for scrap – and as scrap they were worth far less than I paid. Lesson learned… until I forget it!
I give this lengthy introduction because I believe it can give us a framework to understand how the Bible is portraying God as God interacts with the people of Israel.
As a quick summary of the Bible’s story line: God chooses Abraham and says he will make him a great nation. Abraham’s twelve great-grandsons become the root of the twelve tribes of Israel. Those tribes develop and grow after the family moves to Egypt. The Bible’s story line skips centuries but we meet them again as a numerous people but long enslaved in Egypt. God stays true to his promises to Abraham. Moses is sent and empowered to free them, they are led to the Promised Land. God guides them to conquer the Promised Land and God raises up “judges” or leaders for the people when the need arises. But all throughout the people grumble and aren’t happy with God. Quite frankly, they’re a pain. Eventually their complaints take the form of saying they want a king – just like all the other nations have. God reluctantly gives in and raises up Saul as king. Saul disobeys. God raises David as king and this time promises everlasting faithfulness to David’s bloodline as king. But David also messes up. David’s son Solomon messes up as king too. Solomon’s son Rehoboam continues to mess up and the nation divides. Eleven of the twelve tribes reject the Davidic leadership and set off on their own. Those eleven tribes retain the name of Israel. The only tribe remaining under Davidic rule is the tribe of Judah, and that becomes the name of the little remaining nation. We’ll continue the story of Judah next week, but for this week we look just at Israel.
The history of Israel is not pleasant. The passage from 1 Kings we read is typical of the Bible’s description of Israel’s leaders. Kings rise and kings fall. Almost none of them are good or faithful. The incoming king often comes to power by killing the existing king. Then the new king kills all the old king’s descendants. On and on it goes. Some kings rule for a long time. Some for just a couple years. You get the sense that Israel is an unstable nation that is constantly in conflict and never really safe.
Corruption and exploitation appear to have been constant. The rich got richer at the expense of the poor. The leaders make all sorts of deals with surrounding nations and are not faithful to God. It almost becomes a refrain in the Bible as each of the kings is described, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of his ancestor and in the sin that he caused Israel to commit.”
In the same way I felt like I tried option after option to put together a good mower for church God tries and tries with the people. God is gentle. They don’t seem to care. God is stern. They listen for a little but fall back into old ways all too soon. God sends prophets to them. The prophets usually go to the leadership and proclaim the truth: they are corrupt, they are evil, they are not following God’s will. The prophets warn of destruction in the future if things don’t improve. Some of the most famous prophets in the Bible were focused on Israel; people like: Hosea, Amos, Elijah, and Elisha. You may remember some of the famous stories of Elijah and his conflict with evil King Ahab and his infamous wife Jezebel. But nothing seems to help.
Eventually God decides to just scrap it. The whole idea was great originally. God would work through a chosen people to bring the whole world into better relationship with him. Being the chosen people wasn’t intended to be a prideful thing but an example to the world sort of thing – this is what life is like for those who live according to God’s design. But it didn’t work. As the Bible portrays it God held on and held on, reluctant to give up. But eventually God realizes the lost cause.
In 722 B.C. the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire. The government was destroyed, the people were dispersed, the religious beliefs seem to have disappeared.
However, God had promised beforehand never to give up on these people. The southern kingdom, the tribe of Judah hangs on. Geographically it was about the size of a county in New York State. And it was just about as powerful; which is to say not powerful at all. Somehow, someway with empires rising and falling around them: Egypt, Assyria, and even to some extent Babylon, the little nation struggled along semi-independent for centuries.
We’ll follow them through and get to their collapse in September. But even then God promises to save a remnant. And indeed God does.
As we read through the kings and the history of these people I hope we can feel God’s desires and struggles. In Isaiah 65:2 God says, “I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices…”
Eventually this sets the stage for the coming of Jesus. There we see God has not given up on this failed attempt to reconcile humanity. God has found a way to fulfill the promises made yet take a completely different, and ultimate course. St. Paul used this understanding when he wrote the letter to the Romans. Jesus is the climax of Israel’s history. It is a story of the strange stumbling of Israel, and in Jesus the ingathering of all people. God has been, is, and will remain faithful to the promises made to us his children. We can take comfort and strength in that knowing how determined God is and how unwilling God is to give up on us.
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
August 2, 2020 Jeroboam/Rehoboam 1 Kings 11:41-12:19
Bible translators usually try to keep the Bible a family friendly book, even when it gets graphic or gristly. However, you lose the no-holds-barred bluntness of the original authors sometimes. Take today’s reading from 1 Kings. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, and heir to the throne has just taken power. Now Solomon, wise as he supposedly was, did a lot of unwise things. By the time he died he had forsaken a lot of the ways God had called him to live. In fact he was becoming like Pharaoh of Egypt using forced labor and slaves in order to accomplish his projects.
As the story goes when Rehoboam takes power he consults with his father’s advisors. They suggest roll back the forced labor and go softer on the people. They had good reason for their advice. Of the twelve tribes of Israel the only one that was ever really faithful to King David and King Solomon was their home territory of Judah. Jerusalem, the capitol, was in Judah’s territory. Judah was basically the southernmost of the tribes and Jerusalem being there meant it was not centrally located. Rehoboam was certainly arrogant and cocky, but he wasn’t entirely stupid. He decides to have his coronation as king not in Jerusalem, but farther north in Shechem. This was both a show of force but also a display of commitment to the tribes farther north. Lightening their forced workload would be a great sign of goodwill and win the hearts of the northern tribes.
And so the wise old advisors suggest just such a work lightening. Rehoboam’s younger advisors – and don’t take these guys as cocky teenagers; These are more like 40 year-olds – they tell him to take a tough approach and crack down even harder. Their advice is, “…say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.’” Well, that’s a euphemism at best! Rehoboam is not talking about his pinky finger!!! This is a bunch of cocky powerful guys who are full of themselves talking. You know what they mean.
Now the text doesn’t say he actually used those words when he addressed the northern tribes. If he did there’s absolutely no surprise that they rebelled! If he didn’t, his words are still pretty harsh. The already strained forced laborers are going to be pushed even harder. That may sound familiar to us. What did the Pharaoh do to the Israelites when they asked for a reduced workload? He made it harsher.
It seems that God’s chosen leaders in the family of David aren’t ruling any better than anyone else. It appears as though being chosen by God to lead does not mean extra righteousness. The northern tribes rebel. We didn’t read on enough to cover it, but Rehoboam does consider putting together an army and retaking control. Perhaps it could have worked. But Rehoboam does decide to take advice from a prophet named Shemaiah who says it is all God’s will and he shouldn’t buck against it.
We’re going to spend next week, just one week, looking at the northern kingdom. It survives a couple hundred years before being conquered by the Assyrian Empire in the year 722 B.C. On the whole the Bible describes its leaders are bad and evil. Even Jeroboam, God’s chosen person to lead the separation of the nation is quite corrupt. He has his own political agenda and he has no problem manipulating religion to suit his agenda. And even as he speaks of liberation of the people from Rehoboam his allegiance is to himself.
As we’ve looked at Kings David and Solomon I’ve said over and over again that God remains true to promises made to them despite how sinful and even disobedient they become. We’ll see that continue. This week though, raises two other issues about God.
First, and the easiest to grapple with, is that God usually chooses the underdog. God is also against oppression. Oppression can come in many forms, from literal slavery all the way to policies and programs that lead to one person rising above another. Our nation continues to grapple with such issues in racism. And just like the racism issues our country continues to struggle with, the systems of oppression are often very complex. They are also often deeply woven into the fabric of society. We who are for the most part in the dominant part of our society need to be willing to constantly examine ourselves and our assumptions. It is not easy to do. In fact it's quite hard. But it is consistently the way of God to connect most with the oppressed. And it is a good way for us to constructively and critically work for a better tomorrow for all of God’s people.
Systems of oppression are of course also beyond just race. Look at Jesus’ preaching and teaching. He was constantly pushing against systems that left the poor, widows, orphans, and anyone less than perfect, powerless.
Again, engaging any of this stuff is hard work. People being what they are, also start to exploit it. We see that in the book of Acts and in some of Paul’s later writings where people learn to exploit the generosity of Christians and the gift of God’s grace. There’s nothing new about that!
The second issue with God is more perplexing. God chooses Saul as the first king. Then God does not support Saul as Saul asks and Saul messes up. Because of that God decides to reject Saul as king and goes with David instead. For some reason God stays with David and Solomon despite their many mistakes. However again, God decides to break up the kingdom after Solomon because of Solomon’s mistakes.
Many times in the Bible we find God doing things to justify punishing people. We’ll see that in the weeks to come as we continue with the kings. The way God is portrayed in the Bible is highly inconsistent. Sometimes God seems loving and forgiving. Sometimes God seems very harsh and unfair. Sometimes God appears to be almost playing games with people.
All in all it is very unsettling. As Christians we have the New Testament which is a largely refreshing and basically consistent view of God as gracious and loving. However the Old Testament does still convey authority for our faith. We are wise to realize it.
I’ve said many times that the Old Testament authors are not afraid to be blunt and to tell ugly truths about things. They are also not afraid to say the same about God.
I think we’ve all experienced God being more silent than we’d like. We ask for guidance and feel like we hear nothing in reply. We ask for help in a struggle and that help never seems to come. We see other people who for whatever reason seem to be more successful and happier. We can even see outright greed and corruption at work yet the greedy and corrupt seem to just get away with it more and more.
Where is God’s justice? Where is this kindness and grace we hear about so much from the Bible? Why doesn’t God uphold the righteous and downcast the evil?
These are all good questions. They are all very human questions. They are all part of the reality of many people’s lives.
I do wish the life of a faithful Christian would be measurably better than a person of no faith. It would make sermons be so easy – they would be lessons in morality. Evangelism would be easy too – just tell people about Jesus and they’d feel their lives getting better. But that is not how things work.
All these things fall into what Lutherans like to call a “theology of glory.” A theology of glory is where faith makes sense and good people get good things and faith-filled actions are noticeably successful. By contrast though, reality is the theology of the cross. Here we realize the truth of how God works. The cross is the last stop for sin, death, and everything that separates us from God’s love. The theology of the cross is not about finding hardship or suffering to endure in life. The theology of the cross trusts that things are in God’s hands no matter how good or bad things go.
The Old Testament authors didn’t have Jesus and his crucifixion to go on to put together a theology of the cross. However, their writings get at it. God is faithful – always. That goes for whether we can feel it or sense it or not. The theology of the cross sometimes calls for radical trust that God is still with you when everything is falling apart around you. The theology of the cross knows that a divine rescue may not happen, but God’s love is still there.
I want to end with this prayer by Anselm of Canterbury:
O my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you…
You are my God and you are my All and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me.
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you…
I have not yet done that for which I was made…
Teach me to seek you…
I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.
As the story goes when Rehoboam takes power he consults with his father’s advisors. They suggest roll back the forced labor and go softer on the people. They had good reason for their advice. Of the twelve tribes of Israel the only one that was ever really faithful to King David and King Solomon was their home territory of Judah. Jerusalem, the capitol, was in Judah’s territory. Judah was basically the southernmost of the tribes and Jerusalem being there meant it was not centrally located. Rehoboam was certainly arrogant and cocky, but he wasn’t entirely stupid. He decides to have his coronation as king not in Jerusalem, but farther north in Shechem. This was both a show of force but also a display of commitment to the tribes farther north. Lightening their forced workload would be a great sign of goodwill and win the hearts of the northern tribes.
And so the wise old advisors suggest just such a work lightening. Rehoboam’s younger advisors – and don’t take these guys as cocky teenagers; These are more like 40 year-olds – they tell him to take a tough approach and crack down even harder. Their advice is, “…say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.’” Well, that’s a euphemism at best! Rehoboam is not talking about his pinky finger!!! This is a bunch of cocky powerful guys who are full of themselves talking. You know what they mean.
Now the text doesn’t say he actually used those words when he addressed the northern tribes. If he did there’s absolutely no surprise that they rebelled! If he didn’t, his words are still pretty harsh. The already strained forced laborers are going to be pushed even harder. That may sound familiar to us. What did the Pharaoh do to the Israelites when they asked for a reduced workload? He made it harsher.
It seems that God’s chosen leaders in the family of David aren’t ruling any better than anyone else. It appears as though being chosen by God to lead does not mean extra righteousness. The northern tribes rebel. We didn’t read on enough to cover it, but Rehoboam does consider putting together an army and retaking control. Perhaps it could have worked. But Rehoboam does decide to take advice from a prophet named Shemaiah who says it is all God’s will and he shouldn’t buck against it.
We’re going to spend next week, just one week, looking at the northern kingdom. It survives a couple hundred years before being conquered by the Assyrian Empire in the year 722 B.C. On the whole the Bible describes its leaders are bad and evil. Even Jeroboam, God’s chosen person to lead the separation of the nation is quite corrupt. He has his own political agenda and he has no problem manipulating religion to suit his agenda. And even as he speaks of liberation of the people from Rehoboam his allegiance is to himself.
As we’ve looked at Kings David and Solomon I’ve said over and over again that God remains true to promises made to them despite how sinful and even disobedient they become. We’ll see that continue. This week though, raises two other issues about God.
First, and the easiest to grapple with, is that God usually chooses the underdog. God is also against oppression. Oppression can come in many forms, from literal slavery all the way to policies and programs that lead to one person rising above another. Our nation continues to grapple with such issues in racism. And just like the racism issues our country continues to struggle with, the systems of oppression are often very complex. They are also often deeply woven into the fabric of society. We who are for the most part in the dominant part of our society need to be willing to constantly examine ourselves and our assumptions. It is not easy to do. In fact it's quite hard. But it is consistently the way of God to connect most with the oppressed. And it is a good way for us to constructively and critically work for a better tomorrow for all of God’s people.
Systems of oppression are of course also beyond just race. Look at Jesus’ preaching and teaching. He was constantly pushing against systems that left the poor, widows, orphans, and anyone less than perfect, powerless.
Again, engaging any of this stuff is hard work. People being what they are, also start to exploit it. We see that in the book of Acts and in some of Paul’s later writings where people learn to exploit the generosity of Christians and the gift of God’s grace. There’s nothing new about that!
The second issue with God is more perplexing. God chooses Saul as the first king. Then God does not support Saul as Saul asks and Saul messes up. Because of that God decides to reject Saul as king and goes with David instead. For some reason God stays with David and Solomon despite their many mistakes. However again, God decides to break up the kingdom after Solomon because of Solomon’s mistakes.
Many times in the Bible we find God doing things to justify punishing people. We’ll see that in the weeks to come as we continue with the kings. The way God is portrayed in the Bible is highly inconsistent. Sometimes God seems loving and forgiving. Sometimes God seems very harsh and unfair. Sometimes God appears to be almost playing games with people.
All in all it is very unsettling. As Christians we have the New Testament which is a largely refreshing and basically consistent view of God as gracious and loving. However the Old Testament does still convey authority for our faith. We are wise to realize it.
I’ve said many times that the Old Testament authors are not afraid to be blunt and to tell ugly truths about things. They are also not afraid to say the same about God.
I think we’ve all experienced God being more silent than we’d like. We ask for guidance and feel like we hear nothing in reply. We ask for help in a struggle and that help never seems to come. We see other people who for whatever reason seem to be more successful and happier. We can even see outright greed and corruption at work yet the greedy and corrupt seem to just get away with it more and more.
Where is God’s justice? Where is this kindness and grace we hear about so much from the Bible? Why doesn’t God uphold the righteous and downcast the evil?
These are all good questions. They are all very human questions. They are all part of the reality of many people’s lives.
I do wish the life of a faithful Christian would be measurably better than a person of no faith. It would make sermons be so easy – they would be lessons in morality. Evangelism would be easy too – just tell people about Jesus and they’d feel their lives getting better. But that is not how things work.
All these things fall into what Lutherans like to call a “theology of glory.” A theology of glory is where faith makes sense and good people get good things and faith-filled actions are noticeably successful. By contrast though, reality is the theology of the cross. Here we realize the truth of how God works. The cross is the last stop for sin, death, and everything that separates us from God’s love. The theology of the cross is not about finding hardship or suffering to endure in life. The theology of the cross trusts that things are in God’s hands no matter how good or bad things go.
The Old Testament authors didn’t have Jesus and his crucifixion to go on to put together a theology of the cross. However, their writings get at it. God is faithful – always. That goes for whether we can feel it or sense it or not. The theology of the cross sometimes calls for radical trust that God is still with you when everything is falling apart around you. The theology of the cross knows that a divine rescue may not happen, but God’s love is still there.
I want to end with this prayer by Anselm of Canterbury:
O my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you…
You are my God and you are my All and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me.
You have bestowed on me all the good things I possess,
Still I do not know you…
I have not yet done that for which I was made…
Teach me to seek you…
I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.
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