When God's Message Stings

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.  Shout aloud!  Don’t be timid.  Tell my people Israel of their sins!  Yet they act so pious!  They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me.  They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God.  They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.  ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.  ‘Why aren’t you impressed?  We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’  “I will tell you why!” I respond.  “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.  Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.  What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?  This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.  You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind.  You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes.  Is this what you call fasting?  Do you really think this will please the Lord?  “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:  Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.  Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.  Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.  “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.  Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.  Then when you call, the Lord will answer.  ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.  “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.  Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!  Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.  Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.  The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.  Isaiah 58:1-10

Isaiah was a priest to the rich and powerful people who ran things in Jerusalem.  His voice stung like a scorpion in the wilderness as he preached a message nobody wanted to hear.  Truth be told, nobody wants to hear a prophet with a stinger-tail.

Jeremiah was a weeping prophet because Israel needed someone to weep for their sins.  Amos called the refined ladies of the king’s palace fat cows[1].  They lived lavishly while the ordinary citizens were starving.  And John the Baptist?  Well, the poor listened, but the powerful plotted…and had his head on a platter!

There is little about being a prophet that is attractive to those who value an easy life, career advancement, and perks.  Mainly, the job description calls for telling those who have those values that their whole existence stinks in God’s nostrils; and then they kill you.

And yet, Isaiah says, don’t be timid…speak the tail of the scorpion out clearly and don’t hold back!  Be like a trumpet blast…tell Israel of her sins! 

For a prophet there can be no other choice. 

·       Jonah found that out when he tried to run away from his appointment to Nineveh.  God arranged a submarine ride back to the mission field. 

·       Elijah trembled in the face of adversity, hid in a cave, and hoped to die before ever seeing Jezebel again; he didn’t die, but God’s Word prevailed, and Jezebel’s corpse was eaten by dogs. 

Considering a prophet’s calling, and that for which God always seems to employ His prophets, what would today’s prophet say of America? 

·       Would he be like Jeremiah, the weeping theatrical prophet, dressing in swaddling clothes, and hacked to pieces by an abortion provider?

·       Would he be like Isaiah or Samuel, marching into the White House and Congress with a list 7 times longer than Martin Luther’s 95 points of the sins of leaders?

·       Would she instruct like Priscilla, telling all the so-called pandering preachers, insipid messengers of prosperity and fluff, to cease their endless petting of evil, and start calling our nation to repentance?

Would to God we would see that.

For You Today

If the day of God’s prophets is ended, what hope is there for humanity and righteousness? 

None, I suppose, except, Revelation’s final message, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Amos 4:1

 

When the Mighty Fall

 

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

1 Kings 21:17-29

But the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria.  He will be at Naboth’s vineyard in Jezreel, claiming it for himself.  Give him this message:  ‘This is what the Lord says:  Wasn’t it enough that you killed Naboth?  Must you rob him, too?  Because you have done this, dogs will lick your blood at the very place where they licked the blood of Naboth!’”  “So, my enemy, you have found me!” Ahab exclaimed to Elijah.  “Yes,” Elijah answered, “I have come because you have sold yourself to what is evil in the Lord’s sight.  So now the Lord says, ‘I will bring disaster on you and consume you.  I will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel!  I am going to destroy your family as I did the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the family of Baasha son of Ahijah, for you have made me very angry and have led Israel into sin.’  “And regarding Jezebel, the Lord says, ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel’s body at the plot of land in Jezreel.’  “The members of Ahab’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.”  (No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel.  His worst outrage was worshiping idols just as the Amorites had done—the people whom the Lord had driven out from the land ahead of the Israelites.)  But when Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothing, dressed in burlap, and fasted. He even slept in burlap and went about in deep mourning.  Then another message from the Lord came to Elijah:  “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me?  Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime.  It will happen to his sons; I will destroy his dynasty.”

Ahab was King of Israel.  By definition that means he was God’s servant, charged with the responsibility to make certain God’s people were turned to God, rather than evil.  Ahab failed miserably, because he chose to use his position of power to get what he wanted, rather than do what God required.  Some things never change!

By contrast, Elijah, God’s faithful servant, was always in some kind of hot water with the powers that be.  That describes the life of anyone who will speak for God.  As a pastor, I learned early-on that there are two parts to the job description:

               ·       Comfort the afflicted, and…

               ·       Afflict the comfortable.

Ahab fell in the later category, and it was Elijah’s task to deliver the uncomfortable truth about the king’s sin.  That part of the job never includes a pleasant afternoon tea time.  I learned that thirty years ago; it was homecoming Sunday, and the church was full. The smell of fried chicken and homemade delights filled the air.  But my thoughts on what God had spoken to my heart about the state of a church that was long past its glory days led me to preach a sermon on how serving self leads to destruction.  It included recounting how the church dies when it is more in love with what the church has done in its history, rather than putting on the work gloves and serving God in the here and now.  After the service, I was greeting the crowd at the door, and one older woman approached me with a deeply furrowed brow.  She growled:  Those people didn’t need to hear all that disturbing stuff; a preacher ought to make a homecoming crowd feel good about how we used to do stuff.  With that, she huffed and stormed off.  Well…shut my mouth! 

It’s an odd thing the way God chooses preachers, particularly in my case.  I was like Moses at the burning bush, trying to get God to send anyone but me.  And this woman was proof that it was going to be a long haul – if I lived through the confrontation God’s Word always precipitates. 

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, we’re more apt, especially when we get older and weaker, to wear the medals of what we have done for You, than to hear the marching orders.  We want ease rather than the confrontation spiritual warfare requires.  Forgive our selfishness, and renew us for serving you today.  Help us hear Elijah, and refuse the temptation to be Ahab.

For You Today

A positive thought to end today’s devotion is Ahab’s response to Elijah’s message.  To his credit, Ahab went into repentance mode, showing Godly sorrow over his sin.  And, God saw it, and God responded.  As evil as he’d been, Ahab found out his life’s sins were not unforgivable.  And THAT is the very definition of Good News!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Welcome Collection Gallery (via Wikimedia Commons)

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©