For a long time, I tended to see the
prophets as little more than robots. God told them to speak, and they spoke. The
Lord gave them instructions, and they followed them.
However, I began to see that the
prophets, in many ways, were very much like us. They even had issues with the words
of God. Simply put, they did not always see things as God saw them. In
particular, they had considerable difficulty understanding God’s righteous
judgments, especially those judgments that He pronounced against His own
people, the Jews.
Jeremiah was convinced that God’s damning
assessment of Israel was way off. He thought it would be easy to find at least
one person who was walking with the Lord, especially if he looked among the
educated:
·
I thought, "These are only the
poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God. So I
will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God." (Jeremiah 5:4-5)
Jeremiah was like the rest of us. He
thought that God’s appraisals were overly harsh and that His threats of
judgment were inappropriate. He was convinced that the educated elite were of a
wholly superior caliber. Surely they would merit forgiveness and not judgment.
Are we not just like Jeremiah? Are
we not guilty of seeing as he did, with rose-colored glasses? After all,
we—like Jeremiah—find little in our peers and colleagues or family that merits
divine judgment. Our friends kiss their wives goodbye in the morning and tell
stories to their children at night. They are respected on their jobs and get
promotions. They are honored by the communities in which they live. They might
not be perfect, but then again—who is? Surely
they are not in the same category of sinners as drunkards or wife-beaters.
Clearly, those are the kinds of people who deserve judgment.
According to Scripture, fine appearances
can, at times, be deceiving. In the book of Romans, Paul quoted and affirmed the
Old Testament’s assessment of human degradation:
·
As it is written: "There is no
one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks
God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one
who does good, not even one." (Romans
3:10-12)
If we fail to understand this
cardinal truth, then we will erroneously remain convinced that humanity
requires only a face-lift, and not a complete overhaul. Likewise, if we fail to
understand the necessity for God’s judgment, we will also fail to grasp God’s radically
undeserved grace.
These hard truths must become
foundational in our lives if we are to serve God and represent Him faithfully.
When we fail to realize that everything we receive from God is because of His
mercy and not because of our merit, we become intolerably arrogant. It is for
this very reason that our Savior chooses the foolish and the weak and the
low—those who realize that they deserve the least (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)—to
serve Him. In His wisdom, He ordained that salvation should be entirely a
matter of God’s free gift to us, which precludes any and all boasting on our
part:
·
For by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9; see also Romans 3:21-28).
In contrast to the way God sees
things, we tend to regard some people as more worthy candidates for salvation
than others. In this way, we honor some and dishonor the rest. However, Jesus
adamantly denied that any of us are worthy of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew
19:23-26; Luke 18:9-14). Salvation is all about God’s merit and has nothing to
do with our own (Titus 3:3-7). If we fail to understand this, we cannot give
God the worship He requires and deserves. Jesus taught that we are to worship
God in spirit—in the depths of our being—and in truth (John 4:22-24). This
means that He is to receive all the praise and glory.
This understanding of God and the
way He works is essential if we are to flourish in our relationships within the
context of the Church. When the church at Corinth strayed from an honest
assessment of their humble estate, love was soon replaced by conflict, and
unity by factionalism. Some in the church there began to boast about the way
they had aligned themselves with the very best preachers and teachers. Paul
warned them that this kind of bragging was highly destructive of Christian
fellowship:
· Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to
myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning
of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you
will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other. For who
makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not
receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did
not? (I Corinthians 4:6-7)
Such
boasting not only undermines human relationships, it also jeopardizes our
relationship with God.
v
v
v
If
Jeremiah was going to serve God faithfully, he would also need to learn to see
as God sees. And there would be no better place to learn this skill than in his
hometown of Anathoth. He had come from a respectable family, a family of
priests. However, he soon learned that there were those in this town who wanted
to kill him because of the Word of God:
·
Then the Lord told me about the plots my enemies were making against
me. I had been as unaware as a lamb on the way to its slaughter. I had no idea
that they were planning to kill me! (Jeremiah
11:18-19)
And this was only the beginning. The Lord then
warned Jeremiah:
·
“Even your own brothers, members of
your own family, have turned on you. They have plotted, raising a cry against
you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak.” (Jeremiah 12:6).
Jeremiah
was beginning to see what it meant to truly follow and identify with the Lord. Not
only had Israel turned against their God, they had also turned against the
bearer of His Word, Jeremiah:
·
Then I said, "What sadness is
mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am
neither a lender who has threatened to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to
pay—yet they all curse me." (Jeremiah
15:10)
It is inevitable that when we experience rejection
first-hand, there is a direct impact on the way we regard the rest of humanity.
And so it was with Jeremiah. Before his rejection at the hands of his own
townsmen, he had struggled with what he thought was God’s lack of compassion
for Israel:
·
O Hope of Israel, its Savior in
times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who
stays only a night? Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior
powerless to save? You are among us, O LORD, and we bear your name; do not
forsake us! (Jeremiah 14:8-9)
However, after Jeremiah experienced the same kind of
rejection that God routinely experiences, his pleas for compassion fall silent.
In fact, he begins to ask for the very thing that he had been so vehemently against—judgment!
·
Then I said, "Lord, you know I am suffering for your
sake. Punish my persecutors! Don't let them kill me! Be merciful to me and give
them what they deserve!” (Jeremiah
15:15)
Experience
can be a great teacher. Here is another quote that showcases Jeremiah’s new
attitude:
·
“Lord,
you know all about their murderous plots against me. Don't forgive their crimes
and blot out their sins. Let them die before you. Deal with them in your
anger.” (Jeremiah 18:23)
After we have walked in our Lord’s despised shoes, the
idea of judgment becomes far more acceptable.
v v v
Before
we can truly understand the mercy of God, we first have to understand the
righteousness of God. Jeremiah was learning about justice and righteousness and
had swung far to the side of judgment without mercy. Soon, he would be ready to
learn about mercy, but not just yet. At this point, he was still longing to see
God’s vengeance:
·
“Lord
Almighty! You know those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest
thoughts of hearts and minds. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I
have committed my cause to you.” (Jeremiah
20:12)
Once
again, we understand God through the lens of our experience. When we find
acceptance from those around us, we ask God for His compassion on them. When we
see the world from this perspective, we appreciate God’s reticence to execute
judgment. Conversely, when we don’t experience acceptance, we don’t want our detractors
to experience God’s mercy. Instead, we ask God for judgment and are disturbed
when the judgment is slow in coming. Jeremiah had yet to learn about God’s
mercy for those who do not deserve it.
Israel
had rejected God. In fact, Israel had rejected God more completely than any
other nation had rejected their evil and worthless gods:
- "Go west to the land of Cyprus; go east to the land of Kedar. Think about what you see there. See if anyone has ever heard of anything as strange as this. Has any nation ever exchanged its gods for another god, even though its gods are nothing? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols!” (Jeremiah 2:10-11)
It is only after we understand the weightiness of
the judgment we deserve that we can have any appreciation for the grace we do not
deserve. Likewise, it is only after
we become aware of the extent of our treachery that we can value forgiveness as
we should.
Jeremiah began to comprehend the extent of Israel’s
betrayal. After all, even his own family had betrayed him. He could now begin
to see that judgment was indeed necessary, and this had prepared him for the
next lesson—God’s glorious mercy:
- "I will send disaster upon the leaders of my people—the shepherds of my sheep—for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for," says the Lord. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to these shepherds: "Instead of leading my flock to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction. Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them. But I will gather together the remnant of my flock from wherever I have driven them. I will bring them back into their own fold, and they will be fruitful and increase in number. Then I will appoint responsible shepherds to care for them, and they will never be afraid again. Not a single one of them will be lost or missing," says the Lord. "For the time is coming," says the Lord, "when I will place a righteous Branch on King David's throne. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. And this is his name: 'The Lord Is Our Righteousness'” (Jeremiah 23:1-6).
It is from the darkness of rebellion and judgment
that Messiah is best seen for who He is. Our Lord is most fully embraced and
understood through a veil of tears and desperation. As the hurricane precedes
the rainbow, the bad news must precede the good. The reality of our deserved
judgment must serve as the herald for grace. And finally, we must suffer with
Christ so that we can reign with Him. There are certain truths that we must
first learn the hard way, even as Jeremiah had to learn them.
v v v
Moving on from Jeremiah, I wonder…could it be that all
of the prophets had a problem with God?
In Ezekiel 7, God had announced to the prophet the
destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. Ezekiel must have been rocked to the core of
his being by this revelation. In Ezekiel 8, in order to justify His coming judgment,
the Lord took Ezekiel—in the Spirit—to see the abominations that the leaders
were performing in the Temple. Yet—understandably—Ezekiel was still appalled by
the coming judgment:
- So it was, that while they were killing them [Israel], I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out your fury on Jerusalem?" (Ezekiel 9:8; see also 11:13)
Responding
to His prophet, God revealed the Messianic mercy that would one day come:
- “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:17-20)
Ezekiel
first had to hear the bad news before he could appreciate the Good News!
v v v
The
prophet Habakkuk also had a problem with God. Habakkuk had complained to God
about the violence he had been observing in Judah. God had the remedy for the
situation: He would bring the Babylonians against Judah to destroy them! Once
again, and quite understandably, the prophet was shocked:
- “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked [Babylon] devours a person more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13)
Habakkuk’s
words compel us to ask a question: Was Judah indeed more righteous than
Babylon? Again, it would be good for us to remember that we have a tendency to
think more of our own people than we sometimes should. We tend to give them the
benefit of any doubt. However, God assured Habakkuk that His judgment would not
be indiscriminate. Instead, in words that are familiar to our ears, the Lord
declared to Habakkuk that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).
In
the same way, God also assured Ezekiel of the mercy that He would surely have
on those who were repentant:
- And the LORD said to him [an angelic being], “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.” (Ezekiel 9:4-5)
God
knows those who are His, and He will bring judgment on those who are not. This
revelation enabled Habakkuk to close his book with his famous prayer of praise:
- Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
v v v
The prophet Jonah had
such a serious problem with the Word of God that he fled! He would have gladly
given up his life to avoid bringing God’s Word of warning to Nineveh, a city
which he found utterly contemptible. Since Jonah was not yet ready to listen to
God’s call, the Lord sent a great fish who was able to “preach” a message to Jonah that
he could not refuse. While he was imprisoned in the fish’s belly, Jonah
received God’s message and prayed:
- “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple…But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:7, 9)
Jonah freely acknowledged that
salvation belongs to the Lord. Furthermore, he accepted the fact that God could
grant the gift of His salvation to whomever He chose—even to the hated,
ruthless Assyrians. Once Jonah had come to this understanding, the fish spit him
up onto a beach adjacent to Nineveh, where Jonah began to preach:
- Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (Jonah 3:1-4)
When
the people of Nineveh repented at God’s warning through His prophet, Jonah’s
greatest fear was realized:
- When God saw what they [the Assyrians] did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10)
Jonah
knew that God’s promise to bring destruction on the city of Nineveh was
conditional and depended on Nineveh’s response. He had such a hatred for Nineveh
that he would have been glad to deliver a message proclaiming Nineveh’s
unconditional destruction. However, Jonah knew also that God might relent, and that
is why he fled. He refused to preach a message that might lead to Nineveh’s repentance.
He complained:
- "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:1-2)
God
was not finished with Jonah. As He desires for all of His people, God wanted
Jonah to be more than a simple robotic mouthpiece for Him. God wanted Jonah to
be a willing participant in His plans. In the same way, He wants each of us to
understand Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:22-24).
Therefore, for Jonah’s second object lesson, God would reason with him, not
with a fish—but with a plant!
This
plant had provided Jonah with shade, but it suddenly died. And Jonah was
furious:
- But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:9-11)
Jonah’s
problem with God was with His grace to those that Jonah regarded as less
deserving. However, God reasoned that if Jonah pitied the plant, He had far
more reason to pity 120,000 people who had been rescued from destruction.
Jonah
needed this object lesson. So do I. In order for me to learn mercy towards
others, I had to first painfully learn about my need for God’s mercy. In my
totally unjustified self-confidence, I had attempted to set up a Christian
counseling agency, before I had any clue of what was entailed. As a result, I
made an absolute mess of everything. My only client even felt it necessary to flee
from my office.
After
this, I had to learn about the certainty of God’s mercy for the broken-hearted.
Only then could I begin to serve my Savior faithfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment