While I was living in Israel as a Zionist, someone gave me a
copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. My favorite book quickly became the Book of Joshua. Why? Because, in this
book, my people were triumphing militarily! It felt like I too was triumphing.
However, Joshua soon gave way to the Book of Judges, where I was plunged into
defeat along with each Israelite defeat. Consequently, I put the Bible down.
Years later, reading the Bible with a Christian lens, Joshua was replaced by Genesis as my favorite book. I came to
realize that this book wasn’t about exalting Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as
role-models but God Himself, who
never gave up on His fearful and highly tainted Patriarchs but persevered with
them. Consequently, they were a great encouragement to me. They were far from
perfect and so was I. I began to realize that I didn’t have to be perfect but
rather, His child, and He would patiently do the heavy lifting for me.
However, the rabbis do not regard the Patriarchs in this
way. According to one of many rabbinic sources:
·
Prophets and prophecy are integral to Judaism.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the forefathers of the Jewish people, were prophets…As
the wife of Abraham, Sarah was an equal partner in his efforts to spread
monotheistic beliefs and morality. Abraham led the men, and Sarah shepherded
the women…Sarah was so holy that her bread would remain fresh all week, her
Shabbat candles would burn until the following Friday, and a cloud would hover
above her tent. In telling Sarah’s age at the time of her passing, the verse
states that her life was “100 years, and 20 years, and 7 years.” The sages
explain that when she was 100, she was as pure of sin as a maiden of 20; and
when she was 20, she was as beautiful as an innocent 7-year-old. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4058906/jewish/21-Jewish-Prophets-Everyone-Should-Know.htm
The rabbis generally regard the Patriarchs and their other
Prophets as super-spiritual. Without warrant, they embellish the Biblical text with
their own inventions. However, the NT regards the Patriarchs and Prophets as
human as the rest of us:
·
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he
prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it
did not rain on the earth. (James 5:17)
We too tend to
regard the Prophets and Apostles as spiritual giants. However, they struggled
as we do. It also seems that they had issues with God. For a while, Elijah’s
presence had brought blessing upon a widow of Zeraphath and her son, but her
son suddenly died. Elijah, therefore, accused God:
·
“O LORD
my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by
killing her son?” (1 Kings 17:20)
Nevertheless, the
Lord healed the son through Elijah.
The Prophet Jonah’s
issues with God were even more severe. He rejected God’s calling to preach to
Nineveh and fled. It even seems that he preferred death over his heavenly
calling. Nevertheless, after being swallowed by a great fish, Jonah agreed to
preach to Nineveh. However, the very thing that Jonah had feared came to pass. They
repented and God relented from His promise to destroy Nineveh.
However, instead of
rejoicing with the Lord, Jonah became angry (Jonah 4:1) and wanted to die, but
God tried to teach him that he was his own worst enemy:
·
“Therefore
now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than
to live.” And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:3-4)
Of course, Jonah’s
anger wasn’t serving him well. However, God didn’t give up on Jonah and
continued to provide object lessons to expose his anger and rebellion for what
they were. Overnight, He provided Jonah with a plant to shade him from the
intense sun. God then destroyed the plant, and Jonah foolishly became angry at
it – another teachable moment:
·
When
the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the
head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said,
“It is better for me to die than to live.” 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 4:8-11)
God reasoned with
Jonah to win his heart through his mind. Without any clear resolution, the Book of Jonah ends abruptly with these
verses. Did Jonah learn God’s lessons? Did he repent of his anger, his
self-centered worldview, and his rebellion against the Word of God? We are not
told. However, we do see the patience and graciousness of God on his behalf.
Despite, Jonah’s rebellion, God remained faithful to His Prophet.
To win the mind is also to win the heart. Once our heart has been opened, faithfulness
to our Savior must be secured by reason through our minds. This becomes the
seat of transformation (Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:10). We too have our issues
with God, and He also has to instruct and humble us.
However, we tend to
think that we are miles away from the example of Elijah, who had raised the
dead child. However, it is evident that this child was healed not because of
Elijah’s great faith, but because of God’s faithfulness.
We despair of
having faith like Elijah who had prayed for a drought, and there was drought,
and who prayed for rain, and there was rain. However, we often fail to see that
Elijah had accomplished what he did not by virtue of His great faith, but in
accordance with the Word, the instructions of God (1 Kings 17:1, 9; 18:1, 36). He
merely did what God had told him to do:
·
And at
the time of the offering of the oblation [in his confrontation with the priests
of Baal], Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and
that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. (1
Kings 18:36)
As a result, fire
came down from heaven to consume Elijah’s offering. This convinced Israel that
Elijah was of God and the prophets of Baal were deceivers.
We wrongly conceive
of great faith as a matter of intense effort to rid from our minds any doubts
or feelings that might betray a lack of confidence, and Elijah was the expert. However,
Elijah had merely learned to take God at His Word. God had told him to pray,
and Elijah prayed, and God provided the increase. Did he believe that he was
accruing brownie-points in heaven or that he had become super-spiritual?
Perhaps? However, even if he was beginning to believe this way, his God would
not allow such conceit to stand. Immediately after Elijah’s great victory over
the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, Elijah lost heart at the threats of King
Ahaz’ wife and fled like a coward.
ISAIAH’S PROBLEM WITH GOD
Isaiah didn’t seem
to have any illusions about Israel’s lack of merit or righteousness. If he did
have any illusions, God promptly dispelled them:
- “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. (Isaiah 1:2-4)
However, Isaiah had
a different issue with God. He correctly understood that God is omnipotent and
could do anything He wanted to do:
- All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:6-8)
Yes, Israel was
rebellious and deserved judgment. However, if God is the potter – and Isaiah
was convinced that He is – He should be able to mold Israel into anything He
wanted, even into righteous children:
- Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people… After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? (Isaiah 64:9,12)
Isaiah was
perplexed why God was holding Himself back from molding His clay into a
faithful people and upset that God would “punish beyond measure,” at least
according to Isaiah’s reckoning. However, God’s answer must have been less than
satisfying:
- All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations-- a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick [to false gods]… I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me." (Isaiah 65:2-3,12)
God didn’t directly
answer Isaiah’s question. However, in many ways, God had answered. He had
already given Israel everything He could:
- “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He [God] dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:1-4)
God insisted that
there is nothing more that He could have done for Israel, and that He was not
holding-back, as Isaiah had charged. However, if God is omnipotent, it is hard
for us to understand why God is not more merciful towards His people. If He
changed the heart of some, why could He not change the heart of all?
But what is God’s
omnipotence? Can He not do anything? It doesn’t seem so. While He can
accomplish anything He wants, there
are things that He cannot do. He
cannot sin – a violation of His character. Nor does it seem that He can violate
His promises. Perhaps, also, He also cannot violate His internal logic and
create a stone that He cannot lift.
Jesus had
petitioned the Father for something that pointed to the Father’s
Self-limitation:
- Going a little farther, he [Jesus] fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup [the Cross] be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)
While God can do
all things He wants to do, He cannot do them in any manner. He was not able to
grant Jesus His request. His righteous character prevented the payment of
humanity’s in any other way. Jesus had to die! Animals certainly weren’t able
to bring our forgiveness. Nor was anything else able to display His
righteousness (Romans 5:8-10) to the extent that He desired. Only the supreme
price, the death of God the Son could adequately communicate His righteousness
and the depth of our sins.
Let me apply this
to the question of God saving all Israel. While God wants all to be saved (2
Peter 3:9), there might be a Self-limitation within His very Nature that does
not permit this.
Nevertheless, God
promised that He would show incredible grace to Israel, but only through his
Messiah:
- "The Redeemer [the promised Messiah] will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD. "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD. (Isaiah 59:20-21)
- "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more… (Isaiah 65:17-19)
In the end, there
will be a great salvation. All those left in the end will be rescued:
- From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD. (Isaiah 66:23)
This is an
indication that, in the end, our Lord will open the floodgates of heaven:
- "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other… Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.'" All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult. (Isaiah 45:22-25; 60:14; also Romans 11:12-27; James 2:13)
But God made us
this way, right? Isn’t he also to blame? This is one charge that the Prophets
never brought against God. Instead, they accepted what He had revealed – that
the fault is all ours, and that God had done for Israel everything that He
could do (Isaiah 5:2-5; Jeremiah 2:21).
Isaiah merely
charged that God could correct Israel’s heart. However, he probably never
received a complete and satisfactory answer, but perhaps what had been revealed
to him was enough. Hopefully, it will be enough for us.
JEREMIAH’S PROBLEM WITH GOD
How can we believe
in a God of the holocausts, who annihilated the Canaanites and the Amalekites?
In our eyes, except for a few bad apples, our fellow human beings do not appear
so evil, certainly not so evil that they deserve to die.
This is the most
common challenge to our faith. We are troubled by it, but it was also troubling
to the prophets of Israel. Habakkuk (1:12-17) had objected that, although his people
were sinners, they weren’t bad enough to warrant the coming Babylonian
destruction of their homeland! Jeremiah had a similar complaint—God’s
indictment against Jerusalem was just too extreme! Therefore, God prepared for
His prophet a challenge and an object lesson:
·
"Go
up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through
her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the
truth, I will forgive this city. Although they say, 'As surely as the LORD
lives,' still they are swearing falsely" (Jeremiah 5:1-2).
Jeremiah didn’t
fault God’s gracious offer to forgive. Only one
honest person needed to be present in Jerusalem. The offer seemed more than
gracious! This was because Jeremiah was convinced that there were many
righteous Israelites, and that God’s displeasure could only reasonably apply to
the uneducated rabble. Surely, the leadership knew better and would respond to
God and would then spearhead the return to God!
·
“O
LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain;
you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder
than stone and refused to repent. 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.’ But with one accord, they too had
broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds [of God]” (Jeremiah 5:3-5).
We don’t see as God
does. Our own people tend to look pretty good to us, especially those of
Jeremiah’s own priestly clan. The prophets’ problem had been much the same as
ours. They failed to comprehend the depth of Israel’s sin and rebellion against
God. As a result, God’s punishment
seemed extreme and unwarranted. However, Israel’s prophets needed a crash
course in human depravity if they were going to represent God faithfully, and
He was glad to provide it to them. He enlightened Jeremiah regarding the
rebellion of even the educated leadership:
·
"Why
should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are
not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged
to the houses of prostitutes. They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing
for another man's wife. Should I not punish them for this?...The house of
Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me…They [the
false prophets] have lied about the LORD” (Jeremiah 5:7-13).
God is faithful,
but Israel had been utterly unfaithful. Seen in this light, our Creator and
Redeemer had every reason to judge. However, Jeremiah was still unable to see
his people through God’s lens.
Holding faith isn’t
always comfortable. We don’t always have the answers that our restless minds
crave. Life continues to pose the ultimate question to us: “Are you still willing
to follow your God even when things don’t make perfect sense?” This had been
Jesus’ challenge to multitudes that were following Him because of the free
meals. He laid down a difficult teaching to separate those merely looking for
another handout from the true seekers: “Unless you drink my blood…” (John 6).
It didn’t make sense; it wasn’t the Jewish way, and many left.
God posed a similar
question to Abraham when He asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Gen. 22). It
seemed to go against everything God had promised Abraham—that the world would
be blessed through Isaac and his seed. Abraham didn’t have the answer to this
dilemma, but he knew God well enough to know that God did. We too must live with
the discomfort of an incomplete puzzle. However, we’ve hopefully learned where
to look for the missing pieces!
Nevertheless, it’s
amusing to see how quickly our philosophical objections evaporate when we
become the object of persecution. Jeremiah’s tune changed, once he realized
that even his own educated family wanted to kill him:
·
“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)
God revealed to
Jeremiah what His prophet could never have imagined:
·
“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)
A pleasant facade
can be a ploy. Gradually, Jeremiah’s experiences changed his attitude and he
began to see things through God’s holy lens:
·
“Avenge
me on my persecutors… But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not
forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight… let me see your
vengeance upon them.” (Jeremiah 15:15; 18:23; 20:12)
Unless we first
learn about the righteousness and justice of God’s judgments, we cannot
understand His mercy. Jeremiah’s opinion about the pervasiveness of sin was beginning
to change. He finally declared:
·
The
heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
(Jeremiah 17:9)
Only when we
understand the depths of human perversity are we prepared to grasp the depths
of God’s mercy. Otherwise, we will regard it as our just entitlement.
THE PROPHET EZEKIEL’S GRIEVANCE
To prepare His
prophet for faithful service, the Lord had taken Ezekiel on a spiritual journey
into the heart of His Temple where Ezekiel observed the abominations of the
priesthood, which he had never dreamed possible. God then gave Ezekiel a vision
of the destruction that He would bring upon Israel. However, Ezekiel was still
unconvinced about the justice of God’s wrath:
·
So it
was, that while they were killing them, 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?" Then He said to me,
"The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and
the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say,
'The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!'” (Ezekiel 9:8-9;
11:13, 16-20)
Ezekiel was unable
to grasp the extent of Israel’s corruption, but God was slowly molding Ezekiel
into a son of God, a man after His own heart and mind, unlike his self-righteous
brethren. He commanded Ezekiel to put the Words of God above everything else:
·
“And if
I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his
sin and does what is just and right-- if he gives back what he took in pledge
for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and
does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has
committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right;
he will surely live. "Yet your countrymen say, 'The way of the Lord is not
just.' But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his
righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away
from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Yet,
O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge
each of you according to his own ways." (Ezekiel 33:14-20)
God’s ways never
seem just to the self-righteous. Although they might realize that they aren’t
perfect, they still believe that their good far outweighs their evil, and that
this entitles them to God’s blessings. They might even feel entitled, by their
“good moral record,” to do a little evil. However, the reluctant Ezekiel was
told to announce that, no matter how good their performance might have been,
once they turn to sin, they deserve death. He was also warned that if he
proceeded according to his own understanding, instead of God’s Word, and did
not warn, he too would be guilty (Ezekiel 33:1-9).
The self-righteous
cannot endure such righteous teaching. They believe they stand by virtue of
their esteemed moral record and not by the mercy of God. Therefore, a few sins
should not change anything. They, therefore, were convinced that “The way of
the Lord is not just” and failed to understand that none of us can stand before
our righteous God apart from His mercy or conclude that, “He owes me blessings
because of my surpassing righteousness.
Repeatedly, Jesus
had to teach His Apostles this same lesson. They too were convinced that the
educated elite and those blessed with wealth also deserved to be blessed with
eternal life. However, Jesus confounded their thinking:
·
But
Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom
of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished,
and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With
man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” (Mark
10:24-27)
God’s ways are not
our ways. Forgiveness and reconciliation are a gift from God. Although the
entire Bible rests upon this truth, it is still so radical to human ears that
Israel failed to get their minds around it. However, when we fail to understand
this vital truth, we fail to understand God – His righteousness and His love
for His wayward humanity. We also fail to perceive and to understand ourselves.
Nor did Jesus’
disciples understand. They saw reality through human eyes, the eyes of their
rabbis, and were convinced that the rich and educated were entitled to salvation. Therefore, when Jesus told them that even
the rich and esteemed could not be saved by their efforts, incredulously, they
responded, “Then who can be saved?”
As the rabbis
continued to exchange the truth of God (the Scriptures) for their own self-aggrandizing
human traditions, which later became codified as the Babylonian Talmud, they
also exchanged the veneration of God for the veneration of their own sages.
No comments:
Post a Comment