Old Testament for August 28, 2022

“Idol Worship” [photo by Zack Detwiler]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 2:4-13
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah’s prophetic word is framed as a debate between the Lord and his people.  God is asking a rhetorical question of Israel that they cannot answer.  They cannot answer because there is no good answer — and the Lord’s complaint is that they have not stayed in dialogue with him:

Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

The worthless things no doubt relate to the false gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, and the idols that represent those gods.  But the question is made more poignant by the observation that when they seek what is worthless they themselves became worthless.

Of course there is no good answer — the Lord had done no wrong to them, only blessing them.  And they have chosen that which cannot satisfy.

The Lord points out that Israel didn’t even bother to trump up false charges against him: 

They did not say, “Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?”

Had they said all these things about their sojourn in the wilderness, he could have reminded them of the rest of the story: 

I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.

The truth is, though, that no sooner had Israel been given this land of abundance, they corrupted it:

But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.

God’s intention had been to make Israel his heritage.  Solomon’s prayer before the altar after his coronation, more than 300 years earlier, reflects this sense of a special relationship between the Lord and Israel:

For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God (1 Kings 8:53).

Jeremiah’s prophecy moves on and becomes more particular.  He next addresses the priests, rulers and prophets who have a unique responsibility to remain faithful to the Lord.  Like the people of Israel, they also have failed to engage the Lord in the debate that he seeks:

The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after things that do not profit.

The priests who handle the sacrifices in the temple and the interpretation of the law have no personal relationship with the Lord; ergo they cannot guide the rulers who transgress against God.  And even worse, it is the prophets, who normally represent the more “inspired” aspect of Hebrew faith, who are seeking inspiration from Baalism!  They are the very ones leading Israel to seek meaning in worthless things.

So the Lord ratchets up his debate with them:

 Therefore once more I accuse you,
says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.

The Lord then demands that they investigate other nations, such as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and Kedar which is in the deserts to the east of Judah.  (They are to look as far to the west and as far to the east as they can to discover that other nations don’t treat their gods the way Israel has treated Yahweh.)  They are charged to ask:

Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?

His point is that even though these other nations worship false gods, at least they are loyal to them!  This is a contrast to Israel: 

But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.

The Lord finally calls upon even the heavenly court to witness Israel’s infidelity to him:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,

And the Lord sums up his lover’s quarrel with Israel with two charges against them:

for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.

The wickedness of Israel’s behavior is self-apparent.  Their first sin was abandoning the God who had led them out of Egypt, guided them through the wilderness to the Land of Promise, and also given them the Law.  Their second sin was seeking to create their own cisterns that are cracked and leaky.  In other words, they have attempted to create their own syncretistic religion, blending Yahwism with the nature and fertility religions of Baal and Asherah that already existed in the land of Canaan.

In this one-sided argument between God and his people, Jeremiah is building the case against Israel.  Obviously, the Northern Kingdom known as Israel fell at the hands of Assyria almost 100 years earlier in 721 B.C.   Jeremiah is speaking to the only tribe of Israel that remains, which is Judah.  And he will build to a crescendo as he warns of the coming doom at the hands of the Empire of Babylon.

Judah will not be able to say, “Nobody warned us!”

APPLY:  

No modern nation has quite the unique relationship with God that Israel has.  Some Americans would like to believe that the United States is God’s favored nation today, but there is no Biblical evidence for that claim. And the state of Israel is a secular state, not a theocracy.

However, I think we can apply Jeremiah’s prophecy in a general way to all nations, and to all cultures that have been influenced by Judeo-Christianity.  Have we not departed from Biblical truths and our personal knowledge of God?  Have we not departed from classical, Scriptural Christianity and sought after worthless things?  In so doing, have we not established value systems on the false gods of pleasure, treasure, fame, and self-interest?  Do our priests and prophets — our pastors and religious leaders — who are charged with interpreting the Scriptures actually know God? Do they really understand the Scriptures?  Do those who govern politically adhere to a moral code that reflects the moral law of God? Is it possible that we have exchanged our faith in the God who reveals himself in Scripture for those things that are idols?

A quick scan of newsfeeds over the past several decades suggests that there has been — at least in the United States, and also in many other traditionally Judeo-Christian nations — an increase in moral and spiritual decadence.

Have we forsaken God, and tried to dig our own cisterns of meaning and purpose that are cracked and leaking?

What God is seeking from us, just as he did with Judah, is dialogue that ultimately leads to relationship with him.

RESPOND: 

One of the truths that strikes me in this passage is what happens when we worship and pursue things that are worthless.  We discover that they are worthless, and that our lives have become worthless as well.

It has become a cliche to say, “On their deathbed, no one says to themselves: ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.'”  That cliche may have transitive properties in other areas as well.  On their deathbed, who will say to themselves, “I wish I’d made more money so that I could take it with me.” “I wish I’d watched more t.v.”  “I wish I had spent less time developing my relationship with God.”

I have a theory that we become more and more like whatever, or Whomever, we worship.  And if we worship worthless things, we become more like them.  And if we worship God, we become more like God.

Lord, may my worship be focused only on you — not my “ideas” of you, but truly on you.  Wean me away from those things that are useless and worthless, and give my life your purpose!  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Idol Worship” by Zack Detwiler is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for September 1, 2019

“Idol Worship” [photo by Zack Detwiler]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 2:4-13
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah’s prophetic word is framed as a debate between the Lord and his people.  God is asking a rhetorical question of Israel that they cannot answer.  They cannot answer because there is no good answer — and the Lord’s complaint is that they have not stayed in dialogue with him:

Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

The worthless things no doubt relate to the false gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, and the idols that represent those gods.  But the question is made more poignant by the observation that when they seek what is worthless they themselves became worthless.

Of course there is no good answer — the Lord had done no wrong to them, only blessing them.  And they have chosen that which cannot satisfy.

The Lord points out that Israel didn’t even bother to trump up false charges against him: 

They did not say, “Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?”

Had they said all these things about their sojourn in the wilderness, he could have reminded them of the rest of the story: 

I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.

The truth is, though, that no sooner had Israel been given this land of abundance, they corrupted it:

But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.

God’s intention had been to make Israel his heritage.  Solomon’s prayer before the altar after his coronation, more than 300 years earlier,  reflects this sense of a special relationship between the Lord and Israel:

For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God (1 Kings 8:53).

Jeremiah’s prophecy moves on and becomes more particular.  He next addresses the priests, rulers and prophets who have a unique responsibility to remain faithful to the Lord.  Like the people of Israel, they also have failed to engage the Lord in the debate that he seeks:

The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after things that do not profit.

The priests who handle the sacrifices in the temple and the interpretation of the law have no personal relationship with the Lord; ergo they cannot guide the rulers who transgress against God.  And even worse, it is the prophets, who normally represent the more “inspired” aspect of Hebrew faith, who are seeking inspiration from Baalism!  They are the very ones leading Israel to seek meaning in worthless things.

So the Lord ratchets up his debate with them:

 Therefore once more I accuse you,
says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.

The Lord then demands that they investigate other nations,  such as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and Kedar which is in the deserts to the east of Judah.  (They are to look as far to the west and as far to the east as they can to discover that other nations don’t treat their gods the way Israel has treated Yahweh.)  They are charged to ask:

Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?

His point is that even though these other nations worship false gods, at least they are loyal to them!  This is a contrast to Israel: 

But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.

The Lord finally calls upon even the heavenly court to witness Israel’s infidelity to him:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,

And the Lord sums up his lover’s quarrel with Israel with two charges against them:

for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.

The wickedness of Israel’s behavior is self-apparent.  Their first sin was abandoning the God who had led them out of  Egypt, guided them through the wilderness to the Land of Promise, and also given them the Law.  Their second sin was seeking to create their own cisterns that are cracked and leaky.  In other words, they have attempted to create their own syncretistic religion, blending Yahwism with the nature and fertility religions of Baal and Asherah that already existed in the land of Canaan.

In this one-sided argument between God and his people, Jeremiah is building the case against Israel.  Obviously, the Northern Kingdom known as Israel fell at the hands of Assyria almost 100 years earlier in 721 B.C.   Jeremiah is speaking to the only tribe of Israel that remains, which is Judah.  And he will build to a crescendo as he warns of the coming doom at the hands of the Empire of Babylon.

Judah will not be able to say, “Nobody warned us!”

APPLY:  

No modern nation has quite the unique relationship with God that Israel has.  Some Americans would like to believe that the United States is God’s favored nation today, but there is no Biblical evidence for that claim. And the state of Israel is a secular state, not a theocracy.

However, I think we can apply Jeremiah’s prophecy in a general way to all nations, and to all cultures that have been influenced by Judeo-Christianity.  Have we not departed from Biblical truths and our personal knowledge of God?  Have we not departed from classical, Scriptural Christianity and sought after worthless things?  In so doing, have we not established value systems on the false gods of pleasure, treasure, fame, and self-interest?  Do our priests and prophets — our pastors and religious leaders —  who are charged with interpreting the Scriptures actually know God? Do they really understand the Scriptures?  Do those who govern politically adhere to a moral code that reflects the moral law of God? Is it possible that we have exchanged our faith in the God who reveals himself in Scripture for those things that are idols?

A quick scan of newsfeeds over the past several decades suggests that there has been — at least in the United States, and also in many other traditionally Judeo-Christian nations — an increase in moral and spiritual decadence.

Have we forsaken God, and tried to dig our own cisterns of meaning and purpose that are cracked and leaking?

What God is seeking from us , just as he did with Judah, is dialogue that ultimately leads to relationship with him.

RESPOND: 

One of the truths that strikes me in this passage is what happens when we worship and pursue things that are worthless.  We discover that they are worthless, and that our lives have become worthless as well.

It has become a cliche to say “On their deathbed, no one says to themselves: ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.'”  That cliche may have transitive properties in other areas as well.  On their deathbed, who will say to themselves, “I wish I’d made more money so that I could take it with me.” “I wish I’d watched more t.v.”  “I wish I had spent less time developing my relationship with God.”

I have a theory that we become more and more like whatever, or Whomever, we worship.  And if we worship worthless things, we become more like them.  And if we worship God, we become more like God.

Lord, may my worship be focused only on you — not my “ideas” of you, but truly on you.  Wean me away from those things that are useless and worthless, and give my life your purpose!  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Idol Worship” by Zack Detwiler is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for August 28, 2016

“Idol Worship” [photo by Zack Detwiler]

Start with Scripture:

Jeremiah 2:4-13

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah’s prophetic word is framed as a debate between the Lord and his people.  God is asking a rhetorical question of Israel that they cannot answer.  They cannot answer because there is no good answer — and the Lord’s complaint is that they have not stayed in dialogue with him:

Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

The worthless things no doubt relate to the false gods and goddesses of the Canaanites, and the idols that represent those gods.  But the question is made more poignant by the observation that when they seek what is worthless they themselves became worthless.

Of course there is no good answer — the Lord had done no wrong to them, only blessing them.  And they have chosen that which cannot satisfy.

The Lord points out that Israel didn’t even bother to trump up false charges against him: 

They did not say, “Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?”

Had they said all these things about their sojourn in the wilderness, he could have reminded them of the rest of the story: 

I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.

The truth is, though, that no sooner had Israel been given this land of abundance, they corrupted it:

But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.

God’s intention had been to make Israel his heritage.  Solomon’s prayer before the altar after his coronation, more than 300 years earlier,  reflects this sense of a special relationship between the Lord and Israel:

For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God (1 Kings 8:53).

Jeremiah’s prophecy moves on and becomes more particular.  He next addresses the priests, rulers and prophets who have a unique responsibility to remain faithful to the Lord.  Like the people of Israel, they also have failed to engage the Lord in the debate that he seeks:

The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after things that do not profit.

The priests who handle the sacrifices in the temple and the interpretation of the law have no personal relationship with the Lord; ergo they cannot guide the rulers who transgress against God.  And even worse, it is the prophets, who normally represent the more “inspired” aspect of Hebrew faith, who are seeking inspiration from Baalism!  They are the very ones leading Israel to seek meaning in worthless things.

So the Lord ratchets up his debate with them:

 Therefore once more I accuse you,
says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.

The Lord then demands that they investigate other nations,  such as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and Kedar which is in the deserts to the east of Judah.  (They are to look as far to the west and as far to the east as they can to discover that other nations don’t treat their gods the way Israel has treated Yahweh.)  They are charged to ask:

Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?

His point is that even though these other nations worship false gods, at least they are loyal to them!  This is a contrast to Israel: 

But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.

The Lord finally calls upon even the heavenly court to witness Israel’s infidelity to him:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,

And the Lord sums up his lover’s quarrel with Israel with two charges against them:

 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.

The wickedness of Israel’s behavior is self-apparent.  Their first sin was abandoning the God who had led them out of  Egypt, guided them through the wilderness to the Land of Promise, and also given them the Law.  Their second sin was seeking to create their own cisterns that are cracked and leaky.  In other words, they have attempted to create their own syncretistic religion, blending Yahwism with the nature and fertility religions of Baal and Asherah that already existed in the land of Canaan.

In this one-sided argument between God and his people, Jeremiah is building the case against Israel.  Obviously, the Northern Kingdom known as Israel fell at the hands of Assyria almost 100 years earlier in 721 B.C.   Jeremiah is speaking to the only tribe of Israel that remains, which is Judah.  And he will build to a crescendo as he warns of the coming doom at the hands of the Empire of Babylon.

Judah will not be able to say, “Nobody warned us!”

APPLY:  

No modern nation has quite the unique relationship with God that Israel has.  Some Americans would like to believe that the United States is God’s favored nation today, but there is no Biblical evidence for that claim. And the state of Israel is a secular state, not a theocracy.

However, I think we can apply Jeremiah’s prophecy in a general way to all nations, and to all cultures that have been influenced by Judeo-Christianity.  Have we not departed from Biblical truths and our personal knowledge of God?  Have we not departed from classical, Scriptural Christianity and sought after worthless things?  In so doing, have we not established value systems on the false gods of pleasure, treasure, fame, and self-interest?  Do our priests and prophets — our pastors and religious leaders —  who are charged with interpreting the Scriptures actually know God? Do they really understand the Scriptures?  Do those who govern politically adhere to a moral code that reflects the moral law of God? Is it possible that we have exchanged our faith in the God who reveals himself in Scripture for those things that are idols?

A quick scan of newsfeeds over the past several decades suggests that there has been — at least in the United States, and also in many other traditionally Judeo-Christian nations — an increase in moral and spiritual decadence.

Have we forsaken God, and tried to dig our own cisterns of meaning and purpose that are cracked and leaking?

What God is seeking from us , just as he did with Judah, is dialogue that ultimately leads to relationship with him.

RESPOND: 

One of the truths that strikes me in this passage is what happens when we worship and pursue things that are worthless.  We discover that they are worthless, and that our lives have become worthless as well.

It has become a cliche to say “On their deathbed, no one says to themselves: ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.'”  That cliche may have transitive properties in other areas as well.  On their deathbed, who will say to themselves, “I wish I’d made more money so that I could take it with me.” “I wish I’d watched more t.v.”  “I wish I had spent less time developing my relationship with God.”

I have a theory that we become more and more like whatever, or Whomever, we worship.  And if we worship worthless things, we become more like them.  And if we worship God, we become more like God.

Lord, may my worship be focused only on you — not my “ideas” of you, but truly on you.  Wean me away from those things that are useless and worthless, and give my life your purpose!  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Idol Worship” by Zack Detwiler is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for May 29, 2016

Start with Scripture:

1 Kings 18:20-39 

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Israel (also known as the Northern Kingdom), is in crisis.  There is a severe drought in the land, which has led to famine.  And there is a spiritual crisis: King Ahab has married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon — and she is a devout worshipper of Baal.

There is a Latin saying that used to apply to nations prior to the modern era of democracy — cuius regio, eius religio.  This means, “whose realm, whose religion.”  In other words, whoever was on the throne dictated what the state religion would be.  And the people, if they knew what was good for them, followed the same religion.

In this case, it might be said — ‘whose wife, whose religion’ — because Ahab was more influenced by Jezebel’s religion than by the worship of the Lord:

He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.  Ahab also made a sacred pole. Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Nor was Jezebel content with simply converting Ahab to her way of thinking — she was actively trying to exterminate the prophets of the Lord, and with them the worship of the Lord.

This is the background of what we might call, “The Cage Match on Carmel” between the prophet Elijah and the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal (plus four hundred prophets of the female fertility goddess Asherah mentioned in 1 Kings 18:19; all 850 of these prophets of Baal and Asherah were sponsored directly by Jezebel).

Elijah has challenged Ahab to bring all of these prophets of Baal and Asherah  to Mt Carmel for a showdown.

However, when all are assembled, Elijah’s first words are not for the king, nor for the prophets of Baal.  He appeals directly to the people of Israel who have been invited to witness this spectacle.  He tells them they can’t have it both ways — they must choose whether to worship the Lord or Baal:

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

Perhaps it is indicative of their fear of the king, or perhaps they really are stuck in the middle of their own indecision, but:

The people did not answer him a word.

What Elijah then does is among  the most dramatic moments of religious theater.  He gives the prophets of Baal the opportunity to get the first shot.  They are to sacrifice a bull, lay it on a pile of wood, and call upon their god to set it ablaze; then he would do the same.  Whoever wins, well, that must be the true God.

The description of the rituals of the prophets of Baal give us some insight into what pagan worship may have been like.  They are described as limping around the altar in what we might imagine to be a kind of ritualistic dance, and even cutting themselves to propitiate Baal as they call out to him:

Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them.

This is not the place to explore the pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses of Jezebel’s Phoenician prophets and their influence on Israel. Suffice it to say, though, that this was a polytheistic religion in which Baal was the god of the storm and of fertility whose consort was Asherah, the goddess of fertility, and who battled  against Mot the god of death and sterility.  It is easy to see why such a fertility god might have been attractive to the Israelites, especially in a time of drought.

Long story short, however, the prophets of Baal were unsuccessful.  Elijah mocks their rituals and their god after giving them all morning to propitiate their god:

At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”. . .   As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response.

Finally, Elijah, alone among the prophets of the Lord, summons the people of Israel to watch what he does. He rebuilds the altar of the Lord, choosing twelve stones representing the tribes of Israel; then he even stacks the deck against himself!

He has a trench dug around the altar, and after cutting the bull in pieces, calls on water to be poured over the bull and the wood on the altar, and into the trench — not once, but three times!

When Elijah prays over the offering, his faith is grounded in the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel — he is calling the people back to their ancestral faith in the One God revealed in their history.

Elijah’s prayer is simple.  He doesn’t dance, or cut himself, or even ask the Lord specifically for a spectacle so that his own reputation will be enhanced. His request is for an answer that will enable the people to know that the Lord is God in Israel:

 At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding.

The goal is repentance — turning their hearts back toward the Lord:

 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

What happens next is almost treated as a footnote, given the brevity of the description:

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.

What ultimately matters is the response of the people:

 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

That day the people had experienced a dramatic illustration of the contrast between false gods and the true Lord of creation.  The numbers of the prophets of Baal and their political connections with Jezebel availed nothing compared to the raw power of the One God and his one prophet.

APPLY:  

In the comedy-adventure film The Mummy, one of the minor characters named Beni encounters a disgustingly decayed mummy which menaces his life.  As Beni retreats from the mummy, he tries to protect himself by brandishing an assortment of religious amulets and icons he has hanging on chains around his neck— Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish.  Obviously his hope was that at least one of the religions was correct, and would offer protection from peril.

This seems to be the attitude of many in Israel at the time of Elijah.  Many of the Israelites have become religiously syncretistic, which means that they are seeking to merge the religion of Israel with the polytheistic paganism of Jezebel.

They are limping on one foot and then the other, as Elijah tells them.  He is probably mocking the limping dance of the Baal priests as we see in this account.

But Elijah doesn’t leave this option open to Israel.  They must choose whom they will serve.  The Lord declares over and over again that loyalty to him must be exclusive:

I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things (Isaiah 45:5-7).

We also live in a pluralistic, syncretistic age.  Many churches sponsor yoga classes.  Christians greet one another by saying namaste with hands folded together in a sign of respect.  Namaste means “I bow to the divine in you.”  Sunday School classes study world religions, and some members opine that “We’re all trying to get to the same place.”

Unfortunately, this is not true.  Although we do live in a pluralistic and diverse world, and we must learn to tolerate differences of belief without compromising our own faith, that is not the same thing as mixing all of these beliefs into a kind of stew.

The consequence of some forms of faith is violence and hatred.  Jezebel demonstrated that as she attempted to eradicate the prophets of the Lord.  And there are belief systems that simply are not true, and that lead their adherents farther from God rather than closer.

For example, I may wish to believe with all my heart that I can live underwater without SCUBA gear, but a few moments without oxygen will suffice to demonstrate that my belief system is wrong. False faith leads to spiritual death; true faith leads to spiritual life.  Of course, with faith the consequences are not usually quite so immediate — as with trying to breathe underwater, or with fire coming from heaven to consume a sacrifice!  Normally, the consequences of faith are revealed over time in a person’s life, and at the end of life.

Either the Lord is the source of our “oxygen” and our life, or he is not.  We also must choose whom we will follow.

RESPOND: 

What preacher wouldn’t welcome the kind of demonstration of power that the Lord provides to Elijah?  But for the modern Christian, with some notable exceptions, the evidence that the Lord is our God is made by our transformed lives rather than fire from heaven.

What is somewhat astounding is that despite persecution and discrimination around the world, Christians do tend to cleave to their faith.

While I acknowledge that God certainly can, and on occasion does, move in miraculous ways to heal and protect his people, I must admit that I am more moved when I see Christians whose faith endures even in the face of suffering.  They are my real heroes.

Our Lord, in this confusing world with so many choices, strengthen my resolve not to be misled by the siren voices of the culture; enable me to follow you no matter how many false prophets may seek to draw me away from you.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“OT1118B.Elijah and Prophets of Baal” by pcstratman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.