Mercy Doesn't Count

After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.  And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” – 1 Kings 17:17-18

This widow to whom Elijah had been sent lived in Zarephath, in the country of Sidon.  She may have been a righteous gentile believer in the God of Israel, but she was certainly not of the nation of Israel.  This is emphasized when the Lord Jesus uses her as an example alongside Naaman the Syrian leper as an example of an outsider who was chosen and blessed:  But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  (Luke 4:25-26)

In the better known part of the widow’s story, she is down to her last cup of meal and her last bit of oil when the prophet arrives at her home.  She had gone out to gather sticks for a fire to prepare the last of her bread for herself and her son.  Then they were going to die.  Whether she meant they were resigned to dying of starvation or, perhaps, by more active means is not made clear.  In any case, Elijah asked her to feed him first, and her response of faith had resulted in supernatural provision for her household.

When her son fell ill and died, the widow’s grief caused her to regret her kindness in providing a place for Elijah.  Since she was an outsider, she may have felt inferior and unworthy of the goodness of God.  It reminds us of the children of Israel, freed from Egyptian bondage, complaining – so frequently – to Moses that God had brought them out into the desert to kill them.  I am no better.  I have done the same thing.  I suppose it must be the natural rebel in so many of us that wants to strike out against the one we perceive to be in authority.  When we face what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle, when we think ourselves beaten and humiliated, we ask why we ever tried to do better or have better.  We should have been content to accept the lower quality life of a reject and a slave.  Now our failures are exposed to ourselves and to the world. 

The widow had tried to do the right thing by trusting this word of God’s man.  She had acted against her natural inclinations.  All that had transpired in the interval between first seeing the prophet’s face and now, looking down at the cold, ashen face of her dead son, was compressed into a meaningless lump.  All that mattered was that her boy was gone and God’s representative remained. 

Her sins had not been forgiven and covered.  The Lord had exacted His retribution. 

The truth was, though, that the Lord had sent Elijah not to punish but to deliver.  His presence had already extended both her life and that of her son.  He had saved them from a lingering death by starvation.  Apart from that, had they survived by some other means, there is no reason to think that the son might not have fallen ill under other circumstances.  He lived only because Elijah was present.

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.”  And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.  And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”  And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”   (1 Kings 17:21-24)

We should never think that God’s mercy is overextended.  Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us that even in the worst of situations, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

God has brought me out of some dark pits.  Much of it was my own fault.  I would get sick and tired of pulling the same stupid lamb out of one hole after another.  Mercy, though, does not keep a tally.  While the Lord does not encourage us to jump off cliffs, He never seems to tire of pulling us out when we are in over our heads, no matter how stupid we were in getting ourselves there.  

 I do wonder sometimes, though, if a person can get tired of being pulled out. 

Christmas Time

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. -- Luke 2:11 (KJV)

Everything that can be said about the birth of Christ has been said many times.  I lack the ability to say even the old things well.  There are many who are skeptics and critics, as there have always been.  The mocker and the scornful change their names but never their attacks.  There is nothing new in being a cynic or in ridiculing the righteous.  Even the small-minded, the petty, the crude and the vulgar can feel insightful in making jests about the Virgin and about her Son.  They can do so bravely, and safely.  They won’t be threatened with beheading.  Christians will only pray for them because we know the One for whom they express disdain loves even, perhaps especially, those who would be His enemies.    

Jesus is the Lamb of God, typified by the Passover lamb.  He is, the Revelator says, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  The Lord laid aside His majestic glory and … made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  At that moment, He stepped out of eternity and into time.  Yet His birth, like His death, burial, and resurrection, is eternal.  Or, to quote Olaf Stapleton:  “For whatever is truly eternal is present equally in all time”. 

And that miraculous birth is truly eternal.  Like the unfailing compassion and mercy of God, it is new every morning.  To the world it looks like history, something past that has been used as a marker.  That familiar tableau that we recreate over and over in materials precious or common is an ever-present truth made manifest.  Be led to Bethlehem, stand in the damp chill of that grotto, and be rent by the cry of God as He takes on flesh.  The tenderness and innocence, the humanness of that moment is as real and as near as the blood, the ache and the agony thirty-three years later upon Golgotha.  It happened, as they say, once upon a time.  It is now.

The stable, the Virgin, the selfless protector, the shepherds, the angels, the beasts, the Baby, all are with us as we trim trees, hurry to homely houses, give, receive, and rejoice.  Yes, a sword will pierce our hearts, but that is for a different now, just as eternal.  It will wait.  Today we are with the shepherds keeping watch for we know not what, to be surprised by visions under an open heaven; we stand solemnly and resolutely beside the stalwart dreamer Joseph; we wander with those wise enough to be see wonders and follow far. 

Merry Christmas.

The Lord is in the Right

The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place. – Isaiah 9:10

This verse and its surrounding text is the basis for a book called The Harbinger by messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn.  I skimmed through a copy of it, and by skimmed, I mean I read the actual information which comprises probably five pages out of a book of 150 pages or so.  To summarize, Cahn draws a parallel between the nation of Israel and the nation of America.  The quoted verse is not a statement of optimism or hope but of defiance of God.  This verse was quoted by then-Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle immediately after the 9/11 attacks, again by vice-presidential candidate John Edwards on the 9/11 anniversary in 2004, I think.  There are a number of other strange “coincidences” that Cahn documents – including the fact that debris from the falling towers uprooted a sycamore tree on grounds of a church near Ground Zero.  It happens to be the same church where George Washington took his oath of office in 1792.  There is also the somewhat disturbing revelation that the stock market crashes in September 2001 and September 2008 both occurred on a specific date in the Jewish calendar -- the seven-year debt cancellation anniversary called the shemitah.  Or something like that.  Note that I am not recommending this book, I am just acknowledging it.  

Anyway, this information is embedded in a fictional narrative about a prophet who dresses like Neo in The Matrix and a protagonist who turns out be a scribe on the order of Jeremiah’s Baruch.  I have no idea why Brother Cahn did that.  It’s a lagniappe I did not need.  I am pretty sure that America as a nation is not a new version of Israel.  The Israel of God is Christ and His Body and Bride upon the earth is the Church.  God still loves and cares for His Chosen People, and the modern nation of Israel is a sign and a witness to His grace and His mercies, which, as Lamentations remind us, are new every morning. 

God will warn any of us against self-destruction.  We have a critical mass of people in America and in Europe who have given themselves over to greed, selfishness, and materialism – not only in terms of consumption but as a philosophy of life.  The materialists are not limited to the declared atheists and agnostics but include many who would call themselves religious, even Christian.   Anyone who makes success in this world their goal is in danger of being deceived into believing that the derivative material world is the only reality. 

I agree with the writer of The Harbinger that the horrors and destruction wrought on September 11, 2001 were warnings we should have heeded.  This does not in any way minimize or mitigate the guilt of the Islamic demons that planned and carried out the attack.  They were not “doing the will” of God, and they will all rot in hell.  Nevertheless, I believe the attack succeeded only because America had broken down a hedge of protection through sin and the neglect and outright denial of truth.  In response, we should have, as a nation but especially as Christians, humbled ourselves before God. 

For a few days after those horrible events, we did fill the churches in this country.  We did pray.  We did ask why.  Still, from the very first moments, our thoughts were of defiance.  The terrorists, we said, were not going to be allowed to win.  They were not going to get us to change our habits, our lifestyle, our values ...

… except , except ... our values are empty.  Our lifestyles are corrupt and immoral.  Our habits are destructive. 

I am all for revenge.  I am too much Scots-Irish to think there’s anything a good feud can’t settle.  I can hold a grudge with the best of them.  While it is true that I have an explosive, hair-trigger – some would say, berserker, temper, I recognize the value of planning and not trying to fire from half-cock.  Self-assessment is essential to doing anything right.  You have to be able to step back and look at yourself in an objective, realistic way.  After 9/11, I do not think we did that as a nation.  I think we were just like “Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who [said] in pride and in arrogance of heart”, we will rebuild, we have plenty of resources, plenty of money, plenty of military might and firepower.  We can do whatever we need to do.  No one (and, by implication, not even God) can stop us.   

We did not see 9/11 as a warning – not in the nation, not in the Church.  We did not see the market crash in September 2008 as a warning.  We have continued down the path to destruction as a nation, and the Church is not calling people to repentance in a unified or consistent way. 

As far as politics go, neither candidate is willing to say the hard things America needs to hear.  A righteous nation would never have elected Bill Clinton as president.  We were long gone once my generation took over.  We have been defying and challenging God for many decades.  We mock Him daily.  Our gods are the state and our bellies, as Paul so aptly put it. 

As the election draws closer, it is clear that politicians are offering a false and misleading version of hope.  We have more than half the voters in this country who think that government is capable of “fixing things” – that’s across right, left, and middle.   Now, more than ever, it is critical that we have our hope focused beyond the White House, state houses, government, jobs, economic conditions, military power, education, and status.   Truth is not decided by a vote of the majority.  Hope begins and ends in Christ Alone.  There can be only One.  

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.  (Philippians 3:18-21)