Sunday,
September 20, 2020
watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZL7L-mUSXs
Serving as God’s prophet, did Elisha have the worst job
one could ask for? No one was closer to
God in that day than Elisha. He knew the
will of God. He saw with the vision of
God. Isn’t this what any person of faith
would want? Wouldn’t this be greater
than any earthy pleasure or human achievement?
In truth, any Israelite who heard the reading of the scrolls
of Moses in worship knew the will of God.
Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am
holy.” Does anyone doubt what was
required to maintain holiness? Recite
the 10 commandments. Read
Leviticus. Worship God faithfully. Conduct your business ethically. When threats come, rely on God. Treat your neighbors with kindness. Practice hospitality.
In Luke 16, Jesus tells a
parable that ends with a rich man suffering in Hell for his failure to care for
the poor man at his gate while he was alive.
The rich man begs “Father Abraham” to warn his brothers to care for the
poor so they won’t suffer his fate. He
is told, however, they already have the law and the prophets (16:31). They already have the information they need to
live rightly, in God’s good graces.
We do too. We don’t need secret messages from God. In the Bible, we have the revealed story of
God’s truth for humankind. We simply
need to read it and live by it. In
Elisha’s day, they knew the teachings of Moses.
We know the teaching of Jesus. Do
we live by the word, or do we live as if the word is optional?
In addition to the
knowledge of God, Elisha had the vision of God.
God showed him that Israel, the chosen people, had disregarded God’s
ways for generations. Elisha could see
that the people had ignored God’s the truth.
Worse still, Elisha could see that God was going to do something about this
willful rebellion. He saw what was
coming.
At this point, we turn
back to Elisha’ predecessor and mentor Elijah.
Fleeing persecution, he was holed up in a cave when God came to
him. First a great wind came by,
crushing rocks. God was not in the
wind. Then, an earthquake rumbled and a
supernatural fire blazed. God was not in
the earthquake or the fire. Finally, a
piercing silence penetrated Elijah’s soul.
He met God in the silence.
There, God told Elijah to
anoint Hazael as king over Aram, Jehu as king over Israel, and then Elisha as
his own successor. This is God’s
judgment of Israel for her sin of turning away from God and rejecting him as
Lord. God tells Elijah, “Whoever escapes
the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu,
Elisha shall kill” (1 Kings 19:17).
Elijah passed his mantel
to Elisha, but he never anointed the new Aramean king, nor did he anoint
Jehu. These tasks fell to Elisha.
In 2 Kings 8, Elisha travels
to Aram, modern day Syria, because the Aramean king, Ben-hadad is sick. Ben-hadad knows no Aramean prophet has divine
insight like Elisha. Only he can provide
answers. So, the king sends his man,
Hazael, to inquire. Will the king
recover from this illness?
Hazael carries out his
assignment, delivering a gift to Elisha, speaking with fawning reverence. “You son King Ben-hadad has sent me” he
says. Your son. The hyper-respect, the gifts, the bowing
and scraping; it’s all a show and Elisha plays his part. Tell your master, “You shall certainly
recover,” he says (2 Kings 8:10).
Then Elisha stares at
Hazael. The emissary fixes his gaze upon
the prophet. They stare at each
other. Suddenly Elisha bursts into
tears. The narrator of this story coyly
withholds any insight into Hazael’s inner thought world. He appears to be a flat character, but, in
real life, no one is flat. In real life,
everyone has deep inner brooding, whether or not it is ever spoken. “Why does my Lord weep?” Hazael asks.
Indeed. Elisha has stared down an entire Aramean
fighting force without a hint of fear. Why
are his tears falling now? He knows what
is coming is from God, and there’s nothing he can do about it.
My sons and I have been
binge-watching a show called Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.. This is the same “Marvel Universe” that has
given us Iron Man, Captain America, and the Black Panther. S.H.E.I.L.D. is the secretive organization
that works behind the scenes supporting the heroes and sometimes carrying out
their own missions.
In one season of the show,
the heroes are whisked 100 years into earth’s future. Much of the planet has been destroyed. What’s left is being controlled by an alien
race that has enslaved humanity.
S.H.E.I.L.D. has been brought to the future to rescue humanity from
their alien overlords and the crumbling planet.
The rub comes when the
agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. learn that all the catastrophes they’re trying to fix in
the future they caused in the past. When
they finally make it back to their own present day, they are determined not
make the decisions and do the things that bring about the horrors they
witnessed. Yet, they seem powerless to
alter fate. Step by step, the calamities
come upon them and there seems to be no way of changing things.
That’s what makes Elisha
weep. He tells Hazael that King
Ben-hadad will recover, but’s not true.
What’s actually true is Ben-hadad is going to die and Hazael will assume
the throne. Elisha says to him, “I know
the evil that you will do to the people of Israel; you will set their
fortresses on fire, you will kill their young men with the sword, dash in
pieces their little ones, and rip open their pregnant women.”
Second Kings 8:12 paints
such a horrible picture, I almost didn’t read it. I could have chosen to skip it, offering a
sanitized summary. Elisha couldn’t skip
it. He couldn’t unsee it. Not only did he have to watch, but he also
had to speak. As a prophet, he didn’t
the option of keeping it to himself.
Elisha knew that these horrors were God’s judgment.
That doesn’t absolve
Hazael. He went back to King Ben-hadad
and reported that the monarch would recover.
Then, with the king relaxed, his fears relieved, his guard down, Hazael,
his loyal aide smothered the king with bed sheet. Once Ben-Hadad was dead, Hazael took the
throne.
God had been planning this
since before Elisha had even ascended to his role as the leading prophet of
Israel. It’s not that God is obsessed
with violence and lacks mercy. God forgave
his people countless times. Read the
book of Judges. God so often takes the
descendants of Abraham back after they have turned away from his call to
holiness, it become a plot device. In seminary, we learned the “Judges Cycle”:
sin-fall-cry-rescue. God makes the world, creation; humanity rejects God and
catastrophe follows, uncreation; and, in despair, humanity cries and God starts
over with us, re-creation. If Israel
would not respond to holy leaders like Moses, Aaron, and Deborah, and if Israel
would not heed the leadership of true prophets like Isaiah, Elijah, and Elisha,
and then God would work through evil people like Hazael.
God did not cause Hazael
to be evil. The man made his own
choices. But God can work through any
human being to accomplish his divine purposes.
Elisha was blessed to be God’s prophet, but some blessings bring tears
too. He saw everything, even the things
no one would want to see.
In 2020, we’ve seen a lot
of things we would have never wanted to see in our lifetimes. In fact, many of us 50, 60, 70 years old have
never seen a year like this year. Is God
punishing humanity? Physics, chemistry,
and microbiology can explain the origins of the virus. We don’t need a supernatural
explanation. Epidemiology, environmental
science, and sociology, can explain why the virus has affected some communities
worse than others. We don’t need to
speculate about what God is doing through the pandemic. We do, though, need to listen to God.
The devastating effects of
the virus and wildfires and hurricanes and polarized politics all serve as indictments
on humanity. We’ve know vulnerable, disadvantaged
populations are at greater risk in each calamity that hits. What if healthy people, young people, and
rich people dedicated themselves to making sure everyone’s rent is paid,
everyone gets health care, and no one is abandoned? What if the most able in society spent less
time griping about having to wear masks and more time looking for ways to help
vulnerable people? If that happened, if
we went out of our way to help each other, the story of 2020 would be entirely
different. The virus, fires, and storms
haven’t ravaged us; each reveals our selfishness. Self-centeredness wrecks human life and
prevents human flourishing.
Elisha wept at Hazael’s
ascendency, but that Aramean’s reign of terror was directly tied to Israel’s
rejection of God. God let the people
face the world without His help since they had chosen to reject Him as
Lord. Elisha was the messenger.
We’re suffering because
God allows us to live with the consequences of our own choices. 2020 will make us weep, but it wasn’t
fated. It wasn’t inevitable. We could be hit by all these threats and
more, but if we took care of each other and revered the sovereignty of God instead
of looking out for our own self-interests, our experience of the world would be
a lot different.
Now, the virus rages on as
does the complaining about our nation’s response to it. The election day is 48 days away. The advertising, the politicking, and the deception
from those who would lead us is nauseating.
Is our land fated to walk the path of destruction? As the people of God’s church, do we, like
Elisha, have no choice but to watch as the world around us burns?
Throughout the days of
Elijah and Elisha, and the great prophets that followed, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel and the rest, God warned his people of their sins. But those prophets also promised hope. Embedded in the damning messages they shared
are words of hope.
We live after the era of
the prophets. We live in the age of the
crucified, resurrected Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Even death doesn’t
win. Elisha’s pain at watching Hazael
rise and Israel fall is a warning that God will allow humans to suffer the
outcomes of their own selfishness and sin.
The cross is a promise that if we die to ourselves, repent, and turn to
God in faith, he will give us a new day.
Even as the world around us seems to crumble, we keep our eyes on God,
walk in his light, and help those suffering around us find their way to his
salvation.
Yes, we can weep and
sometimes we need to, but not forever.
We have good news to share, hope to spread, and the suffering world
needs to hear the truth we have to give. So, let’s get to our work of telling
God’s story.
AMEN
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