His Faithfulnesss, Our Fickleness

Day 66:  1 Kings 15–18; Ezekiel 13–18; 1 Thessalonians 4–5

Solomon blew it.
Rehoboam threw it. 
Jeroboam knew it and went right to it,
but then he died, Nadab ascended
and by the greed of Baasha, his life ended.
Abijam failed to do as David did
Asa took his place and right he did

Jehu the prophet told Baasha, "you're done!"
Baasha's son Elah wasn't any fun.
Up in Tirzah Elah's getting drunk
Zimri saw to it that his ship sunk.
Zimri, his reign lasted seven days
Omri the commander was all the new craze.
Ahab was worse than his father Omri could be.
Jezebel his queen was more wicked than he.

A prophet with power was fed by the ravens
A woman from Sidon was one safe haven
She fed him, sheltered him, gave Elijah a bed
When she was sad he raised her son from the dead.
Elijah called down the fire of God
The prophets of Baal are under the sod.
"Make up your minds whom you will serve!"
The fickle old people never said a word.

The period of "bad king, bad king, really bad king...good king" is a bit tedious to read. Perhaps poetry will help!  Above is my effort to summarize the records of bad and good kings, mostly bad, after Solomon and the divided kingdom.  What is evident from all is that Yahweh will not be ignored by His people.  He will do what He must to shape Judah into the holy people.  When kings lead the people into idolatry, Yahweh replaces them or their own foolishness leads to their death.  Zimri killed himself when he realized the people had rejected him as king by burning the citadel of the palace around him. 

Treachery, coup and revival are within these brief stories.  Through it all, whether explicitly written or not, implied is the ever present hand of God shaping the nation. 

Ezekiel writes of their history like tragic love story.  God finds Judah as the abandoned child of an Amorite father and a Hittite mother (a way of saying they came from detestable pagans). The child lay there naked and covered in bloody filth, the placenta still attached to her uncut umbilical cord.  God pitied the babe and commanded her to live and she did.  When she was of marriageable age, God took her unto Himself as His own. He cleaned her up and clothed her in finery. There was nothing she lacked, but hen she took His love and treating it as nothing.  She whored around with anyone who would have her, even with Philistine women who jealously hated her (Delilah?).  But her lust was insatiable.  She went for the well endowed men of Egypt (a way of pointing to Judah's military reliance on their former slave masters).  Still she played the prostitute.  Her actions of unfaithfulness to the God who saved her was worse than a prostitute.  A prostitute gets paid by her many sexual clients, but not Judah.  She pays her lovers! 

Her older sister is Samaria.  Her younger sister is Sodom.  This is not a family with a good reputation. Judah knows what God did to each of them for their abominations, but she became worse than them. God promises to hand wicked Judah, His unfaithful wife, over to her lovers to be stripped and plundered and left in the bloody filth and nakedness He found her in as a baby.  But God will keep His covenant even when His beloved will not.

"I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you  receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace (Ezek. 16:59-63)."

Notice that it is the faithfulness of God to His own promises that dictate His actions to punish and to refresh.  It is not for Judah's repentance.  It is simply because Yahweh will not abandon this effort.  He will have a holy people through who He will be glorified and by whom He can bless the world.

Paul, the apostle, writes the church in Thessalonica and uses similar rhetoric and the prophets in the scriptures.  He reminds them that they already know how to walk in the way that pleases God.  It pleases God for His people to abstain from sexual immorality (see Lev. 18), fraud or cheating one's neighbor.  God will avenge these offenses (1 Thes. 4:6).  Christians, like the Jews, are called to holiness, not to impurity.

False prophets in Ezekiel's day counseled, "Peace" when there is none (Ezek. 13:10).  The same was true in Paul's day.  There were people discounting the warnings of the wrath of God to come, the great and terrible "Day of the Lord (1 Thes. 1:10; 5:1-2)."  They too counsel, "Peace and security" when sudden destruction will come on all those who live in darkness, asleep to the truth.  Paul reminds the church that we are not asleep, but awakened to the reality of the times.  The reckoning is coming and every person will be judged according to their deeds (2 Cor. 5:10).

The church is to remain faithful and growing in faith.  It is a battle against falsehood and depravity.  So suit up with the armor of faith and love, with hope of salvation like a helmet protecting us.  Paul lists several ways to do battle with faith, love and hope as protection.

Honor church leadership
Be peaceful
Warn the lazy
comfort the discouraged
help the weak be patient with everyone.
no one repays evil for evil
pursue what is good for one another and for all.
Rejoice always!
Pray constantly.
Give thanks in everything... (1 Thes. 5:12-22)

Now before we begin to think that Christianity is just another system of rules and restrictions, let us remember that Christ died destroying sins power.  All those who follow Christ in faith receive the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 4:8). The same power that gave Christ victory over sin and death is at work in believers (Eph 1:19-20).  This grace will give us victory over sinful temptation each time we wait upon the Lord (1 Cor. 10:13).  It is the power of God and His faithfulness to His work in us that wins the day, not our efforts and keeping rules.  We will fail as our fickle brothers in Israel did if we proceed with religious regulations and ignore a relationship with our savior Jesus Christ.  No, it is God's victory in us at work!  We are not just another religious system. We are a new humanity, the God filled humanity becoming holy through the transformative work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:15)!

I end this post with Paul's closing prayer to First Thessalonians.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls  you  is faithful, who also will do it. Brothers, pray for us also.  Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers.  May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you! (1 Thes. 5:23-28)