THE GRAPES OF WRATH

There is a line, by us unseen,

That crosses every path;

The hidden boundary between

God's patience and His wrath.

—Joseph Addison Alexander

One advantage of reading the Old Testament is that we quickly learn that wickedness has consequence—without having to experience it. That’s what Paul means in part when he writes, “These things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil…” (1 Corinthians 10:6). Here’s an example for those who would suborn false testimony against a righteous man or woman:

Consider the story of Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard. It happened like this... 

Ahab’s army had caught a large Syrian contingent by surprise, besieged their camp while they were prematurely toasting their victory and put them to flight. In a second battle they drove them across the Jordan. Now the land could rest.

But not Ahab. His ego was so deflated by sin he needed a string of additional victories to compensate. He had to have something more: a little plot of ground that adjoined his estate, that belonged to his neighbor, Naboth the Jezreelite. “Avarice is the never–failing vice of fools,” Pope said. 

“Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.’ But Naboth replied, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, ‘I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat” (1 Kings 21:1–4).

On the surface Ahab’s request seemed reasonable: He didn’t conscript the land as other Oriental kings might have done. He offered to buy it or swap for some better place. 

Naboth, however, would not part with his ancestral inheritance. It was the law in Israel that everyone had perpetual right to a personal piece of ground and no one—not even the king—could force an Israelite to part with that asset. Naboth had no interest in selling.

Ahab stalked off to his chariot and went back to Jezreel where he went into a funk—“He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.” Scheming, manipulating little man: making much of trifles and thinking only of himself. He knew his peevishness would bring the murderous Jezebel into play.

“His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, ‘Why are you so sullen? Why won't you eat?’ He answered her, ‘Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, “Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.” But he said, “I will not give you my vineyard.” Jezebel his wife said, ‘Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite’” (21:5–7). 

“Is this any way for a king to act?” Jezebel sneered. “What are you—a man or a mouse? Squeak up! Get out of bed and go back to work. I’ll get you your dinky, little vineyard for you.”

And so she did. Jezebel was a woman of determination and means: “She wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In those letters she wrote: ‘Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels (sons of Belial—“thugs”) opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.’ So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them” (21:8–10).

In a few more days the deed was done. The town fathers, who long before had sold out to Jezebel, trumped up charges of insurrection and blasphemy against Naboth, suborned the testimony of a couple of goons and with one stroke secured the judicial murder of this good man, his sons and heirs (2Kings 9:26). 

“As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, ‘Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead’ [literally: ‘he has died’]. When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard” (21:15,16). Naboth’s vineyard reverted to the crown. 

“Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, “This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?” Then say to him, “This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood--yes, yours!’” Ahab said to Elijah, ‘So you have found me, my enemy!’ ‘I have found you,’ he answered, ‘because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin’” (21:17–22).

Five or six years had elapsed since the word of the Lord had come to Elijah. During this time he must have longed to hear it again. He had no audience and no opportunities for ministry that we’re aware of. God was preparing him for just this moment. His simple duty was to stand and wait, available to serve when God would put him to use. 

Now when the time came he was ready. He arose and went to the vineyard of Naboth and looked for Ahab. It meant nothing to him that Ahab’s two officers Jehu and Bidkar rode in Ahab’s chariot with him (2 Kings 9:25). He didn’t consider Jezebel’s murderous threats. He went to find Ahab so he could deliver his message: “Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?” In the sight of heaven Ahab was responsible for the evil he had done and the evil he could have prevented.

“Ahab said to Elijah, ‘So you have found me, my enemy!’ ‘I have found you,’ he answered, ‘because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.” 

God judges sin because he loathes what it does to us and to others. (There is no other motive in God, nothing deeper than his love for us.) He wants us loath sin too and be it’s executioner. If we don’t, he will!

Ahab listened to Elijah—at least on this occasion. “When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day.

Ahab’s turning, however, was remorse not repentance. Within a few months the event faded from his mind and he reverted to type, following Jezebel and her lies. The light that had flared at intervals went out and his soul sank into utter darkness. Soon after, he was killed.

Rejecting the godly counsel of Micaiah, the prophet, Ahab went into battle at Ramoth–Gilead against a vastly superior Syrian army. He went incognito, wearing the garb of a common soldier, trying to avert the prophet’s prediction that he would not return. 

The prophet’s forecast found him out. “Someone drew his bow at random and hit the king between the sections of his armor… (1 Kings 22:34). His arrow, lofted into the air in a volley of random shots “happened” to pierce Ahab’s armor, in the tiny gap where the breastplate was joined to the skirt. “Lucky shot!” we say—one of those odd twists in life which pass under the category of chance, but which, when closely examined once again prove to be the hand of God. 

“So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. They washed the chariot in a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed) and the dogs licked up his blood” (22:37), as Elijah had predicted (1 Kings 21:19). Ahab met his well–deserved end on the killing fields of Ramoth–Gilead.

And then there was Jezebel who was ordered to her death by Jehu whom she was trying to seduce: 

    “Jezebel…painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.  As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, ‘Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?’  He looked up at the window and called out, ‘Who is on my side? Who?’ Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. ‘Throw her down!’ Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.  

Jehu went in and ate and drank. ‘Take care of that cursed woman,’ he said, ‘and bury her, for she was a king's daughter.’ But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands.  They went back and told Jehu, who said, ‘This is the word of the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: “On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh.  Jezebel's body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no-one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”  (2Kings 9:30-37).

Though the mills of God grind slowly

Yet they grind exceeding small.

Though with patience he stands waiting

With exactness grinds he all. 

—Fredrick Von Logau

David Roper

Excerpted from Elijah, a Man Like Us

WDJS

“Beware lest anyone lead you astray through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ" (Colossians 2:8).

Paul is not saying that all human philosophy is false. He himself quoted the poets and philosophers of his day when their statements were true. (Grammarians consider Paul's "and" separating “philosophy” and “empty deceit” in the text above to be “epexegetical”—a word that clarifies, i.e., "philosophy that is empty and deceitful.") All truth is God’s truth, but there are philosophies that are empty and deceitful, and thus are "not according to Christ" (2:3).

 

My son Brian pointed out to me this morning that the problem these days is not too much information, but a glut of misinformation. Social, print, educational and entertainment media inundate us with lies. Jesus said that Satan is the liar behind all other liars and a murderer (John 8:44). His purpose is to destroy men and women, boys and girls and he does so by deceit. 

 

In which case "according to Christ” is the rule to live by, the way to discern good and evil, the means by which all philosophies, creeds, systems, policies and platforms can be tested. It’s the question for this hour: “Did Jesus say that?" It's a useful query in an age in which everything is up for grabs. 

 

There's an old question inscribed on the braceletes that kids used to wear: WWJD? (What would Jesus do?) Here's another: WDJS? (What did Jesus say?)

 

Jesus said, "Blessed is the man who hears these words of mine and does them, for he's like a man who builds his house on a rock." When evil comes in like a flood he won't be swept away (Matthew 7:24,25).

 

David Roper

10.11.20

 

[It's worth restating that Jesus’ sayings were continued through his apostles who wrote the New Testament. 

 

In the Upper Room Jesus said explicitly to his apostles, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). This was the apostolic warrant for writing the Gospels and an explanation for their uncanny recollection of all that Jesus said. 

 

Again Jesus said to his apostles, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). This was the apostle’s authority for writing the rest of the New Testament, including the eschatological texts (the “things that are to come”). 

 

Paul, a late-coming apostle, wrote, “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

 

Thus, the New Testament is essentially “what Jesus said,” our authoritative guide for faith and conduct, and God’s final word.] 

 

 

Faces "R" Us

Some thoughts that came my way as I watched the Amy Coney Barrett hearings. 

 

George Orwell claimed that everyone, by the age of fifty, gets the face that he or she deserves, an idea that reflects Dante's vision of Purgatory, where the faces and bodies of the dead are made out of airy stuff that shapes itself in accordance with each person's soul. 

 

We're given the face our souls merit, or so it seems, and no foundation cream, firming formula, or face lift can erase the malice and mendacity that arises from within. It's not Dorian Gray's picture, but our own faces that reflect the person we are becoming.   

 

Conversely, “wisdom enlightens and softens one’s face" (Ecclesiastes 8:1). As wisdom grows, a calm countenance, kind eyes and smile lines begin to appear.

 

Paul put it this way, "Face to face with Jesus, beholding his beauty, we are being transformed into his image from one degree of inner beauty to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

The more we spend time in Jesus' presence—listening to him, learning from him, asking for his spirit and making his thoughts our own—the more we grow in wisdom, grace and love and our faces begin to reveal what we are becoming. 

 

Faces “R” Us. In the end, they are our show and tell. 

 

David Roper

10.16.20

A River Runs Through Us

Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day, 

Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

 

—Francis Havergal

 

Idaho has a number of blue ribbon trout streams, some of which are a short drive from our home here in Southwest Idaho. My friends and I have fished them all with might and main and have marveled at their beauty and productivity. The fish are large and feisty. "It doesn’t get much better than this," we often say.

 

Ezekiel, however, saw a more perfect stream, flowing from the heart of God (Ezekiel 47:1-12). There's no other river that compares (Psalms 46:4; 65:9; Isaiah 33:20f.).

 

The river begins as a trickle from the southeast corner of Ezekiel's Messianic temple and flows past the altar of burnt offering. It issues from the temple compound on the south side of the eastern gate.

 

It grows in volume as it descends eastwards down the Kidron Valley and tumbles through the mountain passes to the Dead Sea, first ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep and finally too deep to wade—all of which marks it as a symbolic, apocalyptic stream since no tributaries exist to increase its flow. 

 

Everywhere it goes it brings life and vitality. The salt waters of the Dead Sea are made fresh by its flow and swarm with fish. Trees flourish on both sides of the river, producing fresh fruit each month. Their leaves possess medicinal properties and are there for our healing. 

 

All this takes place because "the river flows from the sanctuary" (47:12). Our Lord himself is its source. Drought and dearth are banished in its path. The impossible becomes true. 

 

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me: and drink, whoever believes in me, for, as the scriptures say, 'Streams of living water will flow from Him' (Jesus). He was speaking of the Spirit (of Jesus) whom those who believed in Him were to receive" (John 7:38:39). 

 

"How can I endure this present pandemic and political pandemonia that cloud our thoughts and thwart our dreams?" Listen to the prophet: A healing river flows from the heart of Jesus, flowing deeper, fuller every day. We’re invited to come and drink from him,—to ask through the day for his peace and joy and place our hope in him. And it shall be that, "where the river flows, life will abound" (47:9).

 

Some lines from C.S. Lewis come to mind:

 

"I am dying of thirst," said Jill.

"Then drink," said the Lion.

"May I — could I — would you mind going away while I do?" said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

"Will you promise not to — do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.

"I make no promise," said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

"Do you eat girls?" she said.

"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.

"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.

"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."

"There is no other stream," said the Lion.”

 

― C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

 

David Roper

10.14.20

 

Ingress and Egress

"When the people of the land come before the LORD on the appointed feast days, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate; and whoever enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. He shall not return by way of the gate through which he came, but shall go out through the opposite gate. The prince shall then be in their midst. When they go in, he shall go in; and when they go out, he shall go out" (Ezekiel 46:9,10).

 

This is a set of foot-traffic rules for Ezekiel's Messianic temple. In that day, when the people of the Lord come into the temple to worship, they are invited to enter by one entrance and go out by the gate on the opposite side: If they come in from the north side they are to go out by the south side and vice versa. The purpose of this instruction was to promote order and prevent congestion within the narrow confines of the temple courtyard. 

 

But Ezekiel adds a wondrous note. "The Prince will be in their midst. When they go in, he shall go in; and when they go out, he shall go out."

 

Some envision this scene taking place in a millennial temple, rebuilt according to Ezekiel's exact blueprint. Others see it taking place symbolically in Jesus’ present kingdom. That’s an argument I’ll readily leave to the experts.

 

In either case can we not see something wondrous in this scene? We go into God's presence each morning and find that Jesus has entered that place with us, There he worships with us and intercedes with and for us. We listen to him; he listens to us. His presence makes these quiet moments a lavish feast. 

 

And then we go out into our wild and wooly, willy-nilly, plague-ridden world and find, wonder of wonders, that our Lord Jesus has gone out with us in all of his power and majesty. We and our Prince come in and go out together—an ingress and egress that will go on forever: "The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore" (Psalm 121:18).

 

F.B. Meyer wrote, "He never puts His sheep forth without going before them. He never thrusts us into the fight without preceding us. If we have to take the way of the Cross, we may always count on seeing Him go first, though we follow Him amazed. No ascent so steep that we cannot see His form in advance; no stones so sharp that are not flecked with His blood; no fire so intense that One does not go beside us, whose form is like the Son of God; no waters so deep that Emmanuel does not go beside us."

 

David Roper

10.13.20

"The Turn of Events is from the Lord"

“So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the LORD, that He might fulfill His word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (1 Kings 11:11:12).

 

After King Solomon died, the people of Israel approached Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and heir, and asked him to alleviate the taxation, forced labor and expanded military call-up that characterized Solomon's rule. It was a reasonable request.

 

Rehoboam responded by seeking wisdom from the elders who counseled him to show leniency.

 

Rehoboam then sought counsel from the young Turks that made up his inner circle, whose harsh, uncompromising answer swayed Rehoboam to increase his father’s state-imposed burdens, with the result that ten of the tribes of Israel rebelled and established a separate kingdom, a division that lasted for 200 years until Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire.

 

All of this reads like a straight-forward historical account and a polemic, perhaps, to teach respect for elders, but the historian throws us a curve: He understands that these wholly human actions were ordained by God to bring about his will: “The king did not listen…for the turn of events was from the LORD."

 

Rehoboam acted in full and responsible freedom, but God's will was done—an antinomy in logical terms, a paradox, “a thing too loving deep, too lofty wise, for me, poor child, to understand (its) laws” (George MacDonald). 

 

The biblical writers were not unaware of the contradiction in tracing all human activity directly to the hand of God, but they understood the dynamic involved and were invested in our spiritual and emotional well-being. Both our actions and God’s actions are consonant and meaningful, but focusing solely on our activity leads us to work the system and produces the anxiety that accompanies unaided, human effort. Focusing on the activity of God calls us to tranquility and the confidence of faith.

 

The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "What do you understand by the providence of God?" 

 

The answer:

 

The almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought,  fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

 

“Chance is holy chance,” someone has said. And so, though I will vote my mind and conscience next month, the outcome is of the Lord. “‘Tis Mystery all,” but a mystery I find very comforting.

 

David Roper

10.9.20

Making America Great Again

 

I will not give sleep to my eyes

Or slumber to my eyelids,

Until I find a place for the Lord,

A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob." 

—Psalm 132:3-5

 

The first days of a ruler’s incumbency reveal his priorities. David's first act as Israel’s king was to search for the Ark of the Covenant. "David said to all the assembly of Israel... 'Let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.' So all the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people" (1 Chronicles 13:2–4).  

 

King Saul, David’s predecessor, was a thoroughly secular man. He cared nothing for the ark, but left it to rot in a tangled thicket for forty years while the nation descended into spiritual and moral ruin. David, on the other hand, could not rest until he retrieved the ark, and placed it in the little tent that was its “dwelling place” (2 Samuel 6:1-15).

 

The ark was just a little box about the size of an army footlocker that contained the tablets of the Law (2 Chronicles 5:10). There was no magic in the ark, Raiders of the Lost Ark notwithstanding. It was representative—symbolic of God's presence and the importance of his word. King David longed to bring God back to his nation—“to find a place for him.” 

 

This was the "David Doctrine”—God first and foremost in the hearts of his countrymen, a top-down platform that began in the heart of the king: David wrote in another place, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I might gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalms 27:4). 

 

Oh, that God would give us such a “king.”

 

David Roper

10.7.20