Deceit & Judgment (part 1 of 2)

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.  It is incurably bad.  Who can understand it?  - Jeremiah 17:9  (NET)

With these words, the God of Israel, presumably speaking through His prophet Jeremiah, sends forth a stinging rebuke against His covenant people.  Before attributing an incurably bad and deceitful mind to His own people that had been culled out from humanity so as to be the shining lights of His glory in and to the world, He accuses them of placing “trust in mere human beings” (17:5b).  The Creator God here says that He will curse His people that do such things, “who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength” (17:5c), because in that, they demonstrate that their “hearts have turned away from the Lord” (17:5d). 

Of course, when the reader of Scripture stumbles across any mentions of curses, that reader’s thoughts should be caused to dwell upon the curses to be found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy that are especially pronounced against idolatry, which are set in juxtaposition to the blessings that are to be enjoyed for faithfulness to covenant obligations, the proper worship and recognition of the covenant God, and appropriate bearing of the divine image. 

The statement about the human mind found here in Jeremiah is not necessarily to be taken as a generalization and universal condemnation.  Rather, it is specifically connected to trust in human beings, so it asks to be understood as a reference to idolatry.  Jeremiah is in the midst of communicating judgment and exile to the Creator God’s people, and in doing, lets them know that their idolatry is the key component of that judgment.  The implications of the judgment is that rather than being a light reflecting the glory of their God, and subsequently directing the nations to the worship of the one and only God of Israel, they had instead imitated the nations surrounding them and gone after their idols.  It is because of that then, that “The Lord said, ‘So I will let them know My mighty power in judgment.  Then they will know that My Name is the Lord’.” (16:21) 

Remembering that there is a wider context and a continuous narrative stream in Jeremiah, it is appropriate to back up to the fifteenth chapter so as to learn that the punishment to be rendered by their God for this idolatry will be severe.  The covenant God speaks about His people and says “I will have war kill them.  I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies.  I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses.  I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them” (15:3b-4a).  Naturally, kingdoms being horrified at the woes of Israel stands in stark and glaring contrast to what the God of Israel had intended for His covenant people. 

It is worth inquiring as to when the fate of this people was sealed?  It is suggested that the were going to suffer judgment “because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem” (15:4b).  As is to be routinely found in the historical narrative of Israel, the king stands for and represents the people, with the people often subject to cursing because of him and his actions.  Later on in the Scriptural narrative, it will be possible to find another King that stands for and represents the people, and that it is through Him that the people of God become blessed.  

Father Of Your Nation (part 2 of 2)

It was in response to that which occurred under the reign of Manasseh that the Creator God is reported to have made His irrevocable, though temporarily stayed decree of destruction, saying “Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.  So the Lord announced through his servants the prophets: ‘King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols.’  So this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah… I will destroy Jerusalem… I will wipe Jerusalem clean… I will abandon this last remaining tribe among My people and hand them over to their enemies’” (2 Kings 21:9b-14a).  Again, it should be noted that the conquering was connected to the performance of the father of the nation---the king.  In the companion to the historical record, Isaiah addresses the conquering by Babylon with His report of Israel’s God saying “So I defiled your holy princes, and handed Jacob over to destruction, and subjected Israel to humiliating abuse” (43:28). 

To broaden the scope of this study and to bring the rest of the world into consideration according to the perspective of the Scriptural narrative, it would not be improper to think of Adam as the father of the human nation (spokesman and king).  In conjunction with that, it can be freely admitted that he sinned (failed to bear the divine image), as he was not faithful to the covenant that the Creator God had established with and through him.  Adam had been made as the Creator God’s image in and for the creation and was given stewardship and rule over that creation, but he is reported to have rebelled against his Creator. 

As this is considered and one looks back to the passage from Isaiah, it is possible to see that the defiling of the holy prince, the handing over of Jacob to destruction, and the subjection of Israel to humiliating abuse, goes far beyond the conquering of the nation of Israel, whether by Assyria or Babylon.  It goes all the way back to Adam, includes Israel, and points to Jesus.  Jesus, the Messiah and the king of Israel, would come to be seen as representative of His people.  He would eventually be understood to be their holy prince.  He was Jacob.  He was Israel, their father and spokesman.  As the second Adam, He also stands for all of humanity in the same role, though He was not unfaithful to His covenant charge, and of course, He did not rebel against His calling. 

Israel had been called out by their God to be His covenant people, and to be His instruments to embody His covenant faithfulness in the world, to deal with evil, and to set the world to rights.  So too was Jesus.  Just as believers are called by their Lord to share in the world’s, and in so doing, be salt and a light and a reflection of God’s glory that would draw all men to Him, so too was Israel.  As Israel embodied, Jesus fulfills that role, doing so by experiencing the defiling, the destruction, and the humiliating abuse of the cross, taking all of death’s power upon Himself, and defeating that power by coming out of the grave, in the power of the Resurrection granted to Him by the Creator God of Israel. 

Having fulfilled that role as and for Israel, Jesus then fulfills it for the wider world---the nations and the creation itself, by taking up the role that had been assigned to Adam, as the father of the world-encompassing nation that is the kingdom of God, to steward the Creator God’s good and renewed creation through that kingdom that is present and active whenever and wherever somebody claims allegiance to Jesus and acts according to His kingdom agenda as presented in the Gospels.  In essence then, Jesus carries out this task of fulfillment of the role given to the divine image-bearers in union with those that live in a trusting, faithful allegiance to Him as their King. 

As believers lay claim to Jesus and preach the Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord of all, they may very well find opportunity to share in defiling, destruction, and humiliating abuse.  When this occurs, despair should not their lot, but only trust, as they look to the words that follow hard on this message from the Creator God in Isaiah, in which He informs His people: “Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob… whom I have chosen!” (44:2b)             

Father Of Your Nation (part 1 of 2)

The father of your nation sinned… - Isaiah 43:27a  (NET)

When the Creator God tells Israel, through Isaiah, that the father of their nation sinned, He adds that “your spokesmen rebelled against Me” (43:27b).  Through this, He is expressing to them the reason for His judgment that has come upon them.  Now, who is the father of the nation by ancestry?  Specifically, that would be Jacob, and Isaac before him, with this lineage being traced back to Abraham, who was the recipient of a covenant with the Creator God and given the promise that he would be made into a great nation. 

So here, is the covenant God of Israel suggesting that Abraham has sinned?  Naturally, one can think of Abraham as a sinful man like any other man, but that is most likely not the referent.  Even though they certainly had their faults and flaws, it would probably not be appropriate to think of either Isaac or Jacob as the point of reference, though both certainly could be said to have “sinned” at a number of points.  So who is it that is the father of their nation?  Who is the one that sinned?  In all probability, based upon the Creator God’s dealings with His people that can be found throughout the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures, the father in question, or more correctly, “fathers,” are most likely the kings of Israel and Judah. 

Throughout their history, as is indicated by the Scriptural narrative, the king (or even leaders or judges before the era of the kings) stood as the representative for the people.  They were the spokesmen for the Creator God’s people, in both word and deed.  They directed and reflected the national sentiment.  Looking through the history of Israel to find a classic example of this situation, one can find the excellent example of when King David ordered that a census that, tragically, did not include the taking up of an offering for the tabernacle (Exodus 30:12-16).  Even though it is he alone that is demonstrated to be at fault, it is the covenant people that suffer a plague until the point at which David makes an offering and buys the plot of land on which the Temple will eventually come to be built (thus effectively making an offering for the tabernacle).  Though it was their father that had sinned, it was the people that were forced to suffer. 

When the kingdom is divided into north (Israel) and south (Judah), the fortunes of the people are generally pegged to the righteousness (faithfulness to the Creator God and to His covenant requirements) or wickedness (unfaithfulness) of the king.  Their reported peace and prosperity waxes and wanes in accordance with the king’s reported disposition toward the Creator. Ultimately, as the historical records suggests, the north (Israel) would not have a single king that was said to have done what was right.  Naturally, this is a problematic situation for the covenant people.  As a result, Israel is conquered and the people are said to have been dispersed by Assyria, with this taking place in 722 B.C..  This happens fewer than three hundred years after King David.  The textual narrative makes the implication that the conquering is a result of the performance of the king---the father of the nation. 

The south (Judah), on the other hand, has a few kings that were said to have done what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  As a result of this, though conquering and destruction would eventually come at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 B.C., they were spared from the Assyrian conquering, having been given what proved to be a temporary reprieve from judgment.  The fate of Judah is said to have been sealed by the gross and intolerable idolatry of the king named Manasseh, who would reign over Judah for fifty-five years (more than any other king).  

Hezekiah's Prayer (part 3 of 3)

Hezekiah goes on to exclaim, “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit.  You delivered me from the Pit of oblivion.  For You removed all my sins from Your sight” (38:17).  Apparently, Hezekiah was made to be thankful for both the sickness and the deliverance.  Not only that, but by connecting his sickness with sin (failure to rightly bear the divine image), Hezekiah demonstrated that he understood that the sickness that he carried resulted from his violations of the divine covenant.  Not only was sickness understood to be a curse that entered into the world with man’s fall, but sickness was also associated with Israel’s failure to keep covenant with their God.  The Creator God had promised sickness to His people , while also promising that if they repented from their failure to keep covenant, He would remove the associated curses. 

As it applied to the whole of God’s covenant people, so it also applied to the king.  Hezekiah, as the representative of the people, linked the removal of his sickness with the removal of sins.  Furthermore, because being conquered by a foreign people was part of the Creator God’s curse that would be directed toward His people if they were to completely disregard His covenant, and as this recovery from sickness and its attendant prayer follows closely on the heels of the expulsion of Assyria from Judah when it looked as if they were about to suffer the same fate as the northern kingdom of Israel, the removal of his sins (forgiveness), as evidenced by his healing, is also closely linked to the covenant God’s removal of the sins of His people (forgiveness), as evidenced by God Himself by the narrative that presents their God Himself intervening and defeating the Assyrians and sending them away.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the kings of Israel and Judah were the representatives of God’s people.  When David numbered the people, though this was his action alone, the people suffered.  When Manasseh brought Judah to the pinnacle of its idolatry, it was in conjunction with this that their God declared, with no reversal (though the judgment would be briefly stayed), that Judah would be conquered and sent into captivity (the promised curse would come).  In addition, Israel also held to the idea of a vicarious sacrifice for the removal of sins, which can be seen in the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement.  One sees the representative principle at work here with Hezekiah, and it is in this narrative context that the prayer of Hezekiah can be heard on the lips of Jesus in the garden prior to His passion. 

Jesus could quite easily say that “the grief (or illness) I experienced was for My benefit,” as He could reflect on the suffering servant prophecy of Isaiah fifty-three, fully convinced that His suffering would benefit not only His people, but Himself as well.  Though He knew Himself to be walking the path of death (not only in the time leading up to the crucifixion, but throughout His revolutionary ministry), it is quite easy to hear Jesus say, with a faith like that which was exhibited by Abraham when he confidently declared that both he and Isaac would return from the mountain of sacrifice, that “You delivered Me from the Pit of oblivion.” 

However, it would only be as Israel’s King---as Israel’s representative and as the representative of all of those that would come to call Him King, in substitution for His people, that Jesus could say “You removed all My sins from Your sight.”  This could only occur through God’s King bearing God’s cursing on behalf of God’s people, though Jesus Himself is understood to have never failed to rightly bear the divine image (thus, without sin).  It is because of this execution of faithfulness that Hezekiah could say, “The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do today” (38:19a).  Those that share in the blessed and vital union with the Christ join with him in such a prayer.