Acts, Jealousy & Honor (part 4)

This leads into the report that “Now the high priest rose up, and all those with him (that is, the religious party of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy” (Acts 5:17).  Why were they filled with jealousy?  Was it the performance of miraculous signs and wonders?  No.  Was it the growing crowds and the people gathering from all over?  Not directly.  So what was it?  It was the “high honor” being accorded to the disciples, which was evidenced by the behavior of the people.  Public honor was a limited good.  The growth of the honor of one necessarily led to the diminishing of the honor of another.  Yes, they still had their power, but they were losing their honor.  If enough honor slipped from their hands, their power would ultimately go with it. 

Though it comes from John’s Gospel (composed after Acts), the eleventh chapter contains a story that sheds light on this way of thinking: “So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said, ‘What are we doing?  For this man is performing many miraculous signs.  If we allow Him to go on this way, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation.’” (John 11:47-48)  As seen in Acts, these are concerns about honor and power, and they are prefaced with mention of miraculous signs and a growing number of followers.

What was the response of the high priest and his cohorts in Acts?  “They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail” (5:18).  They attempted to shame and humiliate the apostles, doing so publicly in an attempt to diminish their public honor and increase their public shame.  Consequently, the high priest would not suffer the further loss of honor.  This backfires on the council, as the disciples are honored, with Luke indicating that the honoring is accomplished by the Creator God Himself (somewhat indirectly), as “during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said, ‘Go and stand in the Temple courts,’” the place that symbolized the public honor of those who had jailed them, “and proclaim to the people all the words of this life.’” (5:19-20).  “This life” would have been the life of the way of the kingdom of the Creator God.  “This life” would have the been the resurrected life of Jesus.  “This life” would have been the promise of the general resurrection to come.

The response of the opposition is predictable.  The disciples, who have done precisely what the angel has instructed them to do, are re-arrested and taken before the council.  “When they had brought them, they stood them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name.  Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood on us!’” (5:27-28)  Proclaiming Jesus would be an indirect challenge to the high priest and associates, as they, having delivered up Jesus to the provincial government, were complicit in the execution of Jesus as a state criminal.  Thus, via these continued challenges and the associated accusations that they had acted unjustly based upon the verdict of Israel’s God as indicated by the Resurrection and the reversal of that shaming, shame continues to come their way. 

In response, Peter piles on, saying “We must obey God rather than people” (5:29a).  This, in itself, is an interesting public-honor-diminishing statement, as the high priest was presumed to speak for the covenant God.  Peter makes it clear that the high priest and the council do not in fact speak for Israel’s God, with the primary evidence of that fact being the stand that they had taken against Jesus (the personal revelation of their God).  He continues: “The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree” (5:30). 

Remembering Egypt (part 1 of 2)

…that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. – Deuteronomy 16:3b  (ESV)

In the book called Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of what are commonly referred to as the “books of Moses,” we find the above statement made in connection with the celebration of the Passover.  Now, it is often said that we should forget the past and put things behind us, and we are routinely told not to dredge up old memories, because doing so is not useful or helpful.  Yet here, Moses tells the people of Israel, God’s covenant people---those that are called a chosen and treasured possession to whom God has gone out to reveal Himself and to make a people for His praise and His glory, to actively call to mind their day of deliverance from the place of their captivity and servitude.  The instruction to them is to do this “all the days of your life,”  and this charge is given this quite seriously.  Moses is presented as being so insistent about this directive, that throughout the book of Deuteronomy, which is set forth as Moses’ final address to the people of Israel, we find Moses consistently reminding the people of their time in Egypt.  In fact, Egypt is mentioned nearly forty times through the course of Deuteronomy. 

The people had said, “Because the Lord hated us He has brought us out of the land of Egypt…to destroy us” (1:27).  Moses told them “The Lord your God will fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt” (1:30).  He reminds them that “the Lord has taken you…out of Egypt, to be a people of His own inheritance” (4:20), and references the “trials…signs…wonders…war…mighty hand…outstretched arm…deeds of terror…which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt” (4:34), to bring them “out of Egypt with His own presence, by His great power” (4:37).  Moses reminds them again of the very words of the Lord, which had been “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (5:6), before recounting for them the “Ten Commandments.”  To these, he then adds, “take care lest you forget the Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (6:12).  In association with these commandments, the people were instructed to tell their children, “We were…slaves in Egypt.  And the Lord brought us out of Egypt...And the Lord showed signs and wonders…against Egypt” (6:21-22).

Moses speaks of God’s faithfulness to His people, telling them that “it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the Lord has…redeemed you from the house of slavery…of Egypt” (7:8), adding a reminder of “the evil diseases of Egypt” (the plagues) that did not come upon Israel.  The people are charged to remember “what the Lord…did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt” (7:18).  As we move forward, we find Moses warning the people against unfounded pride in their prosperity, prophesying that their hearts will “be lifted up,” and that they would “forget the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (8:14).  He tells them to “Remember and do not forget how your provoke the Lord your God to wrath…From the day you came out of the land of Egypt” (9:7), as a reminder of His longsuffering nature. 

With that, Moses has them call to mind their rebellion, and informs them that even when the Lord speaks, He reminds the people what has been done for them, speaking to Moses of the “people whom you have brought from Egypt” that “have acted corruptly” (9:12).  With that said, when Moses speaks to God, he even takes it upon himself to make mention of Egypt in connection with His people, turning that around and calling them the people “whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand” (9:26).  These very people, whom God brought out, were the evidence of God’s covenant faithfulness, as they “went down to Egypt seventy persons,” and “the Lord” made them “as numerous as the stars of heaven” (10:22).  Even when they thought of their vast multitudes, they were made to remember Egypt.