Read Ezekiel 21 today. Honestly I found myself feeling
really sick and tired of all these repetitive prophesies of eminent doom and destruction,
especially when I feel completely surrounded by pain, lack of fulfillment,
rejection and failure. In my mind I said “God, come on!! Enough with the doom
and gloom here! Give me more intellectual stimulation and challenges, more hope
for the future, something I can walk away with that will help me feel better
about or escape my life”. That's why I love to read the stories of King Josiah
and that's why so many pastors like to preach on such stories, the rare times
they actually teach on the OT (that’s a rabbit trail for another article). And
why shouldn’t they teach on such stories? I mean what a great story and ending!
It fits the American worldview, way of thinking and theology: do good works,
seek out God, pray, attend church and read the bible and you live happily ever
after! That's why OT stories like King Josiah, Ruth, Esther and Joseph are taught
in Sunday schools and easy for pastors to teach to adults. These stories are
palatable to the ears and less likely to offend anyone (the biggest sin in
America right now). These are the stories I want to read and hear more about,
as most of us do. However, it's too easy to blow off the prophets in an effort
to protect the American illusion.
Who is this God I say I follow? Am I trying to fit into
His story or am I trying to get Him to fit into mine?
Are all of God’s prophesies eminent and unchanging? Why
do you think all these doom and gloom prophesies are in the bible, in light of
His character? Do you truly believe God loves and desires that none should
perish, but have life? Are you looking for your personal Jesus, trying to put
God in a box or are you truly in relationship with Him? Are you taking the time
to actually get to know Him or do you simply sweep what you see as the embarrassing
truths of God under the carpet? “If God’s love then how could he allow that to
happen?”
Hezekiah: The American
perspective
If you take a moment to read 2 Kings 18-20 you can read
the story of Hezekiah. You’ll see in verse 18:5 that he was a godly king. You
can also read in 19:6-7 that God prophesied in favor of Hezekiah and he trusted
God’s words over the enemy’s, even though the enemy was extremely cruel and his
words were intensely frightening to him (waiting on the Lord, also for another
time).
Are all of God’s prophesies eminent and unchanging? Read
chp 20. It was prophesied that Hezekiah would die from his illness. However,
because of God’s character and love He changed this prophesy when Hezekiah
asked. So yes God’s mind can be changed. Unfortunately it seems it would’ve
been better if Hezekiah had heeded the prophesy. In his pride he showed off his
riches to a foreign nation. In his selfishness he was glad at hearing the
prophesy of destruction shared with him as a result of his pride because it
didn’t affect him, but only future generations. However, it is this last sin I
want to focus in on. This is a very prevalent perspective in America. Live for
today and to hell with tomorrow. Not only do most of us not care about future
generations, most of us don’t even seem to care what happen in the future of
our own lives. Hezekiah’s last recorded thoughts were unfortunately shared by
the Israelites prophesied against by Ezekiel and I’m afraid they are ours here
in America as well.
Jonah: God’s perspective
I’d strongly encourage you to read through the book of
Jonah. It’s a very short, but rich read. It’s my favorite book in the bible and
in my opinion is chock full of deep truths about life, walking with God and His
character. This is a great book to read if you really want to learn more about
who God really is.
Anyway, upon reading this story you’ll see that Jonah
initially runs from God and for good reason, at least in his way of thinking.
The Assyrians were a very bad and cruel people. They did all sorts of evil and
cruel things to their enemies and had been treating Jonah’s people this way.
Jonah was surrounded by pain, suffering and hopelessness, or at least this was
likely his perspective. So he ran from God. Why? Interestingly enough, because
he knew God and His character and didn’t want this God at this time. Jonah knew
one of the major functions of prophesy, to avert the sinners path, with the
hope of renewed obedience and repentance. Jonah didn’t want any of this for the
Assyrians. He wanted their destruction. As we all know Jonah came around,
fulfilled God’s command to him, preached the destruction of Nineveh, they
repented and so God relented, even though Jonah never mentioned an alternative
to destruction. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be
overturned.” That’s all he said for 3 days and yet Judah had many
prophets tell them much the same thing over a very long period of time,
including God’s initial warnings against disobedience, which he gave to Moses.
I think it’s interesting to note that Jonah started off
very American (escaping reality and trying to put God in a box), but ended up
being obedient and hopefully learning an important lesson. In contrast Hezekiah
started off with a godly perspective, but ended up with a very American one (It’s
not my problem).
Now I’m not saying stories like Josiah or Ruth shouldn’t
be shared or that only doom and gloom should be taught. Not at all! However, it
isn’t our place to ignore certain seemingly confusing aspects of God or try to
fit God into our own box (something very prevalent in present day America). We
need to look at everything in the Bible! It’s all relevant! We need to bring
our questions to Him instead of simply writing them or Him off. In seeking to
understand these seemingly difficult truths of God we can actually learn more
about who He really is and who we are following. We should all strive to have
the type of friendship with God Moses had or know God’s character as well as
Jonah did! Well we can only have this if we seek Him out with our whole heart
and take into account all which is written about Him in scripture.
