Faithful Under Siege

Readings for a day in May and a year in the 21st century

Psalm 89: Part II

Asterisk (*) indicates a new verse.

God makes a big promise to David and his progeny. He has chosen someone to lead his chosen people. We have a chosen leader for a chosen people who are on a special mission in the world. The promise is embellished here and intended to promote vast expansion of the influence of God-worship.

You spoke once in vision and said to your faithful people: *

 “I have set the crown upon a warrior
and have exalted one chosen out of the people.

I have found David my servant; *

with my holy oil have I anointed him.

My hand will hold him fast *

and my arm will make him strong.

No enemy shall deceive him, *

nor any wicked man bring him down.

I will crush his foes before him *

and strike down those who hate him.

My faithfulness and love shall be with him, *

and he shall be victorious through my Name.

I shall make his dominion extend *

from the Great Sea to the River.

In response to the promise, David responds with a declaration of faith. He affirms his relationship with God as a son and a father.

He will say to me, ‘You are my Father, *

my God, and the rock of my salvation.’

God agrees regarding that relationship. God reaffirms the covenant and all that it entails. It is permanent. It is passed on from generation. The choice has been made. The instrument of declaring divine glory has been entrusted to a nation with a special leader.

It is rooted and grounded in love and God is the guarantor.

I will make him my firstborn *

and higher than the kings of the earth.

I will keep my love for him for ever, *

and my covenant will stand firm for him.

I will establish his line for ever *

and his throne as the days of heaven.”

Yet, there is a warning. This intimate and familial relationship means that the Father may discipline the child. The old adage, “This will hurt me more than it hurts you” seems like hyperbole, but it is real.

It create agony for God to harshly punish, but if that is what is required to bring back the straying sheep and protect them from danger, that is what will be done.

“If his children forsake my law *

and do not walk according to my judgments;

If they break my statutes *

and do not keep my commandments;

I will punish their transgressions with a rod *

and their iniquities with the lash;

 There is a limit to this judgment and chastisement, The limit is love. God’s love will never fail for God’s chosen ones. Nor will that love allow God to forget the enduring promises.

But I will not take my love from him, *

nor let my faithfulness prove false.

I will not break my covenant, *

nor change what has gone out of my lips.

Once for all I have sworn by my holiness: *

When God says David’s line will endure, then David’s line will endure. God’s people, God’s abiding witness – these are done deals.

‘I will not lie to David.

His line shall endure for ever *

and his throne as the sun before me;

It shall stand fast for evermore like the moon, *

the abiding witness in the sky.’”

If you are looking for some type of security, you have come to the right place. God has placed the integrity of eternity on the line.

But covenants are two ways. Here we find that this psalm has a place for lament. David and David’s people have broken faith with the covenant that keeps them secure. It is a mournful matter.

So, the complaint is that God, who promised to never cast off the chosen leader and chosen nation has done so.

Why, because the chosen ones have forgotten the One who chose them.

The people are singing their part and God’s part in this hymn.

They are trying to look at their plight from their perspective and from God’s perspective. It creates a point and counterpoint.

We are rejected, they feel.

You are not rejected; you are being chastised. Chastisement is often experienced as rejection. That is the short-term experience only.

But you have cast off and rejected your anointed; *

you have become enraged at him.

You have broken your covenant with your servant, *

defiled his crown, and hurled it to the ground.

You have breached all his walls *

and laid his strongholds in ruins.

All who pass by despoil him; *

he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

You have exalted the right hand of his foes *

and made all his enemies rejoice.

You have turned back the edge of his sword *

and have not sustained him in battle.

You have put an end to his splendor *

and cast his throne to the ground.

You have cut short the days of his youth *

and have covered him with shame.

The people pray.

The people plead.

Life is short.

Show us your lovingkindness.

We long for the good old days of our relationship.

Stop hiding. Get over your anger. Show us your love again.

We are dying. We need you and we worship you.

Please turn the lights back on.

How long will you hide yourself, O Lord?
will you hide yourself for ever? *

how long will your anger burn like fire?

Remember, Lord, how short life is, *

how frail you have made all flesh.

Who can live and not see death? *

who can save himself from the power of the grave?

Where, Lord, are your loving-kindnesses of old, *

which you promised David in your faithfulness?

Remember, Lord, how your servant is mocked, *

how I carry in my bosom the taunts of many peoples,

The taunts your enemies have hurled, O Lord, *

which they hurled at the heels of your anointed.

This is the experience of a people in pain, chastised, disciplined, yet loved.  They are seeking to understand present reality against the backdrop of eternal renewal.

Thus, they say and sing:

Blessed be the Lord for evermore! *

Amen, I say, Amen.

 

 Now, here comes Ezekiel, but its centuries later. This must seem like rejection on steroids. Jerusalem is under siege. The people are going to be marched into Babylon.

The upheaval of circumstances will send their faith into spasm and God’s answer is a man laying on his side in the dirt for months and months and then, not getting up, but turning on the other side.

The God of surprises who appears to be rejecting us, but is truly preserving us, is going to do a new thing in the next seventy years.

God is going to deepen the understanding of what the covenant has been about and fashion a fresh Judaism out of the old. Every new thing is built upon something old, the religion of the desert, of the conquest, of the United Kingdom, and now, siege.

Faith under siege!

Hear the words of the prophet.

 

Ezekiel 4:1-17

And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem; and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 

Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it.

This is a sign for the house of Israel. 

Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there. 

For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 

When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. 

You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. 

See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege. 

And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself.

During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it. And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink. You shall eat it as a barley-cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. 

The Lord said, "Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them."

Then I said, "Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth." 

Then he said to me, "See, I will let you have cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread." 

Then he said to me, Mortal, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay, and waste away under their punishment.

The writer of Hebrews, whoever he or she may be, Barnabas, Lazarus, Phoebe, or most likely someone of whom we have never heard, that person takes the imagery of these Hebrew scripture, covenant encounters, and spiritualizes them so that we get this message:

The church can relate to all these promises and struggles.

There is a broadening of the covenant reach and an unfolding of the promises.

There are new meanings to explore. There are depths to plumb. There are promises to embrace, but don’t get muddled in the basics.

Move on to completeness.

This is a process. It is a process in our individual live and it is a process in the thousands of years of salvation history.

It is a personal journey, and it is a generational and multi-cultural journey. Completeness does not happen in our lives overnight. Nor does in happen in God’s unfolding of humanity’s journey, in one generation.

Yet, the requirement is consistent.

Since God is faithful to us, we must respond by being faithful to God.

Who is chosen to lead the way in David’s line?

How do we sort this all out as we see the concentric circles of who is chosen expanding?

How can we understand the impossibility of renewal coexisting with the impossibility of it being impossible?

Hebrews. 6:1-12

Therefore, let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits. 

 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. 

 Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over. 

Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. 

And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises

Don’t get stuck in the weeds.

Move on to completeness.

It is not about settling all controversies or getting all the details right. It is about inheriting the promises through faith and patience.

I like to go back to Jesus in these matters.

Jesus stands at the dead center of human history to point the way to completeness and his principle demand is to follow him.

The writer of Hebrews, whoever he or she may be, Barnabas, Lazarus, Phoebe, or most likely someone of whom we have never heard, that person takes the imagery of these Hebrew scripture, covenant encounters, and spiritualizes them so that we get this message:

The church can relate to all these promises and struggles.

There is a broadening of the covenant reach and an unfolding of the promises.

There are new meanings to explore. There are depths to plumb. There are promises to embrace, but don’t get muddled in the basics.

Move on to completeness.

This is a process. It is a process in our individual live and it is a process in the thousands of years of salvation history.

It is a personal journey, and it is a generational and multi-cultural journey. Completeness does not happen in our lives overnight. Nor does in happen in God’s unfolding of humanity’s journey, in one generation.

Yet, the requirement is consistent.

Since God is faithful to us, we must respond by being faithful to God.

Who is chosen to lead the way in David’s line?

How do we sort this all out as we see the concentric circles of who is chosen expanding?

How can we understand the impossibility of renewal coexisting with the impossibility of it being impossible?

Every generation of faith has its own kind of siege and call to be faithful

Again - Don’t get stuck in the weeds.

Move on to completeness.

Let us remain faithful to our faithful God.

Luke 9:51-62

 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Sieges Within Us

Homeless

And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Luke 9:58) 

A certain man wanted to follow Jesus as have many through the centuries and into our time. Perhaps he thought it would be an adventure – and following Jesus is.

 Perhaps he thought discipleship would bring a new dimension of meaning to his life – and it does.

Perhaps he longed for the camaraderie and acceptance that was so evident among the disciples of Jesus as it often is today in authentic Christian communities.

He may have been attracted by the laughter and awe of the other followers as Jesus taught them with such vivid realism.

But he was failing to consider one very important point: to follow Jesus would mean leaving all that he had ever counted on for security.

Follow Me ... But

And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. (Luke 9:59) 

“I want to follow you, but...”

Was it an excuse, a delaying tactic, or a simple statement of ignorance? Have you never interjected, “but first” into your commitments with God? How often we have come to the Master with non-negotiable conditions.

Let the Dead Bury the Dead

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60) 

Jesus’ answer to the man who cried, “but first” demonstrates the profound contrast between life and death. Discipleship is about dying to the old that we might live to the new.

Excuses

“And another said, ‘Lord, I will follow Thee, but …” – Luke 9:61a

Erstwhile followers of the Master make a series of irrelevant statements in this great movement of scripture. They are irrelevant because they are merely excuses, postponements of discipleship, weasel-ways of saying “no” without having to actually commit to the word.

In the world of promoting where ones lifeblood is getting people to show up somewhere for something, there is an adage: A “no” is a “no;” a “maybe” s a “no;” and a “yes” is a “no” half the time. Nothing is as reliable as a rock-solid commitment and even that may falter. Humanity is infected with a disease for which David Schwartz coined the phrase, “excusitis.”

Moses had them: “ I am unworthy; I am unlearned; I am unable; I am unbelievable.”

But then he got to his bottom line, “Send someone else.” In other words, “I am unwilling.”

Here is the question: Are you willing to follow Jesus anywhere and in any way – NOW? If not now, when? Will it be as the old despot told the Apostle Paul, at a more convenient season? Are we “almost persuaded?”

Jesus has no time for nonsense. He calls to us through the waves of time, “Follow me.” And He means for us to drop everything – every excuse, every fear, every reservation, every other aspiration of our lives and follow. Half-hearted commitment is no commitment at all. Every reason Moses gave for not doing what God was calling him to do was basically true, but God’s power made them irrelevant.

No Looking Back

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) 

All the man wanted to do was say, “goodbye.” At least that is what he said, but Jesus knew what was in his heart and that he was not truly ready to say, “goodbye.” Otherwise, he would have and would not have just talked about it. He was looking back with the longing gaze of one who was not truly leaving.

We have followed a progression that has led us from a thousand years and plus before Jesus to a hundred years, give or take, after Jesus and the message is clear: Look forward to follow. Go deeper; go to completion; keep going; persevere in faith; set your life in covenant context and live there in faithful faith.

There is much to consider, much to explore, much to receive. It can be overwhelming, but rest in this, the just still live by faith. Under whatever siege, faith and faithfulness.

Keep on keeping on.