Stephen
Terry, Director
Crisis of Identity
Commentary
for the January 2, 2021 Sabbath School Lesson
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my
Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name
perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away
from me, you evildoers!'" Matthew 7:21-23, NIV
These days, it seems people
love titles, especially religious ones. Whereas formerly, it was enough to be
called Pastor, now, titles proliferate like leaves on a tree. Some even dare to
refer to themselves as prophets, apostles, and many other spurious honorifics.
Not content to let their actions speak for themselves, they don such titles so
that no one may doubt their spiritual superiority. But such individuals often
are unwilling to assume the price of the true calling such a title stands for.
Our lesson this quarter attempts to search out God's will through the prophet
Isaiah and his writings. Perhaps no other Old Testament figure more closely
identifies with Christ, both in his characterization of our relationship to God
and in the course of his life, even in the manner of
his death where an unjust and wicked ruler and a tree is involved. While Talmudic
sources do not agree as to details, both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmuds
relate that Isaiah hid in a tree from wicked King Manasseh, and the king
ordered the tree sawn in two, killing the prophet. How many of today's
self-styled prophets would include martyrdom in their job description still is
to be seen, but so many prophets suffered persecution, torture, and death, it should
probably cause doubt about a divine endorsement of those not faced with such.
In some ways we can identify
with Isaiah. Just as he experienced living under good kings and bad, we also
have lived under both good rulers and bad, although perhaps not to the same
degree. Hezekiah was one of the good kings and Isaiah even healed the king, who
had appealed to God for healing, granting him extra years of life. Unfortunately,
the extra years allowed Hezekiah to father Manasseh, one of the wickedest kings
of Judah, who eventually murdered Isaiah for speaking out against that
wickedness. While some may feel that things would have been better for Isaiah
had Hezekiah's life not been spared, that is only speculation and may have been
unlikely. The Jews were on a bad path. The Kingdom of Israel, ruled from
Samaria had recently been destroyed by the Assyrians, a destruction that took
place because of their wickedness according to the prophets. Despite tries by
kings like Hezekiah to restore public faith and morality, when good kings died,
the population readily resumed oppression, injustice, and bloodshed. The evil
had become so widespread, nothing short of a national repentance and humble obedience
to God's demands for justice and compassion toward one another could stay their
downward spiral. Manasseh filled Jerusalem with so much blood of the innocent,[i] crying out to God from the ground
like Abel's blood,[ii]
after he was murdered by his brother Cain, that God could no longer remain passive.
As the prophets warned, the Babylonians would come and wipe away all that the
wicked had gained by their bloody injustice toward the innocent and oppressed.
Not only the prophets,
but biblical writings predicted the outcome of such evil. All were familiar with
the story of Noah and the flood. Some unenlightened folks accuse God of being a
genocidal maniac for causing the deaths of so many. But two questions arise from
the account. First, how many would have survived anyway if things were allowed to
continue, and how many of those would be subjected to lives of hellish
enslavement and oppression to satisfy the evil appetites of a few? In the
United States, the experience of the black race has shown how horrible that can
be, and even today continues to spawn abuse, murder, injustice, and oppression.
Far too many blame their fate on inadequacies spawned by their supposed inherent
racial inferiority instead of the evil, uncompassionate hearts of their
oppressors. The planting of that tree and its growth was nurtured most
fervently in the fields of the Southern United States. Sadly, racial oppression
has now spread far beyond those states and is bringing rot to cities and towns
throughout our country.
The second question
that arises, is it justice if God ignores the cries of the innocent to not be
labeled genocidal? Christians have long believed that at some point in the future,
like the flood account of the past, evil will be wiped out. The Book of
Revelation goes into gory detail as to what that might look like.[iii] It would be disingenuous
for Christians to soft-pedal the idea that evil will come to a terrible end as
though those warnings are not present in the Bible. Those that do may
misunderstand the meaning of evil and why it must be confronted and defeated.
Isaiah apparently understood and paid with his life for challenging evil's
right to exist. Evil responded by doing what it always does. Ironically, it oppresses
and murders the innocent while claiming that any attempt by God or others to
stay its course is evil and unjust. The manner and circumstances of Isaiah's
death show just how hypocritical evil can be.
Christians, at times,
seem to be confused about the nature of evil, and as a result they do not convincingly
confront it in all its forms. For instance, they rightly oppose the use of
abortion as a method of birth control, but they fail to confront the evil that
makes such birth control a necessity for so many. They claim the right to live
in peace and comfort in the United States while at the same time endorsing
bringing fiendish warfare upon the heads of millions who happen to live outside
of a nation so many of these zealots claim is founded upon Christian principles.
Having gone through the Vietnam War, I have seen firsthand what such policies
mean. More recently, with the Iraq War, in response to just under three thousand
deaths on 9-11, almost three hundred thousand Iraqis died in retribution. Two
thirds of those were civilians. This means that approximately 67 Iraqi civilians
died for every individual who died on 9-11. We feel justified in extracting
such a toll in repayment for evil and then decry God for injustice in doing the
same. Perhaps the only reason we can muster for such an attitude is because we
are afraid that the evil he will deal with is us. But unlike some Americans who
would condemn entire cultures to extinction for daring to oppose us, God offers
a way out.
God says if we are
willing to recognize the evil in our hearts and repent, or turn away from it,
we can have a fresh start, no matter how evil we may have been.[iv] At Pentecost, Peter shared
this message with many in Jerusalem and thousands chose to change.[v] Saul, later known as Paul,
chose to accept the opportunity to change, even though he had imprisoned many of
those who had previously repented and changed. He even assented to the murder
of Stephen by stoning.[vi] Evil would have us believe that
the bloody path of oppression of others is the correct path to follow. Even
many who have once repented have been deceived by this idea, an idea driven by
fear of the other. At its foundation is the fear that this life is all there is
so grab as much as you can while you are here before others, who we feel
deserve it less. While this may be beguiling to some, its futility becomes plain
when we face death and the knowledge that everything, we feel we have gained,
will be squandered by others once we are gone.
It does not have to be
that way. We can choose to turn from evil and look to live compassionate lives.
Some might ask, "Why should I show compassion to others when others don't show
compassion to me?" The Bible says that is the only real standard for salvation.
We will see that later in Isaiah, but Jesus also repeated that several times.
He shared the principle in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats.[vii] He pointed it out again in
the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.[viii] We also see the same principle
in the two stories of the rich young man[ix] and Zacchaeus.[x] The rich young man refused to
give his wealth to those in need and lost everything. Zacchaeus, on the other
hand, chose to give of his wealth to secure salvation. Love for money and what
it can buy, not only possessions, but power and influence, is seductive. One
does not need to be rich to succumb. Judas, one of the disciples of Christ was
destroyed by it. Many prosperity preachers tell us to define our Christianity
by it. They have succumbed to its alure and have become evangelists not for
Christ, but to lead others down that gilded path to death and destruction. I
doubt we would find many martyrs, like Isaiah, flying with them in their
private jets.