Stephen
Terry, Director
Turning
Hearts in the End Time
Commentary
for the June 29, 2019 Sabbath School Lesson
" At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped
forward and prayed: 'Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be
known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done
all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people
will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back
again.' Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood,
the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all
the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord, he is God! The
Lord, he is God!'" 1 Kings 18:36-39, NIV
I am not sure what it is about human hearts that causes
us to desire drama in order to make a decision about something important. We
are often more receptive to the idea of God being like Rambo than we are with
one like Isaiah's suffering servant.[i] We tend to crave a
deliverer who will come with fire and blood to set everything right. This theme
pervades our movies and our literature. Whether a caped crusader like Batman or
an invincible Superman, all reflect our desire to see the bad guys get a good
thumping. And of course the bad guys are never us, but "them." We like hero
stories that say nothing of our own failings. This is in spite of the Bible's
assurance that we all fall short.[ii]
The Jews of Jesus' day shared this fatal flaw. Had Jesus
rode in as a conquering hero on a river of the blood of his victims and
torching everything those hapless beings had created, the Jews perhaps would
have accepted him as Messiah. Instead, he came calling for a renovation of the
hearts of mankind, and this they could not abide. Paradoxically, it seems we
have in our nature more resistance to change than we do to evil. Some women
might understand that the real miracle was that Jesus found twelve men willing
to change, but even then he fell one short in the end with Judas. Perhaps, John's
writing of Revelation, with its apocalyptic fire, brimstone and blood, was seated
in a degree of frustration at the unwillingness of human hearts to change. With
the persecution that exiled him to Patmos, a vengeful God may have seemed the
only solution. This also may have been extremely personal for John for the apostles
did not see God's fiery return as something thousands of years in the future.
They saw it as imminent. God could pour out his wrath, beginning at Patmos,
just as he had poured down fire on Mount Carmel for Elijah. Many Christians
feel the same way as they view the indifference of the world around them and
the sprouting thorns of evil pricking everything they can reach. But should we,
as Christians, buy into the idea of a message of "God is going to get you for
that?" Or is there something greater here that even Christians are struggling
to understand just as those errant Jews of two thousand years ago struggled about
Jesus?
Elijah boldly confronted Ahab and Jezebel, rulers of the
northern kingdom of Israel. They were implementing a religious reformation that
would subvert God's rule over the people of Israel. Likely, they wanted a
religion that would confirm their own power and could be under their control. We
understand that kind of thinking today when we see so many religious leaders
and organizations selling themselves to power hungry political leaders, hoping
for their own measure of that power. Often they co-opt the fiery apocalyptic
imagery to vilify their opponents and rally support for a cause that is more
political than religious. It is ironic how well they are able to do this even
in the United States. With one of the highest standards of living in the world,
demagogues are able to nonetheless convince many that they are downtrodden and
in need of deliverance. With fire in their eyes, they promise to vanquish those
oppressing the people and bring about that deliverance from the oppression. If
some form of oppression actually exists, the process is easier, but if not, one
can be manufactured. It is simply a matter of creating a "them" who are against
"us." Once that is done, the process of vilifying "them" is easy. Since we all assume
that our own motives and goals are good and by extension, those of the organization
we belong to are as well, it becomes easy to decide that those unwilling to be
part of our "true" group have evil intentions. We become indifferent to their
wants and needs in favor of our own. We even see it as a holy crusade to oppose
them for we are "true." They are not. Then the demagogues have only to tell us
that they want what we have and will take it from us if they can, and we become
like growling dogs guarding our food dish as though we will never have enough
to fill our obese bellies if anyone else has some. Too many of us believe all
of this and yet still claim that we are eager for Jesus to come and reward us
for our behavior. Perhaps it is out of mercy and a hope for our enlightenment
that he hasn't come yet.[iii] Whatever the case, it
may be impossible to save anyone while our evangelism is leaving them condemned
them to God's wrath. There is another way revealed in the Bible.
John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah with a similar confrontational
manner. As a result, he was an outsider, limited in his influence. While this
brought him greatness, as Jesus stated, he was nonetheless less than the least
in the kingdom of heaven.[iv] We might therefore assume
that since this is true, the judgmental character of John that resulted in his
losing his head while imprisoned in Herod's dungeon is not necessary to further
the cause of the gospel. While John and Elijah had their place as heralds, the
kingdom of God is built not on vengeance, but love. No better human example
from the Old Testament of that difference can be found perhaps than Jacob and
Rachel's son, Joseph. He was faithful, honest and trustworthy. This caused him
to be despised by his brothers who were less than scrupulous about their
behavior. We may not want to admit it, but his brothers were actually a lot
like us. Just as too many of us would sell out Jesus, if we could get ahead by
doing so, his brothers sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Joseph could have
railed about the injustice of it all and insisted he would have nothing to do with
the idolatrous Egyptians. Instead, he was faithful in every task given him,
even when unjustly imprisoned; he did what he could to make it less of a hell
hole for the others confined there. Eventually, his kind treatment of the other
prisoners brought about the opportunity to come before Pharaoh, and his
faithful witness to that ruler led not only to his deliverance from prison but
elevation to a high standing in Egypt that allowed him to deliver that entire
country from devastating famine. As a result, no one sought to remove his head
from his body. Instead, he was greatly honored by the Egyptians as well as his
own people.
This was the kingdom witness that Jesus also modeled and
spoke about. He knew it would be far easier for us to hate our enemies and
surround ourselves with barriers to keep them at a distance. He also knew that
those barriers are ineffective against evil, for it does not exist "over there"
so much as it exists in each of our hearts. That is why God offers us new
hearts.[v] As long as we prefer our
old hearts, we will have problems, because hate wants to live there, and hate
and love cannot live harmoniously in the same heart. This is especially true of
God's love. We tend to make love conditional. If you love me, I will love you
back. But God's love is unconditional and unremitting. We often define love as
receiving things as in "Mom and Dad, if you love me, you will buy me that
bicycle." But God's love is based on giving of things, and more importantly on
giving of ourselves to help others. When we open our hearts to his presence, we
can grow into the maturity of that love and truly become citizens of God's
kingdom. We can preach judgment of sin until the entire earth is scorched by our
pronouncements of condemnation and doom, and we may find a few willing to listen
and even respond favorably. But it is the example of Joseph and the words of
Jesus that will not only make a difference in our own hearts. It will turn the
hearts of others toward God, drawn by a love beyond anything they have ever
known.[vi]
