Tag: wicked

Who Is Running from God? (Jonah 1:1-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”

Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”

Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”

“Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”

Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.”

Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.

Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. (New Living Translation)

God said, “Go!”

Jonah said, “No!”

And, God said, “Oh!?”

Jonah did a complete turn-and-run from God’s clear instructions to go to the city of Nineveh. That doesn’t sound like a good idea. So, why did Jonah run? And why do we run?

Who were the Assyrians?

Nineveh was a large city in the ancient world, and the capital of Assyria. The Assyrians had a reputation as fierce soldiers and conquered the Middle East. They are mentioned many times in the Old Testament. It was Assyria that God used to judge the northern kingdom of Israel.

The typical military practice of the Assyrians was to attack a city and completely subjugate it by deporting most of the people and repopulating it with some of their own people. They did this so that the conquered people could not mount a revolt or resistance to their rule.

The Assyrians, the Ninevites, were notorious in the ancient world for their brutality toward conquered peoples. Many forms of torture that we are aware of today were invented by the Assyrians. Their methods were awful and inhumane. The Assyrians were experts at thinking up and executing extreme forms of torture on everyone who resisted their power. It was a very violent culture.

Who is God?

God isn’t at all like the Ninevites. The ways of the Assyrians caught the notice of God, who was ready to pronounce judgment on the heart of the Assyrian Empire, the capital city of Nineveh. So, as God typically did in the Old Testament, he told one of his prophets to go and give a message.

The message was simple: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” Lest we think God was determined to wipe Nineveh off the map, think again. Jonah confesses later in the book, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2)

Who was Jonah?

Jonah did not like the Assyrians. More than that, he hated their guts. They killed, maimed, executed, and deported Jonah’s fellow Israelites. The last thing Jonah wanted was to have effective preaching and see Nineveh repent of their violent ways. Jonah wanted judgment, not grace.

In this little four-chapter prophetic book of the Old Testament, it is Jonah who needs divine deliverance as much as the Ninevites do. In fact, Jonah’s need for rescue gets more attention than the evil Assyrians. The message of Jonah comes down to this:

Racism and hatred, however much perceived to be legitimate, have no part whatsoever in the kingdom of God.

Who are we?

Christians are the community of the redeemed. New life in Jesus Christ involves a wholesale jettison of bigotry and the manure pile of hatred directed toward any ethnic and/or religious group of people, period. New life means adopting the love of God. It involves becoming a dispenser of grace and mercy with all people, not just the ones we feel deserve it.

What does God want us to learn?

To share the same heart as God has – a heart that beats for people to know and live by a better way – a heart that has grace and compassion even in the face of flat-out evil. We are meant to think twice about pointing the finger at others. Instead, we are to take the plank out of our own eye before we address the splinter in another’s eye.

It wasn’t the Assyrians who were running from God; it was Jonah. In God’s upside-down realm, the wicked become the righteous, and the righteous are exposed as wicked. The unrighteous run to God, whereas the religious run from God. Nineveh eventually turned from their evil ways.

So, let’s keep to the side of mercy, not judgment.

O God, you created all people in your image. We thank you for the astonishing variety of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of friendship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Some Wise Warnings (Proverbs 6:6-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Go to the ant, you sluggard!
    Consider her ways and be wise.
Which, having no guide,
    overseer, or ruler,
provides her bread in the summer,
    and gathers her food in the harvest.

How long will you sleep, O sluggard?
    When will you arise out of your sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to sleep—
so will your poverty come upon you like a stalker,
    and your need as an armed man.

A wayward person, a wicked man,
    walks with a perverse mouth.
    He winks with his eyes,
    he signals with his feet,
    he motions with his fingers;
    perversity is in his heart,
    he devises mischief continually, he sows discord.
Therefore his calamity will come suddenly;
    in a moment he will be broken without remedy.

These six things the Lord hates,
    yes, seven are an abomination to him:
        a proud look,
        a lying tongue,
        and hands that shed innocent blood,
        a heart that devises wicked imaginations,
        feet that are swift in running to mischief,
        a false witness who speaks lies,
        and he who sows discord among brethren.

My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
Bind them continually upon your heart,
    and tie them around your neck.
When you go, they will lead you;
    when you sleep, they will keep you;
    and when you awake, they will speak with you.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light;
    and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. (Modern English Version)

A proverb is a short, pithy statement of experiential truth. In life, all things being equal, there are some predictable consequences to each decision and action we take.

To make idle, wicked, or adulterous decisions will result in disastrous outcomes – and the proverbial writer wants to help us steer clear of calamity. So, we have some sound and sage instruction which is meant for us to realize contentment and fulfillment in life and avoid the pitfalls of laziness, evil, and infidelity.

The Sluggard

We may typically think of the sluggard as a lazy person who just doesn’t want to work. That’s true, yet it runs even deeper and broader than that. A sluggard is someone always looking for the easy way out. Instead of persevering and being diligent in accomplishing large projects and demanding responsibilities, the sluggard tries to use their ingenuity to get the job done quickly.

The student who wants to take shortcuts, and doesn’t do the busywork of citing sources, or doing their due diligence in research, is a sluggard. The worker who cuts corners in order to move to another job they’d rather do, is a sluggard. The spouse who hastily buys some cheap flowers for their loved one from a street vendor, without even getting out of the car, is a sluggard. The minister who cuts and pastes some information from Google the night before teaching a lesson, is a sluggard.

And the results will likely be quite predictable: an “F” on the term paper; a punitive citation from the building inspector; the disappointment and anger from a wife; and the rebuke from a church. There’s no one to blame. All these sluggards will be out of a job and poverty will cozy up to them sooner than later.

What to do? Get some humility. Bend down and look at the busy ants. They work steadily, consistently, and carefully – and never lack.

The Wicked

The truly evil person enjoys creating chaos and upsetting folks through running their mouth off like a canon.

They get a kick out of poking the bear, sticking a hornets’ nest, and stirring the pot. And their chief means of doing it is their tongue. Damaging words are thrown about. Gaslighting, arguing, backbiting, slandering, and lying are the tools of their trade.

The wicked person might get what they want, in the short term; but in the long term, their end is sure. Brokenness and calamity will eventually catch up to them. They, like the sluggard, will have no one to blame for the consequences which overtake them; the ire of God will consume them.

What to do? Repent! Do a complete 180-degree turn from hubris to humility, lying to honesty, violent speech to encouraging words, disunity to harmony, separating to connecting, and from selfish behavior to working for the common good.

The Adulterer

The adulterer is one who is unfaithful. They make commitments and renege on them. The classic adulterer is one who cheats on their spouse and breaks their vow of marriage. Yet, there are various sorts of adultery that happen in this old fallen world.

The spiritual adulterer says they are committed to God, yet keep up a moonlighting affair with the world. The mental adulterer might never sleep with another, yet is committing deviant acts in their mind with others. The emotional adulterer gives a smooth line, yet is only trying to manipulate another into something the other person doesn’t want to do.

What to do? Come back to what you learned in childhood. Most parents, even if they fail to live up to their own instruction for their children, want what’s best for their kids. To nearly every adulterer, we can say, “I know your mama taught you better than that!”

Conclusion

An idle life, an evil tongue, and adulterous behavior will ultimately result in disaster, if left unchecked. The compiler of Proverbs is checking-in with us, making sure that we keep in sync with the good and beautiful way to live; and letting us know that the alternative to right living is some very calamitous consequences.

So, what will you choose?

Blessed and almighty God, take me to the place where I am saved from my pride and arrogance; where Christ’s humility becomes center-stage in my life; and where I’m lifting up clean hands and a pure heart in prayer. God and Parent of all, I bend my knee to receive truth; and I open my ears to receive counsel, and my heart to receive wisdom. Amen.

Some Well-Ordered Wisdom (Psalm 37:1-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Don’t be worried on account of the wicked;
    don’t be jealous of those who do wrong.
They will soon disappear like grass that dries up;
    they will die like plants that wither.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    live in the land and be safe.
Seek your happiness in the Lord,
    and he will give you your heart’s desire.

Give yourself to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will help you;
he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.

Be patient and wait for the Lord to act;
    don’t be worried about those who prosper
    or those who succeed in their evil plans.

Don’t give in to worry or anger;
    it only leads to trouble.
Those who trust in the Lord will possess the land,
    but the wicked will be driven out.

Soon the wicked will disappear;
    you may look for them, but you won’t find them;
but the humble will possess the land
    and enjoy prosperity and peace.

The wicked plot against good people
    and glare at them with hate.
But the Lord laughs at wicked people,
    because he knows they will soon be destroyed.

The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows
    to kill the poor and needy,
    to slaughter those who do what is right;
but they will be killed by their own swords,
    and their bows will be smashed.

The little that a good person owns
    is worth more than the wealth of all the wicked,
because the Lord will take away the strength of the wicked,
    but protect those who are good. (Good News Translation)

Today’s Psalm feels as if it could be in the book of Proverbs; it’s chocked full of wisdom sayings. And wisdom is most definitely something you, me, and the entire world needs. Indeed, we have enough fools around us running their mouths with a bunch of gobbledygook that’s nonsensical and meaningless.

We need helpful language and well-ordered words which reflect our ordered creation.

The underlying assumption of all biblical wisdom literature is that our world has been created by God with a material and moral order built into it.

That means that to buck this order is stupid and foolish. Somebody who walks off the roof of their house because they don’t believe in gravity will experience the harsh reality of that belief. Likewise, anyone who walks any old way they want in this world, without regard to the divine force operating within it, is going to experience a broken spirit.

Our human well-being depends on knowing the ordered creation we inhabit. There are social expectations which need to be realized in order to conform and be in sync with the natural (and supernatural!) universal rhythms all around us. Those expectations are framed for us as wisdom sayings.

Our actions and inactions have consequences. It’s our task to gain experiential knowledge as we move about this earth and interact with others. Notice I did not say we need to be perfect. No, instead, we are continually in a mode of improvement – seeking and learning to be better and do better.

And one of the things we all must discover is that our own personal actions and attitudes effects the entire surrounding community.

Biblical wisdom literature communicates how we receive blessing and how we hold onto it. True wisdom is to live in a responsible awareness of both Creator and creation – and then to make appropriate choices which will bless God and others.

So, in our Psalm for today, we have some wise choices to make that put us in the groove of how things are ordered and established:

  • Don’t worry about the evil simpletons around you. Why? Because in the Lord’s well-ordered world, the wicked cannot and will not survive; their end is certain, just as sure as death and taxes.

Those who are evil—
they are like straw
    blown by the wind.
Sinners won’t have an excuse
    on the day of judgment,
and they won’t have a place
    with the people of God.
The Lord protects everyone
    who follows him,
but the wicked follow a road
    that leads to ruin. (Psalm 1:4-6, CEV)

  • Trust the Lord. Everything changes. Everyone is fickle. Why trust? Because God, unlike everything and everyone else, is consistent, stable, and always true to character.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track. (Proverbs 3:5-6, MSG)

  • Be patient and wait on the Lord. Why? Because God is good, all the time, and has only good plans in mind for you and me. We short circuit what God is doing whenever we fail to have patience.

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. (James 5:7-8, NIV)

The best things in life are internal, not external. One’s inner well-being, peace of mind, emotional awareness, and spiritual health are worth infinitely more than any title, position, wealth, or delusions of control.

A well-ordered life comes from tapping into the divine resources available to us.

Grant us patience, O Lord, to follow the road you have taken. Let our confidence not rest in our own understanding but in your guiding hand; let our desires not be for our own comfort, but for the joy of your kingdom; for your cross is our hope and our joy now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.

– A Prayer of St. Augustine

Psalm 58 – Curse the Wicked

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
    Do you judge people with equity?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
    and your hands mete out violence on the earth.

Even from birth the wicked go astray;
    from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
    like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
that will not heed the tune of the charmer,
    however skillful the enchanter may be.

Break the teeth in their mouths, O God;
    Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions!
Let them vanish like water that flows away;
    when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,
    like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns—
    whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away.
The righteous will be glad when they are avenged,
    when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
Then people will say,
    “Surely the righteous still are rewarded;
    surely there is a God who judges the earth.” (New International Version)

The term “imprecatory” means to call down a curse on a person or group of people. There are eighteen imprecatory psalms within the Old Testament psalter, all of which make a clear petition for God to turn the evil back on the people who inflict it (or try to) on others. Maybe this surprises you that there is such language in the Bible.

There is nothing sanitized about imprecatory psalms. They are as raw and real as it gets, expressing deep anger. Whatever you might think about how a proper pious person ought to pray, imprecatory curses are likely not your first thought. But here they are, contained in Holy Scripture for our use.

One reason for the imprecatory psalms is that it is not any person’s place for revenge or retaliation. Instead, for people who are genuinely caught in the crosshairs of evil, for those who have awful trouble dogging them, prayer is their most effective recourse.

Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is. There is a time to do your best in putting up a good face so that you can deal with people who keep gossiping, slandering, and trying to get their way. Yet, there is also a time to call such behavior “evil” and cry out to God for help.

There are many folks who consider imprecatory psalms a problem because of their detailed expressions of cursing. Yet, such psalms refuse to put a positive spin on malevolent motives, wicked words, and destructive actions.

Desperate people utter desperate prayers. Their unflinching sense of injustice will not allow them to sugarcoat the villainous plans of corrupt people.

Evil is never toppled with tepid prayers from wimpy worshipers. Rather, nefarious agendas are thwarted in the teeth of specific, focused, and intense prayers directed with spiritual precision to the very core of diabolical forces.

We need not be shy about being real with God, even with praying imprecatory prayers. There really are people in this world, maybe even in your own life, that have malicious intent against you or others. Our job is not personal revenge, but to entrust ourselves to the God who fights for the poor, the oppressed, and the needy against the arrogant and the powerful. Let your prayers reflect your life.

With no cursing of evil, our emotional pain and spiritual anger come out sideways in an unkind sort of “snarky-ness” toward each other. What I am proposing is that our terrible hurt and our rage needs to be acknowledged and voiced.

Our bitterness must have an outlet, not directed toward one another, but toward the evil itself – and even toward God because God is big enough to handle our rage, whereas other humans are not.

Victimization needs a voice, and a bit of raging and cursing is the means to do it. Giving voice to our deep anger is cathartic and therapeutic. Our speech needs to be congruent with the intensity of our pain because where there are no valued words of assault for victims, the risk of hurting each other becomes much higher.

Despair with no voice and no one to hear will eventually transition to harming others.

Spiritual problems require spiritual implements to solve. And the imprecatory psalms are a major tool for pushing back the dark forces of this world. They are a significant means of spiritual assertiveness against heinous acts, acerbic words, systemic evil, depraved people, and horrible circumstances.

God’s wrath is an expression of God’s love because God is not okay with evil taking root in the lives and institutions of humanity.

Prayer is our privilege of coming to the God who upholds justice and righteousness. For if God is for us, who can be against us?