Know, then, that not a word the LORD has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The LORD has done what he announced through his servant Elijah. – 2 Kings 10:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 15, 2019): 2 Kings 10

The 1970s and 80s comedy television series M*A*S*H was known for its poignant moments. And one of them was first aired on February 8, 1982. The episode was entitled “A Holy Mess” and it chronicled the story of a troubled AWOL soldier taking sanctuary with Father Mulcahy in the Mess Tent, the eating area, that served on Sundays as the company church. With officers on the outside of the Mess Tent clamoring to get their hands on the AWOL soldier, Father Mulcahy declares the Mess Tent to be a holy place of worship, and therefore a sanctuary where the soldiers on the outside are not allowed to enter. The episode chases the idea of sanctuary, and what is needed to exercise sanctuary. Colonel Potter knows his priest and is willing to let the plan play out, but in the end the Mess Tent is declared to be just a place for eating, and not a sanctuary because it is not permanent. Mulcahy reacts against the decision. M is for Mobile and nothing in the camp is permanent.

It is at that moment that the sanctuary claiming soldier grabs a gun and points it at the Father. Mulcahy is irate. How dare anyone violate the sanctuary of God by aiming a gun at another person. The priest bravely stares down the soldier, walking into the barrel of the rifle that is pointed at Mulcahy’s chest. The soldier had used God when it benefited him and then threw him away when God was no longer convenient. The moral of the story is summed up by one line of Father Mulcahy’s dialogue. The priest tells the soldier that “a faith of convenience is a hollow faith.” The soldier collapses, sobbing in the priest's arms while Mulcahy gently says, “I know, I know.”

But Mulcahy’s words have stayed with me. “A faith of convenience is a hollow faith.” There is nothing untrue that Jehu tells the people in this passage. Elijah did prophecy that disaster would fall on the house of Ahab. God, speaking through Elijah, declared that “I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free” (1 Kings 21:21). The people are absolved from the killing of the innocent children of Ahab, just as Jehu declares that he is innocent of the atrocity. The murder of the innocents is something that “God has done.” But while the words might be valid, the problem is that Jehu really doesn’t care. He has no intention of following the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is just that, in this situation, the prophecy of Elijah, speaking the words of God, is convenient. God's words, in this case, absolve Jehu of any guilt.

But that is a hollow faith. And unlike the soldier in Mulcahy’s Mess Tent, Jehu has no intention of apologizing for anything that comes next. He will use the words of God when they are convenient and discard them when they are not. His faith is hollow, and therefore it cannot save either him or Israel.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 11