The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him. – Hosea 12:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 19, 2020): Hosea 11 & 12

I love Soren Kierkegaard’s story of the clown. Kierkegaard says

In a theatre it happened that a fire started off stage. The clown came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and they became still more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be destroyed-amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags who think it is all a joke (Soren Kierkegaard).

The story actually exists in many forms. Some argue that the clown was part of a traveling circus when a fire took hold of the venue. A clown, riding on his bike, goes to a neighboring town to tell the residents to flee before the fire overtakes the population housed there. The residents laugh at the antics of the clown, but no one takes the words seriously. In the end, there was much loss of life, because a clown carried the message.

For Israel, Moses was an unlikely Savior. He really didn’t grow up as a Hebrew; instead, he was educated as an Egyptian. When push came to shove, he left the nation to wander in the wilderness, becoming the son-in-law to a priest of a foreign god. Then, at the age of eighty, he shows up back in Egypt, demanding that the Egyptians “let his people go.” The Egyptians might have well asked, exactly who are ‘your people.’ Is it the Egyptians you have come to free, or those that wander in the wilderness? Or is it these despicable Hebrews that have gained your feeble attention? Moses became an entertainer in Egypt, performing magic tricks for the bored masses. The prophets who followed him often seemed to conform to the same model. Even Hosea, married to an unfaithful wife and the father of children that did not biologically belong to him, was just another clown.

And yet, this was God’s way. A clown had brought them out of Egypt, and a series of clowns had cared for the nation, and the country had written them all off. I mean, can anything important come from the mouth of a clown.

God’s answer has always been yes. Don’t look at the messenger. See me and understand that all of this is me. The messenger is not essential, but the message is. (The coming of Jesus reversed all of this. He was still a clown who entertained the people, often possessing a vast number of followers, but to whom few really listened. But suddenly the messenger was more important than the message.)

In a time before the advent of T.V. and radio, traveling preachers made up a significant percentage of the entertainment menu for small towns and villages. They came with a message, and the people came, not necessarily to hear the word, but rather to be entertained by the preacher. Those of us who dare to step up and speak to the people about this God are still the clowns. But we desperately hope that the message you hear from us comes directly from the throne of God. We may be clowns, but we are his clowns.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 13 & 14