Today's Scripture Reading (May 18, 2020): Ezekiel 23
Why do your friends
like you and want to spend time around you? What does it mean to be a friend? In
our culture, the reality is that most of our friendships are often
transactional; I am your friend because of what I can get from you. We call it
networking, and the friendships we invest in are often the ones from which we believe
we can gain a tangible benefit. And it always has been that way. When Jesus
tells the story of the Lost Son, part of the story is about the unconditional
love of the father, who searches the horizon for the return of his son every
day, and the conditional friendship that the son experiences during his journey
into society. The son had friends as long as he had the money to keep the party
going, but once the money disappeared, so did the friendships. And the story of
Job tells a similar story. Yes, the friends of Job came to him after he had
lost everything, but they came to explore Job's sin and prove that they were
more moral and more a friend of God than Job could possibly be.
The idea of
conditional friendship was a reality in the history of Judah. Continually,
Judah had made friendships with the nations that existed around her, only to
see them come back to do her harm. She was used and then tossed aside as her
lovers pursued other goals, and as Judah had nothing more that they could offer
their temporary friends.
And in this allegory
about two prostitutes, God calls Jerusalem, Oholibah. The meaning behind the
name is "my tabernacle is within her." The name carries a reminder of
the great blessing that God had placed within her walls. And yet it was not God
to whom the city had cried out. Jerusalem continued to give herself to the
foreign powers who only wanted to take advantage of her, rather than to God,
who had the nation's best interests in mind.
And in the
past, Jerusalem had cheated on God only to come rushing back in hard times and
experience his salvation. But this time, salvation was not coming. Just as
Judah had experienced transactional friendships with the nations in whom they
had placed their trust, so Judah had treated God the same way. Rather than enjoying
the blessings that God intended for them, they had chased away the prophets
that God had sent and pursued other nations and other gods, believing that somehow
these other nations would give them more than God ever would. The country who
refused to provide true friendship to their God, also never received real
friendships from the ones that they pursued.
And now
there was a price to be paid.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: 2 Kings 25
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