Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. – Psalm 1:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 8, 2013): Psalm 1 & 2

In the television trailer for the latest zombie game “The Last of Us” Ellie explains a bit of what is going to have to be done in the body of the game. Her words are - "He tells me that on this journey you either hang onto your morals and die or do whatever it takes to survive." It is a comment that I admit bothers me more than a little. I mean, I understand it, but I don’t like it – and actually it is very short sighted. An unprincipled approach to life often gives what seems to be the right answer in the short term, but when we take a longer look at the journey we recognize that it is a different response that life requires.

The psalmist describes the righteous man or the one who lives his life according principles as being like a tree planted beside a source of water. It grows strong and unmovable. It might sway in the wind, it might bend, but it would stand firm. In contrast, the wicked does not have that strength. It is like chaff; dry husks that blow in the wind until they are reduced to dust and disappear totally. In the short, the chaff seems to have the right idea, to simply give up its will and allow the wind to take it where it will, but in the end, long after the chaff has crumbled, it is only the tree that has decided to fight against the wind and continues to stand.

The truth is that we need more people that are like the tree. We need more people that are willing to stand up against the wind and refuse to let it take it where it wants to go. And the reality is that when there are enough trees that are willing to stand together – they can change the course of the wind. Chaff never attempts to do that.

For players of the “The Last of Us,” you have an interesting journey ahead of you in the game. Joel comments that at least the zombies are predictable and that it is the normal people that scare him. But in the final frame the game forces you to make an interesting moral choice. One that is in line with the original prediction – “you either hang onto your morals and die or do whatever it takes to survive." The question is this – is it the tree or the chaff that makes the right decision. And in life that is never an easy question, but it is a question that each one of us needs to answer.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 33

There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. – 2 Kings 25:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 7, 2013): 2 Kings 25

The story is told of the early days of Abraham Lincoln’s first term as President. In an unusual picture of humility, a common sight in Springfield was of the President elect making his daily trip to the local post office to pick up his mail. Finally Lincoln arrived at the conclusion that he was in need of help – and with that determination in mind, early in 1861, he hired a young immigrant by the name of John Nicolay to be his private secretary – an office that Nicolay would hold until Lincoln’s assassination four years later in 1865.

Nicolay was alarmed as he started to read the letters that the president was receiving, many of the letters were threats against the newly elected President. Lincoln seemed to be unperturbed. Lincoln was unable to imagine how it could be that political hatred could ever be transformed into an attack that would cause physical harm. Yet, on the evening of his first inauguration, the president elect was sneaking into Washington, while citizens who had planned the first assassination attempt on his life waited for him in Baltimore.

The strategy of killing the leaders of the opposition is an ancient one. And as the saga of the Kingdom of 

Judah ends, that is exactly what happens. In all fairness to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had tried other avenues – but the nation had repeatedly rebelled against his rule. And so as he closes this chapter, he expels the people and kills the leaders, both political and religious, of the nation.

There is an almost eerie lack of emotion as the writer of 2 Kings announces the demise of the nation. A nation that had started with acts of dependence on God and the faith of the people, first with the crossing of the Jordan at its flood stage when the water of the Jordan was the deepest and the swiftest, and then with the miraculous fall of the walled city of Jericho, over eight hundred years later ends with consecutive acts of idolatry, a dependence on other gods, and rebellion. The story of the nation ends. It had started as the story of a people given the honor of reaching the world and making it a better place. It ends as the people are scattered and driven from the land that God had promised to them – all because of their failure to fulfill that very responsibility.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 1 & 2

During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. – 2 Kings 24:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 6, 2013): 2 Kings 24

Necho II reigned in Egypt during a particularly tumultuous time in Egypt. The Babylonian Empire had started its rise to prominence. With the help of the Cimmerians, Scythians, and the Kingdom of Judah, Babylon had shattered the hold that the Assyrians had held previously on the region. Necho wanted to maintain the status quo and avoid the chaos of an Empire struggle in the area, so he sent out a portion of his army to help the Assyrians. Unfortunately, the army he had sent proved to be too small, but he learned his lesson quickly and attacked one more time, this time succeeded. It was a battle that would claim the life of Josiah, the King of Judah.

Leaving a sizable army in the field to protect his assets, Necho returned home and while passing through Judah, he noticed that the people had placed Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, on the throne of Judah. But Necho wanted someone who would be more amenable to Egypt’s purposes in the area. So he removed Jehoahaz from the throne and took him as a captive to Egypt. Jehoahaz would live out the rest of his days as a guest of Necho in Egypt. In his place, Necho placed Jehoahaz’s brother Jehoiakim on the throne in Judah. Jehoiakim paid Egypt tribute money as the price of their freedom, but essentially the nation paid for their alliance with Babylon by becoming a vassal state of Egypt.

But in 605 BCE Nebuchadnezzar replaced his father, who was sick, as the king of the Babylonians. And one of his first acts was to invade Judah, the vassal state of Egypt. And he defeated them and carried off the first installment of captives to Babylon. For the next three years, Judah would be a vassal state tied to Babylon.

But in 601 BCE two significant things happened. The first was the Nebuchadnezzar returned home, leaving a sizable army in Judah, but not his personal presence. The second event was that Necho II of Egypt would make what would be his final attempt at world conquest, starting with Judah. Whether Jehoiakim recognized Necho’s return as a chance to shake off of the bonds of Babylon, or whether Jehoiakim was moved because his brother Jehoahaz was still a captive of Necho in Egypt, Jehoikim rebelled against Babylon. But what Judah did not recognize was that the rise of Nebuchadnezzar at this time in history was an act of God trying to get the attention of his people. It was not really Nebuchadnezzar that Necho and Jehoiakim were struggling against, it was God. And Judah’s continued rebellion would only solidify the hold that Nebuchadnezzar would end up having on the nation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 25

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. – 2 Kings 23:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 5, 2013): 2 Kings 23

I do not generally like Christian movies. For me, they work way too hard to try and get a Christian message across. When the moral lesson becomes the main line of the plot, it feels too much like indoctrination. And on top of all of that, the acting is usually fairly bad. Maybe it is the fault of the script writers, but too often I am sitting in the audience asking the question – would this stretch of dialogue ever really happen. By the way, that is never the question that I ask in watching one of the “Die Hard” movies – or even "Ironman" or "The Avengers" – and I know deep down that none of that is real – but for the two hours I am sitting in the theater, the writers and actors allow me to forget that it is not real.

There are a few shows and movies that are excellent Christian shows, but the miracle is that that is not what they are trying to be. “Blue Bloods” is a great study of Christian (in this case Roman Catholic) life. But the moral lesson is never part of the main plot. The T. V. Show is about a family of police officers – it derives its action and its plot in the common theme of chasing the bad guy. But the Christian moral comes through clear as the family gathers after church for Sunday Dinner, starting with the act of saying grace and then discussing the tough moral decisions that the family has had to make during the week. And the writers and actors slip in the moral so carefully that the viewer seldom even knows that it is happening.

In the same way, the 1970’s movie trilogy “Oh God” contained the same type of teaching about God and about the Devil, who makes an appearance in the final movie of the series. And in that movie, appropriately named “Oh God, You Devil,” we are introduced to a Satan who looks exactly like God and who does his best to imitate God – except in a couple of critical areas. And in this we learn the biblical teaching that our idea of God as a silly man in the red pajama’s is seriously flawed. He is the master deceiver, and he knows that he will get the most traction when he looks like God. But the writers wanted to send us another message and so they give Satan a name in the movie – it is Harry O. Tophet – a name that almost looks like prophet, but the name comes from the place in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Ben Hinnom) and the place of worship was that was called Topheth. Topheth was a place where the children of the nation had been killed in sacrifice to a false God so that the nation could survive. And Josiah recognizes the incredible failure of this practice and he desecrates the altar at Topheth so that no more children could be sacrificed. In the movie “Oh God, You Devil” Harry O. Tophet is on the prowl for another child of God that can be sacrificed to a false ideal and a false pursuit of security and success. And the viewer of the movie receives that message without even recognizing that that was exactly what was intended.

Topheth and The Valley of the Son of Hinnom are called by a different name in the New Testament or Christian Bible. It is Gehenna and is often translated in modern translations as hell. But it is not hell as a mythical place, but rather the memory of a very real place right here on earth. Matthew records these words and places them on the lips of Jesus - Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are (Matthew 23:15.) The literal translation is that the Pharisees would be twice as much a child of Gehenna as they already were. But what we miss in the translation is that the children of Gehenna were all dead. They had been burned alive and the drum had been beaten at Tohpeth so that no one would be able to hear their screams.

And maybe all of this just stresses another thing that we sometimes miss as Christians. Jesus did not come to the earth to miraculously make us good. He died to steal us away from Topheth and make us alive.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 24

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. – 2 Kings 22:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 4, 2013): 2 Kings 22

As an avid amateur political observer, it seems that the most revealing question indicating the success of a political campaign is found in the answer to one question – do I trust you to keep me safe. A potential candidate may have the economic know how to run a nation, they may have the inside track on some of the social issues our country’s face, they may even seem to have taken the moral high ground – but even with all of that in their favor if we do not believe that they are capable of keeping us safe it is unlikely that the candidate will succeed and be elected to political office. It may be that the responsibility to keep the nation safe is the most important task for any politician occupying a position of rule and authority.

Josiah comes to rule the nation of Judah. And there was an expectation that every king would sit down and write out a copy of the law of God. He was expected not to only read the law, but to make a copy for himself, not by having a scribe do the work and hand the finished copy to the king, but the king was expected to sit down and take a writing instrument and a blank scroll and copy it himself – so that he would know what was in the law. Ignorance of the law was not going to be accepted as an excuse for violating the law. Deuteronomy  17 makes this very clear – “When he [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests” (Deuteronomy 17:18.)

It was the Book of Deuteronomy that was likely the book that was found during the reign of Josiah. And it might have been this passage that Josiah had just heard and he realized how he had failed at the task of being king – and ignorance was not going to be accepted as an excuse. And in failing in knowing the law he had failed at his most basic responsibility as king – he had failed to keep the nation safe, as his father before him had failed to keep the nation safe in the twenty-two years of his reign – and as his grandfather had failed to keep the nation safe during the fifty-five years of his reign. And Josiah tore his robes as he repented, not from the sins that he had committed in rebellion, but because of the sins he had committed because he simply did not know.

At the end of the American civil war, the United States placed the phrase “In God We Trust” on their money. It was simply an indication that a nation that had been hurt so badly by a war could only be put back together by God who loved them. And they were right. So we wish our American friends a Happy Independence Day. May your leaders and your God simply keep you safe.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 23

I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. – 2 Kings 21:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 3, 2013): 2 Kings 21

When I was growing up one of the comedies I enjoyed watching was “Hogan’s Heroes.” The show was loosely based on the movie “Stalag 17” – but don’t tell anyone, because apparently no one is supposed to know. And at some point during every show the prisoners are assembled (called out of the barracks and made to stand in a series of lines.) The idea of the lines is so that it is easy to see if someone is missing, and standard military line-ups are characterized by order, but for Hogan and the men, it was disorder that was more likely the result of the line (usually because they were trying to hide the fact that someone was indeed missing.)

In the ancient world, captives doomed for destruction were often measured in a line. In Samria, the captives would have been placed in a series of lines – each line of the same length – and marched out of the city. And it is most likely this act the is being referred to, a way of orderly moving – and recognizing quickly if someone is missing – the captives being moved from place to another. Just as Samaria was measured by such a line and the inhabitants of the city removed, so would Jerusalem be emptied.

But the prophecy also indicates the “plumb line” used against the house of Ahab. While the first line was measuring horizontally, a plumb line has a weight on the end of it and is used to measure something vertically, and the intent would seem to be that while the inhabitants of Jerusalem would be marched out of the city into captivity, the city itself, and possibly even the nation, would be destroyed and removed, just as Ahab’s family was destroyed and removed from the face of the earth.

It was a prophecy that would be realized in relatively short order, although not during the lifetime of Manasseh. But what God had spoken would come to pass. Jerusalem’s time of independence was quickly drawing to a close and, except a brief period during the time of the Maccabeus restoration, that independence would be missing until the restoration of Israel following the Second World War – almost 2500 years later.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 22

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” – 2 Kings 20:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 2, 2013): 2 Kings 20

As long as you are breathing, there is a purpose for you to be here. I really believe that. And having suffered through chronic illness for most of my life, that thought has been very important to me. It is also a thought that has been important as I have talked with people in some sort of pain and who wanted to give up. Not only is there a purpose if you are still alive, but the pain that you may be going through might be part of that purpose. I know, that sounds horrible – but I believe that it is true. As I mentioned, I have suffered through chronic illness all of my life, but part of what that has produced inside of me is a heart for those who are suffering. And the thing is with chronic illness is that we are probably not going to get better, we may have good days, but the periods of recovery are often short. Some people are unable to understand that simple fact. I have had experiences in my life when at the time I was going through the struggle, my question was “God, why?” But every time I came through the struggle my heart was softened and there were people around me that I could understand better.

As long as you are breathing, there is a purpose for you to be here. But sometimes I wonder if we understand that the opposite is also true. Now, I am not saying that people who have died suddenly because of a violent act had reached the end of their purpose. I think that every time someone dies because of an accident, suicide, war or homicide, there is stolen from the society something that is incredibly important for us to move forward. But when life comes to a natural end, purpose is also at an end. And that natural end of a life should be a time of celebration because the purpose has been concluded (hopefully successfully, but that is not guaranteed.)

Hezekiah was raised up as king of Judah for the moment in history when he was able to trust God and stand up against the power of the Assyrian army. And Hezekiah lived up to his moment perfectly. But when the moment was completed, the word came to Hezekiah that it was time for him to die. It was not a message the Hezekiah wanted to hear. So he did what so many of the rest of us have done over the passing years – he pleaded for more time. And God relented. But the reality of Hezekiah’s reign is that during the next fifteen years Hezekiah did nothing but hurt the Kingdom of Judah. If there is a downfall of Hezekiah as king, this is the period in which that downfall occurred.

If there is a moral to the story of Hezekiah, it might be this. Give everything that you have to the life that you are asked to live. Find your purpose and devote your energy into it. But, as harsh as this might sound, do not be afraid of death. For it is simply the reward for a job well done.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 21