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Worthy is the Lamb (Leviticus #1)

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INTRODUCTION

First, why Leviticus? It’s one of those portions of God’s Word that can be challenging to modern Christians. But Leviticus is where the Second Greatest Commandment is taken from (Lev. 19:18). In some ways you might organize the whole book under the headings of the First and Second Great Commandments: Love God: Lev. 1-17, Love Your Neighbor Lev. 18-27. We live in a world that has attempted to redefine love as mere sentiment and feeling (although that is changing), but the law is how God taught us to love Him and one another when we were young in the covenant (cf. Gal. 4:2-4, 1 Jn. 5:3). Related is also one of the great themes of Leviticus, which is holiness. Peter quotes from Leviticus in his letter: “Be holy as I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). And Hebrews says that without holiness no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). We are still called to be a holy people, and Leviticus was our Elementary School training in holiness.

Here in Leviticus 1 we are introduced to the most common sacrifice and the central invitation from the Lord for sinners to draw near to Him with hearts sprinkled clean, which is most pleasing to Him, a sweet-smelling aroma.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish…” (Lev. 1:1-17)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This first chapter explains the burnt/ascension offering and gives three examples: the first describes the offering of a bull (1:2-9), the second describes the offering of a sheep or goat (1:10-13), and the third describes the offering of doves or pigeons (1:14-17). For the first two, the bull, sheep, or goat must be a male, without blemish (1:3, 10). The animal is brought to the door of the tabernacle, the worshiper lays his hand upon the head of the animal, and the worshipper is to kill the animal himself (1:3-6, 11-13). In the case of the dove or pigeon, the worshipper would cleave the wings of the bird (1:16-17). The priests were responsible for sprinkling the blood around the altar (1:5, 11, 15) and for putting the pieces of the sacrifice on the altar (1:8, 13, 15, 17). Finally, in all three, the offering is described as an offering by fire, a sweet savor to the Lord (1:9, 13, 17).

CORBAN & DRAWING NEAR

Literally, the text says that if an “Adam” will “draw near” with a “drawing near,” he should “draw near” with a “drawing near” of the herd and of the flock (1:2). The first thing to note is that the whole sacrificial system goes back to the Garden of Eden, where God stationed Cherubim with flaming swords at the entrance after Adam sinned (Gen. 3:24), setting up one of the great problems of the Bible: how can man drawn near to their Maker? The answer is: through a flaming sword. The word for “a drawing near/offering” is “corban.” This is the word that Jesus uses in the gospels when He rebukes the Pharisees for allowing their traditions to run right over the clear Word of God (Mk. 7:11). The fifth commandment said, “honor your father and mother,” which includes caring for them and providing for them in their old age, but the Pharisees said if someone gave what they were going to use to support their parents to the temple, they were exempt. The descendants of Adam have a terrible habit of imitating King Saul, thinking that we can modify God’s commands, but obedience is better than sacrifice, and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:22-23). We make excuses for our sin by pointing at other good things we have done. But all disobedience is disobedience. Related to this, is the age-old hypocrisy of seeking to draw near to God in worship with your lips, while your heart is far from the Lord (Is. 29:13, Mt. 15:8). But we are always lifting our hearts up to the Lord.

A CONTINUAL ASCENSION OFFERING

The name “burnt offering” or “whole burnt offering” is not really a great translation. It is called this because the whole animal is put on the altar and burned, but the word literally means “going up” or “ascension,” and therefore would be better translated “ascension offering.” The word that is used for “burn” (cf. 1:9) literally means “turn into smoke,” which seems to highlight the same point. The action is not merely in the destruction of the animal, but rather in its transformation into smoke to ascend to God, Who receives it as a sweet-smelling aroma. This is the most common sacrifice offered at the tabernacle and temple, the morning and evening sacrifice, that constituted the “continual” sacrifice of praise (Ex. 29:42, Num. 28:3-10ff).

“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor” (Eph. 5:2). And he immediately adds: “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks” (Eph. 5:3-4). Clearly this does not mean that we cannot say those words because then Paul would be breaking his own rule. No, the point is that we should be so careful to avoid those sins that we cannot be accused of being guilty of them, and the Bible says that this is how we walk in love, as Christ loved us. This is a sweet-smelling savor.

CONCLUSIONS

We will no doubt come back to this passage as we consider all of the sacrifices, but the ascension offering reminds us of the command to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service and “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom. 12:1-2).

The ascension offering reminds us that God wants all that we are consecrated wholly to Him. Everything goes on His altar. He claims all that we are. Christ is our head, our substitute, who went into the fire of God’s wrath first for us, but if we are His body, we must follow Him into the fire. However, if we are in Him, it is no longer a fire a judgment but a fire of purification and transformation. He is bending, breaking, burning, and blowing upon our lives until they shine.

This is what Christian “headship” is. In contrast to many of our political leaders, Christian leaders must not ask of their people anything that they are not already doing themselves. We follow Christ because He laid His life down for us. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

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The Songs of Zion

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INTRODUCTION

A striking feature of heaven-born reformations is a restoration of Biblical worship, and from this fountain springs psalms & hymn of praise. In our time, we face a similar need to restore biblically ordered worship to the church. This means going to the Word, not our preferences, to determine how to bring the glory due His name. The overwhelming instruction in Scripture is to give glory. All too often we give mass-produced nonsense. Nowhere is this more evident than in the prevailing approach to music in our corporate worship services.

THE TEXTS

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness (1 Chron. 16:29).

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isa. 35:10).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As David brought the Ark into Jerusalem after it had been in exile for over a hundred years, we’re provided with a de- tailed description of everything from the utensils, to the divisions of the Levites, to the sacrifices offered. While the ex- pected thank-offerings are made, a new offering is described. That new offering stands out like a successful trick play at a football game. The chronicler describes this new offering which David arranges: a sacrifice of song. David has composed a psalm to sing and then arranges Levitical choirs to sing it. In that Psalm––among other things––the saints of God are called to “give glory”and to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”The glory can be embodied in both volume & quality (Ps. 33:3, 98:4). We’re repeatedly summoned to make a loud & joyful noise accompanied with the understand- ing of faith. There’s no shushing of the heavenly choir. This reformation of worship which David led by establishing the tabernacle of Zion as the center of Israel’s worship should be seen as the OT’s high-point.

Zion was the stronghold of David, which is where the tabernacle of David was erected and where the Ark was brought. The offerings in the tabernacle of David were primarily offerings of song (at David’s time, animal sacrifices primarily took place in Gibeah, until Solomon’s temple was constructed).

Skipping ahead a few centuries, Isaiah’s vision presents a scene of redeemed and restored saints ascending to Zion with songs and everlasting joy (Is. 35:10). Though the threat of judgement loomed over Judah, the promise behind it was that God would restore His people to Zion, and they would come singing merry songs.

All of this (both David’s reformation of emphasizing song in Israel’s worship, and Isaiah’s vision of the Restored Israel) anticipates that Messiah’s courts would be filled with songs from both Jews & Gentiles. As one commentator points out, whereas the Tabernacle of Moses was filled with a cloud of smoke, the Temple of Christ is filled with a cloud of song.

THE SONG OF MOSES

After great OT victories, it is the songs that are recorded in detail, whereas the details of thank offerings are oftentimes either passed over entirely, or very briefly described. Not only that, but the battles themselves often receive only the con- cise description: “the Lord wrought a great victory.” When God grants victory, the people sing. The songs are recorded so that we too might join the chorus of God’s saints and remember back to Jehovah how He has delivered His people in times past in hope that His mighty arm will once more be bared to deliver us in our present conflicts and in future battles.

After Pharaoh and his army were defeated at the Red Sea, Moses & Miriam (Ex. 15:1ff ) led Israel in celebratory songs of praise. Moses again leads Israel in song after the 40 years of wandering, as they look to begin the conquest of Ca- naan (Deu. 32:1-43). Deborah & Barak ( Jdg. 5:1ff ) sang of the Lord’s deliverance of His people from the Canaanites. Hannah prayed a pray which rings with poetic glory, as she rejoiced over her rival (1 Sam. 2:1). David’s reformation was a profound incorporation of this musical tradition as a fixed feature of the worship of the Lord. Generations later, Jehosaphat famously sent the Levitical choirs which David had originally organized as the vanguard in a battle with Judah’s enemies (2 Chr. 20).

There is a curious note in Rev. 15:3 that the saints who overcame the beast sing in joy for their victory. And what they sing is the song of Moses. John’s vision invites us to see that Christ has delivered his people once more from Egypt (un- believing Jerusalem), while preparing them to conquer the land (by bringing Heavenly Jerusalem everywhere they go).

Notice the pattern. God grants a deliverance, God’s people start singing. We not only see this throughout the OT, but after Pentecost and in early church history we see songs of praise to Christ being composed (Cf. Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15- 20, 1Tim 3:16, Heb 1:1-3, 1 Jn. 2:12-14, and 1Pet 2:21-25) and sung heartily (Cf. Rev. 5:8-14), even in the face of fierce persecution.

MISMATCHED MUSIC

There’s a modern tendency, especially in Christian circles, to assume that the music is interchangeable, and merely a matter of preference. None of us would dare break into a yodeled polka tune at a funeral; nor would we think a death metal song appropriate for a bridal procession.

We want our music to rhyme with the truths they proclaim.Thus joyful reverence is the tone.Trying to cram the eternal glories of the Triune God into the tin can of pop-music is a fools errand. Monosyllabic la-la’s set to pop melodies don’t compare to Watt’s skillful poetry paired with the harmonic glories of Bach. Our music, whether we acknowledge it or not, is part of a larger battle. Is there objective truth and beauty? The brilliant ordering of notes into melodic patterns with thrilling harmonies stacked on top is an arrow in our quiver that should not be tossed aside.

WITH SKILL AND UNDERSTANDING

A visitor could attend our services for a year and be unaware of our primary distinctives (i.e. Reformed, postmillennial- ism, etc.). But on their first Sunday they’ll be confronted with our musical priorities. But let me state explicitly what our music states implicitly. We aim to be a mighty choir belting out Psalms of God’s faithfulness and songs of God’s grace to us in Christ.

To get there, however, we must not begin with musical literacy, that should come after. A musical reformation must begin with evangelical faith. We understand and know that the Son of God has come, and we are in Him (1 Jn. 5:20). That is the key signature that dictates the rest of our musical endeavors. While we should strive to learn our parts, raise our children to be musically skillful, it must spring from Gospel joy and every song must conclude with a faith-filled “Amen.”

THE SON OF DAVID SINGING THE SONGS OF DAVID

The pitch-note, then, of our Lord’s Day worship is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We aren’t aiming to have the Reformed Evangelical equivalent to the Vienna Boys Choir or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nor do we want to mindlessly just go along with whatever the record companies decide we should prefer.

Biblical worship is not a job for those people “up there” to do; whether they’re an ornately robed priest muttering Latin, or a ripped-jeans worship band with a gnarly bassist. Biblical worship is the righteous work of Christ alone. Yet since we are in Him, we come by Him to offer glory. This service of worship is the work of Christ’s body, the church. You cannot worship God rightly if you do not come to Him by the Son. We come to God, clothed in the righteousness of the Son of David to sing the psalms of David. As one hymnist said, “So come to the Father, through Jesus the Son.”

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The Prophecy of Micah #6

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INTRODUCTION

The consolation section of the second cycle is long, encompassing two whole chapters—chapters four and five. We will therefore be working through this section over the course of a few weeks.

Remember that Micah was a younger contemporary of Isaiah, and was probably his disciple or protégé. His dependence on Isaiah can be seen in our text this morning, in the passage about beating swords into plowshares.

THE TEXT

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, That the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; And people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; And none shall make them afraid: For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Micah 4:1–5).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So what will happen in the “last days”? We come now to a word of consolation for the faithful. All the warnings and judgments will fall upon Israel and Judah, but what should the faithful Jews cling to? After all the judgments, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established, above the hills, and people will flow there (v. 1). Many nations will stream to the mountain of the Lord, and they will encourage one another to do so. Let us go there, and learn obedience (v. 2). The elevation of Zion is a figure of speech indicating that the throne of the God of Jacob will be established there. Jehovah will rule, judging many people, governing strong nations, and they will not learn war anymore (v. 3). They will beat their swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks (v. 3). No longer will a man lock his house at night, and no longer will men have to lock their cars (v. 4). Men can sit under their own vines and fig trees without fear of danger. The mouth of God has spoken it (v. 4). The next verse looks back over the whole process of this happening. It will not happen all at once—there will be a time when the nations will continue to walk in the names of their gods, but the faithful will walk in the name of their Lord and God forever and ever (v. 5).

FULFILLMENT IN THE CHRIST

We know that this consolation is fulfilled in and through the Messiah because later in this section we find the prophecy that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2).

We can also ascertain this by comparing Micah with his mentor Isaiah. Our text this morning is basically a verbatim citation from Isaiah 2: 2-4. But what will happen according to Isaiah in these last days, and when are these last days? In Romans, Paul defends his mission to the Gentiles by citing a battery of Old Testament passages (Rom. 15:9-12), the last of which is Isaiah 11:10.

But the verse just before it (Is. 11:9) says that the earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And then what?

“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek: And his rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).

In that day, the day when the earth is filling up with the knowledge of the Lord, Paul will be defending his mission to the Gentiles.

CONSOLATION FOR THE FAITHFUL

God always reserves a remnant for Himself, and when they are done listening to Micah’s fulminations, they might be quite dismayed. And so Micah turns to reassure them that it all has a point—all the drama of the Old Testament era, all these judgments, and the vast expanse of blue ruination have a telos. God is up to something, and what He is up to is the coming of the Christ.

HOW IT ENDS, HOW IT GOES

Those who love God and His law want Him to come down in one fell swoop, and start taking names.

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1).

We look at the high impudence of man, and we know how insolent it is, and so we are often exasperated with how patient God is. And so God reminds us that His sovereignty extends over more than just ethics. He is the sovereign of time and of history. He tells us not to steal and commit adultery, but He also tells us to wait patiently as He defers judgment.

He defers judgment in His mercy. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8–9). Where would you have been if God had listened to all the saints and ended the world two years before your conversion?

As this is developing, the peoples will walk in the name of their gods (v. 5). Let them. The time is coming when they will be jostling each other to get to the mountain of the Lord (v. 2). They will be taught, and will walk in obedience (v. 2), and they will be obedient to the point where the nations will study war no more (v. 3). God has said it (v. 4).

THE MOUTH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS HAS SPOKEN

Jehovah has spoken it. This is going to come to pass. But when Yahweh speaks, what does He say? What is the Word of God? The gospel answer is that Christ is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). That Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

The spoken Word that conquers everything is Christ. Christ is the crucified Word, and He is the buried Word. He is the Word that rose from the dead, and who sits at the right hand of the one who speaks a new world into existence. And as He speaks, that new creation takes shape. But only in Him, only in Christ.

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The Prophecy of Micah #5

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INTRODUCTION

We begin the second cycle of prophetic ministry from the great prophet Micah. Remember that he ministered over the course of forty years or so, and yet was able to summarize his message in these seven short chapters. That is probably one of the reasons why his words are so potent.

In this second cycle, the words of warning and the words of judgment are combined, and so the next message will go straight to the words of consolation.

THE TEXT

“And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron . . .” (Micah 3:1–12)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Micah begins by addressing the civil rulers. Hear, oh you heads and princes. Shouldn’t you understand judgment (v. 1)? But instead you have inverted everything, hating the good and loving evil (v. 2). Instead of feeding your people, you feed on them. You flay them, you pull the flesh off their bones in order to eat it, you break their bones, and chop them up in pieces so that they might fit in your cauldrons (vv. 2-3). When they get in trouble, and cry out to Jehovah, He will be merciless to those who have been merciless (v. 4). He will turn away His face. The prophets who spoke lying words, who would bite with their words while mouthing peace, plotting their war again Jehovah, what will come of them (v. 5)? Instead of a vision, their night will be pitch black. The sun will go down on their prophecies, and they will minister in darkness (v. 6). Their seers and diviners will be abashed, and will have no answer from God (v. 7).

But Micah was ready to stand against them all. He was filled of Jehovah’s power, and fully ready to declare the sin and transgression of Jacob and Israel both (v. 8). Hear this word, you princes who twist everything (v. 9). You seek to build your city on the foundation of blood and iniquity (v. 10), which is why it will come to nothing. Your judges look for bribes, your priests are hirelings, and your prophets are willing to see visions for a fee (v. 11). Is it any wonder that everything is corrupted? Even so, your will dare to claim the presence and protection of Jehovah (v. 11b). And this is the reason why Zion will be plowed under. It is the reason why Jerusalem is going to be transformed into heaps of rubble. The mount of the house (i.e. the Temple) will be like the high places of the forest, meaning that trees will grow there (v. 12).

Some years later, when Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple of the Lord would be laid flat like Shiloh (Jer. 26:6, 9), the priests and prophets and people gathered against Jeremiah to kill him. The princes of the land refused to kill Jeremiah, and the elders of the land defended him by pointing to this verse from Micah (Jer. 26:18; Mic. 3:12).

MORAL INVERSION

Isaiah pronounces a judgment on those who invert all the basic moral categories (Is. 5:20). Micah charges the rulers of both kingdoms with a gross dereliction of their duty—weren’t you supposed to know what justice is (v. 1)? But instead of that, you have decided to hate what is good, and to embrace what is evil.

This is an inescapable reality. There is no way for rulers abandon good in order to adopt a studied neutrality. There is no such neutrality. To decide to celebrate wickedness is therefore a decision to persecute those who testify that your deeds are evil.

CRUELTY & ITS PRETENSES

Their rhetoric and their stock photos are all about normal, happy people, and the cry goes up that we should coexist, and love everybody, and make no distinctions, no exceptions. You have seen the bumper stickers.

But it always ends in blood (v. 10). At the first they keep up the pretense, but a time eventually comes when all the hot bile of their hatred comes pouring out. They flay their victims. They crush their bones. They chop the meat of their people up, and then stuff their stew kettles full. They despise the people they rule over. And as they are shepherds who feed only themselves (Eze. 34:2), the time necessarily comes when they feed on the flocks—instead of feeding the flocks.

AVARICE IS WHERE IT BEGINS

The mission of those who love the law of God is to uphold justice, and the only basis for justice, which is the holy character of God. When rulers—whether princes, judges, prophets, priests—decide that the first thing is to “get ahead,” it is not long before they are pursuing mammon instead of justice. The heads judge for reward (v. 11). The priests will teach you about the grace of God for a sum (v. 11). The prophets will give you a word from God if you cross their palms (v. 11). What is the end result of all such mercenary ministry? The end result is that all true justice is abhorred (v. 9), and the meaning of equity is distorted beyond all recognition (v. 9). This should not surprise us. We live in a time when words like justice, and equity, and reconciliation, and love is love is love derive all their definitions from the lexicons of Hell. And it all began with mammon.

INEXORABLE JUSTICE

But God is hard to those who are hard. God is merciless to the merciless, and those who love their cruelties drag a host of cruelties down upon their own heads.

God put no words in the mouths of these characters (v. 5), so they come up with the word peace all by themselves (v. 5). But while they speak that word with their mouths, they also bite with that same mouth (v. 5), and they war against God. Very well, then. God will return fire (vv. 6-7).

THE COURAGE OF MICAH

On one side were arrayed regiments of falsehood and unbelief, and on the other side was Micah. Micah was clothed in power, judgment, and might, and this enabled him to tell both nations what their sin was. He was equipped to do this without a spirit of timidity. His message was not an “it seems to me” message, but rather a “thus saith the Lord” message. And is this not what our diseased generation needs to hear? Hear the Words of God, you sinners.

CONSOLATION COMING

In the text of Micah, we will come to the consolation in our next message. That consolation, that salvation, comes through Christ and only through Christ. But before we come to that point, we need to let the message of this chapter settle down into our bones. We tend to have shallow views of Christ because we have shallow views of our sin. We heal the wound lightly, saying peace, peace, when there is no peace (Jer. 8:11). We want a slightly damp Jesus-washcloth that we can use to dab around the edge of our wound. But the wound is deep, and gangrenous, and self-inflicted, and we are entirely unconscious, and only the grace of God can admit us into His ICU—a place where He makes all the decisions. Our condition is indeed desperate. In fact, the image of an ICU patient is too weak—we are actually dead (Eph. 2:1-2).

But Christ is the resurrection and the life.

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Idols and Tyranny

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INTRODUCTION

One of the reasons we have trouble dealing realistically with evil in this world is that we have drawn mental cartoons of the evil beforehand. When someone says “tyranny,” we think of goose-stepping armies, missile parades, and funny looking helmets. But then, when something genuinely bad happens in our own lives, and we see it with our own eyes, because it doesn’t match the cartoon we treat it as an anomaly, a one-off occurrence . . . a thing we don’t have a category for. But we need to have a category for something this common.

I am a child of the Cold War, and my first glimpse of an actual communist country taught me this lesson. The lesson should be “don’t fight the caricature—fight the real thing.” In the early seventies the submarine I was on was pulling into Guantanamo Bay, and when I came topside I was astonished and taken aback because this commie land was emerald green. Bright green. But all my childhood images of communist countries resembled something like a grainy black and white newspaper photo of Budapest in the rain.

THE TEXT

“And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it . . .” (Judg. 6:25–32).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Earlier in this chapter, an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and told him that he would be the instrument for saving Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. After his interaction with that angel, that same night the Lord spoke to Gideon and told him to use his father’s bullock to tear down his father’s altar to Baal, along with the grove next to it (v. 25). The groves were part of the way the idols were set apart as holy. They would have to have been planted, and tended, and cultivated. Idol worship does not occur in fits of absent-mindedness.

Gideon was then to take the bullock and sacrifice it on an altar to God, using wood from the grove he cut down (v. 26). Gideon took ten of his servants and did it at night, and presumably that night (v. 27). The men of the town arose in the morning, and discovered that a reformation had occurred while they were sleeping (v. 28). They made inquiries and found out that Gideon was the culprit (v. 29). The men of the town told Joash (whose altar it was) to bring out Gideon to be executed for the sacrilege (v. 30). This shows that Gideon’s family had significant influence—their altar in some way “belonged” to the town. Joash turned the tables—how dare you defend Baal! Defending Baal should be a capital crime. Shouldn’t he be able to defend himself (v. 31)? So Joash then named Gideon Jerubbaal, which means “let Baal contend.”

THE ARCHETYPICAL PATTERN

This incident records a pattern which happens in Scripture again and again. When the people serve the true God, they live under His blessing. When they veer off into the worship of false gods, they come under His chastisement. We have countless historical examples of this pattern in Scripture, but we are also taught this truth as being proverbially true. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Prov. 29:2). This means that the pattern remains a pattern down to the present. Being ruled by rebellious fools is never a picnic.

THE VENDING MACHINE PROBLEM

Wisdom in this world largely consists of learning how to read cause and effect. We can only learn to do this right by reading what Scripture teaches us, and then reading that into our lives, our histories, our family stories, our politics, in the light that the reading lamp of Scripture supplies.

This means that causation is not to be read in a simplistic vending machine sort of way—put the money in, and get the product out. God frequently tests the wisdom of our faith by having His causal intervention act very much not like a vending machine. Nevertheless, it is still recognizably causal. What is the causal relationship, for example, for countless hours of piano practice as a child and wining a music competition twenty years later? Is there a causal relationship? Of course, but it is not like putting the 8 ball in the corner pocket.

In short, our choices are not simplistic causation on the one hand, or randomness on the other. Now, with all that said, idolatry causes tyranny.

BACK TO TYRANNY

An abusive marriage is not to be defined as one in which a husband is beating his wife in a non-stop or constant way. Rather, an abusive relationship is one in which the abusive spouse reserves the rightto behave this way, whenever he feels like it. This kind of marital tyranny need not be a 24-7 thing. Often the worst situations are the most erratic, and extended periods of time can pass between explosions. But the relationship is a mess all the time, whether or not something really bad is actually happening right this minute. The thing that makes it a mess is the arbitrary and capricious nature of it.

JESUS AND THE TYRANTS

The fundamental Christian confession is this: Jesus is Lord. This confession excludes, of necessity, the equivalent lordship of anything or anyone else. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. If Jesus is Lord, then Mammon is not. If Jesus is Lord, then porn is not. If Jesus is Lord, then ungodly search and seizure raids are not.

When there is no God above the state, the state becomes god—the highest authority in the lives of those governed. When the true God is recognized, then the law becomes stable, something suitable for finite creatures. This is because we become like what we worship. God is immutable, and worshiping Him establishes us in constancy.

The true Christian serves the one who will judge all kings, presidents and emperors at the end of all things, and so the true Christian knows that there is always a court of appeal. We can always say (and must always say) that it is necessary for us to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

One more thing. Jesus established His authority by bleeding. The tyrants establish their authority by blood-letting. Jesus fed the multitudes by the sea, and did this just after the episode where Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and his head was brought out on a serving platter (Mark 6:32). The Lord Jesus feeds the saints of God, while the godless rulers feed on the saints of God.

And this is why our fundamental political activity is that of giving our lives away to one another. This is imitation of Christ, and is truly potent.

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