Idols on Fire

Luke 21:5-6

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

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Burn down the mission, Lord,
If we're gonna stay alive.
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven,
See the red flame light the sky.

"Burn Down the Mission" by Elton John

There is something historical about this bit of scripture from Luke. Something that just gets written off as exaggeration. When we read "not one stone will be left upon another" it's easy to write it off. Well, that is what happened.

When the temple was burned, all of the gold gilding that was on the walls melted. Then it flowed into the deep recesses of the foundation. To get all of the gold, the Roman's slaves would have to remove all of the stones to get the gold that fell into the nooks and crannies and into the foundation. By the end there was not one stone left upon another.

The temple in Jerusalem burned, and it burned so hot that gold ran like water.

The people loved the temple. It was beautiful. It was holy. And in a way it became an idol. To some the temple and the earthly things it stood for were more important than the the Lord who sanctified it. When things get more important than God, they become idols.

What is it that we love? Is it the church building? Is it the stuff inside the building? Let me ask my fellow Presbyterians, is it our polity? Or maybe I should ask was it our old polity? Sometimes, to get past the things we love about God, we have to burn down the mission so that all we have left to love is God.

Everything else can be a guide post, but only the grace and peace of God is our hitching post. Everything else can become an idol. We need to discover our idols and burn them because the last thing we want to hitch our lives to are our idols.

Thwarting the Will of Pharaoh

Exodus 1:15-19

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

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Why; our backs are now against the wall
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage
Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage

"Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys

In the beginning of Exodus, we learn that time had passed. So much time had passed that there wasn't a king in Egypt that remembered Joseph or what he did to save Egypt. Also since the death of Joseph, the Hebrew nation had grown mighty in number. So between forgetting the historic relationship between the two nations and Israel growing mighty in number, Pharaoh worried Israel was becoming "mighty" within his borders. He worried that if the Sons of Israel had become too mighty that they would conquer Egypt, and that's no position a monarch wants to be in.

So what did he do? He demanded the infant sons of the nation of Israel be slain by the midwives while their mothers were on their birth stools. How nasty is that? Pharaoh expected the midwives to use the knives which would cut the umbilical cord to slit the newborn's throat. Pharaoh expected the midwives to wrap the umbilical cord around the throat of the boys and strangle them. Pharaoh expected the midwives to obey, but they did not.

It's easy to understand their fear, they feared God. Who wouldn't? Slaying a baby immediately after the mother gives birth has got to be among the nastiest, coldest evils a person could ever do. When you see God after this little thing, you'll have some 'splaining to do. It's also quite a tyrant could expect a subject to do this. If the king could expect a midwife to slay a baby it's hard to imagine what else the king is capable of doing. It's easy to understand that they would fear Pharaoh.

They would have been foolish if they hadn't feared God; and they would have been foolish if they hadn't feared Pharaoh. The midwives had two fears, one for each course of action. Each action could have cost them their lives. But there are differences in their fears.

Fearing Pharaoh they could die. Lying to the king is never a way to make friends and influence policy. They could have died. Once.

Fearing God, they feared the one who could take their life and so much more. In the end they chose to fear the One who could give them life as well as take it away. They feared the One who gives life, and because they did they were rewarded with children of their own.

Listen all of y'all it's a sabotage! Because the midwives chose to thwart the will of the King of Egypt, because they chose to sabotage the will of Pharaoh they saved the lives of many Hebrew boys, including one we know as Moses. Le chiam to the sisters who helped preserve the law.

The Source of Wisdom

Ephesians 1:17-19

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

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I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on sailor

"Sail on Sailor" recorded originally by The Beach Boys. This version features Brian Wilson with Matthew Sweet and Darius Rucker.

Paul has a well developed theology of wisdom. This is extended in his greeting to the Ephesians praying that they may be given a spirit of wisdom from the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't want them to be wiser in the ways of the world, he wants them to receive only the good gifts of God.

Paul's hope has never changed either, that we all increase in wisdom, but there's a lot more of the earthly variety of smarts out there today than there was 2,000 years ago. Paul would be amazed that the wealth of human wisdom is now doubling at a rate of every ten years, and soon will be down to doubling every two. He would be amazed at things like the internet to store and share human knowledge. Amazed, but not impressed.

So much stuff and so little of it wrapped around wisdom that matters. As the old song goes, we ride the unsettled ocean of intelligence, not wisdom. Sometimes it's restful, more often it's frightened, unenlightened deep commotion. There is so much commotion that our choices are to sail through or get swamped. Both Brian Wilson and the Apostle Paul knew about this from their many journeys.

So we are to seek God's wisdom, not the wisdom of the world. Facts are the junk food of wisdom, God's word is bread for our life's journey. We seek this gift so that our hearts may be enlightened knowing the hope of God's glorious wisdom; these riches Paul calls the inheritance of the saints. This is the gift for all who receive God's wisdom.