Thoughts going in, Sun Sep 5th

Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you." 3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter ; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 "Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. 11 "So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds."


At the national level, it seems to me that this text intersects with our lives on two possible fronts.

#1 has to do with verse 8: “if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.” There is wide-spread thinking among American Christians today that God looks upon the people of the earth according to national boundaries, and that there is a ‘civil righteousness’ expectation on the part of God that, if present, will either merit God’s material blessings; or, if absent, will merit God’s temporal judgment. Invariably those who hold to this belief turn to passages from the Old Testament (such as this one) for support for their position. As an aside, I would simply say that they MUST turn to Old Testament passages, for there is simply nothing in the New Testament that would support such thinking.

That in itself should give us pause. Why is there nothing in the new testament to support this ‘temporal/nationalistic gospel-of-sorts’ thinking? The answer is: because the New Testament is the revelation of God that he is DONE interacting with humanity through a “chosen nation.” The purpose of the chosen nation (Israel) was to provide a lineage for the Messiah. We are now beyond that point. God now intersects with humanity APART from national boundaries and based solely on account of grace through faith in His Messiah. There is no “other gospel.” There is decidedly no such thing as a nationalistic temporal gospel whereby a group of people known as a particular country can “please God” in a civil-righteousness sense—without faith in His Messiah. We frequently hear: “if God doesn’t judge America, then He owes Sodom & Gomorrah an apology.” But this is not true (and who are we to say what God owes to whom?). God does not relate to humanity via national boundaries today in the sense that he did prior to the birth of the Messiah. And even then, everything was for a PURPOSE. We have no record of God raining down judgment on whatever indigenous pagan tribes populated North and South America, or Africa, or Europe, or any other place during the Old Testament era. Yet there is every reason to believe that the tribes of those places were just as pagan as any of the tribes we do encounter in the Old Testament. The difference is that everyone we encounter in the Old Testament has something to do with God’s covenant people Israel (or the patriarchs who precede Israel).

So when we read in this passage that God is going to build nations up and/or pull them down, it must be understood to be entirely within the context of HIS PLAN to interact with a separate/distinct nation of people (Israel) for the purpose of maintaining their distinct identity as a people consecrated to Him for the eventual birth of the Messiah. It's ALL for the purpose of God's saving work in Christ and marching *toward it. The thinking that it’s possible for a nation to impress God with its civil righteousness by keeping, or doing their best to keep the moral law (not killing, stealing, committing adultery etc.), totally apart from saving faith in Christ, is mistaken. As if God would say: “very well, you won’t go to heaven when you die, but I’m pretty impressed with how well you’re keeping my Law, so I’ll shower you with material blessings now.” If you can find that in the teachings of Jesus or the Apostles, I’m all ears. Otherwise, you’ve got 2 gospels on your hands….one for the salvation of your soul, and one for the salvation of your American dream.

#2 has to do with not only the entire passage, but pretty much the entire book of Jeremiah, and the idea that national calamities are ALWAYS to be seen as the judgment of God in action. This works closely with #1. The thinking goes like this: since God’s expectation is civil righteousness totally apart from faith in Christ; and since this expectation follows our national boundaries here on earth; it stands to reason that a calamity that strikes a particular nation (or place within that nation) is God’s hand of judgment against that people; because this is how it happened to Jerusalem and the people of Jeremiah’s day. The last time this sort of thing was heard in recent memory had to do with Hurricane Katrina and the massive destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. The area, it was said, was a den of iniquity simply begging for judgment. Oh, and of course, who could forget Pat Robertson’s commentary that the earthquake(s) in Haiti also qualified as God’s judgment because they had made a pact with the Devil.

In response to THIS thinking, two things must be pointed out.
First, God is not the ONLY power in the world. God created this world as a perfect paradise, but according to Genesis we no longer live in the world that God created. We live in the world WE created thanks to our rebellion against God and the resulting FALL. St. Paul says in Romans 8 that the WHOLE creation groans in travail. Sometimes this groaning takes the form of violent activity: earthquakes; tornadoes; hurricanes; and innocent men, women, children, and fluffy little kittens get hurt or die. That doesn’t mean God is judging them per se; it may only mean that they had the great misfortune to live in an area where the creation was groaning because of the cosmic fall that occurred so long ago. The groaning creation constitutes a very potentially deadly and indiscriminate power. The forces of evil also constitute a power on earth. St. Paul also says in Eph chapter 6 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Why should an outbreak of Ebola be laid at God’s feet as his judgment against a particular group of people, when “the powers of this dark world” could easily (and more likely) have done it?

But the other thing that must be point out about this quick-draw labeling of disaster as “God’s judgment” is this: the **ONLY** reason Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem knew that their destruction was God’s judgment is because GOD’S PROPHET TOLD THEM SO. “Thus says the LORD,”…is how Jeremiah always began his oracles. In the absence of THUS SAYS THE LORD, we just don’t know and cannot say. Indeed, it’s the pinnacle of arrogance to pompously sit back and label this or that disaster of our age to have been the result of God’s judgment.

I heartily recommend the book “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Dr. Greg Boyd if you’d like to learn more about these things.


cheers,

TM