Review of 1 Kings: Torn in Two by Alex Israel

1 Kings: Torn in Two, by Alex Israel. Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2013. Pp 350. $29.95 (Hardcover)

1 Kings is the second volume in the Maggid Studies in Tanakh series, and both works have proven to be clear written and insightful approaches to the portions of the Hebrew Scriptures that they address. Rabbi Alex Israel’s skillful opening of the book of 1 Kings provides the reader multiple frames to view the characters, events and historical context of this narrative which moves from the end of the reign of King David through the splitting of the nation of Israel in two and to the end of 1 Kings at the reigns of Jehoshaphat in Judah and Ahaziah in Israel. In a very easy to read style, Rabbi Israel narrates the struggle between kings and prophets, the uneasy relationship between the tribe of Judah and the tribes of Joseph, and with a sympathetic eye paints each of the kings and prophets as people caught within conflicting allegiances. 1 Kings: Torn in Two takes the theological narrative of the history of Israel in 1 Kings and tells it as a compelling story full of struggles and questions and invites the reader into a deeper engagement of the complicated story of the people of God.

1 Kings is roughly half of the original book of Kings, which we now have divided into both 1 and 2 Kings. The book of Kings looks back on the period of the First Temple and attempts to answer the question of what went wrong during this period that eventually led to the destruction of the temple and the people of both the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah being conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively. It is a spiritual evaluation of the era rather than a history book and it evaluates each ruler on how they either accelerated the nation of Israel’s path to destruction or reversed the tide by returning to God. The core problem that underlies the evaluation of the leaders in the Book of Kings is the spiritual issue of idolatry. (2)

1 Kings begin with the political intrigue caused by the approaching death of King David and the struggle for power between two of his sons, Adonijah and Solomon. Rabbi Israel skillfully narrates both a political and theological reading of this story of political intrigue. Through his close reading of the movements and alliances of each son of King David we see how both attempt to grasp for power at the end of David’s reign. In a time of uncertainty both groups attempt to consolidate their grasp on their reign through various methods, and ultimately when Solomon emerges the anointed king and consolidates his power it begins a new period of the time of Israel. A time of peace and prosperity begins the age of the first temple.

King Solomon’s reign will demonstrate a pattern of competing allegiances that will continue with all the kings that will follow him. Solomon’s reign and projects will demonstrate an openness to the world beyond the borders of the nation of Israel, even the construction of the temple is designed to spread the name of God beyond the Jewish people. (86) Yet, with this outward looking policy are sown the seeds of future conflicts. From Solomon’s marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh, as well as his other wives and concubines, to a policy of taxation to fund the building of the temple and many other houses which are all done in a time of peace and agricultural prosperity. It is a time of tension, as Rabbi Israel states it, “a tale of Solomon’s two conflicting loves—that of the Temple and that of Pharaoh’s daughter” It is an era that begins with the hope and promise of Solomon asking for wisdom to judge the people that transitions to that same wisdom being turned to become a source of revenue. The affluence of Solomon’s reign also begins to point to a spiritual decline as the accumulation of spices, wealth and building materials become more central to the narrative than the king’s ability to bring justice to the nation. Solomon’s reign of peace ends with his policies of taxation placing a huge internal strain on the already fragile bond between the tribes of Judah and the tribes of the rest of the nation and Solomon establishing a pattern of divided loyalties between the God of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem and the his building worship sites for his foreign wives and his devotion to them. The end of Solomon’s reign sets the stage for a nation torn in two in his son’s reign.

When Rehoboam ascends to the throne the seam between Judah and the other tribes unravels. By the end of Solomon’s reign the resistance to the taxation policies of the king are already beginning to meet resistance and Jeroboam emerges as one of the challengers of Solomon and later to his heir Rehoboam. Rabbi Israel paints a nuanced portrait of both Jeroboam and Rehoboam where they are both faithful and unfaithful. Jeroboam’s revolt is portrayed as an anti-elitist, people-based movement where priestly service in the two new worship sites (Dan and Bethel) is opened up to all the people. While Jeroboam’s revolt receives divine sanction his institution of new worship sites and the use of images to mediate the people’s worship comes under condemnation of the book of Kings. In Judah, Rehoboam is willing to listen to the prophets that tell him not to go to war with the rest of Israel, however he too continues in the sin of idolatry of his father Solomon. The sin of idolatry is the one defining action that drives the evaluation of each king’s reign according to the book of Kings.

The time after the kingdom unravels is a time of numerous conflicts between Judah and Israel as well as turbulence as leadership as one dynasty is replaced by another. 1 Kings: Torn in Two narrates this complex time of interlocking reigns and conflict from both a northern and southern perspective and is able to highlight both the perspective of the author of 1 Kings on this time period but also brings in a historical and inter textual perspective, utilizing in particular the book of Chronicles to provide an additional voice on this time. Particularly in the North it is a time where different royal dynasties reign for a couple generations only to be replace by another dynasty when they are overthrown.

1 Kings conclude in the time of the Omri dynasty, Kings Omri and Ahab in the north. The reign of Kings Omri and Ahab in the north is one of economic prosperity but spiritual decline. King Omri and later his son Ahab base their foreign policy on an alliance with Phoenicia. This economic and political alliance with Phoenicia also bring Ball worship deep into the life of the Northern Kingdom. Particularly when King Ahab is married to Jezebel who become an ardent missionary of the religion of Phoenicia. (221) In a time where Ahab abandons God and his kingdom flourishes there seems to be no contradiction between his personal and national fortune and his religious orientation.

It is into this time of King Ahab and Jezebel and the continued influence of the religion and policies of Phoenicia that the prophet Elijah enters the story and the conflict begins for the spiritual identity of the Northern Kingdom. Rabbi Israel highlights several important readings of this story and how it reflects on both Elijah and God. In a more traditional reading Elijah is acting as God’s agent and God seems indifferent to the epidemic and famine caused by the three years of drought, but he also lifts up the position of Rabbi Samet in which God attempts to dislodge Elijah from his refusal to end the drought, and so finally in chapter 18 God orders Elijah to explicitly end the famine. (237) Ahab is also presented in a compassionate way as drawn between competing allegiances: after the events on Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal and Ahab appears to return, briefly, to trusting the God of Israel, yet Jezebel continues to hold a strong sway over his policies and is able to threaten Elijah’s life immediately afterwards. The conflict between Elijah and Jezebel also demonstrates a conflict between two value systems: the democratic land culture of Torah and ancient Israel (where land remains in a family) and the monarchical Phoenician system where the king has the ability to take whatever the king wants. Yet even King Ahab, who has done more evil than any of the kings before him according to 1 Kings makes a sudden repentance at the end of the story and God enthusiastically accepts his repentance delaying any condemnation during his lifetime.

Rabbi Israel’s reading of the narrative of 1 Kings highlights the continuing pattern of competing allegiances that the leaders and people of Israel and Judah struggled with. His ability to tell the story in a compelling way allows the tensions of the time and the personalities of the leaders to come forward. The story points to the struggle that people live out our society between competing allegiances based on economic, political, relational and religious authorities. This is an illuminating journey into the time of the kings of Israel and Judah and resonates with themes and struggles found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and in the relationship between God and God’s people.

Images for Transfiguration Sunday, Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent

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Forgot to get Transfiguration Sunday, this year from Matthew’s Gospel, out so it is a combined post with a lot of images:

Transfiguration Sunday

The initial reading is Moses being called up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the design of the Tabernacle, etc. I found what I think is a really different image of Moses that reflects the multiple roles he constantly had to do in his time leading the people of Israel.

Moses by Victorvictori, permission granted by author through WikiCommons

And now on to a few of the plethora of images of the Transfiguration:

Transfiguration by artjones@deviantart.com

Giovanni Bellini, Transfiguration of Christ (1487-1495)

The Saviour’s Transfiguration, an early 15th century icon attributed to Theophanes the Greek

Transfiguration by Raphael, (1518-1520)

Ash Wednesday

There are a lot of images of black crosses and ashes out there, for imagery this time I’m focusing on Psalm 51 which the opening line attributes to David after he is confronted by the Prophet Nathan after he had go in to Bathsheba

Bathsheba by Artemisia Gentileschi (1636)

Pieter Lastman, King David Handing the Letter to Uriah (1611)

Pieter Lastman, King David Handing the Letter to Uriah (1619)

James Tissot, Nathan Rebukes David (1896-1902)

Palma Giovane, Prophet Nathan ermahnt Konig David (1622)

First Sunday of Lent

Two really rich pictoral readings, the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Matthew’s full temptation narrative

First a couple select images of the Adam and Eve story I found interesting,

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by Dr. Lidia Kozenitzky (2009) Image made available by artist through WikiCommons

William Blake, Adam and Eve (1808)

The Fall of Man by Lucas Cranach (1530)

And the Temptation, where in Matthew there are the three distinct temptations

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi, Christ in the Desert (1872)

There are multiple artists who have done representations of the three temptations, like William Blake or Peter Paul Reubens, I’m going to just show James Tissot’s interpretation:

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness, James Tissot

James Tissot, Jesus Carried to teh Pinnacle of the Temple

James Tissot, Jesus Carried to the Pinnacle of the Temple

James Tissot, Jesus Transported by a Spirit up to a High Mountain

James Tissot, Jesus Ministered to by the Angels (1886-1894),

Jeremiah 27: The Yoke of Babylon

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Weigel Engraving, Hananiah and Jeremiah

In the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD. ² Thus the LORD said to me: Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars, and put them on your neck. ³ Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. ⁴ Give them this charge for their masters: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: ⁵ It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please. ⁶ Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him. ⁷ All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.

⁸ But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the LORD, until I have completed its destruction by his hand. ⁹ You, therefore, must not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰ For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will perish. ¹¹ But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, says the LORD, to till it and live there.

¹² I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. ¹³ Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you not to serve the king of Babylon, for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵ I have not sent them, says the LORD, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, “The vessels of the LORD’s house will soon be brought back from Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? ¹⁸ If indeed they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, then let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. ¹⁹ For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, ²⁰ which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem– ²¹ thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the LORD. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.

The NRSV corrects the text since the context set for Jeremiah’s actions are almost universally accepted to be during the reign of King Zedekiah after the exile of Jeconiah and many of the elites in the land. In this context where Zedekiah is ruling over the remnant in the time before the much larger Babylonian exile of 586 BCE, so the prophets actions are in the time of Zedekiah rather than Jeconiah. At some time during this ten year span there is some type of regional meeting of the envoys of the nations of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites,Tyre and Sidon with the king of Judah, most likely to discuss how they are going to respond to the continued domination of the Babylonian empire. Would the regional kings perhaps ally themselves with a resurgent Egypt, would they rebel against Babylon or would they submit to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar? We know from a viewpoint removed from history that Judah would set a policy that would rely on Egypt and eventually provoke the wrath of Babylon leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the nation.

In a symbolic act Jeremiah wears a yoke around his neck commanding not only Judah, but the other representatives at the regional summit to submit to Babylon’s rule. The message goes to the nation, to the king of Judah and then to the priests and all the people. The strong claim that God is behind the power of the empire of Babylon and that at least for this time to oppose Nebuchadnezzar is to oppose God’s will and to invite disaster. Nebuchadnezzar is given control of not only the nations but even the wild animals of the field as for the time being all creation seems to have a pro-Babylonian tilt. Yet, this is not an unqualified endorsement of the Babylonian or any other empire since God’s favor is only for a time, yet to the generation in this time prior to the final exile it must have seemed like an eternity. Apparently, as we have seen elsewhere in Jeremiah, there are other prophets declaring that even after this first defeat the time is rapidly approaching where the furnishings of the house of God will represent a return to power for the people of Judah. These other prophets are saying hope is on the horizon, but for Jeremiah even now hope is a long way off. The hope of these false prophets is a false hope, that rather than things getting better Jeremiah is trying to prevent what remains of the temple from being taken as the spoils of yet another Babylonian invasion. Jeremiah’s voice goes unheard, the temple and the city a sacked, and the people like the remaining treasures of the Lord’s house are taken to Babylon where they stay until the end of the exile as appointed by the Lord.

Images for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

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This is another week where some of the linkages artistically are more difficult, since it is Jesus talking about loving enemies, going the second mile, turning the other cheek. There may be images out there that reflect this but I struggled to find direct linkages. There is plenty of images out there that rebel against these ideas.

From http://www.saintvictor.org/2012/06/19/tuesday-in-the-11th-week-love-your-enemies/

Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom 1834

Maltreatments in the House of Caiphas, James Tissot (1886-1894)

Jeremiah 26 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

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Jeremiah 26: 1-19 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

Ilya Repin, Cry of the Prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem (1870)

At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came from the LORD: ² Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD; speak to them all the words that I command you; do not hold back a word. ³ It may be that they will listen, all of them, and will turn from their evil way, that I may change my mind about the disaster that I intend to bring on them because of their evil doings. ⁴ You shall say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, ⁵ and to heed the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently– though you have not heeded– ⁶ then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.

⁷ The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. ⁸ And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! ⁹ Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

¹⁰ When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the LORD. ¹¹ Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “It is the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. ¹³ Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he has pronounced against you. ¹⁴ But as for me, here I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. ¹⁵ Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

¹⁶ Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.” ¹⁷ And some of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembled people, ¹⁸ “Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’ ¹⁹ Did King Hezekiah of Judah and all Judah actually put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, and did not the LORD change his mind about the disaster that he had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great disaster on ourselves!”

This passage is traditionally linked with the ‘Temple Sermon of Jeremiah’ in Jeremiah 7 and into chapter 8 based on the dating and the circumstances lined out in the first lines. Jeremiah goes into the temple, the heart of the royal and priestly justification of the people’s favored status and compares the temple to Shiloh, which was an earlier site of the tabernacle site in the time of 1 Samuel. The prophet calls the people back to the two sided covenant of Deuteronomy, ‘If you will do these things, then you will be blessed, if you will not do these things you will be cursed.’ Since the construction of the temple by Solomon there has been a critique of the possibility of relying solely on the temple for maintaining the people’s status with God. For example when God answers Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 9, it relates the answer as this:

² the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. ⁴ As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, ⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. ⁸ This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the LORD has brought this disaster upon them.'” (1Kings 9:2-9)

Yet in the time of King Jehoiakim this way of understanding the covenant with God is either forgotten or neglected. For the prophet claims of obedience to God’s law/Torah are more important than any human authority. This undercuts the certitude of not only Jehoiakim, but particularly here the priests in the temple where Jeremiah makes his proclamation. Their lives are invested in the maintaining of the centrality of the temple worship and the proclamation of the prophet threatens not only their temple with its words but their livelihood. The react quickly and harshly demanding the death of Jeremiah because he has spoken against the temple and the city and bring him before the leadership of the city. It is a tense picture painted where the priest and temple authorities and the crowd have surrounded the prophet and the city leaders quickly move to bring calm to the situation and hold judgment in the case of this troublesome prophet.

For his part, Jeremiah denies nothing that he is accused of and yet he claims his role as a prophet of God speaking on God’s behalf and still in the hope of both the prophet and God that the people will hear and turn from their ways. What the priests have heard as condemnation is from Jeremiah’s perspective a hope for turning and rescue by God, but the words have fallen on unreceptive ears. Jeremiah knows that his life rests in these officials’ hands and yet he warns them that if they take his life they will be liable for innocent blood.

The elder’s rely on the precedence of Micah, one of the examples of intertextuality in the Bible. This instance refers back to the prophet Micah who a century earlier had spoken harsh words against the city, and yet Micah was not killed by the leadership then. The ‘elders’ override the ‘priest’ and the historical memory of prophetic witness and Torah piety hold out in this case and the elders too are able to see this as an opportunity for repentance rather than a certain doom. Unfortunately for the people the repentance does not come as the priestly and royal authority are hostile to this message that Jeremiah proclaim.

Jeremiah 26:20-24 The Risk of the Prophetic Challenge

²⁰ There was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words exactly like those of Jeremiah. ²¹ And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.²² Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Achbor and men with him to Egypt, ²³ and they took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and threw his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

²⁴ But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over into the hands of the people to be put to death.

King Jehoiakim is not receptive to Jeremiah’s message, and while Jeremiah apparently has some protection from Ahikam son of Shaphan another prophet, Uriah son of Shemaiah does not. The words of Uriah infuriate the king enough to send men into Egypt to capture, bring the prophet to the king and then to be killed by the king. This is not a welcome time for prophets and death and torture are real possibilities to ensure the message of King Jehoiakim is the dominant message heard.

Images for the Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, Lectionary 6A

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Continuing in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus interprets the commandments. The ideas for many of these images come out of the images in my copy of Luther’s Small Catechism around the fifth, sixth and eighth commandments

William Blake, Moses Receiving the Law (1780)

Peter Paul Rubens, Cain Slaying Abel, (1608-1809)

Jean-Leon Gerome, Bethsabee (1889 or 1885)

Michelangelo Merisis da Carvaggio, The Denial of Saint Peter

Images for the Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, Lectionary 5A

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It is more abstract this week, if you want images for the Sermon on the Mount in General look back at the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. This week is Matthew 5: 13-20: Jesus telling the disciples they are the salt of the earth, light on a lampstand, a city on a hill and unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Salt and Light by Anacre0n@deviantart.com

More of an abstract image, but I found it helpful for my own meditation

Saltfish drying in Iceland

A reminder that in the ancient world (pre-refrigerators) salt was mainly a preservative rather than a seasoning

City on a Hill by antonisfes@deviantart.com

James Tissot, The Pharisee and the Publican (1894)

Opening a Galaxy-A Poem

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In a universe where 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything
Resides the world of Magrathea where planets are custom made to order
On the factory floor is every world conceivable
Any customer can request a tailor made environment
So long as they have the funds to support the massive building project
Yet, Magrathea itself is contained within the unimaginable expanses
Of a universe which the story allows us to hitch a ride into
And we find worlds taking form in the factory floor of our own minds
Countless imaginations there for the taking from the stories
Contained in books, stories, movies, and some which are our own creations
Even when the words are shared, though the worlds are our own
For such is the elastic nature of words to evoke images in the eye of the mind
And we don’t panic as we hitchhike through galaxies as improbable
As a planet where planets are created and restaurants where that universe ends
And yet once we pick up another story it begins anew

Neil White, 2014

Waiting Rooms-A Poem

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Sitting alone in the waiting room
Waiting to hear good news from the surgeon
That the loved one I committed to their care
Is waiting in recovery for me to come and join them
In that place where the waiting is over
And the journey of recovery begins anew
Rather than being in the uncomfortable limbo
Of the waiting room with those sentenced
To this place where talking heads echo soundlessly
On flatscreens to people who are seeking not information
But distraction from the minutes and hours that tick away
As they sit in the waiting room
Wanting to be somewhere else
But their love holds them here
In hope that this Purgatorial time will soon be over

Neil White, 2014

Jeremiah 25- Drinking the Cup of Wrath

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Jeremiah 25: 1-14- The Voice of Frustration

The Prophet Jeremiah by Michelangelo

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon), ² which the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³ For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. ⁴ And though the LORD persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, you have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear ⁵ when they said, “Turn now, everyone of you, from your evil way and wicked doings, and you will remain upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your ancestors from of old and forever; ⁶ do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.” ⁷ Yet you did not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ⁹ I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the LORD, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them, and make them an object of horror and of hissing, and an everlasting disgrace. ¹⁰ And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

After going through Jeremiah for the past several months, for whatever reason writing this chapter I wanted to stop. Twenty five chapters of darkness with little hope is difficult to go through intentionally and I can only imagine the pain that Jeremiah went through in not only bearing the difficult message he is given to bear but also the constant rejection and persecution by his people. Yet, after letting sit for a couple days I was ready to return again to hearing Jeremiah’s words and trying to understand them. This is a chapter that is filled with frustration, broken dreams and lost hope. For twenty three years Jeremiah has spoken the message given to him and for twenty three years it has not been heard and so the time of change is coming. In the frustration there is the promise of an everlasting disgrace, of a falling never to rise again, of a complete loss of joy and gladness. It is a picture of the exile to come, and yet even in the language of everlasting in English comes from the Hebrew ‘olam which doesn’t refer to a timeless future but rather the forseeable future. Regardless the judgment is harsh and at the beginning of the time of exile the prospect of being alienated from one’s homeland and all one knows for seventy years must have seemed like an eternity.

Jeremiah probably seemed like a traitor to his people and his faith in saying that Nebuchadrezzar was a servant of the Lord, and yet he gives theological significance to the rise of the Babylonian empire and its king. Jeremiah gives voice to what others will not, that God is at work in the movement of nations and that even this pagan empire can be a tool that the Lord is using, and that the chosen people can be the recipients of both the Lord’s blessing and curse. The land and people that were meant to be a light will become darkness, the land of milk and honey will become a waste and ruin, and hope of a new light will have to come at some other time. In this time of the prophet’s heartbreak it is not here.

Jeremiah 25: 15-38- The Cup of Wrath

¹⁵ For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, an object of hissing and of cursing, as they are today; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ all the mixed people; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines– Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; ²² all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea;²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaven temples; ²⁴ all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples that live in the desert; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; ²⁶ all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach shall drink.

²⁷ Then you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, get drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.

²⁸ And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts.

³⁰ You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

The LORD will roar from on high, and from his holy habitation utter his voice;

he will roar mightily against his fold, and shout, like those who tread grapes,

against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹ The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,

for the LORD has an indictment against the nations;

he is entering into judgment with all flesh,

and the guilty he will put to the sword, says the LORD.

³² Thus says the LORD of hosts:

See, disaster is spreading from nation to nation,

and a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth!

³³ Those slain by the LORD on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become dung on the surface of the ground.

³⁴ Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in ashes, you lords of the flock,

for the days of your slaughter have come—

and your dispersions, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

³⁵ Flight shall fail the shepherds, and there shall be no escape for the lords of the flock.

³⁶ Hark! the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of the flock!

For the LORD is despoiling their pasture,

³⁷ and the peaceful folds are devastated, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

³⁸ Like a lion he has left his covert; for their land has become a waste because of the cruel sword, and because of his fierce anger.

In this vision of the cup of wrath, where Jeremiah takes it to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem and eventually ending with Babylon which seems as unforgiving a passage as one will find in scripture. The language is so angry it almost spits when it is said and yet perhaps it is precisely this language of cursing that is needed to move beyond the woundedness. As the cup and its wrath and curse pass among all the nations of the region no one is exempted. The sovereignty of God is completely and utterly unquestionable to the prophet. What is the pot to say to its creator when it is used in a way that the pot might find objectionable? To be honest I find this a very distasteful passage, it reveals a dark side of God in Jeremiah’s view that I have difficulty coming to terms with at times. It is a picture of God who is so wrapped up in God’s anger that the wrath must be spread over every nation, that each people is now being held to the same curse as the chosen people. Perhaps it only the language of brokenheartedness, the rage that needs to be given vent. Perhaps it is Jeremiah and others trying to assign theological meaning to the crisis and destruction going on around them. Regardless of where it comes from I know that as a 21^st Century American I stand in a very different place than Jeremiah and there are times where I cannot faithfully place myself in his shoes nor give voice to the pain and anger in his words about the brokenness of his people and of all the nations.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular

Review of 1 Kings: Torn in Two by Alex Israel

Images for Transfiguration Sunday, Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent

Transfiguration Sunday

Ash Wednesday

First Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 27: The Yoke of Babylon

Images for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

Jeremiah 26 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

Jeremiah 26: 1-19 The Prophet, the Temple and the Elders

Jeremiah 26:20-24 The Risk of the Prophetic Challenge

Images for the Sixth Sunday After Epiphany, Lectionary 6A

Images for the Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, Lectionary 5A

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Waiting Rooms-A Poem

Jeremiah 25- Drinking the Cup of Wrath

Jeremiah 25: 1-14- The Voice of Frustration

Jeremiah 25: 15-38- The Cup of Wrath