IN CONFLICT WITH
THE POWERS
Eternal Status or Conditional Promise?
Jeremiah 7:1-14, NRSV
Reader: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate
of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Here the word
of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship
the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways
and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in
these deceptive words, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
All: For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly
with one another, if you do not oppress the alien the orphan, and the
widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after
other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the
land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.
>>>>>
Reader: Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you
steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and
go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand
before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are
safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which
is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?
ALL: You know, I too am watching, says the Lord. Go now to my place that
was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to
it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
Reader: And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord,
and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called
you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by
my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to
your ancestors just what I did to Shiloh.
ALL: And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinfolk,
all the offspring of Ephraim.
The End
IN CONFLICT WITH
THE POWERS
Eternal Status or Conditional Promise?
First Backstory: Hebrew (versus
Western) Thought
■ Our thinking is Platonic in origin
– Static – State of being, ontology
– Spatial – Place, location, sphere
– Linear logic, in contrast to narrative
■ Hebrew thought differs from Greek philosophy
– Dynamic – Becoming, Action, Relationships to others
– Temporal – Time, Movement, Adaptation
– Moral character and moral development
Sister Lillian Harrington’s Midrash
In the long, long ago, the Lord God searched for people to be his own. God went to the
Greeks and asked, “What can you do for me if I make you my chosen people?” “We are
gifted architects. We can build beautiful temples where people can come in great
numbers from all over the world to worship you.” “Thank you very much,” God said, and
moved on.
Then the Lord God went to the Romans and said, “What can you do for me if I make you
my chosen people?” “We are great builders of roads and bridges. We will build bridges
and roads so that the people can find their way to you.” “Thank you very much,” God
said, and moved on.
Then God went to the Jewish people and asked, “What can you do for me if I make you
my chosen people?” An old rabbi answered for them, “We are not gifted architects.
Neither are we builders of great roads and bridges. What we can do is tell stories.”
And God said, “Then you will be my people.”
Other Ways to Look at This
■ Perelandra by C. S. Lewis and his “fixed land” versus “floating islands.”
■ Rick Rice’s model of how denominations (and religions?) begin with narratives and
actions and end up with dogma or codified actions (the Talmud, Hadiths, Sharia,
Fiqh, Canon Law, Creeds, Inquisition, etc.), something static and spatial. When this
happens, often a life-changing reformation or new movement occurs.
■ We can trace these developments from Abraham’s call from Mesopotamia (where
idols provided stasis for a substitute or double of deity while temples provided their
dwelling places) and his household inheritance (fixed place) to becoming a seminomad. When Jesus’ came, He used actions and stories to uproot the static
preoccupation with rules and walls, and a spatial fixation with Herod’s temple. His
crucifixion and subsequent intolerance of his disciples led to a new movement.
■ These ideas provide a basis for understanding the dynamics of Jeremiah.
Second Backstory:
Nathan and the Davidic Covenant
■ “And the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make a dynasty for you. When the
time comes for you to die and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your
descendant—one of your very own children—to succeed you, and I will establish his
kingdom. He will build a temple* for my name and I will establish his royal throne
forever….Whenever he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod, with blows
from human beings. But I will never take my faithful love away from him like I took it
away from Saul, whom I set aside in favor of you. Your dynasty and your kingdom will
be secured forever before me. Your throne will be established forever” (2 Sam.
7:11b-16, CEB). *Literally, “a house.”
■ David to Solomon: “So also the Lord will confirm the word he spoke to me: ‘If your
children will take care to walk before me faithfully, with all their heart and all their
being, then one of your own children will never fail to be on the throne of Israel’” (1
Kings 2:4, CEB).
The Backstory of David Continues
■ God to Solomon after building the temple: “I have heard your prayer and your cry to
me. I have set apart this temple* that you have built, to put my name there forever.
My eyes and my heart will always be there. As for you, if you walk before me just as
your father David did, with complete dedication and honesty, and if you do all that I
have commanded, and keep my regulations and case laws, then I will establish your
royal throne over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will never
fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ However, if you or your sons turn
away from following me and don’t observe the commands and regulations that I
gave you, and go to serve other gods, and worship them, then I will remove Israel
from the land I gave them and I will reject the temple that I dedicated for my name.
Israel will become a joke, insulted by everyone. Everyone who passes by this temple,
so lofty now, will be shocked and will whistle, wondering. Why has the Lord done
such a thing to this land and this temple? The answer will come: Because they
deserted the Lord their God (1 Kings 9:3-9, CEB). *Literally, “house.”
Jeremiah in Conflict with the Powers
■ Jeremiah had to contend with a very hierarchical system of King, princes, priests
(including close kinsmen apparently), and the officials. They represented the “status
quo,” the traditional structures that most understood to have held Jerusalem and
Judah together and provided it with strength.
■ Jeremiah also stood against a number of prophets, all of whom prophesied peace,
with the promise of removal of Nebuchadnezzar’s claims on Jerusalem and Judah.
The promises of peace seem to rest on both the covenant God made with David and
the fact that Yahweh had Solomon’s temple in which to dwell. For Jeremiah to
counter these promises and the temple with predictions of disaster seemed
tantamount to rejection of the covenant and the temple.
■ Like many of the classical prophets, Jeremiah stood in conflict with the powers. In
doing so, he and the other prophets demonstrated the continual theme that runs
through the entire Bible of God against hierarchy. Attempts to control the people
from above could be understood as usurping God’s prerogative.
Elements in the Conflict
■ Idolatry – the establishment of a fixed, static image to act as a double of the god, thus
creating something stationery and immobile (of itself) and claim that it can act
dynamically because the worshippers have manipulated and controlled it. What makes it
“work” is magic, a magic that we invoke and create.
■ Baal worship – A deity whose name is a title meaning, “lord, master, owner.” In Exod.
21:22-25, it serves as the “husband” of a wife. Since Israel was to be Yahweh’s wife, the
title could be applied to Yahweh as another Baal (1 Chron. 12:5/6). In Hosea 2:16/18,
the prophet declared that in the future time, Israel would no longer refer to Yahweh as
my baal, but my ish (husband as an equal). In the Baal Cycles, this deity typifies kingship
and lust for power, a power that proves to be very tentative. Hosea posits Yahweh
worship has having to do with relationship and character, not power, something that
Jeremiah echoes in the new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34).
■ Abuse – Idolatry invariably leads to abuse of others. Neglect of the poor, shedding
innocent blood, child sacrifices, robbery and cheating in business contracts entailed
some of the sins Jeremiah confronted.
■ Taking refuge in the promises – Yahweh’s prophet had promised that a descendant of
David would always sit on the throne and that His name (character) would ever remain in
the temple. The king, princes, priests, and people believed these promises, selectively
forgetting their conditions and the biblical principle that “the promises and threatenings
of God are alike conditional” (1 SM 67). This forgetfulness led the king to refuse
Jeremiah’s instructions to submit to Nebuchadnezzar as his vassal and the people to
chant, “Yahweh’s temple,” repeatedly (Jer. 7:4).
Parallels in Today’s Conflict
■ Idolatry – Contriving our own reality and calling it something different than what it is
in order to manipulate and control others. Fixing in static form beliefs and practices
to which loyalty oaths must be given as though those beliefs and practices were
infallible and thus equal to God. “God and heaven alone are infallible” (1SM 37).
■ Worship of Power – Bending the knee to a few people who wield power over many,
thus giving into the “kingly power” that Ellen White insisted must be banished from
the church in 1901.
■ Abuse – This is inevitably the result of resorting to static forms and spatial boxes
into which we put “light” and then close the lid to “protect” it only to leave it in
darkness. We then seek to force people to stay within the protected “light” on
penalty of losing our endorsement and possibly their ability to spread the real light
to others.
■ Refuge in the promises – We have fewer promises than Israel had that we could
never let God down. But, of course, our promises are unconditional.
Idolatry
■ We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and
heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a
cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As
long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we
cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.—The Review and Herald, July 26,
1892. {1SM 37.3}
■ In regard to infallibility, I never claimed it; God alone is infallible. His word is true,
and in Him is no variableness, or shadow of turning.—Letter 10, 1895. {1SM 37.4}
■ The Roman Church reserves to the clergy the right to interpret the Scriptures. On the
ground that ecclesiastics alone are competent to explain God’s word, it is withheld
from the common people. Though the Reformation gave the Scriptures to all, yet the
selfsame principle which was maintained by Rome prevents multitudes in Protestant
churches from searching the Bible for themselves. They are taught to accept its
teachings as interpreted by the church; and there are thousands who dare receive
nothing, however plainly revealed in Scripture, that is contrary to their creed or the
established teaching of their church. {GC 596.3}
Toward Static Beliefs
■
“Let us suppose a case: We get up a creed, stating just what we shall believe on this
point and the other, and just what we shall do in reference to this thing and that, and say
that we will believe the gifts too. But suppose the Lord, through the gifts, should give us
some new light that did not harmonize with our creed; then, if we remain true to the gifts,
it knocks our creed all over at once. Making a creed is setting the stakes, and barring up
the way to all future advancement. God put the gifts into the church for a good and great
object; but men who have got up their churches, have shut up the way or have marked
out a course for the Almighty. They say virtually that the Lord must not do anything
further than what has been marked out in the creed. A creed and the gifts thus stand in
direct opposition to each other. Now what is our position as a people? The Bible is our
creed. We reject everything in the form of a human creed. We take the Bible and the gifts
of the Spirit; embracing the faith that thus the Lord will teach us from time to time. And
in this we take a position against the formation of a creed. We are not taking one step, in
what we are doing, toward becoming Babylon.” –James White, 1861
■ When God’s Word is studied, comprehended, and obeyed, a bright light will be reflected
to the world; new truths, received and acted upon, will bind us in strong bonds to Jesus.
The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed, the sole bond of union; all who bow to
this Holy Word will be in harmony. Our own views and ideas must not control our efforts.
Man is fallible, but God’s Word is infallible. Instead of wrangling with one another, let
men exalt the Lord. Let us meet all opposition as did our Master, saying, “It is written.”
Let us lift up the banner on which is inscribed, The Bible our rule of faith and discipline.—
The Review and Herald, December 15, 1885. {1SM 416.2}
Worship of Power (Baal)
■ God has not set any kingly power in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to control the
whole body, or to control any branch of the work. He has not provided that the
burden of leadership shall rest upon a few men. Responsibilities are distributed
among a large number of competent men.—Testimonies for the Church 8:236.
■ “The division of the General Conference into District Union Conferences was God’s
arrangement. In the work of the Lord for these last days there should be no
Jerusalem centers, no kingly power. And the work in the different countries is not to
be bound by contracts to the work centering in Battle Creek, for this is not God’s
plan. Brethren are to counsel together, for we are just as much under the control of
God in one part of His vineyard as in another. Brethren are to be one in heart and
soul, even as Christ and the Father are one. Teach this, practice this, that we may be
one with Christ in God, all working to build up one another. {8T 232.6}
Abuse
“Finite men should beware of seeking to control their fellow men, taking the place
assigned to the Holy Spirit. Let not men feel that it is their prerogative to give to the
world what they suppose to be truth, and refuse that anything should be given contrary
to their ideas. This is not their work. Many things will appear distinctly as truth, which
will not be acceptable to those who think their own interpretations of the Scripture
always right. Most decided changes will have to be made in regard to ideas which some
have accepted as without a flaw. These men give evidence of fallibility in very many
ways; they work upon principles which the word of God condemns. That which makes
me feel to the very depths of my being, and makes me know that their works are not the
works of God, is that they suppose they have authority to rule their fellow men. The Lord
has given them no more right to rule others than He has given others to rule them.
Those who assume the control of their fellow men, take into their finite hands a work
that devolves on God alone” (TM 76; context: Minneapolis).
The Promise
■ Context: “And all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the
national laws to exalt the Sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the disregard of God’s
holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world,
the image of the beast” (2 SM 380).
■ “Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme. The church
may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will
be sifted out—the chaff separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but
nevertheless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood
of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without
spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our selfrighteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ” (2 SM 380).
■ “I was confirmed in all I had stated in Minneapolis that a reformation must go through
the churches. Reforms must be made, for spiritual weakness and blindness were upon
the people who had been blessed with great light and precious opportunities and
privileges. As reformers they had come out of the denominational churches, but they now
act a part similar to that which the churches acted. We hoped that there would not be
the necessity for another coming out. While we will endeavor to keep the “unity of the
Spirit” in the bonds of peace, we will not with pen or voice cease to protest against
bigotry” {Ms. 30, 1889 (June 21, 1889)}.
Questions for Discussion
■ 1. What are the current idols of Seventh-day Adventists?
■ 2. Is the promise we have that the church does not fall similar to the promises that
David would always have a descendant sitting on his throne?
■ 3. Is the promise that the church does not fall conditional or absolute and
unchanging?
■ 4. For years, Adventist members in North America have used the Adventist Church
as a club to belong to and pay monthly dues. We think we own it, we think it should
serve us, we think of it as static (our property) instead of dynamic. But is this our
church? And who should serve whom? And what about service, justice, and
mission?
■ Does a member, department, institution have the right to control another member,
department, or institution in the church?
Laodicea
■ “Now write to the messenger of the church in Laodicea : The words of the Amen, the
trustworthy and true witness, the source of God’s creation:”
■ “I know your works: that you (2ms) are neither cold nor hot. Oh that you were either
cold or hot! So, because you are tepid, and neither hot nor cold, I am just about to
vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have made profit, and I need
nothing at all.’ You do not know that you are miserable, deserving of pity, poor, blind,
and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold that has been refined by fire so that
you may be rich; and white garments to wear so that the disgrace of your nakedness
might not be exposed; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those who
I love, I rebuke and discipline. Be eager, therefore, and repent.
■ “Look! I have been standing at the door, and I am knocking. If anyone should hear
my voice and open the door, I will come into him/her and eat with him/her and
he/she with me.
■ “To the one who is victorious I will give the ability to sit with me on my throne, just as
I myself been victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
■ “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
Notes on Laodicea
■ Note the transition between the representative “you” that ultimately refers to the
church (as is the case with every one of the messages to the seven churches) and
the “anyone” (tis). This is a pattern that runs through all seven messages to the
churches.
■ A “throne” (thronos) or “seat” (kisse) was anciently reserved for people in power
(kings, priests, judges). The people stood. Yet is this really about power here?
■ Note the “threatenings” in the seven messages:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Ephesus – Removal of its lampstand from its place
Smyrna – None (persecuted church)
Pergamum – Jesus will make war with those who hold to false teachings
Thyatira – Throw adulterers with Jezebel into distress; will give according to their works
Sardis – Jesus will come like a thief and they won’t know the hour he comes.
Philadelphia – None (it has a little power)
Laodicea – Jesus will vomit it out of his mouth.
Only the first and the last are threatened with wholesale removal or expulsion.
To Lighten the Moment…