Old Sandals

Then Shaphan the scribe told [Josiah] the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.  Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes.   2 Chronicles 34:18-19

He tore his clothes.  The ancient Israelites would do that to express their raw emotion, whether grief, anger or contrition.  It often accompanied repentance.  It must have symbolized something like a baring of the chest, an opening of one’s heart for all around to see and understand how deep an emotion was being expressed.  Perhaps, too, it symbolized the ripping away of all pretense, all covering-up, all selfish concern with propriety.

This was the king’s reaction to hearing the word of the Lord through the words of the Law.  We ought to have a similar reaction when we come before the Lord to read the Scriptures or to pray, not that we would tear our clothes off, but that we would humbly acknowledge our spiritual nakedness before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

So [King] Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and [the Lord] received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.  After this…he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.  2 Chronicles 33:9-16

Would it have been all that surprising to us to read that the Lord refused to hear the prayer of Manasseh, refused to come to his aid because of his great wickedness?  After all, he “seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel”!  But so great is the Lord’s compassion, so inclined is He to be merciful, that when wicked King Manasseh humbles himself and prays, the Lord hears him and restores his kingdom to him.

“Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts.  “I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle. It shall come to pass that all who look upon you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?’  Where shall I seek comforters for you?”   Nahum 3:5-7

Was the sin of Nineveh an affront to God’s righteousness?  Did their wickedness bring dishonor to God’s name?  Was the justice of God satisfied through their destruction?  Is it correct to think of God as the Great Punisher?  How can God be Holy and Just if He is not also Wrathful?  What is the wrath of God?  If, as the Scripture says elsewhere, ‘the wicked nations will be cast into hell’, who but God could be doing the casting?

“Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.”   Nahum 2:13

The Lord is a warrior.  Gentle in disposition, yet Giant in purpose.  Get on His side.  You don’t want to go against Him.

God is jealous, and the Lord avenges. The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies.  The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked….Who can stand before his indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of his anger?  His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.   Nahum 1:2-3, 6

The Lord is good, and gracious, yet He is not a God to be messed with.  We will all have to give an account of our lives.  Our freedom isn’t really free.  We don’t get to do what we want forever.  The kingdom, the power and the glory belong to God, and God alone.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old.   Micah 7:18-20

Look among all the gods of all the nations through all of history—there is no God like the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  A God is who delights in mercy.  A God who is ever faithful.  A God of justice. A self-sacrificial God.  To this God be the glory!

With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?   Micah 6:6-8

The following is from the Joint Decaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, published in 1999:

“We confess together that all persons depend completely on the saving grace of God for their salvation. The freedom they possess in relation to persons and the things of this world is no freedom in relation to salvation, for as sinners they stand under God’s judgment and are incapable of turning by themselves to God to seek deliverance, of meriting their justification before God, or of attaining salvation by their own abilities. Justification takes place solely by God’s grace….The Catholic understanding also sees faith as fundamental in justification. For without faith, no justification can take place. Persons are justified through baptism as hearers of the word and believers in it.”

Aren’t we [essentially] saying the same thing? Granted, Catholics believe that justifying faith is granted at baptism, yet all the while maintaining that  salvation is solely from God; that Christ, the perfect Son of God, died for the sins of mankind; that Christ was raised to life, defeating death; that salvation is all a gift of God by his grace; that mankind is incapable of attaining to salvation by any work, but only through faith.  Again, isn’t that [essentially] what we mean by “belief in Christ.”?  Or—is also believing that God applies that salvation, solely won through Christ, to an individual through a sacrament, destructive to the point of counting it all as unbelief?

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.   Micah 5:2

This is a definite reference to the coming of the Messiah.  The ancient Jewish scribes were all aware of this.  When Herod asked the scribes where the “King of the Jews” was to be born, they answered in unison and without hesitation: “Bethlehem”, and then quoted this verse.

For all people walk each in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.   Micah 4:5

This is what it boils down to.  Walking in the name of the Lord our God forever.

Walking—day by day.  Some days will be good.  Some not so good.  Some very difficult.  But just keep walking in the same (upward) direction. “Singing if my way is clear,  praying if the path be drear.”  is how the songwriter put it.

In the name of the Lord our God—not relying on our own strength, mindful of how easy it is to slip and fall away.

Forever—buoyed-up by the knowledge that this thing doesn’t end at the grave.  It begins there, with a promised resurrection to life eternal.

Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel:  Is it  not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil, who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones. Therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them. So the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners abashed. Indeed they shall all cover their lips.  Micah 3:1-2, 6-7

The story of Israel is one of failure, and one of success.  Israel’s failure.  God’s success.  Israel’s waywardness, outright rebellion.  God’s faithfulness, covenant-love.  The history of Israel is often sadly repeated in the history of the church.

Standing in time and space between ancient Israel and the church is the cross of Christ.  The cross graphically conveys a dark picture of who we are as fallen human beings, yet at the same time conveys a bright, even glorious picture of who God is.