Idolatry forces God into corrective action

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021520.cfm
1 Kings 12:26-32, 13:33-34
Mark 8:1-10

God’s opposition to idolatry goes much deeper than we imagine. The full reading of Chapter 12 in 1 Kings shatters any notion that our attention to God can be reserved for just part of our life. Indeed, we mistakenly believe that within one day, or even one hour, that we are better off venturing on our own without him. The football game is not about us.

We might not think our off-playbook dalliances fall under idolatry. But, yeah they do.

Not saying that God doesn’t love us. He does. I’m also not saying that God doesn’t forgive us. He does that, too. Just saying that every stray from cooperation with God has consequences that inhibits God’s intended graces and blessings. He, then, must adjust the playing field. He tweaks coaching/coaches, quarterbacks/linemen, receivers/cornerbacks, and even who’s in the audience. 

The severe consequences of bold and brash strays from God’s commands seem to be matched by the consequences of minor strays. In Chapter 12, a nation implodes from the power protection gambits of a formerly holy King. A prophet who lets down his guard after successfully executing his task is killed by a lion. We could categorize God’s reaction to these as Old Testament justice. We could, then, conclude that God doesn’t reorient the universe with corrections like that anymore. I’m not so sure about that. 

We can, if we’re paying attention, have a fuller revealed grasp of God than the populations of the kinds of Israel. So, is God kinder and gentler now?  Ultimately, our question is did God operate with creation in 910 BC the same way he does today in 2020 AD? 

I believe the answer is yes, and no. Yes, because we’re talking about the same God. No, because we’re communicating with God as incarnated today. Also, the indwelling of the Spirit is available to us within a global, inclusive Church.  We're on a team that the whole world is watching.

Three thousand years ago, Israel had split into two semi-nations, run by two Kings. Neither nation ended up surviving as God had outlined his plan. The tribe of Judah, the Northern kingdom, eventually rules the roost, but not until they lost their way and influenced the destruction of the North, and infiltrated the Southern kingdom. Judah ended up down in Jerusalem, as the Jewish nation, but the Israeli people as twelve distinct tribes were tragically torn apart from each other. Chapter 12 tells us how the unfortunately split nation, following Solomon’s death, reveals the problem of subverting God’s commands. It was an ugly joining of the AFL and the NFL into the NFL, if you get my drift.

God revealed himself differently to Israel, Judah, and eventually the Jews — as a God with no name and a holiness beyond access to everyone. Noting that God does not change, how can the way he speaks to us and lives with us today be so different from what we read in 1 Kings? 

Christians use the Jewish scriptures as our theological source. We stand, however, on one very different reality of God’s existence among us today. Following the birth, life, mission, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus to heaven, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to his willing disciples, the Church has changed God’s and our relationship. The Jew is still a Jew, properly revealing the People of God. But, the Church, the Christian gathering of both gentiles and Jews, is new.

The Father, as understood generally as Lord, in the Old Testament, truly is the same God, along with the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is not a distinctive difference in God’s nature, back then or now, if I can say that correctly without bringing up some heresy. The Trinity existed then as now. The Son of God architected creation with the Father’s hand and the Holy Spirit’s encompassing presence. Our relationship as sons and daughters reckons us as drawn into God. God’s incarnation as one of us in Jesus Christ changes everything.

The history, the revelations, our ancestors, and God’s involvement in each of those has made creation change. God has not changed. Even as incarnated, God has not changed. This is important for us to recognize. Jeroboam’s story of idolatry starkly reminds us of living with God always. We should never subject God to ourselves, nor put anything of creation between him and us. Perhaps, our relationship to God as a brother, king, and savior gives us more reason to be all in. Unfortunately, we have more opportunities to fail also. Failure is expected, but so is God’s painful corrections and adjustments.

He loves us and forgives us, and in the process molds us back to him. That’s not a painless process.

The conflict we read about in Kings, where Jeroboam adopted non-acceptable religious practices, defines the dilemma of the pre-Christian people of God. Four things that existed then have completely changed today because of Jesus. Jeroboam “progressively” changed God’s presence to creation, not grasping that even though some of his ideas sounded good, their time had not yet come.

In Hebrew law, God was mysterious. Consequently no images of God were allowed. Jeroboam constructed temples with representative calves that were to invoke God’s presence among the people. We may not understand the need for golden caves today, but we have many substitutes that look much the same to God. Our scriptural image of God is as the lamb, the sacrificed martyr, and the conquerer of death when he rose. These images existed in the old testament, too. They were just not revealed so clearly as Jesus Christ, whom we can know today.

Also, according to Israeli constructs, priests could only be called out of one tribe — the Levites. Jeroboam set up priests from virtually all tribal groups. The strict line of priesthood spoke to Jesus’ coming. Following his foundation of the Church, Jesus established all of us as members of the royal priesthood. Jeroboam did not have that duty. Only Jesus could do that. Good idea, but it’s a subversion for Jeroboam to ordain.

The central sanctuary of the temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem identified the Holy of Holies where God communicated and judged the people of God. Jeroboam set up at least two more temples in the Northern part of Israel. These temples were abominations. Today, Jesus established each of us as the temples of the Holy of Holies, the Holy Spirit. No one can do this but God himself.

Most importantly, the Israelite Hebrews were a separatist organization. They were not to engage with or associate with other national religions, or the nationalities that worshipped there. Jeroboam not only gathered various religious groups, he adopted power bases of various religions into the Judah-run lands where he was king.

The importance of separatist and cultic followers of a strict law in Jeroboam’s time was for the nation of Israel to be a witness to the God who would bring a Messiah. The only true God. God could only arrive from a God-formed entity. As lackluster as the Israel people could be, they were the chosen ones.

Our Church today is that witness. It is not separatist in the sense of nations and peoples. It is separatist in the terms of its central worship and Eucharistic focus upon Jesus, the Christ, that Messiah of the chosen ones. The Church is not run by us, but by the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, as the Father has called us. We’re just as lackluster as the nation of Israel, but we’re the witness that God wants.

Idolatry means to turn our heads, our worship, and our focus to someone other than God. God loves us and forgives us, because our heads are too easily turned.

God will adjust the path of the universe to correct as we spoil the prepared ground for the return of Jesus, and the saints. God will not fail in his correction. He’ll pick other coaches, redraw the plays, shift the linemen, retire receivers and recruit other cornerbacks. He’ll switch quarterbacks at the same rate as the grass gets mowed.

If we could only remember this, and not see his love and forgiveness as a dismissal of the consequences, allowing us to be secure in our roles and our authorities. This is his playing field and his stadium. However brief our part, its an honor to be here, and we should accept the challenge of keeping our heads, our hearts, and our eyes on him.