Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 10  Read: 2 Kings 23 Listen: (7:43) Read: Psalms 77 Listen: (2:12)

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 23.10-14

10 He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11 He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. 

12 He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Reflection: Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols

By John Tillman

Around the world, Christians, including myself, pray for a revival like Josiah’s in our countries. But there’s a problem…

Josiah forcefully and radically changed Israel and Judah’s religious landscape. He tore down the infrastructure of temples, altars, and idols. He put out of work or killed the personnel of priests, prostitutes, and workers. He restored true worship for the first time in generations.

Josiah’s reforms were a massive change for the nations of Israel and Judah. These changes would have affected the job market, the economy, housing, and agriculture. Josiah cleansed Israel and Judah from top to bottom, but the next generation went bottom up. The changes didn’t stick. Why?

Josiah tore down the altars on the hillsides, but he couldn’t touch the ones in their hearts. He burned and ground the symbols of false gods into dust, but he couldn’t grind down the people’s habitual addiction to their images. He destroyed temples of gold and silver, but he couldn’t melt from their minds people’s comfortable familiarity with idolatry.

We need revival deeper than Josiah’s. If we want lasting faith in the next generation and a revival beyond a few changes to architecture, we need to base it on something other than force and power. We don’t need a strong man enforcing showy spirituality, religious observance, and moral behaviors.

Rather than dictatorial destruction, we need grassroots growth. Rather than pharisaical enforcement, we need Christlike engagement. We also need to clean our own houses first and do so with honesty.

It’s easy to be judgmental of ancient people’s idols. They seem so simplistic, terrifying, or just weird. “Storm gods, sex gods, and chaos monsters, oh my. How could they believe this?” But these gods were normal to the culture. Engaging with these idols was practical SOP that promised financial ROI.

When we look for idols in our lives, we shouldn’t look for weird things. We should look for normal things. The idols of a culture don’t always dress up in flamboyant costumes. They often hide in normality and ubiquity.

The idols we find in our lives are unlikely to appear as mystical beings or golden statues or be found in shrines and altars on hillsides. But they might resemble institutions, brands, or revered leaders. They might hide among private shrines of belief, our pet sins, and our longings for comfort, safety, and control.

Lasting revivals start small. May one start now.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

“Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery, I will rise up,” says the Lord, “And give them the help they long for.” — Psalm 12.5

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Rumors or Repentance

When someone critiques you and calls you to repent, what will you do? Will you dismiss them with a rumor… with violence…or will you listen…?

Rumors or Repentance

Read more about The Cost of Repentance

Josiah is known for religious reforms…a leader who not only recognized sin but called it out, determined to live differently, and worked to get rid of it.

The Cost of Repentance

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 4  Read: 2 Kings 17 Listen: (7:19) Read: Psalms 69 Listen: (4:04)

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 17.22-23, 26-29, 33, 40-41

22 The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23 until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria…

26 It was reported to the king of Assyria: “The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.” 27 Then the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” 28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord. 

29 Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods…

33 They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. 

40 They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. 41 Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.

Reflection: Everyone Is Doing It

By John Tillman

Israel failed to bless the nations by teaching them to follow Yahweh, following their gods instead. After Israel’s exile, we see the nations literally brought into the promised land and taught, by imperial decree, to worship him.

The non-Israelite settlers were being killed by lions due to not worshiping Yahweh. So Assyria sent back an exiled priest tasked with teaching the people “what the god of the land requires.” This priest was only partially successful. “Even to this day,” the author says, the people continued mixing the worship of God with that of idols. 

It can be easy for us to shake our heads in judgment at ancient idolaters. “How simple and foolish they are,” we may think. We underestimate the impact of cultural influence.

”Everyone is doing it” only seems lame when you don’t have to live among the “everyone.” Children say “everyone is doing it” to their parents. Parents don’t live among their children’s “everyone” and so dismiss it as foolish. When children challenge their parents about adult behaviors, parents respond with the same answer, “everyone is doing it.”

We find it easy to not worship a fertility god who guarantees good crops because we aren’t farmers living in a culture in which everyone around us is doing it. (Instead, we live in a culture that believes “knowledge is power” and we are all addicted to streams of content, articles, feeds, news channels… “Everyone is doing it.”)

We underestimate the cultural influence that we are under. Some who are baked in the culture of western Christianity THINK they operate from neutral theological and cultural ground but our culture’s yeast is worked all through our dough. Culture can greatly influence our theology and the way we live out our faith. It is hubris to think otherwise. 

Why do we worship God? So that we may not fall prey to lions? So that our kings may not be conquered? So that we can dwell in the land in peace? Selfishness and power can’t grow faith.

Assyria conquered the land but couldn’t enforce worship. We also will fail to force others to faith. Faith cannot be crushed, no matter how powerful the government, but it can’t be forced either. It must grow on its own. All we can do is plant seeds like the priest and pray that God will make them grow.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.113

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Come Out of Captivity

We are not beyond hope. His arm is not too short to save. Come out of captivity to cultural idols and into the light.

Come Out of Captivity

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Links for today’s readings:

Nov 3  Read: 2 Kings 16 Listen: (3:46) Read: Psalms 68 Listen: (4:26)

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 16.14-18

14 As for the bronze altar that stood before the Lord, he brought it from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the temple of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 King Ahaz then gave these orders to Uriah the priest: “On the large new altar, offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. Splash against this altar the blood of all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 And Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had ordered. 17 King Ahaz cut off the side panels and removed the basins from the movable stands. He removed the Sea from the bronze bulls that supported it and set it on a stone base. 18 He took away the Sabbath canopy that had been built at the temple and removed the royal entryway outside the temple of the Lord, in deference to the king of Assyria.

Reflection: Vassals Become Vessels

By John Tillman

Assyria, the world’s first superpowered empire, was growing.

Judah’s neighbors, Israel and Aram, pressured Judah’s king, Ahaz, to join them in resisting Assyria. When he would not, they conspired to replace him as king and attacked him. As Isaiah promised Ahaz, the coup collapsed. (Isaiah 7.2-7) However, Ahaz failed to follow Isaiah’s advice and stand firm in his faith.

Rather than resist Assyria, Ahaz chose appeasement. Forsaking God’s promise through Isaiah, Ahaz forged an alliance with Assyria to protect himself from his neighbors. To pay Assyria for this protection, Ahaz stripped the temple of gold, silver, and bronze. When visiting Tiglath-Pileser as his newest vassal, Ahaz saw an Assyrian altar and had a copy of it built for the temple in Jerusalem. As a vassal of Assyria, Judah became a vessel for Assyrian ways, worship, and corruption.

First, Ahaz placed the Assyrian altar in front of the altar of God, between it and the temple’s entrance. Then Ahaz moved God’s altar to one side, out of its place. Ahaz instructed the priest to offer sacrifices on the new Assyrian altar, but kept God’s altar for “seeking guidance.” Ahaz not only sidelined Yahweh’s altar, he also worshiped Assyrian gods and sacrificed his son to them. Ahaz distorted and corrupted the temple “in deference to” the Assyrian king. He eventually shuttered the temple and filled the city with altars to many gods. (2 Chronicles 28.24-25) Ahaz’s kingdom and temple became indistinguishable from Assyria.

We are not kings like Ahaz, and the powers of the world rarely threaten us like an empire. Sometimes they woo us like algorithms, seduce us like sins, numb us like drugs, deceive us like politicians, or corrupt us like wicked or reckless friends.

When such powers of the world approach us, it is dangerous for us to choose appeasement. Appeasement soon becomes approval, and approval soon becomes adoption.

Have we become vassals of worldly powers (cultural or political) and vessels of their ways? Have we sidelined part of our theology to center the priorities of powerful allies? Does our deference to powerful forces erase the difference between us and them?

We must not be conformed to or discipled by worldly powers or leaders. (Romans 12.2) Rather than showing deference, we must demonstrate our difference. 

Let us stand firm in our faith, using winsome persuasion, determined persistence, and uncompromising principles to distinguish ourselves and defend our neighbors from the world’s powers.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

“New Day”, by David Adam

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Kingdoms Breaking Bad

As Israel fractures, each dynasty hopes to be the answer. But each one, especially in the northern kingdom, “breaks bad.”

Kingdoms Breaking Bad

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