How To Become an Idolater

  • November 3, 2015
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  • Park Forum
2 Kings 16.7

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”

The historic record in 2 Kings 16 provides the background for some of the most significant Messianic prophecy in the Hebrew Bible. Combining this record with Chronicles, Isaiah, and an Assyrian account we understand what was happening to God’s people during time when much of the ancient Near East was being consumed by Assyria.

  • To fight Assyria’s rising power the kings of Syria and Samaria became allies and were joined by Philistia and Edom. Israel also joined the alliance (Israel was divided from Judah, which maintained control of Jerusalem).
  • Judah, led by King Ahaz, refused to join the alliance.
  • When it became clear the alliance would overtake Judah, King Ahaz turned to the Assyrians for help.
The prophet Isaiah attempted to dissuade King Ahaz from aligning with the Assyrians by speaking God’s assurances and warnings for his people. “Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you… It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” Yet the reality of the threat at his door and the assurance of the Assyrians’ power proved more appealing to Ahaz.
For this help Ahaz depleted the treasury, and even stripped the Temple, in order to pay the heavy tribute demanded of him by the Assyrian king. Judah’s king went so far as to install Assyrian cultic furnishings in the Temple. — Craig Evans

The path to idolatry isn’t mystical and faith-filled, but concrete and pragmatic. Ahaz sought counsel in the most proven and mighty voices of his day — though they led him away from intimacy with God. His desired outcome was noble; he wanted to ensure his kingdom lasted through the threat at hand — that peace came to his house and his people.

The solution for idolatry isn’t to ignore concrete realities, but to find a reality beyond them in Immanuel: God with us. Folded into God’s promise for Ahab is one we can draw hope from today:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. — Isaiah 9.6

Idolatry is exposed in Scripture as transactional — exchanging personal effort for short-term satisfaction. The Gospel, Immanuel, is revealed as a stark contrast to the unpredictability and insufficiency of our own efforts.

Today’s Reading
2 Kings 16 (Listen – 3:46)
Titus 2 (Listen – 2:01)

The Spirit of Hospitality

  • November 2, 2015
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  • Park Forum

Titus 1.7-8

For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

For Christians, a delight in the guest/host relationship reflects the expectation that God will play a significant role in the ordinary exchange between guests and hosts. This lends to hospitality a sacramental quality. — William Lane

I grew up conflating the practices of community and hospitality. I love long meals with friends. In eating, talking, and laughing together we share life in ways where we all seem to leave better than we came. This is the practice of community.

Hospitality throws a wrench in community — it embraces someone who is out of sync with the community. She might have trouble entering in to the group, or try to do so too fast. She doesn’t know how to engage. Her jokes don’t seem to land. In some ways the presence of the outsider is a sacrifice for the community.

Hospitality works through community and converts the outsider to the beloved.

[Hospitality] especially goes after and welcomes people whom the world excludes. People who are different. People who are unlovely. People who are un-wealthy. People who are unconnected. When you make people like that feel welcome, when you make people like that feel included, you have God’s spirit of hospitality. It’s an attitude of the heart. — Timothy Keller
In a sermon simply entitled, Hospitality, Timothy Keller recovers the spiritual dimension to the practice. Christians do not engage in hospitality because we look down on those who are outsiders, but because we know we were once outsiders.
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ… having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. — Ephesians 2.12-13, 19

Though we were outsiders, the community of the Trinity sacrificed greatly to bring us in. Dr. Keller clarifies, “Hospitality is an attitude of heart and a practice. It’s an attitude of heart that seeks to turn strangers into guests, friends, and eventually brothers and sisters.” Sacrifice is the true spirit of hospitality and salvation is its fruit.

Today’s Reading
2 Kings 15 (Listen – 6:21 )
Titus 1 (Listen – 2:24)