Psalm 50; 1 Kings 18:1-19; Phil. 2:12-30; Matt. 2:13-23
“Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” What an opening gambit Ahab plays! He has led Israel into apostasy and the land has had three years of drought and famine and the blame is laid at the feet of Elijah, the one man who sounded the warning signal on the Lord’s anger against the apostasy. We are called to be such troublers, preaching the truth to the world, beginning at the house of the Lord. We are to be those who speak unpopular truth concerning the judgment of God. Our motives and methods, however, vary according to whom we speak. If we speak to those inside the covenant community, we speak forthrightly and call them to repentance. If we speak to those who have not received mercy and grace we speak first of those things so that they will know the love of God first and then understand holiness and judgment against sin. When necessary, we are to be troublers of Israel, speaking truth to those who have wandered from truth and who lead others astray. It is never easy but always required.
Matthew, we presume, wrote primarily to a Jewish audience and he constantly cites prophetic sources concerning Messiah in order to show that Jesus is the one that was promised. He wanted his fellow Jews to believe as he believed and provides scriptural proof to encourage that belief. Jesus’ personal journey as a child was that of Israel, being called out of Egypt back to the promised land. There was also persecution by a ruler against the children particularly, as Pharaoh had order the Hebrew male children to be killed. Herod was so insecure and afraid of a Jewish king and insurrection that he couldn’t take the risk of this child coming to power. The potential threat was too great to allow it to happen. We don’t like to have our way of life threatened and here we see Lord Acton’s words writ large, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
We are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. More than that we are to allow God’s Spirit to work within us to will and to work for “His good pleasure.” Paul counsels the Philippians to do all things without grumbling or questioning and criticizes those who seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. We see in the first two lessons today kings or leaders who indeed were primarily concerned about their own interests and lengths to which they were willing to go to protect those interests. Leadership in the church looks like what Paul says here, authority comes from the willingness not to stand apart and seek your own interests but the willingness to serve as Jesus modeled.
Baptized in water,
sealed by the Spirit
cleansed by the blood of Christ our king;
heirs of salvation,
trusting his promise -
faithfully now God's praise we sing.
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