There's no hope, I have spent all my days trying to reach
the people and they have rejected me and you, there is no reason to
continue. That is essentially Elijah's
message to the Lord and he will not deviate from that message. He was fortified with food and went forty
days into the wilderness, getting not just out of Dodge but as far from it as
he could get. The Lord doesn't rebuke
Elijah but reveals Himself to him in a whisper.
All Elijah wants is to be heard, just like Job. He is given a few tasks to do. The first job he is given is to anoint the
king of Syria. Syria is a foreign
nation, but this king will be part of God's judgment on unbelieving Israel, so
he needs anointing. Then, Elijah is to
anoint Ahab's successor, Jehu, head of the army. The final job he is given is to anoint Elisha
in his place as prophet. Finally, the
Lord tells Elijah that at least part of his story is wrong, it is not "I,
only I" who is left, there are seven thousand who have not accepted
Baal. Elijah has been given a special
mission but these others have remained faithful. Elisha accepts the call in much the same way
the disciples of Jesus did, by leaving the past completely behind, here
actually burning up in sacrifice his old ways.
He begins to assist Elijah, just as Joshua did with Moses.
If you had seen someone raise a man from the dead, call him
forth from the tomb after four days of being dead, how could your reaction be
to inform the authorities you knew hated this person? Why would the reaction of the authorities be,
not to believe in the one who had raised a man from the dead, but to determine
to stop Him? They make it clear,
"if we allow him to go on like this."
They are allowing it? If they
allow him to continue, "everyone will believe in him." And that is somehow a bad thing? Then, "the Romans will come and take
away both our place and our nation.” Ah,
now there's the rub, it is personal, they would lose something, their power and
position and property. Ultimately
Caiphas re-phrases it in a semi-benevolent manner, it is better for one man to
perish than the whole nation, he was a utilitarian philosopher long before
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the 19th century. He was just looking out for the people. Right?
John sees the irony in that statement, that Jesus would indeed die that
others might live.
The disciples benefit from the wisdom of the great rabbi
Gamaliel. His wisdom differs from that
of Caiphas in that the high priest thought it good for Jesus to die, get the
threat and the problem out of the way while Gamaliel takes a longer view, if
this movement is of God, nothing we can do will stop it. He reminds the council that they have seen
such movements come and go, various pretenders have arisen but eventually they
showed themselves and nothing came of it.
He encourages a wait and see attitude towards the new movement, not give
it too much attention. He was right, it
didn't die because it was of God. He
couldn't have imagined the persistence and the power of the Gospel.
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