When the Assyrians re-settle the land of Israel, they do not
fear the Lord and so He sends judgment among them in the form of lions who kill
them. This causes the people and the
king to fear “the god of the land.” They
know that this is the work of a god but they believe in a god too small, a god
only of a region or territory. The king
asks that priests from Israel be sent to teach the people the law of the god of
the land. The priests apparently leave
out the first commandment, they are to have no other gods before Yahweh, as
they practice many religions in addition to the worship of Yahweh. It would seem they didn’t teach the law so
much as they taught religious practices.
Apparently, things settled down after that but there was some knowledge
of the Lord in that place, although it was incomplete. They feared the Lord and served other
gods. The priests had their chance and
blew it.
What would it look like if we really took Jesus seriously
when He said, “do not be anxious about your life…”? What percentage of our time is spent being
anxious about our lives? In that first
reading, it would seem that the people who re-settled the land were constantly
doing religious things. There must have been altars all over the place. The
reason for all this was to implore the gods to give them stuff. They couldn’t depend on the gods to provide
rain and fertility or peace and prosperity, there was no covenant, they had to
practice religion in the hopes the gods would be appeased and do these
things. Israel, and we, have a covenant
with God that He will do these things, we can trust Him. That is exactly what Jesus is saying here,
don’t be like other people, seek the kingdom of God and all these things will
be provided to you. Seeking the kingdom
and the righteousness of God is all we have to do. If we did, what would our lives look
like? What witness would that be to the
world around us?
Paul conditions his thoughts on remaining single on “this
present distress.” In the circumstances,
that persecution is coming to those who profess Jesus as Messiah and Lord, and
He is coming soon. Marriage adds burdens that keep you from seeking the kingdom
when you most need to do so. The
concerns of our lives call us from that primary thing of seeking the kingdom of
God. Paul is convinced that this present
form of the world is passing away so he asks, why conform to its pattern? Contrast this to Jeremiah’s words in his
prophecy that the people who are exiled in Babylon are to settle, to give their
children in marriage, and live normal lives in that place because they are
going to be there a long time. Was Paul
wrong about these things because he was wrong that the world was passing
away? No, he goes back to Jesus’ words
in our Gospel reading to keep first things first. If we do that, we teach what the priests of
Israel failed to teach the Assyrians in the land, the proper fear of the Lord
as the only God, exposing idols as idols.
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