Plaque Words

The prophets were an inflammatory lot.  Come to think of it, so were the apostles.  So was Jesus.  They said things that got people all riled up, things like, "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!"  (Paul), "You brood of vipers!"  (John the Baptist, and Jesus), and "You cows of Bashan"  (Amos, speaking to the women of Samaria, comparing them to a particularly plump collection of cattle).  They made outrageous claims, daring to speak for God himself, or even, in the case of Jesus, AS God himself.  And generally, their audiences didn't receive their words with particularly good grace or humour.  They persecuted the prophets, threw them into prisons and pits, stoned them, sawed them in half, even . . . even crucified them for the things they said and did.

No, the prophets were not particularly popular.

Which is why I am always somewhat amused when we pluck a portion of prophetic writ out of context and turn it into a platitude on a plaque or a mantra to rattle off.  We take these verses and turn them into something to make us feel good -- a purpose the prophet never really intended.

Oh, it's not that prophets weren't into comfort.  They were.  "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God," and all that.  It's there, for sure.  But it's there in a context, primarily a context of warning, condemnation, and punishment.  And it is that context we would do well to heed.  It is a context, which, if we took seriously, might warn, condemn, and punish us.  The words, in context, might make us feel a whole lot bad before they started to make us feel good, which was exactly their job.  And exactly why the prophets were so hated. 
 
You see, the people of God then weren't all that different than the people of God now.  The Pharisees of Jesus' day aren't all that different than we are today.   They all made the same mistake.  They all made the fatal error in judgement that the context didn't apply to them.  And that's why they were so stinking offended at the things the prophets and apostles, and Jesus, had to say.  How dare anyone accuse them?  They wanted the winsome words without the warnings.  After all, they were the people of God.  They were the good guys, the ones who had it right.  They weren't like those people, those miserable sinful people out there.  And when we pull a platitude out of context, without looking at the warning that precedes it, we do the very same thing.  We assume the warning doesn't apply.  We assume we've got it made.  We assume we're ok.  We don't allow ourselves to bow beneath the warning of God.

Take a verse like Micah 6:8.  "He has shown you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."  Plaque-able, really.  And so very inoffensive.  Perhaps some tough to do, but inoffensive.  After all, who doesn't like being just, loving mercy, and (cough, cough) walking humbly?  Such a person would be . . . nice.

Until you look at the context.

Even Micah 6:6-7 will do to get an idea:   

"With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Do you see what Micah is saying?  On the outside, these people were doing all the right things.  They were coming before the LORD.  They were bowing to him.  They were bringing their burnt offerings, just as he required!  In fact, they weren't just standard-spiritual, they were super-spiritual!  They were in church every time the doors opened.  Their kids were in all the programs.  They tithed and more than tithed.  They gave till it hurt and kept giving.  They put serving the Lord ahead of their kids.  They were pillars in the community.  They were doing things they thought would please God, things that God himself had asked them to do.  And Micah came along and threw it all back in their faces.

They came before the LORD, but they cheated a little when they thought they could get away with it.  They overcharged where they thought they could make a bit of extra profit.  They underpaid and crowed about the great deal they got from the sucker who sold them the goods.  They forgot to charge taxes or forgot to pay taxes on the cash deal.  Nothing major, just watching out for themselves against big business, big government, or the little sucker down the street selling stuff at the garage sale.

They bowed before the LORD, but they lied to each other when it was to their advantage.  They made themselves look good, and someone else look bad.  They conveniently forgot their own mistakes but long remembered the mistakes of others, and made sure that everyone else did, too.  A joke, teasing, I-didn't-really-mean-it.  Whatever worked to get to the top and stay there.

They brought their burnt offerings, calves a year old, but also bid for power.  They aligned themselves not with the one who was right, but the one who had the most influence.  Money spoke.  They allowed the big donors to get their own way.  They made decisions based on what was popular, what was culturally relevant, what was politically correct.  Whatever it took to be the biggest, the best, and the brightest, the most happening place in the area.

No, Micah says, the Lord has already shown you what is good, and what he requires. And what does he require?  Inner transformation.  A heart that beats for the same things that God's heart beats for.  A willingness to fight as ferociously for the injustices of the world, to love as extravagantly the completely unlovable, to forgive as wholeheartedly the unforgivable, to walk and eat and serve as unabashedly among the most broken and hurting people of this world as he did when he gave his firstborn for my transgression and for the sin of my soul.

It's so easy to forget the context.  It's so nice to just feel good.  But I dare not do it.  The people of God have always forgotten context at their peril.  To claim that the context does not apply to me, to assume I'm ok without allowing the searchlight of the prophet to plumb the depths of my heart is to risk hearing God say, "Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins."  What do you mean, my sins, Lord?  Didn't I do it all right?  Didn't I do what you required?  I thought I was ok, but I never really took time to look.

But when I look, when I examine the context, when I recognise in my own heart those tendencies to put myself first at the expense of someone else, to speak words that will make me look good and another look foolish, to align myself with pride and power, when I recognise these tendencies not as "no big deal" or "little things", but as symptoms of a sinful and corrupt heart, when I see how far I fall short of acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God, ah, it is then that the prophet whispers comfort to my bruised and broken heart.  "When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.  I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until  he pleads my cause and executes judgement for me.  He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication."

Words that become too precious for a plaque.