God's unknowing servants
Commentary
In these days as political campaigns for various offices clutter our highway landscapes, our television commercials, and our radio waves, we the public yearn for the end of election day so that our lives might get back to normal. All this attention to governmental offices appears sometimes to be an intrusion into our lives, and while some citizens thrive on it, others can hardly tolerate it.
Our lessons for this Sunday challenge us to consider in the midst of all the campaigning the important role the scriptures place on the role of government, even the role that God gives to governmental authority and office. Whether the officeholders know it or not, they are God's agents doing the work of the Creator God in the world.
Isaiah 45:1-7
The pericope ranks as one of the most surprising passages in the Bible. It is a speech from the Lord to Cyrus, King of Persia, and while the Lord has spoken to people other than Israelites on other occasions (see, for example, Ezekiel 28 to the prince of Tyre or 29 to the Pharaoh of Egypt), this passage gives a title to Cyrus: "his anointed" (literally, "his messiah").
The title Messiah is used elsewhere in the Old Testament only for kings of the Davidic line (see even the coronation hymn at Psalm 2:2), with the exception of the places where David himself calls Saul "the Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel 24:6, 18; 26:9, 11, 16, 23). Once David had been crowned and established his dynasty, the word "Messiah" was reserved for his DNA, provided they were the firstborn of the present ruler.
What a shock when the Lord identifies Cyrus as "my messiah"! In a sense, the way might have been paved by Jeremiah, who reported the word of the Lord about "Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant" (Jeremiah 27:6). In neither case did these kings of foreign nations worship the Lord, acknowledge him as sovereign, or perhaps even know about him. The truly astonishing aspect of the announcements regarding them is that Nebuchadnezzar became the Lord's servant in executing divine judgment on the people of Judah and Cyrus became the Lord's messiah who would be the agent of salvation for the same people now hanging their hats in Babylon.
The Lord's word to Cyrus tells the king that everything he has accomplished until now has been the work of the Lord, even subduing nations as he climbed the career ladder. The Lord now promises to continue empowering him to break down barriers and to provide him with treasures that until now have been hidden in darkness. The purpose of the Lord's role for this king of Persia is "so that you may know it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name" (v. 3b).
Yet it is for the sake of the people of God, exiled in Babylon sixty years earlier by the Lord's servant Nebuchadnezzar, that the Lord calls Cyrus by name and gives him such an exalted title. The time of the people's punishment was over (Isaiah 40:2), and so God needed a human agent to free the people and send them home.
What gives God the right to intrude into the affairs of state, even foreign states? The answer is provided in the pericope itself: the Lord is the only God, the one who owns the world on the basis of creating it. Therefore, the Lord can "arm" Cyrus as a military power, "though you do not know me" (v. 5), because that is precisely the way the Creator of the world functions in order to accomplish his will.
Through this saving action accomplished by Cyrus, all the world will know that "I am the Lord, and there is no other." The words have a familiar ring from the stories about the exodus from the land of Egypt (see, for example, Exodus 7:5, 17; 8:22; 9:14, 16; 10:2; 14:17). This time they occur in connection with the new exodus, the deliverance from bondage in Babylon. Yet the goal of the salvation act is the same: the knowledge and glorification of God throughout the world. In our pericope the means by which the nations know the Lord and honor him is through the messiah called Cyrus of Persia -- whether at the moment he knows it or not.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, accompanied by Silas and Timothy, visited Thessalonica in the year A.D. 49 (see Acts 17:1-9, 14-15; 18:5). His correspondence to the congregation established there was composed a year and a half to two years later, making these letters the oldest surviving epistles we have from the apostle. His letters, especially this first, are full of intimate and heartfelt expressions of thanks, as well as further instructions and obligations in the Christian life.
These ten verses that comprise the first chapter of the epistle express this intimacy with outpourings of gratitude and affirmation. What jumps out of these lines of the Scriptures is the common Pauline theme of imitation.
In our society today imitation is everything. We tend to put it into the category of role modeling. Indeed role models form the basis of advertising. If you want to look as good as Christie Brinkley, all you need to do is buy and use a certain brand of cosmetics. If you want to soar with Michael Jordan, the right sneaker will put you airborne. Models and athletes become the people we want to imitate, and success in the marketing of various products confirms the often unspoken truth.
Paul extols the Christians in Thessalonica because they "became imitators of us and of the Lord" (v. 6). Now there's a set of role models! In a later letter Paul will repeat the imitation theme regarding himself as he tries to urge those folks who are waiting for the Second Coming to get back to work (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9). To the Corinthians he wrote that since he became their father in Christ Jesus, they ought to "be imitators of me" in regard to "my ways in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:16-17) and by "not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved" (10:33--11:1). In the last mentioned reference Paul admits to his role model as Christ himself. At Ephesians 5:1 the apostle exhorts the readers to be nothing less than "imitators of God," living in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.
When we use the athletes and beauty queens of our day as our role models for the way we conduct our lives, we are aiming far too low. Heeding Paul's example and advice of imitating him as he imitates Christ would provide us with role models of love for one another and of fruitful work among others in the world.
Matthew 22:15-22
We need to interpret this well-known story that culminates in Jesus' words about God and the emperor (Caesar) in its context. It is part of a continuing discussion between Jesus and the chief priests and elders that began in 21:23 with their questions about his authority. Following the parable about the wicked tenants of the vineyard, Matthew tells us the chief priests and Pharisees were still listening, even grasping the not-too-subtle point that the parable was directed against them. On the basis of their Aha! experience they were itching to arrest him. Before they could make their plans, Jesus laid on them the parable about the wedding feast, ending with the unhappy conclusion, "For many are called, but few are chosen" (v. 14).
With all that conversation in the background we can understand why our pericope begins with an explicit statement of the plotting by the Pharisees to entangle him in his own words. Rather than approaching him on their own, the Pharisees sent their disciples and the Herodians to Jesus. They acknowledged him as Teacher and then laid on him some pious dribble about acknowledging Jesus' sincerity and truthfulness and impartiality. Then they popped the well-known question: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
Seeing right through their charade, Jesus did not return the compliment. Instead he called them "hypocrites," that is, actors -- those who are playing a role that is not their own character and looking for public acclaim. Showing them a coin, he asked for them to identify the image and the title of the person represented on the denarius. They replied, of course, "The emperor's."
That led Jesus to his famous remark, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." Foiled again, the hypocrites exited stage left.
The response of Jesus was directed to the specific question -- obviously a test question -- about taxes. This one sentence probably does not represent Jesus' position on the relationship between church and state or even of God and the emperor. Let us not presume, however, to know what Jesus would have said in an essay about the larger questions, because inevitably such attempts lead us to conclude what Jesus should have said that would support our position on the subject.
However, we can attempt an educated guess, considering the background out of which Jesus came and the positions established elsewhere in the New Testament. The background in which Jesus grew up theologically was that of the Old Testament. In those scriptures the witnesses to God's word announced again and again that as Creator of the world, God is in charge of all things, including all rulers, and the Lord uses them for his own purposes, either of judgment (so Nebuchadnezzar "his servant") or salvation (so Cyrus "his messiah"). Jesus knew his scriptures! He knew that understanding of divinely appointed authority. Indeed, in John's Gospel Jesus stated the position explicitly as he stood before Pilate the governor: "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11).
The apostle Paul provides us with the most elaborate understanding of the role of government in God's world. In Romans 13 Paul paves the way for his admonition to pay taxes (that issue again!) by arguing that governing authorities derive their authority from God. Their role is to bring order to the society by serving as a terror to bad conduct, using the sword accordingly. Such governing authority is "God's servant for your good" (v. 4), and as "God's servants" the authorities are to be paid taxes so that they might accomplish their God-given tasks.
According to Paul's explanation, we might add to Jesus' words, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's," the words, "And the emperor is God's, too."
Perhaps after experiencing the authority of the Hitler regime in the first half of this century and that of such leaders as Slobodan Milosevic in the second half, we have trouble swallowing the thought that governing authorities belong to God and are ordained by God to be servants for good. If Paul thought in terms of the specific person on the throne, he too would have had a bitter pill to swallow, because the emperor on the throne when he wrote Romans 13 was Nero -- one of the worst murderers, liars, and utterly sick rulers of the Roman Empire. Yet Paul was talking not about individual personalities but about the office of governing authority. That office is the way that God rules over the world in order to establish order out of chaos, even if it be through rulers who do not know God (Isaiah 45:4) or over subjects who do not know God either.
The instruction to give to the emperor the taxes due the governing authority is, of course, only the first part of the equation. The second is to "give to God the things that are God's." In the understanding of God as Creator of the world, all things belong to God. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." By that understanding our very lives, our world of sea, land, and air, our families and the homes in which we live together, the families of other people throughout the world that might have much less, businesses and occupations, vacation spots and leisure time -- all belong to God. To give to God what is God's is to use them all as responsible stewards of the Creator's possessions and in pursuit of that responsibility to honor God as the rightful owner. At the same time, in our understanding of God as Redeemer, we recognize that God has reclaimed us as his own to be his children and to live together in a new community called the church. As individuals within this community we are God's new family of sisters and brothers giving testimony to the rest of the human family that the world God created is the same world God loved so much that he gave his only Son.
The opportunity to give to God what belongs to God involves our entire lives, including our expressions of praise in corporate worship, our votes at the local election booths, and even our payment of taxes to God's servants who govern for our good.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Exodus 33:12-23
There is no doubt, according to the stories that we find in Exodus, that the unfaithfulness of Israel in substituting worship of the golden calf for worship of the Lord caused a deep rift between God and his chosen people. Up to this time God had always accompanied his people personally in their trek through the wilderness. But God had experienced the fickleness of his people. As a result, the Lord introduces several means of mediating between himself and Israel. "I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Exodus 33:3). Instead, God sends his angel to accompany the people (33:2). He establishes the tent of meeting outside the camp, where he can speak with Moses (33:7-11). And he sends a representative of himself (v. 14). That latter is the concern of our text for the morning.
Moses knows that he and his compatriots need God. "If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here" (v. 15). Perhaps that is the prayer of every one of us -- to beg God's presence with us in every accustomed or new undertaking; for if God be against us, who can be for us? God rules this world and guides our separate and corporate lives. And if he will not go with us, we have no chance of lasting good. We are far too feeble, far too blinded by our own selfishness, far too influenced by the corrupted ways of the society around us to choose the proper paths. God must lead, or our way will end in destruction. Moses knows that, as we know it deep in our souls.
The Lord in his mercy does not desert Moses and his people. "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." God will guide the people to the promised land, which is always described as Israel's "place of rest" in the Old Testament. But the word for "presence" in this passage is panim in the Hebrew, and it means "face." It will be a hypostasis, a representative of the Lord, but it will not be his full person. God will be with Israel, but only through the presence of that mediator, because Israel's sinfulness could not survive before the pure and awesome presence of God in all his glory.
Is that not the case with us also? That there must be a mediator between God and us sinners, lest we be destroyed by the unstained glory of God himself? How could you or I, with all our faults and so very human weaknesses, stand before the God of majesty who hates sin? We cannot, can we? But God does not desert us, despite our sin and indifference and disobedience toward him. Instead he gives us a mediator named Jesus Christ, who is pure, untarnished, obedient love, and Christ represents us to God and represents God in his fullness to us -- not partially, but God as he truly is. So every prayer we make is through the mediation or in the name of Jesus Christ. Otherwise we sinners literally do not have a prayer.
The Lord establishes means of mediation of his presence for Israel and thus continues to guide them on their way toward the promised land. And that continuing guidance is what sets Israel apart from every other nation. Israel is a "visited people," visited and guided and protected by God. "Is it not in thy going with us ... that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?" (v. 16). The Lord God goes with her. Note that the verb is not "is" but "goes." Israel is on a journey. And so are we. Like Israel, the Christian Church is God's holy people, set apart for his purpose and accompanied by him. And it is in that "going with us" by the Lord, by means of his Spirit poured out upon us from the Father and Son, that we too are different from every other people (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2-3, et al.).
Moses is assured that God's "presence" will continue to go with them. But perhaps it is a mark of Moses' intimate relation with the Lord that Moses requests to see God in all his glory. Moses hungers to know God fully, as so many saints have hungered to have a "beatific vision" of the Lord. Human beings cannot see God and live, however (v. 20), for every human being including Moses is stained by sin. There follows, therefore, the fascinating story in verses 21-23. God will hide Moses in a cleft in the rock and pass by him. But as God passes, he will put his hand over Moses in the cleft, and Moses will glimpse only God's back and not his face. Is that nonsensical anthropomorphism? No, we must reply that the very same God was incarnated in human flesh, and we have seen the glory of God, full of grace and truth, in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). "We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14).
Lutheran Option -- Isaiah 45:1-7
Up until 550 B.C., the people of Judah were captives in exile to the Babylonian Empire. Then there arose Cyrus II of Persia, who captured Media, Lydia, and finally Babylonia in 539 B.C. Exercising a policy of tolerance and understanding toward captive peoples, Cyrus allowed all of the Judean exiles who wished to do so to return to Palestine and to rebuild their temple, even furnishing the funds for the reconstruction (2 Chronicles 36:22--Ezra 1:4). This text is the Lord's address to Cyrus by the mouth of the prophet Second Isaiah.
We often ignorantly believe that international affairs are in the hands of the politicians and military and multinational corporations. This text wants us to learn otherwise. Its predominant emphasis is on the work of the Lord, and everything that Cyrus accomplishes is really the action of God. Thus, all of the verbs are in the first person, with God speaking: "I have grasped," "I will go," "I will break," "I will give," "I call you," "I surname you," "I gird you." Cyrus is raised up and given his military victories by God (cf. 41:2-3, 25; 46:11; 48:14-15). God rules the world of nations, a fact that we need to remember as we contemplate our international scene.
Despite the fact that Cyrus' power and conquests come from the Lord, Cyrus does not know the Lord (vv. 4-5). God works unseen behind the actions of the Persian king. But God's work serves as a witness to all people, including Cyrus himself. God's exercise of his might through the armies of Cyrus is the sign that God is the Lord "and there is no other" (v. 6). Three times that proclamation rings out, "I am the Lord," verses 5, 6, and 7. No human power can stand before him. God rules, and is the only God.
The biblical witness to God has two emphases, however. One is on the irresistible might of the Lord, before whom all human beings are as nothing (cf. 40:15-17). The other is on the love of God. Why has the Lord raised up Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and to release the exiles? "For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen" (v. 4). God is still working out his purpose of saving his world, and he uses Cyrus as the instrument to free Israel, that she may continue to be the Lord's people, set apart for his purpose. God loves all humankind and wishes to save us all. And so he releases Israel to continue the history of salvation. God loves, but he also has the power to make his love effective, and neither one of those biblical emphases must ever be forgotten.
Indeed, God not only has power over all nations, but he also has power over all creation. He forms the light and creates the darkness (v. 7). And then follows a statement that has disturbed many people. "I make weal and create woe," God declares. Does God create woe? Does he make the suffering and trouble that we human beings experience?
We must not separate that saying from its context. Yes, God makes a lot of trouble -- for the Egyptians at the time of the exodus, for the Babylonians who have exiled Judah, for Adolf Hitler and every modern tyrant, for every human being who would deter God from his good purpose of saving his creation. God makes lots of woe for those who oppose him, though we must not believe that all suffering and trouble come from the hand of God. Much of it comes from our own blindness and sinfulness. But God does put down his enemies, and he will continue to do so until he brings his salvation to all his world. We can rejoice that such a fact is true, and that God's is finally the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Our lessons for this Sunday challenge us to consider in the midst of all the campaigning the important role the scriptures place on the role of government, even the role that God gives to governmental authority and office. Whether the officeholders know it or not, they are God's agents doing the work of the Creator God in the world.
Isaiah 45:1-7
The pericope ranks as one of the most surprising passages in the Bible. It is a speech from the Lord to Cyrus, King of Persia, and while the Lord has spoken to people other than Israelites on other occasions (see, for example, Ezekiel 28 to the prince of Tyre or 29 to the Pharaoh of Egypt), this passage gives a title to Cyrus: "his anointed" (literally, "his messiah").
The title Messiah is used elsewhere in the Old Testament only for kings of the Davidic line (see even the coronation hymn at Psalm 2:2), with the exception of the places where David himself calls Saul "the Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel 24:6, 18; 26:9, 11, 16, 23). Once David had been crowned and established his dynasty, the word "Messiah" was reserved for his DNA, provided they were the firstborn of the present ruler.
What a shock when the Lord identifies Cyrus as "my messiah"! In a sense, the way might have been paved by Jeremiah, who reported the word of the Lord about "Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant" (Jeremiah 27:6). In neither case did these kings of foreign nations worship the Lord, acknowledge him as sovereign, or perhaps even know about him. The truly astonishing aspect of the announcements regarding them is that Nebuchadnezzar became the Lord's servant in executing divine judgment on the people of Judah and Cyrus became the Lord's messiah who would be the agent of salvation for the same people now hanging their hats in Babylon.
The Lord's word to Cyrus tells the king that everything he has accomplished until now has been the work of the Lord, even subduing nations as he climbed the career ladder. The Lord now promises to continue empowering him to break down barriers and to provide him with treasures that until now have been hidden in darkness. The purpose of the Lord's role for this king of Persia is "so that you may know it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name" (v. 3b).
Yet it is for the sake of the people of God, exiled in Babylon sixty years earlier by the Lord's servant Nebuchadnezzar, that the Lord calls Cyrus by name and gives him such an exalted title. The time of the people's punishment was over (Isaiah 40:2), and so God needed a human agent to free the people and send them home.
What gives God the right to intrude into the affairs of state, even foreign states? The answer is provided in the pericope itself: the Lord is the only God, the one who owns the world on the basis of creating it. Therefore, the Lord can "arm" Cyrus as a military power, "though you do not know me" (v. 5), because that is precisely the way the Creator of the world functions in order to accomplish his will.
Through this saving action accomplished by Cyrus, all the world will know that "I am the Lord, and there is no other." The words have a familiar ring from the stories about the exodus from the land of Egypt (see, for example, Exodus 7:5, 17; 8:22; 9:14, 16; 10:2; 14:17). This time they occur in connection with the new exodus, the deliverance from bondage in Babylon. Yet the goal of the salvation act is the same: the knowledge and glorification of God throughout the world. In our pericope the means by which the nations know the Lord and honor him is through the messiah called Cyrus of Persia -- whether at the moment he knows it or not.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, accompanied by Silas and Timothy, visited Thessalonica in the year A.D. 49 (see Acts 17:1-9, 14-15; 18:5). His correspondence to the congregation established there was composed a year and a half to two years later, making these letters the oldest surviving epistles we have from the apostle. His letters, especially this first, are full of intimate and heartfelt expressions of thanks, as well as further instructions and obligations in the Christian life.
These ten verses that comprise the first chapter of the epistle express this intimacy with outpourings of gratitude and affirmation. What jumps out of these lines of the Scriptures is the common Pauline theme of imitation.
In our society today imitation is everything. We tend to put it into the category of role modeling. Indeed role models form the basis of advertising. If you want to look as good as Christie Brinkley, all you need to do is buy and use a certain brand of cosmetics. If you want to soar with Michael Jordan, the right sneaker will put you airborne. Models and athletes become the people we want to imitate, and success in the marketing of various products confirms the often unspoken truth.
Paul extols the Christians in Thessalonica because they "became imitators of us and of the Lord" (v. 6). Now there's a set of role models! In a later letter Paul will repeat the imitation theme regarding himself as he tries to urge those folks who are waiting for the Second Coming to get back to work (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9). To the Corinthians he wrote that since he became their father in Christ Jesus, they ought to "be imitators of me" in regard to "my ways in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:16-17) and by "not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved" (10:33--11:1). In the last mentioned reference Paul admits to his role model as Christ himself. At Ephesians 5:1 the apostle exhorts the readers to be nothing less than "imitators of God," living in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.
When we use the athletes and beauty queens of our day as our role models for the way we conduct our lives, we are aiming far too low. Heeding Paul's example and advice of imitating him as he imitates Christ would provide us with role models of love for one another and of fruitful work among others in the world.
Matthew 22:15-22
We need to interpret this well-known story that culminates in Jesus' words about God and the emperor (Caesar) in its context. It is part of a continuing discussion between Jesus and the chief priests and elders that began in 21:23 with their questions about his authority. Following the parable about the wicked tenants of the vineyard, Matthew tells us the chief priests and Pharisees were still listening, even grasping the not-too-subtle point that the parable was directed against them. On the basis of their Aha! experience they were itching to arrest him. Before they could make their plans, Jesus laid on them the parable about the wedding feast, ending with the unhappy conclusion, "For many are called, but few are chosen" (v. 14).
With all that conversation in the background we can understand why our pericope begins with an explicit statement of the plotting by the Pharisees to entangle him in his own words. Rather than approaching him on their own, the Pharisees sent their disciples and the Herodians to Jesus. They acknowledged him as Teacher and then laid on him some pious dribble about acknowledging Jesus' sincerity and truthfulness and impartiality. Then they popped the well-known question: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
Seeing right through their charade, Jesus did not return the compliment. Instead he called them "hypocrites," that is, actors -- those who are playing a role that is not their own character and looking for public acclaim. Showing them a coin, he asked for them to identify the image and the title of the person represented on the denarius. They replied, of course, "The emperor's."
That led Jesus to his famous remark, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." Foiled again, the hypocrites exited stage left.
The response of Jesus was directed to the specific question -- obviously a test question -- about taxes. This one sentence probably does not represent Jesus' position on the relationship between church and state or even of God and the emperor. Let us not presume, however, to know what Jesus would have said in an essay about the larger questions, because inevitably such attempts lead us to conclude what Jesus should have said that would support our position on the subject.
However, we can attempt an educated guess, considering the background out of which Jesus came and the positions established elsewhere in the New Testament. The background in which Jesus grew up theologically was that of the Old Testament. In those scriptures the witnesses to God's word announced again and again that as Creator of the world, God is in charge of all things, including all rulers, and the Lord uses them for his own purposes, either of judgment (so Nebuchadnezzar "his servant") or salvation (so Cyrus "his messiah"). Jesus knew his scriptures! He knew that understanding of divinely appointed authority. Indeed, in John's Gospel Jesus stated the position explicitly as he stood before Pilate the governor: "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11).
The apostle Paul provides us with the most elaborate understanding of the role of government in God's world. In Romans 13 Paul paves the way for his admonition to pay taxes (that issue again!) by arguing that governing authorities derive their authority from God. Their role is to bring order to the society by serving as a terror to bad conduct, using the sword accordingly. Such governing authority is "God's servant for your good" (v. 4), and as "God's servants" the authorities are to be paid taxes so that they might accomplish their God-given tasks.
According to Paul's explanation, we might add to Jesus' words, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's," the words, "And the emperor is God's, too."
Perhaps after experiencing the authority of the Hitler regime in the first half of this century and that of such leaders as Slobodan Milosevic in the second half, we have trouble swallowing the thought that governing authorities belong to God and are ordained by God to be servants for good. If Paul thought in terms of the specific person on the throne, he too would have had a bitter pill to swallow, because the emperor on the throne when he wrote Romans 13 was Nero -- one of the worst murderers, liars, and utterly sick rulers of the Roman Empire. Yet Paul was talking not about individual personalities but about the office of governing authority. That office is the way that God rules over the world in order to establish order out of chaos, even if it be through rulers who do not know God (Isaiah 45:4) or over subjects who do not know God either.
The instruction to give to the emperor the taxes due the governing authority is, of course, only the first part of the equation. The second is to "give to God the things that are God's." In the understanding of God as Creator of the world, all things belong to God. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." By that understanding our very lives, our world of sea, land, and air, our families and the homes in which we live together, the families of other people throughout the world that might have much less, businesses and occupations, vacation spots and leisure time -- all belong to God. To give to God what is God's is to use them all as responsible stewards of the Creator's possessions and in pursuit of that responsibility to honor God as the rightful owner. At the same time, in our understanding of God as Redeemer, we recognize that God has reclaimed us as his own to be his children and to live together in a new community called the church. As individuals within this community we are God's new family of sisters and brothers giving testimony to the rest of the human family that the world God created is the same world God loved so much that he gave his only Son.
The opportunity to give to God what belongs to God involves our entire lives, including our expressions of praise in corporate worship, our votes at the local election booths, and even our payment of taxes to God's servants who govern for our good.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Exodus 33:12-23
There is no doubt, according to the stories that we find in Exodus, that the unfaithfulness of Israel in substituting worship of the golden calf for worship of the Lord caused a deep rift between God and his chosen people. Up to this time God had always accompanied his people personally in their trek through the wilderness. But God had experienced the fickleness of his people. As a result, the Lord introduces several means of mediating between himself and Israel. "I will not go up among you, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Exodus 33:3). Instead, God sends his angel to accompany the people (33:2). He establishes the tent of meeting outside the camp, where he can speak with Moses (33:7-11). And he sends a representative of himself (v. 14). That latter is the concern of our text for the morning.
Moses knows that he and his compatriots need God. "If thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here" (v. 15). Perhaps that is the prayer of every one of us -- to beg God's presence with us in every accustomed or new undertaking; for if God be against us, who can be for us? God rules this world and guides our separate and corporate lives. And if he will not go with us, we have no chance of lasting good. We are far too feeble, far too blinded by our own selfishness, far too influenced by the corrupted ways of the society around us to choose the proper paths. God must lead, or our way will end in destruction. Moses knows that, as we know it deep in our souls.
The Lord in his mercy does not desert Moses and his people. "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." God will guide the people to the promised land, which is always described as Israel's "place of rest" in the Old Testament. But the word for "presence" in this passage is panim in the Hebrew, and it means "face." It will be a hypostasis, a representative of the Lord, but it will not be his full person. God will be with Israel, but only through the presence of that mediator, because Israel's sinfulness could not survive before the pure and awesome presence of God in all his glory.
Is that not the case with us also? That there must be a mediator between God and us sinners, lest we be destroyed by the unstained glory of God himself? How could you or I, with all our faults and so very human weaknesses, stand before the God of majesty who hates sin? We cannot, can we? But God does not desert us, despite our sin and indifference and disobedience toward him. Instead he gives us a mediator named Jesus Christ, who is pure, untarnished, obedient love, and Christ represents us to God and represents God in his fullness to us -- not partially, but God as he truly is. So every prayer we make is through the mediation or in the name of Jesus Christ. Otherwise we sinners literally do not have a prayer.
The Lord establishes means of mediation of his presence for Israel and thus continues to guide them on their way toward the promised land. And that continuing guidance is what sets Israel apart from every other nation. Israel is a "visited people," visited and guided and protected by God. "Is it not in thy going with us ... that we are distinct, I and thy people, from all other people that are upon the face of the earth?" (v. 16). The Lord God goes with her. Note that the verb is not "is" but "goes." Israel is on a journey. And so are we. Like Israel, the Christian Church is God's holy people, set apart for his purpose and accompanied by him. And it is in that "going with us" by the Lord, by means of his Spirit poured out upon us from the Father and Son, that we too are different from every other people (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2-3, et al.).
Moses is assured that God's "presence" will continue to go with them. But perhaps it is a mark of Moses' intimate relation with the Lord that Moses requests to see God in all his glory. Moses hungers to know God fully, as so many saints have hungered to have a "beatific vision" of the Lord. Human beings cannot see God and live, however (v. 20), for every human being including Moses is stained by sin. There follows, therefore, the fascinating story in verses 21-23. God will hide Moses in a cleft in the rock and pass by him. But as God passes, he will put his hand over Moses in the cleft, and Moses will glimpse only God's back and not his face. Is that nonsensical anthropomorphism? No, we must reply that the very same God was incarnated in human flesh, and we have seen the glory of God, full of grace and truth, in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). "We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14).
Lutheran Option -- Isaiah 45:1-7
Up until 550 B.C., the people of Judah were captives in exile to the Babylonian Empire. Then there arose Cyrus II of Persia, who captured Media, Lydia, and finally Babylonia in 539 B.C. Exercising a policy of tolerance and understanding toward captive peoples, Cyrus allowed all of the Judean exiles who wished to do so to return to Palestine and to rebuild their temple, even furnishing the funds for the reconstruction (2 Chronicles 36:22--Ezra 1:4). This text is the Lord's address to Cyrus by the mouth of the prophet Second Isaiah.
We often ignorantly believe that international affairs are in the hands of the politicians and military and multinational corporations. This text wants us to learn otherwise. Its predominant emphasis is on the work of the Lord, and everything that Cyrus accomplishes is really the action of God. Thus, all of the verbs are in the first person, with God speaking: "I have grasped," "I will go," "I will break," "I will give," "I call you," "I surname you," "I gird you." Cyrus is raised up and given his military victories by God (cf. 41:2-3, 25; 46:11; 48:14-15). God rules the world of nations, a fact that we need to remember as we contemplate our international scene.
Despite the fact that Cyrus' power and conquests come from the Lord, Cyrus does not know the Lord (vv. 4-5). God works unseen behind the actions of the Persian king. But God's work serves as a witness to all people, including Cyrus himself. God's exercise of his might through the armies of Cyrus is the sign that God is the Lord "and there is no other" (v. 6). Three times that proclamation rings out, "I am the Lord," verses 5, 6, and 7. No human power can stand before him. God rules, and is the only God.
The biblical witness to God has two emphases, however. One is on the irresistible might of the Lord, before whom all human beings are as nothing (cf. 40:15-17). The other is on the love of God. Why has the Lord raised up Cyrus to defeat the Babylonians and to release the exiles? "For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen" (v. 4). God is still working out his purpose of saving his world, and he uses Cyrus as the instrument to free Israel, that she may continue to be the Lord's people, set apart for his purpose. God loves all humankind and wishes to save us all. And so he releases Israel to continue the history of salvation. God loves, but he also has the power to make his love effective, and neither one of those biblical emphases must ever be forgotten.
Indeed, God not only has power over all nations, but he also has power over all creation. He forms the light and creates the darkness (v. 7). And then follows a statement that has disturbed many people. "I make weal and create woe," God declares. Does God create woe? Does he make the suffering and trouble that we human beings experience?
We must not separate that saying from its context. Yes, God makes a lot of trouble -- for the Egyptians at the time of the exodus, for the Babylonians who have exiled Judah, for Adolf Hitler and every modern tyrant, for every human being who would deter God from his good purpose of saving his creation. God makes lots of woe for those who oppose him, though we must not believe that all suffering and trouble come from the hand of God. Much of it comes from our own blindness and sinfulness. But God does put down his enemies, and he will continue to do so until he brings his salvation to all his world. We can rejoice that such a fact is true, and that God's is finally the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
