Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 19, 2017

Isaiah 45:1-7

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed:
2 I will go before you
and level the mountains,*
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal (a sound, healthy prosperous state) and create woe (weal’s opposite);
I the Lord do all these things.

This is an amazing and truly unique passage in Hebrew scriptures. God, through the prophet Isaiah, is telling Israel that God has made a “goya”, a Gentile, his ANOINTED! God’s messiah! A pagan king is God’s messiah!!!!! I am sure that when the prophet proclaimed this word of God to the Israelites, they felt sick, and possibly went after the messenger. Why has God chosen a pagan king as messiah? Because this guy has power and will deal kindly with the Israelites, as it conquers Babylonia. When Cyrus crushes the Babylonians, he frees all Israel to return back to the Promised Land. He makes Nehemiah, a promising Jew, the governor of Israel under his eye, and makes Ezra the priest of the Temple.

The above prophecy continues by saying that despite the fact that Cyrus does not know Yahweh or care about Him, nevertheless, God will not only save Israel through him, but all the nations of the world, since through Israel, all the nations of the world will come to know God.

Psalm 96

1 O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvellous works among all the peoples.
4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be revered above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Honour and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in holy splendour;
tremble before him, all the earth.

10 Say among the nations, ‘The Lord is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.’
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord; for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with his truth.

A new song is solicited for God because God is doing a new thing! This psalm is likely a hymn used during Temple and ancient synagogue worship services. Words very similar to these are proclaimed at the installation of the Ark of the Covenant as recorded in 1 Chronicles. The ancient Greek language Old Testament, called the Septuagint, (which is actually much older than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts), aka LXX, has a superscript for this psalm which said, “When the House was being rebuilt after the captivity.”

Note how Hebrew tradition understands and believes that trees and rocks and oceans and animals all can and do praise God in their own way. Perhaps that way is merely existing and testifying to God’s artistry.

“Nations” and “Peoples” in verse 3: This is the psalmist’s admonition to the Jews, the Israelites who are here worshiping God to go out and proselytize to Gentile peoples about God, Yahweh, who saves what He has created.

Ascribing…God does not need us to tell God how wonderful God is. If God were that petty, God wouldn’t be God. Rather, the admonition to ascribe to God all these wonderful things is a call to recognize from whence life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self control comes. “Give credit where credit is due.”

The final admonition is “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord is King!’” Kings in Israel are anointed, which means that kings are messiahs. To proclaim that Yahweh is King is to proclaim that the one who created out of nothing all that exists is your messiah, your hero, your champion. Martin Luther was right. There is Law and Gospel in each verse in the Bible, both Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament!

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters* beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9For the people of those regions* report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

First, in the address and salutation of this letter, we learn quite a bit. Paul does not work or travel alone. Here, he is likely writing from house arrest while awaiting his hearing by the government official, Felix. Timothy and Silvanus are with him, though not under house arrest. Likely, these two are also known to the congregation in Thessalonica. Next, while Paul does not think of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the way that modern Christians do, he does mention all three persons in this letter.

“we know…that He has chosen you…” Paul frequently mentions the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the attributes of the Holy Spirit in his letters. In these opening paragraphs of this letter, Paul mentions the various manifestations of the Holy Spirit in this congregation—“You became imitators of us and of the Lord…in spite of persecution…”—which Paul interprets as proof that this congregation received the Holy Spirit and is doing the Holy Spirit’s work with their hands.

Matthew 22:15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ 21They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

For the past two weeks the chief priests and scribes have been trying to discredit Jesus in front of the crowds and Jesus’ disciples. Instead Jesus leveled some scathing parables at them. So, in come the tag-team partners, the Pharisees’ disciples and representatives of King Herod, who seek to entrap Jesus in Roman law.

“Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” While this may have been a crystal clear statement in Jesus’ mind, it has been enigmatic for everyone else, even those Pharisees’ disciples and agents of Herod, who were amazed (astounded and stupefied) and wandered away.

“Whose head is this and whose title?” – Israelite law has never been interpreted to allow for statures or images of any kind in worship spaces. Therefore, money given as offering in the Temple and in synagogues had to be without pictures or embossings of humans or animals. When folks came to the Temple and wanted to give an offering, they had to exchange their Roman currency with either the emperor’s image or a god’s image on it for Jewish currency which had different pictures on it depending on who was king at the time. At the time Jesus says this, the Temple currency had reeds forming an “x” on them, the sign for Herod Antipas. The fact that the disciples of the Pharisees and the agents of Herod had a Roman coin in their pockets on Temple grounds, which they produce for Jesus, does not speak well of their adherence to Jewish law.

This text asks the questions: What things are the Emperor’s? What is God’s? Certainly these have been answered by saying, “Everything is God’s. God made everything, therefore everything is God’s.” Lovely. So then why do we pay taxes to the government? Martin Luther would answer that question by affirming that God institutes governments so paying taxes is giving money back to God. But taxes are not one’s tithe to the church, although, when the tithe was instituted in ancient Israel, their “church” was made up of the Levites and the priests who, along with their judges, and later their kings, were the government. So, a tithe really was a 10% tax given to the church. There were no other taxes, unless cities instituted taxes on their own, which may have happened but the Bible does not record it.

Some Christian bodies have answered these questions by saying that their allegiance is to God alone. Therefore, they do not say the Pledge of Allegiance nor do they stand with hand on heart for the National Anthem because they understand these activities to put the USA above God. When drafted, these Christians also successfully fought in our courts to allow them to serve in non-combat positions or even to stay out of the military as conscientious objectors.

Other Christian bodies put national government one notch below God and the church. They see God as acting in the world through the government. Therefore, taxes are money freely given to the government to carry out the work of God, above and beyond the tithe given to the church.

Still other Christians see all forms of taxation and government as satanic and opt out of all of it. Though most folks who espouse these arguments usually end up being cultists whose validity is challenged the government, itself. (ie: Branch Davidian, Hale Bop, Jim Jones and his followers, etc.)