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Bible Readings for Tuesday March 8th, 2011 – The Week of The Transfiguration *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 78:17-20, 52-55 17. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.

19. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

20. Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?”

52. Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53. He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54. And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.

55. He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. 1 Kings 19:9-18 9. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10. He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

11. He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake;

12. and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

13. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14. He answered, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

15. Then the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

16. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.

17. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill.

18. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” Romans 11:1-6 1. I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

2. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

3. “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”

4. But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

5. So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

6. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. – Psalm 78:52

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” – 1 Kings 19:9-18

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. – Romans 11:6

1 Kings 19 17. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill.

Ahhhh, the Wrathful God: I’ve missed him, haven’t you? We’ve actually been painting quite an affirming and powerful picture of God over the last month or so. New readers might have almost thought, “I like God, in fact I might even love God…”

And then Wrathful God shows up, “Kill them. Slaughter them. I am a jealous and angry God.”

We hear the vengeful Elijah practically licking his lips in anticipation of the divinely approved slaughter, his pleas for wrath upon the people of Israel did not fall upon deaf ears.

1 Kings 19 18. Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Our first hint that something more is going on here than simple narrative: a remnant of 7000. A nice round, seemingly arbitrary number; clearly an estimate. So… God estimates?? Nope, God doesn’t estimate, God is exact and in this case God is precise in a mystical sense.

You see the number 7 is the mystical number for divine perfection, and is only used in context of the vast all encompassing perfection of the divine. The number 1000 is the number of Grace. A massive, all encompassing number, symbolizing the “totality of the generations”.

The City of God: Book 20 Chapter 7 32 … For a thousand is the cube of ten. For ten times ten makes a hundred, that is; the square on a plane superficies. But to give this superficies height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is sometimes used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of promise to him that left all and followed Him “He shall receive in this world an hundredfold;” 33. of which the apostle gives, as it were, an explanation when he says, “As having nothing, yet possessing all things,”34. -for even of old it had been said, The whole world is the wealth of a believer,-with how much greater reason is a thousand put for totality since it is the cube, while the other is only the square? And for the same reason we cannot better interpret the words of the psalm, “He hath been mindful of His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations,”35. than by understanding it to mean “to all generations.” St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 C.E.)

Amazing, and now we are beginning to see with the eyes of God, these secrets hidden in plain sight. God is declaring a state of mercy and grace for a “remnant” of 7000. Or rather, as we have just learned, God is stating in an act of divine perfection that he is showing mercy on… everyone.

Then what are we to make of God’s decree that “whomever Hazael doesn’t kill with the sword Jehu should kill, and whomever Jehu doesn’t kill with the sword Elisha should kill”?

Well, first of all, who initially came to Elijah? The Word of God.

1 Kings 19 Then the Word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And we, as Christians understand The Word of God to be whom?

The Gospel of John 1 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 16. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Therefore, according to our Christian faith, we know that it was Jesus who came to Elijah in the cave at the beginning of our reading. Now that we have our baseline of understanding, is there anything else we know about The Word of God?

Hebrews 4 12 . Indeed, the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Ephesians 6 17 . Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Revelation 1 12. Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,

13. and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.

14. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,

15. his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

16. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

17. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

18. and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

19. Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this.

20. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The Word of God, Jesus, is the sword that Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha will use to “kill” those who have turned from God!

Then, what does it mean to “kill” someone with the Word of God?

Romans 6 3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4. Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

7. For whoever has died is freed from sin.

8. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Galatians 2 20 . and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ (The Word of God) who lives in me.

Do you see? Do you see the incredible mercy and grace that was being displayed before Elijah? If only they had eyes to see and ears to hear.

God was never calling for slaughter, he was never calling for bloodshed. He was calling for the two-edged sword of the Word of God to be wielded by the kings and Elisha to cause all the people of Israel to die to their lives of selfishness, greed, and ignorance. They were missing the mark in spectacular fashion. And God declared Grace in an even more spectacular way.

What seems like a death sentence is actually a declaration of mercy and Grace.

Thanks be to God.