Advent with Elijah - Vic. Jethro Rachmadi

This advent season, I would like us to observe the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 17:8-24.

This chapter consists of two pericopes, "The Widow of Zarephath" and "Elijah Raises the Widow's Son".

To begin with, let us dive into the character and context which this text was written.

Idol worship prior to the reign of King Ahab was “only” through cultural aspects: food, fashion, arts, etc. Yet during the reign of King Ahab, he made a system to idol worship through the annihilation of YHWH’s prophets. The events which 1 Kings 17:8-24 took place were when Elijah was YHWH’s last prophet, causing Elijah to be a minority.

Also take note that at that time, God also quit pouring rain as mentioned in 1 Kings 17:1.

Meanwhile, rain was the symbol of Baal, as Baal was believed to be the god of rain.

Through these three pericopes, we will see how “precious” Elijah’s life, because Judaism and Christianity “depended” on Elijah.

Through these stories, we will see how God worked to sustain Elijah.

The Prophet Elijah with the Widow of Zarephath and Her Son, by Abraham van Dijck

"THE WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH"

God told Elijah to go to Zarephath, without Elijah knowing why. Yet, readers in the past would have been surprised to read this. In the New Testament, Jesus also retold this story of Elijah. And right after He did, He was threatened to be thrown off a cliff by the crowd! But why is this story so offensive for readers in the past, and perhaps to Elijah as well? Because the instruction that tells the last YHWH's prophet to go to Zarephath was illogical for two reasons:

1. Both the Old Testament and New Testament always mention Zarephath being in Sidon, instead of merely the city of Zarephath alone, and we know Sidon is outside of Israel. It means that God asked Elijah to go outside of Israel to obtain his salvation from the oppression of King Ahab. Not only that, but Et Baal, the King of Sidon, was Jezebel's father, Ahab’s father-in-law. God has asked Elijah to go to Jezebel’s city, the city of a woman who sought his life. God has asked Elijah to go into the devil’s den.
2. Not only did God imply that salvation will come from Jezebel's city, but salvation will also come from a gentile, a woman, a widow and a poor. Back then, women had no right whatsoever, they were mere properties, more so if they are widowed and poot. And yet God has declared that Elijah’s salvation will come from this woman. If you have not been surprised enough, let me make this relevant for your generation. It is equivalent to God wanting to save Christianity today through the hand of a transgender. The same impact occurred to Elijah when he heard of this instruction.

But why did God instruct Elijah to do so? If this is only a matter of giving Elijah bread to eat, then God could have used any widows in Israel. But God wanted to show that He is a gracious God and that there is a dark side of grace: He wants to show us that it is sometimes difficult to accept God’s grace. How could such a person be favored by God and receive His mercy?

False gods require men to provide some kind of an asset to reach the gods. Or maybe for us, we think there are certain requirements in order for us to be accepted and used by God: money, the requirement to possess the Holy Spirit, the requirement to learn the Bible well, or even the requirement to use hymns and not drums.

Yet, this is not the God of Christianity. Besides, could we ever apply the standards we use for others to judge ourselves? Remember that God works by bypassing all these human categories.

There’s a female pastor called Nadia, a quite questionable pastor actually, but she mentioned something very interesting. She said repentance is not a prostitute becoming a librarian, but a prostitute disgusted by herself, coming to the church, despised by the church, yet accepted by God. And she still comes to the church anyway because she knows although men do not accept her, God does.

Tim Keller once asked an atheist what kind of a god the atheist actually despises, and the atheist answered, “I don’t believe in a god who determines whether you are good or bad, and if you’re bad he punishes, if he’s good he’d be gracious”. And Keller said, "I too do not believe in that kind of a god".

This is what differs Christianity from religion: the absence of polarization between the insider and the outsider based on certain the requirements.

The Deuteronomic Theology - Rev. Billy Kristanto

The first thing that comes to mind when encountering the Deuteronomistic Theology is the fact that it could only be found in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy.

However, the Deuteronomistic Theology is extended all the way to the New Testament.

Prior to the canonization of the Holy Bible, it is possible to add additional books into the scroll, such as the book of Deuteronomy, which ended the Pentateuch. Yet this addition is enriching and does not promote inconsistency.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

Let us first take a look at the term Deuteronomy, which is a rather inaccurate term. This term first emerges from Deuteronomy 17:18: “And when He sits on the throne of His kingdom, He shall write for Himself in a book of a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests”.

Deuteronomy literally means "second law": deuteros being "second", and nomos being "law". However, given that it is the "second law", it does not mean that it is a second law, revealed as a replacement of the first, yet it could be understood as an expansion or reiteration of the first law given at Mt. Sinai.

We must also acknowledge that the Bible encourages contextualization, and never promotes untouchable tradition. The book of Deuteronomy is full of repetitions. In fact, the book is entitled Kitab Ulangan in Indonesian, which literally means the Book of Repetitions. Yet these repetitions are not without freshness, therefore it is not a tedious book. The book was written to remind different generations at different time periods of the law. This is contextualization.

The context which Deuteronomy 17:18 was written was after Israel entered the promised land, hence it was written to a different audience than those who were present at Mt. Sinai.

Previously, God exclusively spoke through Moses, now God spoke to the people almost directly.

Moses with the Ten Commandments, by Rembrandt van Rijn

A COVENANTAL LIFE

Speaking of law, we must also speak of the structures of covenantal life. YHWH, the God of Israel is "bound" in a law-structured (torah-structured) covenantal relationship with His people.

The law is often viewed negatively at some parts of the Scripture. The book of Galatia, for instance, suggests that the law proves men’s need for the gospel due to men's incapability of fulfilling the law, according to Martin Luther. Yet in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, the law is pictured as a beautiful, God-given grace to mankind, for the sake of a well-ordered community.

“More generally, these laws, both individually and in their entirety, are a gracious gift of God for the sake of life, health, and well-being of individuals in the community. This is made especially clear in the book of Deuteronomy. As Deut 5:33 puts it: these laws are given to God’s people “that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long on the land that you are to possess.” God gives the law in the service of life. If for no other reason than that, they deserve our close attention” (Patrick Miller).

In Matthew 19, when the young rich man came to see Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus’ response was “Torah”. We could view His response from two perspectives. Jesus might intentionally make the young man aware of his incapability so he would be humbled, yet Jesus might have responded like so to make the young man live. Although, we do know the ending to that story and how the young man fell short.

Moreover, we believe in the three uses of the law. The first being pedagogical use, the law reveals the perfect righteousness of God and our own coming short of it (what Martin Luther emphasized on), the second being civil use, the law restrains evil through punishment, and we must never forget the third use of the law, that is as a normative use, the moral standards of the law provide guidance for believers as they seek to live in humble gratitude for the grace God has shown us.

Therefore, we must remember that the law also includes the rules and regulations to perform a sacrifice of atonement. Both the confession of sin and sacrifice of atonement must be done to avoid the pride of self-righteousness. Above all, we must never forget the third use of the law, that is the law as good news for those who have gained a new life in Christ.

THE CANON AND DEUTERONOMY

The book of Deuteronomy is an important part of the Pentateuch. It is located at the end of Pentateuch, being the closure of the five books of the law, and it also precedes the books of the prophets, which begins with the book of Joshua. As a closure to the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy recalls all the promises given to the ancestors of Israel, it retells the grand stories of the exodus and the events experienced by the ancestors at Mt. Sinai. But the book also includes Israel’s entering into the promised land. Deuteronomy does not only recall the previous four books but also anticipates the entering to the promised land in the book of Joshua.

This implies that the revelation of the law is not a once-and-for-all matter, but integral. The events that had happened, happened prior to Mt. Sinai, but the stories were retold according to the contextualization of the newer generations, time and places.

THE CENTER OF DEUTERONOMY

The main theological points of the book of Deuteronomy are:

1. The suppression of idolatry
2. Centralization of a worship place/cult centralization
3. Renewal of the covenant

Irresistible Grace - Vik. Jethro Rachmadi

Our scripture reading today is taken from 1 Samuel 27-29, which consists of three pericopes: "David Flees to the Philistines", "Saul and the Medium of En-Dor", and "The Philistines Reject David".
The first chapter speaks of David's problem, the second, Saul's problem, and the third, God's salvation.

David feins lunacy before Achish king of Gath

David was in great distress and his faith weakened. We could sense David's doubt in 1 Samuel 27:1 when he said, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” The problem is that he resolved his distress without consulting God. In fact, God is not mentioned once in this chapter, we call this a God-less text. Another evidence of David's weakening faith is the fact that he left Israel and fled to a Gentile country. This action is significant in the ancient time, for the Israelites could not worship YAHWEH without living in the land of the chosen people. Those who do not live among the chosen people were often exiled by God. But David fled the land without God's instruction nor consultation. David weighed his own options, had a debate in his own heart and won the debate for himself. DA Carson once said that after we lose a debate with a person, we would then have another debate in our heart. Just if I said this or that point to him, I would have won the debate. And at the end of the day, we would consider ourselves winners in our hearts.
David fled to the Philistines to find safety, and unfortunately, his plan was successful, for Saul had stopped chasing after him. It was unfortunate because there could be success even in perversion or sin. Proverbs 16:25 says that "[t]here is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." In this situation, we are faced with a trial of whether we choose to love God or success, and we often use God to achieve our success. From a human point of view, David was incredibly successful in his battle plan. He eliminated many cities for the sake of fooling Achish. To put that into perspective, Saul only managed to eliminate one city.