August 2, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! He said, ‘This is wickedness,’ and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.’” (Zechariah 5.7-8)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Yesterday, I mentioned that the “Basket of Iniquity” which was carried back to Babylon as a sign of reverse exile would be seen with a level of contention by some in the world today. It is a strategy that many nations or groups have employed throughout history. It is happening even today as we watch the immigration crisis at the borders and ports of entry into the United States increase. In Zechariah, we are privy to the plan of God to bring a level of accountability to all who would choose to live in Israel as the Promised Land of God for His people. The definition of “citizenship” was brought into view as anyone not a “thief or a liar.” While we know of many definitions for these two words, we would do well to keep them in a spiritual context for the purpose of the vision shared with Zechariah. “A thief” was anyone, especially those in leadership politically and spiritually, who was stealing and inhibiting a person or a group of persons from their righteous future. A biblical example of this mentality was shown to us in the story of Joshua, Caleb and the Ten Witnesses. Moses sent these twelve men, one representing each tribe of Israel, into the Land of Promise flowing with milk and honey. They were supposed to survey the land and report back the state of the kingdom. It was everything that God had told them and “more.” There was a fruitfulness beyond imagination. They brought back a cluster of grapes so large it took two men to carry it. The grass was “truly greener on the other side of the river.” Yet, for all of its riches and agricultural prosperity there was a problem. The people who lived on that land were giants. In their words, the Israelites seemed like grasshoppers to be crushed beneath the feet of those giants. It was a good land but there was, in their estimation, no chance of defeating them and taking over the land. It makes sense that the people they first observed were giants. In the days of David and King Solomon, the Philistines were the “enemy du jour.” They were a mighty fighting people led by a family of giants. One of them was named Goliath. He had brothers who were similarly large and fierce. It was said they were the descendants of the Nephilim, or fallen angels. We have heard of similar people in the days of Noah as the wickedness of those individuals spread across the face of the earth. They took the women of the land to be their wives and bear their children. They were a generation of “iniquity” as they fully opposed God and God’s will. It seems the flood did not eliminate all human life apart from Noah and his family. Why? Well, as in the words of Paul, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities of the air and the dark forces who stand against God.” The call to preparation was to “put on the full armor of God” in preparing to do battle with those forces not limited to the face of the earth. It was the testimony of those “ten spies” of Israel which stole away the impact of the testimony of faith which Joshua and Caleb bore. In fact, Joshua and Caleb agreed to the assessment of the other ten. The land was rich and fruitful and the residents of it were formidable. Lost in the translation of the “witness of the ten” as to the people of Israel being as grasshoppers beneath giant crushing feet, was the sheer number of “grasshoppers” which Israel represented. I have no doubt the Hebrews had seen an onslaught of a locust infestation. Such an attack on the vegetation of the land was devastating to the future agricultural interest of the landowners. Wouldn’t it be the same for this “horde of grasshoppers” as they came in to take the land that was promised them? Wouldn’t it be a true act of faith knowing all that God had done from crushing Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea to the miracle feedings to their military triumphs against other formidable forces? With such faith and witness of past successes, couldn’t the same happen now as the approximately two and one half million people stood on the doorstep of promise? But it was not to happen. Hope was stolen and fear was put in its place. The penalty was an exile of sorts for those “thieves and liars” who spoke against God. They dwelt in and near Kadesh Barnea for thirty-eight years until “that generation” had passed away. In the meantime, Joshua and Caleb worked diligently to prepare the next generation to receive the land promised to them. When that generation was ready, they swarmed into the land and took it as their own because it was.

For Zechariah, and the nation of Israel whom he served, that story was not foreign nor was it contentious. I have no doubt there are critics and doubters alive and well ready to bear witness to the veracity of it. Such criticism abounds in the midst of the current Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas. What right does Israel have over the land? Just because “God” said so? I have a feeling there were probably similar conflicts and arguments in those days as Israel the land which rightfully belonged to them as descendants of Abraham, the Father of Faith. There is a lot of contention about it even now. But that is not the contentious aspect to which I previously alluded. It is the occupant of the “Basket of Iniquity” that many today might take issue. We must, however, reflect carefully and respectfully on it. The occupant is identified as a woman. Believe me, I am not accusing women of being evil nor the cause of the fall of men. The story of Adam and Eve bear the weight of this kind of thinking. Some scholars, philosophers, preachers and teachers have built a whole system of “blame” on the daughters of Eve as if “sin would not have come into the world if not for her disobedience.” Let us remember that Jesus did not teach, “Because Eve sinned all people suffer.” Even Paul was clear that “As in Adam all men died so in Christ all may live.” The onus is, and always has been, on Adam. His failure to keep his life partner safe from harm by proclaiming the Word of God in the face of danger and temptation is the original sin. So why did God choose to identity the iniquity of Israel with the image of a woman? It goes further than that as Zechariah saw two other women with wings of a stork transporting the basket back to Babylon. What are we to make of these images and the use of women in them if it is not to further “put down women” and represent them as evil. The truth is that there are some evil women. There are also some evil men. This is most certainly evil forces and enemies lurking in the darkness like wolves on the perimeter of the campfire. Peter speaks of Satan as a lion crouching at the door ready to devour. So what might be said here and how can our time of reflection provide some identification and guidance to our understanding of it and the application of it.

I would call our attention to a common biblical image for a possible clarification: a wedding party. One thing Israel is never truly identified as is “the groom.” Israel is likened to a bride and a wife. In the Garden of Eden, God remarks to the “creation team” that “It is not good for Adam to be alone.” It was not said by God to the others because He realized that Adam and God were not a good “creative team” and could never have a “fruitful” relationship. It was a simple fact of creation that Adam would not be fully known in a singular fashion. It was not a rejection of God by Adam which led God to the conclusion that Adam needed a helpmate. Nor should we assume that the “helpmate” was a God substitute. We know this because “the helpmate” was created by God from the very substance of Adam. They would share in this life which God imagined from the beginning from the same creative substance which had been blessed by God as “good and very good.” The image of woman was always to be indicative of “right relationship.” There was to be a mutual existence which promoted life and honored God. It is not that Israel was to be “feminine” and that the word used to identify Israel is produced in a literal feminine voice (grammatically speaking.) So, too, is the Holy Spirit of God a “feminine” word as opposed to Messiah and Christ which are male-voiced words. We are driven by this conclusion from the first creation story when God created humanity in the image He had seen. They were to be “male and female” as the image in which “He created them.” So, it was that Israel was to be God’s people as those in “right relationship” to Him following an understanding they could relate to spiritually as “husband and wife.” Their call to purpose as helpmates was to share in the “husbandry” of agriculture and herding. There is to be this duality of identity of hierarchy of husband and wife, leader and follower. Paul uses this illustration when describing the Church as the body of Christ and Christ as the head of the body. Husbands were to be loyal to Christ in a sense of Christ as the Husband of Faith and the husbands the faithful wife. In turn, wives were to be loyal to their husbands as to the Lord seeing themselves as part of the body of their relationship with their husband as the head of “that” body. What danger we have seen cultivated when that delicate balance is dishonored and men no longer act as godly men and women no longer act as godly women. Men do not take on godly leadership and thus are unworthy of honor. They put their wives at risk and their future. They themselves become “liars and thieves” of the future which God has prepared for all His people. While I can go further and address many current events of the day, let me refocus on the image shown to Zechariah simply with the following notice. God is sending the “false bride” for Israel and her wedding party back to her father. The “arranged marriage” by foreign nations was rejected. Israel, as that husband-type, had chosen poorly and it was the Father of the Groom who now was asserting Himself to correct what was wrong. In this sense, we all must consider our particular role in the various levels of “marriage relationships” which exist. It is perhaps contentious only because it strikes at the very heart of rebellion which the enemy, “The Father of Lies,” is sowing. We are losing sight of our identity as we are to be in right relationship with God. We need to “repent, confess our wrongs, pray for mercy and commit ourselves to the way of God” as it is meant to be for the living of the very best life promised to us. At this point all I can offer is “let those with eyes to see perceive and ears to hear listen.” Let’s get back into the balance of right relationships with God and one another. Isn’t that the purpose of the great commandments: love the Lord your God and similarly to love your neighbor as you yourself are loved?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.