Working title: Prophets are crazy- or the first Sunday of Advent snuck by me while my head was buried in the GRE 1
Maybe it's been a need for poetry, maybe because of Old Testament course requirements, but I've been spending some quality time with the prophets lately: the ones you lit the candle for last Sunday, the big-bearded, bad-news-bearing boys of ancient Israel and Judah (to be fair, there were also women prophets, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have beards).
Let me say this- the prophets are one weird bunch.
I guess things are prone to go off-kilter up top when the Almighty puts His words in your mouth and His visions in your subconscious, but there's a crazy artistry among them that makes van Gogh cutting his ear off look like getting a temporary tattoo in comparison. Take, for instance, their personal relationships:
Jeremiah: "You won't get married...ever". Definitely not normal.
Hosea: "You will marry...a prostitute." Not super conventional, either. Bonus: "And name your children 'Not Loved', 'Not Mine', and 'Destroy!'"
Ezekiel: May have gotten off easiest, since he married and seemed to have a pretty happy marriage (for a prophet). But, when his wife dies, "don't mourn her"
Being a prophet is rough on other interpersonal relationships, too. Nobody gets popular by calling out "broods of vipers" or reminding a government that it's national security is a total illusion. And so they get tossed in dry wells, stoned (with rocks, although seeing wheels in wheels do make me wonder sometimes...), jailed, censored, and mocked. It's a hard-knock life. Reading them always makes me a bit cautious when I ask God to 'speak to me'. Giant fish and zombie armies considered, I think I'll just get by with my conscience. The most complicated part of being a prophet is that they often had to act out their messages (I told you they were artists): bury your belt, cook your food over poo, run naked through town, talk to skeletons, shave with a sword...
...And we lit a candle for these guys why?
As crazy as the prophets were, their messages were even crazier. Messenger-spirits 2 with four faces (how is this mathematically possible?), messenger-spirits burning lips with red-hot coals. Oh yeah, and messenger-spirits and mass destruction. Lots of mass destruction.
Destruction for cheating on God.
Destruction for oppressing the poor and the immigrants.
Destruction so final it comes in triple-threat: siege, disease, and sword.
Destruction so intense the earth is soaked in blood.
Destruction so justly deserved that there will be no survivors.
Destruction, just one of many reasons no one liked the prophets. (The other reason is that they're prone to say "told you so"). And yet, illogically, amidst the atrocities and aftermath, there is hope.
For a people who have known nothing but corrupt leadership- a leader who will actually care for their needs and prevent the strong from oppressing the vulnerable.
Towards the dead and sooty temple stone, a river of life.
Instead of an unfaithful wife and illegitimate children, a radiant bride and heirs hereafter known as "Loved" and "Mine".
In the burnt stubble of the battlefield, a green shoot pushes up.
In the midst of so much death, the most perfect example of new life:
Our child, a Son
Responsible Governor, Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Prince of Peace
Everlasting Father
Immanuel 3
Immanuel. Proof in the flesh that God might actually be with us, after all.
That is the hope of these crazy prophets, even though they died without seeing it. It is the hope surrounding the equally weird birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth; the hope that made the prophets of his ages think "huh, He could be our hope in spite of the destruction, present with us in the middle of everything that's happened and happening to us."
And with that wild hope we light a candle.
Footnotes: I thought about referencing everything, and then realized I'd have over 30 footnotes for a rather short blog post. Meh, nope!
1. Yeah, I finished the GRE this morning! 170 verbal and 155 quantitive, essay unknown =)
2. Angel αγγελος in Greek means 'messenger'- pretty apt!
3. Isaiah 9:6-7
Maybe it's been a need for poetry, maybe because of Old Testament course requirements, but I've been spending some quality time with the prophets lately: the ones you lit the candle for last Sunday, the big-bearded, bad-news-bearing boys of ancient Israel and Judah (to be fair, there were also women prophets, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have beards).
Let me say this- the prophets are one weird bunch.
 |
| Prophet...or maybe just a crazy mountain man w/ a beard |
I guess things are prone to go off-kilter up top when the Almighty puts His words in your mouth and His visions in your subconscious, but there's a crazy artistry among them that makes van Gogh cutting his ear off look like getting a temporary tattoo in comparison. Take, for instance, their personal relationships:
Jeremiah: "You won't get married...ever". Definitely not normal.
Hosea: "You will marry...a prostitute." Not super conventional, either. Bonus: "And name your children 'Not Loved', 'Not Mine', and 'Destroy!'"
Ezekiel: May have gotten off easiest, since he married and seemed to have a pretty happy marriage (for a prophet). But, when his wife dies, "don't mourn her"
Being a prophet is rough on other interpersonal relationships, too. Nobody gets popular by calling out "broods of vipers" or reminding a government that it's national security is a total illusion. And so they get tossed in dry wells, stoned (with rocks, although seeing wheels in wheels do make me wonder sometimes...), jailed, censored, and mocked. It's a hard-knock life. Reading them always makes me a bit cautious when I ask God to 'speak to me'. Giant fish and zombie armies considered, I think I'll just get by with my conscience. The most complicated part of being a prophet is that they often had to act out their messages (I told you they were artists): bury your belt, cook your food over poo, run naked through town, talk to skeletons, shave with a sword...
...And we lit a candle for these guys why?
As crazy as the prophets were, their messages were even crazier. Messenger-spirits 2 with four faces (how is this mathematically possible?), messenger-spirits burning lips with red-hot coals. Oh yeah, and messenger-spirits and mass destruction. Lots of mass destruction.
Destruction for cheating on God.
Destruction for oppressing the poor and the immigrants.
Destruction so final it comes in triple-threat: siege, disease, and sword.
Destruction so intense the earth is soaked in blood.
Destruction so justly deserved that there will be no survivors.
Destruction, just one of many reasons no one liked the prophets. (The other reason is that they're prone to say "told you so"). And yet, illogically, amidst the atrocities and aftermath, there is hope.
For a people who have known nothing but corrupt leadership- a leader who will actually care for their needs and prevent the strong from oppressing the vulnerable.
Towards the dead and sooty temple stone, a river of life.
Instead of an unfaithful wife and illegitimate children, a radiant bride and heirs hereafter known as "Loved" and "Mine".
In the burnt stubble of the battlefield, a green shoot pushes up.
 |
| Wildflowers on Mt. St. Helens after the volcanic blast |
In the midst of so much death, the most perfect example of new life:
Our child, a Son
Responsible Governor, Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Prince of Peace
Everlasting Father
Immanuel 3
Immanuel. Proof in the flesh that God might actually be with us, after all.
That is the hope of these crazy prophets, even though they died without seeing it. It is the hope surrounding the equally weird birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth; the hope that made the prophets of his ages think "huh, He could be our hope in spite of the destruction, present with us in the middle of everything that's happened and happening to us."
And with that wild hope we light a candle.
Footnotes: I thought about referencing everything, and then realized I'd have over 30 footnotes for a rather short blog post. Meh, nope!
1. Yeah, I finished the GRE this morning! 170 verbal and 155 quantitive, essay unknown =)
2. Angel αγγελος in Greek means 'messenger'- pretty apt!
3. Isaiah 9:6-7
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