And Fell Down in Worship

In our reading from 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat was having one of those days when it was not fun to be king. There was an alliance of Edomites, Moabites and a bunch of other-ites were massing to attack Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat knew he was totally out-manned and out-gunned. True to his character, Jehoshaphat (no he didn’t jump) bowed down in prayer and praise. His Temple prayer (see 2 Cron 20:6-12) was pretty basic stuff--

• He recognizes the past and God's power to save 
• He explains the distress being suffered in the present, 
• He asks God to intervene and rescue his people. 

There is nothing earthshaking about the form and format of this prayer.  What is powerful is his faith, and faith seen most clearly in his last line, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (20:12)

Have you ever prayed like Jehoshaphat? You don't really know what to do, so you pray? You don’t really know what to say, but you pray anyway? You just pray and let God be God. When the going gets tough, we're more apt to do something-- figure it out, call a meeting, commission a study. Don’t just stand there, do something. Well Jehoshaphat does something. He prays.

Jehoshaphat gets his answer through Jahaziel, a descendant of Asaph (the writer of many of the Psalms). Jahaziel told Jehoshaphat that the battle belongs to the Lord (see 2 Chron 20:15-17). God, not Jehoshaphat, would fight and win the battle. Oh, the king wouldn’t be sitting around twiddling his thumbs-- he must bravely march out to face the enemy. But Jehoshaphat would not be the power that would secure victory. He was to rather look to God and God would fight the battle. And as it happened, God threw the enemy into a great confusion and they destroyed each other. Jehoshaphat and his men simply walked in and picked up the spoils of war. And what was the response of Jehoshaphat and Judah to the goodness and graciousness of God? Worship!

Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD. Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. (2 Chron 20:18–19)

Worship! It was immediate and unplanned— they just fell down. It was also planned and liturgical— led by the Levites. The form and format wasn't what made their worship powerful; it was their heart of gratitude for the goodness and salvation of God.

Like Jehoshaphat, we cry out overwhelmed and powerless as we face an enemy we are too powerless and puny to defeat. Like Jehoshaphat, God fought and defeated that enemy for us, making him a spectacle at the cross (Col 2:15). And our only response is worship! Think of the last time that you were incredibly moved by worship. Was it songs? Prayers? Sermon? Or was it what God had been doing in your life? If we really realize how lost we are without God and how victorious we are because of God-- we worship. We don’t talk about worship; we don’t worry about the forms and formats. We just fall down and worship.

Jumpin' Jehoshaphat

Our reading today provided a great contrast in the directions taken by the two kingdom of divided Israel. In 1 Kings 15, we read of the illustrious carriers of Nabad, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and the rise of Ahab. Many of these guys shared the same basic plan for becoming king—kill the guy on the throne and take his seat. (When we get frustrated with the bloodletting during our election process, we need to remember the old method for succession of power). Contrast that to the stability in Judah during the reign of good King Jehoshaphat who "followed the ways of his father David before him" (2 Chron 17:3). The first thing that came to mind after I read the text was, "Funny, but he never seemed to do a lot of jumping." I remember Officer Toody (Joe E. Ross) on the old “Car 54 Where Are You?” TV show kept saying “Jumping Jehoshaphat!” (See the clip if you are too young to get the reference).



So no, Jehoshaphat didn’t do a lot of jumping. But aside from that, three things came to mind from today’s reading. First, Jehoshaphat was that rare righteous king who followed in the footsteps of his father Asa, who was also a righteous king. Judah holy kings like Hezekiah and Josiah had fathers who were scoundrels and produced sons who were scoundrels. In fact, the reforms of both Hezekiah and Josiah were impressive largely because of how their predecessors drove the country into the ground. Not so, Jehoshaphat. His reforms simply followed in the footsteps of his father Asa.

Second, Jehoshaphat was so consistent in his righteous reforms that people around him took notice. The Chronicler writes, "The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not go to war against Jehoshaphat" (2 Chron. 17:10). The next verse describes the tribute paid to him by the Philistines. The righteousness and reforms of Jehoshaphat were not just political expediencies that went skin deep; they were real and relevant and people tended to notice.

Third, Jehoshaphat was not content to just follow the law of God himself, he was careful to teach it to his people. The text says, "In the third year of his reign he sent his officials… to teach in the towns of Judah… They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people." (2 Chron. 17:7,9). Rather than pass laws to force compliance of the people, he sent teachers with the “Book of the Law” to teach the people what God actually said.

And for a time, it worked. For a time, the nation of Judah followed God and God’s people were faithful to His ways. Jehoshaphat was able to teach the law of God to the people because FIRST he was known to follow it himself. Unlike Constantine and countless over rulers, Jehoshaphat did not use religion in order to establish his control over the people. He was dedicated to God and the ways of God, and as a result he was able to teach it to the people.

Do we want to be able to share the ways of God with people today? The first step is to be completely dedicated to following it in our own lives. How can we hope to teach the culture about the sacredness of traditional marriage if our divorce rate matches theirs? How can we say much about the importance of sexual purity if our marriages are broken by adultery? We will gain a hearing for the gospel in our secular, post-Christian culture only after that culture sees that our gospel changes lives-- our lives. Jehoshaphat didn’t use politics to push his religious agenda, and he was the king! No, he lived it first. Then he taught it to others. Jumping Jehoshaphat, that makes sense!

Jugglers of the World...

In 1847, John Sutter was busy establishing himself as a land baron in California. Sutter hired a man named James Marshall to build a saw mill on his property near Coloma. During the construction project, Marshall found a shiny nugget in the stream where the saw mill was to be built. He didn't think too much about it (he had a saw mill to build), but the news of his discovery swept across country. There's gold in them thar' hills!  The California Gold Rush of 1949 became the greatest migration of people in our history. One sleepy little village grew from about 1000 people in 1848 to more than 20,000 people by 1850! (That little village is San Francisco). People totally abandoned their lives back east to get their piece of the golden rock in California. Opportunity doesn’t knock but once. When you find something of incredible valuable, then you give up everything else in order to make it your own.

Jesus told a little story that sounds a lot like that. It’s also about a great treasure, this one buried in the ground rather than in a stream in California. It’s a story, frankly, that bothers me. A lot.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matthew 13:44)

It was fairly common in Bible times for people hide valuables in jars buried in the ground. According to Barclay, an old Rabbinic proverb stated that, “The only safe place for money is the earth.” And that is likely the background of the parable. People buried their treasure during times of danger (outbreaks of robbers or perilous political times) and would retrieve them when the danger was over. But what if the danger never was over? What if the treasurer owner died?  What if he simply forgot where he left the treasure? Finders keepers!

Jesus’ parable is of a man who comes across such a treasure hidden in a field. He puts it back where he found it and then immediately sells everything he owns so that he can buy the field (and the treasure). Treasure is so valuable that he is willing to sell everything to have it! Well, that raises some pretty interesting ethical questions, doesn’t it? Is it really ethical to buy a field like this? Should he not have tried to find the owner? Those aren’t the point of the story.  And this also isn't my problem with the parable.

The point of the story is that if we recognize the kingdom of God for the treasure it is then we will joyfully  give up all that we have in order to possess the treasure. All of the treasures of this earth pale into insignificance compared to treasures of the kingdom of God. And THIS is my problem with the parable. Not a problem with the interpretation of the parable; a problem with its application. I’m not sure I’m very good at joyfully giving up the things of earth to more firmly gain a hold on the kingdom of God. I think I spend too much time trying to juggle two different sets of treasure. I can’t really hold onto both… so I juggle. I spend some time trying to keep up the bowling pins or spinning plates of the world... and then I steal some time for the things of the kingdom.  Maybe I can't grasp fully the kingdom of God because so much of the time my hands are full of the things of this world.

The guy in Jesus' story gave up everything to possess the treasure that was truly treasure.  May God give me the grace to let drop the things of this earth so that I can take a firmer hold on the kingdom of God.  How about you? Are you a juggler too?

Worshiper Renewal

"I like my song writers good and dead!" That’s what I heard someone say in response to some of the contemporary songs we were beginning to sing. I wanted to say that they also preferred their worship "good and dead," but I didn't. It’s OK to like old songs. I suspect that our “Anceint of Days” God sees all our music as pretty much "new music."  The God who is "yesterday, today and forever," sees everything as pretty much contemporary. Sure, I prefer contemporary music, but I don't blame that on God.

But then again, Psalms 149 (our reading today) begins with the call to "sing to the Lord a new song; his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.” There you have it in black and white—God loves contemporary praise. Maybe not. The call to "sing to the Lord a new song" appears six times in Psalms, once in Isaiah and twice in Revelation. And it is generally used to reflect a new order of things following God’s deliverance.

• Sometimes it appears as a general call to worship God, "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy." (Psalm 33:3)
  
• But it is also used following God's deliverance, "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God." (Psalm 40:3)
  
• In Isaiah, it is used of the restoration of Israel, "Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 42:10)
  
• In Revelation, praise in heaven is given in a new song, "And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders." (Revelation 14:3)

Basically, "sing a new song" is a call to worship God in a renewed way. When we come to see God and understand all He has done for us, then there is a renewed impetus to worship Him. Our hearts overflow, and we throw ourselves in praising Him for what he has done. And the way scripture puts that is that we “sing to the Lord a new song.” The call in scripture to sing a new song is a call for "worshiper renewal."

The psalm says a lot about worship, but notice how it ends, "May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands" (v. 6). Being the people of God meant that Israel executed God’s judgments against the nations; they served God with a sword in their hand. But don’t get bogged down in the details; the point here is service. After calling Israel to a renewed worship of God, the psalmist then reminds them to serve. With the praise of God on their lips, they were then led to serve God. There is a connection between the life of worship and the life of service. What we do when we assemble as a church is connected to the life of service we lead when we are not assembled. The two aren’t the same, but they go hand-in-hand. If we give God exuberant and heartfelt praise while we are here, then we are better able to serve when we leave.  On the other hand, if we serve God by serving others in our daily lives, then we are more motivated to worship with the saints.

Here is the nexus between worship and service. Israel was to live with God's praise on their lips and the sword of service in their hands. They could not do one without the other. The same is true for us. We must combine hearts that give God praise and hands that give him service. We can't do one without the other. If we fail to sincerely and exuberantly worship God, then we will not be as motivated to serve God. In the same way, we aren't serving God as we should in our daily lives, then we won't be motivated to worship Him. Worship renewal is not tweaking the externals to make our assemblies more exciting or relevant (or more traditional and faithful to the "old paths").  We are to continually renew our hearts as we encounter God in a worship that prepares and inspires us to go out into His world and serve Him.