Independence Insanity
Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ Ezekiel 5:7 NASB
Of the nations – This is a curious judgment. We expect God to declare that Jerusalem has not followed His instructions. Their apostasy was well-known. They continued in their idolatry so God brought judgment. But notice that God says they also did not follow in the ordinances “of the nations.” They wanted their independence—from God and from everyone else. Perhaps on this day we need to reflect on the implication that God provided models of godly behavior in the nations outside Israel, and they rejected those as well as His specific instructions to them. What does this mean? Did you think God only paid attention to what happened in Israel? Did you think He was not also the God of the goyim? Don’t you imagine that He provided instruction to all His children, even if it didn’t come in the same way as the prophets He sent to Israel? Look harder! You will find godly ancient wisdom scattered all over the Middle East (and maybe beyond). Proverbs and Psalms borrow from the goyim. Genesis begins in Mesopotamia. Israel is a culture and nation surrounded by others who are also affected by YHVH. Things might not be as clear as the biblical revelation, but, “Look harder!” and you just night discover that the hand of the Lord is discernable in ways you tended to ignore. Israel penchant toward independence made them oblivious of God’s revelation to them and to their neighbors. Maybe we suffer from the same disease.
One of the disheartening characteristics of modern religious paradigms is myopic exclusivity. We are often taught that what we know as the truth is the only truth. That we are the privileged ones, guardians of the holy writ, chosen elect of the secrets of the divine. With that illness comes a blind rejection of the hand of God in the lives of those outside the circle. Our internal self-justification prevents us from recognizing the majesty of God’s interaction with all His creatures. We draw the lines of exclusion and congratulate ourselves for being so astute. Just like Jerusalem, we think our God is our God, and belongs to no other. Our independence from His diversity prevents us from recognizing His instructions to us through the goyim. And we harm ourselves in the process because we fail to find Him everywhere, in all cultures, in all human heartache for His care. We rob ourselves of the wonder of His love, spread across all hurting souls. Erica Brown makes a telling observation when it comes to leadership. “Perhaps such individuals [those who follow without questioning] believe that picking a leader and surrendering their own reason to that leadership is in their collective self-interest. They relinquish control of decision-making, and with it, they relinquish the blame that comes with poor decisions.”[1] Perhaps that’s the real motivation—to have an excuse when things go wrong.
On this “Independence” Day, perhaps it would be well to reflect on our dependence—not just on the revelation He has so faithfully provided through the prophets of Israel but also on the faithfulness He has shown across the face of humanity. Perhaps this is a day to look harder at what God is doing in those outsiders, and thank Him for giving us more ways to see Him than we imagined.
Topical Index: independence, of the nations, goyim, instructions, Ezekiel 5:7
[1] Erica Brown, Leadership in the Wilderness: Authority and Anarchy in the Book of Numbers, p. xvi.
APOLOGIES – for the recent misspelled words and typos. Also for not being around to correct them. I am experiencing internet nightmares with up to 30 minutes to download a single email.
Everyone knows what love is because everyone at least knows what it is not. KNOWING has never been the problem. All societies are attempts to do love (connection) in a mutually fruitful way. To the extent that they have succeeded has always been to the extent that they have followed Torah. Our nation has not been blessed because its people have been found in churches: it has been blessed because people in it have followed Torah. It will continue (or not) to be to the extent that it follows Torah (or not), and not necessarily how many people show up to IHOP, or wherever, to pray 24/7. Prayer is good, but only to the extent that it lines us back up with the Instructions. When the person next to you is doing right and all you have is a big mouth proclaiming religious stuff it is shameful.
It is said that manna, when it goes bad, stinks worse and gets grosser with worms, etc. faster than any other food. The higher you are, the greater the fall, and when very good goes bad, it goes very bad, and that is because “good” means connections. A single wire to a light bulb can get chewed by a mouse and blow the bulb, but if a main transformer station goes out an entire grid goes dark.
The Israelites were taught a form of democracy in that they had no king and were expected to voluntarily do right (individual responsibility). That is dynamite waiting for a match. (I have often wondered if ancient Athens was trying to copy Israel.) deToqueville told us that when we go bad, it will be the worst kind of badness of all. If we think of ourselves as a modern Israel, perhaps we better take another look at what happened to them. Good subject, as usual, Skip!
People lived in large cooperative social groups that built large cities and a farming structure thousands of years before this new religious group we call Jews was organized. Christianity is an even more recent form of worship. Those ancient people also had a religion that they followed. We tend to belittle their societies but some of them lasted more than 3000 years and accomplished things we can’t duplicate today. We have very fuzzy knowledge of what has taken place since 9600 BC when archeology tells us the great flood that is documented in all ancient societies occurred. Those ancient people worshipped God too I think but just not like we do today. We have way to much personal and collective pride in our accomplishments to be respectful of others.
“Rick don’t you realize the religion of Israel is a borrowed religion from those ancient religions all around them. Can you not get past your blindness to see the similarities they copy from those ancient religions and GOD worship? Why is the ‘God of Israel’ so special? We all worship GOD. I find GOD in talking to the rocks when I’m alone with HIM”. Quote from my Harvard School of Divinity educated Aunt who was a Nun and converted to Judaism and now seems to worship GOD in some form of New Age (ism).
YES! There is a commonality/Similarity in some aspects of god interaction! Let’s label it ‘Noahide form’. How could there not be when all is sourced from a single source…unless we want to say other sources survived the Biblical flood story. By the time of Abrahams exit there were different forms morphed from the source.
Skip has stated that the great emphasis on Sabbath instruction found in God’s words to Moses was due to the Israelites loss of memory concerning the Sabbath worship…that means it existed at one time and had been lost (morphed) in a cultural surrounding. But the source was to be reestablished, not new, not borrowed, it was reestablished. And it had always existed as the seventh day cycle! Since Creation!
Sacrificial worship was just outside the ‘garden’. It wasn’t copied from any other nation and whatever similarities those nations exhibited in god worship sacrifice, that worship was rejected throughout the Biblical stories.
That doesn’t mean the practice of any other ‘day’ by any other nation or religion is being copied by Israel (as my aunt would insist) or that any of those nations chosen ‘god’ day is acceptable. Nor does it mean that the service to the poor, widowed or orphaned in the name of ‘god’ or ‘best practice’ or ‘good intentions’ (idols) is a ‘universal’ seeking of a common god.
So I’m to look to the ‘outsiders’ and find God’s beautiful hand at work? Where is the ‘fill in the blank’ aspect of God that I am to observe? I see nations that have rejected (especially in a time of massive opportunity such as today) the content of God’s words to Moses.
And as for abrogating personal ‘reason’ to a leadership…try not listening to Moses in that desert. And we know not listening to Yeshua did not work out well. “…all because you did not recognize your opportunity when God offered it” (Luke 19:41-44). I do abrogate my self-determination to the Creator of my body and the breather of life into men. And I use my choices to choose a walk in ‘the way’ of Torah (and no I haven’t got it down pat just yet).
Or was all of that for a ‘particular’ people? Narrow for them. And the rest of us just hustle on down a 12 lane highway?
Please don’t choke on my words and think I don’t love. I do. But I also fear and the Bible is full of nations that learned to fear. Yes, I’m more like Joshua at Jericho and I know the ‘all loving Yeshua’ is coming back. That keeps me awake at night. Because it is going to be fearful.
Hi Richard I respectully remain fixed on the Word of Yahweh as delivered to the prophets as the only truth. Moses and the prophets I believe where divinely inspired to document and compile the current revelations of YHVH in their day it was yet his revelation. Just as Paul brought into cannon his revelations to Greeks in Acts 17:28 He declared his choice of Isreal to be the keepers of His word.(Romans 3:2; Pslm 147:19) We have been paying the price ever since it is not any easy thing to bare. But it was his choice not ours!
In addition we where required to agree and confirm his covenants and do bare the consequence of disobedience or obidideance before all the wold as a witnesses of his faithfullness . I also Richard thank you for your comments and your walk in the way of Messiah. I realized I reacted to your Aunt and wanted here to acknowledge your heart for Obidienace, may your walk in the way (the word) be enlightened by the spirit at every turn.
Hi Mark. I need a little help in understanding your writing…Paul brought in ‘his revelations’ (Paul’s?). Paul declared ‘his choice of Israel ? It was Paul’s(?) choice ‘not ours’?
I’m not sure who is who in your writing ;(
It is now being shown that the documents from which our ‘NT’ was translated are different from earlier documents that are now available to us. There is much to be said about the NT we hold as being corrupted in a greater part in what is attributed to Paul. I would urge you and Jerry (below) to type in P46 into a search engine and maybe open a new door to how you received what has been ‘revealed’ and by whom.
YOU WHO SAY YOU ARE FREE FROM THE TYRANNY OF ANOTHER NATION, ARE YOU NOW FREE FROM THE TYRANNY OF YOUR OWN NATION?
“FOR WHEN THE GENTILES, WHO DO NOT HAVE THE TORAH, DO BY NATURE THE THINGS OF THE TORAH, THEY ARE A LAW TO THEMSELVES EVEN THOUGH THEY DO NOT HAVE THE TORAH. They show that the work of the Torah is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts switching between accusing or defending them on the day when God judges the secrets of men according to my Good News through Messiah Yeshua. But if you call yourself Jewish and rely upon the Torah and boast in God and know His will and determine what matters because you are instructed from the Torah—and you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and the truth—you then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach not to steal, do you steal? You who say not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who take pride in the Torah, through your violation of the Torah, do you dishonor God? For as it is written, ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS SLANDERED AMONG THE NATIONS BECAUSE OF YOU.’” [Rom 2:14-24]
The size of the box we live in determines how far out our limitations are!
Your “world” is not quite like mine. Similar, but not exact.
God draws people from their boxes to Himself. Each, in turn, can choose
to follow His lead and begin the divine process of leaving their “previously known”
ideas behind.
Knowing Him is not transferrable. It’s singular. The evidence of His love is sharable, yes.
But the essence and reality of Himself is, and always has been, a one on One experience.
Keeping His Word is a one on One adventure.
He’s created for us this world, seen differently by each of us. What He has waiting for us,
is His kingdom. Only He can take us there, by His hand, one by one.
I do believe, He wants us to tell others what the reality can be outside their box.
The King of the Universe, blessed be he, concerns himself with all of his creation. It is we who are limited, finite, self obsorbed proud and vain. Aristotle rightly considered “the devine mind” as outside himself. Paul quoted Aratus and Epimenttes in Acts 17;28 thus acknowledging that Yahweh is revealed in his true nature to those who seek Him truly. Our arrogance and self-righteousness can be astounding but it need not be so…
Skip: Don’t you imagine that He provided instruction to ALL His children, even if it didn’t come in the same way as the prophets He sent to Israel?
Modern Christians think so and yet Amos said He was exclusive to Israel,
Amos 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Certainly Israelites migrated and were exiled around the nations and influenced those cultures but God dealt almost exclusively with Israel proper.
Did God change His mind with the advent of Christ?
Skip: Our internal self-justification prevents us from recognizing the majesty of God’s interaction with ALL His creatures.
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world . . .
It sounds very nice but what’s the reality?
A billion Chinese and a billion Indians live and die every generation and maybe 5% of them confess Jesus. (To say nothing of another two billion Christians who have much of their theology wrong.)
Majesty of interaction? Looks like a colossal failure to me, “that He provided instruction to ALL His children”?
So, is it God’s failure, or is it ours, or IS this God’s plan? I don’t believe God fails therefore I don’t believe God IS trying to save the whole world, or even teach it, at least not in this world. Or do you think this is God’s best effort?
I believe in another world after this one, after the resurrection, in the Kingdom in which God, and His saints, will do a much better job of instructing the world. After all, isn’t our reward for this life, a role of more service in the next?
Interesting twist Skip.
USA independence was originally based wholly on total dependency to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
For that matter, all independence is based on total dependency to God. Each nation makes their own decision, and lives with the consequences. As Canada day has also just passed, we Canadians are reminded of our obligation to ”observe the ordinances of the nations which surround us”. This includes the Crown of England and our neighbor to the south.
Our only security is in total dependency to God…