Scripture Notes: A Covenant Curse (Acts 5)

The early Church as Luke (guided by the Holy Spirit) presents it in the Acts of the Apostles was truly a New Covenant community, very aware of its intimate relationship with God the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit. It reaped the covenant blessings in abundance as the Apostles delved deeper and deeper into the truth, preached that truth boldly, and accented their words with signs and wonders of all kinds, from healings to exorcisms to raising people from the dead. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, Who acted in and through them, and they eagerly shared that Spirit, that Bringer of eternal life, with whoever would accept Him.

But all covenants, even the New Covenant instituted and mediated by Jesus Christ, also carry curses that kick in when people are unfaithful and disobedient to the oath they swore to God. The first Christians swore that oath at their Baptism, just like we do today, and renewed it every time they received the Holy Eucharist, just like we do today. But some almost as quickly broke their oath.

Ananias and Sapphira are a prime example. They were part of the Church, members of God’s covenant family. But something went dreadfully wrong in them. Many Christians were selling property and giving the proceeds of the sale to the Apostles to apply to the needs of the Church. This was not required. No one commanded or even requested such an act; it was completely voluntary. 

Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of their property, and they kept back some of the money from it. This was fine. They were perfectly within their right to do so. But a problem arose when Ananias handed some of the money over to the Apostles but pretended that he was donating the whole amount. He lied, and as Peter said, not just to human beings but to God. And God, of course, knew, and the Holy Spirit tipped Peter off to the deception as well. Ananias fell dead at Peter’s feet. 

A while later, Sapphira came in, not knowing what had happened. She, too, claimed that her husband had provided the Apostles with the full amount of the sale. She, too, lied. She, too, fell dead after Peter accused her and her husband of tempting the Holy Spirit, trying to pull one over on God, thinking they could get away with a lie without being punished. 

This whole thing might seem awfully harsh to us: two people dead in an instant for lying. It may even seem rather trivial. But it was not, for what Ananias and Sapphira were ultimately guilty of is breaking their covenant oath to God. God, Who is Truth, Who created us in His image and likeness, expects us to live the truth interiorly and exteriorly. He expects us to obey Him as we have promised to do. He expects us to follow His ways faithfully. And when we don’t, when we sin, we experience the consequences. That is what happened to Ananias and Sapphira.

The Scriptures do not tell the motives Ananias and Sapphira were acting upon, but we can discern them, knowing what we do about ourselves and other human beings. Perhaps they wanted to look good in front of the Church. Perhaps they wanted to seem devout and caring. Perhaps they wanted some recognition. Maybe they wanted to show what good Christians they were. But their outside did not match their inside. They tried to fool God, and it caught up with them. They broke the covenant. They turned their backs on God and the life He held out to them so generously. So they dropped dead. Their physical death was a sign of the spiritual death they had freely chosen and a warning to all of us who also live within the New Covenant, with its many, many blessings but also with its curses. 

Scripture Notes: Light and Darkness (Wisdom 18)

The Book of Wisdom reflects deeply on light and darkness as it revisits events in salvation history, particularly the plagues upon the Egyptians and God’s guidance of His people out of slavery. Pharaoh had already revealed his stubborn heart through eight plagues; He would not let the Israelites leave Egypt to sacrifice to God in the desert. He balked every time. Then came the ninth plague, which was probably worse than the others, for a deep darkness descended upon Egypt. No one could see anyone else. They could hear voices, but the darkness was so thick they could feel it in their very bones. They could not move. They were trapped in blackness and terrified.

But the Israelites had light where they were, for God gave it to them. The same God Who brought deep darkness upon Egypt bathed His people in light as a sign of the covenant He had made with their patriarchs. 

The ninth plague still did not make Pharaoh release the Israelites, so the horrors of the tenth plague descended. The Egyptian first-born died, human and animal alike, and God’s people fled Egypt on the first Passover, after their first-born had been passed over by the angel of death because of the symbolic sign of the blood of a lamb.  

God guided His people out of Egypt with “a flaming pillar of fire,” the shekinah, the glory cloud, a light in the darkness of the unknown trek into the wilderness. He also gave them the light of the Law, of His will for His people’s holiness. He provided them with the opportunity to enter into intimacy with Him, foreshadowing the infinitely increased intimacy that would arrive when the ultimate Light of the World, Jesus Christ, the true Lamb, came into the darkness to enlighten us for all eternity.

Scripture Notes: The Leaven of the Pharisees (Luke 12)

Jesus never hesitated to call people out, to get to the very heart of what was holding them back spiritually, to identify their sins and faults and failings. He always did it out of love, of course, but often it was what we call “tough love.” If we’re going to repent of our sins and change our ways, then we have to recognize our sins, and we aren’t always very good at doing that. What’s more, our sins can and do affect other people, causing scandal and leading those around us astray, so sometimes Jesus had to issue stern warnings, especially about the sins of religious leaders.

This is exactly what Jesus was doing in Luke 12. He was surrounded by crowds, so many people that they were actually stepping on each other, trying to get close enough to hear Jesus or even touch Him and be healed. Yet the Pharisees were especially sharp in their opposition and their challenges to Jesus, and they were not acting out of a genuine concern for others but out of their own pride. And Jesus knew it.

This is why He spoke up, saying, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” The Pharisees were strong religious leaders among the Jews. People listened to them, for they seemed to have their spiritual acts together. They followed the right rituals and insisted on obedience to God’s law. They tried to set themselves apart from the crowd through their purity and devotion. But Jesus knew their hearts. Inside, these Pharisees were proud. Their actions served to boost their egos. They looked great on the outside, but inside they were a spiritual mess.  

This is why the Pharisees resisted Jesus. He called them to true devotion, to leave behind the show they were putting on and really embrace God and His will for their lives. He challenged their pride, showing them that they weren’t really as great as they thought they were, pushing them to recognize their sins and faults, to repent and to change their ways. And they hated it! They didn’t think there was anything wrong with them. In fact, they thought they were just right with God. Jesus was quick to tell them otherwise. After all, He would know.

We, too, have to be very careful about hypocrisy. Just as the Pharisees could spread their faulty ideas to others, we can catch the hypocrisy of the world around us, a world that so often focuses on empty show. We can end up looking really good on the outside but being a mess inside. We can be hypocrites, just like the Pharisees, and we can infect others with our own sins. So let us pray to our Lord and ask Him to help us clean up our spiritual mess so that our insides match our outsides and our whole being is immersed in Him.

Scripture Notes: Return and Renewal (Ezekiel 36)

Ezekiel was a prophet of the Babylonian exile. As a member of the priesthood, he was carried away to Babylon about 597 BC, and it was there that his prophetic mission began. When the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and the rest of Jerusalem in 586, carrying off many more people into exile at the same time, the situation appeared hopeless. The Promised Land was far away. The proper worship of God seemed like a thing of the past. And, perhaps worst of all, the people were coming to realize that it was all their fault. They had broken their covenant with God by disobeying Him and worshiping idols.

But God never gives up on His people, even when He chastises them. So He told Ezekiel to speak a message of hope. God would show His holiness. He would vindicate His Name. The people did not deserve God’s mercy, but He would give it anyway. When the time was right, God would gather His people and bring them back to their own land. He would “sprinkle clean water” upon them, purifying them from their sins and from their idols. He would give them a new heart and a new spirit, His own Spirit, which would help them keep His laws and adhere to His will. He would renew the covenant, assuring them “you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” 

The people must have been relieved to hear God’s message through Ezekiel. God had not abandoned them. He still loved them and cared for them. He was still guiding their destiny, shaping them, correcting them, even when they had to learn the hard way.  

Scripture Notes: The Rebellious Vineyard (Isaiah 5)

Through the prophet Isaiah, God sings to His covenant people Israel. He tells them how He planted a vineyard on a fertile hill. It was the best possible place for vines to grow and produce rich, delicious fruit. He did everything He could to make this vineyard perfect, digging it out, clearing away the stones, planting the choicest vines, building a watchtower, and hewing out a wine vat. Then He awaited the fruit. But what did He get? Wild grapes. Sour grapes that were no good for eating or wine-making.

The vineyard, of course, is Israel. God planted them in the Promised Land, clearing away obstacles that would threaten or distract them. He gave them His Law so they could flourish. He provided the Tabernacle and then the Temple where He could dwell with them in a special way. He even swore an oath to them, creating a covenant that made them His own people, His family. But what did Israel do? They broke that covenant. They sinned. They refused to follow God’s Law. They worshiped idols. They bore wild grapes.

God continues through Isaiah, “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?” The correct answer, of course, is “nothing.” God did everything possible for His people. The problem lies with them and their misuse of God’s gift of free will. They have chosen to sin.

And now they must face the consequences of that choice. God says that He will break down the wall of His vineyard and leave it to be trampled and destroyed. He will allow the people to experience the covenant curses that they have brought upon themselves by their rebellion. But God will never completely abandon His vineyard. He chastises His people, punishing them and correcting them, but He remains perfectly faithful. The rebellious vineyard, when it has learned to obey, will flourish and, by God’s grace, produce good fruit in the end.

Scripture Notes: The Small Things (1 Kings 19)

Elijah is exhausted. On the run from Queen Jezebel after killing her 450 pet prophets of Baal, the prophet of God simply wants to throw in the towel. Enough is enough, he tells God, just kill me now. But that is decidedly not God’s plan for Elijah. Far from it. Instead, God sends an angel with food and drink and instructions. Elijah must go to Mount Horeb, the very place where Moses had entered the shekinah, the glory cloud, and received the Law from God.

Elijah gets up, eats and drinks, and obeys, traveling forty days and forty nights to Horeb. When he gets there, he tucks himself into a cave and waits. He is still rather pouty, for when God asks him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” the prophet complains that he is the only one left who is worshiping God in all of the northern kingdom of Israel. Everyone wants to kill him. It is a very big deal, and he feels like a very small man.

God tells Elijah to go stand on the mountain before the Lord. Elijah obeys. A great wind whips through, breaking rocks in its wake. Then an earthquake shakes the place where the prophet stands. Then a fire roars by. But God is not in any of these major catastrophic events. Elijah is still standing somehow, and soon he hears a small sound, a tiny voice. He hides his face in his cloak, for God is present in that small voice.

God asks again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Once again, the prophet whines that he is the only one left loyal to God and that everyone wants to kill him. At that point, God reveals that it is not so. There are, He says, seven thousand people in Israel who do not worship Baal. Elijah is not alone. And he still has tasks to do. They may seem like small things, simply anointing the right people, but they will make a huge difference in the history of Israel and the world. And as small as he is, there will be other small people who love and worship God, and together, they will be great because God is great, even when He speaks in that small voice.

Scripture Notes: You Duped Me! (Jeremiah 20)

“You duped me, Lord,” Jeremiah cries out in frustration. The life of a prophet is not at all what he expected it to be. No one wants to listen to the message God gives through Jeremiah. In fact, most people despise the prophet for daring to speak God’s words, words they do not want to hear, words that warn them of dreadful things to come unless they repent and turn back to God.

But they do not want to repent. They do not want to abandon their idols and sins. They do not want to turn back to God. They have become entrenched in their own ideas and desires, in their passions and conflicts. They have long been hedging their bets with other “gods,” hoping that if God will not listen to them, someone else might give them what they long for, worldly wealth, worldly honor, worldly power.

So Jeremiah’s prophetic efforts are met with ridicule and even violence. He finds himself locked up in the guardhouse, threatened and mistreated. He even ends up down a cistern, sunk into the muck at the bottom. So his cries to God are perfectly understandable.

Yet Jeremiah also knows that God has supported him throughout his prophetic journey. Every time God has given the prophet words to speak, He has also given him strength to speak and to bear the consequences, however unpleasant those may be. Deep down, Jeremiah loves and trusts God immensely, and this is one of the reasons he feels like he can express his frustration, complaints, and even anger in prayer. God listens and responds.

In the end, Jeremiah breaks out into praise. He is still frustrated, still upset, still completely miffed that his prophetic efforts have produced so little fruit and so much scorn. Yet even in his grumbles, he knows God loves him and loves His sinful people. Otherwise, He would not be sending a prophet at all.