We’ve had a bunch of “message films” this year, some highly acclaimed, grossing millions and even winning Academy Awards. But I can’t remember a single one of them! Samuel Goldwyn, that pioneering giant of Hollywood, was right when he growled, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.”
God didn’t need Western Union in today’s text. Jeroboam had solidified his rule over the Northern Kingdom, Israel, by instituting a false worship. God responded as only he could—he would
Send A Message.
1.Serve the Lord only (1-5)
2.Keep his saving word (6-34).
“By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. He cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: ‘O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: “A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.”’ That same day the man of God gave a sign: ‘This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out (1-3).’”
The Lord sent a message of condemnation to Jeroboam, right as he was making an offering in front of his snazzy calf god altar. To sacrifice humans on an altar? To burn human bones on an altar? That would certainly show the people who were worshipping a false god and calling him the Israel’s god instead of the Triune God, that would certainly show they were wrong. And it would happen—almost 300 years later when a King Josiah from Jerusalem would try to restore the true worship of God among the scattered people left in the north.
Three hundred years is a long time to wait to see if this “man of God” really was telling the truth. “Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, ‘Seize him!’ But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord (4-5).”
A shattered altar, ashes pouring out? Defective merchandise, huh? But how do you explain Jeroboam’s hand? Shriveled. Paralyzed. On the spot! The Lord had sent a message.
There’s lots of gods in America today. Will we have a “God is God” attitude and not care what people call their god, or how they worship him, or what they believe because of their gods, because “God is God” and it is all the same? I hope not. I hope none of us are so far gone that we would entertain notions of worshipping any other god than the true God, the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I hope that is not the temptation we face, that we would marry into Mormonism or Buddhism, convert to Islam or swap the baby Jesus in Bethlehem’s cradle for a dreidel and Hanukkah song. Enough said.
The greater challenge is to keep his saving word.
Jeroboam recognizes how far he has fallen from the powerful Lord. He asks the prophet to pray that his hand is restored. The prophet does and the hand is instantly healed. Jeroboam asks the man to come to his palace for supper and a gift, but the prophet refuses. He has strict orders from the Lord to eat or drink nothing while in the Northern Kingdom. He is to be on his way, back to his home in Judah, some twelve miles south.
So far, so good. The prophet had kept God’s word, even though King Jeroboam had promised to give him a big gift. But now an old prophet who had not fled the godless Northern Kingdom heard about the day’s activities at Bethel. He wants to meet with the prophet from the south. He gets on his donkey and tracks down the prophet. He asks the prophet to come home with him and eat. Again, the prophet refuses. “I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came (16).’” And the old prophet from the north lies to the man. “An angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water (18).’” The faithful prophet from the south trusts the lying prophet and goes home with the man for supper.
Here’s where it gets weird. During the meal, the lying northern prophet speaks the word of the Lord (in truth) to the sinful southern prophet. “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers (20-22).’”
They finish the meal, God knows what thoughts crossing their minds, the southern prophet goes on his way on the lying northern prophet’s donkey. A lion attacks and kills him, but leaves the donkey untouched. Word gets back to the lying prophet, so he goes out to the accident scene. There’s the donkey, safe and sound. There’s the sinful southern prophet, dead a couple of times over, and there’s the lion, still standing there, like a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier! The old prophet gives the prophet from the south a decent burial and then things go on about as badly in the north as they had before, with an unrepentant Jeroboam still trying to get his people to worship statues of golden veal cutlets.
Yes, this would make headlines and nobody in all Israel could help but hear about the lion, the donkey and the prophet who had come north to condemn the false worship Jeroboam was foisting upon the people. God had sent a message.
But there’s another lesson for us. We’re good people. We try to do good, try to be good, do things God’s way. Certainly he will be understanding when we slip up. Drink a little wine. Make a little mmm-mmm. Get down tonight. But he cut his prophet on a mission no slack and he will cut you no slack. He will cut me no slack. He will cut our children no slack. He wants us to keep his saving word.
Is it a saving word? You bet! He displayed the power of his word twice in our text by his actions. He healed Jeroboam’s withered hand by his word. He kept the lion from having a manwich with a donkey chaser for lunch. But there’s another way the Lord displayed his saving power in this weird text before us. He reveals himself as the LORD. Capital L, Capital O, Capital R, Capital D. That’s the name God uses for himself when he wants us to think of Jesus, the Savior. God’s word is a saving word because it comes from the mouth of the Savior God.
I don’t always keep God’s saving word. Bad words come out of my mouth, words of anger, words of slander, words of envy and jealousy, crude and rude words. And so do you. We are a people of unclean lips and we live in a nation of potty-mouthed people. And then consider all the false religious teaching that goes on, that you can be with anybody you want to be, that you can get to heaven, if it exists, by being good. Honestly, religion is the only topic where there is more worthless and plain wrong opinions being tossed around than on sports talk radio.
But the Lord, the Savior, saves us from the snares of hateful, sinful words that demean others and defile us right to the bone. He bore the cursing in his own body on the cross. They reviled him and insulted him to the point of death and he kept his mouth from sin, held his tongue back from name calling. And by his death we have been given a new heart and a new tongue, a new vocabulary. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Colossians 3.16).”
And today we send a message. We send a message to the world that our Savior Lord is so important we want our children to learn of him. So we are going to send them to Sunday School. It is not kid’s stuff, it’s God-stuff. The very words of eternal life they will learn. The greatest story ever told they will hear and hear in such a way that they will never forget it. Today we send a message to ourselves as well. God’s word is so special, it is worth keeping. It is worth keeping in our schedule on Sunday mornings so we hear that Word in worship and even take another hour to either teach it to others or study it ourselves in a new and expanded Bible study format for our congregation.
Send A Message.
1.Serve the Lord only (1-5)
2.Keep his saving word (6-34).
Our God doesn’t need Hollywood movies or Western Union to send a message. Through his Word, recorded in the Bible and recounted by his people, he sends a message that cannot be ignored.
Rev.Don Pieper is a minister in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He has devoted his life to
sharing the Gospel of Christ to all of Gods people. For more information about the Green Valley
Evangelical Lutheran Church visit us at
www.gvelc.com or call 702-454-8979 .
Ask for Pastor Don or Pastor Matt.
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