You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

I want to reinforce the subject of context that I talked about yesterday.  Looking back at chapter 16: after Jesus told the disciples, “No servant can serve two masters… you cannot love God and money,” Luke says the Pharisees, who were lovers of money… ridiculed Him. 

After this Jesus launches into a series of seemingly disconnected teachings: certainly nothing bonding them like the “lost and found” parables in chapter 15.  “God knows your hearts,” He says, “For what is exalted among men is an abomination to God…”  He follows by sequencing traditions: Law and Prophets through John, followed by the “Gospel of the Kingdom of God.”  Then there’s a blip about divorce, and finally a long parable about a rich and poor man, with allusions to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets again. 

I call all this to your attention because we’re now three-quarters of the way through Luke’s gospel.  Luke did promise in the beginning that he wanted to write an orderly account of Jesus’ life.  Even though this is difficult to make sense of at times,  it’s not simply a random collection of stories.  Choices were made about what to include, what to omit, and what to emphasize. 

Today’s reading deals with temptation, forgiveness, and gratitude; with the coming of the Kingdom of God, and humility in prayer.  There are living examples that reinforce what Jesus has been teaching about faith and boldness.  And there is a geographic marker – the first in a long time – that turns the story down the final stretch, when we can determine what Luke – and Jesus – were driving toward.

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Luke 17 and 18.  Now let’s read it! 

Chapter 19 picks up the story of Assyria’s siege of Jerusalem.  Sennacherib has sent Rabshakeh to taunt Jerusalem into submission.  King Hezekiah’s first response is to tear his clothes, cover himself with sackcloth, and go into the house of the LORD.  He then sends for Isaiah the prophet with this plea: “This is a day of distress, of rebuke, of disgrace…It may be that the LORD your God has heard…and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

While sending for a prophet might appear to be a wise action, remember that no king has truly sought the word of the LORD for centuries.  They’ve toyed with the prophets, executed the prophets, or added the LORD’s prophets to their collection of seers and the LORD to their quiver of gods.  Though facing annihilation and with no model for such faithfulness, Hezekiah seeks none but the LORD. 

You’ll hear the name of Isaiah prominently today.  Isaiah first spoke to Hezekiah’s father almost thirty years ago, failing to convince him that the Syria-Israel coalition would not last (this is recorded in Isaiah chapter 7).  Instead of trusting Isaiah and the LORD’s promise, Ahaz requested aid from Assyria, which we read about yesterday.  Today Isaiah is the LORD’s mouthpiece to one who will listen. 

This promising outlook follows Hezekiah almost to the end of his life.  In chapter 20, Hezekiah receives emissaries from Babylon, which Hezekiah describes as a far country, and presumably a safe one, especially because they are also attempting to thwart Assyria.  Whether for pride alone, or because the king fails to seek the LORD, or because of Judah’s attempt to forge yet another alliance with yet another foreign power, the LORD pronounces judgment: not simply on Hezekiah, but on his house. 

In this pivotal episode, a disconcerting possibility emerges: the line of David might be under threat.  This threat becomes more tangible as Hezekiah is succeeded by a son who led Judah astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel…

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 19 through 21.  Now let’s read it!

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

This brief narrative at the beginning of Luke 15 initiates a series of three parables that have to do with items that are lost and found.  The first focuses on the diligence of the shepherd in tracking down his lost sheep.  The second watches a woman search for a lost coin in her house.  Each of these follows a formula: there’s a lost item, a diligent searcher, a retrieval of the item, and a celebration of the recovery.    

The third parable is the most well-known here – it’s of the son who leaves home, and the father who receives him back – and follows the same formula: loss, search, recovery, and celebration.  It is the most elaborate of the three parables, with vivid characterization and emotional detail, but the rhythm is the same.  More importantly, the context is the same: it is told in sequence with the others, and in response to the situation at the beginning of the chapter, where the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled that Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them.”  This context naturally prioritizes the possible meanings of a parable – even one as richly nuanced as this one.   

You can see that by pulling parables and teachings out of their narrative context you run the risk of adjusting the meaning or missing it altogether.  I’m not advocating for a particular interpretation of any of these, but rather pointing out that Luke wrote them, and Jesus spoke them, in response to a literal life situation.  Just as authors have original intentions for that they write, so characters have original intentions for what they say and do. 

At times it seems like Luke only uses events to set the stage for Jesus’ teaching, and that’s certainly a device that recurs often.  But the events themselves can’t be cast off; they matter as much to proper interpretation as the teaching itself.  Jesus wasn’t just speaking into a vacuum; He was using words to push and pull at what He saw and heard.  Those experiences are not mere staging, but are integral to the plot itself. 

Our verse for this week is Psalm 27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Luke 15 and 16.  Now let’s read it!

And henceforth, the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.” – 1 Kings 14:14-16

The prophet had warned Jeroboam that his kingdom was on the clock, and the LORD’s preserving hand has stayed execution for over two centuries.  Israel’s prosperity during the Jehu dynasty came during a weak moment for neighboring empires.  But the political chaos in Israel that followed Jeroboam II came at the worst possible time, as both Syria (or Aram), and Assyria, under Tiglath-Pileser III, are ascending.  

The Old Testament spends over 200 chapters building the nation of Israel, from the first call of Abraham to the unified kingdom of David.  The end is described in six verses.  Tiglath-pileser’s successor, Shalmaneser, exacts tribute.  King Hoshea is found in alliance with Egypt.  Samaria is besieged.  Ten tribes are carried into exile and redistributed throughout Mesopotamia. 

There would not be a nation named Israel for almost 2,700 years. 

Much more time is devoted to Israel’s autopsy and the resettlement of the land.  While politically Israel found itself in a weakened position with internal strife and the nearby expansion of a world power, the author makes it clear that this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt…

Two reigns in Judah are sandwiched around Israel’s demise: King Ahaz in chapter 16 and his son Hezekiah in chapter 18.  The Assyrian threat is the thread that connects father and son, and each transfers valuables from the Temple to Assyria: Ahaz to buy assistance from Tiglath-Pileser and Hezekiah to buy time from Sennacherib. 

But while Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel, his son trusted in the LORD… so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, not among those who were before him.  This trust will be tested in a dramatic episode at the end of today’s reading, when Assyria threatens Jerusalem, and its captain, Rabshakeh, asks Hezekiah, “…On what do you rest this trust of yours?”

Our verse for this week is Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

2 Kings 16 through 18.  Now let’s read it!