The End of all Things II Kings 25:8-12; April 26, 2015

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1 1 The End of all Things II Kings 25:8-12; April 26, 2015 Looking out over the wreckage of post-world War I Europe, the poet William Butler Yeats wrote The Second Coming, which goes in part: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Yeats could well be describing our times as well. It certainly seems that anarchy is again loosed upon the world. Islamic Terrorism is spreading out beyond the boundaries of the Middle East while the world powers either ignore it or don t seem to know what to do about it. In a recent Atlantic Monthly article a prominent European Jewish leader says, as he noted the rising tide of anti-semitism all over Europe and the former Soviet Union, I don t have to worry, but I think my children will have to always have their bags packed and be ready to flee at a moment s notice. And right here at home the polarization of society has completely stymied our political system. People seem to be increasingly more angry, short-tempered and intolerant. My son tells me at his recent experience at the desert warfare school in California, senior officers were opening talking to the junior officers about what they see as the growing problem with morale in all the branches of the military. It seems everywhere you look people are busier and more distracted by our social media than ever before but at the same time are more worried and less content. Yeats could also be describing the setting for our Scripture reading today. It is 586 BC and Jerusalem is besieged by the Babylonian army that spreads out across the horizon in seemingly unlimited numbers. Finding yourself in such a setting would be akin to living in a

2 2 nightmare. You are shut up in a city overrun with refugees from the countryside. Food and water is very limited and you know provisions are fast running out. The stench of unwashed bodies and unburied dead permeates the air and disease does its stealthy and lethal work in darkened alleys and overcrowded tenements. You can hear the steady rhythmic thumping of the battering rams against the city walls and the constant drone of the war trumpets of the enemy. You live in unrelenting dread that the moment the enemy breaches the walls you will be subject to a whole host of additional horrors the likes of which you will in all likelihood not survive. A generation ago Jerusalem had been similarly besieged by the Assyrians. Good King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah had rallied the people and God sent his death angel into the camp of the enemy and by a great slaughter the people of Judea had been saved. But now no such deliverance seemed forthcoming. Forlorn hope was rapidly turning to despair with the dawning awareness that God had seemingly abandoned his people. As we read the history in the book of Kings we are saddened by the downward spiral. The Golden Age of David and Solomon, marked by peace and plenty, comes to an abrupt end upon Solomon s death. His son and successor Rehoboam, foolishly provokes the already growing rift between northern and southern Israel due to Solomon s harsh policies of requiring large numbers of men being drafted into forced labor. When Rehoboam promises to make his father s policies even harder and more demanding, northern Israel revolts and the nation is torn in two Israel to the north and Judea to the south. This begins two centuries of fratricidal civil war and almost continual conflict. In the meantime, the mighty empires that surrounded Israel, Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, that had all been dormant in the days of David and Solomon, begin to stir as they cast envious eyes toward their much smaller neighbors that appear to them to be ripe for conquest. The writers of these chapters of the Bible hold up the various kings of both Judea and Israel as representatives of the times in which they lived. The rebellious kings of Israel are portrayed in an almost universally negative light. They seem to be power-hungry despots who care little for the lives of their people or the laws of God. The kings of Judea, the descendants of David, are not as bad but are an uneven lot. It seems a relatively good king, like

3 3 Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah or Josiah, is usually followed by a wicked king. For instance when good King Hezekiah is told he is about to die young, he pleads with God for an extension of his life. God answers that prayer but it is during those additional years he sires Manasseh, who turns out to be the worst king of all and reigns for fifty incredibly destructive years, virtually sealing Judea s doom. It is important to note that the biblical Books of the Kings and Chronicles are theological history. The only interest the biblical writers have is how faithful the kings were to God. More than once we are informed that everything else these kings did was recorded in other books, books now lost to us. So some kings, like Ahab of Israel, who were shrewd politicians and skilled diplomats, were treated lightly if they did not adhere to God and allowed idolatry to be practiced. But other kings who were ineffective or even incompetent politicians, like Josiah of Judea, were celebrated if they were faithful to God and suppressed foreign idolatry. This sort of history would be like if centuries from now a theological history was written about American presidents in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. The president that would be considered the greatest would probably be Jimmy Carter because he was the one who took his Christian faith most seriously. Politically he is considered one of the weakest presidents whose one term of office was marked by runaway inflation, the oil crisis and his inability to free the US embassy hostages being held prisoner in Iran. But his genuine spirituality also marked him. Remember how the press liked to mock him because of his statement that he had been born again into a relationship with Christ? Is this then skewed history? Not if you take the biblical perspective of things, where we are reminded of what makes a man or woman, or a nation for that matter, truly great. Is greatness measured by success, power, wealth and accomplishment; or is it measured by faithfulness to God and his commands? Is the true strength of a people or a nation found in the ability to make more and more stuff and become richer and richer, or is the true strength of a people and a nation found in the way they act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with their God (Micah 6:8)? Puts a bit of a different spin on things, doesn t it? This is certainly worth considering both as we go into the next election cycle and when we

4 4 determine our own personal life goals and priorities. Remember, we don t read through the Bible primarily out of historical curiosity so that we become familiar with long-dead kings whose names all kind of sound the same anyway. Nor do we have to worry about keeping all their long-forgotten exploits in correct chronological sequence. If you want to read ancient history there are other books, and perhaps better books, available for that purpose. But as far as the Bible is concerned, even its historical books are to be read as metaphor, as insights into the current human condition and, the nature of God who, after-all, is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If we are honest we have to admit we are uncomfortably close to these kings. We tend to do the same as them, if not on such a grand scale, certainly in our everyday decisions and interactions with others. As the books of the Kings ends, the fortunes of God s people are in an apparent death dive. This time there is no last minute rescue. The last king, Zedekiah flees in the night with his surviving soldiers only to be pursued and cut down. The walls of Jerusalem are breached. The Babylonian shock troops pour in murdering, raping, and cutting down everyone they come across. They set fire to David s royal palace of cedar and then worst of all pour into the courts of the Temple. They loot anything of value, desecrate the Holy of Holies and then destroy all of the structures. The handful of survivors are taken prisoner and are led away to what they believe will be permanent exile in the far corners of the Babylonian Empire. The whole history of God s people that started with the Call of Abraham promising a glorious nation and a people that will rival the number of the stars in the heavens is over. The promise is unfulfilled. The destruction is complete. All is lost. It is the end of all things. But is it? One follower of Jesus Christ put it this way: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8). Reality tells us that we will experience problems in life. However, if we go through them while knowing God, we can react to them with a different perspective and with a strength that is not our own. No problem has the capacity to be insurmountable to God. He is bigger than all the problems that can hit us,

5 5 and we are not left alone to deal with them. God's Word tells us, "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him"(nahum 1:7). And, "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them" (Psalm 145:19). Jesus told his followers these comforting words: "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt 10:29). If you truly turn to God, he will care for you. Even if you must die, still, that is not the end, but only the threshold of a new beginning. God s word pulls no punches. The stories of the Bible are sometimes depressingly realistic. Human folly seems to know no bounds. There is so much missed potential, so much waste, so much short-slightness that leads inevitably to destruction. But as we read on we will also find the rebirth of hope. The exiles are not forgotten. Through the surprising ways of God, they will return to their homes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the Temple restored. Best of all, the Messiah, our Savior will still be born in the fullness of God s timing. God s plans are often frustrated, but never defeated. God s people often must go through tribulations, but we are never destroyed. Do you believe this? When you look at the current state of the world, when you look at your own life situation, do you believe that love will eventually find a way? Do you believe that your life, the lives of the people you care about, even all the people s in this world, are being closely held in the hand of God? If you are discouraged and down cast, then look up. My Bible and your Bible quotes our Lord at just such times saying to us, reassuring us: When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28). What we all must learn is to see ourselves in these amazing stories. In Tolkien s Lord of the Rings, Sam the hobbit musses on the great difficulty of the journey he and Frodo had set out on and their ever-present desire to opt out and just go home: But

6 that s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn t. And if they had, we shouldn t know, because they d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we ve fallen into? 6