Tag Archives: Divide

The Scepter and the Sword

October 1, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“‘Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my royal son? The sword despises every such stick.’”
Ezekiel 21:10b (NIV)

Along my life journey, I have observed that the political divide here in the States can arguably be boiled down to those who don’t trust the government to do anything well and want to diminish its role in our lives versus those who trust the government to do everything for us and therefore want to entrust more and more of our lives to it.

One of the things that history has taught me is that while the world changes, the one thing that does not change is the human condition and, therefore, all the human systems that we humans create. It’s why Shakespeare is still so powerfully relevant today. Arguably, no one has ever captured the human condition for the purposes of both comedy and tragedy as the Bard.

In today’s chapter, I found that the ancient Israelites were dealing with their own sense of safety and trust in their government, a monarchy founded on the royal line of David.

Throughout history, the staff or scepter has been a symbol of authority, royalty, and command. When God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, He sent Moses with a staff that became a metaphor for God’s power and authority. Archaeologists have uncovered an ivory pomegranate that was used at the top of a scepter with an inscription indicating it may have very well been used by the priests in Solomon’s Temple. Statues and artwork of both royalty and idols frequently showed them holding a scepter.

The Israelites of Ezekiel’s day, living in Judah and Jerusalem, had been raised to revere the King as a member of David’s royal house. It had been proclaimed that God would establish David’s throne forever, and they put a lot of stock in this promise. Many believed that as long as a member of David’s house was on the throne God would protect them and prosper them. Certainly the King had prophets on his payroll who would proclaim this loudly in an effort to keep the peace. People believed it.

Ezekiel, however, is given a prophetic vision contrasting the scepter of the royal house of David to the sword of God’s judgment in the hands of the King of Babylon. The prophetic word begins with the sword despising and mocking the “stick” in the king’s hand. The prophecy continues to explain that the sword is more powerful than the scepter, and warns the people not to trust their king and his royal prophets.

The prophecy ends on a Messianic note:

“‘A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it.’”
Ezekiel 21:27 (NIV)

As a follower of Jesus, I couldn’t help but note that the monarchy in Jerusalem did end with Babylon’s siege. There was no king in Jerusalem until Jesus rode in on a donkey and Matthew remembered the words of the prophet Zechariah:

“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded of my dual citizenship. Yes, I am a citizen of the United States, but as a disciple of Jesus I am also a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom. The former is human and temporal, the latter is divine and eternal. My citizenship in God’s Kingdom does not diminish my earthly citizenship or my responsibility to be an active and participatory citizen on earth as I have heard people argue. On the contrary, as an ambassador of God’s Kingdom on this earth I am required to be a more dutiful and engaged member of society, respecting those in authority and acting on a daily basis to make life on earth a better place for my fellow human beings for Heaven’s sake.

With that in mind, I am also mindful that the one thing that does not change on this earth is the human condition, unless it becomes subject to the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The end of the Great Story as told in Revelation is a parallel to Ezekiel’s prophecy in today’s chapter. God’s sword (pictured as the Words from Jesus’ mouth; see Rev 19:15) standing against the scepters of the Prince of this World and all the kingdoms of this world.

Despite knowing and believing the ending, my role in this Great Story is to be an ambassador of God’s Kingdom here on earth today. And that means being a good citizen, and operating out of love in everything I say and do. Here we go…

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Inclusive Exclusivity Problem

February 15, 2019 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

“…there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.”
Romans 3: 30 (NIV)

A few years ago on this chapter-a-day journey I wrote that the first century conflict between Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus was actually a foreshadowing of the great Dr. Seuss’ story The Sneetches:

Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the Beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”

In the case of the Jewish and Gentile believers, it was circumcision and the Law of Moses (a.k.a. Leviticus) that became the metaphorical star on their bellies.

As a 21st century follower of Jesus journeying through this letter of Paul to the Romans, it is critical that I understand this underlying tension and conflict. It is the driver and motivation for Paul’s letter. For centuries the Hebrew people had leveraged their gracious appointment as “God’s people” into creating and maintaining a theology of exclusion. They were the star-bellied Sneetches maintaining their private section of the beach and no one without a star on their belly was allowed. The Jewish followers of Jesus had spent their entire lives inside a cultural tradition that was thousands of years old telling themselves that they were exclusive.

The Gentile believers, on the other hand, had spent their entire lives knowing that the Jewish people lived, by-and-large, in their private culture and excluded anyone who wasn’t one of them.

As the Jesus movement rapidly expands across the known world, attracting followers of both the Jewish and Gentile camps, you’ve suddenly got star-bellied Sneetches and the Sneetches with “no stars upon thars” thrust together and co-habitating a “no-man’s land” section of Spiritual Beach.

Paul in his letter, is addressing this divide by explaining to the Jewish believers that God’s Message all along has never really been a theology of “exclusion” but one of “inclusion.” He’s walking a theological tight-rope, hearing the voices of his fellow Jews arguing with him about the law (i.e. “So you’re saying the Law is nothing?“), and hearing the voices of the Gentiles making counter arguments on the other side (i.e. “Well if more sin means there’s more of God’s grace to forgive me, then why don’t I just sin more so that there will be more grace?!“), and through it all he’s trying to bring them all together by laying out an inclusive understanding of what God has been doing all along in the Great Story so as to realize the end of Dr. Seuss’ yarn:

[That] day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars.

This morning in the quiet I find myself admitting that we human beings have a penchant for systemically creating social and personal exclusivity. We’ve been doing it since the beginning of time in our tribes, our religions, our country clubs, our street gangs, our political parties, our families, our races, our racial ghettos, our denominations, our social systems, our church groups, our middle/high school cliques, our small town and big city attitudes, and et cetera, and et cetera, and et cetera.

Jesus came to change all that.

And, we’ve messed that up, too.

Which means that this morning I have to confess and admit the ways I’ve gone all “star-bellied Sneetch” in my own ways (and there are multiple ways I have done so) along this life journey. Paul reminds me in today’s chapter: We’ve all (that would be inclusive) fallen short of God’s design and desire.

Maybe when I was younger I was ignorant and didn’t understand. I can’t claim that anymore. I am a mature adult. If I am going to follow Jesus. If I’m going to really follow the heart of Christ, then I have to stop shutting people out, pushing people away, and ignoring people who are uncomfortably and inconveniently different.

In that regard, the message of Paul to the Romans is every bit as relevant today as it was then.