Rev. Ron Tipton, guest First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor
Who speaks for God? Who speaks that voice of soul and conscience that calls us to a deeper perception of who we are and what we are to do? Who speaks for that divine voice that tells us what is good and what is evil? How do we discern what is finally of value and what God wants us to do or not do?
Traditionally, people have turned to some authority—an institution, a religious figure, or a book. The rabbi has spoken with authority when he proclaims to his people, "The Torah says…" The Catholic priest has spoken with authority when he says to his people, "The Church has always taught…". The liberal Protestant pastor has said, "Well, it seems to me…"
Many Protestants say that the Bible is our authoritative voice of God. But whose interpretation of the Bible do we accept? The Book of Leviticus says that we should execute witches, homosexuals, and those who do work on the Sabbath. Is that what we think the voice of God is saying to us?
In the Hebrew scriptures it is above all the prophet who speaks for God. It is said that the Spirit of God is on these people called prophets. Their task is not primarily to foretell the future but to proclaim the mind and will and word of God. The usual phrase used by the prophet is "Thus says the Lord".
This morning we are going to look at a story in I Kings 21 in which we see a very typical example of the work of a prophet. The story begins with a man named Naboth in the city of Jezreel. Naboth owns a vineyard which just happens to be right next to the palace of King Ahab. So it is not surprising that one day Ahab decided that he would like to have the land of Naboth's vinyard. Ahab offered to buy the land or to trade it and give to Naboth an even better vineyard. But Naboth couldn't even consider giving up the land of his fathers, no matter what the selling price might be.
Now King Ahab was a very different sort of man. When he didn't get what he wanted he moped and pouted. He was so vexed that he wouldn't eat and just went to bed.
He's the king, so he could have got away with any sort of treachery to get what he wanted. Maybe he didn't do that sort of thing because he was just weak and indecisive.
Ahab had a wife named Jezebel. You know how sometimes people marry someone who is the opposite of themselves? Well that is exactly what Ahab had done. Jezebel could not understand how a king could be pouting around the palace and be so distraught that he wouldn't eat. She felt that as king he should be willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
So Jezebel said to her weak husband, "Look, you are the King! Cheer up! I'll get you Naboth's vineyard." Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and nobles in Jezreel. The letter instructed them to have two men bring charges against Naboth, accusing him of cursing God and the king. The letter further said to take Naboth out and stone him to death. That's Jezebel.
We must pause here to note that Ahab had not heard Bill Cosby's comments on marriage. A few months ago we heard Cosby's performance when he was in Detroit. Running through his 2 hour monologue was this recurring theme: "Your wife is not your friend." He illustrated this with various stories. In one of them he tells of coming home in the early hours of the morning after a road trip. Thirty miles from home his car broke down. " Now", Cosby says, "If I call my friend at 2 in the morning and tell him my car broke down, he will say 'OK, I'll be there right away'. But if I call my wife she will say, 'Well, why didn't you do what I said and get that car fixed?!!' Your wife is not your friend." Jezebel was not Ahab's friend.
The elders decided that they better carry out the instructions in the letter. And so they did, and they sent a letter not to Ahab but to Jezebel. They knew who had the real power. The letter said, "Naboth has been stoned; he is dead".
Then Jezebel gleefully broke the news to Ahab saying, "Now you can go and take possession of Naboth's vineyard because Naboth is dead." After Jezebel had done his dirty work Ahab finally got the land that he wanted but was too weak to take.
Next in the story we meet Elijah the prophet. The story says that God told Elijah to say to Ahab, "Thus says the Lord, 'Have you killed and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood." Put simply, Elijah is saying that God spoke to him about Ahab's sin and sent him to speak God's word and judgment on that sin.
There are many directions we could go with this story? We could use Ahab and Jezebel to talk about marriage. Or we could use the story to talk about doing evil. Kofi Annan recently said that people are not evil; only deeds are evil. And that would be worth exploring. But I want us to focus on the role of the prophet, the one who speaks for God.
Who is to say to us today what the word of God is in particular situations. Shall we listen to Pat Robertson as the word of God on homosexuality? Shall we listen to Mel Gibson as the word of God concerning the passion of the Christ? Shall we listen to the "Left Behind" books as our authoritative interpretation of the Book of Revelation? Who is to be our prophet to speak for God to us?
Let's go back to the Hebrew scriptures and start with the prophets—those people so filled with the Spirit of God that they spoke for God. Moses said that he wished that all of God's people were prophets. Others spoke of a day when that would be so. The prophet Joel spoke for God when he said, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people".
In the New Testament this is exactly what happened. The followers of Jesus were faithful Jews who knew that a prophet was one in whom the Spirit of God lives and through whom God speaks saying, "Thus says the Lord." The gospel writer Luke tells us in his Book of the Acts of the Apostles that on the Day of Pentecost the Spirit of God came upon all the believers. After that, all believers were empowered to discern for themselves what is the mind and will and word of God.
Jumping ahead in history, in the seventeenth century the Baptist movement developed this theme. It has been called a belief in "soul competency", meaning that each individual is competent to read, understand, and interpret the Bible without any authority other than the Spirit of God. Each conscience is free and capable of discerning good and evil and capable of discerning for ourselves what is the word of the Lord in our lives. We need be subject to no spiritual authority other than the scriptures, the Spirit of God, and our own conscience. No institution, no preacher, no one has spiritual authority over us.
We certainly need to listen to others, listen to the historic church teachings, and listen to the Bible. But each one of us is solely responsible for discerning what the Spirit of God is saying to us, and what the Spirit of God is calling us to do.
