Adultery, idolatry and spiritual brinkmanship.

“‘You have lived as a prostitute with many lovers – would you now return to me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.’” (Jeremiah 3:1-3)

All the prophets used the term ‘prostitution’ to mean ‘idolatry’. They saw running after other gods as a form of spiritual adultery. The reasoning behind this was that Israel had entered into a covenant with God at the time of Moses which demanded absolute loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

It was equivalent to a marriage relationship in which a man and a woman made promises of exclusive faithfulness to each other. To forsake God and engage in intercourse with pagan gods was spiritual adultery. It was breaking the covenant vows taken by the nation.

Worldly Temptations

Jeremiah 3:1-3 is a key passage providing understanding of the situation in Judah in the late 7^th Century BC. It was by no means a new situation. Ever since the settlement of Canaan under Joshua, when the Israelite tribes set up their villages and rural settlements among the Canaanites, they had been tempted to worship the local Baals.

The Canaanites were an agricultural people, whereas the Israelites had no such skills in the use of the land beyond herding sheep and goats. They had much to learn from the Canaanites who, of course, told them that for best results they had to pay tribute to the local Baal who owned the land. Ploughing and tilling the soil were totally new to the Israelites and they were dependent upon the Philistines, who were evidently more industrialised than the Canaanites.

All the prophets used the term ‘prostitution’ to mean ‘idolatry’.

There is a revealing little piece of social history in 1 Samuel 13:19: “Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, ‘Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords and spears!’ So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their ploughshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. The price was two thirds of a shekel for sharpening ploughshares and mattocks, and one third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads.”

Idolatry a Way of Life

From the earliest days the people had been warned against the temptations to idolatry; but remaining faithful to the God of Israel could never have been easy as there was no tangible evidence of his presence.

They had no bits of wood and stone to worship and no altar upon which to present their gifts. For the first few centuries in the land there was no one common meeting-place. This would be the case until the time of King David who, first at Hebron and then in Jerusalem, set up a tent of meeting for large assemblies for offering worship to God and seeking his blessing upon the nation.

Out in the rural areas the people got used to using local shrines, which was the despair of all the prophets. In Jeremiah’s day the Temple services offered daily prayers on behalf of the nation and was open for worshippers to come from all parts of Judah. But for most people, a visit to Jerusalem was probably no more than an annual festival event and for some it would only have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The local shrines were handy and satisfied most people’s need for giving an expression to their spiritual concerns.

So idolatry became a way of life for most people in Judah in times of stress. Even in the city altars to other gods appeared at street corners.

Idolatry became a way of life for most people in times of stress.

Cries for Help, Not Forgiveness

Jeremiah was noting two major factors in the pronouncement we are considering today.

One was the increasing number of people coming into Jerusalem to pray at the Temple from the towns and villages across Judah, where there was increasing anxiety as rumours of the oncoming Babylonian army spread across the nation. So Jeremiah hears God saying, “Would you now return to me?” After being unfaithful for so many years, indulging in spiritual adultery with the Canaanite gods, now because you are afraid, are you coming running back to the God of Israel?

The second major factor was that the spring rains had failed. There was drought right across the land that was affecting the harvest and threatening everyone’s livelihood. Jeremiah saw this as a direct action from God in response to the nation’s spiritual prostitution.

The people were crying out for rain; but nowhere did he hear prayers of confession, people crying out for God’s forgiveness. Surely that was what should be heard right the way through all the towns and villages of Judah.

Danger of Spiritual Brinkmanship

If the people were to come humbly before the Lord in confession of their sinfulness, that would resolve both the major issues: the restoration of the spring rains and ensuring the protection of the nation against Babylonian invasion.

Jeremiah, as always, went to the heart of the spiritual problems of the nation. God had already sent them warning signs which had been ignored: “In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction” (Jer 2:30). How much longer, he wondered, would God continue sending warning signs and holding out his hands of forgiveness to a nation that did not respond?

Even if we are right in assuming that God is infinitely forgiving, the threat to the nation from the Babylonians was in real time and the nation was in grave danger of not responding to appeals, even at the 11^th hour.

This is the great danger of spiritual brinkmanship. The prophetic task is always to assess the danger and the time-scale. When the nation treats all warning signs with apathy, the danger of out-running the clock becomes real and the results can only be national disaster. This was what Jeremiah feared most, which made his appeals increasingly sharp.

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

We continue to explore the ministries of the non-writing prophets.

In part three of a series which looks at the relevance of the message and ministry of the non-writing prophets, Jock Stein considers the lessons that can be learned from the life of Deborah.

Deborah is not the only prophetess mentioned in the Bible but, she is the only woman who combined political and religious leadership. As such, her prophetic style is an important model, even though the judges in the Old Testament were transitional leaders between the patriarchs and the kings.

Deborah first appears in Judges chapter 4, during a period of oppression for Israel. The Israelites had sinned against the Lord by intermarrying with the Canaanites (Jud 3:5-6). They had also become increasingly dependent on the Canaanites for their trade and, indeed, their survival. As a consequence, the Lord had allowed them to be ruled by Jabin, a Canaanite king, and his general, Sisera. The Canaanites controlled the roads in the Esdraelon valley and had exercised this control for twenty years, during the twelfth century BC. Sisera and his 900 chariots used military technology to oppress the Israelites, until, that is, the intervention of Deborah.

Wife, Prophetess, Judge

Judges chapter 5, which is a song of triumph, celebrating the way that Israel defeated Sisera and came into freedom, gives us some useful background information. The people had been prevented from travelling and trading freely (5:6). They had been reduced to poverty (5:8), in contrast to the situation later on when the roads were re-opened (5:10). Sisera was hated, especially by women; his mother is pictured dreaming about the Israelite girls he and his men would capture (5:30), while the general statement found in 2:18 uses a word for oppression which implies rape.

Deborah is identified in Judges 4:4 as a wife, a prophetess and a judge; and in 5:7 as a ’mother in Israel’. Here, the Bible cuts right across the neat rules of Protestant conservatism and Catholic tradition. God raised up a woman who was a leader and a wife. She is also a model of team leadership — recognising the military authority of Barak, the Israelite general, but at the same time bringing him a command from God.

Against Barak, who had accepted the status quo of Canaanite oppression, Deborah opts for Godly rebellion. Barak defers to her judgment on condition that she goes with him. This is a clear indication of Barak’s recognition of Deborah's social and spiritual authority.

God raised up a woman who was a leader and a wife.

Two aspects of the prophetic ministry are linked with this story. First, the faithful listening to God and hearing from him; second, the faithful sharing of what he says. In Judges 4:6, Deborah sends for Barak and tells him what God has told her concerning what Barak is to do, along with the encouraging word that God would deliver Sisera into his power (4:7).

There is another link here, between prophecy and interpretation, which in the New Testament is more often left to the whole church; God tells Deborah not only what is going to happen, but who is going to make it happen, i.e. Barak. It is vital for anyone with a prophetic gift, and for church leaders, to distinguish between prophecy and interpretation. Here, however, Deborah is given the interpretation – how to make it happen – as part of the message.

The Providence of God

Not only do we have a woman in a key leadership role, but the key player in the subsequent drama is also a woman.

After Barak has led his ten thousand troops without armour into battle against Sisera’s well-equipped army, we are told that the Lord threw the enemy into a panic. At this point Sisera flees and takes refuge with an ally of King Jabin – Heber the Kenite. However, Heber’s wife Jael has her own ideas: she pretends to befriend the exhausted Sisera, gives him hospitality, and then, while he is asleep, drives a tent-peg into his skull. When she subsequently presents Barak with the dead general, another of Deborah's prophecies is fulfilled; “the honour will not be yours, for the Lord will hand Sisera over to a woman.”

Judges 5:4 and 5:20-21 tell us that a storm and consequent flash-flooding of the Kishon wadi were responsible for the rout – thus proving that the Lord, and not Baal, was God of nature. The whole story demonstrates the providence of a God whose design includes the ‘random’ effects of weather and migration (4:11). Today, scientists use the term ‘chaos theory’ to help them understand how chance and order are not incompatible. In other words, you do not have to choose between a world of fate, where free-will is an illusion, and a world of chance without any meaning.

Two aspects of the prophetic ministry are linked with this story: the faithful listening to God and hearing from him, and the faithful sharing of what he says.

This is a return to the biblical view which is beautifully illustrated in story of Deborah. It is especially important for young people to discover this, as so often at secondary school the curriculum gives them the lie that science is about facts and the real world; while religion is just about ideas and imagination.

Responding to God’s Call

Chapter 5 is, in fact, one of the earliest hymns recorded in the Bible. It is a celebration of what God has done for and among his people, and therefore combines the evangelical with the charismatic. It joins the rock and the reality — a good model for Christian song writing of today!

In context it was, of course, the way that people learnt their history. The Old Testament is divided into three sections — the law, the prophets and the writings - and included in the six  books of the ‘earlier prophets’ is the book of Judges. The reason for this is important.

For the Hebrews, prophecy was concerned with what God was doing - what God did became history, so history was included under the overall heading of ‘prophecy’. Judges 5, then, was given as a ‘prophetic song' which celebrated a God who was alive and did real things in the world. It also challenged the people of God: Zebulun and Naphtali answered his call and risked their lives (5:18). The tribe of Reuben was split (5:15), while Dan and Asher simply kept out of the way (5:17).

This raises a question which each of us should face — when we are faced with a challenge or difficult situation through which God is speaking to us. How do we respond to God's call today?

For the Hebrews, prophecy was concerned with what God was doing - what God did became history, so history was included under the banner of ‘prophecy’.

Deborah had a palm tree named after her (4:5). This might not seem such a great mark of recognition. The modern equivalent, however, to the ‘place of judging’ would be the city hall or Court of Appeal. Clearly she was greatly honoured in the nation. Deborah has made her mark in the inspired record of Scripture, and is an encouragement to both women and men to seek the word of the Lord, and to expect that word to have power in the political as well as the personal world.

Deborah's example reminds us that all those who have committed their lives to God, whether male or female, can have a transforming influence upon the political and social life of their nation.

Originally published in Prophecy Today, Vol 13(6), 1996.