Exhortation, April 3

Ahab and Jezebel had little interest in Torah, the commandments that Yahweh had delivered to Israel on Sinai. Ahab continued to promote the idolatry of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He discovered that Jeroboam�s idolatry was not robust enough for his tastes, so he promoted Baal worship, and sat by silently as Jezebel persecuted and killed the prophets of Yahweh.

In today�s sermon text, Ahab and Jezebel persist in their antinomian ways. Ahab does not acknowledge Naboth�s right to keep his vineyard, and Jezebel has even less concern for Naboth�s rights under Torah. She conspires with the leaders of Naboth�s hometown to bring false charges, put Naboth on trial before a kangaroo court, and execute him outside the city. When it�s convenient, however, Jezebel can be a stickler for the rules. The charges against Naboth are taken directly from Exodus 22 and the death sentence for blasphemy is required by Torah (Leviticus 24). Idolatry is fine; conspiracy to commit murder is fine; corrupting the courts is fine. Blasphemy, however, has to be punished with the utmost severity. When they find that Torah can be manipulated to remove an irritating obstacle, Jezebel and Ahab join with David in singing, �O, how I love Thy Law.�E

Antinomians are always ready to become hyper-moralists when it�s convenient, and of course their legalism is simply another form of antinomianism. Our legal and political system is full of such hypocrisy. America�s political leaders normally ignore Constitutional limitations on the federal government, but when the federal government tries to stop a man from killing his handicapped wife, everyone defends states�Erights like neo-Confederates.

The church is as hypocritical if not more so. Many in the Episcopal Church USA wink at the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop, but rise in protest at African bishops who supposedly violate Episcopal protocols by crossing diocesan borders and intervening in another bishop�s jurisdiction. Denominations that sit loosely with their Confessional tradition become the strictest of strict subscriptionists when the situation requires.

We must renounce the Pharisaism of selective obedience whenever we see it, and we often see it right under our noses, in our own lives. By all means, tithe your mint and dill and cumin. But do not be a Pharisee. Do not neglect the weightier matters of the law, mercy and truth and faithfulness.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 07:55 AM

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