Exhortation, Second Sunday After Easter

Micaiah is a prophet of Yahweh, the only prophet of Yahweh available to advise Ahab and Jehoshaphat as they plan to recover the city of Ramoth-gilead from the Arameans. As Ahab expects, Micaiah prophesies evil, warning that Ahab will die in battle and Israel will be left like sheep without a shepherd. Zedekiah, one of Ahab's court prophets, slaps Micaiah across the face, and Ahab dismisses him from the court, sending him off to prison to be fed on bread and water.

That's the last we hear of Micaiah. There is no scene of release, no triumphant return to Samaria, no defiant "I told you so" to Zedekiah. Micaiah speaks the word of Yahweh, but it appears that this word is humiliated. Micaiah is vindicated as a prophet only later, when his words come true, when Ahab is killed by a "random" arrow fired by an anonymous Aramean soldier. In this Micaiah proves to be a type of the true Prophet, Jesus Christ, who is also slapped during his appearance before a ruler, who goes to His death with all His promises about the coming of the kingdom, the vindication of the Son of Man, the destruction of the temple unfulfilled. The word of God seems, for a time, defeated and ashamed.

Delay has always been a source of tension and frustration for believers. The Psalms repeatedly cry out, "How long, O Lord?" But the frustration and tension is even more intense for those of us who live as Christians of the twenty-first century. We are not used to waiting. We have instant communications, instant cooking, instant access to information on the World Wide Web, and we begin to fancy that we have a right to instant gratification across the board. We are tempted to think we have a right to instant fulfillment of promises.

But this is not God's way. Between the word and the fulfilled, there is often silence, and the silence can last a long time. We cling to God's promises regarding our children through periods of estrangement and rebellion; we long for the promised unity, peace and concord in the church, but meet only warfare, envy, and suspicion; we struggle to be free from sin, believing that we are dead and risen with Christ and that we now walk in newness of life, but seeing very little fruit of that new life.

God's way with the world is a way of tension and rest, a way of exile and return, and we are always called to wait and trust through the exile until God fulfills His promise, crying out in the silences that God would keep His promises. The Word seems to be humiliated, imprisoned, and there is little to be done but wait and see.

Don't rush through the tensions; don't try to escape the painful uncertainty that comes with the silences; don't turn back when the Word of Yahweh seems humiliated. Between the disappointment of Good Friday and the joyful fulfillment of Easter, there is the waiting, the silence, of Holy Saturday. This is often where the Lord wants us: Wait upon the Lord. Take heart; be of good cheer. And wait upon the Lord.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 08:10 AM

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.