CHAPTER 5
Principles in the Prophets
In every Kingdom there is a conscience. It is called the Justice system. In the kingdom of Israel, this was at various times, administered in the Priests, or the Prophets167. In contrasting World-Kingdom with the Kingdom-of-God, one contrasting principle underpinned the two systems. As you might expect, in World-Kingdoms the presumption was, and still is, ‘Innocent until proven Guilty’. This led to, (and still does lead to), a culture which hides law-breaking, until it is exposed. Further, it underpins a culture governed by the ‘letter of the law’, rather than the ‘spirit of the law’. In keeping with World-Kingdom culture, it also makes many lawyers very rich if they can defend a client on technicalities, or obscure laws, avoiding having to answer to the original accusation. Injustice walks around World-Kingdoms unexposed, because the alleged sin has never reached the courts because of technicalities in the system. Justice itself, in World-Kingdoms is often based on wealth and legal procedural lapses, not equality. Pharisees were experts in this tactic.
A Kingdom’s Conscience
In the Kingdom-of-God, as you would suspect, the baseline is reversed. ‘Guilty until pronounced Innocent’. That needs explaining. A Judiciary system based on ‘all have sinned’, is a system based on Grace, not letter law justice. It does not lend itself the attitude, ‘I require justice if I have been wronged’, rather, ‘I forgive, as I have been forgiven’. One outstanding contrast between the two kingdoms, is revealed in the adulteress brought before Jesus. World-Kingdom justice, required stoning. Kingdom-of-God justice, was not blind to the sin, she was told to go and sin no more. But the process was levelling on all. A sinner’s accusation is the sinner’s condemnation. Kingdom-of-God justice is not limited to the accused, it tries both the accuser and the accused. In this case it includes the involved man, (who was nowhere to be found), and the accusers, whose, ‘better than you’, justification for bringing the case, collapsed in a moment’s pause for thought. Kingdom-of-God justice presupposes all have sinned, and indeed under that system, all her accusers disappeared rapidly. As someone has already remarked before me, Kingdom-of-God justice, should reduce the unquenchable demand on World-Kingdom justice systems.168
Moses tried to set up a fair system in the wilderness, Levites who were charged with looking after the laws, were all paid out of the temple tax. So anyone seeking a lawyer had equal footing, at least financially. World-Kingdom values crept in, once the people had moved into the promised land. Looking at surrounding nations, both lawyers and priests found they could get rich in this world’s goods, either by bribes or a self-esteem that could outwit other arguments on points of law. Effectively, this reversed the flow of blessing in the kingdom from give to take. It is not a modern day invention to advertise for lawyer services, lawyers in Jesus’s day discussed matters loudly in the streets to persuade according to their cause, justice is perverted by the loudest organized argument on streets.
The Pharisees went out, conspiring how to destroy him. Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy :
Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not wrangle or clamour, nor draw attention to himself in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick, until he brings justice to truth.169
A Kingdom’s Justice
The Value of the prophets is the judgements they make, according to the structure of the Kingdom-of-God. Laws that are clearly broken are challenged in the streets. Prophets do not judge, they proclaim the judgement made by the judge. That judgement was, more often than not, the opposite judgement made in court.
Justice involves two things, Judgement and Salvation. The Prophets announced judgement giving the reason for it. The message of the Prophets can be summed up as, God says, ‘I am like this, I expect you to be like this too, If your heart is not like mine, you are not mine, By the fruit you have produced, I have judged you. If you change your heart, you will be saved. If not you will be burned’. Is this not exactly what Jesus taught in his parable of wheat and tares?
Basically, there is a hierarchy of sin also. Top, is the sin of Idolatry. Next to it, is, oppression of the poor. The two kingdoms are opposed on this law. Kingdom-of-God protects the oppressed, World-Kingdom oppresses and exploits the oppressed. It may be in Israeli territory, but if the fruit is World-Kingdom fruit it is World-Kingdom. Many are alien countries trying to live by Kingdom-of-God laws, that are commended and blessed by God. But, just as the sin is hierarchical so is Judgement. Grace is top of this hierarchy, closely followed by mercy in the sentence.
Ahab was in territory given to Israel, and a descendent of Abraham. But he was not acting under Kingdom-of-God law when he ripped off his neighbour Naboth by, taking his vineyard. David’s adultery, idolatry, and murder took place in Kingdom-of-God territory, David, being the king of it. But World-Kingdom took over, David reversed the flow of blessing when he took rather than gave, and the whole nation’s blessing was reversed by God, because of it.
Prophets give a long list of other recognizable symptoms to distinguish between the two kingdoms: Spending money on perishable treasures, Blocking the flow of money down to the poor, disregarding the widow or orphan, Usury, Racism, Alien citizen abuse, the list will lengthen in the reading of the prophetic books. God’s Judgement had already been passed, and the prophets proclaimed it. Prophets were not pronouncing judgement on behaviour, but on heart. This was taken into account in the delivery of the pronouncement. Amos confronting the culprits pronounces:
Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke its sentence; because you have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turning aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name. And you lay down by every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, and you drink in the house of their God the wine of the condemned.170
Micah, pronouncing the same judgement explaining:
Then I said, "Listen, leaders of Jacob and officers of the nation of Israel! You should know what justice is. But you hate good and love evil. You tear the skin off the people and tear the flesh off their bones. You are destroying my people. You take their skin off them and break their bones. You chop their bones up like meat to put in the pot! Then you will pray to the LORD, but he will not answer you. No, he will hide his face from you, because what you do is evil. Some false prophets are telling lies to the Lord's people. This is what the LORD says about them: These prophets are led by their stomachs. They promise peace for those who give them food, but they promise war to those who do not give them food. This is why it is like night for you, and you don't have visions. You cannot see what will happen in the future, so it is like darkness to you. The sun has gone down on the prophets. They cannot see what will happen in the future, so it is like darkness to them. The seers are ashamed. The fortune-tellers are embarrassed. None of them will say anything, because God will not speak to them. But the LORD'S Spirit has filled me with power, goodness, and strength. So I can tell Jacob about his crimes, and so I can tell Israel about his sins! Leaders of Jacob and rulers of Israel, listen to me! You hate the right way of living! If something is straight, then you make it crooked! You build Zion by murdering people. You build Jerusalem by cheating people! The judges in Jerusalem accept bribes to help them decide who wins in court. The priests in Jerusalem must be paid before they will teach the people. People must pay the prophets before they will look into the future. Then those leaders expect the LORD to help them. They say, "The LORD lives here with us, so nothing bad will happen to us." Leaders, because of you, Zion will be destroyed. It will become a plowed field. Jerusalem will become a pile of rocks. Temple Mount will be an empty hill overgrown with bushes.171
The message in the prophets is: God says, ‘I pleaded your cause, therefore I expect you to do the same for the rest of society’. In reality, we live in two kingdoms. The prophets are trying to teach us that Kingdom-of-God citizens, are in World-Kingdom territory, to change its culture. That is not easy, but the task of the Prophets is, to point the way. It cannot be done by insisting by force as that is a World-Kingdom method. It must be done by example, demonstrating the motivation. Demonstration is not easy, it usually attracts rebellion by World-Kingdom citizens and often ends in World-Kingdom methods of rebellion-force. See what riots Paul caused, by freeing a girl from a spirit that World-Kingdom masters had used for their gain, for example172. Force and Fear to oppose Kingdom-of-God values, is a big deterrent to Kingdom-of-God people.
We cannot employ their methods to get Kingdom-of-God results. When a citizen prays, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, to God that is a practical prayer. To most of the church, that is a prayer for Christ to return and set up His values here. But God’s intent is to bring the reality of that world into this one, using his ambassadors, but definitely not by World-Kingdom methods. Israel thought he would. They were expecting a show of military power under Messiah, a triumphal suppression of their enemy, and big signs. But somehow, the church keeps reverting to those tactics to advance the gospel. Be it, Constantine or Crusade, conversion at the point of a sword is World-Kingdom tactics. Force, is Cain’s doctrine, ‘agree with me, or you die’. God did not agree with him and his descendants did their best to kill him. Isaiah’s suffering servant, is God’s answer to World-Kingdom tactics.
167 One remarkable example of this in modern days facilitated the peaceful transition of power in South Africa, under ‘truth and reconciliation’ courts.
168 1 Corinthians 1-11
169 Matthew 12:14 -20
170 Amo 2:6 -8 v8 they commit adultery in front of Idols using pawned garments as blackmail that should have been returned without charge at sundown,
171 Mic 3:1 ff
172 Acts 16 : 16 ff