New Thoughts (07/16/11)
This place we refer to as hell conjures up certain imagery in our minds, imagery that likely borders on the cartoonish. For my generation, at least, there is good reason for this: We were practically weaned on cartoons, and any number of these would include brief visits to that place. Invariably, it was and is depicted as a place where everything is on fire. That is, for us, the defining characteristic of hell. It is a place of continual fire. It’s hot, hot as hell, we might say. But, while such cartoon images invariably set this image before our eyes, they are quite lax about the other constant of that place; the sight of perpetual punishments, and those of the most severe nature.
Dante’s Inferno did a better job of this, I expect. The idea that this place was a place where those who had seemingly gotten a pass in life were finally getting their just deserts is kept in the forefront there, rather more than suggesting that the heat was enough punishment in itself. But, we might ask, where do these conceptions of hell’s nature arise from?
It turns out that the concept has its roots in a very real place with a very real history. That place is the valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. Here it is that the vile practices associated with the idolatrous worship of Moloch transpired. If there’s anybody unfamiliar with that episode in the history of God’s people, this worship consisted in placing one’s own child on the heated metal of the altar as a sacrifice, a live sacrifice. It seems all but unimaginable to me that any parent could have been so deranged. But, then, we see the equivalent reported near daily even today. Baby found in rubbish bin, baby left at bus station, or in any number of other places no baby ought to be found in, certainly not alone and unattended; these may not have that grotesque feature of burning flesh, but they are no less incomprehensible in their evil. And we cannot but consider the all too common practice of abortion in similar light. This becomes even more the case as we find some of the practices of the so-called doctors involved in this industry exposed. These are evil men and women. There is no other way to describe them. We may quibble as to the degree of evil present in a particular case, but they are evil, each and every one of them. They are practitioners of exactly the same vile worship as was practiced in the valley from whence hell gets its definitive description.
Israel, at the least, came to its senses at some point. A godly leader arose and recognized the utter abomination that his people had made of themselves. Josiah, one of the rare kings of Judah in whom God reigned, having recovered the book of the Law, was shocked and dismayed to see how far the nation had fallen. He was also determined to do all in his power to reverse course not only for himself, but for the people over whom he ruled. The cult of Moloch was likely the most utterly disgusting of the bunch, and so he determined to see the place of Moloch’s altar as thoroughly desecrated as was possible. To this end, he made of the valley a garbage dump and worse. Garbage from the city was taken out to this valley for disposal. This garbage presumably included what is politely referred to as night soils. But even this was insufficient as far as Josiah was concerned. So, the valley also became the final resting place for criminals who had received the death penalty, for animal corpses, and for every other sort of dead and rotting body that could not or would not be buried.
This, in turn, led to a certain need for fires to burn off the decaying mess. Putrefying bodies are, after all, a prime source for the spread of disease. These diseases might be water borne, which would not be an issue given the lower elevations of the valley. They might, however, also be airborne, and that would be problem indeed. So, the trash, particularly the corpses therein, needed to be incinerated. And, as the supply of refuse was endless, so also the fires were required to burn endlessly. The valley, by Josiah’s reckoning, and soon by its very nature, had been rendered unfit for any other purpose than as the city’s rubbish bin, and into that valley was thrown ‘all that defiled the holy city,’ as the ISBE says.
There appears to be some debate as to the significance of the valley’s name, with one line of thought being that the name indicates that it is the valley of lamentation. From that perspective, it is further supposed that the name came about from the wailing of those children burnt upon the altar as they died. Others supply a more benign significance to it, taking the Hinnom part of its derivation as being indicative of nothing more than a family name. This is reinforced by Jeremiah’s reference to that valley, but at the same time, its repurposing and the dark reputation it would hold through the ages is established. He writes, “The days are coming when this will no longer be called Tophet, or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter” (Jer 19:6).
Put all of these pieces together and it becomes very clear that this valley of Ben-hinnom, this Gay’hinnom, was put in place as a direct results of God’s providential purpose. By no means am I suggesting that He sanctioned the idolatries that seeded this valley’s unfortunate significance. It is impossible to think such a thing! But the outcome of this evil, and the repurposing of that valley as a very physical, very pungent object lesson, as a visceral stand in or symbol for the eternal punishment to be meted out upon all who reject and oppose God; this is certainly to our good, and certainly in accord with His plans.
With all this in mind, and with the realization that this valley likely persisted in its use even unto that day upon which we find Jesus thus castigating the Pharisees, consider how His words strike the ears of those listening. Could there be a place more Levitically unclean? If to touch a corpse was enough to make one unclean for a week, what of those who must perforce walk in that valley? But, the declaration here is not that these men have walked the valley, but that they are, by their very nature, denizens of the valley. It is their natural abode, and that they are its natural population is evident in their character and practice.
This is, after all, what is signified by that phrase, ‘son of Gehenna’. If it was bad to be called a son of the devil, this was far worse, I should think. Death, putrification, decay and every manner of uncleanness is found in your character and practice. It is so much a part of you that you are defined by it. People look at you and they see that valley personified. Who could be pleased to hear such a description given themselves? And, is it possible to find a descriptor more thoroughly opposed to what was implied in being called sons of Abraham, or sons of God? I think not!
Now then: Let us consider what it is about these scribes and Pharisees that leads Jesus to apply such a horrible description to them. It is there in the refrain we have heard in the last several studies: It is not because they are scribes or Pharisees that Jesus calls them out, but because they are hypocrites. As we saw in the preceding study (Lk 11:44), the reason hypocrisy ranks so high on Jesus’ disgust meter is because it is not solely a personal sin. It is not, as we would say, a victimless crime. It is a contagion, and a contagion all the more deadly for being imperceptible. That was there in the image of the concealed and unmarked grave to which they are compared.
Here, the full poison of hypocrisy is made more evident. The danger lies in that the poison is concealed within a disguise of pious pursuit. It is sealed within the container of “see how holy we are”. But, now Jesus turns His attention to the missionary zeal of these hypocrites. They don’t poison by accident, as it were. The grave can, after a fashion, be deemed innocent of its effect. It did not jump out and rub itself upon some cautious passer by. It just was. These scribes and Pharisees, however, are actively seeking to spread their poisonous practices of self-righteousness. No, they are not thinking of their activities in such terms. They think they are spreading good and wholesome practices, or we can at least give them the benefit of the doubt in this regard. However, there is no benefit in that doubt. The reality is that they are destroying their every convert, multiplying evil in the name of doing good.
I have addressed this in that prior study, I think. Here, I will but reiterate the point that in so far as we practice our own hypocrisies; wearing our church-face, presenting as so much farther advanced in our sanctification than we truly are, insisting on behavioral modifications nowhere prescribed in Scripture; to this degree we are guilty of the same crimes Jesus so roundly and graphically condemns here. Whether it is done intentionally or not, when we behave in these ways that present a more pious condition than truly persists, others take this as a queue and as an example for how they ought to comport themselves. Worse, they become as convinced as apparently are (and probably more than we truly are) that this sort of behavior is not only what righteousness looks like, but what it really consists of. Thus, they are deceived from a healthy and holy reliance on Christ into thinking themselves sufficiently good in themselves. And, thereby is their own consignment to hell made the more certain. Can we really suppose God will be blessed by our efforts when this is the fruit of it?
“Every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit,” Jesus says. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:17-20). Notice the fire, there. Guess where the bad trees wound up. We’re back at the valley. But, that’s not why I had turned my thoughts to this passage. My thoughts are on a different tack. Jesus indicates that it is not possible for a bad tree to produce good fruit. Yet, as we try and put a righteous face on our activities, as we seek to put ourselves forward as something other than what we are, this is what we are trying to achieve: We’re trying to decorate our rotten limbs with good looking fruits. Well, those fruits may look good, but they remain bad. Were one to bite into them, the taste would be foul and befouling. The fruit of hypocrisy, however pleasing to the eye, remains bitterest poison to the soul of all who partake of it.
It is to this end that we have John the Baptist saying to this same general group, “Bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance” (Mt 3:8). Claims and pretense are not enough. “I’m sorry” is not enough. Either action and character align, or action is nothing but deadly deception. The tree will assuredly be cursed and cut down. Think back to that fig tree that marked Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. It was in leaf when Jesus saw it (Mt 21:18-19a), and the leaf should, by nature, have indicated the presence of edible fruit. But, there was none. Appearances did not reflect reality, and thus the tree was condemned (Mt 21:19b-20). This, too, is a live parable of God’s perspective on hypocrisy. This, too, is a message by which we ought to consider ourselves thoroughly warned. Character must come into alignment with action. Our fruit will reflect our character, however hard we try to make it otherwise. The hidden will be exposed and dealt with. When we are called to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12), this is what we’re talking about. Make it real! If there is inward change, outward fruit must necessarily flow from it. This outward fruit cannot be forced, cannot be faked. All such attempts will perforce be exposed for what they are and result in that much more severe a punishment, for all such attempts are deadly not only to the one making the attempt, but to the less mature who witness the attempt and think it right.
When Jesus writes to the church of Laodicea that it is lukewarm and therefore He will spit it out (Rev 3:16), I wonder if it isn’t exactly this sort of hypocrisy He has in view. “You say, ‘I am rich and have need of nothing,’ yet you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3:17). You have deluded yourselves, and in so doing, have deluded all whom you have brought to ‘faith’. It is not faith to which you have brought them, but hell. Is it any wonder that they will be spit out? Who could desire such a taste on their tongue?
Hypocrisy must be lukewarm, because it is neither true piety or even honest sin. It is neither fish nor fowl. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is smoke and mirrors. It is the worst of all deceptions, and makes a mockery of the God Who will not be mocked.
Lord, guard me against this. I know it is in me to behave in just such deceptive ways, except You keep me from it. Keep me ever mindful and aware of my true estate, my true need for Your will and Your work in me that I may be willing to work in You. Let there be real and true fruit in my life reflective of what You are doing within, and let me not seek to make myself appear more fruitful than I truly am. You have been faithful, I know, to keep me constantly addressed on this very regard, and yet I also know that the dread influence of pride remains almost wholly unabated in me. It is pride that prompts hypocrisy, and it is hypocrisy that prompts the worst condemnation from You. Therefore, I pray Thee all the more to address once for all this pride in me, lest I find myself an offense to Your presence.
I want to stress that I really don’t suppose these scribes and Pharisees went around seeking to have the effect they did. I cannot imagine that they went about their elaborate pursuits with an eye only towards deceiving everybody around them into thinking them better men than they were. I’m not saying that motivation wasn’t there at all, but if that were the whole of it, who would be bothered to so inconvenience themselves? No, they really did think this was achieving piety. They were zealous because they were convinced they were on the right course. They were so convinced of it that they wanted to tell everybody of what they had found, and to bring others to this same faith and belief.
This runs counter, I think, to our general perception of Jewish faith at the time. We think of them as being very restrictive, and having no place at all for the Gentiles. Well, for the Gentile insistent on remaining a Gentile, this may be true. But, they were apparently well known for making great effort to convert Gentiles to Judaism. They were not jealously hiding God away from the nations to be kept as their own exclusive God. Zhodiates points out that their proselytizing efforts were so energetic as to have become proverbial. Even in Rome, the fervency of the Jews in seeking to bring the Gentiles in was not only known, but well known. This perspective is confirmed by what Jesus is saying here: You travel far and wide to make even one proselyte, one convert to Judaism after your form and practice. You go to great lengths to spread the truth as you understand it. You seek to multiply in your beliefs.
The problem is that belief is not the point. Belief itself is insufficient, if belief is not belief in the Truth. As I have often found myself correcting my daughter, “You can believe what you want, but that doesn’t change the truth.” We are terribly adept at believing. We believe what we think we know, and it can take a great deal of effort to convince us that what we think we know is not true after all. We don’t like being wrong, so we will suffer all manner of delusion if only we can persist in being ‘right’. Belief, then, is not the key. Having faith is not the key. Faith, in and of itself, is of no value. It is only when belief and faith are firmly founded and focused on the Truth of God that they carry any weight whatsoever.
I recall some of the stories told of LSD, and of bad trips, when I was growing up. So and so believed he could fly, so he jumped out the window. Belief didn’t change reality, though. He hit the ground every bit as hard as he would have if he believed the truth; harder, I suppose, in that had he believed the truth, he would not have jumped. This is a rather fine allegory for hypocrisy, isn’t it? Hypocrisy, like LSD, causes us to hallucinate, to perceive what isn’t real as if it were reality or to perceive reality as if it wasn’t real. The perils of these misperceptions are great.
The thing I seek to stress here is that hypocrisy is not always, and probably not even typically something intentional in our practices. Hypocrisy is far more likely to be found in pursuing things we think are right and righteous. We have our ideas of what a pious life looks like and we seek to practice those ideas. We do so in full earnest and with every good intention. But, we are thoroughly off course because the practices we are pursuing are not founded on God’s Law, but rather on our own limited perspective.
We all have these things in us, our personal lists of what must be done and what must be avoided. They have the appearance of good and wholesome advice. And, it might be said, we likely do no great harm in living in accord with our personal lists. However, if we become convinced that these lists are the whole of it, or that they are universals by which we can then judge our brothers, then we have a problem. It is one thing that we live in accord with our conscience, and this we must surely do if we are Christians at all. We must also, however, seek to ensure that our conscience is leading us as the Holy Spirit leads us, as Scripture informs us. We can have different understandings of what results from such efforts. We will undoubtedly be at different stages of understanding. It is thus that we are called to a great degree of tolerance one for another. Let not the strong think less of the weak, nor let the weak think his weakness binding upon the strong. If you are convicted as to the Sabbath, by all means, treat the Sabbath according to your convictions. If you are convinced all of life is just as sacred as the Sabbath day, then live accordingly.
Yet, we must live in recognition that our priorities are not necessarily the same as our brother’s. We must recognize that this is by and large holy and acceptable in the sight of our Lord God. It is not for us to judge or measure our brother’s walk. It is one thing to confront that which is truly sin in his life even as we must confront that which is truly sin in our own. God help us if we are confronting his without having confronted our own! But, it is quite another thing to insist that his priorities are the same as ours. If I find it a priority to study, I cannot therefore make this a law for all others. If my sister finds prayer to be the priority, she cannot thereby make it my priority as well. If praise and worship is your priority, this is well, but it does not make it the priority for one and all. Arguably, all of these are priorities of equal strength, or ought to be. But, we are not yet fashioned in such a way that we can maintain this sense of matters. We have our strong suits and our weak suits and must live according to our best lights until God chooses to shed greater light upon us. Let us, therefore, recognize that we are not alone in this dilemma, but that each of our brethren suffers the same struggles and limitations. They are no more wrong than we (and no less so). But, God is no less at work in them than in us. Let us therefore resolve to consider not the failings of our brother, but rather the marvel of what God is doing in them. And with that thought, I shall close off this study.
