Joel 3:9-17

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Cp Isa 2.4; Mic 4.3)

9 Proclaim this among the nations:

Prepare war,

stir up the warriors.

Let all the soldiers draw near,

let them come up.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”

11 Come quickly,

all you nations all around,

gather yourselves there.

Bring down your warriors, O LORD.

12 Let the nations rouse themselves,

and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;

for there I will sit to judge

all the neighboring nations.

13 Put in the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

for the wine press is full.

The vats overflow,

for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the LORD is near

in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The LORD roars from Zion,

and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

and the heavens and the earth shake.

But the LORD is a refuge for his people,

a stronghold for the people of Israel.

The Glorious Future of Judah

17 So you shall know that I, the LORD your God,

dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

and strangers shall never again pass through it. (Joel 3:9-17, NRSV)

The following comments are combined with revision and supplement here from November 13, 2004 (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 9, Year Two), and from comments on Joel 3:9-17 are selected from comments on Joel 3:1-2, 9-17 on November 21, 2005 (Monday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year One):

Joel seems to present a reversal of the vision of the Peaceable Kingdom (Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4). “Beat your plowshares into swords, / and your pruning hooks into spears; / let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior’” (Joel 3:10). He pictures a time when the nations that have oppressed Israel–God’s instruments of judgment upon Israel–will in turn be punished. The LORD challenges the nations to “come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,” not so much for battle as for judgment, “for there I will sit to judge / all the neighboring nations” (v. 12). The name Jehoshaphat means, “the LORD [YHWH] judges.” We can see a glimpse here of what developed into the view of the final judgment of the “nations” (Mt. 25:32). The “sickle” and the “wine press,” instruments of “harvest” (v. 13), represent the bloody violence of war. The picture is of “the holy war between the LORD’s warriors and all the nations round about (compare Ezek. chs. 38-39)” ( R. Lansing Hicks and Walter Brueggemann, NOAB, 2^nd ed., on Joel 3:9-12). There are “multitudes” in “the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14), which suggests that the outcome is not yet fully determined. The “valley of decision” (v. 14) is not a call for repentance in a gospel invitation; it’s a “decision” in the sense of a “verdict” in court (cf. John A. Thompson, The Interpreter’s Bible, on Joel 3:14). The images are images of judgment, for “the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining” (v. 15; cf. the noonday darkness when Jesus was crucified, Mt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33; Lk. 23:44-45).

Although “the LORD roars from Zion, / and utters his voice from Jerusalem,” causing “the heavens and the earth [to] shake” (v. 16a, b, c), the focus here is on the enemies and oppressors of Israel . “But the LORD is a refuge for his people, / a stronghold for the people of Israel” (v. 16d, 3). The outcome is God dwelling in Zion, “I, the LORD your God, / dwell in Zion, my holy mountain” and “Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it” (v. 17).. The book of Joel concludes with contrasts between the glorious future of Judah (vv. 17-18, 20) and judgment on her former oppressors, including Egypt and Edom (vv. 19-21).

James 2:1-13

Warning against Partiality

2:1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:1-13, NRSV)

The following comments are combined with revision and supplement here from November 13, 2004 (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 9, Year Two) and from August 29, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 31, Year One):

James addresses rich people with warnings about their greed and unjust treatment of workers in James 5:1-6, but in the present passage, the advice is to the leaders of the Christian community not to show partiality by discrimination in the ways they welcome rich people and poor people. Both passages show an important concern for all human beings, especially the poor and under privileged.. James warns against “favoritism” (Jas. 2:1), discrimination and partiality. If you treat “a person with gold rings and in fine clothes” differently than the way you treat “a poor person in dirty clothes” (v. 2), you have made “distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts” (v. 4). The setting is the Christian “assembly” (synagogē, v. 2), but the lesson applies to all of life. We should not dishonor the poor (v. 6). Showing “partiality” (v. 9) is called a sin against “the royal law,” “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (vv. 8-9; cf. Lev. 19:18, which both Jesus [Mt. 22:39-40; Mk. 12:31] and Paul [Rom. 13:8-10] use as a summary of part of the Decalogue). The point is reinforced by the principle that “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (v. 10). For example, one who transgresses either the law against adultery or the law against murder is “a transgressor of the law” (v. 11). The latter is James’ main point, that failing to keep one of the laws makes a person a transgressor, rather than an emphasis on love of neighbor as a comprehensive summary of the law. On the analogy of the (old) Jewish law (vv. 9-11), the Christian law, the “law of liberty” (v. 12), have a place for both law and mercy, accountability remains. We are to show mercy if we expect to receive it (v. 13).

Luke 16:10-17 (18)

10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

The Law and the Kingdom of God

14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. 15 So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.

16 “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.

18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:10-17 (18), NRSV)

The following comments are combined with revision and supplement here from November 13, 2004 (Saturday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 9, Year Two), and from May 27, 2005 (Friday of the week of the Sunday closest to May 25, Year One):

In a series of Jesus’ sayings that follows the Parable of the Dishonest Manager (Lk. 16:1-9, yesterday’s Gospel reading), some themes recur. Jesus begins with what amounts to commentary on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” (Lk. 16:10). The dishonest wealth of this world is not “true riches” (v. 11), nor does it relate to God’s kind of wealth (v. 13). The “dishonest manager” is commended (Lk. 16:8) but “dishonest wealth” is used by him and by Jesus’ disciples (v. 9), who are to be “faithful with the dishonest wealth” if they are to be entrusted “with the true riches” (v. 11). A distinction cited from Eric Franklin yesterday is still relevant:

The servant is ‘dishonest’ in our understanding of the term. All mammon (NRSV wealth), however, is called ‘dishonest’ in the sense that it is material possessions understood as the things in which one puts one’s trust and that therefore encourage an acquisitive attitude and a self-reliance; it separates one from God (hence ‘unrighteous’ is probably a better term). (Eric Franklin, The Oxford Bible Commentary, p. 948, on Lk. 16:1-13)

Franklin noted the use of the same word for “dishonest” (adikia) in verses 8 and 9. The expression varies in verse 11, but the thought is the same: Verse 11 uses the adjective adikos, “If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth (en tō adikō mamōna). We are faced with a choice: “You cannot serve God and wealth” (v. 13; cf. Mt. 6:24, which in the Greek does not include “a slave,” oiketēs [except in ms. L and a few others], but is otherwise the same as Luke’s version), where “wealth” (mamōna) carries the sense given by Franklin, “material possessions understood as the things in which one puts one’s trust and that therefore encourage an acquisitive attitude and a self-reliance [which] separates one from God.” Franklin notes that Luke “has the parable [of the Dishonest Manager] addressed to the disciples” which “would include those whom Jesus’ table-sharing was receiving into the Kingdom, the tax-collectors and sinners” (Ibid.). He adds:

Faithfulness with ‘unrighteous mammon’ means using it in the service of the poor (v. 11). They must free themselves from its shackles. They cannot be slaves to God and to mammon. (Ibid.)

“What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God” (v. 15). If we could know about ourselves what God knows, we would be more inclined to value what he values. If we believe, as we do, that he has our best interests at heart, we should want to know, value and do what he wants us to know, value and do. The prayer, “Thy will be done!” leads to what is in our own best interest, in the end. The Pharisees, “who were lovers of money,” respond with ridicule (v. 14), and in turn are rebuked by Jesus (v. 15). They “obviously do not expect [the tax-collectors] to give up attitudes of a lifetime” (Franklin, p. 948 on vv. 16-31), but Jesus sees the Pharisees as “those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts” (v. 15). Luke’s statement about the law and the prophets has a parallel in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. In Luke, Jesus says, “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped” (vv. 16-18). In Matthew, in the context of Jesus’ description of John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus says something rather different: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence , and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came” (Mt. 11:12-13), and an identification of John with Elijah follows, “and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come” (v. 14). Krister Stendahl comments on Matthew’s version:

Mt. pictures the transitional situation–‘from the days of John the Baptist until now’-- with a phrase that remains a veritable crux of interpretation: 12b reads either ‘the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence (passive) and men of violence grab it’ or ‘the Kingdom of Heaven manifests itself violently (or: powerfully; reflexive) and keen and daring men take hold of it’. The latter meaning fits better into Mt.’s context, but the former–taken as a reference to Zealots and others who entertain military dreams of Israel’s deliverance–is more natural from a linguistic point of view . . . In whatever way the intermediate situation be described, the prophetic ministry of John was the last phase and predicted climax before the coming of the Kingdom. (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, sec. 684e, p. 784, on Mt. 11:12-13)

The transition from the time of “the law and the prophets,” which “were in effect until John came,” to the time of the Kingdom of God (v. 17) “does not mean an end of the righteous requirements of the law,” for in his saying about divorce” (v. 18), Jesus “actually intensifies the law’s demands” (Franklin, p. 949, on vv. 16-31). Jesus’ “Free acceptance of sinners did not mean an indifferent acquiescence in their standards. Grace exposed and recreated those who responded to its gentle outreach (Ibid.). G. W. H. Lampe says, “The Law itself, however, is not repudiated by the preaching of the kingdom. It is not part of the Pharisaic ‘abomination’, but is fulfilled and so stands in its entirety. To repudiate it would be for Jesus to break the covenant or marriage-bond between God and Israel” (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, sec. 730k, p. 837, on Lk. 16:16-18). This understanding of the “marriage-bond between God and Israel” leads to the final statement about divorce (Lk. 16:18; cf. Mk. 10:11-12; Mt. 19:9), which does not include Matthew’s exception clause, “except for unchastity” (Mt. 19:9; cf. Mt. 5:32).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com