God's Double Agent
Notes
Transcript
me
One of the genres in movie which has played a prominent role in the 90s in Hong Kong was the double agent genre. I believe it’s been there in the 80s or even earlier, but if you’ve seen the movie Infernal Affairs I, which has been remade by Martin Scorsese into The Departed (a lot more grittier), it started a whole wave of movies and TV dramas about this. The premise is simple, there are good guys, the police, and the bad guys, Hong Kong Mobster but each have planted a mole in the other’s organization. The mafia who is really a cop is trying to ruin the mobster’s business and topple the drug trades and eventually the whole organization. The black cop (as they are called) is there to feed information to his mob boss so as to be one step ahead of the cops. So it becomes a game of cat and mouse. In fact, a TV drama called the Line Walker, into its third season, has just started premiering, which is bound to bring a new wave of fans and nostalgia to those who are fans of the genre.
we
What is it about double agent stories which intrigued us? Well part of it is we care about how they are always one step away from being discovered. That suspense draws us in. Another draw is how they live with two personalities, the one who they are trying to pretend to be vs. the identity they really are, and the internal struggles and tug of war. Also, as they get lost in their character literally, you watch in suspense as they walk the thin line between right and wrong. Because of the extremity of the situation they are in, you get to see and discuss about the moral or immoral choices they make in the comfort of your own home.
But as C.S. Lewis reminds us in Mere Christianity, we are in enemy occupied territory.
Enemy-occupied territory---that is what this world is. christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.
There is no neutral ground, probably the most intriguing reason we love double agent stories at the end of the day is because we are living in it, every day. It’s not just someone elses’ story, it’s ours. We are living in this world but longing for another world. We are temporary citizens of Canada but permanent citizens of the Kingdom of God. It should affect how we think, how we behave, how we make choices in our lives. But do we need to keep ourselves hidden, not revealing our true selves, to be effective agents for God?
god
Today’s story as we continue our Days of Elijah series is a story about two agents of God, and the choice we need to make. And this is the big idea:
Live your Faith All In as God's Agents.
Let’s take a look at this prophetic narrative, but a bit of background. We looked at oh, about a month ago Elijah the prophet in 1 Kings 17 being called to action where he declared God was sending a drought through stopping the rain from coming down in all of the Middle East. This was a direct challenge to the power struggle King Ahab, the King of Israel and his queen Jezebel, a Phonecian princess of Sidon who should be worshipping the same God, but instead has switched side to worship Baal, who is a god of storms. Elijah also performed a miracle in Sidon to a widow who was starving by giving her plenty, and when her son seemingly died of sickness, Elijah even brought him back to life, bringing faith and trust to this foreigner’s family. Today, we pick up from where we left off as we edge ever closer to an inevitable confrontation between the representatives of God and Baal!
1 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.
God has sent Elijah to declare the drought is about to end, but the devastation is done. All of Samaria, where King Ahab rules, is in a severer crisis. On his way to meet Ahab, Elijah meets Obadiah, and here’s the first point.
I. Fear the LORD gives us clarity of what is right and wrong
I. Fear the LORD gives us clarity of what is right and wrong
3 And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, 4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
Obadiah is an official of King Ahab’s court. His name literally means servant of God. Ahab probably thought a name by the time of his kingship is just a name. Except we learned this Obadiah truly was a servant of YHWH, or the LORD, because he feared the LORD greatly. To fear the Lord does not just mean he is terrified of God, but also that he sees God in awe, he reveres him, respects him, and secretly worships him. The perfect double-agent, high up in Ahab’s court he is charged to look for springs of water and grass for animals, and less we think Ahab is an animal lover, so he isn’t all that bad, horses especially are used for combat. Ahab wasn’t trying to be a conservationist, he is trying salvage whatever power is left. And there’s not mentioning of people and their plight. His priority is himself and his power. Obadiah agrees and literally, and symbolically, went the other way. What we know from the narrator is because of Obadiah’s fear, when Jezebel went on her extermination agenda against the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah secretly hid them in fifties in a cave with bread and water. This was no easy task as this is not a small number. Dealing with famine alongside a corrupt king on the one hand, while secretly galvanizing a secret team to hide the prophets require administrative skills. Yet he faithfully carries out what he believe is right, clearly separating himself from the wrongdoings of his king and queen.
When it comes to issues of right and wrong, even grey areas, it’s easy to follow the world’s ways of doing things because we don’t want to offend anyone by being all zealous and what not. We are taught to not stand out when it is not in our interest or not your own business, and so a colleague might get unfairly treated, we say nothing. We may secretly care for them later, but you could get into a lot of trouble if you speak up against the powers to be. So we end up being a double agent of God, secretly sowing seeds of love. And sometimes, that might be the safest and even the best way to infiltrate your office, or school, or family. Lay low, and wait for opportunities to be a light, and lay low again.
I met Carl a few years back when I took a team to Bloodvein but because we were short on number that year, Stephane the director of Pathway Camp Ministries who came from Montreal, asked his Montreal church to send half a team to complete the group. Carl shared a story I will never forget, where he was working there’s obviously a no soliciting policy, especially in secular society like Quebec. But Carl just felt led by the Spirit to place tract books and sticky notes in French in strategic location. Out of that he had many conversations with colleagues about faith, and the company discovered he was behind it. But by God’s grace, he was not reprimanded or fired for this bold step. Now I am not saying all of us need to start sowing tract books or Bible quotes stickies in the places we congregate (though why not), but this is what a double agent does, because they fear the Lord more than they fear men.
The story continues:
II. Trust the LORD lets us express our worries and fears
II. Trust the LORD lets us express our worries and fears
7 And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ” 9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10 As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.” ’ 12 And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. 13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here” ’; and he will kill me.” 15 And Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
I wanted to read the whole passage with the interaction between Obadiah and Elijah to let us take it in what it’s like being a double agent. If I were to ask you how would you describe Obadiah’s psyche here, what would you say? I don’t know about you, but I sense from here a man who has finally buckled under the weight of his double-agent life. You can see relief, fear, doubt, justifying his actions, and dread all wrapped in one. And we would probably react the same way too. Just imagine what Obadiah might have gone through, being jolly and agreeable before the cunning and calculating Queen Jezebel, trusting his servants won’t double-cross him and expose his secret plan to save the prophets, or maybe a prophet of Baal infiltrated the group of fifty (okay, maybe I am getting a bit carried away with the double-agent theme), Obadiah just spilled his heart out upon identifying Elijah (either from his notoriety or from his attire). Though Elijah repeated three times “I am here” to Obadiah, Obadiah is still afraid just like all the other times his master has sent his henchmen to look for him, and even conspired with other kings to rat him out at the first sign of Elijah, they report to him, yet he remained elusive because Spirit of God protects and hides him! (v. 10-12). Obadiah doesn’t trust this won’t happen again, so he continues to pour out his life how he hid the prophets and is on the Lord’s side, with the shadow of Ahab looming over him. Here’s a man trapped in his own mind and by his own actions, and he fears for his life! He stammers again and again “And now you say, GO tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’” He can’t believe it! So Elijah assures Obadiah once more calling up the honour of the Lord’s name that Obadiah fears, he will not run away.
Being a double-agent is tough! And God knows it, and I can’t help but think as Obadiah is pouring out his heart that Elijah isn’t just smiling at him, saying, “son, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’s going to be fine.” At that moment God’s representative listens to Obadiah as if God himself is there, comforting and acknowledging all that has happened. This is why we need community. As a young Christian, I hear times and times of stories of people who are fed up with the church system or people, and decide they can be Christians on their own! But when we do that we miss the point of a God who never intended our faith to be a private, personal affair on Sundays but a public, and communal relationship everyday! People often say I will believe or I will do such and such if I hear from him, or if I see him, well God is just amused and say, don’t you see I am already with you, in the Spirit, as a community. The reason I give you community is not for you to gossip or run other people’s life, but to hear one another’s pain and joys in life’s journey as a double-agent for God. We can be Elijahs to one another, praying, discerning, encouraging one another. This is the picture of what our small groups and prayer groups are about. Maybe you’ve gone rogue too long thinking you can be faithful yourself by your own means and ways to please God, God says, I have something better so you don’t need to walk alone, join me with them! Or you know in your heart you’ve been drifting away from God for a while and you think if I just try harder to restart my devotion program, or do more for God in serving while I am dying slowly inside, God says, I have a solution, but it will take a step in faith into community. Maybe you’ve been hurt or burn by them, or in them, but I am in their midst if you would trust me again.
Lastly, and this is not even a point, but the other option may be staring at us right in our face. We can instead choose not to be a double-agent and just be an agent of the LORD, no longer needing to wrestle with hiding our faith for fear of being discovered, no longer being afraid to embrace your identity and confront rights and wrongs, stand for the little guys, the marginalized, our black brothers and sisters, the refuge from Syria, or a child in Nicaragua, the people who can’t speak for themselves, even at personal cost, and I will let you in on something, when you live that life, it’s even more dangerous. You have basically put yourself in target by all that is evil. Elijah knows, and because he doesn’t hide or mince how he sees Ahab and Jezebel and Baal worship as faithlessness and idolatry and calling it out, he is going to feel more isolated then ever before, except he has the confidence his enemies can’t understand. A sure trust in a God who is determined to vindicate his own name against all false religions!
you/we
How to do that though in today’s world, with political correctness, and being seen as too zealous on the one hand to the point of arrogance or looking down on others, or too militant as to be known only for what we are against, and not what we are for, how to still be loving and kind and gentle, but also firm and full of conviction will require the wisdom of Solomon to navigate. But if we have a fear of the LORD that guides our decisions and moral compass, and we have a trust in a God who gives us a community to help us discern our steps, and a Spirit who will lead us not into temptation, the temptation to be spectacular or arrogant, but the temperament to be a worthy agent of the LORD, we will be able to be a light in the darkness which points to a better way to be human in a crooked generation.
Let’s pray.