The Believer and ‘Strange Things’

Sometimes we wonder what God is up to:

Christians have the Bible to guide us in what we are to believe and what we are to do. The Scriptures offer us helpful guidelines on how God’s people should think, speak and act. But there are many things we may not have specific guidelines on, or clear instructions.

Thus we may not have certain details about a future marriage partner. But certainly, important guidelines are there: a member of the opposite sex; someone who is also a believer; and so on. Some of this has to do with discerning God’s will in various areas.

However, some of the things God asked his people to do have confused believers over the years. A major example would be when God wanted Abraham to be willing to offer his own son as a sacrifice. Of course in the end it does not take place, since God provides his own sacrificial lamb. See my writeup about this difficult Bible passage here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/03/22/difficult-bible-passages-genesis-22/

But often believers will question other believers, including about things such as worship styles and the like. Some think believers are too Pentecostal and charismatic. Some think believers are too cold, lifeless and formal. There can be some truth in both critiques.

Consider just one biblical example of a ‘worship style’ that bothered some others. One time King David was praising God, but not everyone approved of the way he went about it. In 2 Samuel 6:12-16 we read this:

Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

The point is, we are not all the same, and some Christians will do things differently than other Christians. Sure, some things are simply out of bounds. If a Christian regularly resorts to theft, he has violated a clear Commandment – the Eighth. Or if a Christian claims that God told him to dump his wife and take off with the church secretary, that is another obvious no-no.

So in some areas there are clear boundaries, whereas in some other areas there can be some room to move. Some believers might think what others are doing is rather strange, and sometimes it is! But the point of my piece is this: At times God asked his people to do things that certainly do seem to be quite odd and quite weird. Consider just four obvious examples of this:

Isaiah 20:1-4 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame.

Jeremiah 13:1-11 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist. Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me. Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

Ezekiel 4:1-8 Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel. “Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel. “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

Hosea 1:2-3 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

A few things can be said about these four cases. They of course all involved prophets that were raised up by God to be his spokespersons. And in each case symbolic acts were involved to reinforce and dramatically illustrate the strong words of judgment God had for ancient Israel or pagan nations.

And while three of these examples feature admittedly rather odd actions, one of them – involving Hosea – raises questions about whether God had asked the prophet to do something that was immoral. I have looked in more detail at that question in another piece, so see it here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2021/09/14/bible-study-helps-hosea/

Also, like many things recorded in Scripture, they are descriptive, not prescriptive. That is, in these four cases, God told a specific individual to do a specific thing at a specific time in a specific place for a specific purpose. They were right for them at the time, but are not a template for all believers for all times of course.

So in case you are worrying that God might tell you to lay on your side in public for long periods of time, fear not. It is unlikely. Sure, it is possible he might command this of you, but not at all very probable. The point is God will sometimes have his people do things that others will think is quite bizarre.

Indeed, pretty much the whole Christian life can be seen in those terms. Certainly non-Christians will routinely view what Christians do as being weird and strange. Simply consider some basic Christian obligations. For example, we are told to die to self, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and put others first. Many worldlings will find that to be quite odd.

We are told to follow major moral principles, eg., keeping sex for the marital union, not killing babies, and even being scrupulous in how we fill in our tax forms (not cheating or making false declarations, etc). Again, many non-believers might ask, ‘What is wrong with that?”

We might forego important events so that we do not miss going to church on Sunday mornings. We might forego things that might not be wrong in themselves, such as going to a sporting event, in order to spend more time with God. The truth is, lots of the Christian life seems quite weird and goofy to a non-Christian.

And sure, we want to avoid things that will unnecessarily cause those in the world to think we are loonies. Sadly some Christians have made a big stink of being flat-earthers for example. This clearly is an embarrassing and wrong thing to cling to. It is a false and foolish spin on biblical teaching and actual reality, and it is idiotic to run with it.

But other things come to mind. Some churches, as in the American south, still might engage in things like snake handling. They think it is a biblical thing to do and a sign of strong faith. I have dealt with that silliness here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/06/02/difficult-bible-passages-mark-1617-18/

Finally, a few words about these symbolic prophetic actions. Sometimes referred to as sign-acts, they are, as I already mentioned, a way to emphasise and amplify prophetic speech. I grabbed my copy of the important 2012 reference volume, Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets edited by Mark Boda and J. Gordon McConville (IVP, 2012).

In it Kelvin Friebel has an article on this, so let me quote from parts of it. He begins: “The biblical prophets had available the full spectrum of verbal and nonverbal elements of communication as they proclaimed their messages.” Sign acts “are nonverbal actions and objects intentionally employed by the prophets so that message content was communicated through them to the audiences.”

This literary form “has two primary components: the divine command to the prophet to perform the specified action, and the interpretation of the sign act.” One further thing he notes is worth recording here. Some folks think that some of these amazing acts did not or could not have happened. He replies:

Contrary to that perspective, the literary accounts themselves describe the sign acts as things the prophets actually did.

 

First, several of the accounts include statements that the prophets carried out the actions (Is 20:2; Jer 13:2, 5, 7; 32:9-14; 35:3-5; Ezek 12:7; 24:18; 33:22; Hos 1:3; 3:2). Second, some of the narratives refer to the presence of eyewitnesses (Jer 19:1, 10; 32:12; 43:9; Ezek 4:12; 12:3-7; 21:6; 24:27; 33:22; 37:20). Third, verbal audience responses are sometimes recounted, which indicates the presence of audiences who then inquired about what they had just seen (Ezek 12:9; 21:7; 24:19; 37:18). Fourth, some of the sign acts are designated as “signs” (ot, mopet [Is 20:3; Ezek 4:3; 12:6, 11; 24:24, 27]). The primary characteristic of those Hebrew terms is that of a visually observable phenomenon. Fifth, the imperatives that command the nonverbal sign acts are verbs of “doing.” Thus, they are distinct from commands to verbally prophesy, which are verbs of speaking (such as “speak,” “call out,” “say,” “prophesy”). Sixth, the literary form “report of a sign act” and the language used to command the actions are quite different from the reports of visions and the distinctive language associated with the apprehension of visions (such as “look,” “see,” “behold”).

 

These accumulative arguments suggest that the reader is to view the actions as actually haven taken place, and that they were, under divine directive, intentionally and publicly performed by the prophets.

In sum, God did sometimes ask his people to do some rather odd things as recorded in the Bible. It is possible he might ask us to do some strange things as well. But generally speaking, we have the whole of Scripture to give us directions and guidelines as to both proper speech and proper action.

[2127 words]