25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25
The
dream of entering the Promised Land was finally fulfilled. Joshua brought the entire newborn nation of
Israel into Canaan. Israel was then
established after demolishing thirty-one kings of Canaan. Then the land was distributed according to
God’s command. Each tribe got their lot
justly. Then Joshua and all the elders
that followed him died. But many years
later, the new generations of Israel no longer listened to the Torah. Bad things, evil things, forbidden things
were committed by the Israelites. At the
end of the book of Judges, a horrible evil was committed. The case of sexual abuse that sparked from
the sexual perversion of homosexuality, the refusal to comply to the Law of the
Lord, and the brokenness of the brotherhood, all resulted in one tribe being
almost annihilated. And the writer of
Judges concluded that there was no king in Israel in that time, so everyone did
whatever they wanted. The Promised Land
had been deformed into the Land of Sinful Delight.
Sin
reigned in the Land. The power of sin
grew greater in the Land. Israel bowed
to its power. They voluntarily entered
into slavery. Their hearts were given to
sin. Sin owned them. They became slaves to sin. And the first thing they got rid of was
God. They switched to the worship of
fake gods. They submitted their hearts
to the powers and principalities of the world.
The beautiful Land was corrupted.
The life of the people were then affected negatively. Living in sin became normal. The sin that long ago was committed in Sodom
and Gomorrah was now present in what was supposed to be the Holy Land. The people did not see it as a problem,
sadly. The chosen people had become like
all other people God destroyed in the past.
Anyone dared to speak against the ‘normal’ life practice in the Land was
ignored if not condemned.
Our
life in this 21st century proves to be similar to that life more
than 3000 years ago in the Land of Canaan.
We too are now living in the Land of Sinful Delight. Sin is everywhere. It reigns in the marketplace. It reigns in the politics. It reigns in the street corners. It reigns in offices. It reigns in schools. It reigns in homes. It even reigns in churches. The powers and the principalities of the
world have been given too much space to grow.
They do not just attach themselves to people, but they insert themselves
into system. The attachment to people is
easier to uproot. Once the person passed
away, the power is no more. But the
insertion into system is proved to be extremely difficult to uproot. To be against them would result in rejection
and even condemnation. Nicholas Thomas
Wright or famously known as N.T. Wright observed:
Why was Jesus crucified? What was the
‘meaning’, the ‘inside’, of this event? To anyone in the ancient world, the
question answers itself, as it might do today. Why did so many people die in
Sarajevo? Why did people die in Tiananmen Square? Why, why did so many die in
Rwanda? Same answer: they got in the way of forces, of powers.
Jesus
took on the principalities and powers. He lived, and taught, a way of being
Israel, a way of being human, which challenged the powers at every point. The
powers said you should live for money. Jesus said you can’t serve God and
Mammon. The powers said that Israel’s path to liberation would come through the
sword. Jesus said that those who take the sword will perish by the sword. The
powers said that Caesar was Lord of the world. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of
God.
What
happens to people who stand up to the powers? It looks fine for a while; and
then the tanks roll in. Anyone looking at the crucified Jesus would draw the
conclusion that that’s what had happened. The powers killed him; that’s what
they do to people who challenge them. The powers nailed up above his head the
charge of which he was guilty: he was a rebel. They stripped him naked and
publicly humiliated him. They celebrated their triumph over him. Nobody stands
up to us like that, they said, and gets away with it. You can’t beat the
system.[1]
The
slavery of sin is rooted very deeply in human flesh. In the time of Moses, Israel preferred to be enslaved
by Egypt to being liberated by the God of love, grace, mercy, and justice. In the time of the Judges, Israel chose to
enter slavery voluntarily and thus profaned the Holy Land that God had promised
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the
time of Jesus, the people chose to align themselves with the powers that be, so
they got rid of Jesus, the God Man, pure and holy. Today, people still prefer the world to
God. Being enslaved by the powers and
principalities of this world is better for them than being freed from the
slavery of sin by God.
When Edmund encountered the White
Witch, his sole request was for a Turkish Delight. The White Witch gave Edmund his heart’s
desire. And then the Witch asked Edmund
to bring his siblings to her. When
finally all four of the Pevensee children entered Narnia, Edmund’s thought was
clouded by the imagination of the delicious Turkish Delight. Even though he was told that the White Witch
was the evil queen and the main enemy of Narnia, he could not shake his bond with
her. The Turkish Delight was the
bait. The enjoyment of the delicacy
blinded him of the betrayal that he was committing as he leaked sensitive
information about the whereabouts of his siblings and of Aslan to the evil
queen. The Sinful Delight is the bait
for all humankind. We crave the delicacy
of sin that we betray the King of heaven.
Edmund betrayed his brother and sisters for the sake of tasting the
Turkish Delight one more time. And so we
betray our loved ones, our fellow humans, and our loving Creator, for the sake
of tasting the Sinful Delight one more time.
It is so stunning to know that the
grip of sin is very strong. Sin is like
an addiction. When someone is addicted
to alcohol, his life is under the power of alcohol. There usually is a desire to escape the
addiction, but can’t because the grip is too strong. At one time I went to an AA (Alcoholic
Anonymous) meeting to fulfill an assignment from seminary. When I was in that meeting I did not say a
word. I only listened to everyone in
that room. All of them acknowledged the
great power that alcohol had over them.
They all acknowledged that they could not fight the power of addiction
on their own. The temptation they faced
was no smaller today than yesterday. One
lady shared her struggle. As she began
speaking, her voice started cracking. I
could feel it in my heart how difficult it must be for her. She said that one day she had a fight with
her daughter. The fight was quite
fierce. And she felt the pain building
up in her heart. So her daughter slammed
her bedroom door. And she stayed in the
living room. She sat on the couch
sighing so heavily. Tears flowing down
her cheek so freely. Anger and sadness
filled her chest. She wanted the pain to
go away. Fast. But the pain lingered on. She glazed across the room. And she saw a bottle of wine sitting
there. Then she began to think: “Oh just
one sip, and the pain will go away.” But
her conscience battled her: “No can’t do, you have been sober for so long, do
not ruin it!” Her pain argued back:
“Just one sip, it’s not going to ruin anything.
Just to make this pain go away.”
At that point, she broke down in tears.
We all stayed silent, letting her take her time to compose herself. Then she said that she had to battle herself
for a long time. It was so hard. The desire to get rid of the pain fast was
very tempting for her weak flesh. The
wine was available. The situation was
conducive. An excuse was never that
easy. The pain was unbearable. Besides the plan was only to take one sip,
nothing more. Then she prayed to God at
that crucial time. She said that God
asked her to let go. It was so hard to
surrender, she recalled. She wanted the
one sip so badly. But she also did not
trust herself. Because she had been in
similar situation before, many many times.
And not one time she could stop after one sip, or two, or three. She knew that she wouldn’t stop until she
drank the last drop. At that point she
began to let go. She let go and let God
take charge. And she made the decision
that night not to touch the wine. And
her closing words: “I let go and let God.”
Then she wiped her tears.
A pastor came to our class at the
seminary as a guest lecturer. He opened
by saying that he was an alcoholic. He
said that he would forever be an alcoholic.
I was surprised. Then he
continued on to say that it’s a defect in his system caused by sin. He should never touch any alcohol, not even
one sip, not ever, not in his lifetime.
He had very bad episodes in the past.
He had done horrible things under the influence of alcohol. Then he went to AA. Then he submitted to God. Then he had been sober ever since. He said that that’s one of his greatest
weaknesses. The grip of sin was very
strong. But he concluded that God’s
power was stronger. However, we should
never underestimate the power of sin.
Underestimating it is the first step toward our enslavement by it. Sin is mostly powerful because of its
delightful appeal to our earthly flesh.
The delight of sinning is so understood by our flesh, even beyond our
ability to describe it. If we love a
certain kind of dish, somehow we would be able to describe it. Those who love to cook might even be able to
point out the details of the delight.
Like the aroma of the garlic. Or
the tanginess of the orange sauce. The
sweetness and flavor of the wine. The
juiciness of the ribs. And so on. But sinful delight is a different matter
altogether. St. Augustine observed the
delight of sin:
Theft is punished by Thy law, O Lord, and by the law written
in men’s hearts, which iniquity itself cannot blot out. For what thief will
suffer a thief? Even a rich thief will not suffer him who is driven to it by
want. Yet had I a desire to commit robbery, and did so, compelled neither by
hunger, nor poverty, but through a distaste for well-doing, and a lustiness of
iniquity. For I pilfered that of which I had already sufficient, and much
better. Nor did I desire to enjoy what I pilfered, but the theft and sin
itself. There was a pear-tree close to our vineyard, heavily laden with fruit,
which was tempting neither for its colour nor its flavour. To shake and rob
this some of us wanton young fellows went, late one night (having, according to
our disgraceful habit, prolonged our games in the streets until then), and
carried away great loads, not to eat ourselves, but to fling to the very swine,
having only eaten some of them; and to do this pleased us all the more because
it was not permitted. Behold my heart, O my God; behold my heart, which Thou
hadst pity upon when in the bottomless pit. Behold, now, let my heart tell Thee
what it was seeking there, that I should be gratuitously wanton, having no
inducement to evil but the evil itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved to
perish. I loved my own error—not that for which I erred, but the error itself.
Base soul, falling from Thy firmament to utter destruction—not seeking aught
through the shame but the shame itself![2]
As
bizarre as it could be, the sin he committed was not prompted by any urgent
needs. He wasn’t hungry. He wasn’t poor either. Yet he bound himself to the act of
stealing. He admitted that he even threw
the pears that he just stole to the pigs.
Clearly he was not even driven to steal because of the deliciousness of
the pears. He did not care about any of
that. But his delight was in breaking
the command. His joy was in
transgressing the law. For him, he was
attracted to the sin itself, not to the fact that he was sinning. It was not the adrenaline. It was not the adventure. It was not the fun. But the sin was so delightful to him. That’s the best and the most honest
explanation St. Augustine could come up with.
Often we sin even without any
justifiable or understandable excuses.
We just sin period. We delight in
sin itself. Just as Edmund was so
attracted to the Turkish Delight even at the expense of his siblings, we too
are attracted to sin even at the expense of our soul. St. Augustine did not need any excuse
whatsoever in order for him to steal the pears.
He just did it. And that’s the
power of sin. It’s so smooth. Sin does not force people to commit the act
of sinning. As we are attracted to sin,
we relegate our power to sin. Sin then
has power over us. Once sin got a hold of
power it never let go. Once sin got us
as its slave, we would be its slave forever.
Out of our own strength we can’t liberate ourselves from sin’s grip. We are powerless against sin. Because we have submitted our power to sin. For thousands of years we have lived in the
land of sinful delight, ever since Adam and Eve stepped into it. We are born in the land of sin. Our tendency is sinful. Our environment is corrupted by sin. The people around us too are prone to
sin. Our mind is wired to justify our
sinful activities. Together with Paul,
we then cried out: “24 Wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans
7:24). Because, as clearly pointed out
in Romans 7:19-20:
19 For I do
not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I
do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
In
short, sin is everywhere. And we are
powerless against it. Because the power
of sin is great. And we have not enough
power in ourselves to overcome it.
For the White Witch, the Turkish
Delight was just a bait for Edmund. What
she was after was his soul. The betrayal
demanded Edmund’s soul to be forever owned by the Witch. When Edmund finally realized the reality and the
law, he refused to be owned and imprisoned by the Witch. But Edmund did not have power to reject the
Witch’s demand. It was the Law of
Narnia. For justice sake, a tooth for a
tooth, an eye for an eye, blood for blood, and soul for soul. So if Edmund’s soul was to be spared and thus
to escape the Witch’s claim, another soul was to replace his. That’s why Aslan took Edmund’s place instead,
and He paid with His life. In the same
way, the sinful delight is the bait for the devil to gain power over man. Once man is enslaved under sin, there is no
way of getting out. Unless there is a
replacement. But not even one man is
sinless that can replace us. Only
someone not under sin may be the replacement.
And there is none. Besides, if
there is any without sin, that replacement would be condemned for all
eternity. Who would be willing to do
so? So Paul cried out in
desperation. Until there came the
Messiah. The only Man able to be the
replacement. Then Paul sighed a relief
and proclaimed:
1There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the
Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
The
only Man that can save us from sin is Jesus Christ. Just as the only one that can save Edmund
from the Witch is Aslan.
The Land of Sinful Delight is
wretched. It drags humankind into utter
destruction. Once we are in it, we are
trapped forever. Until the Messiah
rescues us from it. The Messiah can’t be
an ordinary person. He has to have a
great love to be willing to become the replacement. He must have the quality beyond that of one
man in order to pay for so many. For the
Law dictates that one tooth can only replace one tooth, one soul can only
replace one soul. But the replacement
must have the same value as well. The
replacement must not be anyone under sin.
He must be sinless. Nobody can be
found with such quality. Only Jesus Christ
has the said quality. He loves us with
immeasurable love so He is willing to be our replacement and be condemned
forever. He is sinless so He is
qualified. He is 100% human being, so He
could take the place of humans. And even
though He is one human, He is also 100% God, and so He can replace an infinite
number of humans, because the God quality in Him surpasses the quality of all
humans combined. What is more? Jesus is not then trapped in oblivion,
because His power conquers sin and death.
Clearly Jesus is the only one that can defeat the powers and
principalities that we humans so fear.
As He defeats sin and death, they no longer have power over the
redeemed. This is excellent news. The Land of Sinful Delight will be demolished
forever. It will be replaced by the pure
land, the true Promised Land, the Land of Holiness and Justice and Love. And all the redeemed in Christ Jesus will
live in the true Promised Land. No more
sin. No more slavery. No more death. And God will pitch His tent among us
forever. We will be His children of
light. That is the land we all long
for. Praise the Lord for all
eternity. Amen.
[1] N. T.
Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical
Reflections on Discipleship (London: Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1994), 14–15.
[2] Augustine of
Hippo, “The Confessions of St. Augustin,” in The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life
and Work, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. G. Pilkington, vol. 1, A Select
Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First
Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 57.
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