Empty Symbols

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. (Judges 16:20) 

And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. (1Samuel 4:5)

We are a generation in love with symbols. What with the amount of money we spend on graduation ceremonies yet we know that the ceremony adds no value to our qualification? We of course know that even the degree is not worth the paper it is printed on without the transcripts to show the journey to that degree. But even those are not enough evidence as I know people whose business is doing assignments for degree students for pay. There are people who pay others to do their projects so that they can attain that Master’s or Doctorate. What this means is that there are enough highly educated ignoramus and at the same time there are a few people without any degree yet they are worth several doctorate degrees for all the work and study they do for others.

A symbol is as important as the object it points to. Remove that object and you are left with a meaningless work of art. The same applies to currency. What can buy you land in one country may be unable to buy you a cup of tea in another. It’s worth is in the value placed on it by the country’s central bank.

What am I driving at? There may be things we are doing that may be worthless yet we attach great value to them. We may think we are worth so much when we have lost our validity.

Samson was mightily used of God until he assumed that God had no choice but use him. He therefore played with his anointing. He broke all the Nazirite laws yet God still used him. He then may have assumed that his anointing was immunized from his folly, sin and disobedience. Until he crossed the line!

God is not bound to agree with us at any time. We either agree with Him or we are wrong. That is what Samson discovered a little too late. God was not bound to use Samson. He was not at the mercy of His servant. And He had standards that needed to be kept.

The buzz word for Kenya for some time has been Jubilee. We have a Jubilee government in a Jubilee year for a jubilee nation. It has been rampantly preached about in most pulpits in Kenya as if it is the solution Kenya has always waited for. Books in their numbers have been written. Prayer guides have been prepared. Tapes have been made. Overnight prayer meetings have been organized. Anything that should be done has been done to portray the jubilee season and prepare people for the same.

Yet what is the jubilee? Do we really care to know what the Bible says about that season?

I have written about the jubilee in my blog (Jubilee Defined) looking at what the Bible says about the jubilee and why we may be more realistic if we expected judgment instead of a blessing in this season.

I will advise you to read that blog post as I will just highlight something small concerning the same to get this point across.

And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. (Leviticus 25:10, 11)

The key purpose of the jubilee was equalization and a display of the community’s faith in God. It was God’s formula for dealing with mammon and greed. It was His way of raising the level of love for the people who ascribed to His doctrine.

Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the LORD against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. (Deuteronomy 15:9, 10)

How can we talk jubilee when we are not in the least interested with doing anything the Bible commands? How can we talk about jubilee when we are as far from its spirit as can be?

Jubilee was the Sabbath of the Sabbath years. How can we have a jubilee when we have never had even one Sabbath year in our history? How can we think jubilee when we do not even recognize the weekly Sabbath? Are we not severely deluded?

Why was Judah exiled? Was it not because they had disregarded the Sabbath year and of course the jubilee? Are we any better than the people of God to expect anything different?

Let us not deceive ourselves. Greed and selfishness reigns in Kenya and unless we deal with it we are open for judgment however piously we pronounce Biblical words.

We are not able to experience any jubilee until we come to the point where we value one another instead of looking down or enviously at one another.

How can we talk jubilee when the people who were in the forest during the freedom struggle (incidentally they were fighting for land) were dispossessed of the lands they owned because people sympathetic to the colonizers were given the responsibility of subdividing land?

We are no different to Samson. In fact he was in a better position than we are because we are gentiles who have been grafted into God’s vine. We might be like the Israelites who thought incorporating the ark of God in their disobedience and sin could turn the tide of their judgment. And I am not sorry to burst your bubble.

Let us also look at Christmas. A few years ago there was a drive to have Christ returned to Christmas. This was because people had started using X-Mass a lot. Was He there before? Had He ever been there? Is Christmas a Christian holiday? I beg to differ. There is nothing Christian about Christmas however broadly we thought.

Christmas is a symbol without its consequent object. Even worse is that it is a symbol pointing to an opposing object. The spirit of Christmas can never be the spirit of Christ.

But it points to the birthday of Christ, you might argue. Who says so? What is it about birthdays anyway? There are two birthdays recorded in the Bible and in each an innocent person died. So your argument is not Biblical. In any case why did Jesus or His disciples not celebrate that birthday even once in His three years of ministry? Why did the disciples not do the same in Acts? Why don’t we see even a single mention of the same in the epistles?

Christmas is a heathen and demonic ceremony that was christened to convince gullible Christians that they could ‘sanctify’ it just by calling it a Christian name. It is similar to calling a thief an apostle and expect that that alone will make him stop stealing. Just google Christmas origin and you will be shocked.

Again I will ask why even enemies of the cross have no problem displaying Christmas paraphernalia on their shops during this season. Are they under conviction or is it that they identify with the spirit of Christmas? Why don’t they do the same for Easter and The Lord’s Table yet these are the truly Biblical ceremonies? Why do Hindus and Muslims not have a problem with this holiday yet they fight anything Christian? Could it be that it is their ceremony we are aping and not the other way round? (I might have to add that even Easter has had some leaven brought in to pollute it though that is not able to make it of no effect as it is a divine ordinance)

What about the commercialism that is inspired by this season? Can Christ really produce that? What about the excesses and sin that is so prevalent in this season? Can Christ be present there? What about the wastefulness and meaningless expenditure? Can Christ sanction it?

Playing with the Lord’s Table brought judgment.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (are dead). (1Corinthians 11:28 – 30)

Even in churches that are furthest from the scriptures you will find the greatest caution when approaching the Lord’s Table. It is never a joke as it results in judgment if played with. Someone must be taught and adequately prepared before they are allowed to partake.

Why does the same not happen when we defile Christmas? I think the simplest explanation is that He was never there. It was never His celebration and so He is under no obligation to judge people for doing their own thing. I am responsible for the mess you do in my house. What you do in your house is none of my business. And I believe that is why Christmas is different from the Lord’s Table. In one He is there because He ordered it and is therefore responsible for its keeping while in the other He leaves people to do whatever they want as it is none of His concern.

Christmas does not represent Christ. Christmas is not a Christian symbol. Christmas is a symbol of Mammon as it is his presence that is prevalent in the whole season. Remember Christ saying that we shall know them by their fruit? That is what I mean. The spirit of mammon is the reigning spirit during the season of Christmas. Christ is nowhere near ‘His’ birthday party and season as He did not come for birthdays but for His death. And that is what He ordered we remember. Why are we remembering what He never asked us to remember? Do we have a better memory than the one who ordered or the people He gave the direct order to remember? Why do we then remember something He never even hinted, leave alone mentioned?

I will state again that the spirit of Christmas can never be the Spirit of Christ. In fact it is directly opposed to it. And that is why the enemies of the cross have no problem at all with Christmas since the god of Christmas is their friend and business partner.

The only thing that we might get to indicate His presence is judgment like the sons of Aaron.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. (Leviticus 10:1- 3)

This may happen when we bring our corruptions near His ordained symbols. Let us play with our sin however we want. But we should be wary of coming to God for affirmation as He might just kill us. Let us abuse the symbols as much as we want. But we should keep them to ourselves instead of taking them near God’s altar. The Philistines and their god Dagon learnt that the hard way when they took the ark as a spoil of war.

Even moving His symbols is as safe as our obedience to what He has revealed and not our passion and innocence of our heart as David learnt in the Uzzar incident.

God is greater than His symbols. His presence is not bound to those symbols unless reverence is what they inspire. And that was the reason the temple was destroyed as they had nullified God’s presence by their rebellion. He therefore did away with that symbol so that His people could look for Him instead of priding themselves of a symbol whose reality they shunned.

If that is the case with true symbols of His presence, what do you expect from symbols that are our own creation?