Waking Up the Sleepwalkers

Some of the funniest stories I have to tell come from the times my husband or one of my children decides to talk in their sleep or, even better, sleepwalk.  

I'd heard about sleepwalkers before I got married, and I'd always pictured people in a nightcap and robe trailing out of their bedrooms with their eyes shut and their hands held in front of them in zombie-like perfection, meandering through the house and bumping into things. It wasn't until I got married to my sleepwalking husband that I realized it's a little different.

He sits up and looks at me. He talks to me. Granted, what we talk about doesn't make a whole lot of sense (which is my clue that he isn't really awake), and the minute I realize he's sleeping with his eyes open, I'll ask: "Are you sleepwalking?" and he'll get really confused and bothered -- like there's something he's missing and he can't quite grasp it.

One night, I remember waking to a disturbance from my husband's side of the bed, and when I rubbed sleep out of my eyes, I turned over to find that he'd turned on his bedside lamp, had seated himself on our headboard (which is a bookshelf), and was digging a hole in our mattress with a dream-shovel. 

What on earth does this have to do with Romans 11:1-10? Well... good question. Let's see if I can get us there. Paul is still talking about the background of the Jewish nation and how they are God's chosen people, and yet... somehow... they have missed the Truth -- that is, Jesus. They've rejected Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), and have tried on for size a salvation by works rather than by grace.

This is exactly what Jesus condemns in the Pharisees in Matthew 23, when He says: "Everything [the Pharisees] do is done for men to see (this would be the 'by works' that Paul talks about): They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long (according to Mosaic law, this was a 'righteous' living, so... the Pharisees had to make sure to those elements were big enough so everyone could see how righteous they were!); they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi'" (Matthew 23:5-7).

In other words, the Pharisees tried really really really hard by all the things they did to be considered righteous. They tried so hard... that they forgot why they did their righteous acts, and that was to serve, honor, and glorify their Father in heaven (not themselves, by contrast). And so, the Lord rejected them -- in harsh language: "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" (Matthew 23:33)

And when you get Jesus, the Son of God, to call you a snake, a brood of vipers, condemned to hell...

You have to know you've missed the boat somewhere. But it's that very cluelessness over the missing of the boat that caused Jesus to react to them as He did. They. would. not. see. where they had gone wrong. Like sleepwalkers, their eyes were open, but they were clueless as to the reality of the Truth right in front of them.

How frustrating for Jesus to present His kingdom to Israel, and to have them react like sleepwalkers! Back in Matthew 13:10, Jesus' disciples asked Him after He finished telling the parable of the sower: "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" 

Jesus answered: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them'" (Matthew 13:11-15).

Back in 1 Kings 19, Elijah has just won a great victory. See, Israel did not follow God, nor did its king or queen, Ahab and Jezebel. They, the chosen people of God, had decided that God was a fairy tale, a made-up phenomenon, and that God's prophet Elijah was, you know, weird. Or cuckoo. Or prejudiced against culture and religious norms, which at the time included Baal worship. How dare Elijah stand up and say there was one God! That was an insult to anyone who chose to interpret Scripture in other ways! That was an insult to anyone who was progressing out of the archaic traditions of the Abrahamic covenant and of Mosaic law! 

(If you see any parallels to current-day culture... well, I mean for you to). :)

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah sets up a litmus test, as a way of proving to the people of Israel Who is truly God. The God Who called Israel His own? Or Baal? So he meets up with 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (randomness: I always picture a mountainous caramel sundae when I hear that name. Sorry, minor distraction). And Elijah calls the people of Israel who want to know the Truth to come watch what happens. 

So everybody arrives at the caramel mountain (sorry, at Mount Carmel). The prophets of Baal come, 450 of them (the Scriptures don't mention where the 400 prophets of Asherah are that Elijah had also invited to this party; maybe they decided not to come and just let the Baal prophets take care of the task of defeating this peon prophet Elijah). I imagine they are gathered over on one portion of the mountain around some kind of big, shiny, state-sponsored altar, and Elijah is standing by himself on another portion of the mountain next to an altar that had been built to the True God long ago, but was now in ruins. And all the curious seekers of Truth, along with quite a few just plain curious people, come out to see what's going to happen. Ahab's there, 'cause he's the king, and this concerns him greatly, because in those days, separation of church and state wasn't exactly a thing.

Elijah calls out: "How long will you [people of Israel] waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal is god, follow him!"

But the people said nothing. Maybe they were trying to stonewall Elijah simply by a wall of silence. 

Elijah says: "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets." Then he tells Ahab's guys to get two bulls. He gives the Baal prophets first choice of meat -- whichever bull they think would make their false god happiest, because he didn't want anyone coming back at the end of this litmus test to say: "It was the sacrifice! Baal didn't want the meat so he didn't answer us!" Etc. 

Elijah gets agreement from the people of Israel about how this little test would be conducted (They all said, 'What you say is good,'), and then Elijah turns the spotlight on the prophets of Baal. The Baal prophets killed the bull, prepped the meat just so, and they put it on their shiny, pretty, state-allocated altar. "They called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. 'Oh Baal, answer us!' they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made."

This goes on for hours. Still no answer. It's almost like... Baal isn't there. Or isn't listening. Elijah starts to taunt them, you know, push in the thorn just a little bit: "Shout louder!" he says. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or, you know, traveling! Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened."

The prophets are really getting into it. Baal isn't listening. You know, I've wondered if they're so very convinced they can get a response from Baal because "he" has responded before via demonic spirits during their little temples and rituals (see, for instance, in Exodus when the Egyptian sorcerers who copied Moses and Aaron's signs when they went to Pharaoh to demand the Israelites be set free), but here, in this test of Who is the One True God, God does not allow anything of the sort.

Anyway, the Baal prophets start slashing themselves, I guess 'cause they think Baal likes human blood rather than bull blood? Not sure. But whatever the case, all the prophets are bleeding profusely, and as blood loss weakens the body, these guys are running out of energy quickly. By evening, with no response, no answer from their false god... they finally give up.

So Elijah's like: "It's my turn." So he gets the Israelites to come over to him, he has the dilapidated altar he's been standing by repaired enough to hold a bull sacrifice. He gets 12 stones, each one representing a tribe in Israel, and he piles them up. Then he digs a trench around the altar. He puts some wood on it, kills and cuts up the bull, tosses the meat on the altar, and then -- to make good and sure that the people realize that the impossible is possible with the True God, he has four large jars of water poured over the altar and over the offering -- not once, not twice, but three times -- until the water fills up the trench around the altar.

Then he steps up to the altar and he prays out loud. There's accountability in praying out loud, did you know? We can't say, "Oh, I didn't really pray that..." The people hear what Elijah prays, and they can see what happens as a result of his request. 

Anyway, Elijah says, as the Baal servants had said allllll day long: "Answer me, oh Lord; answer me, so these people will know that You, oh Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again."

And you know, there's no space of time between the prayer and the answer. There's no time for the altar to dry out. There's no slashing of himself, or begging or pleading, or room for doubt at all, because as soon as the words leave Elijah's lips, "then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice." And this is awesome: It didn't just burn up the sacrifice. As if to add emphasis, the Lord burned up the sacrifice... and the wood... and the stones, and the soil, and all the water in the trench. 

Last I checked... stones, soil, and water are pretty fireproof. But the True God doesn't have to navigate around silly physics and scientific calculations, 'cause He made silly physics and scientific calculations.

Look -- science is awesome. Science demonstrates the power, the creativity, and the glory of God in detail that I can't even begin to comprehend. But when the Lord wants to make a point, His created science does not and cannot hold back His hand! So when I hear people say: "That's physically impossible" in response to a clearly demonstrated miracle... I remember the stones, the soil, and the water that are supposed to be fireproof.

Naturally, all the people, when they saw this, they "fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord -- He is God! The Lord -- He is God!" They opened their eyes and their ears to the Lord in response to what happened. They. woke. up. 

I hesitate to use the word "woke," cause that's a trigger word in our society today, and one that I think carries a lot of danger with it. But the kind of woke I'm talking about here is the spiritual transformation that happened when the people of Israel lost the blinders that covered their eyes and saw and recognized God as the True God.

Like when Ananias prays for Paul in Acts 9 and "something like scales" fell from Paul's eyes -- the people see the Truth when God presents Himself to them, and they recognize Him. Like when my husband stares at me, sound asleep, and I can watch the transformation that happens when he's not just seeing me, but also recognizing me. There's a big difference in those two words.

What follows are a couple more miracles, just, you know, the breaking of a three year drought, along with Elijah outrunning horses and a chariot for 31 miles... before Jezebel finds out what happened and flies into a rage. She threatens to kill Elijah, and Elijah... the bringer of the Lord's Truth, the fearless speaker of the Word of God before unbelieving Israel... runs away. He flees to Mount Horeb (unlike Mount Carmel, this does not evoke caramel sundaes in my head).

And when he gets there, the Lord asks him: "Hey, Elijah, what are you doing here?" 

Elijah pours out his tale of woe: "I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too."

See... despite his great victory, despite all the people on Mount Carmel prostrating themselves and declaring God as the One True God... all Elijah can see... is Jezebel and her threats. Jezebel and her death warrant. Jezebel and her apostate stance. 

All Elijah can see is the godless political leadership; he's so discouraged by that... that he forgets that there are many people who literally within the last several days have repented and come back to the Lord, who have had their eyes and ears opened to Truth!

The Lord tells Elijah to go back the way he came (his work isn't done quite yet), and He says: "Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel -- all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

God kept a remnant to be faithful to Him and Him alone. 

Now, we can get into all sorts of doctrinal discussion about freewill versus election and predestination; this post is already super long, so I don't think we'll go there today, but what I want to point out is this: God woke up Israel.

They were sleepwalking for a long time, but God said, "Enough is enough," and He looked them in the eyes and He said: "Are you sleepwalking?"

My husband gets combative when I do that. It bothers him that he's not where he thinks he is, but his brain is still in sleep mode, so he can't quite figure it out. It isn't until I shake him a bit, point to the clock, explain a few times: "Hey, honey, you're still sleeping," that he wakes up.

Sometimes... church, get this... Sometimes, the Lord shakes us to get us to wake up, open our eyes, open our ears. Over this last year, church, we. have. been. shaken. And the waking up process is a little bothersome. We realize something isn't quite right; we realize we're not quite where we should be. We may look like we've got it together, kind of; we may even sound awake, kind of. But we're off, just a little, enough that the people watching us realize... they're sleepwalking.

We've got to realize that to be in the presence of God is being awake... but it's hard to get from where we were to where we should be without a little tap on the shoulder, a little nudge toward the clock, a little: "You're sleeping, church."

Back in Romans, Paul quotes Isaiah as he talks about sleeping eyes and deaf ears: "What then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: 'God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day'" (Romans 11:7-8).

But in Ephesians 1:17-19, Paul writes: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

And as if that wake-up call isn't enough, Paul reminds us that the same power that we are given in this waking up is the same power that broke death once and for all. "That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:19-21).

Time to wake up, church. Time to open our eyes and our ears and watch the flames eat the stones, the soil, and the water.