James Chapter Five, The Example of the Prophets

 

James 5:10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. [11] Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

 

Much can be said of the Old Testament prophets and the sundry trials they endured while speaking, “Thus sayeth the Lord” to a contrary people for hundreds of years. The anonymous writer of Hebrews tells us, “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of…the prophets…others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented,” Hebrews 11:32, 36, 37. While the author of Hebrews generalizes the wicked way in which the prophets of God were often treated, we’ll look to Jeremiah for example of what the prophets endured.

Early in his prophetic career the prophet was threatened with death from his own kinsmen for speaking God’s truth. “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand,” Jeremiah 11:21.This threat, culminating from a plot against him (see 11:19) was from his own people, seeing as how Jeremiah was called from Anathoth in Benjamin, Jeremiah 1:1. He was again threatened with death by an angry mob which included the priests simply for telling Judah the truth, Jeremiah 26:8, 9. In this same chapter we learn about Urijah, a contemporary prophet that was hunted down by Jehoiakim, Judah’s current king, and put to the sword, Jeremiah 26:23. Jeremiah was imprisoned for simply relating God’s word, Jeremiah 32:2, 37:15. The princes of Judah convinced Zedekiah to have Jeremiah placed in a miry dungeon, where they meant for him to die until he was saved by the intervention of Ebed-Melech, Jeremiah 38:6, 13. The cruelties abound since people tend to be violently opposed to truth because it challenges our biases and beliefs.

 

Jeremiah’s patience, trusting in the Lord, is exemplary. James goes on to say that we should count such people blessed who face a fiery trial and walk through it with God. Peter writes, “if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in the matter,” 1 Peter 4:16. Peter, along with his fellow apostles, were persecuted by the Sanhedrin for preaching Christ early in the church’s life. When Gamaliel convinced his fellow council members to spare their lives the apostles were beaten and released by the religious authority. The passage concludes with this commentary: “So they departed from the council, rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer shame for His name,” Acts 5:41. Mind you, Luke isn’t telling us Peter and the others are masochists that enjoy humiliation and pain. No, this is hardly where the joy is derived from. Rather, they have partaken in Christ’s sufferings and were now intimately associated with the infamous Galilean. Their willingness to, “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) glorified the Father on their part. They had drawn a line in the sand and were unwilling to compromise or surrender. The truth of the gospel was reality; and the beauty of this reality, the freedom it offered had to be shared no matter the cost. “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you…on their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified,” 1 Peter 4:14.

 

Job is held up as a specific example that even when events seem uproariously out of control by our finite perception, God is still there in the heart of it all. He has His children in His hand, and His will for them is only good. Job suffered more than most anyone could ever imagine enduring. Yet in the end, when the dust settled Job’s trial not only brought greater prosperity to him, it more importantly granted him a more intimate understanding of the God he served, Job 42: 5, 6. God’s mercy is so vast that He suffered Christ to die to redeem mankind from the curse of sin, the curse human choice gave birth to. He delivered His own Son to die in our stead, and how will he not along with Christ, give us all things, see Romans 8:32.  Like the patient farmer who is trained by his profession to wait and watch, we as Christians, in our own profession, must likewise learn these sometimes very painful lessons. It is human nature to run amok in a search to “solve” our problems, sans God’s influence save perhaps for a peripheral prayer asking Him to bless our task. Instead, maybe suffering patiently is what He WANTS us to do, so our faith is tried and refined, and we learn to find greater comfort relying not on effort, but on God. Our Lord is compassionate: He is concerned and interested in His children. It is up to us, as believers, in the midst of trials to be a witness to the world through steadfast faith that our God is faithful.

 

James 5:12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

 

Chapter 4 concluded with an example of how seemingly innocent presumption can be. The apostle cautions us not to swear. Christians are not to give an oath to anyone. In fact he stresses this small but important reality by prefacing the verse with “above all,” to arrest the reader’s attention. The saints are to simply answer requests or questions with a yes or no response. We either determine to do something or abstain. An oath (or promise) symbolizes a spoken bond: that the speaker has not just desire, but power and certainty that what they intend to affect will in fact occur. Since James was writing to a Jewish audience they would know well the nature of vows, since the topic was covered in the Torah. We read: “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth,” Numbers 30:2. “If a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it—when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters,” Leviticus 5:4.

 

Swearing an oath usurps God’s providential authority. While we may feel that an oath from us is reassuring to the recipient, it could prove to be poison between parties if we fail to perform what we have promised. And there are so many reasons a man may fail, including not least of which, simply changing our minds. Yet the very notion of an oath carries a sort of sacredness to it: it is an inviolable agreement between parties; clearly something that no human could hope to effectively perform on demand. God alone cannot fail. Nor does our Lord change His mind, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8. An oath from Him is an end of all dispute, Hebrews 6:16-18.

 

For an example of how oaths can go afoul so easily, take an infamous mention from the New Testament. “Some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under and oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul,” Acts 23:12. Any casual reader can follow the narrative and quickly learn that these men, passionate and earnest if not misguided, did not follow through with their binding oath. When Paul safely escaped their hands under Roman escort it became painfully clear their mission resulted in failure. One can only hope that they returned to Jerusalem to offer a trespass offering in lieu of starving to death, Leviticus 5:5, 6.

 

Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, engaged His Jewish audience in a number of controversial topics. Not the least of which was the issue James addresses. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oath to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all…but let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one,” Matthew 5:33, 34, 37. Our Lord reminds the Jews that long ago Yahweh commanded them concerning oaths under the Law. The Law was a tutor to lead one to Christ for justification (see Galatians 3:24); the Lawgiver had come now, and both in Him and through Him the Law would be fulfilled. James seems in part to quote our Lord here, reminding his audience that swearing came from a devilish spirit. Reliance on the precepts of the Law would easily engender legalism in the Jewish mindset (or any mindset, for that matter). The Law, however testified of Christ. If the Law was a shadow, Jesus is the body that cast it. In the Law His perfection is glimpsed so it is folly for anyone outside of deity to think we can uphold it. The Jews were not being told to abandon the Law, which is a rich part of their cultural heritage; rather, they (and us) are to turn to the Lawgiver who alone justifies. Whatever is more than this is from the evil one.