Father Forgive Them
By Diane Scalchunes
I believe the body of Christ can be separated into two groups. That statement may cause various ways of segmenting the church to run through your mind. Protestant and Catholic? Modern and Traditional? Evangelical and Charismatic? But the categories I have in mind do not fit into these groups.
I believe the church can be separated into those who worship at a type of Eli’s altar, which shall be cut off, and those who worship at the altar of Zadok, which shall endure forever. These two altars need to be explored because one is acceptable to the Lord and the other isn’t. If we are honest with ourselves, these two altars operate inside all of us, but it is the Lord’s desire that we, His children, offer up our sacrifices on one alone.
Light exposes and deposes. The more light we allow in, the more clearly we can see the ways in which we are simply playing a religious game. But we must not stop there; we must let the light depose the charade as well.
In our first newsletter, we expressed that part of the commissioning of this ministry is to pray for an all-out, first-century-plus Holy Ghost revival. Once we hunkered down and sat still long enough to take the focus off of our theater and put it on Jesus, we were perplexed when He started to show us problems with His church.
"What about mammon and alcohol and ambition that hold the people of this land captive?" we asked. "Aren’t we supposed to pray against the spirit of lust and the various idols the people worship?"
The Lord responded, "If you break the church of these things, then the church will have authority in the land. If you first break yourselves of them, then you will have the authority to break it off of the church."
Since 1989 the Lord has been "breaking these things" off of me personally and others along the way. I do not believe we will "arrive" until the coming of the Lord, so this is an ongoing process. But each week more and more is revealed to us by the Spirit about the workings of the kingdom of God and the workings of the flesh. And the more we see Jesus, the more we see the subtleties of the flesh.
That is, in a nutshell, what the altar of Eli and the altar of Zadok deal with. I would like to share with you my understanding of these two metaphorical altars, things that the Lord has taught me over the years, and my most recent perceptions.
The Altar of Eli
Eli was a high priest and his sons were priests to the Lord during the early part of the Prophet Samuel’s life. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were evil in the sight of the Lord and it was the Lord’s desire to kill them. Their sins were greed, lust, and irreverence, for they did not know the Lord. "Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know the Lord" (1 Samuel 2:12 NASB). They oppressed the people of the Lord by tampering with their offerings. They refused to let the gifts be presented to the Lord according to His purposes because they used the offerings for themselves. They were what the Lord Jesus referred to as "hirelings," for they cared nothing for God or His people.
Eli’s sin was that he became spiritually fat. He barely addressed the sins of his sons, and in so doing showed his preference for them instead of the Lord. He scarcely reprimanded them because he was enjoying the bounty of their greed. His zeal, if any, turned into zeal for the things of God instead of the Lord Himself, and because of that His spiritual eye had all but shut down. "Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well)" (1 Samuel 3:2-3 NASB). Eli was asleep to spiritual things. So much so that when Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet, was travailing before the Lord, he thought she was drunk. "Now it came about, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. Then Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.’ But Hannah replied, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:12-15 NASB).
Eli chose not to rebuke his boys because he was deceived into thinking that his sacrifices to the Lord would make up for this lack of obedience regarding the issue. "Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever" (1 Samuel 3:14 NASB). No amount of sacrifice on our part can counteract our deliberate lack of compliance to the directives of the Lord.
Phinehas and Hophni were murdered and a curse was put upon Eli’s family line. Phinehas’s wife gave birth to a son moments after she found out that the Ark of the Covenant was taken and her husband and father-in-law were dead. She named the baby Ichabod, which means "the glory of the Lord has departed."
Instead of immediately wiping out Eli’s line, the Lord allowed it to continue for a season. Although pain and suffering would be their lot in life, for a time, Eli’s descendants would be anointed to minister at the Lord’s altar. "And Ahijah son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, was wearing the ephod." (1 Samuel 14:3a AMP).
Eli’s line would be under a curse of hardship until it was ultimately cut off. Scripture tells us that Eli’s descendants were among the priests murdered by Saul at Nob. "There were more chief men found among the sons of Eleazar [because of the misfortunes of Eli, and Saul's slaughter of the priests at Nob]" (1 Chronicles 24:4 AMP).
Greed. Lust. Irreverence. Spiritual blindness. A form of godliness that is full of religious sacrifice in an effort to offset disobedience. Lack of courage to stand for righteousness and the correction of sin (especially while one is profiting from that sin). Lack of fear of the Lord. Not understanding the outcome of disobedience, which is a curse passed down from generation to generation. A hireling mentality; not really caring for the Lord’s sheep. These are the characteristics of the "sacrifice" being offered on the altar of Eli. Ichabod ("The glory of the Lord has departed") has been declared over this altar. God will not be glorified through it.
Zadok’s Altar
During part of King David’s rule, Zadok and Abiathar were chief priests. Abiathar was a descendant of Eli; he was the only priest who escaped from Saul’s murderous rampage at Nob. So Zadok’s and Eli’s descendants worked side by side. Abiathar and Zadok stood for righteousness when they sided with the anointed king of Israel, David, rather than going with what looked like a sure thing when David’s son Absalom tried to take the throne by force. They put their lives in jeopardy when they went into the palace proclaiming their loyalty to Absalom as they spied for David. Zadok and Abiathar sided with the anointing; they stood for righteousness and followed the Spirit of God.
After Absalom’s death, Abiathar and Zadok carried the message of reunion to the elders of Judah. Yet Abiathar was under the curse of Eli’s house; his fate had been sealed by the sins of his fathers.
Abiathar made a huge mistake. He supported Adonijah, David’s oldest living son, as king instead of going with God’s choice in Solomon. When Solomon became king, Zadok was appointed priest of the royal court. Abiathar was spared his life because of his loyalty to David, but he was cut off from serving as priest. "So Solomon expelled Abiathar [descendant of Eli] from being priest to the Lord, fulfilling the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh" (1 Kings 2:27 AMP).
Ezekiel’s Temple
Hundreds of years after Abiathar’s banishment, Ezekiel had a vision while in captivity in Babylon. He foresaw a temple that would be built (physically or spiritually) during the kingdom age. The Lord was very specific as to who would be able to minister to Him during that time. "But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God" (Ezekiel 44:15 KJV).
The priests who were disqualified from serving in Ezekiel’s temple were of the line of Ithamar, who followed in the steps of Eli, against whom the same punishment was given. Whether a physical temple will be built or a living temple made of human stones ("And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God;" 2Corinthians 6:16a KJV), we can see a precedent here.
Abiathar, whose name means "father of abundance," started off right with God, but then trusted in his own resources, his own abundance, his own ability to access things in the natural. By thinking that David’s oldest son should be king based on his understanding of the law, he boxed God in. But God cannot be boxed in; He boxes us in! He is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of the law, and He can wield the law however He sees fit.
Abiathar did not go with the Spirit of God. He went with his own interpretation of the law. Zadok, on the other hand, whose name means "just, righteous," went with the anointing. He followed the Spirit of God no matter what the theological ramifications were or how the situation looked within the framework of the natural mind. The voice of the people couldn’t influence his decision. He was courageous and he stood for righteousness, which is God’s will and purpose.
Going to Birmingham
As the Lord was bringing all of this up to me, a dream I had years ago was triggered into my recollection by an intercessor’s contribution during prayer. In my dream I was at a hotel staying in room 11. Eleven, for me, is a symbol for Isaiah chapter 11, which explains why Jesus was anointed. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of theLord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears" (Isaiah 11:1-3 KJV).
In this hotel room there were a few intercessors, and they were all sitting on blue chaise lounge cushions that had been placed on the floor. A lawyer friend, who I believe was a symbol of Jesus our Advocate, said to me that we were going to Birmingham. I knew the reference to Birmingham was during the time it was a hot spot in the civil rights movement. This dream was one of hundreds, if not thousands, of times that Jesus spoke to this ministry about His desire to liberate His people from those who oppress. From those who judge by sight and reprove after the hearing of their ears.
The Lord is going to vindicate those who are being oppressed by His priests, His leaders. Those who are using the offerings of the people (money, time, talent and giftings) incorrectly and He is looking for instruments of righteousness; those who will take a stand against this and follow His anointing, His purposes, in this hour.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. started a revolution against the injustices of greed and oppression in and out of the church, just like his namesake had done some 400 years before. He was destined to usher in the winds of change that would blow out the hateful crime of judging a man by the sight of the eye; judging a man because of the color of his skin.
Martin Luther King’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is one of the most important documents in our country’s history. In this letter King wrote, "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.… And so I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid."
A believer of nonviolent protest, he said that in any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:
1) Collection of facts to determine whether injustice exists
2) Negotiation
3) Self-purification
4) Direct action.
About the process of self-purification he wrote in his letter, "We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: ‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliating? Are you able to endure jail?’"
No great accomplishment occurs by wishful thinking; greatness is achieved through resolve. Throughout history God has raised up deliverers who believed that retreat was not an option, who burned with the fires of resolution.
Martin Luther King gave his riveting "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop" speech the day before he was assassinated. In it he said:
"I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, ‘Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round.’ Bull Connor next would say, ‘Turn the fire hoses on.’ And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn’t relate to the Tran physics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out."
As a child King was aware of the injustices of society that loomed all around him. It was at that time that Martin Luther King’s vision was sown deeply into his heart. Only a childlike heart can enter into the kingdom of God and understand its operation. Only a childlike heart can see that the emperor has no clothes.
God gave Martin Luther King a dream and showed him that the Negro people would enter into liberty with thanksgiving resonating in their hearts and immortal words on their lips: "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty we’re free at last!" In his dream he was on the mountaintop and he saw his people entering into the Promised Land. As he put it in his "I’ve Been to the Mountain Top" speech:
"I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
I believe the Lord is looking for a people who are not afraid of any man, who are willing to fight for His kingdom and who are willing to see it first be established in His church. "And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize--a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]" (Matthew 11:12 AMP).
Rough Riders
Like Martin Luther King I suppose God has given most, if not all, of his deliverers’ dreams. The Lord has said that in the end times, during the transition between the church age and the kingdom age, the spirit of prophesy would fall on all flesh and God communicating with man through dreams would be commonplace. That increase is becoming more evident, for even unbelievers are acknowledging that they have had dreams that have conveyed to them accurate directives. They may not attribute their dreams to the one true God, but they know these experiences are apart from their own psyche.
As a mother of two, housewife, pastor, and many other roles, it makes sense that the Lord would speak to me through dreams. God is a great time manager. What better time to instruct His children on His ways than through the seemingly unproductive time spent sleeping? Yes, He speaks through difficult sayings that you have to puzzle out in those dreams, but what better time to receive such a puzzle than when you are sleeping? Dreams are an important vehicle for God because they are comprised of highly superior metaphors that guarantee we are not the originator of the notions buried within. In other words, we couldn’t come up with this stuff.