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“Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written … his rule and his might and of the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel and upon all the kingdoms of the countries.”
[1 Chronicles 29:29-30 ESV]
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When I speak to young adults, I am impressed how nearly every one present burns with desire to alter the planet for good. They intend to mightily overcome all circumstances, leading to their inevitable question, “How can we change the world?” It’s always a rather ticklish moment, because the students tend to be less than enthusiastic about my answer: “Live truth when it’s unpopular.”
Example of polygamy
An example from an area of Davidic weakness illustrates. Polygamy was the default setting in most of the ancient world. Multiple wives spoke to a clan’s power and apologists for the practice touted how polygamy provided protection for more females and children. Yet Israel knew the dark truth, that polygamy is an unmitigated disaster. From manifold witnesses – including the life of their namesake father, Jacob/Israel – it was evident to the Hebrews that polygamy brought only grief. Nonetheless, even in Israel polygamy continued to supplant the Genesis 2 gold standard of one man joined with one woman before God forever.
Until the prophets slowly turned the tide. Alone in a world bent on ignoring God’s Word, the prophets relentlessly lived and spoke biblical truth. Hosea is the boldest example, but he is by no means alone in calling Israeli men and women to God’s standard. By the time the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, the unimaginable had occurred – polygamy was dead. While the rest of the world still wallowed in marital confusion, Israel had turned back to God’s two-in-one ideal. The prophets had truly been used to change the world.
Spiritual context
Of course, Hebrew prophets often paid with their lives. Speaking unpopular ideas, even when doing so in love, regularly leads to martyrdom. Yet the prophets concerned themselves with pleasing God, not people. In fact, their entire lives focused on the Lord. Even Hosea focused primarily on the need for people to respond rightly to YHWH. This doesn’t mean cultural sin was ignored; merely that it was placed in context.
This focus is the key to effective change in any era, something Paul powerful expounds in 1 Thessalonians 2. Today, some of my pastoral peers misstep because they are focused primarily on social issues. Others wisely concentrate on Jesus as the main thing, but then pretend that social issues don’t matter. Neither of these approaches will change the world. Real impact requires a prophetic touch. Otherwise, one merely ties in to the accepted political morality of one’s culture or one becomes known only for what one opposes – instead of the God one is for.
When Christians pretend cultural excuses for morality are acceptable or miss the God-centeredness of the biblical message, their world is left without an effective voice of scriptural reason. This is tragic because the accepted morality of every culture is in need of continual reformation. Since Genesis 3 there has never existed a “good old day” in which prophetic voices were unnecessary.
In practice
Recently I was discussing all this with a wonderful group of 20-something Christians and asked them to list some examples of areas where they might be used to genuinely change the world by speaking God-centered truth. I found these responses especially interesting:
What would you add? Where has God called you to speak and live truth?
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