PROPHET SHEMAIAH

“For this is my doing.” It was from God. We often say this phrase these days in situations of political confrontation, church affairs, and everyday circumstances. But few remember that this is a very ancient phrase, dating back to one of the earliest prophetic biblical stories. These are the words of God, part of His warning.

1 On January 22, the Church celebrates the memory of the prophet of God “Shemaiah”. Another transcription option for the prophet’s name is “Samaia”. This seemingly forgotten commemoration of the Old Testament saint falls on the days following the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The days of Epiphany, like the days of Christmas, are a time of signs. The great sign of the Old Testament is the very phenomenon of prophecy. It has not lost its relevance at all. As our great contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben writes, when biblical and religious prophecy falls silent, people begin to speak on behalf of mortal men and dead things.

2 The prophet Shemaiah lived in the 10th century before the birth of Christ. At that time, the kingdom of God’s people was in the process of being divided into two, and in place of the united kingdom of David and his son Solomon, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel arose. Judah worshipped the One God, but Israel, to legitimize this separation, according to the plan of the royal power, chose to worship calves. “And after consulting with his advisors, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, ‘You do not need to go to Jerusalem; here are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt’” it is written in the Third Book of Kings (3 Kings 12:28).

3 From the perspective of a modern observer, what happened then was largely manipulation. After all, such a situation, when religion, origin, culture, and language are used as excuses for division, is by no means new. Today, in our time, the same thing is happening with religions and languages. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun,” wrote the biblical Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 1:9). Tradition understood the author of this book to be King Solomon himself. If this is so, then Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, under whom the division took place, did not learn his father’s lessons.

4 Of course, the separation of the rebellious tribes from the Kingdom of Judah was outrageous not only for him, the ruler, and therefore a politician, but also for many of the righteous people of that time. Therefore, Rehoboam decided to regain the lost Kingdom of Israel. He gathered an army, but the Spirit-filled prophet Shemaiah came out to meet him, saying, “Do not go and wage war against your brothers, the sons of Israel, for this is my doing” (cf. 3 Kings 12:24; 2 Chronicles 11:4). The essence of what the prophet said was: “What God has divided, let no man join together.” “For this is my doing” — extremely important words for all times! We often repeat the familiar quote from the Gospel, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). These words from the Book of Genesis, which Jesus repeated in response to the Apostles’ question about the possibility of divorce, were used by the Roman Catholic Church for its teaching on the fundamental indissolubility of marriage. But, as with broken marriages from an Orthodox perspective, and regarding life circumstances, these words cannot be repeated as a “mantra”. The gift of discernment and close spiritual guidance are necessary.

5 The prophet Shemaiah speaks about what the God of the Bible is like. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, but not the God of philosophers and scholars. Confidence. Confidence. Feeling, Joy, Peace. The God of Jesus Christ, “wrote the philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) in his personal revelation called ”Memorial.” This great thinker, whose faith was deep and sincere, lived two and a half thousand years after Rehoboam, the prophet Shemaiah, and the division that once befell Israel. But in his time, a great division came again. The attempt to reform the Church undertaken by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other great reformers led to a severe religious crisis in Europe. The Roman Church split into two parts, Roman Catholic and Protestant, with many branches. At that time, many wanted to restore the lost unity by force, and the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1638) ensued. It was a desperate attempt to restore unity by force. It ended with Christianity losing its former authority as a unified whole in the West. Like a Soviet-style space rocket, which “discards” spent stages as it takes off, humanity rushed down the path of secularization, discarding one immutable dogma after another.

6 “It was my doing” (3 Kings 12:24). Do not try to unite what has been divided. The tragic truth of God, expressed by the prophet Shemaiah, is that division can also come from Him There is a division in history, in politics, in the family, in life, in biography, and in love. Then, as always, it is necessary to discern the will of God and understand that where division is made by the Lord Himself, man cannot restore unity. The God of forgiveness is also the God of vengeance. The God of the Bible knows how to strike. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen,” says the Book of Revelation, foretelling apocalyptic vengeance at the end of time (Rev. 1:7). During these days of Epiphany, the prophet of God, Shemaiah, together with John the Baptist and other biblical saints, intercedes in Heaven for the Church wandering on earth, while the Church asks God for the grace to discern His will and to truly, that is, prophetically, distinguish good from evil.