Daily Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 23 and Colossians 1

2 Samuel 23 – David’s last words—an oracle:

The spirit of the Lord speaks through me,

     his word in upon my tongue.

The God of Israel has spoken,

     the Rock of Israel has said to me:

One who rules over the people justly,

     ruling in the fear of God,

     is like the light of morning,

     like the sun rising on a cloudless morning,

     gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.

Is not my house like this with God?

For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. . .(23:2-5).

The names of some of David’s warriors are named along with their deeds against the Philistines.  A lot of this is repeated in 1 Chronicles 11. The writer celebrates “The Thirty” and “The Three”: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tachemonite, chief of the three; Eleazar, son of Dodo; and Shammah, son of Agee.  Among the Thirty, several are named: among them Abishai, Benaiah (in charge of David’s bodyguard); Asahel; Elhanan (also son of Dodo); Ittai (Benjaminite); and Uriah the Hittite (Bathsheba’s husband).

A few of the famous deeds done by “The Three” are recounted: forcing their way into a Philistine camp to get water for the king, water he would not drink because he felt he should offer it up to the Lord instead. Then a few particular men are celebrated: Joab’s brother Abishai, most famous among “The Thirty,” Benaiah, who killed “two great Moabite warriors” and killed a lion on a snowy day. Then all the names of The Thirty are listed. 

Introductory Information on Paul's Epistle to the Colossians: This letter, dated in the period from 61 to 63 AD along with the letters to the Ephesians and Philemon, was written while Paul was under arrest in Rome. Paul’s style has changed and his doctrine is more developed than in the “great letters”—Corinthians, Galatians and Romans (written in 57-58 AD). The occasion for the letter is Epaphras’ arrival from Colossae with news of the dangers presented by speculative notions widely current in Jewish circles of the day regarding the influence of celestial powers, speculations that challenged the supremacy of Christ.

Colossae is a town in Asia Minor east of Ephesus; the church at Colossae was not one started by Paul but was in an area Paul felt some responsibility for. Paul wrote the letter and gave it to Tychicus to deliver.  The dangers addressed gave Paul occasion to rethink things he had said in the earlier letters in a deeper way.

He always thought that believers participated in Christ’s life through faith. What he develops here is a concept of how Christ’s life and power impacted on the cosmos as a whole—as pleroma [fullness of divine powers]. “Three aspects of this broader view, which focusses (sic) on the function of Christ as Head, are: that the scope of salvation is seen to be cosmic; that Christ, into whom the Church has to structure itself, is this same victor who has triumphed over the whole cosmos; and finally that the concept of the future, eschatological, promise, as already realized, becomes very much more central. . .” (Jerusalem Bible, 262). While authorship of Colossians has been questioned, the weight of opinion is that it is Paul’s.

Colossians 1 – Paul greets the Colossians and commends them for the love they have and the fruit they have given forth from their faith.  He lets them know he prays for them always, asking “God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, with all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants” (1: 9-10). God has “rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13).

           

Paul gives us his description of the cosmic Christ: “Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things. For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place. He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body’s life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things. For it was by God’s own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven” (1:15-20).

The Christ described here is every bit as divine as the Christ of John’s prologue.  But what is truly amazing is that this cosmic Christ still conforms—or is conceivable only in relation—to the framework given forth in Genesis 1.  God begets light—a divine light, indeed His own divine Light--the “logos” of the entire universe.  And through this Light all the subsequent creation comes to be—ordered, good, image of the unseen and unimaginable power of the Father.  As pinnacle and embodiment of this light, life and power, man is brought forth—man both male and female.  Christ is this Adam, but here Paul tells us He is also that first Light, indwelling divine power of the entire cosmos.  It is this Christ that is Head of the Church (and Peter is His visible sign).

Christ restores in us (in our faith, in our knowledge of these great mysteries and responsiveness to them) this sense of what our lives are, of what the universe is to God.  But we must “continue securely established and steadfast in the faith,” not wander off—into the old slavery or ignorance we were once in.  Christ’s “saints” have come to know “the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generation” past (1:26).  This mystery “is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). The work he is engaged in is the work of bringing believers to maturity in their faith (1: 28).