Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 2 and Colossians 4

1 Kings 2 – Before he dies David tells his son, “Be strong, be courageous, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statues, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do. . .Then the Lord will establish his word that he spoke concerning me: ‘If your heirs take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel’” (2:2-4).

                 

He is not happy with Joab. He leaves to Solomon the task of punishing him for his faults: his ill-dealing with Abner and Amasa—“retaliating in time of peace for blood that had been shed in war” (2:5). But he tells him to reward Barzillai’s sons. But Shimei too (the man who cursed him on the road to Mahanaim) should be brought down to Sheol in blood (2:9). Why? He stood by David in the rebellion of Adonijah. Then David dies after a forty-year reign. JB note says the ideas here about blood revenge and lasting efficacy of a curse are added “in the deuteronomic style” to the original narrative. The king and his descendents are “liable to blood-revenge until the true culprit has been killed.” And Shimei’s curse will lie on David’s descendents’ head in the same way a blessing would have. Only by turning it against its originator can it be undone. David’s oath has prevented him from doing this, but Solomon is free.

Adonijah goes to Bathsheba. Apparently all of Israel had expected him to be the king when the matter was turned around.  Adonijah is willing to see this as the Lord’s work, but he asks if she will ask Solomon if he can have the woman Abishag as his wife.  She agrees, but when she does Solomon is angered.  He sees it as a move on the throne. Benaiah is sent to strike Adonijah down (2:25).

                 

He also sends Abiathar to his hometown (banished) for having given his support to Adonijah.  He deserves death, but he reprieves him because he carried the ark before his father David and shared in his hardships in the past.  Joab, realizing the time of vengeance has come, seizes the horns of the altar too; but Solomon orders his death.  Benaiah finally does it.  Benaiah takes Joab’s place and Zadok takes the place of Abiathar as priest.  As for Shimei, Solomon tells him to stay in his house in Jerusalem or die.  Three years later, he gets careless and goes in search of two runaway slaves.  Solomon has Benaiah kill Shimei.

Colossians 4 – In a verse that belongs more appropriately to the preceding chapter, masters are admonished to treat their slaves justly and fairly “for you know that you also have a Master in heaven” (4:1). As with marriage Paul urges believers to make God and Christ the model of their lives—mastering as he masters, heading as he heads, serving as he serves, loving as he loves.

           

Paul asks for our prayers, “that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, . . . so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should” (4:4). I will add my prayer to theirs.  He is still declaring that mystery and opening the doors of faith in people today. He closes with commendations of Tychicus and other friends—Aristarchus (in prison with him), Mark (Barnabas’ cousin), who may visit them, and another man named Jesus—all Jews.  Luke must be with him, for he greets the church through Paul, as does Demas as well.  The letter is to be passed along to the Laodiceans.

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 1 and Colossians 3

Introduction to Kings:  The two books called Kings open in the year 973, the last year of David’s reign. The book reached its final form 400 years after Solomon (6^th C). Lawrence Boadt, in his book Reading the Old Testament tells us that the books tell us the story of the line of kings established around 1000 BC down through the conquest of Judah in the 6^th c. BC. The focus is on the level of faithfulness each demonstrates to the covenant made with David and on the role of the early prophets in the unfolding of that history. The early chapters of 1 Kings tells of the succession of Solomon to his father’s role as king. Up through chapter 10, Solomon seems to be the ideal successor, but after this we see evidence of his gradual drift away from faithfulness, a drift that will ultimately lead to a revival of tribal tensions and ultimately to a split in the unified kingdom David managed to create. Then the prophets, Elijah and Elisha, emerge – the first prophets who seem to fulfill the prediction in Deuteronmy 18 that God would “raise up a prophet like Moses” who would lead the people correctly.

1 Kings 1 – King David is now old.  He has trouble staying warm, so his servants bring him a young virgin to lie with—Abishag the Shunammite.  Shunem was southeast of Lake Galilee, south of Mt. Tabor. The king did not have sex with her though she was very beautiful.

                 

Adonijah, David’s 4^th son by Haggith, decides he will be king.  He is the oldest surviving son with Absalom dead following his failed rebellion. He was a handsome man, and several very important men support his claim: Joab, David’s army commander [now going against David’s will – he has opinions about David’s sons that are the only area we can find any disloyalty to David in him] and Abiathar, the priest [of Nob—Ahimelech was his father]. Zadok [rival of Abiathar], Benaiah [rival of Joab] and Nathan (the prophet) as well as Shimei and Rei [this name is translated “and his companions” in JB from Gr.] do not support him.

                 

Adonijah initiates his claim to the succession with sacrifices; he invites all his brothers and the royal officials of Judah, but he does not invite his brother Solomon.  Nathan approaches Bathsheba to tell her what is happening.  He tells her to remind David that he has said that Solomon should succeed him, and he tells her that he—Nathan—will come in and support her.  The king is very old.  Bathsheba does what Nathan suggests.  She says, “the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne. . .” (1:20). The Jerusalem Bible says the “order of succession” has not yet been determined. Nathan seconds her account.  David summons Zadok and Benaiah and instructs them to bring Solomon down to Gihon (Gihon Spring, main water-source for the city of Jerusalem) where Zadok and Nathan will anoint him king (1:34) over Judah and Israel.  Solomon rides to Gihon Spring on King David’s mule, and there Zadok anoints him with oil from the tent and blows the trumpet in a great festival of song and rejoicing.

                 

Adonijah and those with him hear the celebration and ask why the city is in an uproar.  Jonathan, Abiathar’s son, comes to tell them what has happened.  All “the guests of Adonijah got up trembling and went their own ways” (1:49). Adonijah grasps the horns of the altar, fearing Solomon; but when Solomon hears, he assures his brother that if he proves to be loyal, he shall not be hurt. He is told he may go home.

Colossians 3 – What is it to be joined to Christ through faith? There are no greater passages in all of Scripture!

“You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory” (3:1-4).

Paul goes on to talk about the transformation that “life in Christ” should bring: the death in oneself of all that he calls “earthly” (3:5): sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions and greed. Put off “the old self” and put on “the new self . . . the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image” (3:9-10). Again, as in John’s writings, we are referred back to the Genesis creation story. We are more than natural creatures; we were made to live as God’s “image” in this world (see Genesis 1:26-27).

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body” (3:15).  Wives should be “subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly” (3:18).   “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord” (3:20). Even slaves, Paul advises, should “obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord” (3:22).

These passages are the ones we moderns cannot hear any more—they grate against the cultural achievements we have made as Christians, being consistent with the ethic of love we learned from the likes of Paul, and the implied ethic set forth in the Genesis vision of “male and female” created in God’s image.  Still, they seem difficult to accept - equality of persons is now so established with us.  But imagine you were living 2000 years ago when these cultural norm of female “subordination” to males was the rule and human slavery was accepted virtually everywhere on earth.  How would we have advised Christians to be Christian in that environment?  Would it not have been exactly as Paul suggests here? 

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 24 and Colossians 2

2 Samuel 24 – The Lord gets angry at Israel and incites David to take a census - always a bad thing in Israel. It's interesting to ponder why it was seen as a bad thing, something "satan" would put into David's head. Numbering of people in one's "land" was tied with military service, and the whole concept of "state sovereignty," or organization of a people under the rule of a monarch was not something that flowed easily from Hebrew monotheism. Samuel warned against it as something not wished by God. God is the only "sovereign" power finally. It could be that some remnant of this concern lingers here. Joab warns against it (24:3), but the king insists. 

After nine months and 20 days, they return with the results—in Israel there are 800,000 “able to draw the sword” (24: 9) and in Judah, 500,000. After it is done, David become conscience-stricken. Gad, David’s prophet at this time, comes to him and asks what penalty he wants the Lord to exact - he can choose: 3 years of famine; 3 months of flight before his foes or 3 days of pestilence in the land. David chooses the last.  When he sees the devastation wrought, however, he says to God, “I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house” (24:17).

David buys the threshing floor of Araunah, a Jebusite whose place is threatened by the pestilence, and builds an altar there; he also buys the oxen to sacrifice and makes sacrifice there to the Lord.  The Lord answers David’s supplication and spares Israel any more suffering.

Colossians 2 – Paul tells the community, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him . .” 2:6-9).  This is fabulous writing, incredible articulation of exactly what it is to see and to live “in Christ.” Paul goes on to describe the mystery of Christian baptism.  “You have been buried with him, when you were baptized; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins” (2:12-13).

The next passage is one that Quakers make a great deal of: “Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.  These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (2:16-17). “Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’? All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.  These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence” (2:20-23).

Everyone lifts what they want from Paul’s words, and some among Friends especially simply dismiss the words as “human teaching.” Early Friends did not dismiss Paul; they felt that they grasped the message he gave in a way most Christians of their day did not. It is true Friends made a great deal about the irrelevance of “human commands and teachings” – the shadow world of “outward” religion, but Paul’s words about Christ in this epistle were not this kind of “human teaching.”  Friends rooted themselves in this cosmic Christ and they experienced him as Paul did but in a different time.

Personal Reflection: The deep revelation of Christ as Logos, Light, Word and Spiritual Savior, the revelation that energized the apostles and built the community that was the early church is every bit as inexplicable (naturally) as the OT "exodus event" was for the Jews.  You will not find any easy verification of that event in historical records, but acceptance of it was the seed around which God brought together his first people – the Jews.  Acceptance of Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection is similarly not an event you will ever find validated as simple history, but its reality, experienced by these first apostles, is the event around which “the nations” will eventually be drawn to the one God.  Like the Israelites before us, we accept the truth of it through trust in those who were there at the event, those who knew him, saw him risen, were given the gospel first hand; and we trust them because in some deeply interior way, we too encounter God in Christ as an incarnate, loving and saving God.  His face and voice and touch in us reveals God’s reality, discloses His nature, draws us powerfully toward Him and toward the lives we were meant to live as His people.  The Holy Spirit is the power and mystery of God present with us now even though the bodily Jesus is no more. But these are truths of a different order from the truths our mind and mouths are accustomed to dealing with.  They smash against the barriers our logic and materiality (corporality) present to them.  But it is the job of faith to stand even in the absence of every human aid.