Daily Bible Reading: 1 Kings 3-4 and Ephesians 1

1 Kings 3 – Solomon takes one of the Pharaoh’s daughters in marriage.  Asimov says the 21^st Dynasty in Egypt was in a state of decline. They “ruled only the Nile Delta, while upper Egypt was under the domination of the priests of Ammon, who ruled as virtual monarchs from Thebes” (323). 

People in Israel are still sacrificing “at the high places . . .because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord” (3:2). The king sacrifices in Gibeon, “the principal high place” (3:4). But one night when he is there, the Lord comes to him in a dream and asks Solomon what he should give him.  He says, “Give your servant. . .an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” (3:9) This pleases the Lord, and because he asked for something worthy, he also gives Solomon what he did not ask for—“riches and honor all [his] life; no other king shall compare with you” (3:13). When he wakes, he goes to Jerusalem before the ark of the lord and offers sacrifice there.

Two prostitutes come before the king to have him decide a case they have: they both recently gave birth to children, but one child died, and now they both claim that the surviving child is hers.  No one else was there—only they know the truth.  Exercising the wisdom he has just been promised, Solomon orders the baby cut in two so that each woman can have half.  When one of the women protests, she is awarded the child because her love for the child gives away her true identity.

1 Kings 4 – Officials of Solomon’s administration: Azariah (son of Zadok) – priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah – secretaries; Jehoshaphat – recorder; Benaiah – commander; Zadok and Abiathar – priests; Azariah (son of Nathan) – over officials; Zabud (son of Nathan) – priest and king’s friend; Ahishar  - in charge of the palace; Adoniram – in charge of forced labor.  Each of 12 officials was responsible for getting food for the king and his household for one month of the year (12 food districts). “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy” (4:20). Solomon’s kingdom extends from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, to Egypt even.

                 

The requirements of Solomon’s household – food and other provisions. “God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, a breadth of understanding as vast as the sand of the seashore” (4:29). He composed 3000 proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.  He wrote of trees and animals. He sounds like a lover of nature. And people came from everywhere to hear him. 



Introductory Information to Ephesians: The theme of this letter, written between 61 and 63 AD, is the nature, origin and purpose of the church in its most universal sense.  Having touched in Colossians on the ascendancy of Christ over not only the church on earth but over all the principalities, dominions and powers that co-exist with God in the cosmos, he returns to the theme of how this “pleroma” concept transforms the deepest notion of the church.  It is in the increasingly “mysterious” sense of Christ’s place in the universe that Paul sees the inexhaustibility of God’s love and the glory of His redemptive work in Christ.

Ephesians 1 - The letter introduces its theme more quickly than in most of Paul’s letters – it is the eternal nature of God’s plan.  We believers were chosen in Christ from the beginning, before the foundation of the world. The “we” to whom Paul refers are called blessed because we were chosen “in Christ” to be holy and unblemished, chosen to be adopted “to Himself” and redeemed by his blood. In Christ, God has “made known to us the mystery of his will . . . a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (1:9-10).

What does it mean to be “chosen in him”? That the people who were to find their salvation were somehow joined in Christ’s body even from the beginning of time? The God of this letter is a God whose purposes cannot be thwarted.  What his intentions are, nothing can change or deflect, even all the sin and misunderstanding and darkness that man’s will can throw out at God.  He says too that the gift of the Holy Spirit is but the first installment of our redemption inheritance.  The word “redemption” implies being returned to God as his possession. Paul focuses his mind on the importance of “knowing” or just seeing into the mystery he describes, more than on conforming one’s behavior to a certain set of rules.  The behavior is important—that is amply clear from his words in Colossians 3:5-9 and here again in chapters 4 and 5 of Ephesians—but the root of this transformation in behavior and character is to be found in “the spirit of wisdom” here in 1:17 and 18.

The Church is Christ’s Body (1:23).  Paul asks that we who are part of the body may be given wisdom and knowledge of him through “the eyes of our hearts” (Jerusalem Bible translation) - that knowing him we may have a hope for all the riches of his inheritance.  It is the mighty power of God that raised Christ from the dead and set him at God’s right hand, giving him authority over all things spiritual in heaven and on earth.

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?