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January/February
2009 A word
First Kings
The kings When Solomon had securely established himself as king, he made an alliance with Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. This kind of alliance was possible only if Solomon had provided a way for Pharaoh’s daughter to continue her pagan worship. By the time Solomon had made the same sort of alliances with other kings, Jerusalem was full of pagan shrines. “Solomon himself loved Yahweh … but he too slaughtered and burned sacrifices at the shrines” (3:3). God appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked, “What shall I give you? Tell me” (3:5). Solomon humbly prayed, “Grant your servant … a heart with skill to listen, so that he may distinguish good from evil. Otherwise who is equal to the task of governing this great people of yours” (3:9). God blessed Solomon and said there will never be another like him. Wisdom was the name of a practical kind of philosophy found all over the Middle East that was frequently expressed in proverbs. Solomon sponsored this movement and became associated with it as its source. Thus, the Hebrew Bible associates all proverbs with Solomon. Solomon “propounded three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five” (4:32). Solomon organized a large bureaucratic government by establishing judicial districts, ignoring traditional tribal areas, and raising taxes. At the same time, Israel was becoming a stratified society with most of the farmers on the bottom rung. Solomon made contact with Hiram of Tyre, David’s ally, and told him God had promised that David’s son would build a temple for God. Hiram agreed to provide an architect and all the wood that Solomon would need. We know that something had changed in Israel when we read in chapter 5, “King Solomon raised a forced levy from the whole of Israel amounting to thirty thousand men.” In pagan nations, a temple contained a statue of their god as that god had revealed himself at one time. It was not a place for congregational worship but a location for people to pay tribute to that god. Yahweh’s temple was similar to other temples, but it had no statue of God. Instead, it contained the Ark of the Covenant. God spoke to Solomon, “I will fulfill my promise to you, the promise I gave to your father David, and I will dwell among the Israelites and never forsake my people, Israel” (6:12-13). The Temple became a concrete sign of God’s presence and sovereignty over all creation. However, Jesus taught us that he has replaced the temple as the sacrament of God’s presence. “Destroy this temple … and in three days I will raise it up again … but the temple he was speaking of was his body” (John 2:19-21). Because of the many shrines to other gods and goddesses that Solomon’s wives required, paganism became fashionable and attracted many well-to-do people who seemed to think that another god or so was not a big deal. Israel had become a rich kingdom through international trade, and as most cosmopolitan nations, it put tolerance and wealth ahead of worship of Yahweh, who seemed like just one more divinity whose laws put restrictions on the people’s pleasure seeking and wealth. The merchant class was becoming richer and richer. Bankers lent money to farmers at impossible rates. When they foreclosed on them, corrupt judges vindicated them. Under the original vision for Israel, each family had its land to farm as equals under God. Anyone who belonged to Israel had his share of the Promised Land. Now, more and more families were becoming tenants on land that had been in their families for ages. Israel had become wealthy for a few upon the backs of the majority. “This King Solomon outdid all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom and the whole world courted him …” (10:23). “He had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses. … He made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone …” (10:26-27). God spoke angrily to Solomon about the idolatry, “Because you have done this and have not kept my covenant and my statutes as I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom from you …” (11:11). This did happen during Solomon’s lifetime, but when his son inherited the kingdom, a delegation of leaders from the northern tribes came to him and requested lower taxes and less tyranny. Rehoboam, the new king, listened only to his young advisers and told the people, “My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I shall make it heavier. My father whipped you, but I shall flay you” (12:11). As a result, the ten tribes of the north revolted. Rehoboam was unable to bring them back, and Israel split into two kingdoms: Israel in the North and Judah in the South. The word “Jew” refers to someone from Judah. Israel replicated the kingdom of Judah as well as it could with kings, a temple, and the tradition of Moses, but it lacked a divinely generated dynasty, the Ark, and the What follows in 1 and 2 Kings includes brief descriptions of several kings of both Israel and Judah. These books evaluate all those from the Northern Kingdom as bad kings because they worship some place other than Jerusalem and are not of David’s line. They also describe most of Judah’s kings as bad kings because they do not suppress the pagan cults, participate in social injustice, and put their trust in military alliances instead of The prophets The stories of an extraordinary prophet named Elijah (which means “my God is Yahweh”) take us to the end of 1 Kings. Elijah’s ministry was in the Northern Kingdom. His opponent was King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. Ahab was corrupt and weak, and Jezebel was strong, ruthless, and determined to eliminate the worship of Yahweh. 1 Kings relates a cycle of stories about the conflict between Elijah and the king and queen. Baal’s worshippers thought he was the god of the thunderstorm and considered him necessary for the small amount of rain that Israel received each year. The primary battleground between Yahweh and Baal was about rain and drought. Who really controlled nature? First, Yahweh brought a terrible drought on the land that lasted three years. During this time, he nurtured Elijah. Then he sent Elijah to tell Ahab that the drought would end. When Elijah appeared to Ahab, Ahab asked, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” (18:17). Then, Elijah gathered a great crowd at Mt. Carmel, including 450 prophets of Baal, and challenged Baal’s prophets to a contest that would determine whether Yahweh or Baal was the sender of rain. As Elijah taunted Baal’s prophets, they sang, prayed, and tried to induce Baal to consume a slaughtered bull with fire. When nothing happened, Elijah suggested that perhaps Baal was merely away relieving himself. When it was Elijah’s turn, he had much water poured on and around the bull he was offering to Yahweh. He prayed, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your bidding. … Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering … and even licked up the water that was in the trench” (18:36-38). Elijah took Baal’s prophets to the Kishon Valley where he killed them all. In the Bible, participants played contests for keeps with no quarter asked or given. Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she would kill him within 24 hours. Elijah was afraid and felt isolated. He went to Mt. Horeb, the place of the Covenant, and sought a comforting word from Yahweh. There he heard God speak to him in the silence, “Why are you here, Elijah?” he asked. Elijah answered, “Because of my great zeal for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forgotten your Covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life” (19:13-14). God responded to his pitiful statement by assuring Elijah that there were After recording the two coups that took place amidst much bloodshed, the author of 1 Kings tells a story that reflects the ancient Israelite belief that Yahweh had intended that each family have a portion of the Promised Land to sustain their lives. When Ahab was still living, he discovered a beautiful vineyard that belonged to Naboth. He offered to buy it, but Naboth was offended and wouldn’t sell it. Ahab returned to his bedroom and lay in bed with his face to the wall. Jezebel asked him, “What is wrong now?” He said that he wanted to buy Naboth’s vineyard but Naboth wouldn’t sell it. Jezebel told him to wait, and she would give him the vineyard as a gift. Jezebel paid false witnesses to testify that Naboth had cursed God and the king. The people judged Naboth guilty and stoned him to death. Jezebel then told Ahab to “Get up and claim the vineyard” (21:15). Ahab was admiring his new vineyard when Elijah appeared and told the king that Jezebel would be killed and eaten by dogs and that Ahab’s dynasty would end. “Of the house of Ahab, those who die in the city will be food for the dogs, and those who die in the country food for the birds” (21:23-24). The final chapter of 1 Kings is an independent story that is about a prophet of Israel in the time of Ahab who refused to tell the king what he wanted to hear. This fearless prophet was Micaiah. Ahab was asking Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, to form a military alliance against Syria (Aram). Ahab was ready to seal the deal and go, but Jehosaphat said he would first like a word from Yahweh. Ahab’s prophets said with one voice that Yahweh wanted the king to go to Syria and fight and win a great victory. However, Jehosaphat had his own prophets and was not impressed. He asked if there was another, more independent prophet. Ahab replied that there was one whom he hated because he never said what Ahab wanted him to say. Jehosaphat requested that Ahab bring in this prophet, Micaiah. When Micaiah gave the same message as the others, Ahab was furious and said, “How many times must I adjure you … to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?” Then Micaiah told him that the LORD had put a lying spirit in the other prophets to lure Ahab to his death. Ahab ordered Micaiah to be arrested and fed bread and water until he returned. Micaiah declared, “If you do return in safety, the LORD has not spoken by me” (22:28). Despite Micaiah’s words, Ahab and Jehoshaphat went to battle against Syria, and Ahab died in the battle. His servants washed his chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the Lord had declared. The book ends with a short account of Jehoshaphat and his successor and Ahab’s successor.
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t the sealing of the Covenant on Mt. Sinai, Yahweh-God had told the Israelites that they were to be holy, as He is, avoiding the ways of the world, recognizing their equality before God, and behaving differently from the nations.