God’s people - the empire
(Read part one before you read this!)
But that’s exactly what they did do. Forget.
Not straight away, it took a while. But slowly, surely, one moment, one decision at a time they forgot.
God did everything He promised to them; He gave them a land flowing with milk and honey, He went before them into battle and ensured their victory - they ruled over the nations all around them. They had it good, really really good.
But they forgot.
They forgot they year of Jubilee. They forgot the land ownership laws. They forgot to look after the poor and the widow among them.
Worse than that, they decided God wasn’t enough for them. They looked at the nations around them - the nations God has put under their control - and saw that they had kings in charge of them; and they decided they wanted that too.
The people God has chosen to be His idol on earth decided that God’s way wasn’t the way they wanted to live. They decided His way of community wasn’t good enough, and so they started to return to the way of the world around them - the way of empire.
The crowning moment of the Israeli nation is the time of Solomon; the man of wisdom. This is the moment that the Jewish people look back on with such fondness, the time when they were the most important people in the whole world.
But what if this time wasn’t a good time, but a bad one?
Let me explain.
1 Kings 9 v 15 says this: “Here is the account of the forced labour King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace…. and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.”
Forced labour. You mean slaves? But surely that’s not how this community was supposed to work?
Solomon used the slavery of his own people to build the temple of God - I don’t know about you but something just doesn’t quite seem right about that. The God who hears the cry of the oppressed, who rescues those in need - His temple was built by the hands of slaves.
And then of course, any self respecting King needs a big palace to live in. So Solomon did exactly that. And then he built some for his wives too. Did I mention one of his wives was the daughter of Pharaoh? You know, Egypt - the people they were supposed to leave behind?
It gets worse still.
Hazor, Meggido and Gezer are military bases.
Solomon is using his massive resources, and the slavery of his own people to protect, well, his massive resources. You see, when you have a lot you begin to get nervous about making sure you always have a lot - and thats exactly what Solomon did. Why trust God when you can have a massive army to protect you?
So let me sum all this up really simply for you.
Solomon has become Pharaoh. Jerusalem is the new Egypt.
The people of God have become the very thing that God saved them from.
Moses has earlier warned that if they did choose a King he “must not acquire great numbers of horses…. He must not take many wives, or His heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold”. (Deuteronomy 11)
So lets see. Solomon: horses, yep; wives, yep; silver and gold - yep.
In the midst of that verse there is a telling phrase “His heart will be lead astray”. That harkens back to the first commandment - where God is to be their first love. Solomon has forgotten where the centre is. He has forgotten why he is where he is.
It didn’t take long; around 400 years, but the people of God have become the empire. The new humanity has been lost amidst slavery, disobedience and greed. They forgot what they were they for - they looked out for themselves and not for the things of God. Instead of being bearers of grace and mercy, liberation and freedom they chose greed, wealth and comfort.
And so God finds himself in a bit of a position.
How do you deal with it when you’re people become the oppressors?
What do you do when the image the world is seeing is your image?
What happens when your body looks nothing like you?
Well thats what exile is for…
September 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Hi Ryan.
Just a quick thanks for the previous, I must say it was quite revalatory. The ten commandments have become slightly less boring and lumped together with other things i had to learn at Sunday school, now they better reflect the Grace and mercy that is the centre of God’s heart.
The aquisition of ’stuff’ is easy to do and rightly you say more time, money, resources, energy then is spent trying to make sure you can keep a hold of that stuff. I rekon ther are times when i spend more time, energy etc keeping hold of stuff than what the original ’stuff’ is worth. I think holding onto things,even people, lightly means that if ever God wants me to let go then he wont have to shout or break my fingers to get me to do it.
Grace and peace to you and the missus. [bet she hates that ;-)]
September 29th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Thanks Paul