The people are desperate with thirst. Surface water dried up long ago. Crops have failed. Most wells have dried up by now. Herds and flocks are dropping dead in dry fields. And so when Ahab calls the nation to assemble on the mountain, they are not there in a casual “let’s have a picnic on the grounds and watch some fireworks of an evening” frame of mind. Every one of them is distressed and distraught. And parched. They each know their body is as dry as can be. We’re about to show them how dried out their spirit has become too.
Elijah’s sole purpose is to prove three things: (1) Baal[1] is not “god,” (2) I Am God, and as a result of this and the prior proof, (3) I Am the only God. Since Baal[2] is charged with fertility of every kind, and fertility of crops in particular, the weather falls under his purview. No rain? No crops. So he’s not only in charge of making the rain fall, but also of making sure it comes in measured amounts at the right time. Not too little, not too much, mostly during growing season, not so much at harvest, and so on.
[1] In all his flavors, be it Baal-Hadad, -Melqart, - Hamon, -Justincase, whatever.
[2] Okay, for all the pagan god nerds, the Baal that’s the predominant focus of Jezebel and now Ahab’s worship is Baal-Melqart, the particular Phoenician flavor of Baal worshipped in Tyre and Sidon, Jezebel’s hometown. Please consider a different expertise. There are much better things to specialize in.
I Am the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. I Am wholly righteous and dedicated to the rescue of the human race. I Am the only hope for their salvation and restoration to the most excellent destiny for which I have designed and purposed them. I Am all these things and infinitely more. I. Am. Not. Convenient.
Examine your own path for a moment. After all, We Are not going through these generations of leaders and their exploits so you can bone up on your history. We Are looking at them to help you look at your life.
It’s Asa’s self-sufficiency in it all that’s the problem to the very end. (It’s your self-sufficiency that’s the problem too. You get that, right?) We Are still working on the whole “Seek God first in all, then walk On The Way I reveal” method of doing things. In Asa and the other kings, and in you.
Abijah’s mother, Maacah, in the pattern set by Grandpa Solomon’s wives, has become so much a sponsor of the worship of Asherah (that Canaanite fertility “goddess”) that she has crassly erected (just use your imagination - 1 Kings 15:13) a wooden sculpture of an object associated with fertility at the nearest shrine. In case Asherah needs a little help.
And so, when Abijah’s son, Asa, inherits Judah after his dad’s brief reign, he sets a precedent (that will unfortunately need to be repeated) of reforming the worship practices that have become corrupt. He burns Maacah’s nasty carving, removes all the idols and prostitutes from Judean worship sites, and converts all the high places that remain to the worship of Me alone. I’ll admit that I’d have preferred them to be wiped out altogether, but Asa’s efforts are of course an overwhelming good.
Have you ever seen someone so angry with another person that they can’t even speak directly to them at the time? So they tell another person within earshot to tell the offending person something for them? “You can tell so and so that I am shocked, shamed, and embarrassed by” whatever the problem is. Well, We Are a bit like that with Jeroboam at this point. We Are so incensed at his offering incense to Us in this multiplied heretical way that if We speak to him directly, We will probably fry him…
Fortunately, when he does give his answer to the people after three days’ time, Rehoboam leaves that colorful genital metaphor out. Unfortunately, he keeps the rest of his drinking buddies’ advice and promises more work and harsher discipline. And that’s the moment. It’s the boulder that breaks the camel’s back. The northern tribes justifiably think that they have been doing all the work but deriving none of the benefit[1] of being part of the glorious nation of Solomon – or rather, Israel. In the face of Rehoboam’s petty swagger and immature machismo, they secede from the nation, lamenting that the house of David (and Solomon and Rehoboam) has no regard for them and has proven that it will not look out for them. They say they must instead look out for themselves since these kings from Judah have not. As they turn their backs on Rehoboam and secede from the nation, their parting shot conveys their scorn at his lack of concern for them: “What share do we have in David? What part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel![2] Look after your own house, David!”[3] You’ll have to do all your own dirty work from now on!
[1] Think taxation without representation in your habitat, only even worse.
[2] Given their portability, the tents imperative is akin to “Let’s roll/move/get outta here!”
[3] I Kings 12:16, kicking in any number of “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone” daydreams on their part.
it’s a very realistic hope and expectation on the part of the people of Israel that, with the passing of Solomon, his endless expansion and building projects would die with him. It’s perfectly reasonable for them to think that now that I have fulfilled My promises and brought the land’s borders to their pledged limits; now that there are fortifications along those borders and ample materials with which to supply them; and – most importantly – now that the glory of Israel and her God have been established for all the world to see with My spanking new spectacular temple right in My people’s midst; life can move out of the Solomon the Builder “Can we build it? Yes we can!” phase into the far more pleasant and sustainable “let’s get back to our normal lives” stage.
Keep your eyes wide open as Solomon reaps what he has sown in his marriage beds and is led astray to worship other gods beside Me by his very persuasive wives. I Kings 11 lays it all out in quick, efficient, tragic detail. Household shrines to the imposter “gods” simply wouldn’t do for the wives of so great a king, so he builds places for public worship of their “gods” on the nearest available bare hills, which are referred to as high places (with the thought of getting as physically close to their target “gods” as possible). I of course Am enthroned, enshrined and en-templed on the highest place in the region, but now the high places of other “gods” can been seen from atop My mount. I Am no longer the only God on Solomon’s menu.
The influence of a bride uprooted from her home cannot be underestimated, and a man in love can be easily persuaded to bend in the way she desires in order to make her more comfortable (and to prevent the honeymoon and all its bliss from ending any earlier than it must).
Should Israel turn her back on Me and commit spiritual adultery and bed herself with other local gods by worshipping them instead of Me, in doing so Israel of her own free will ends the covenant We have made with her. She releases Me from My promises by breaking hers. Um… We’ve done this with you long enough that you’re applying that to yourself, right? Well, professor, what would the parallel(s) be in your life?
Just as Solomon and his people are called to live in such a way that all the peoples of the earth may know that I Am God, so are you. My care for them isn’t supposed to stop with them; it’s supposed to move through them into all the peoples of the earth. My care for you isn’t supposed to stop with you. You’re not supposed to be a cul-de-sac, but an avenue through which My care and love flows into the lives connected to you.
With the peace and prosperity of the nation summarized, and that covenantal lynchpin reminder in place, it’s time for a seminal moment in My relationship with My people: it’s time for My temple to finally get built. Once again, it’s not something I asked for – this is another human idea. I knew something would be lost if I let the people have the human king they wanted: the very big important idea the I Am the King – I always have been and always will be. I also know something else will be lost as I let them build a house for Me, or at least for My Name: I will become smaller in their eyes.
The biggest lesson you can take from Solomon comes from his acknowledgment that he doesn’t know everything and needs My help and the wisdom only I can provide. You can pretend to folks around your workplace or elsewhere that you know a whole lot and are an expert at this or that, but that kind of smokescreen doesn’t work with Me. If either you or Solomon are going to fulfill your destiny and live out your greatest potential, you’ve got to plug into Me as your primary source. Just as Solomon does here, you need to acknowledge that you don’t know everything. You need to acknowledge that you need My help. You need to acknowledge that only I can provide you with what you need – wisdom is just for starters – what you need to fulfill your destiny and be the person I designed you to be, to live out and enjoy the best of all the possibilities I’ve embedded within you. Go ahead and ask Me. I’ll answer you as surely as I’m about to answer Solomon. You’ll get your own answer, of course, not Solomon’s, but be on the lookout.
You can hear David’s memory of Saul in there; his memory of Saul’s letting the monarchy slip through his fingers because he essentially failed to pay close enough attention to Me. Don’t get tripped up on the warning, friend. Like every good parent, I need you to know up front there’ll be consequences if you do wrong, but I’m not issuing a warning in the hopes of getting to punish anyone. No, My great hope is that you will seek to know Me, that you will serve Us with a single mind and willing heart. These are David’s words to his son, and they’re My words to you. If you seek Me (and I mean really seek Me, not wonder a bit about Me and whether I Am out there or not); if you seek Me, I will be found by you. That’s the big request I’m making of you throughout all of this: that you seek Me. Go ahead. I dare you.
As We said, up until and for some time now We’ve pretty much been building a crescendo to the climax of Our covenant with David, a covenant that lays out the road map for the next phase of the Abraplan. As the Abraplan pivots on David, the arc[1] of Our journey with humanity adjusts with it, and The Owner’s Manual shifts into a new book at this point. We leave the Book of Samuel and enter the Book of Kings.[2] Human kings, every one of them, but titles get capitalized[3] in your habitat.
[1] Yes, We will be concerned with the Ark of the Covenant once more in the future, but for now We’re talking about the overall scope and trajectory of the Abraplan in an arc with a “c” not a “k” of related interactions between humanity and Us that connects the beginning and the end of Our purposes and desires for you. Yep, all that in three letters: arc.
[2] This, once again, is a single book in its original version, split in two by the Greek translators for easier carriage of all their vowels. For the most part, Our reference to “The Book of Kings” will be simply “Kings” to lessen somewhat the carriage of Our instant work.
[3] Surely you’ve notice Our capitalization of all references to Myself. The capitalized Kings of Israel or of any other nation are so in title alone, not divinity, despite what Pharoah, Caesar, or Luis XIV may have thought.
In the very least you’ve had a moment of real clarity and seen what’s truly important in life, and determined to spend your time on the important things instead of the urgent ones; but then the week happens and pulls you away from that center. You end up thinking, feeling, saying, doing things that are so you-centered, it seems impossible for you to have been in that worship/clarity zone anytime recently.
So. On the heels of David’s encounter with Nathan, and just as the prophet had foretold, the child Bathsheba conceived by David’s adultery dies. Then, further consequence works its way out in David’s household and kingdom. One could say these consequences result less directly from David’s sins of adultery and murder and more directly from the fact that the king has passed his heart of pride and lust on to the next generation.
I love David too much for his story to end the way he’s been walking toward. He’s way too far gone and his heart much too hard for just an anachronistic phone call and cup of coffee to work at this point. I do have to send in a prophet. The prophet of the day, Nathan. David is in fact so far spiraled in his pride that, were Nathan to stroll in and speak directly to the king’s sin, the prophet would most likely join Uriah on the list of casualties of David’s pride. A good prophet is hard to come by in any habitat, so to spare Nathan the danger of propheticide, We employ one of Our favorite approaches: the sideways sidle. You can call it a parable. You can call it a metaphor. You can call it a Trojan horse. It’s a way to slip truth into a person’s heart and mind without their realizing it. At first.
Whatever his motives, the absence of activity on David’s part leads to one of the greatest dangers in life: boredom. Boredom is the next step in the king’s gradual progression of downward spiral from his peak experience in My presence to his failure and betrayal in adultery and murder. While it wasn’t until the 19th century that an Englishman penned the proverb that “an idle brain is the devil’s workshop,”[1] that truth is clearly seen in David’s steps (and in yours).
And so several things have been going on, or rather, not going on in David’s heart in the days prior to his sin with Bathsheba and his resultant murderous cover-up. The leader who had consistently sought My guidance and desired to be led by Me has stopped reaching out to Me and has withdrawn his heart from My presence. The active, resourceful youth who used his spare shepherding time to hone his skills at slingshot and lyre has let his activity (and maturity) coast to a standstill.
And so the bored king takes a walk on the palace roof to see what he might see.[2]
[1] H.G. Bohn, Handbook of Proverbs. A handful of you actually attribute this lick mistakenly to TOM.
[2] Note throughout the echo of the theme of Samson’s “eye appetite.”
