Today's readings are 1 Kings 5.1-18 and 2 Corinthians 1.23-2.17.
Solomon is becoming more entrenched in his reign. God is giving him peace and prosperity. He is gaining respect as a world leader. But something else is happening in today's reading from 1 Kings 5. See that Solomon is changing Jerusalem and the royal estates from following the patterns of labor and rest, sowing, cultivating, reaping, and dormancy that it has followed for time out of mind to an economy driven by commodities and staffed by labor which seems more like it belongs in a factory than in a farmhouse. Solomon is engaging in a modernization and industrialization project which is going to end Israelite culture as they know it. This is exactly what God predicted through Samuel when the people were asking for a king.
A king may be a good thing. A strong central government can do some things that a less centralized government simply can't. There are some distinct efficiency gains. But there are some serious costs as well.
What do we see our governments coming to? How can we see them in God's economy? What are they doing well and what are they doing poorly? What brings help and what brings harm? It's nothing new.
Solomon is becoming more entrenched in his reign. God is giving him peace and prosperity. He is gaining respect as a world leader. But something else is happening in today's reading from 1 Kings 5. See that Solomon is changing Jerusalem and the royal estates from following the patterns of labor and rest, sowing, cultivating, reaping, and dormancy that it has followed for time out of mind to an economy driven by commodities and staffed by labor which seems more like it belongs in a factory than in a farmhouse. Solomon is engaging in a modernization and industrialization project which is going to end Israelite culture as they know it. This is exactly what God predicted through Samuel when the people were asking for a king.
A king may be a good thing. A strong central government can do some things that a less centralized government simply can't. There are some distinct efficiency gains. But there are some serious costs as well.
What do we see our governments coming to? How can we see them in God's economy? What are they doing well and what are they doing poorly? What brings help and what brings harm? It's nothing new.
--
Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com
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