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The Doulos podcast explores servant leadership in an Orthodox Christian context.
Hollie Benton 0:04
You're listening to Doulos, a podcast of the Ephesus School Network. Doulos offers a scriptural daily bread for God's household and explores servant leadership as an Orthodox Christian. I'm Hollie Benton, your host and executive director for the Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative. Father Timothy Lowe is our co host. He is a retired priest and former rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem. Greetings, Fr. Timothy!
Fr. Timothy Lowe 0:29
Hello as well, Hollie, nice to be with you.
Hollie Benton 0:32
And with you as well. Fr. Timothy, you're taking us on a rather depressing journey touching on the biblical stories about Israel's search for a king, a good leader. The people have rebelled against God. They don't want the Lord as King, but they want to be like the other nations, with a king that leads their battles against these nations. The Lord appoints for them Saul then David and now Solomon, promising each that if they hearken to the Lord's commandments, and walk in his ways, then their kingdom will be secure. We have seen some promising beginnings with each of these leaders. But in the end, they all disappoint and demonstrate that no one is good, but God. So today, we're going to be looking at the end of Solomon's role and the beginning of Jeroboam. So what should we keep in mind before diving into the biblical passage today, and remind us again, why it's so important to know these stories, when honestly, we would rather seek the Bible for consolation and comfort, and validation, rather than to hear these stories that remind us of our own sin and our own shortcomings, which, honestly, can be so utterly depressing?
Fr. Timothy Lowe 1:47
Well, Hollie, you do mention the depressing journey of the biblical story. And this is absolutely true. And we have to accept the fact that the biblical writers hammer this point, time and again. And so quite frankly, as depressing and as repetitive and then ultimately boring, because something that repeats itself, quite frankly, is boring, we need to pay attention to this. So one of the ways that biblical writers trick us, I think, is to back us into a corner. So as you mentioned, the people requested King and reject the Lord as their king. The Lord, then (this is the tricky part, this is the cornering part) The Lord then goes into great detail about what life will be like under a king. This is the trick. Let me summarize what the text says, This king that they're requesting is going to be like, it goes like this. "He will enlist your sons for his army, to work his land to build his palaces, daughters will serve as cooks, attendants to his wives, he will take the best of the land to give it to his lords, he will take the best of your produce and cattle, he will tax your goods and flocks and will enslave you." My point is if you tell this story to a third grader, make your decision what's the best decision? Accept a new king, under these circumstances, which have been laid out in great, clear detail, or not? The third grader would obviously say anybody that chooses this kind of king, this kind of request, is a nutball. So this knowledge in detail that Samuel gives of the consequences is important for two reasons. People can then make an informed decision, they're told in advance what it's going to be like. So when they make the decision, yay or nay, they say yay, then they have to live with consequences when it begins to implode. And not claim that they were ignorant, or they're innocent, or they're not a part of it. No, they were part of it, they started it, and it will just simply unfold. And so when people, if they read the whole Solomon story, they need to understand that this description in I Samuel 8 is a description of Solomon, he is the quintessential biblical King. Now, we're ending the fifth week of Lent, drawing near to Holy Week, I'm gonna make a parallelism that isn't relevant to our texts, but it's the same repetition Jesus repeats time, and again, exactly what's going to happen to him in Jerusalem, in detail three times in all the Gospels, they're usually recounted three times, he tells them again, again, what's going to happen, so that in hearing, they will not be caught off guard, they will not be surprised. And the function of that, of course, is to be faithful and follow. And of course, we know it does not happen this way. Okay, so everyone is told, everyone has the knowledge if they want to hear it, the importance of these repetitious stories that you alluded to, I think the sole purpose of the biblical writers is to shred down to the last cell, our ego, just shred it entirely, okay. The repetition, it beats on you, beats on you, beats on you, told again, again, again, okay? We joke in the Orthodox Church that we have to do everything three times because we're too stupid, do it once or twice and still get the message, okay, liturgical joke. But the point is, we must rid ourselves of ego and self presumption, because that is the human dilemma entirely that the Bible wants to deal with. We are told we should be prepared. And yet, sadly, we are still caught off guard, we are still somehow amazed when we're told beforehand. Anyway, Solomon is this quintessential King, he's given everything, promised everything. He cannot resist the enticement of wealth and women as he becomes an idolater. So let us listen to the text you're gonna read for us today.
Hollie Benton 5:48
Yes, so the reading comes from I Kings 11. "And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, Since this has been your mind, and you have not kept my covenant, and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you. And will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." So here it seems Solomon has been doubly warned about going after other gods. And what's interesting here, too, is that even though we have heard from Scripture, the shortcomings of King David and the Lord's harsh judgment against him at those times, it does seem that the Lord is using David, although imperfect, against Solomon to show Solomon that he's even further off the mark than David was. So what happened to the wise Solomon? the one who ascended the throne as a youth and humbled himself before the Lord in recognition of his youth, of his inexperience, and ask the Lord for a listening heart, a heart of discernment and wisdom?
Fr. Timothy Lowe 7:24
Ah, Hollie, what happened? What happened? Yes, if you read the text, you will see Solomon begins immediately into building his empire, politics, alliances with others, needing resources, building a palace and temple complex. Oh, and then temples for his many wives, an increase in appetite for more and more, never ever satisfied in the pursuit of wealth, power, fame, okay, read it, and then you will see how it repeats itself time and again, in the story of anybody who is a bit of a megalomaniac. When is enough enough? This scenario, my point, plays out in every generation, every empire, every leader, the temptation is there, especially if they're an autocrat, and the king is an autocrat. Okay? The King is an autocrat, his word and word alone. So we see this being played out, the endless struggle to secure one's borders and this need to build bigger barns, example of the rich man who tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. There's two choices, okay? Either live by the frailty, of living by faith in the One who is God and Father and master, and thus will secure your life, your reality, your family, or you have to do it yourself. And the whole empire building for me is this endless quest to secure and guarantee your future. To make a general statement, I think we human beings live in constant fear of death, and our inherent fragility are being minimized all the time. And it makes us crazy. In short until I, I'll speak first person only, until I come to deal with the reality of my passing breath, the fundamental truth, and forget about the immortality of the soul, and you know, reincarnation and take whatever version of the future afterlife you want. I am a passing breath, okay. I'd like to tell funny story. This is a complete sort of diversion. We go on walks every day around the neighborhood, sometimes at various parks with the dog. It happens to be turtle season. So all of a sudden, in our residential neighborhood, we're coming across these little itty bitty freshwater turtles. Why? Because there's lots of ponds, small ponds, it's just way they design neighborhoods around here. And the mother turtle has gone on into residential areas, embankments and buried her eggs and now these turtles are popping up. So the first one we saw okay, my wife takes it home, brings it back and says, Okay, we're going to rescue this turtle. Finally we sit down, we discover what kind of turtle it is, where its habitat is, No, we're not going to keep it, we'll take it back. Now then you start seeing roadkill turtles, right? My point is the passing. It's just a funny story. It's irrelevant. It has to do with the passing nature of life. And for us human beings, it makes us crazy. This desire for power, control, legacy, future, a memorial for even our ancestors, the Bible addresses this. And so we see it acted out in the leaders of the Bible, as you know, bad examples. The human being leaves a trail of destruction in his endless pursuit. And we do too, in our small way, because we're not significant people. People have billions of dollars in wealth and power, you know, with nothing else to do. And so Elon Musk takes his brilliance and always wants to do other stuff. Because what else is he gonna do? My point, this bad commentary on the human being, personified in the image of Solomon, and why he starts humbly, has given the gift of wisdom, everything that he's needed to function as a shepherd and a leader of his people, becomes a tyrant, becomes a tyrant. And that's why the story of him asking for wisdom is the pinnacle, and the beginning of the end, because he has no excuse, because he's given everything just as the people have no excuse that they rejected God and His commandments, and his provision and lordship over them, for a human one. And we do this all the time. It's the story of the beginning and the end for a home life. So let's move on to the next unless you have a question.
Hollie Benton 11:52
I am but a passing turtle. We all are passing turtles, are we not? Yes, right. So the Lord is speaking to Jeroboam here, the one who will take Solomon's place, and the reading continues near the end of I Kings 11. "And I will take you and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will hearken to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not forever. Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
Fr. Timothy Lowe 12:54
So here we go again, right? The same promise if, if, if, always conditional, okay, always conditional. First, let's say something about in a simple verse, the great Solomon is completely dismissed, Hollie. He's not given a state funeral. He's not allauded by all of his neighboring kings, nothing, he is completely dismissed. And look at his last great act is to seek to destroy the new chosen one of God, CHOSEN ONE OF GOD. Note the pattern of repetition of the chosen one now, Jeroboam fleeing to Egypt for refuge, sounds familiar? Does it not? Note the powerful hope of the name of Jeroboam, which is, "may the people increase," because Solomon has become a threat to his own people. So the end of Solomon dismissed, hands washed, moving on, but there will be a remnant, okay. Solomon's son will have one tribe, the tribe of Judah. So when he talks about being king of Israel, now, immediately the kingdom is being separated and pulled apart. What does this story mean for us? What is the lesson that we need to hear? And it is always the simple lesson, I'm thinking of the words of John the Baptist, and the Gospel of John. When people notice that some of his disciples are going after Jesus, following him, and they ask John about this, are you jealous? And he simply makes this simple statement, He must increase, I must decrease or you could translate it he must become greater and I must become smaller. What I said earlier about the idea of the ego, how do we rid ourselves of the ego, which is the I, which is our reality, okay. When Christ says we must die with him, he's really talking about dying with him. That Timothy does not need to function as an identity, my life is hid with Christ and God. So let us be under no illusions about ourselves and others. We are always full of presumption, illusions,it is all about the mercy of God. We all come, we all go, whether we're Solomon in all of his glory and wisdom and fame and power and whatnot, or just a humble homeless person on the streets of Myrtle Beach, it all ends in a blink of an eye. In the meantime, anybody listening knows the commandments, we have no excuse. Our exhortation over so many podcasts have been not said this directly, but I'm gonna say it directly, forget about our creedal proclamations. Let us not imagine what we believe, but let us focus on solely doing the will of the Father, which is what we're going to hear all of Holy Week about Christ going to his cross, doing the will of his Father. All of these readings, all of the hearing of the biblical readings for this season is all about submitting to the will of God. And to understand that with Jesus, it is submitting to the coming suffering and death, of which we're told beforehand. So we have no illusions. So I want to give a teaser to the next few episodes that you and I do together. We're going to talk about Josiah and the end of kingship totally. And the judgment, David is judged, Saul was judged. Now, Solomon is judged, Jeroboam, go read the story. He's going to fail. Every King is going to fail until we get to Josiah. He is the last king before the coming judgment of exile. All of this is a prelude then to understanding Jesus, not as the King, the earthly king, but as the anti king, but we'll stop there. Leave a teaser if people are interested in the next few weeks. So there's a purpose and a method of what you and I are trying to do here over the Old Testament stories of kingship, its final ending and then of course, Christ as the King of glory.
Hollie Benton 17:07
Thank you, Father Timothy. Looking forward to the next few episodes. Come Lord Jesus, the one King who comes in glory.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai