A Word for the Community

In the spirit of not letting this blog die while I finish papers, study for exams, and prep for the GRE and since the first two sections can be found below, I thought I would include here the last section of my paper: “A Theologically Critical Study of I Kings 9:28-11:43.”

The Application…

“It could easily seem for a community who follows Christ, such as the church today, that the judgment embodied by the Torah-influenced Deuteronomist is antiquate. Torah regulations, while fitting for Israel, do not pertain in the context of justification and grace found in Christ. Indeed it could be easily assumed that, while the role of Deuteronomic judgment is interesting and insightful, the real fruit of Isaiah 60 is the application the gospel writers give the phrase – bearing “gold and frankincense.” Thus, it could also be assumed that the true kingship and power of Israel is here being ascribed to the Messiah and the fruit of I Kings 9-11 is found in the attribution of Solomon’s glory to Christ.

Such an interpretation is half right, but could, unfortunately, lead to a half dose of Christianity.  This interpretation poses the danger of only realizing an application equitable to substitutionary atonement. While the salvific quality of such a doctrine should not be denigrated, the lack of insight it provides when found alone should be. We should not follow Solomon and, say because of the temple, I am free – or because of substitutionary atonement, I am free (from sanctification and the consequence of idolatry).

Or, more likely and more insidiously, pursue our own consolidation of power, opulence, and respect. Our situation is not so different from Solomon’s. Solomon turned the monarchy into a business, through trade he became powerful, and through the technique it required, established a monarchy doomed to idolatry. As a church, a covenant community, who upholds the spirit of the Torah in their very identity, the alternative disposition and Yahweh-dependent economic vitality of such a community must be upheld. Such an expression must be found in any venture that includes a member of the covenant community.

While the paradigm is effectively altered with the inclusion of Christ and the renewing of the covenant community, it is not dissolved. In fact, in Christ, the charge to not realize the eschaton except from within the body is more pronounced. Since Solomon’s sin can amount to a realizing of the eschaton before and without the work of the Lord, it would follow that the penultimate sin would be to establish a personal eschaton in the present.

This archetype stands against the covenant community I know and love the best. The Reformed (neo-Calvinist) community, by virtue of a complex yet fertile philosophy, is predisposed to the sin of realizing personal-community eschaton. Such a philosophy as ours sets its gaze upon the entire world, declares its goodness, and begs to begin work within it. While there is certainly something beautiful about such a vision, something eschatological, it more frequently results in the marriage of Solomon.

Our vision drives our interest in various manners of consolidation that seem benign yet, like the hundreds of princesses and concubines of Solomon, begin to turn our head toward “the high places” and the idols that rest there. Such a marriage is particularly prominent in the area of economics and business. The, “all creation is good,” disposition allows this particularly well-fed wife of ours into our midst, informing us of a way to live other than that of a torah-guided community. The only way out of such a marriage is exile. The only hope out of exile is living as a covenant community – or communal union with Christ. Not only for imputation of righteousness, but, for the predication of all our eschatological hopes and dreams upon Christ.”

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