1 Kings 3:5-14

5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you." 6 And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?"

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life." (1 Kings 3:5-14, NRSV)

On August 29, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year One), comments were repeated with editing and supplement from August 24, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 24, Year One). The revised comments are repeated here:

At the beginning of this reading, a “marriage alliance” is reported in which Solomon “took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David” (1 Kings 3:1a), presumably into what counted as his palace. By “city of David,” is meant, according to Frank S. Frick, the “oldest part of Jerusalem . . . located in the southeastern part of present-day Jerusalem on a land peninsula that is formed by the Kidron Valley on the east and the Tyropoeon Valley (Gk., ‘Valley of the Cheese-makers’) on the west” (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, 1985, s.v. David, City of). Frick adds that Solomon “expanded the city to the north, where he constructed a large platform on which he built the Temple and other elaborate royal buildings (1 Kings 6-7).” The report of this marriage, and the time reference, “until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem” (1:1b), are called “Brief comments introducing themes and ideas developed later in the book” (Ziony Zevit, The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, p. 677, on 1 Kings 3:1-4). According to Robert R. Wilson, Solomon’s “political alliance with an unnamed king of Egypt indicates that Solomon is now powerful enough to be part of the world of international politics” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on 1 Kings 3:1-2). But Zevit says, “Since Egyptian sources indicate that it is unlikely that the actual daughter of a reigning Pharaoh would have been given in marriage to a non-Egyptian, ‘daughter’ may refer to a woman closely related to or descended from the royal family” (on v. 1).

Another issue that repeatedly comes up in the Books of Kings is raised here, that is, worship in the “high places,” which the final editors of these books consider a contributing factor to the disaster of the eventual Babylonian conquest (cf. 2 Kings 17:9). “The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD” (1 Kings 3:2). And Solomon himself engaged in such worship. “The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar” (v. 4). This is counted as an exception to the otherwise favorable estimate of Solomon. “Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places” (v. 3). There are those, of course who would see Deuteronomy and the legislation against the high places as coming later than Solomon’s time by a couple centuries (see below).

But it is the LORD, whom Solomon meets at Gibeon. When we think of Solomon, we think of wisdom. At Gibeon in a dream he is offered a request, when God says “Ask what I should give you” (1 Kgs. 3:5). His request for “an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil” (v. 9), is preceded by a kind of preamble which reviews the LORD’s former blessings, and echoes some of David’ final words to him (cf. 2:1-4).

You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. (1 Kings 3:6-8, NRSV)

With these words, says Wilson, “Solomon implicitly admits that his royal rule thus far has been flawed. The self-serving wisdom of ch. 2 must be replaced with a higher wisdom (3:12) so that the king may rule justly and well over his subjects (vv. 9, 11). Without it, Solomon is like a little child who does not know how to go out or to come in (v. 7; the phrase probably implies a lack of military experience)” (on vv. 4-15). As noted above, the LORD is pleased with Solomon’s request (v. 10). In the dream (vv. 5, 15), God addresses Solomon directly:

Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life. (1 Kings 3:11-14, NRSV)

Iain W. Provan observes that, “Both Solomon’s wisdom and his wealth are themes developed in the following account of his reign” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on 1 Kings 3:12-13). But we might ask a few questions. How wise was it to begin his reign by marrying an Egyptian princess (v. 1)? Marriage with foreign wives was forbidden (Deut. 7:3, though the nations mentioned are principally the former inhabitants of Canaan). Or how wise was it to make an alliance with Egypt (v. 1) in the light of Deuteronomy 17:16? Earlier David’s advice to Solomon about dealing with Joab mentions Solomon’s “wisdom”: “Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his [Joab’s] gray head go down to Sheol in peace” (1 Kgs. 2:6). By his earlier “wisdom” Solomon swiftly disposed of people who could potentially threaten his position as king. Provan, in part anticipating tomorrow’s reading, puts it this way: Solomon’s “old wisdom had led to the use of the sword only for arguably unjust executions. His new wisdom leads to a more positive use of his weapon (v. 24), threatening execution in order to achieve justice” (Ibid., on vv. 16-28). Solomon accomplished many things, some that David wanted, but was not allowed, to do. But it’s hard to think of these things without remembering the assessment of him in chapter 11–the dark side of his reign, so to speak. And one might say that shadows of this dark side appear right from the beginning. What was he doing in one of the “high places,” for goodness sake? Gibeon was “the principal high place” (1 Kgs. 3:4; cf. Deut. 12:2-7).

We should remember that 1 Kings and 2 Kings were a continuous story–and for that matter, so was Samuel-Kings. There are two books of each because an ancient scroll would only hold so much. The final authors/editors of Kings were concerned to understand the disaster of the Babylonian conquest and the demolition of the first temple. They represent a prophetic viewpoint and conclude that the disaster was God’s punishment for the sin of idolatry, forsaking the LORD their God. In their judgment, the kings of Israel and Judah bear primary responsibility for this idolatry and apostasy. And so these editors apparently took some pains to suggest that it began with Solomon. (There are those who think Deuteronomy wasn’t written yet, and Solomon is perhaps unjustly blamed by the standards of a later time. But idolatry is recurrent throughout the historical books–the ones the Jews call the “Former Prophets”–and it is denounced repeatedly by the prophets. However, the later concern is the worship of other gods, not the LORD (YHWH), whom Solomon meets in his dream at Gibeon.

James 4:13-17; 5:7-11

Presumption

13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. (James 4:13-17, NRSV)

Patience in Suffering

7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (James 5:7-11, NRSV)

On September 7 and 8, 2007 (Friday and Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 31, Year One), the Epistle readings were James 4:13-5:6 and James 5:7-20. Today’s reading includes the first of these and part of the second, and relevant comments are repeated here. (On those dates, as noted there, comments were repeated with adaptation from earlier.)

James condemns the presumption of merchants who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money” (Jas. 4:13). This is not a warning against planning as such, but a rebuke for planning that does not take into account the uncertainties of life–“Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.” Their life, says James, is “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (v. 14). He has in mind merchants who travel “to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money” (v. 13), but, failing to appreciate the transience of their own lives (v. 14), their projection of future profitable business ventures amounts to arrogant boasting (v. 16). So they are rebuked for planning that disregards the Lord’s will in the matter. “Instead,” says James, “you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that” (v 15). James characterizes their attitude as boastful arrogance. “As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil” (v. 16). According to James B. Adamson, “These merchants were the materialist core of the contemporary bourgeois prosperity. In 4:11, 12 the sin of arrogance was in self-righteous smearing of others; here it is in the equally godless self-assurance in the usual trader’s mentality and prospectus” (New International Commentary on the New Testament, p. 178, on Jas. 4:13). In any line of work, the Christian believer should live as unto the Lord. The one “who knows the right thing to do”–knowing that he or she should plan with God’s perspective in mind–“and fails to do it, commits sin” (v. 17). Compare the traditional definition of sin within the Wesleyan tradition, “a willful transgression of a known law” (Richard S. Taylor, “The Question of “Sins of Ignorance” in Relation to Wesley’s Definition,” http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/21-25/22-04.htm, accessed again Dec. 31, 2007; you may have to copy and paste the URL). According to Sophie Laws, “the message [here] is the same as that of Jesus’ parable of the rich fool (Lk. 12:16-21)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, on Jas. 4:13-17). One might add that it relates to the following passage on the rich farmers as well.

For recent comments on James’ message to the rich farmers (Jas. 5:1-6), passed over in today’s reading, see the Archive for September 7, 2007 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 31, Year One).

In the continuation, James provides a contrast by beginning with encouragement for faithful people. Encouragement? Yes, but in a rather stern mode. Rather than the presumption and hasty action noted yesterday, James advises patience. “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord” (Jas. 5:7). They are to “be patient” (Jas. 5:7, 8) and “strengthen your hearts” in expectation of “the coming of the Lord” which “is near” (v. 8). They are not to “grumble against one another so that you may not be judged” for “the Judge is standing at the door” (v. 9). The prophets and Job are presented as examples of “suffering and patience” (vv. 10-11). He links patience to endurance (v. 11), when faced with suffering (v. 10), but connects this with the prophets. Job is “not cited as an example of makrothymia [‘patience’ NRSV] proper, but, like Elijah, of not altogether perfectly patient hypomōnē [‘endurance’ NRSV], “that gallant spirit which can breast the tides of doubt and sorrow and disaster, and still hold on, and come out with faith still stronger on the other side” (James B. Adamson, The Epistle of James, NICNT, quoting William Barclay). The words “patience,” “steadfastness” and “endurance” are used in the definition of both words, but “forbearance” is added for the former (makrothymia) and “fortitude” and “perseverance” for the latter, the one used of Job (F. Wilbur Gingrich, Shorter Lexicon, s.v. hypomōnē and makrothymia). Throughout Job’s dialogues with his “friends,” his attitude was anything but passive submission.

John 5:1-15

Jesus Heals a Lame Man on the Sabbath

5:1 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids-blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 7 The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." 8 Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." 11 But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.' " 12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (John 5:1-15, NRSV)

On March 7, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year One), comments were combined with some further revision and supplement from January 24, 2006 (Tuesday in the week of the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), when comments were repeated from January 18, 2005 (the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), and from August 19, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 10, Year Two), when comments were repeated from February 23, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year One). The combined comments are repeated here:

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for “a festival of the Jews” (Jn. 5:1). The festival is not specified, but various festivals have been suggested, for example, Tabernacles, Passover or Pentecost (cf. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel according to John, Anchor Bible, vol. 29, p. 206, on Jn. 5:1). But the focus of the narrative is on Jesus’ healing of the lame man (vv. 3-9), and the challenge of the Jews, first to the healed man, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat” (v. 10), and then to Jesus, “because he was doing such things on the sabbath” (v. 16, cf. v. 18). Many have had special interest in the pool. “Excavations near the later Church of St. Anne have uncovered evidence of a second century CE healing sanctuary and pool with five porticoes” (Obery M. Hendricks, NOAB, 3^rd ed.). Brown notes that “From patristic days (Tertullian, Chrysostom) a baptismal motif has been suggested for this story: this man whom the waters of Judaism could not heal has been cured by Christ.” But Brown notes that “Not only do the waters not heal, but also vs. 4 was probably not part of the text of John” (op. cit., p. 211, on 5:1-15) (It is missing in most of the earlier manuscripts.) The reference to the angel who stirred up the water (Jn. 5:4 KJV) is relegated to a footnote in recent translations because it is not included in most of the earliest manuscripts, and it is included but marked as questionable in a few manuscripts (cf. the NRSV footnote). Brown explains verse 4 as an “ancient gloss” that “may well reflect with accuracy a popular tradition about the pool. The bubbling of the water (vs. 7), caused perhaps by an intermittent spring, was thought to have healing power; and this may well have been attributed in the popular imagination to supernatural powers” (Ibid., p. 207, on v. [4]).

But the focus of the narrative is on Jesus’ healing of the lame man (vv. 3-9), and the challenge of the Jews, first to the healed man, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat” (v. 10), and then to Jesus, “because he was doing such things on the sabbath” (v. 16, cf. v. 18). When confronted about carrying the mat, the man replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” (v. 11). After he is asked, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” (v. 12), and has no answer (v. 13), his critics leave him alone for a time. After “Jesus [finds] him in the temple” and says, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you” (v. 14). Hendricks says, “The verse alludes to the traditional view that illness was a punishment for sin; see 9:2-3” (op. cit., on v. 14). The man finds the Jews and reports that “it was Jesus who had made him well” (v. 15), which leads to their persecution of “Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath” (v. 16). Hendricks reminds us that the term, “the Jews,” refers to “the religious authorities,” not all Jews (Ibid., on v. 16). They were possibly chief priests since the setting is in Jerusalem, but probably Pharisees (cf. Mk 3:6; Lk. 14:3). Jesus answer, “My Father is still working, and I also am working” (v. 17), added fuel to the fire in their eyes “because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God” (v. 18). A running debate begins here that continues in the passages set in Jerusalem (5:19-47; 7:14-52; 8:12-59; 9:13-41; 10:19-39). Jesus attributes their anger with him to this healing, “Are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath?” (Jn. 7:23). Raymond Brown comments on Jesus’ defense of his sabbath work (Jn. 5:16-18):

When Jesus is accused of violating the Sabbath, the Synoptic tradition records two ways in which he defends himself: (a) on humanitarian grounds. Jesus argues that o a Sabbath a man may water an animal or pull it out of a hole; therefore why may he not do the greater good of healing a man (Luke xiii 15, xiv 5)? Something approaching this argument may be found in John vii 23: if a man may be circumcised on the Sabbath, why may not the whole man be made well on the Sabbath? (b) on theological grounds. In the Synoptic tradition Jesus argues that in the OT the priest of the Temple were allowed to do work on the Sabbath; yet now something greater than the Temple is present (Matt. xii 5-6). “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (xii 8). This type of argument leads to a majestic claim by Jesus, and our present passage in John is quite similar.

Here, as elsewhere, John wants us to “come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing [we] may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31)

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net