10 September 2023
Before you can teach your children a prime directive, you must first have one.
Solomon had a problem. The first King of Israel (Saul) was nothing more than a warlord. The second King, his own father David, was a genuine king, the first who actually ruled with a vision for future generations. After a stumbling start, he caught the fire inside his soul for what Israel could be as a lighthouse to a storm-tossed world. Solomon absorbed this same vision and actually began implementing it. And this meant gathering a substantial royal administration of people fit to serve this vision.
We are quite certain his Book of Ecclesiastes was the core of his training curriculum for young men entering royal service. It served as the minimum necessary Hebrew mystical awareness for understanding the nature of Solomon's reign, and his legendary wisdom. What could he have said about all that the Hebrews had learned since the Exodus and Conquest? So far as we can tell, Solomon began the process of collecting all the Hebrew literature he could get his hands on and cleaning it up to form the early books of the Bible. It wasn't the building program that required so many scholars in his court.
Eventually we know that his vision was lost by his descendants. We end up with the testimony of Malachi on just how completely it was lost. During my most recent study of Malachi, I was granted a vision, just a tiny shred of what I'm sure Solomon tried to teach. I saw myself standing on a long road that receded off in the distance behind me. It was the kind of road that the ancient Hebrews might build, with hand-laid stone blocks. Looking back, some parts were very nicely done, and other parts so ragged as to be almost gravel, at best. That was the past.
I turned to look up the road ahead of me, into the future. There was a shadowy mist, glowing in the air, an overlay of what could be. It was better than any part behind me, and indicated what was possible, if we would trust the Lord. It's the same thing Malachi was offering the Hebrews who had returned, only to get lost on the way to restoring what God had called them back to Judea do. He warned them that they were building the future for God to walk on. He reminded them of all the promises God would fulfill, but only if they remained subject to His authority.
I'm doing what I can to share the vision of what God will do if we will truly embrace His Covenant. This didn't start with Jesus; it goes all the way back to Eden, and it will end there again some day out in front of us. This road is not for us; it's for Him. It's to honor Him and make His path straight and comfortable. You and I are that road, in a certain sense. We must make ourselves fit His design.
Can He walk comfortably through your life?
We are building on the past. We are not that past ourselves; we don't ape what they did in ancient Palestine. We are fresh stones laid in an ancient pattern. It's not something a human mind can comprehend. We aren't trying to create a civilization, but there's nothing wrong with a fresh civility. We need to understand both the model and what we have to work with now.
More to the point, we must be able to model what holiness looks like in this context, so future generations can have a clue. What kind of wisdom and patience can we offer? Honestly, we don't have much to go on. I glance back and the road nearest me is a shambles. Not evil people, but they were seriously lacking in a clear view of the model. They were using a totally different pattern and technology, and it didn't stand. I'm not here to second guess their failures, but to learn not to make the same mistakes.
Most of you reading this will be alive when God pours out His destruction on our civilization. Everything the world is built on will collapse. Most of the human population will die. Will the survivors even know the name of Christ? Will they have some clue to what He taught?
That's on us.
Comments
DarkMirror
This requires a lot of prayer and some big decisions, I feel. For a good few years I've been getting fed up with having to be lost into maintaining modern life. What would a lot of us be capable of if we ditched as much as we could of our civilization's trappings?
Catacomb Resident
This week's Radix Fidem Bible lesson in 1 Cor. 6 covers it: "All things are lawful for me..." Everything that exists is just a tool for His glory. It's not the trappings, but what they mean to the people. They can be trapped by dependence on any number of things. The Lord is preparing to take that stuff away only because of idolatry, not because there's anything wrong with the stuff itself. Yes, it's a lot of serious contemplation we face getting ready for it.
This document is public domain; spread the message.