2019, June 23 ~ 1 Kings 19:1-15a and Galatians 3:23-29

1 Kings 19:1-15a

The authors of the Book of Kings were also the authors of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Samuel. These books were given their final form around 550 BCE – long after the events they described. The authors used the stories in these books to demonstrate that it was the failures of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judea to worship YHWH and obey God’s commands that led to the conquest of Northern Israel in 722 BCE by the Assyrians and the conquest of Judea by the Babylonians in 597 BCE. (The conquests were not seen as the result of the Assyrians’ and Babylonians’ greater wealth and more powerful armies.)

After Solomon’s death in 928 BCE, the nation divided in two. The Northern Kingdom consisted of 10 tribes and was called “Israel.” The Southern Kingdom had two tribes, Judah and Benjamin and was called “Judea.” For the most part, the Deuteronomists portrayed the Kings of the North as unfaithful to YHWH, and Ahab (873-852 BCE) was one of the worst. His wife was the Baal-worshiping foreigner, Jezebel.

The prophet Elijah is the subject of today’s reading. Just prior to these verses, Elijah invoked the power of YHWH to overcome the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel in the Northern part of Israel. He brought fire upon a huge sacrifice, rain to end a drought, and then killed all the prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 18)

Ahab told Jezebel what Elijah had done (v.1). Jezebel swore to kill Elijah, so he ran away as far south in Israel as he could – first to Beer-sheba and then to the Wilderness where he hoped to die (v.4). YHWH’s angels provided food to Elijah so he could journey to Horeb and continue his ministry. (For the Deuteronomists, the holy mountain is called “Horeb” rather than Sinai. “Sinai” is the name used by the authors of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.)

When Elijah was at Horeb, the voice of YHWH came to him in the silence (v.12-13) and told him to anoint Hazael as king of Aram (modern Syria). In the verse after today’s reading, Elijah was told to commit treason by anointing Jehu as King of Israel even when Ahab was still alive (v.16).

This is not the first instance of this treasonous activity in the Deuteronomists’ accounts. Samuel was told by YHWH to anoint David as King even when Saul was still alive. (1 Sam.16:13).

Galatians 3:23-29

Galatia was a large Roman province in what is now western Turkey. This letter was likely written by Paul in the late Galat40’s or early 50’s (CE), and deals in part with controversies between Jewish Jesus Followers and Gentile Jesus Followers regarding the continuing importance of Torah (Law) to Jesus Followers. In particular, did Gentiles have to be circumcised and follow the Kosher dietary law to become Jesus Followers? If not, what was the role of Torah for both Jewish and Gentile Jesus Followers?

These issues are also described in Chapter 15 of Acts of the Apostles and in Paul’s letter to the Romans (written in the early 60’s).

Galatians is a “transitional” letter in that – when compared to Paul’s last letter (Romans) — it shows an evolution in his views on the relationship between the Torah and the Gentile Jesus Followers.

In today’s reading, Paul spoke of the Jewish Law as “guarding and imprisoning” us until Christ came and so that “we might be justified by faith” (vv. 23-24). This is a key phrase for Paul and is also used in other epistles.

Understanding these terms in Paul’s context is often challenging for modern readers. As a devout Jew, Paul recognized the value of the Law, but his conversion enabled him to see that justification was no longer a matter of obeying specific laws, but of living a life of faithfulness. “Justified” is to be understood as “being in right relationships with God, others, the world and oneself.” (A page of type in which the right and left margins are straight is described as “justified.”)

The term “faith” also needs to be understood in context. “Faith” is a translation of the Greek word “pistis” – a word that conveys an active quality. The word is perhaps better understood as “faith-ing” or “active faithfulness.” For Paul, “faith” was not a matter of intellectually assenting to a series of doctrines (as many Christians today think of “Faith”). Instead, “faith” is living a life of loving faithfulness as Jesus of Nazareth lived his life, and trusting – as he did — that death will not have the final victory. For Paul, the Resurrection allowed him (and allows us) to encounter the Risen Christ.

Faithfulness to the Christ and a life of loving others also enables us to recognize our essential unity in which there is no Jew or Greek (Gentile), slave or free, male or female (v.28), for we are all one in the Christ.