January 2nd, 2021

The Old Testament reading for the Second Sunday after Christmas is near the beginning of First Kings [3:4-15]. Several weeks ago, we looked at the beginning of 1 Samuel. The point was made then, and that point also applies to this book, that we should not look at this part of the Old Testament as simply information. The point of its presence in the Old Testament is much more important than that. SALVATION—not information—is the more important topic.

The argument was made several weeks ago that the translation of the Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint) seems to support that emphasis. That translation happened between the Testaments, sometime after the rise of Alexander the Great, and that translation is helpful in understanding both testaments and their connection to each other. Will a similar emphasis on salvation appear within First Kings?

It probably should be said at this point that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this book is called THIRD Kings. This different title helps a little to get the focus off a particular person and on to more important things—the job of those who were called ‘kings’ and especially the ULTIMATE King.

This book of First/Third Kings starts at the point of the transition between David and Solomon. The text for this Sunday has Solomon as the official king, and the Lord appears to him in a dream at night and basically says that he has one wish—he can ask for anything. Solomon ends up asking for wisdom, and the Lord ends up giving him that, along with several other things he did not ask for, because what he asked for was something so special.

Here is a somewhat-literal translation of the Hebrew text, the last verse of the reading for this Sunday:

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, a dream, and he came, Jerusalem, and he stood before the face of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and he offered burnt-offerings, and he made peace-offerings, and he made a feast for all his servants.

Here is that same verse, but in a somewhat-literal translation of the Greek text:

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, a dream, and he arose, and he comes into Jerusalem, and he stood before the face of the altar, which was before the face of the ark of the covenant of the Lord in Zion, and he offered whole-burnt-offerings and made peace-offerings, and he made a large banquet for himself and for all the servants of him.

As always, much could be said about all the differences between the two texts, but this is the very first time in First (or Third) Kings that there is an historical present. Instead of saying ‘he came to Jerusalem’, the Greek text said that he ‘comes’. It almost looks like a mistake since the verb right before the word is in the past tense.

If Solomon would simply come to Jerusalem, that would not be an important event. But the ark of the covenant is there, and that is where the Lord promised to be. And Solomon had just talked to the Lord in a dream. And the emphasis on being before that special place, with the word ‘face’ being twice in the Greek text (when it is only once in the Hebrew), reminds us that it is an important thing to be before the Lord.

Being in the Lord’s presence has ramifications, and those can be indicated with the present tense. The book of Exodus has one of its first historic presents in a somewhat-similar situation. Moses talked to the LORD in the burning bush, and then he went to his father-in-law, and the Greek text has it that he SAYS something to his father-in-law—the text does not say that he ‘said’ something [the Septuagint, Exodus 4:18]. Talking to your father-in-law is not always important, but when the LORD talks you, the ramifications of THAT talk ARE important.
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Ramifications are like a weight or significance, and that is the word for ‘glory’ in the Old Testament, and that is what the living creatures of the LORD’s throne show—the LORD’s glory, his ramifications, his significance. And it should not be surprising, then, that we have four gospel accounts and that these accounts are connected to these four living creatures of the LORD’s throne. We do not need four history lessons; we need one way of salvation. And those four accounts ultimately point to one very special thing.