Today’s Scripture Reading (September 8, 2019):
1 Kings 8
There is a difference between
the way that you value yourself and the way that others view you. My internal
significance is often found in terms of my family. I am a husband, father, son,
brother, grandfather, and uncle, among many other familial designations, to the
various important people in my family. And I love to play those roles. But that
is not the way that most of my friends see me. To the community, I am a pastor,
counselor, a spiritual leader, and, sometimes, a friend. One friend went even
further and declared that when he called me Garry, he was approaching me as a
friend. But when he addressed me as Pastor Garry, he was looking to me as a
spiritual leader. But there is a significant difference between my internal
view of myself, and the way the community sees me and the expectations that
they have of me.
Passages like this can be
confusing. Often it seems that Zion and Jerusalem are used interchangeably. So
how can something be brought up from Zion to Jerusalem? However, we do
understand the impact of the move. For a couple of generations, the Altar and
the Ark had been separated; existing in different locations. But with the completion
of the Temple, finally the Ark could be reunited with the Altar and the rest of
the Temple furnishings. Until the Ark was brought to the Temple and set in the
Holy of Holies, the Temple could not fully operate. The Ark was the most crucial
part of the Temple.
But the author of Kings
includes this note; the Ark had to be brought up from Zion to the Temple, which
was built in Jerusalem. The comment makes about as much sense as saying that
something had to be brought up from Manhattan to New York. Aren’t they
essentially the same place?
But there is a difference
between Zion and Jerusalem in Jewish thought. Zion and Jerusalem refer to the
same location, but to different aspects of that locale. Zion is a place of internal
significance. Zion is what makes the Jewish people distinctive. For years, the
Ark had dwelt in a tent in Zion. Priests attended to the Ark, but it was a
place where the Jews worshiped; only the Jews. It was from this place of
internal significance that the Torah emerged. The Torah, or the Law, always
comes out of Zion, a place of distinctive meaning for the Jews.
But now, things were changing.
The Temple was going to bring Judaism to the attention of the known world.
Jerusalem was beginning its life as a spiritual center, not just for the Jews, but
for all the nations. While the Law comes out of Zion, the message of God’s
Word, telling of his love for all of the people of the earth, emerges out of
Jerusalem. And at this moment, The Ark was being transported from a tent of
internal significance to the Jews, to place of external importance on the World
Stage. And the Temple would become a place of worship for all of the people of
the earth.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 9
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