First Kings
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Freedom Threatened from within
(I Kings 1:1-18)
Freedom is under constant threat by the insidious temptation to exchange personal liberty for material prosperity and individual security. With prosperity and an expanding governmental bureaucracy, governments find it necessary to employ more people in the federal effort. More employees and government initiatives mean higher taxes for everyone. America’s tax rates require that citizens work from January 1 through April 9 (99 days—over three months) just to pay their taxes! The average American, therefore, is the veritable slave of the government for over three months out of the year. Government is always expensive, and the citizens always pay.
Solomon’s reign followed the typical pattern. Peace and prosperity brought a burgeoning government with expanding social programs and projects. Today’s reading records Solomon’s correspondence with Hiram, king of Tyre. Solomon was about to embark upon one of the most spectacular building programs of the ancient world, the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem. He needed raw materials and skilled laborers. Hiram had both. Since David had established a good trading relationship with Hiram (II Samuel 5:11), the foreign king was only too happy to continue the exchange with Solomon. Once they struck a bargain, the building could begin.
Notice, however, that all of the laborers were not union workers from Tyre. The Bible says Solomon “raised a levy out of all of Israel” (13). Those words are somewhat euphemistic for “forced labor.” In order to complete the project, Solomon drafted 30,000 men to work for the government, one month out of three—or 4 months per year!
Solomon’s labor requirement was only slightly higher than our own. Remember, Americans work over three months out of the year just to pay for government. And it will only get worse under King Obama. Such policies, as we shall see, multiplied discontent. After Solomon, the nation splintered apart and the glories of the past were only that—glories of the past. Oh, that America would learn from history!
