Bible Study on 1 Kings 10
‘Restlessness
and coming to a common place and demanding justice has become common in our society
today. On the one hand, the
elite and upper (middle) class Indians fear for democracy and governance, while
on the other hand, poor and grass-roots communities fear for their future, life
and livelihood. Different encounters such as ‘lokpal’ verses, ‘Jan-lokpal’,
fundamentalist verses, secularist ideologies and grass-roots communities and
the State(s) are found common
today. These encounters have given rise
to debates from different perspectives: some consider these encounters to be
democratic, while some others consider them to be anti-administration and
anti-state. The grass-roots expressions of ‘satyagraha’ are usually regarded as
being anti-state and anti-development: the protestors are tagged as being useless,
illiterate, lacking a scientific outlook of the world. The second case is
mostly on the earth, ecology and environment, life and livelihood related.
Debates
related to the developmental policies of the States are focused on concerns
about water security, food security, industrialization, energy security, urbanization
and Ecological and Climate concerns and so on. The main issue behind these
debates is scientific modern technological knowledge versus consequential
reality knowledge and Ecological concerns. Those who emphasize scientific knowledge
and technology assert that developmental projects are safe and will not harm
human life and the ecological systems. Those who emphasize consequential
reality knowledge assert that developmental projects cause economic,
ecological, and social injustices; even experiences of earlier catastrophes
warn us about the limitations of scientific knowledge and technology. Since the
State and the elite, be they commercial entrepreneurs or scientists, wield
political and police/military power, and at the same time control and use the
media to suit their ends, the voices of the people who are the victims of such
developmental projects are seldom heard and even silenced. All over the country one finds developmental
projects of industrialization, unearthing, nuclearization, privatization,
urbanization and so on, going on as
ecological distorts. At the same time one sees the suffering people protesting and
struggling against the same; for instance, the movements against Korean Phoang
Steel Company (POSCO) in Odisha and Russian collaborated Nuclear Power Plant in
Kudankulam, Tamilnadu and suchlike elsewhere too.
The
nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan after consecutive earthquakes and tsunami
in March 2011 caused an embarrassment to the State, Scientific Fraternities,
Elites, Media and the whole World. The State of Japan and the World Scientists
were unable to assure security of life to the grass-roots people. By
experiencing and witnessing this tragedy, the entire world started evaluating
its knowledge about science, nuclear energy, and safety of the people and their
habitation. Most of the counties (Germany, France, Korea, United Sates of
America, Canada, etc.) which were advocating ‘nuclear energy’ started
withdrawing their positions by making policy decisions to shut down the
functioning power plants. While the world’s nuclear scientists looked confounded,
surprisingly the Indian State and its scientific fraternities rushed in
certifying that their own scientific knowledge and technology were accident
proof and eco-friendly. Thus they have tried to impress the ordinary public to believe that the nuclear establishments in
India could be trusted. Thus, India is sending a political message to the
entire world that, while the scientifically developed nations are uncertain, we
the Indians are confident about our scientific and technological knowledge. All
these years India was looking up to the advanced countries for knowledge and
expertise, but following the March 2011 Tsunami in Japan, India is claiming to
possess superior knowledge and technology and therefore is a scientifically
developed country in the world! 
If
we take the POSCO’s case, POSCO comes to Odisha with an investment of USD 12
billion, one of the largest Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in India, acquiring
4000 acres of forest, revenue and agricultural lands by dislocating, displacing
and uprooting around people of 20 villages and their habitation. The POSCO
project in Odhisa is not just about violation of human rights and ecological
disaster and climate change. It is brazen examples of how the country’ high
and mighty is shifting goalposts to favour a powerful foreign multinational
corporation. Nowhere else in the world would elected governments pursue
interests of private agencies! Is this not a human-made ecological and climate
disaster?
If
we read I Kings 10th Chapter a similar incident is recorded. King
Solomon established a huge monument which attracted the world communities
especially the neighboring countries. Here Queen of Sheba as head of a neighboring
State visits Solomon and his huge establishment. But unfortunately there were
great prophetic silences favoring this huge and extravagant spending of
tax to show off the State’s power and
might which had involved excavation, deforestation and huge land acquisition
for the State to show how powerful and mighty it is.
In Today’s world ‘wealth’, ‘wisdom’ and ‘weapon’
are found as important components in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. They
all are connected and interconnected with each other. Without these three, it
is impossible to define, declare, manifest and shape rich and luxurious living.
If someone wants to establish themselves as powerful and mighty, they need show
themselves off with these three. Ever since ancient times right down to the
present day these are significant entities. However these three, wealth, wisdom
and weapon, are not excluded from the practice of simple living as well. They
are some of the means for Life to
come into being, for its survival, sustenance and they sometimes end life. Therefore,
weapon, wealth and wisdom are important months and years on the calendar of
living and life. And God is being celebrated for these blessings and for life as
a whole. If so, what is the blessing for masses who are poor, hungry, vulnerable
and marginalized? How can the lives of the poor masses be rich, luxurious and famous? And what should
the lifestyle be for these masses in order that their lives are rich?
1 Kings 10 narrates Solomon’s rich living as per
the report of an unnamed Queen of Sheba, an elite woman and head of a State during
her trip. The report details Solomon’s glorious and well furnished estate with
beautifully crafted golden vessels and golden weaponry. This is a typical and stereotyped
portrayal of the luxurious life of the powerful, kings and the rich. The bible begins
to describe this immensely expensive project from chapter 5 onwards. Though the
Bible credits this project to David’s account since it was his wish, a close
observation or a critical lens applied to the bible would make the biblical story more realistic. That is, it is fact
that temple and palaces were built from David’s treasury but how has the
treasure been gathered is an issue here. Aren’t they built from the taxes
extracted from network of vassals by David, thereby reaching Solomon, just as
today’s Monmohan Singh Government is fighting against the people and forcefully
commissioning the Nuclear Power Plant in Kudankulam since this was proposed and
initiated by the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in early 1980s to show to
the rest of the world that India is a powerful and developed nation.
No doubt that Solomon was successful in executing
the project as per the schedule with his job of task-mastership on both working
class and vassals. Therefore, the beautiful temple and palace complex were
built. They caught the attention of people in and around the nation and the
nations around them. One would have not bothered at all if their attraction and
the lives of people who labored on the project were benefited. But the case
here is different and the hard labour and ecological damage go unnoticed and
unrecorded. Further, Solomon’s charm entices elite Statesmen and women from the
neighboring nations for alliances. Therefore, these beautifully and extravagantly
built structures, with his charming personality at the midst, frame a network.
In this web of elite network of alliances, Solomon and his nation becomes a
host. Solomon thereby, not only becomes the king of Israel and controller of
several nations but becomes victim of this elite network. Consequently, Solomon,
though he is called ‘master,’ becomes slave to all his vassals in monitoring
them. Finally, Solomon could not maintain the balance of justice between center
and peripheries in the exchange of resources and labour. He further makes himself
unfit by being irrelevant to the people’s needs and living. Hence, Solomon’s
very duty of doing justice on God’s side for God’s people vanishes and the people’s
cry reaches God for leadership (cf. Ps.82). Jeroboam rebels against Solomon.
The visit of the Queen of Sheba was specifically
to see the huge, massive and beautiful temple and palace complex that were
built by Solomon. The trip involves an exchange of a huge gift of gold, timber
and ivory. These are evidences that huge deforestation, mining projects and
killing of wild species were involved in making this massive infrastructure
development, which would obviously cause or contribute to the climate change. Interestingly,
the queen was amazed at Solomon’s living and she reports that it was much
greater than what she had heard about Solomon’s wisdom and wealth. Is this not
a mere flattery to a powerful man by this elite woman for a mutual contract or
an exchange of material goods for mutual gain or to establish similar power in
her region? If so, the return of the visit of the queen would not have ended
without an alliance, though the bible does not record this. This indicates a
political interest in the visits of rulers like the queen of Sheba. This results
in huge economic torture of their own people in the form of taxation, export of
resources, labour, both skilled and unskilled, leading to huge ecological
imbalance through huge land acquisition, mining and deforestation. The visit of
Queen of Sheba to Solomon’s palace would not have left her without a desire for
similar living. Hence, the burden on the nation is doubled, i.e., for
international export and for the national royal greed. Thereby, poverty and
hunger increase every day while the rich continue to grow and claim it as a
blessing.
The present multi-national companies in India
such as Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, POSCO and Special Economic Zones in
several states of our country are an outcome of visits made by our previous national
leaders under the banner, “India is Shining and India Growing” though gold need
not shine and grow. However, today’s situation is not so much better but is a legacy
of the leadership to continue in the form of custodianship. It seems to be more
skeptical about Indian leadership at this point but we are not trying to
antagonize, or exchange, or visit, or network with other nations, nor
participate with others for some event, or global economic policies. We do not
negate a kind of living this global culture avails, but no human will admit the
fact of the global market being monopolized. Hence, my concern is that what we
hold, why we hold it and how does it affects others who hold our hands are
important. That is, the scope for public interest and welfare should be the
criteria in decision making. A refined thinking for the cause of the earth communities
including poor, needy, vulnerable and marginalized masses, because their cause
is just, should be everybody’s choice and our prayer today. Therefore, what ought I to do? What I want to do? Or
what should I do? are the justice questions to be raised at this moment.
There are several questions concerning the matter
why one should worry much about the future of the world and earth, since no one
can predict and forecast the future of earth and world? But, don’t we think
that it costs the life of someone or many or masses for the life of someone else
in the web of life, even though it might sound theological and ethical at this
point. “Ethics is not a matter of the individual’s likes or dislikes but, on
the contrary, it is a difficult discovering of something about yourself, a
discovering of what has already shaped the person… and is molding in this or
that direction” says former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. That is, there is a model, academically
known as environment-specific situation (people, places, and all creatures),
which would mold an individual and the State in making moral decisions for
others. Henceforth, what the Indian
situation demands is Jeroboam’s initiative in negotiating justice not just for
the living of the rich and famous but also a just and sustainable living that
is rich for the many even at the peripheries which would be the praxis part of
doing theology.
Therefore, the theological target is not solely addressing
and countering the multi-national companies and their projects but also the inaugurators and
implementers. According to me this scripture portion calls for us to work and
articulate theologies of leadership for justice which will care for the entire
ecological system and protect the rights of all creatures. Therefore, our
prayer for today is not for the luxurious and lavish lifestyles of the rich and
famous but for the living conditions of every individual creature on this planet.
In addition to the above the Prophetic Silence is
a great concern over here. There are not many records on the prophetic
activities relating to Solomon’s infrastructure development. There is a
possibility to think from our Indian experience that the prophetic voices would
have been made silent by the mighty power of the Nation and rulers by employing
several legal actions against them, just like applying sedition laws against
the whistle blowers and the struggling communities here in India. Secondly the
Prophetic community such as Churches are made silent by applying the Foreign
Contribution and Regulation Acts by scanning and freezing their accounts and
activities. Since most of the Indian Churches survive with huge foreign
contribution so they have forgotten their call as a prophetic community. In both
the cases of agitations against the POSCO and Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
the Indian Churches are either silent or made silent by the powerful States. Solomon’s reign is known as God’s reign which
is expected to be a model state to the world but even the historiographers were
made silent in recording the prophetic voices. “Boats are Safe in the harbor but they are not made for that”. In
the same way Churches are called to prophesize and not be silent. Churches and
theological fraternities cannot be silent when the God-created earth community
faces problems because of the States’ policy.
Therefore we pray God who is the source of strength,
wisdom, wealth, and justice, for a discerning spirit to chase the demons of
injustice that often flatter, for the healthy society that restores us from the
enticing sickness of injustice against the earth community, for the potential
to wrestle with the oppressive measures that truncate our lives and to pull
down injustice and promote God’s reign on earth. And to channel us and all the
churches to be prophetic for the sort of life that makes the earth’s life rich
for all. Therefore we join in the prayer
of St. Augustine as we go out to carry God’s mission and desire; to establish
and not to stumble, to give and not count the cost, to fight and not heed the
wounds, to toil and not seek for rest, to labour and not ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do God’s will…Amen.
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