. . . yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matthew 6:29)

One of Jesus’ most quotable lines, this simile compares the glory of the “lilies of the field” to that of Israel’s most vaunted king–Solomon. The Hebrew scriptures tend to glorify Solomon’s wealth and power, a reign that put Israel on the map. He built the most magnificent Temple, made an international reputation for wisdom, and earned a visit from the Queen of Sheba, who tested his wisdom.  Even Jesus seemed to honor him in this quotation.

But on Sunday at First Baptist Church in Ann Arbor, Walter Brueggemann asked the question modern readers want to know about great leaders. Where did he get his wealth? An honored biblical scholar and William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia, Brueggemann identified three sources of Solomon’s wealth:

1. He was an “arms dealer,” i.e. traded horses and chariots for gold
2. He created a tax system with twelve districts, each district supporting his palace for a month of the year.
3. He used slave labor, not only conscripted foreign-born, but Jews as well, to build his Temple and other monuments of his splendor.

Studying what he called the “extraction system” for channeling wealth from the lower classes to upper classes, Brueggemann demonstrated that Solomon was not merely the wealthiest of the kings of Israel, but also the most exploitive, creating an unrest that manifested itself when his son, Reheboam met with the young representatives of the merchant classes to raise the levels of taxation. So violent was their response that Reheboam had to flee town on a donkey to avoid a reprisal (I Kings 12).

Brueggemann looked askance at this venerated monarch, Solomon, suggesting that Jesus’s  hyperbole about the lilies of the field may have implied criticism of the system of wealth based on “toiling and spinning.” The context of the comparison is from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus cautions against the anxiety generated by worry about possessions and material security. Brueggemann’s lecture used the kingdom of Solomon and three other cases in biblical history to show the Bible’s critique of the “extraction system” that impoverished working people and enriched those skilled at exploiting them.

Hearing Brueggeman, you felt you were reading the Bible with new lenses. Solomon seemed to be glorified in the Hebrew scriptures, except when he pursued “foreign gods” later in his reign. He represented a golden age when Israel was respected and not a client state of other empires. Wealth was portrayed as a sign of God’s blessing, a conferring of status, as we view it today. But then there was all that slave labor that developed that wealth, even the enslavement of the native born of Israel. It harkened back to the first case study, the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt by Pharaoh, and the great Exodus story that broke the chains of slavery. Why was it all right for Solomon to enslave Israel, but not Pharaoh?

The prophet Samuel foretold (or perhaps reflected on) the consequences of monarchy in Israel, when the people clamored for a king “like other nations.”  Samuel warned of the exploitation that took place under Solomon:

he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and some to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle and donkeys and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves.  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. (I Samuel 8: 11-18)

The people of Israel had to learn over and over that acquiring the gods and customs of other nations was not in their interest.  The biblical narrative portrays a fickle and unimaginative people who are unaccountably attracted to the institutions of other nations. Walter Brueggeman argued that we are not far from the wayward Israel of the Old Testament.

Brueggeman’s book Money and Possessions re-reads the Bible in this ethical context, attempting to frame the “extraction system” as a disreputable institution, rather than the accepted way of doing business. In his lecture he examined four cases of Empire wealth: Egypt, Solomon’s Israel, the Persian Empire and the Roman Empire. The former two relied heavily on slave labor, while the latter two deputed tax collectors to extract what they could from the working classes, allowing the deputies to skim from the taxes whatever excess they could collect.

Modern democratic states are not serving 90% of their citizens much better than Rome. Professor Brueggeman cited several contemporary books describing how the contemporary “extraction system” works in developed and undeveloped nations. Of particular interest: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (David Graeber) which traces how the monied classes maintained the debt of the working classes from the Sumerian kingdom till today. The author contends that the problem can best be solved by invoking the Jubilee Year, a year of forgiveness of all debt, ending a 49-year cycle. Of course this institution is straight out of Leviticus 25.

Brueggeman traced the Bible’s critique of extraction systems from the time of Pharaoh till today. In his conclusion he challenged the “evangelical church” (in the original sense of “evangelical”) to take the lead, because the biblical witness demands that the “extraction system” be practiced differently. The church should:

• make the tension between materialism and spirituality palpable in the same way Jesus challenged the rich young man who turned away from discipleship because of his wealth
• make the economy viable for “non-producers.” It is already viable for wealthy “non-producers,” but there are many impoverished, who are not producing for good reasons.
• model the gospel of gratitude and generosity for secular society. The Church is the only institution whose primary theme is “thanks.”

In these actions we celebrate the glory of the lilies and their Creator, rather than glory of Solomon. We challenge the extraction system not only in materialistic society, but in our own more subtle grasping impulses. And we separate our faith community from the tentacles of a system that has become so naturalized as to be controlling us with our tacit permission.