Paul W. Manuel: To manifest His glory

IDEOLOGY—THEOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS
An additional unit for The Drama of Redemption

Dr. Paul Manuel—2010

God's purpose in history is to manifest His glory. As He says through the prophet Isaiah...¹

Isa 40:5 [T]he glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see [it] together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This is the status quo, the way things ought to be for a sovereign God. There is, however, a challenge to God's sovereignty, a disruption in the status quo that leads to conflict. By manifesting His glory, God seeks to restore the status quo and, thereby, to resolve the conflict. In order to accomplish His goal, God must reveal Himself, for only then will others see and acknowledge His glory. The means by which God will accomplish His goal is through the kingdom, and it constitutes the primary subject matter (content) of scripture.

The Occasion for God's Work in History

Status Quo	Disruption	Conflict	Resolution	Status Quo
I am God.	Are You?	[Debate]	You are!	I am God.
Glory Manifested	Glory Questioned	Glory Proven	Glory Affirmed	Glory Manifested

The biblical writers all seem to have some understanding of this "Big Picture," of what God is doing in history. It is an ideology that infuses their work, a theme that provides unity from Genesis to Revelation, a concept we call the Theocratic Ideal.² God sets forth the concept of a kingdom in the Abrahamic promises, details it in the Mosaic covenant, models it in the Davidic dynasty, envisions it through the prophets, rehearses it in Israel's liturgy, and will culminate it in the Messianic Age.³

The Theocratic Ideal has three main parts: the members, the obligations that govern their relationships, and the condition of those relationships at any given time.

I. Members

The Theocratic Ideal encompasses the character, activity, and condition of three members:⁴

A. God

B. Israel

C. Nations

God grants Israel the unique status of being the only nation "called by the name of the Lord"; hence, Israel has a prominent role in the Theocratic Ideal.⁵

Deut 28:9 The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 "So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.

In the Theocratic Ideal, God is over Israel, and Israel is over the nations (see also Deut 28:7-14 under autonomy below).⁶

Deut 26:18 "The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken."

Furthermore, just as Israelite priests mediate between God and other Israelites, so the nation of Israel mediates between God and other nations and is, thus, a blessing to them.⁷

Exod 19:5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6a and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

This relational paradigm includes certain obligations, that is, responsibilities the various parties have toward each other. Most obligations concern the relationship between God and Israel, although foreign nations have some responsibility as well.

II. Obligations

A. God

1. To Israel: God obligates Himself to provide the four essentials for Israel to exist as a nation—people, land, autonomy, king—each of which He promises explicitly or implicitly in the Abrahamic covenant. God grants or withholds these essentials according to Israel's obedience, although He promises to restore the essentials when His people repent.⁸

Deut 30:6 "Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.... 10 if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

a. People (the nation's ethnic viability)

1) God promises that Abraham's descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky,⁹ which He fulfills initially during Israel's sojourn in Egypt.

[Promise] Gen 15:5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

[Fulfill] Exod 1:7 But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

2) Granting or withholding the obligation of people (e.g., through fertility or famine) increases or decreases the population available to maintain Israel's ethnic viability.

[Grant] Deut 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons [in all], and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

[Withhold] Deut 28:62 Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God.

[Restore] Deut 30:5b He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

b. Land (the nation's regional presence)

1) God promises that Abraham's descendants will inherit all of Canaan,¹⁰ which He fulfills initially during Israel's conquest of Canaan.

[Promise] Gen 17:8 I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

[Fulfill] Josh 24:13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.

2) Granting or withholding the obligation of land (e.g., through military victory or defeat) increases or decreases the territory available to maintain Israel's regional presence.

[Grant] Deut 1:8 I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them.

[Withhold] Deut 28:64a Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.

[Restore] Deut 30:5a The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.

c. Autonomy (economic, political, and religious independence)

1) God promises that Abraham's descendants will have economic, political, and religious independence,¹¹ which He fulfills initially during Israel's settlement of Canaan (e.g., by defeating its enemies).¹²

[Promise 1] Gen 18:18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? 19 For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.

[Promise 2] Gen 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

2) Granting or withholding the obligation of autonomy (e.g., ruling or serving other nations) increases or decreases the resources available to maintain Israel's economic, political, and religious independence.¹³

[Grant] Deut 28:7 "The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8 "The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9 "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 "So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. 11 "The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 "The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 "The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe [them] carefully, 14 and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

[Withhold economic] Deut 28:48a therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things;

[Withhold political] Deut 28:48b He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

[Withhold religious] Deut 28:64b there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.

[Restore] Deut 30:7 The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.... 9 Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;

d. King (the nation's own rulers)

1) God promises that Abraham's descendants will have their own rulers,¹⁴ which He fulfills initially during the Davidic monarchy.¹⁵

[Promise 1] Gen 17:6b ...kings will come forth from you.

[Promise 2] Gen 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him [shall be] the obedience of the peoples.

[Fulfill] 2 Sam 7:16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.

2) Granting or withholding the obligation of king (e.g., through dynastic succession or loss in war) increases or decreases the

[Grant] Deut 17:15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, [one] from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

[Withhold] Deut 28:36a The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known,

[Restore] Mic 4:8 As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come—Even the former dominion will come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

[Restore] Ezek 37:22b one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

2. To nations: God has no obligation to the gentiles, although He does graciously provide the means for their physical continuation through nature¹⁶ and the means for their individual salvation on the same basis that He makes it available to Israel: faith in Him.¹⁷

Ps 145:15 The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time.

Matt 5:45b He causes His sun to rise on [the] evil and [the] good, and sends rain on [the] righteous and [the] unrighteous.

Acts 17:25b He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things;

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Query: What is the relationship of belief to covenant? Is it necessary for an unbelieving Israelite to keep the covenant, and if an unbelieving Israelite does keep the covenant, will he receive the benefits of the covenant?¹⁸

If an unbelieving gentile merchant wants to do business with Israel and determines that it would be more profitable locating in Israel, is he responsible to obey the law of the land (i.e., religious, domestic, foreign)? ...Yes, because he becomes a "sojourner" and is subject to that law, whether or not he believes in God.¹⁹ He then benefits from God's promises, despite his unbelief.²⁰ (There are, of course, examples of believing gentiles who enter the covenant, as well as those for whom God makes special provision.²¹)Likewise, the unbelieving Israelite who keeps the covenant (e.g., by maintaining ceremonial purity) is not cut off from his people and benefits from God's promises, despite his unbelief.

Although God desires that all Israel obey out of faith,²² belief (per se) is not a demand He makes in the covenant; the purpose of obedience (at least in part) is to manifest His holiness.This is, however, holiness in the objective sense. God says to Israel: "you shall be...a holy nation" (Exod 19:6)²³) Therefore Israel, with both believers and unbelievers, is a visible representation of God's holiness and of how much man falls short of God's expectations.

Nevertheless, there is also a subjective holiness, in which the Israelite, motivated by belief, seeks to bring all aspects of his life (his thoughts, desires, goals, as well as his behavior) into conformity with God's expectations. Hence, another purpose of obedience is sanctification, as the believer brings subjective holiness into alignment with objective holiness. Ps 51 and Heb 9 treat subjective holiness and objective holiness, explaining their different results (ceremonial cleansing versus soteriological cleansing).

God provides external purification through one means (animal sacrifices).

"You do not delight in [animal] sacrifice, otherwise I would give it" (Ps 51:16). "[Animal] sacrifices.., cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience.... [They] sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh" (Heb 9:9b, 13b).

God provides internal purification through another means (Jesus' sacrifice).

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.., and a contrite heart" (Ps 51:17). "[T]he blood of Christ [will] cleanse your conscience...." (Heb 9:14).

Note, however, that the ancient believer may not have made the clear distinction between subjective and objective holiness. For example, he may simply have assumed that when he brought a sacrifice, God would take care of his sin, without differentiating between the ceremonial efficacy of his offering and the soteriological efficacy of his faith.

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B. Israel

To God: Israel must be faithful to God in its religious, domestic, and foreign affairs. Failure in any of these areas damages the nation's relationship with God.²⁴

a. Religious

Israel must represent God's holiness in cultic practices (e.g., sanctuaries).

Deut 12:1 These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and smash their [sacred] pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. 4 You shall not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 But you shall seek [the LORD] at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come. 6 There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 There also you and your households shall eat before the LORD your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

b. Domestic

Israel must represent God's holiness in social order (e.g., courts).

Deut 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.

c. Foreign

1) Israel must represent God's holiness in political policy by modeling that holiness before the nations (e.g., treaties)²⁵ and by mediating between the nations and God, instructing those who want to know Him.²⁶

Deut 7:6 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Exod 19:5 Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6a and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

2) Israel, therefore, must avoid anything that would compromise its priestly role, such as making treaties of dependence, because of the inevitable accompanying influence of paganism,²⁷ lest God make them slaves of the nations on which they depend.²⁸

Deut 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.

Deut 20:10 When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. 11 If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. 14 Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourself; and you shall use the spoil of your enemies which the LORD your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby.

C. Nations

To God: The nations must not oppress Israel,²⁹ the physical manifestation of God's earthly rule,³⁰ but must take their place in the Theocratic Ideal in proper relationship to Israel.³¹

Deut 26:19 ...He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken."

The nations must also submit to God's authority in their general affairs,³² whether on the individual level or the international level.

Nations must heed any external revelation God might provide pertaining to their affairs (e.g., murder), as well as the innate dictates of conscience.³³

Gen 9:4 Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, [that is], its blood. 5 Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from [every] man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

The Theocratic Ideal naturally envisions member relationships in optimal condition as the

norm, where all members are meeting their respective responsibilities.

Deut 28:1 ...if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God.... 7 The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8 The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9 The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. 11 The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe [them] carefully, 14 and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Because God is faithful, He never fails to uphold His obligations. Any breakdown in relationships, then, comes from human irresponsibility, which, in turn elicits a divine reaction. Likewise, a change on man's part, turning back to God, allows Him to renew the association.³⁴ When not in their normal condition, relationships can be in one (or more) of four states, two human and two divine.³⁵

III. Conditions (abnormal)

A. God

1. Retribution (step #2) —God is not pleased with the sin and will punish Israel (or the nations) by withholding His obligations.

Deut 28:15b ...all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 Cursed [shall] you [be] in the city, and cursed [shall] you [be] in the country. 17 Cursed [shall be] your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed [shall be] the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed [shall] you [be] when you come in, and cursed [shall] you [be] when you go out. 20 The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.

Cf. Deut 31:17 "Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, 'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?'

2. Restoration (step #4)—God will eventually adjust conditions so that they match the Theocratic Ideal by restoring Israel (or the nations) to its proper role, so that it may again meet its obligations and that He may reinstate His obligations

Deut 30:3 then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. 5 The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. 7 The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. 9 Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; 10 if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

B. Israel

1. Rebellion (step #1)—Conditions do not match the Ideal because Israel (or the nations) has sinned and is not meeting its obligations.

Deut 28:15a But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today...

Cf. Deut 31: 16 The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

2. Repentance (step #3)—Conditions do not match the Ideal, but Israel (or the nations) is turning to God from sin and wants to meet its obligations.

Deut 30:1 So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call [them] to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, 2 and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons,

C. Nations

Same as Israel³⁶

Jer 18:7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy [it]; 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant [it]; 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.

A biblical author will not generally treat every facet of the Theocratic Ideal. Rather, he will focus on an aspect that has particular relevance for his day. Just as the Bible consists of many kinds of literature (genres), so the purposes of the various authors range over a wide spectrum. A psalmist writes for a different reason than the chronicler, and a prophet's concern is not that of the sage. Although some form of the Theocratic Ideal lies behind all their work, they do not reflect it in the same way or to the same extent. To interpret a text correctly, the reader must be sensitive to these various concerns.³⁷

The biblical authors, who reflect God's concerns, treat the progress and apparent regress of the Ideal in their writings. Hence, the reader should bear in mind the basic components of the Ideal when studying the text, asking what aspect of the Ideal a given passage emphasizes and then asking how a more thorough understanding of that aspect helps elucidate the writer's meaning.

For example, studying these elements of the Theocratic Ideal (members, obligations, conditions) in a prophetic passage such as Isa 1:21-26 provides a chronology of action for those involved and helps to identify Isaiah's (or God's) concern. Note how rebellion invites retribution, necessitating repentance, which leads to restoration.

Isa 1:21 How the faithful city has become a harlot, She [who] was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water. 23 Your rulers are rebels And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow's plea come before them. 24 ¶ Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts, The Mighty One of Israel, declares, "Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries And avenge Myself on My foes. 25 "I will also turn My hand against you, And will smelt away your dross as with lye And will remove all your alloy. 26 "Then I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning; After that you will be called the city of righteousness, A faithful city."

In many cases, these observations may seem insignificant, but they are necessary elements to understanding the meaning of a given passage. Often we miss the meaning because we fail to notice the obvious.

I. Members

A prophet usually focuses on the activity, character, or condition of the three members in the Theocratic Ideal: God, Israel, and the nations. The Isaiah passage discusses the activity of Israel and God (nothing about the nations), characterizing them in certain ways (e.g., via ornaments).

II. Obligations

The prophet cites areas in which he observes discrepancies between the Ideal (= 'what should be') and the situation of his day (= 'what actually is') by referring to member obligations: human (religious, domestic, foreign) and divine (people, land, autonomy, king). The Isaiah passage focuses on the corrupted obligation of domestic holiness, specifically an unjust legal system. Curiously, the prophet says nothing about the loss of a divine obligation in response. He speaks instead about purification, which indicates a purging of the bureaucracy.

III. Conditions

When a prophet notes some discrepancy between the norm of the Theocratic Ideal and the situation of his day, he addresses that discrepancy by commenting on how it has affected the condition of member relationships.