1 Kings 7-8 What (Who's) In The House?

It’s way too easy to get hung up in all of the descriptions of what was inside the Temple.  I remember in St. Petersburg, Russia walking into a very Russian-looking church with beautiful multi-colored onion domes on top.  But inside there was no place for us to sit and worship and listen to God’s word.  Worshipers simply came in, lit a candle, silently said a prayer, and left.

 

Most Israelites would never see the inside of the Temple Solomon had built.  Priests would be performing functions inside, but the worship would mainly be taking place outside.  The most important event related to the Temple during this dedication occurred after the Ark of the Covenant was placed within the Holy of Holies.  The glory of God came and filled the house of the Lord to such an extent that the priests had to stop working!

 

Their hearts must have been overjoyed, for the people’s sins had caused His glory to depart from the tabernacle (1 Samuel 4:19-22).  “But the nation would sin again and be taken to Babylon, and there Ezekiel the prophet would have a vision of the glory of God leaving the Temple,” my commentary said.  “The glory came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, but sinners crucified the Lord of glory.  When Jesus returned to heaven, the cloud of glory accompanied Him and the temple was left desolate.”

 

Great beginnings never insure great finishes.  It’s the stick-to-it-iveness that really matters.  Solomon didn’t have it, and the people he ruled didn’t either.  With all the dedication ceremonies taking place, I wonder if our all-knowing God felt it was tedious?

 

Father, I’m amazed at Your love for us despite the fact that You already know the sins we’ll still commit!  I’m so thankful that You are infinitely more patient and loving than I am.  Otherwise, my outlook would not include the wonderful hope I have in You.  Your love dispels futility and frustration.  Thank You for loving us and giving us hope!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 6 -- What's This In The Middle?

Right in the middle of this chapter about the building of the Temple is what seems to be a paragraph having nothing to do with that construction project:

 

“The Lord said to Solomon: ‘If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.  I will live among the Israelites in this Temple, and I will never leave My people Israel.’ “

 

My commentary wondered if Solomon might have been getting discouraged about the building progress, or more likely might have started exhibiting pride at what he was accomplishing.  It said, “The Lord reminded Solomon, as He must constantly remind us, that He’s not impressed with our work if our walk isn’t obedient to Him.  What He wants is an obedient heart … This was the second time God spoke to Solomon about obedience and He would speak to him about it again after the dedication of the Temple.”

 

It sure puts a lot of personal responsibility on Solomon.  God was saying He would live with the people in the Temple and never leave if SOLOMON obeys.  But as I’ve been noticing, Solomon already was having a problem with that, and all of this labor and expense was going to end up being for nothing.

 

I did love one thing my commentary brought out – David’s two greatest sins were his adultery with Bathsheba and his counting of the people when God had forbidden it.  After the latter, he purchased land to build an altar at the spot where God halted the death angel.  After the former, David married Bathsheba and eventually had a son by her named Solomon.  “Now we have Solomon building a temple on David’s property on Mount Moriah!  God took the consequences of David’s two worst sins … and built a temple!  … It’s an encouragement to us to go on serving God after we’ve repented and confessed our sins.  Satan wants us to think that all is lost, but the God of all grace is still at work.”

 

Father, thank You for Your grace and mercy.  Thank You that I can see You continuing to work in my own life despite my sins.  Thank You for always wanting us back, despite our sins, and for calling us to obedience.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 5 -- Planting Bitter Seeds When Building For God

David had been setting aside some of the spoils of battle, planning to provide materials and probably financing for Solomon’s future Temple building activities, yet there is no way to comprehend what was spent on a building that would easily fit in my front yard plus the courtyards which would be built around it:

 

“4,050 tons of gold, 38,000 tons of silver, thousands of tons of bronze and iron, as well as precious stones,” my commentary said.  If he’d simply piled it all up where the Temple foundations were being placed, it probably would have been bigger than the completed Temple itself and solid to the core, with no room for worshipers!

 

Solomon also needed laborers and lumber.  For the privilege of getting the fine cedar wood from Lebanon for free, he agreed to pay Hiram’s household grocery bill annually during the process of harvesting the trees.  This amounted to 125,000 bushels of wheat and 115,000 gallons of olive oil every year (freight paid to Lebanon, of course!).  The Lebanese workers were to receive a lump sum payment of 125,000 bushels of wheat, 125,000 bushels of barley, 115,000 gallons of wine, and 115,000 gallons of olive oil for the entire project.

 

But then there were Solomon’s citizens being used besides this!  Thirty thousand Israelite men rotated out, working one month on and two months off out of county.  There’s no record of any payment to them for their salaries, but we can imagine they were provided room and board.  There were also 150,000 non-Israelites living in the land who were conscripted to cut stones from quarries and transport them to the site, plus 3,300 overseers and supervisors.  All this for one building that took seven years to complete!

 

I could see this for the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., but for a building that would fit in my front yard???

 

My commentary added:  “The Jewish people resented Solomon taking 30,000 of their men to work in Lebanon four months out of the year.  This critical attitude helped to strengthen the people’s revolt against Rehoboam and to precipitate the division of the nation after Solomon’s death.  Indeed, when it came to labor and taxes, Solomon did indeed put a heavy yoke on the people.”

 

Naturally, we would all not hesitate to agree that our God is worth whatever is spent to glorify Him, but ….  It might have been simpler, quicker, and shinier to have made stones of silver and gold onsite!

 

Father, this story has been repeated multiple times across the world and even within our own church as we have constructed and reconstructed buildings over the years, and while motives may have been good at the outset, the end product often leaves questions and quite a bitter taste, which were never intended.  I pray that You will give us proper wisdom for these types of endeavors so that seeds such as those mentioned above will never be planted as a result, for that never glorifies You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 4 -- Way Too Much Like Our Own Country Today?

Solomon may have been very wise, but he let a blind spot develop and it related to his own administration.  Bureaucracy and frivolous government spending were setting up trends that my commentary said were like “the secret worm … gnawing all the time in the royal staff upon which Solomon leaned.”  He’d started his reign with good devotion to the Lord, but becoming a big shot would soon take its toll on the relationship as well.

 

For instance, in verse 7 he appointed 12 governors over various districts of Israel, primarily to secure and provide food for his own household and his HORSES!  A listing of the daily food requirements at the palace was enough to choke down any government and speaks of hangers-on and cronyism and waste.

 

Going against God’s law, he had 12,000 horses and he even created special cities to care for them!

 

One of the hazards of great intelligence is a creeping sense of overimportance, entitlement, and often elitism that causes one to lose a sense of groundedness based on good old common sense.  Showing off that intelligence becomes almost a requirement as vanity feeds upon itself.

 

Solomon’s public works projects conscripted foreigners, but he also began a forced-work program from Israelites during the building of the Temple, requiring citizens to devote 1/3 of a year to the service!

 

The special districts he set up “ignored the traditional boundaries of the tribes,” possibly hoping to diminish the old tribal loyalties, but it did just the opposite, for Judah wasn’t included in those new districts and was administered separately as a royal zone.

 

The seeds were being sown for tribal jealousies and resentment of the monarchy simply because fairness wasn’t being followed in livelihood or taxation.  And “wise” king Solomon couldn’t see it coming.

 

Father, this sounds way too much like what’s going on in our own country today, and those in power appear to be as blind to it as Solomon was.  Give us wisdom to learn from their mistakes so that we won’t be doomed to repeat them.  We so need godly wisdom!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 3 -- Possibly My Longest Quiet Time Journaling Ever

I’ve been fighting a stomach illness for 5 days now, and maybe that’s what caused me to view Solomon with a jaundiced eye instead of with the usual amazement I’ve always felt upon reading this conversation he had with God that’s always sounded so uplifting.  I relied heavily on my commentary as well today.  As a result, I think a lot less of Solomon that I ever did – quite unusual for this chapter.

 

“Solomon had an agreement with the king of Egypt by marrying his daughter…”  The essence of what God had set about to produce in the Hebrew people was separateness from the rest of the world.  They were to be a people set apart to Him, serving as a light to the rest of the world.  Why then was Solomon going to Egypt to claim a wife?  God’s Word had told the Israelites when they left Egypt not to return to Egypt.  They weren’t to make alliances with other nations because other nations would pull them down.  Solomon is believed to have been about 20 years old at this point, and supposedly already married to Naamah, the mother of his son Rehoboam who succeeded him, and this wife was from Ammon, not Israel, as well.  He unfortunately was beginning to “multiply wives” – something forbidden of Israelite kings.

 

Yes, he was building God’s Temple, but I don’t see much obedience besides THAT.  People were also still worshiping in “the high places”, which Solomon here admits his father had wanted him to rid Israel of.

 

“Solomon showed he loved the Lord by following the commands his father David had given him …”  These might or might not have been God’s commands.  It sounds like he was showing he loved the Lord by following his daddy’s rules, not particular God’s rules.

 

I also read where each king was required to write out their own copy of Deuteronomy (Deut. 17:18-20), presumably to familiarize themselves with God’s requirements of them.  In my commentary, the question was asked how Solomon must have felt when he read about the commands regarding wives and horses and chariots, which Solomon had made a name for himself in collecting.

 

The Bible says God wants an obedient heart more than sacrifices.  Here we see Solomon making 1,000 burnt sacrifices at Gibeon the night before he and God conversed in a dream.  Hmmmmm……

 

God said in the dream, “Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.”  My commentary called that a test of Solomon’s heart and a display of God’s grace.  (I noticed God to him to ask but didn’t say that he would GIVE anything.) 

 

Solomon was honest and humble when he said, “I’m like a little child; I don’t know how to do what must be done.”  It really doesn’t say “what must be done to rule”.  Perhaps Solomon did mean “what must be done to obey.”  Tellingly, he asked for an obedient  heart.  I know when I’ve prayed for one, it has always been at a time when I felt I needed one but didn’t possess one.  Maybe we’re getting there.  He also wanted to know the difference between right and wrong.  (Solomon wasn’t the one mentioning making correct decision here – God is going to bring that up.)  So was Solomon also admitting that his discernment of right from wrong was not at all fully developed?

 

God was pleased with Solomon’s request.    From elsewhere in God’s Word, we know that it pleases God when a sinner repents and when a lost sheep returns.  Was that what so pleased God – that Solomon was admitting that he had trouble obeying and even choosing between right and wrong, and that he was asking God’s help in doing so?

 

It’s always seemed odd to me that Solomon asked for an obedient heart and God said, “I’ll give you what you asked for – wisdom to make the right decisions.”  But thinking about it, giving us obedient hearts probably takes away free will, for disobedience requires a will of our own.  God would be going against His own decision at creation.  So maybe He was giving Solomon His best – wisdom to make the right decisions.  Still, with all that wisdom, it boils down to this:  “No matter how smart the mind may be, if the heart is wrong, all of life will be wrong,” my commentary said.  “The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.”

 

Father, I feel so much like Solomon at times.  I want an obedient heart, and I want to always make the right decisions, yet there are many times when, despite it all, I choose willful disobedience.  I know it comes from our sin nature, and until I’m with You in heaven that will always be something we all have to fight.  Walk closer beside me, Father.  Nudge me when I start walking too close to temptation.  Help me to walk away from situations that stoke my anger rather than letting it grow.  Give me the willpower to choose an obedient heart over sin every time.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 2 -- Taking Care Of Business

David was about to die, and Solomon was a very young king.  He hadn’t been tested in Battle as David and his older sons had.  David knew he’d left some unfinished business that could cause Solomon problems after David’s death.  It certainly seems like vengeance, but my commentary shed some light on things:

 

Adonijah, Solomon’s brother, had been so bold as to ask for David’s concubine – what Absalom had done to show the people that he’d taken on his father’s “property”.  Solomon wouldn’t let such a challenge go unanswered and had his brother killed.  Abiathar was the remaining descendant of Eli, and prophecy had to be fulfilled removing that family line from the priesthood.  Joab had shed innocent blood by killing Abner and Amasa, and innocent blood polluted the land, according to God.  Righteousness called for his death.  Shimei was from Saul’s family and he continued to be a source of defiance.  Solomon let Shimei cause his own death by his willful disobedience to the king’s order.

 

David had blood on his hands because he’d asked Joab to kill Uriah.  Solomon’s hands were clean, and he was a man of peace as God had described him.  He could be used by God, therefore, to tie up all of the loose ends causing unrighteousness to remain in the land after his father’s reign.

 

Father, undone jobs can cause problems.  As distasteful as it may seem to have to deal with them, we must handle them fully or else handle them often.  Help me not to shirk a task just because I dread it, for it will only become an anchor around my neck and drain my energy from what You’d have me doing.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

1 Kings 1 -- A Dad And His Son

I’ve felt a little like David in this chapter the last few days, pretty much bedridden and unable to do much due to sickness, and somewhat out of the loop.

 

David found out that one of his sons had decided to take the mantle of kingship from him.  He had gathered together religious and military leaders and all of his brothers except Solomon.  It was clear that this was ungodly rebellion, for the prophet Nathan and Zadok the priest had intentionally been left out, as well as Solomon and David.

 

Before things could progress, though, David acted on the godly counsel he’d received and had Solomon named king and anointed with olive oil from the Holy Tent.  Since David was still living, this established a coregency where both David and Solomon were ruling kings so long as David was alive – a perfect way to teach Solomon the ropes of godly kingship.

 

In the sidebar of my Bible, I read, “A father’s submission to a Heavenly Father means submission to the needs of his children, in other words, sacrifice and humble service, always the conditions of Godlike authority.”  Over the last few days, I haven’t been able to do much of that.  Yet I am thankful to Just for getting me what I needed.  Joseph was also sick and we spent quite a bit of quality time together as well.  I want to be raising my sons to understand the importance of sacrifice and humble service so that they will make great dads someday.

 

Father, thank You for my sons that You gave me from half a world away.  Guide them each day to become men after Your own heart.  Teach them to walk in Your steps.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford