Tag Archives: King Solomon

God Deserves Our First, Our Best, and Our Most

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How much time we spend on our activities reveals our priorities

God Deserves Our First, Our Best, and Our MostKing David longs to build a temple for God, but God says this is not to be. Another, a descendant of David, will attend to its construction. Instead David must content himself with the temple’s planning and in accumulating its building materials. Then he dies, having never seen the temple he desired to build.

Solomon succeeds his father, David, as king of Israel. Solomon oversees the construction of the temple. A grand edifice, it takes seven years to build, a fitting effort for God’s earthly dwelling and the center of Jewish worship and life.

However, in a telling aside, the Bible indicates that Solomon spends almost twice as much time building his own residence. This seems out of balance: seven years for the house of God and thirteen years for a house for Solomon. What does that say about Solomon’s priorities? The temple is for all the people, as well as for God; the palace is for Solomon. Yes, the palace must be a structure worthy of a king, but spending over a decade on its building may be a bit much, especially given that it consumes almost one third of Solomon’s forty-year reign.We must truly make God our priority. Click To Tweet

Yet I wonder how often we effectively do the same thing, placing greater emphasis on the things we do for ourselves than the things we do for God, the time we spend with him, and the offerings we give. We need to not only put him first, but he also deserves our best and our most. I fear we too often fall short in those areas.

We must truly make God our priority.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 1 Kings 5-7, and today’s post is on 1 Kings 6:38-7:1.]

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King Solomon’s Wives: A subtle source of distraction

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Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wasn’t so wise with his love life. In all he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Even worse, many of his wives were foreigners, something God prohibited because he feared they would distract his people from fully worshiping him.

Unfortunately, just as God feared, Solomon’s foreign-born wives did lead him astray and cause him to turn from God. As a result, Solomon ruined his legacy and consequently his son would lose the kingdom.

When God tells us “no,” there’s a good reason for it. Will we obey him or think we know better? Solomon thought he knew better and things didn’t work out so well for him.

[See 1 Kings 11:1-13.]

[Discover more about the Bible at A Bible A Day.com: Bible FAQs, Bible Dictionary, Books of the Bible Overview, and Bible Reading Plans.]

Have You Ever Been Overwhelmed by the Glory of God?

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When Solomon dedicated the temple, the people praised God with much fanfare and then something strange happened.

A cloud formed – inside the building. But there’s more. “The Glory of the Lord filled the temple.” It became so intense that the priests couldn’t even work; God’s presence was that strong. It was extreme.

They became overwhelmed with God’s presence and his glory. But what exactly does that mean?

  • It could be the awe of God engulfed them to such an extent that nothing else mattered.
  • It could be that fear of being so close to God effectively paralyzed them.
  • It could be the cloud was so thick – that is, God’s presence was so heavy – that they literally couldn’t see what they were doing, or
  • It could be that with God in the house nothing else mattered.

Regardless of the explanation, we can conclude that God’s presence was so significant that all activity ceased.

Can you imagine worshiping God and collectively feeling his presence to such an extent that all the singers stop singing and all the musicians stop playing? Silence fills the room and nothing else matters. Then the highest form of worship becomes to simply do nothing and bask in his presence.

Have you ever been that overwhelmed with the glory of God?

Is It Fair to Get What We Don’t Earn?

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In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon does a lot of whining.

(Don’t get bogged down by his negativity, for he eventually provides some reliable insight in the book’s concluding verses.)

Overall I find it easy to dismiss Solomon’s complaining, but one of his laments does make sense to me. He grumbles about leaving an inheritance to someone who didn’t earn it and doesn’t deserve it.

That’s not fair! And we all want what’s fair, don’t we?

Perhaps not.

Through Jesus, we receive something we didn’t earn and don’t deserve: eternal life.

That’s not fair either, but I’m not complaining.

[Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, Ecclesiastes 2:21, Romans 6:23]

The Quarrelsome Spouse: A Constant Dripping

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The word “quarrelsome” is almost exclusive to the book of Proverbs, occurring six times there and only one other time in the rest of the Bible. Quarrelsome means “given to quarreling, contentious, belligerent”; some of its synonyms are argumentative, fractious, and petulant.

Five of the six occurrences relate to a quarrelsome wife — she is undesirable and to be avoided. Twice she is compared to a constant dripping, which could be a suitable euphemism for nagging. The sixth reference is to a quarrelsome man — he is one who kindles strife. (The Bible’s seventh occurrence of quarrelsome is in 1 Timothy 3:3 where it is listed as an unacceptable characteristic of a church leader.)

Lest the ladies are feeling unfairly chastised, recall that Solomon — who wrote much of Proverbs — had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Surely there were a few quarrelsome ones among the group, giving him ample reason to be so sensitive regarding this topic.

Regardless, quarrelsome is most certainly a characteristic to be avoided, both as a personal trait and among those you associate with.

[Occurrences of quarrelsome in the Bible.]

An Overview of the Book of Proverbs

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The book of Proverbs in the Bible has 31 chapters. I see them organized as follows:

  • Chapters 1 to 9: Solomon’s personal instructions to his son (or sons). [Proverbs 1:8]
  • Chapters 10 to 24: More wise sayings (proverbs) of Solomon. [Proverbs 10:1]
  • Chapter 24:23-34: A brief collection of proverbs from other sources. [Proverbs 24:23]
  • Chapter 25-29: An apparent addendum, added by King Hezekiah’s men, but understood to have been from Solomon. [Proverbs 25:1]
  • Chapter 30 and 31: Two appendices by other people that fit the book’s overall theme: the sayings of Agur [Proverbs 30:1] and the sayings of King Lemuel [Proverbs 31:1], followed by an epilogue, about the wife of noble character [Proverbs 31:10], which is perhaps the most familiar passage in the entire book.

So there are essentially three segments to Proverbs:

1) Solomon teaching his son
2) More wise teachings from Solomon
3) More wise teaching from other people

In the next few weeks, we will look at the book of Proverbs in greater detail.

When Was the Book of Job Written?

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Earlier I wondered if Job was real person or a fictional character.  Despite support for both perspectives, my conclusion was that it doesn’t really matter.  We can learn from him regardless if his life is a fictitious or historical account.

Another debated question, which is without definitive answer, is when was Job written?  While some say that it was an early book of the Bible — perhaps even the first — this conclusion is more speculative than evidentiary.

Regarding this, let me make two observations:

1) There are significant thematic parallels between the books of Job and Ecclesiastes, specifically regarding the brevity of life and futility of living.

2) The books of Job and Song of Solomon have a similar construction, which is not found anywhere else in the Bible.  Each is heavy in dialogue — almost exclusively so — reading like a screenplay.

The books of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon were both written by King Solomon.  Because the book of Job shares a similar construction and theme, perhaps Solomon also wrote Job.

Knowing when Job was written doesn’t really matter, but it is an intriguing thought to consider that perhaps King Solomon is the author.

An Army of Angels

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The young girl gazes out into the desert; something is coming towards her. It is Solomon, her lover, traveling by carriage. He is accompanied by a protective band of weapon wielding warriors, tested and poised for whatever threat awaits them. With Solomon — and his army — she will be protected.

In a spiritual sense, this is how it is with God and us. He is coming towards us; with him, we will be protected. (That doesn’t mean there won’t be risks as we journey with him, because there will.)  We will also be afforded a band of warriors, ready to battle on our behalf. In the spiritual realm, this is an army of angels.

Centuries later, Jesus tells Satan, “Don’t you know that I could ask my Father, and right away he would send me more than twelve armies of angels?”

While we might not see angels, we have good reason to believe that they are nearby, ready to protect us from both physical threats and spiritual foes.

Our God, who loves us, will make sure we are protected.

[Song of Solomon 3:6-8, Matthew 26:53]

Where Are You?

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In the Song of Songs, the girl reveals something personal.  She is self-conscious about the dark tones of her skin (from spending too much time in the sun, she says).  She doesn’t want others to stare.

Yet the friends in this story want to do just that.  They admire her uniqueness and ask to gaze upon her.  This is ironic; the exact thing that makes her uncomfortable, others admire.

More significantly, is that her lover desires to do the same.  He says, “Show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”  His love for her is revealed through his desire.

While this human love story between a man and a woman is wonderful and inviting, the underlying analogy is of the love story between God and us.  By extension, God wants to look at us; he wants to hear our voice!

If this seems strange, know that there is precedent.

You may recall that after Adam and Eve hid from God, that God sought them out, calling “Where are you?”*

I hear the same call to us today.

*Their location was not a mystery to God; he merely wanted them to come to him on their own accord — as he does of us.

[read the passages referenced above]

 

Familiar Phrases in an Unfamiliar Place

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The Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) is a part of the Bible that is not often read.  Even so, three phrases jump out as being very familiar.

The first is “rose of Sharon.”  It is a beautiful and valued flower.  However, according to some translators, this eloquent phrasing should more correctly be rendered as “crocus.”  That just doesn’t carry the same punch.

Immediately following that is another flower reference, “lily of the valley.”  Lily of the valley is also a pretty flower, usually a pure white and most delicate in appearance.

What is unclear is if these images refer to the king (implying God) or to his beloved (implying us).

The third phrase is “his banner over me is love.”  This harkens to I song I remember singing as a child.  Aside from this phrase and a vague recollection of the tune, I can recall no other words to the song, but I think this is what we sang (and there are even hand motions to accompany it!)

Interestingly, all three phrases only occur once in the Bible, in the Song of Songs.