Punishment, Preparation, Milestone, and Completion We’ve looked at occurrences in Scripture of the numbers twelve, seven, and three. Now let’s consider the number forty in the Bible. It occurs throughout the Old and New Testaments. Forty Days and Forty Years The most common use of the number forty in the Bible is to measure time, such as […]
A Constant Dripping The word “quarrelsome” is almost exclusive to the book of Proverbs, occurring six times there and only two other times in the rest of the Bible, most to a quarrelsome wife. Quarrelsome means “given to quarreling, contentious, belligerent”; some of its synonyms are argumentative, fractious, and petulant. Five of the six occurrences […]
Where We Spend Our Time Reveals Our Priorities King 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 […]
A Wise Guy God told King Solomon to ask for anything and it would be given to him (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). (I think this is the closest thing we see in the Bible to God granting wishes like a genie.) As a wise guy, he chose carefully. Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge. And God […]
Psalm 180 from Beyond Psalm 150 The book of Ecclesiastes shares Solomon’s personal journey of trying to find meaning and purpose in his life. It’s a dismal saga, discouraging and void of hope. Early on Solomon shares a pessimistic view about the seasons of life. He opens acknowledging there’s a time to be born and […]
Psalm 172 from Beyond Psalm 150 After bringing the ark to the temple and dedicating it, the third part of this public ceremony is Solomon’s blessing to God, which emerges as a psalm of praise to him and instruction to the people. Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to […]
The young girl gazes out into the desert. Something comes 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 […]
Psalm 171 from Beyond Psalm 150 After bringing the ark to the temple, Solomon stands before the altar, lifts his hands to heaven, and offers these words to God: Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your […]
Psalm 170 from Beyond Psalm 150 As successor to King David, Solomon constructs the temple that his father wanted to build. With much fanfare Solomon brings the ark—which contains the two stone tablets God gave to Moses—to reside in the temple. Before the people gather for this momentous event, Solomon blesses God and honors David. […]
A Subtle Source of Distraction King 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 King Solomon’s wives were foreigners, something God prohibited because he feared they would distract his people from fully worshiping him (Deuteronomy 7:3). […]