Tag: King Solomon

God Deserves Our First, Our Best, and Our Most

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 18, 2016

How Much Time We Spend on Our Activities 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 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.

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.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

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Tags give, God, King David, King Solomon, temple

Bible Insights

Have You Ever Been Overwhelmed by the Glory of God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 17, 2013

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?

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Tags God, King Solomon, temple

Bible Insights

Is It Fair to Get What We Don’t Earn?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 25, 2012
2 Comments on Is It Fair to Get What We Don’t Earn?

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]

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Tags Ecclesiastes, eternal life, King Solomon

Bible Insights

The Quarrelsome Spouse: A Constant Dripping

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 24, 2012

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.

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 and eighth occurrences of quarrelsome occurs in 1 and 2 Timothy 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 about this topic.

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

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Proverbs 18-21 and today’s post is on Proverbs 21:9. Study the occurrences of quarrelsome in the Bible.]

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Tags King Solomon

Bible Insights

An Overview of the Book of Proverbs

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 3, 2012

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:

Solomon teaching his son
More wise teachings from Solomon
More wise teaching from other people

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

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Tags King Solomon, Proverbs

Bible Insights

Where Are You?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 7, 2011

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.

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Tags Adam and Eve, King Solomon, love, mystery, Song of Songs

Bible Insights

Familiar Phrases in an Unfamiliar Place

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 2, 2011

The Song of Songs (sometimes called the 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.

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Tags King Solomon, love, Song of Songs

Bible Insights

The Song of Songs

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 29, 2011

After my prior post about the number one hit that used the Bible for lyrics, you may thing that it is the song of all songs. Not so. There is another. You may have heard the book in the Bible, Song of Songs.

Song of Songs can be thought of as a “biblical erotica,” albeit a PG 13 version. It is a bit explicit and somewhat suggestive, but in a literary way.

Song of Songs is a tale a passionate love affair between the king and his lover. The king is Solomon and his lover is foreign royalty (she is described has a “Shulammite” and a “prince’s daughter).

However, in addition to this real-life drama, Song of Songs is also pointed to a passionate spiritual love affair between God and his people.

(In the New Testament, this love affair is even more specific, being between Jesus and the church, who is his spiritual bride.)

As such, Song of Songs can be read and appreciated on two levels: a personal love story between two people and a spiritual saga of God’s desire for his people (us) and the way he longs for us to respond.

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Tags Jesus, King Solomon, love, Song of Songs

Bible Insights

A Wise Guy: The Wisdom of Solomon

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 22, 2011

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 gave it to him—along with wealth and power as a bonus. The Bible later says that Solomon was wiser than anyone else who ever lived (1 Kings 4:30-31).

It is from this man—the wisest one who ever lived—that we get the book of Ecclesiastes. Go figure. If Solomon’s writing in Ecclesiastes is a showcase of wisdom and the result of knowledge, then I’ll pass.

We also know, however, that Solomon was distracted by the beliefs of his many wives. They turned his attention away from God and towards other things (1 Kings 11:1-13).

So, despite being wise, Solomon became unwise and strayed from God. I wonder if the book of Ecclesiastes is a reflection of that.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is 2 Chronicles 7-9 and today’s post is on 2 Chronicles 9:22.]

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Tags Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, wisdom

Bible Insights

The Book of Ecclesiastes

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date March 19, 2011

I am confounded by the book of Ecclesiastes. As mentioned in the post “…and Then You Die,” Ecclesiastes is a depressing read. It is pessimistic and its main point to put God first is easy to miss.

Ecclesiastes abounds with negativity and hyperbole, yet it also contains some wise thoughts and astute observations. Separating the two takes effort and focus.

Yet doing so means to discount some parts of this book as foolishness and to embrace other parts as sound.

This is unwise, because to do so we must apply our own biases and perceptions of what to accept (such as, obey God) and what to reject (such as, death is better than life).

Reading Solomon’s words in this manner merely reinforces what we already know and teaches us nothing new.

What I do know is that given Solomon’s proclivity towards hyperbole in Ecclesiastes, using his words by themselves as a basis for understanding God is not warranted.

It is imperative to make sure any conclusions made are also supported elsewhere in biblical texts.

So if Ecclesiastes is not much use for direct instruction, then what good is it?

If I read Ecclesiastes strictly as a story, then I do see one lesson emerge: smart people can be pretty whacked out and morose in their thinking. Is that the point?

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Tags Ecclesiastes, King Solomon