November 27, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Warnings and Worries

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Opening Prayer

“Speak, Lord, as I come to You to receive the food of Your holy Word. Take Your truth, plant it deep in me” (Keith Getty/Stuart Townsend).

Read 1 KINGS 9:1-19

[1] When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, [2] the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. [3] The LORD said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. [4] “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, [5] I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ [6] “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, [7] then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. [8] This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ [9] People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.'” [10] At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings-the temple of the LORD and the royal palace- [11] King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. [12] But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. [13] “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul, a name they have to this day. [14] Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold. [15] Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. [16] (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. [17] And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon, [18] Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land, [19] as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses-whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“To glorify God means to think and act in such a way that the goodness, greatness, and beauty of God are constantly obvious to ourselves and all those around us” (Dallas Willard, 1935-2013). A challenge that Solomon ultimately failed and a challenge we must strive to attain.

When there is someone we really look up to, someone who has done great things, it is really hard when we hear that they, like the rest of us, have feet of clay. There can be a tendency to assume either the great things were not so great or the bad things can’t really be true. Usually, both assumptions are false. Chapter 8 is in many ways the high point of Solomon’s reign–at least as far as the account in Kings is concerned–but chapter 9 again raises questions. God’s second appearance to Solomon is specifically related to the first–we are clearly meant to view the two together. The Temple building is affirmed and Solomon’s great potential for good is again recognized, but the “if” that was there in the background of the first message comes strongly to the fore. We are firmly reminded that both the land and the Temple are closely linked to Israel’s identity as the people of God. If that identity is nullified by their behavior, then both land and Temple will be lost. God’s deep desire that Solomon should avoid this disaster is apparent, but so also is the worry that he might fail to do so.

The second half of the chapter is a record of other elements in Solomon’s reign, provided without editorial comment. We learn that his diplomatic exchanges, even with Hiram of Tyre, were not always seen as positive (13). He regularly used forced labor to carry out his building projects (15), though the projects were indeed remarkable. He even enslaved remaining non-Israelite inhabitants of the land. Readers are being asked to assess for themselves whether or not this is a picture of the kind of king that was envisaged for Israel in Deuteronomy (Deut. 17:14-20).

Apply

What modern gods compete for your allegiance? How does God stake his claim to be “the one and only” in your life? Does he have first place? Why or why not?

Closing prayer

Lord, when the story of my life is told, will I have taken up the challenges and responded to the warnings provided? Lord, may it be so.

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