First Kings 9-11

I fell behind again. Go figure

God’s message to me: It’s easy to lean on God when everything is going wrong and you feel you have no where else to turn. It’s also easy to forget where your loyalty should lie when everything is going right. When life is good and God’s blessings are overwhelming it is all the more important to remember Who provided your good life.

Promises: This portion describes all God did for Solomon. Solomon asked only for wisdom and because that is all he asked for he received wisdom greater than anyone before or since. He also received wealth and power as God had promised so that he was the richest and most powerful king in the world.

Commands: Do not turn from God. God had commanded that the Israelites not intermarry with the people of the surrounding nations and the nations that he was rejecting from the promised land because they would turn their hearts to false gods. Solomon took 700 wives and 300 concubines most of whom came from the nations they were not supposed to marry into.

To keep his wives happy he built temples and alters to the false gods they served and he worshiped those gods with them. This act against God resulted in the second half of God’s promise. The kingdom of Israel was divided after Solomon’s 40 year reign and those who David and his generals had put down were the ones who came back and took over the portion that was not under control of the house of David. For the sake of His promise to David and His promise to place his name in the temple Jerusalem and the territory it was in remained under control of David’s decedents.

Timeless principles: The greatest blessing can lead to the greatest fall. Solomon had it all, literally. He had more power, wealth and wisdom than anyone. He got to comfortable in it and turned from God who had given it to him. He sacrificed the future for the pleasures of today.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: “it’s not hurting anybody” is not an excuse. Doing the right thing is required even if the wrong thing doesn’t seem to do any harm. We answer to God in the end and He judges on whether we followed His law, not on whether others liked us, not on how successful we were and not on whether we did something that didn’t hurt anyone.

more to learn for in-depth study: The book of the acts of Solomon is yet another reference to a book that is not found in the bible. Many books of Jewish history are mentioned throughout scripture. They are not scripture but historical reference. Some can be found in the Talmud and other works of significance to the Jewish faith and might prove useful to historical interest. They should not; however, serve as a replacement to scriptures. The bible is the divinely inspired word of God and is meant to provide us with all we need to know in order to serve Him. While other books are of interest to learn of the times in which biblical events occurred they are merely historical reference and not religious guidance. The books of the Apocrypha found in the Catholic bible are such documents. The Rabbis who provided the original document later translated into our modern bibles specified that these books were not seen as or treated as scripture which is why the translators of bibles used by most of the protestant faiths did not include them. Following the tradition of separating scripture from reference they left these books out of the bible so that the bible would remain purely the word of God.

tomorrow: First Kings 12-13