2 Chronicles 1 – 5
Verse 1:7 starts a familiar story with Solomon:
In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.”
If God appeared before you right now and asked this, what would your answer be? And don’t give the “Biblical” one of wisdom, unless that is truly what is in your heart. We may have in our hearts a desire for wealth, fame or power but knowing the story say wisdom, since the expectation is God will grant us the rest for not being “selfish.” You know what stinks about God? God sees into your true desires. I can say without a doubt that asking for wisdom with the expectation of the other stuff will result in neither! Although some will say I am a “wise guy” so maybe the prayer was answered.
Verse 1:10 gives the reason behind Solomon’s request:
Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”
If you think about it, Solomon was assuming David’s empire. He had wealth and power already, so wisdom to “govern” the people was a logical request. This story often gets told that because he was not selfish and asking for frivolous stuff he was granted the thinks most of us would ask for. But he already had wealth, fame and power, sure he could have asked for more but it’s not like one of the homeless people having God ask them what they want, they would be asking for wisdom out of true need.
I don’t want to take away from the fact Solomon made a noble choice in his decision, since no matter how rich a person seems to be most want more. He could have asked for a larger empire, more gold or more wives, but rather asked for something that most of us would not. I guess the example is if you had one wish what would it be? And more wishes is not a “wish”, just one thing, one wish. Puts more of a perspective on what Solomon wished for.
Verse 5:13 has the temple complete and the Ark is placed in it and now the people are rejoicing:
and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever,”the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud,
Chapters 2 through 5 described the alliances Solomon made to build the temple and the actual construction. This verse caught my eye because of the song being sung. “For he is good, his love endures for ever,” is a line from many Christian songs and is scattered throughout the Psalms and other books. I think it’s something we really need to remind ourselves of daily. God is good all the time and all the time God is good is said so often it’s almost a cliché, but it’s so true. We need to focus and dwell on God’s immense love and power that He cares about us on a personal level. Think about it, if we don’t think God has time for us then we are limiting God!!