This reading talks about Solomon the builder as he rebuilds the temple, his palace and the nation. Verse 5:3 starts with Solomon giving the reason why he is to begin building:<\/p>\n
\nYou remember that David did not have the opportunity to construct a temple honoring the reputation of the Eternal his God, because of\u00a0my father\u2019s involvement\u00a0<\/em>in the warfare which plagued him until the Eternal suppressed all of his enemies under his feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Part of the reason was David was busy in battles, but another reason was he had too much blood on his hands and the Lord wanted the construction performed by a purer hands. Also, since Solomon had great wisdom, he was working with other kings and nations to help in his projects. Hiram was one of the major contributors to these projects and Solomon made sure he was kept happy.<\/p>\n
Verse 6:1 gives you an idea at the time frame of this project:<\/p>\n
\nDuring the second month called Ziv in the 4th year of Solomon\u2019s reign, 480 years after the Israelites had departed from Egypt, Solomon began constructing the Eternal\u2019s temple.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
480 years between Moses and the people leaving Egypt to Solomon finishing the temple. When you read the Bible it\u2019s only a few chapters, but if you add the number up we see the time. Imagine if you had to wait 10 years for a promise? See we look at time much different than the Eternal, since he is working with infinity and we have at best a 100 year bound from start to finish.<\/p>\n
Verses 6:12 & 13 is God\u2019s if then statement for His blessing on Israel:<\/p>\n
\nEternal One:<\/strong>\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Regarding the temple which you are building: if you live by My laws and enforce My ways, if you honor My instructions by keeping them, then I will honor the promise I made to your father, David,\u00a0and establish that promise with you.<\/em>\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>I will live among the Israelites, and I will not abandon\u00a0the community of<\/em>\u00a0Israel, My people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Simple follow God\u2019s ways and all will be fine. Oh how I wish I could do that regularly. We all tend to drift and fortunately the grace of Jesus with the Holy Spirit usually gets us back on the right track. Some of us it takes longer than others, but God does not seem to abandon us. Now as you read Kings you will see God does not abandon His people, but for a season. So as harsh in writing sound, God\u2019s compassion for us will save us with true repentance.<\/p>\n
In writing this I have The Voice of Truth by the Casting Crowns playing. Man what a powerful song using Peter and David as prime example of faith facing a stormy sea and a giant. We tend to put God in a box or temple when He is much greater than that. We forget that this building is not God\u2019s home, but rather the point of interface between the people and God. This was for the people and not for God!!<\/p>\n
Final quick note, verse 9:12 shows Hiram had some problems with Solomon\u2019s gifts:<\/p>\n
\nHiram traveled from Tyre to view the cities Solomon was giving to him, but he was not satisfied.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This seems like it could become a thorn in Solomon\u2019s side, but 2 verses later Hiram is giving him 9000 pounds of gold. As with most relationships communications is the key and although not noted, Solomon must have communicated with Hiram to quell his anger. Since someone not satisfied would not give that much gold shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Kings 5 \u2013 9 This reading talks about Solomon the builder as he rebuilds the temple, his palace and the nation. Verse 5:3 starts with Solomon giving the reason why he is to begin building: You remember that David did not have the opportunity to construct a temple honoring the reputation of the Eternal … Continue reading “Solomon the Builder”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}