Today's Reading - 1 Kings 9, 2 Chronicles 8
Background
In today's readings, we see the finishing of the Temple and the rest of Solomon's amazing and extensive building projects. Though David was a man after God's own heart, Solomon was the man who built Israel into a regional powerhouse. He was a man to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately, as we will see in future readings, his life would become a model of the proverb that says, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."
Devotional - Fallen Stones
On my second trip to Israel, we were escorted through a tunnel that connects the Ancient City of David to the Temple Mount. Along the way, we had to duck because of huge rectangular boulders - the size of busses - that protruded from the ceiling of the tunnel. Our guide told us that these were stones from the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar's men threw off when they destroyed God's house of worship.
This is a direct fulfillment of the warning that God gave Solomon in 1 Kings 9:4-9. After the Temple was constructed, God made a promise to Solomon (one the king unfortunately broke). He told him that if he would walk in obedience as his father David had, God would establish his throne until the end of time. If Solomon had not fallen into sin, there would be a descendant of David and Solomon on the throne of Israel today.
But God also warned that things could go a different direction. If Solomon sinned against God and drifted into idolatry, he would bring devastation to his nation and destruction to the Temple. People would wander by the Temple (as I did 3000 years later) and marvel at the destruction. Solomon followed that course and the worst happened.
There are two levels at which the blessing of God happens. Our relationship with God is based on the finished work of Christ and is settled - not resting on my work or yours, my merit or yours. Jesus paid it all and we owe it all to him. There was a covenant that God made with David that was eternal and unshakable - it went on regardless of Solomon's sin. When Israel split away and there were two kingdoms, David's lineage continued. Even after the kingdom was destroyed, the line of David continued until the King of kings was born in Bethlehem. The promise of God never fails.
But Israel did not experience the blessing of God on a daily basis because of Solomon's sin and their subsequent love of idolatry. Though God's faithfulness continued they strayed and they suffered the loss of their potential, their blessings, their rewards.
You are saved by God's grace and that cannot change - you are secure in Christ. But experiencing the daily blessings of grace, to know the joys of Christ in daily life, is a product of obedience. When we wander as Israel did and embrace sin, we forfeit those blessings and the stones of discipline fall on us. God's faithful love preserves us but we lose God's boundless blessings.
Solomon had a choice. Walk in obedience and be blessed or disobey and have the Temple stones he had just constructed come crashing down. He made a poor choice. May we make a better choice!
Father, I thank you that my salvation is secure in you, but may I choose to walk daily in obedience that I may experience blessing.
Think and Pray
Think of your life as a choice such as Solomon was given.
Are you choosing the blessing of God or are you choosing to bring judgment and discipline down?
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