I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 4-6.
Today’s passage starts out with a list of officials who served Solomon. Such lists usually make my eyes glaze over for two reasons. First, the names and titles do not really mean that much to me. Second, the names are generally difficult ones (e.g. Elihoreph). Today I actually recognized a couple of the names. The first name I recognize is Zadok who is listed here as the father of a priest and a little further on as a priest: where he is listed along with Abiathar. It is interesting to see Abiathar listed here because in yesterday’s passage we were told that Solomon deposed Abiathar from his position as priest as part of Solomon consolidating power as king. Benaiah, who was captain of David’s bodyguards and one of his mighty men, is now commander of Solomon’s armies. And one more familiar name appears. Two of Nathan’s sons are officials under Solomon. It was Nathan who confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba. It was also Nathan who arranged for David to crown Solomon as king when Adonijah tried to set himself up to replace David.
The relevance of these observations is that they demonstrate how reading through the Bible time and again reveal things we might otherwise overlook. I just completed my fifth year of reading through the Bible in order to write this blog. Something I started doing in order to discipline myself to read the Bible everyday. I pretend like there are people who are relying on what I write for their daily Bible study in order to discipline myself to read the passages and write something about them. I pray that God will make some use of this blog, but I know that few of those who come here actually read the passages I am commenting on (yesterday, my blog had 18 views, but only three click throughs to the Bible passage…a number that is pretty consistent, even when my views went as high as 52 earlier this o=month). I will encourage everyone who comes here to click through and read the passage I am commenting on. There is more value in reading that than in reading what I have written.