Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 1-4.

I have touched on this before, but I want to make note of it again.  Even though David had brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he had not brought the tent of the tabernacle, nor the altar which was built during the time in the wilderness with it.  Those two things were still in Gibeon.  It is not clear to me why the ark was not reunited with them after it was returned from the Philistines, but it was not.  Earlier we had been told that David did not go to the tabernacle and its altar to consult God after the plague.  So, it would have been a fairly noteworthy event when Solomon went there after his coronation.  Of course the most interesting thing about that scene is the vision which Solomon had the night after offering sacrifices there.  God appeared to Solomon and told him to ask Him for whatever he wanted God to give him.  Solomon’s request and God’s response reminds me of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount when He instructed us not to worry.  Solomon asked God to give him the wisdom and knowledge he would need to lead God’s people.  God was pleased with Solomon’s request and told Solomon that He would grant his request, and because Solomon had asked for things in order to serve others and to serve God, God would also grant him the things which most people would have asked for in that situation: wealth, fame, and honor.  This is similar to what Jesus tells us will happen if we first seek the Kingdom of God.  If we seek God’s Kingdom as our first priority, God will provide for our other needs.  So, God rewarded Solomon because his heart’s desire was to serve the people whom he was chosen to lead.  In the same way, God will reward us if we seek to serve others.  While God will not necessarily reward us in the way in which He rewarded Solomon by giving him wealth, fame, and honor, if our greatest desire is to serve others, I can promise that God will reward us with the ability to do so in ever increasing amounts.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.