I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 8-10.

    When I came to the place where Solomon decided that he needed to build a separate palace for his wife because the Ark had been in David’s palace, and therefore David’s palace was holy ground, my first thought was, “You should have thought of that before you married her.” We all make foolish decisions, but if a woman (or, if you are a woman, a man) does not share your love and dedication to God, do NOT marry them. Solomon had many reasons for marrying Pharaoh’s daughter, but none of them should have been allowed to overcome this deficiency.

    When Rehoboam became king, the people of Israel came to him and asked him to scale back his father’s projects, to reduce the burden on the common man. He asked the advice of both his father’s advisers and of the guys he had hung out with while he was growing up. His father’s advisers advised him to give the people a favorable answer, to be conciliatory. His contemporaries advised him to show the people who was in charge, to stand firm and be tough. Rehoboam followed his contemporaries advice because it appealed to his vanity. He discovered that he was not in charge as much as he thought. There are two important lessons here. The first is the importance of listening to the advice of those with experience over the inexperienced. The second is the importance of being responsive to the “general populace” and making sure they feel like their interests are being taken into account. In this year’s election cycle we see what happens when the experienced advisers forget the second lesson.