Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 2-3.

I like reviewing the pragmatic, and fair, way in which Solomon dealt with issues he had left over from the situation surrounding his taking the throne.  However, today I want to write about the first part of David’s instructions to Solomon as Solomon took the throne.  In particular, David tells Solomon to “be strong, act like a man.”  I do believe that David meant that being strong was part of what it meant to act like a man, or to make this lesson more general being strong is part of what it means to act like an adult.  We should all strive to act like adults.  David goes on to tell Solomon to observe what God requires and walk in obedience to Him.  This was also part of what it meant to act like a man, or like an adult.  David tells Solomon that if he does these things, he will prosper in whatever he does and wherever he goes.  While there was a materialistic element to what David meant by prosper, I believe that plays a minor part in the message which God has for us here.  If we choose to be strong, observe what God requires and walk in obedience to Him, we will prosper in all that we do.  We may not obtain material wealth, but we will succeed in what we do.  As for what it means to prosper in all that we do, I heard a story recently:

A man felt compelled by the Spirit to witness to an atheist friend and co-worker, who he knew was not receptive to the Gospel. He tried to dismiss it, but he felt compelled to invite the man to upcoming Easter Services. So, he yielded to the Spirit and did so. As he had expected his atheist friend turned him down, after the man had once again made the case for Christ and the Resurrection. The man went about his way, thinking he had not succeeded on that day. Some years later, he ran into a former co-worker who had worked with in the same building. This co-worker extended his sincerest thanks to the man. It turns out that while the man was trying to convince his atheist friend to come to services with him on Easter, this other co-worker was beneath another desk in the same office, connecting wires and overheard the conversation. Having heard the case made by the man for Christ and the Resurrection, the co-worker went home and told his wife they should go to services that Easter morning. A year later the co-worker and his wife gave their lives to the Lord. So, the original man thought that he had failed, but he was mistaken. He had instead prospered in what he did because he walked in obedience to God.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 20-22.

Since I have no idea where I am going with today’s blog, I will start by noting that there appear to have been four prophets of God mentioned in this passage: two anonymously, and two by name.  First, we have the anonymous prophet who offered King Ahab the predictions of his victories over Ben-Haddad.  Then we have the anonymous prophet who condemned King Ahab for entering into a treaty with Ben-Haddad after defeating him instead of killing him.   Followed by Elijah re-appearing and condemning King Ahab for allowing his wife, Jezebel, to have Naboth killed so that King Ahab could claim Naboth’s vineyard.  Finally, we have Micaiah, who predicted King Ahab’s death in battle against the king of Aram.

The thing that strikes me about the story involving Micaiah is the way in which King Ahab attempts to substitute prophets of Baal for a prophet of God…and how King Jehoshaphat completely dismisses them as prophets of God.   Further, the prophets of Baal presented themselves as prophets of God, or, more precisely as interchangeable with prophets of God.  From reading this, it seems to me that the worshipers of Baal claimed that Baal was just another name for Yahweh.  It would follow from this that they claimed that their worship of Baal was just another way of worshiping Yahweh.  When pushed on the issue, people like King Ahab knew full well that Baal was not the same as Yahweh, but he liked what the prophets of Baal told him better than what the prophets of Yahweh told him.  Perhaps of most interest, we learn from this passage that the prophets of Baal appear to have considered themselves to be worshiping the same God as the prophets of Yahweh.  Also of note, the prophets of Baal outnumbered the prophets of Yahweh.  In the same way today, there are many who believe they are teaching about God, who are in fact calling on people to worship false gods.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and the story of his trip to Mount Horeb.  However, I want to start by looking at Obadiah.  Obadiah was King Ahab’s palace administrator and a devout follower of the Lord.  This seems hard to reconcile.  How could a devout follower of the Lord serve as King Ahab’s palace administrator?  Nevertheless the passage tells us that such was the case.  More importantly, the passage tells us that Obadiah used his position to save 100 prophets of God from Jezebel’s persecution of them.  So, we do not know much about Obadiah except that he did this.  Not many of us are called to confront the powerful the way Elijah was, but we can at least be like Obadiah and use whatever power we have to aid others.

I also want to look at another part of this passage which is referenced a bit more than Obadiah, but even so not that much.  When King Ahab meets up with Elijah, he calls him a troublemaker.  I imagine that King Ahab did so because he blamed Elijah for the drought which he had predicted.  However, Elijah points out that King Ahab is the one bringing trouble on Israel because King Ahab has chosen to follow the path of idolatry rather than worship the Lord.  King Ahab’s Baal worship and support for Jezebel’s persecution of the Lord’s prophets was more disruptive to Israel than anything Elijah had done.    Similar things happen today.  Christians are often called divisive for calling people to traditional moral stances which have only recently been rejected,   If you are called, as Elijah was, to stand up and confront people over their moral failings, do not allow them to make you think that you are the one being divisive.  And, if you are called to be like Obadiah, do not let them convince you that the Elijah’s of the world are the one’s to blame.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 15-17.

The story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath contains a wonderful lesson for us about how God will provide for our needs.  I usually seek something else in this passage to write about because this story is talked about so often.    Of course, this story contains a powerful lesson on how God provides, which is the reason it gets talked about so much.  And today, the power of this story struck me to write about it.  The story illustrates both Elijah’s faith and the widow’s faith.  When Elijah arrived in Zarephath, the widow was about to make one last meal for her son and for herself.  Yet when Elijah asked her to make him some bread, with the promise that if she did her oil and flour would not run out, she took him at his word and did so.  The power of this story really hit me when I read this phrase “For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”

Which brings us to Elijah’s faith, he had the faith to make that promise to the widow, believing that God could and would make it true.  Now Elijah had reason to have that faith, having just spent some period of time in the Kerith Ravine being supplied with food by ravens.  Nevertheless, that was just between him and God, now he needed to take the risk of telling someone else that they could rely on God.  Not really much of a risk, but isn’t it one which we often find hard to take?  So, we often focus on the widow’s faith and God rewarding her for it.  She was willing to give of the last little bit she had to someone in need, and , as a result, God provided for her.  But think about Elijah, he had to ask for help from someone in almost as desperate need, if not more desperate need, than himself, and he had to trust that God would provide for them because he certainly was unable to do so.  Think about this, the widow was provided for because Elijah asked her to give him some assistance.  Do we have the faith to ask someone to help us?  Do we have the faith to believe that God will provide for the needs of someone because they helped us?  Please note that the widow from whom Elijah requested aid was not even one of the people of God.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 13-14.

When I read this passage I wonder about what motivated the “old prophet” to pursue the “man of God” who prophesied against Jeroboam in front of Jeroboam’s altar in order to convince the man of God to break God’s command to him.  I also wonder why the man of God listened to the old prophet.   I really want to write about the lesson we need to take from this episode, but it feels both obvious and like it can be taken too far.  So, here is the lesson: be careful when someone who claims authority from God tells you something contrary to what you understand God to have said to you directly.  I struggle with this lesson because I also believe that we should test what we believe the Holy Spirit to have told us against what others hear God saying.   In this case I think I understand where the man of God in this story went wrong.  He did not know this “old prophet” and had no basis for believing that God had spoken to him.   Another aspect of this is that we do not know why the old prophet lied to the man of God.  We need to remember that some people who we believe to honor God will seek to cause us to go against God’s will for reasons of which we will never be aware.  I hope my point comes through.  It is clear in my head, but I do not feel like it is coming through in the words I have written.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 11-12.

Often when I read the books of Samuel and Kings I connect the dots between King David’s affair with Bathsheba and the division of the Kingdom of Israel under Rehoboam.  And while there is a connection there, today’s passage shows us that King Solomon’s idolatry was really what led to that division.  And since Solomon’s idolatry stemmed from his marriages to foreign women one might say that the division of Israel resulted from Solomon’s polygamy.  Early in his reign, King Solomon united his kingdom by drawing the people of Israel to worship God in the Temple which he built.  However, as time went by and King Solomon became wealthy and powerful, he married many women from many different lands.  In order to keep his many wives happy, King Solomon built altars to the gods they had worshiped before he married them.  Then in addition to the regular sacrifices which King Solomon offered to God in the Temple, he offered sacrifices to these other gods, and otherwise took part in their worship.  As a result God allowed opposition to rise against Solomon among people whom David had thoroughly subjugated (and my reading of the relevant parts of the Old Testament suggest had begun integrating into Israel itself).

Having written that first paragraph I want to make another point.  God had sent a prophet to tell Jeroboam that He was going to take part of Israel away from the House of David and give it to him, Jeroboam.  The prophet told Jeroboam that this would happen because of Solomon’s idolatry.  The prophet went on to tell Jeroboam that if Jeroboam faithfully served and worshiped God, God would make his dynasty as lasting as King David’s.  Yet, despite this when Jeroboam became king, he feared that if the people continued to worship God at the Temple in Jerusalem their loyalty would revert to David’s House.  As a result, Jeroboam established the worship of idols to replace the worship of God.  So, the point I want to make: the writers of the Old Testament disapproved of a man having more than one wife, but did not consider it to be, in and of itself, a sin.  I believe that their view reflects that of God.  So, while it was King Solomon’s polygamy which led him into idolatry, it was his idolatry which caused the division of his kingdom, not his polygamy.  King Solomon’s polygamy was a mistake which exposed him to the temptation to commit idolatry, but it was not a sin.  Not all of our mistakes are sins, but our mistakes often lead us into sin.  Jeroboam’s kingdom suffered its own divisions and problems because of his idolatry.  In the same way, the idolatry which our nation, and our world, is practicing is leading to divisions and disasters today.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 9-10.

I have been trying to link my thoughts about God’s answer to Solomon’s prayer dedicating the Temple and my thoughts about the visit from the Queen of Sheba without much luck.  God told Solomon that He had consecrated the Temple by putting His name there forever.  While God told Solomon that He would always see and care about what happened at the Temple Solomon had built (and by extension all of Jerusalem), He also warned about what would happen should the people of Israel fail to keep God’s commands.  In my mind we see a fulfillment of both parts of God’s promise to Solomon in the existence of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.  The fact that the Western Wall still exists reminds us that God still cares about Jerusalem, its people, and the Israelite people.  But it also reminds us that, for all of their special status with God, were unable to remain faithful to Him.  Some people see this as a reason to hold the Jewish people in contempt, but they are seriously misunderstanding God’s point.  If the Jewish people suffered such devastation for disobeying God’s commands, how can we who do not hold such a place in God’s heart think that we can escape punishment for our sins?  Of course, when we think on this we should remember what Jesus said to His disciples, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  So, let us not think that we are better than the Israelites who failed to keep their side of God’s covenant and think that we can do better, but also let us pray to God and trust His ability to help us, even to cause us, to do His will each and every day.

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