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 8.

It tells me a lot about this passage when it tells us that all that was in the Ark of the Covenant when King Solomon moved it into the Temple was the two stone tablets.  However, in Exodus 16:34 we are told that a jar of manna was placed in the Ark in front of the stone tablets (Numbers 17:10 is worded in a way which could be interpreted that Aaron’s staff was placed there as well)..  This is one of those points where, if the author was just making it up, one would expect him to either not mention what was in the Ark, or to tell us that the stone tablets and the jar of manna were there (and possibly Aaron’s staff).  So, at some point between the death of Moses and King Solomon dedicating the Temple, the jar of manna and Aaron’ staff had been lost (Aaron’s staff may never have been in the Ark, but it would surely have been mentioned when Solomon later brought the Tabernacle to Jerusalem).

As part of dedicating the Temple, Solomon asked God to hear and honor the prayers of those who pray towards the Temple.  Solomon listed many sorts of situations where people would do so and asked God to bring deliverance and blessings to those who did so.  I believe that in all of the situations which Solomon listed, God will answer the prayers of anyone, and any group of people, who turn to Him in those situations.  Then Solomon turned to the people and invited them to pray with him in requesting that God give each and every one of them the desire to do God’s will and to follow His commands.  Let us join Solomon in praying that prayer and then follow through on the desire God gives us and do His will.

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 7.

This passage describes King Solomon building his palace after completing the Temple and hiring a bronze smith to make the decorations and implements for the Temple.  He spent basically twice as long building his palace as he did building the Temple.  Perhaps this marks the beginning of Solomon’s fall from serving God which led to the division of Israel.  I have said previously that detailed descriptions of buildings and their ornamentation provide me with little spiritual insight.  Nevertheless I read such passages when they come up because I firmly believe that they are in the Bible for a purpose.  If nothing else, doing so provides examples of why re-reading the Bible time after time has value.  Once again today I noticed something I never noticed before.  It is not something of great interest, just a curious detail.  The walls of Solomon’s palace and of the inner courtyard of the Temple were built with a layer of cedar beams between every three layers of stone.

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 1.

I find that the NIV translation of this passage makes it clearer what happened when David’s son Adonijah decided to make himself king.  In the NLT, it seems as if the story about King David and Abishag is a story about David.  In the NIV, you can see that it is included because it explains why Joab and Abiathar thought that Adonijah should take the throne.  What is not clear is why David’s other advisers opposed Adonijah becoming king.  This is not because we cannot read the passage and think of many good reasons for them to do so.  Rather it is because the passage gives us little insight into their reasons.  However, there is one telling point which allows us to believe that their reasons were not selfish.  When Adonijah made his move he invited all of David’s other sons to join him, except Solomon.  This suggests that David had already made it clear that Solomon was his choice as a successor.  The fact that Nathan the prophet pulled the strings to get David to have Solomon crowned suggests that Solomon was God’s choice as well.

I started out thinking that this story had little to give us a lesson today.  Yet, when I finished writing the previous paragraph I realized that was not true.  This situation arose because David failed to turn over authority to a chosen successor when he became unable to truly exercise that authority himself.  If David had appointed Solomon as his successor sooner, Adonijah would never have tried to seize the throne.  We need to recognize when it is time to pass our responsibilities on to someone else.  This is the flip side of the lesson we learn from the story of Caleb in the Book of Joshua.  That lesson was that we are never too old to do the tasks to which God has called us.  This lesson is that sometimes those tasks are to hand our life’s missions on to the next generation.