Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / January 9 - 1 Kings 9

Transcript

January 9 - 1 Kings 9 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here. It's Thursday, it's the 9th of
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  January and I'm delighted that you have brought me into your
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  day so that you and I can continue this epic story.
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  And boy, yesterday's chapter was epic not only in its scope and
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  what it represented and brought to fulfilment, but it was a long
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  one too. And what is fascinating is that
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  these writings are so uncommon, so uncharacteristic of the
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  writings of the ancient Near East, where most of the writings
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  were just lauding the powerful kings of those lands.
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  And we see yesterday that long prayer where Solomon lowers
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  himself and raises God up. And then today we see the follow
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  up where God responds. And then it talks about the
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  achievements of Solomon. And that is just a fraction, a
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  fraction of the length of the author's attention on God's
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  greatness. Very, very unusual for writing
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  of that time. But this is an unusual book, and
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  it is an unusual God that we serve because he keeps on
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  subverting what we think he would be doing or should be
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  doing or could be doing. So, friends, I hope you're going
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  well. And I hope that with me you can
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  settle in and you can hear how God responds to such a beautiful
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  prayer and then how Solomon continues to live in this
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  incredible blessing as we read together.
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  First Kings Chapter 9. So Solomon finished building the
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  temple of the Lord as well as the royal palace.
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  He completed everything he had planned to do.
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  Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had
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  done before at Gibeon. The Lord said to him, I have
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  heard your prayer and your petition.
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  I have set this temple apart to be holy.
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  This place you have built, where my name will be honoured
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  forever, I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my
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  heart. As for you, if you will follow
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  me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did,
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  obeying all my commands, decrees and regulations, then I will
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  establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever.
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  For I made this promise to your father David.
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  One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of
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  Israel. But if you or your descendants
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  abandoned me and disobey the commands and decrees I have
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  given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will
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  uproot Israel from this land that I have given them.
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  I will reject this temple that I have made wholly to honour my
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  name. I will make Israel an object of
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  mockery and ridicule among the nations.
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  And though this temple is impressive now, all who pass by
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  will be appalled and will gasp in horror.
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  They will ask why did the Lord do such terrible things to this
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  land and to this temple? And the answer will be because
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  his people abandoned the Lord their God who brought their
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  ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshipped other gods instead
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  and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord brought all
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  these disasters on them. It took Solomon 20 years to
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  build the Lord's temple and his own royal palace.
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  At the end of that time, he gave 20 towns in the land of Galilee
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  to King Haram of Tyre. Haram had previously provided
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  all the cedar and Cypress timber and gold that Solomon had
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  requested. But when Haram came from Tyre to
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  see the town Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased
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  with them. What kind of towns are these, my
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  brother? He asked.
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  So Haram called that area Kabul, which means worthless as it is
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  still known today. Nevertheless, Haram paid Solomon
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  9000 lbs of gold. This is the account of the
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  forced labour that King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord's
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  Temple, the Royal Palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of
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  Jerusalem and the cities of Hazor, Megadot and Gessa.
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  Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gessa,
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  killing the Canaanite population and burning it down.
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  He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she
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  married Solomon. So Solomon rebuilt the city of
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  Gazza. He also built up the towns of
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  Lower Beth, Horan, Bailarth and Tamar in the wilderness.
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  Within his land, he built towns as supply centres and
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  constructed towns where his Chariots and horses could be
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  stationed. He built everything he desired
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  in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.
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  There were still some people living in the land who were not
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  Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites
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  and Jebusites. These were descendants of the
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  nations whom the people of Israel had not completely
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  destroyed, so Solomon conscripted them as slaves, and
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  they serve as forced labour to this day.
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  But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced
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  labour. Instead, he assigned them to
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  serve as fighting men, government officials, officers
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  and captains in his army, commanders of his Chariots, and
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  charioteers. Solomon appointed 550 of them to
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  supervise the people working on his various projects.
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  Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh's daughter, from the
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  city of David to the new palace he had built for her.
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  Then he constructed the supporting terraces.
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  Three times each year, Solomon presented burnt offerings and
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  peace offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord.
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  He also burned incense to the Lord, and so he finished the
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  work of building the temple. King Solomon also built a fleet
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  of ships at Eziongeba, at a port near Elath in the land of Edom
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  along the shore of the Red Sea. Haram sent experienced crews of
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  sailors to sail the ships with Solomon's men.
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  They sailed to OFA and brought back to Solomon some 16 tonnes
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  of gold. Our Lord, we hear through this
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  reading of your great desire for your people to remain true to
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  you. Lord, I pray that You would
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  continue to shape our hearts, continue to give us the fruits
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  of Your Spirit so that we can grow more and more like Jesus
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  every day, and that we might continue to bring Your Kingdom
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  to be a reality here around us in our lives as You would want
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  it to be. We thank You that even before we
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  turned to You, You reached out and saved us.
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  You reached out across that incredible chasm that was
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  between US and you. And through your love and
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  through Jesus sacrifice, you have drawn us back to yourself
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  so that we can have that precious relationship with you,
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  our Maker, our Redeemer, and our God and our King.
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  We just praise you and we thank you for all that you have done
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  for us. In the name of Jesus, Amen.