June 10, 2014 - Tuesday

Start Time: 6:20 A.M.

End Time: 6:44 A.M.

Title: The Lord Appears to Solomon

Scripture: 1 Kings 9:1 – 28

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. The Lord said to him: “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.  “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,  I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’  “But if you^[a] or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you^[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All^[c] who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”

NOTES:

Ø God gives the desires of our hearts when it is right before His will and plans!  Many times we pray to God for what we want and we get hurt when it doesn’t come true but we forget that we are to follow and pray that our plans will be aligned to God’s ultimate will.  Just like Solomon here, who built a temple for the Lord, it was an instruction from his father at first but became his desire and mission.  So it was his heart desire to build the temple as God has called him to do.  Since it was in perfect will of God, God gave the desire of Solomon’s heart.  Let us make sure to pray to God to align our desires to His will and not the other way around.  Just as shown above, God said to Solomon that He has heard the prayer and plea he made before Him and so He did as he asked. 

Ø God is just and gives our actions the consequence it deserves, whether good or bad.  God warned Solomon of what will happen when he makes decisions.  The Lord laid it down to Solomon the consequences of his actions and in the end gave Solomon the choice to make the decision.  The same way with us, God has laid everything for us, all the choices there is…all we need is to make the right choices with His guidance that’s why it is important to read His word and dwell in His presence.

→ At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace— King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,^[d] a name they have to this day. Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^[e] of gold.  Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,^[f] the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon, Baalath, and Tadmor^[g] in the desert, within his land,  as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses^[h]—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.  There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites(these peoples were not Israelites). Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate^[i]—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day. But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.  After Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.  Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.  King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.^[j]  And Hiram sent his men—sailors who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents^[k] of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

NOTES:

Ø God never forgets the people who helped His people build and fulfill His plan!  Hiram who supplied Solomon cedar and juniper and gold for the building of the temple and the royal palace, received 20 towns in Galilee as an appreciation for his provision of what Solomon needed for the buildings.  But just like many, we tend to be ungrateful for the gifts given to us because we are too focus of what others have than what was given to us and what we can do with it to beautify it.  Hiram felt the same yet this hurt feeling did not cause any issue because God protected the alliance of the two (Hiram and Solomon). 

Ø When we obey and follow God, everything work out fine in the end always!  Solomon did as what he is to do in obedience to his duties and responsibilities in the temple and so the Lord preserve his reign and protected him and advanced his kingdom even more!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Great and mighty God!  Wonderful Savior and King!  I am grateful and moved by Your awesomeness.  Thank You because You lay down all choices before me and give me the freedom to choose.  Guide me Lord that I may choose the right path and take the right road in accordance to Your will and plans.  Thank You because You do give the desires of our hearts because You align our heart’s desires to Your plans.  Lord let my heart desires be aligned to Your will that I may be an asset to Your will and not a destruction or ruin.  Lord help me to always be willing to lend a hand for the building of Your will and plans.  Let me have an obedient heart that seeks to fulfill Your calling.  Because I know that in everything, when we obey Your will, all ends well.  Let Your grace, love and favor poured out on me daily Father.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!