Read
The Lord
(2 Chronicles 7.11-22)
1The Lord's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished, and Solomon had built everything he wanted. 2 Some time later the Lord appeared to him again in a dream, just as he had done at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said:
I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. This temple you have built is where I will be worshiped forever. It belongs to me, and I will never stop watching over it.
4You must obey me, as your father David did, and be honest and fair. Obey my laws and teachings, 5 and I will keep my promise to David that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.
6But if you or any of your descendants disobey my commands or start worshiping foreign gods, 7I will no longer let my people Israel live in this land I gave them. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped. Then people everywhere will think this nation is only a joke and will make fun of it. 8 This temple will become a pile of rocks! Everyone who walks by will be shocked, and they will ask, “Why did the Lord do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?” 9Then they will answer, “We know why the Lord did this. The people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods.”
Other Things Solomon Did
(2 Chronicles 8.1-18)
10It took 20 years for the Lord's temple and Solomon's palace to be built. 11Later, Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre 20 towns in the region of Galilee to repay him for the cedar, pine, and gold he had given Solomon.
12When Hiram went to see the towns, he did not like them. 13He said, “Solomon, my friend, are these the kind of towns you want to give me?” So Hiram called the region Cabul because he thought it was worthless. 14He sent Solomon only five tons of gold in return.
15After Solomon's workers had finished the temple and the palace, he ordered them to fill in the land on the east side of Jerusalem, to build a wall around the city, and to rebuild the towns of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16Earlier, the king of Egypt had captured the town of Gezer; he burned it to the ground and killed the Canaanite people living there. Then he gave it to his daughter as a wedding present when she married Solomon. 17So Solomon had the town rebuilt.
Solomon ordered his workers to rebuild Lower Beth-Horon, 18Baalath, and Tamar in the desert of Judah. 19They also built towns where he could keep his supplies and his chariots and horses. Solomon ordered them to build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere in his kingdom.
Reflect
My family and I visited the ancient ruins of Hazor in Israel. We discovered what was left of Solomon’s three thousand year old buildings located in the fortified city mentioned in the Bible reading. What an experience!
Imagine. God, himself, appeared to Solomon! Only very rarely did God reveal himself like this, and even then, only on occasions of the utmost importance. God repeated to Solomon the covenant made with his father David, reassuring him that his descendants would indeed inherit the throne. King Solomon had only to remain faithful to the Lord, his God, and keep his commandments, as David had done. God did not expect Solomon to be perfect. He knew him and knows us too well for that! Solomon’s father, David, was not perfect either, yet, interestingly enough, God spoke of him in this way . . . “a man after my heart” (Acts 13:22 NASB). Solomon knew clearly God’s priorities for his life thanks to this personal encounter with God.
This wise king accomplished many outstanding deeds, but obedience to God outweighed them all in importance. Eternal consequences would flow out from this obedience.
So it is with us: the eternal forever remains ‘the all-important’. Even if we were able to reproduce the accomplishments of this great king and yet, somehow, neglected or refrained from simply doing the essentials – what God asks us to do – then we would have miserably failed our life! God is faithful to remind us of his priorities in the Word. He does this so that our descendants may also be blessed. In the next few days we will see for ourselves if Solomon was faithful or not. We’ll examine closely what the consequences were.
Respond
“Lord God Almighty, help us to discern your priorities for our lives.
Help us to carry them out faithfully in our lives so that we may please you and one
day enter into eternity with you, a promise to all those who are faithful to you. Amen.
Denis Bourget
Born in Montreal, Denis Bourget trained as a military engineer. He went to work in Toronto; while in Toronto, he was saved and began to follow Jesus Christ. Bourget and his wife Martha have three children who are all believers. He has had the opportunity to serve the Lord as both a businessman and an educator. Bourget returned to Quebec in 1998, having felt a deep burden for families. He was Regional Director for Focus Famille (Focus on the Family) for ten years, and now heads the Connexions Famille (Family Connections) ministry.