Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Kings 1-2, Psalms 37,71,94.
The books of 1st and 2nd Kings is going to take us on a very difficult journey. We are going to travel from the high highs of the reigns of David and Solomon; to Israel, and even God's Temple, being removed from the face of the earth.
Consider that for a moment. If a nuclear bomb was set off in Washington, and a foreign nation decapitated our government, destroyed all that we hold dear, and made us all slaves, where would your hope be?
We are going to see Solomon's kingdom, the greatest kingdom ever, eventually washed from the face of the earth.
Imagine yourself one of the Jew's being hauled off in chains to Babylon.
Where is God? What about God's promise that the throne of David would live for eternity?Later prophets are going to answer these questions for us, but for now we must again view the consequences of a people who will turn from God, perform unspeakable acts, worship idols, and eventually be destroyed.
God's promise to build a nation from the seed of Abraham will now before our eyes seemingly be utterly destroyed.
This will again be very painful to watch. However, the earnest student of Yahweh we be constantly on the lookout for lessons to apply to his/her own life.
We learned it before, and we will learn it again: there is only one God, and we are to have nothing before him.
Abba,
You promise to shape the hearts of those who earnestly seek you. Forgive us for putting our wealth, our families, our pride, and the multitude of other things that we place above you. Create in us a heart that is willing to serve only you. Left to our own devices, history teaches us over, and over, and over, that we will abandon you to seek our own selfish desires. Help us to understand that our desire to have a king, or perhaps in our case the "security" of the United States of America, is at the end of the day a wrongly placed desire, and that you are our only hope. It is you God in whom we place our trust and our hope. As King David has told us over, and over, you are faithful, and your steadfast love abides forever. Open our eyes, mold our hearts, and lead us in the way everlasting.
