In 1st Kings word of Solomon's wisdom has spread and the queen of Sheba sets out to test his wisdom. She asks many questions and He answers them with ease. When she witnessed all Solomon was able to accomplish in a few years of reign (construction of the Lord's temple and his palace) she responded by giving Solomon gifts. He also received yearly shipments of gold and revenues from merchants. 23 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 25 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.
Then we see Solomon stray from the Lord. He married foreign wives and built altars and worshiped their gods. Israel had been forbidden from marrying foreign wives for this reason. Moses had a foreign wife approved by God, but He had lived in her country and had not worshiped her gods. Solomon’s attitude and actions prompted God to set things into motion. He rose up adversaries and would radically change what his descendants would reign over. If we see adversaries rising up we should examine our life and see if we are walking in our own understanding. We can always repent and turn to the Lord and He will turn our adversaries away. He is looking for those who will be good stewards of the things He treasures.
In Matthew 8 Jesus starts weeding out those who would count the cost of following Him. Jesus always gives the command "follow me" as He did to the disciples and they left their boats, family and equipment and followed Him. It's not that they didn't love these other things - they loved Jesus more. They then saw Him calm the storm and cast demons out of possessed men. Let's faithfully follow Jesus so we can experience Him at work in a real and encouraging walk of life. Then we can be a living testimony to others.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment