1 Kings 6:11-22

 

April 26, 2021

 

 

Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.   And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

 So, Solomon built the house and finished it.   He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress.   He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place.   The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.   The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen.   The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord.   The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid^[g] an altar of cedar.   And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold.   And he overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished.  Also, the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

 

As you read verses 11-13, God’s promise to King Solomon, the question is not can God do what He is promising?  The question for Solomon, as well as you and I, will we obey, will we comply with God's terms?  Will we agree, and then later after we are receiving the blessing and the hand of God, begin to get proud and arrogant and do what our flesh desires?  Will we begin to believe we have a lot going for us, and we begin to steal just a little of the glory that belongs to God?

 

My livelihood was in sales, I worked for a great Company that required a college degree, but they hired me for an outside sales job, a job I had never done.  At first, I was not very good, I worked hard, but was fearful each time I saw a young man enter the office looking for employment.  I did what I was told and made at least 10 cold calls a day.  In the months that follow I had a little success but was still very fearful of losing my job to someone who had a degree or had experience in sales.  My barber asked me to go to a Bible Study, and he was not the Bible study type, so I went to see why he would go.  How I was religious, a church member, who just did not have time on Sundays to attend church, it was my day for other things.

 

That Bible Study was not on my agenda, in fact, I never plan to go back, but each Wednesday at noon I was there; for six months.  I checked out the men that were coming to see if what they said they believed was true in their business lives, and found they were the real deal, and I was the possessor.  One night in Victoria, Texas in a hotel room I opened a Bible on the nightstand and it opened to Roman 10, and it was verses 9, and 10 that got my full attention.  I was like so many church members, only a member of a church, but had never bowed my knee to a holy God.  Had never asked Jesus to forgive my sin that was many, but that night around 10 p.m. I did.  And guess what I enter into the promise God the Father and God the Son had made for “Whosever will” and that night I enter into the family of my heavenly Father.

 

God keeps all His promises, but we often fall short. I began to receive God’s bless and one day when a young man enters the office as I was loading a machine in my car, that old fear from the enemy came on me, and I hear this voice in my head, Bob, your good at what you do, so do not fear anymore about your job.  I knew it was God who told me, and no longer did I fear that.  I did not say I was free from fear but was free in that area.  I became very successful, won many rewards, and some great trips, and for the most part for years gave the credit to God, but pride began to enter into my life and  God will always discipline his kids, when they get full of themselves.

 

So, please give thought to this question, are you taking credit for the skills and talents God has blessed you with?  He often allows us to do so for a while, but if you are in His family, He hates pride, and must allow you to have a wreck, it may come in many areas of your life, but it not to bring harm, but to humble you so you come to your senses.  He is God and you are not!

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice