I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Today’s passage begins by telling us that Solomon built a palace and moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, into it because the Ark of the Covenant had been King David’s palace and that made it Holy ground. We are further told that Solomon assigned the priests and Levites to their tasks in the Temple according to the system created by David.
The next story is one which has fascinated people throughout history. It is the story of the Queen of Sheba coming to visit Solomon. She had heard of Solomon’s great wisdom and came to see if the stories were true. We do not know where the Kingdom of Sheba was located, although modern scholars tend to favor a location on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula in what is now Yemen. That certainly makes sense to me as the reigning monarch of a kingdom could not afford to travel much further than that from their kingdom and expect to still be the ruler when they returned. In addition, reading between the lines of this story, it reads as a trading mission on her part and follows on the passage that tells us that Solomon sent trading ships sailing into the Indian Ocean. The Queen of Sheba brought gifts of great value to Solomon and he sent her home with gifts of equal or greater value (that sounds a lot like a trade mission). In addition, it is after the visit from the Queen of Sheba that we are given an account of the great wealth that Solomon gained through trade each year. Also, it is likely that her comment about Solomon’s great wisdom is a result of him understanding the value of his location as a hub of trade between Asia, Africa and Europe.
When Solomon died his son Rehoboam succeeded him to the throne. The people of Israel requested that he reduce the burden of government (taxes and forced labor) that Solomon had placed upon them. Rehoboam first discussed this request with his father’s advisers. They told him that if he agreed to the people’s demands they would be his loyal subjects. Rehoboam then asked the young men he had grown up with what they thought. They told him that he should tell the people that he was going to put even heavier demands upon them. When I read this, I want to ask them what they were thinking with advising such a course of action, but I know where this mindset comes from. Throughout history there have been the sons of the politically powerful who do not know or understand the things their fathers did to amass their power and think that people will have no choice but to bow to whatever whims they have. Rehoboam rejected the advice from his father’s advisers and took the advice of those he grew up with. This had the entirely predictable result that the Northern Tribes rebelled and chose Jeroboam as their king.
Paul continues his theme on slavery to sin by telling us that we are no longer slaves to our sinful nature. Instead we have been adopted as children of God. We no longer have an obligation to obey the sinful nature. If we continue to obey the sinful nature we will die. On the other hand, if we accept the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death the acts of our sinful nature, we will have life. God’s Spirit has made us His adopted children and heirs. God is not just our Father, but our Dad.
Paul points out that if we are to share in Jesus’ glory, we must also share in His suffering. He points out that the entire world is groaning as it awaits the day it will be finally completely freed from death and decay. I think Paul has a twofold meaning here. In part he is reiterating something Jesus said. Jesus said that since the world persecuted Him, we should expect it to persecute us. Paul is restating this here. But he is also talking about how our bodies are subject to the frailties and infirmities of this life. We should not expect to not get sick, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit provides us with a taste of what it will be like when we are released from all sin and suffering (I am not sure what he means by that). We, as believers, wait with hope for the day when our frail, sin-wracked bodies are replaced with new perfect bodies. We do not yet have bodies that are free from sickness, that is something that we must wait for patiently, but with confident hope that we receive them.
The psalmist tells us that even though his enemies attacked him when he was vulnerable, God rescued him and provided him with shelter. The psalmist tells us that God shows Himself faithful to those who are faithful and shows integrity to those who have integrity. This means that if God appears to be unfaithful, it is because we are unfaithful and if God appears to lack integrity it is because we lack integrity. I have noticed that the people who complain the most about not being able to trust others are those who are the least trustworthy. The psalmist goes on to tell us that God rescues the humble and humiliates the proud. There are two things here. The first is that we should not take credit for our successes but acknowledge the debt we owe to God for the things outside of our control that contributed to that success. The second is in some ways more important, we should not take credit for other people’s success, even if some of our actions contributed to that success.
In our society we do not think much about children who treat their parents badly. We spend much more time concerned with parents who abuse their children. Yet the Bible spends a lot of time talking about the importance of treating our parents with respect. I think that we can see all around us the impact of our society for the last two generations teaching many of our children to disrespect their parents and those older than themselves. I fear that many who believe that respect for parents comes naturally will soon receive an unpleasant surprise.