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.
The passage tells us that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had the first. The first time was in a dream, so I figure that this was probably in a dream as well. The Lord tells Solomon that He will establish the Temple as holy, that the site of the Temple will be honored forever. God goes on to tell Solomon that if the people of Israel worship other gods, He will uproot them from the land and make them an object of ridicule to the world.
When Solomon finished both the Temple and his palace, he gave twenty towns to Hiram, king of Tyre. The passage says that Hiram called the area Solomon gave him worthless, but still paid Solomon in gold that would be worth over $204 million today. The passage then tells us about some of Solomon’s other accomplishments, including building a trading fleet that sailed into the Indian Ocean. It tells us that this fleet brought back gold that would be worth more than $816 million today.
The passage then tells us that word of Solomon’s wisdom had spread so that the Queen of Sheba came to see him and challenge his wisdom. It is not clear from the text whether she came with her hard questions because she wanted to test whether he really was as wise as she had heard or if it was because she had questions to which she desired/needed answers. In either case, she was impressed by his wisdom and praises God because of it.
The passage then goes on to describe Solomon’s wealth. It tells us that he received each year an amount of gold that would be worth over $1 billion today. It then tells us about his other wealth including a trading fleet that went on three year trading voyages and brought back large amounts of wealth and exotic goods. Finally the passage tells us about the sizable military force that he put together. All in all, this passage tells us that Solomon used his wisdom to make himself king over a sizable and wealthy trading empire.
In yesterday’s passage we read how Philip preached and performed miracles in Samaria so that many came to believe. In particular the passage tells us that Simon the sorcerer came to believe and be baptized. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard about the many people coming to believe in Samaria they sent Peter and John. When they arrived, Peter and John prayed for the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. They then laid their hands on the people and they received the Holy Spirit. Something very extraordinary must have happened when Peter and John laid their hands on people because Simon the former sorcerer offered them money to give him the same power. Peter sternly rebuked him for thinking that the gift of God could be bought with money. Simon’s response is abject repentance and a request for the apostles’ prayer. There are two important pieces to this passage. The first is that when people receive the Holy Spirit it is an noteworthy event. The second is that the Holy Spirit and other gifts from God cannot be purchased. I think the failure of the Church in the U.S. to experience miracles and signs to a greater degree indicates a lack of full faith in God among to many of us. The New Testament account suggests to me that we should see signs and miracles all around Christians, yet we do not. I know that when I think about the fact that I believe that I should exhibit the power of the Holy Spirit through signs and wonders, it scares me. I am scared for two reasons. The first is, what if I call for a miracle and it doesn’t happen? The second is, to what degree will I be opened up for ridicule for believing such things are possible?
After the Peter and John leave Samaria, the Spirit calls Philip to go down the road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza. When he gets there he sees a eunuch of consequence from Ethiopia returning to Ethiopia from Jerusalem. The eunuch was reading aloud from the book of Isaiah. When Philip approached him and heard what he was reading he asked the eunuch if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch replied that he needed someone to explain it to him and invited Philip to ride with him and do so. Philip starts with the passage the eunuch was reading and preached the Good News about Jesus to him. After a while they came upon some water and the eunuch requested that Philip baptize him, which Philip did immediately. There are two things about this passage that I think are noteworthy. First, Philip starts preaching the Good News by answering the questions that the eunuch already has. Second, Philip baptizes the eunuch as soon as the eunuch recognizes his need for it and asks for it. There is an immediacy and urgency to the evangelism of the New testament, that I too often today do not share. We need to recapture the urgency that the early Church felt for evangelism.
The psalmist here tells us that we would have no hope if God kept a record of our sins. It is only through God’s forgiveness that we can survive. If we cry to the Lord and throw ourselves on His mercy, He will save us. He will forgive us and rescue us from our troubles. If we rest our hopes for our future in anything other than God we will suffer disappointment, but if we put our hopes in God they will be exceeded.
Today’s proverb tells us that a servant who serves faithfully and with prudence will be rewarded. The second of the proverbs today tells us that just as the metal smith purifies silver and gold using fire, so will God test us. He will put us through trials that will feel like passing through fire in order to purify us and make us into something much more valuable. We should learn to praise God for the trials He puts us through because they are for our benefit to make us better and purer.