Scripture: 1Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Imagine if you had a dream and in that dream God said to you that you could have anything you wanted. That is where we find Solomon in this passage. His father King David has died, and he has been left with the kingdom. He loves God, probably because he saw the great joy his father David expressed when he engaged in worship. Seriously can you imagine growing up and hearing the Psalms being sung for the first time by your father?
I like to use my imagination when I engage scripture in prayer. Some might think this is odd of even unrightious, but I enjoy it and feel it brings the words to life in a way that applicational study cannot. As I read this passage I imagine the loss of a very close loved one, I imagine the responsibility of a new leader, I even imagine the smells of the burnt offerings. What do I see when I do this, I see a strong young man scared stiff that he will not be able to fill the shoes of his father.
By imagining myself in the story I can see what Solomon might have seen, felt, and desired. I have never been a king, and I am guessing most of you have not either (and if you are let me know because that would be awsome!), but I have been asked to lead. While I was in college we had an amazing praise team for our Christian group, this band was working on a recording contract at the time and I basically had the opportunity to attend a free concert every week. Eventually they signed with a label and moved away leaving our group without a praise band, so our group asked me to play. I do not play guitar very well but I tried. The idea of following a professional act just scared me. Rightfully so too. I was terrible and was graciously asked not to play again. (Which I was thankful for). But imagine that times a million. A king is more than a praise leader.
So God asks Solomon what would you like, you’re the king and I want to bless you! (Paraphrase). Solomon asks for wisdom. I understand why too. He followed an amazing king, and he knew how his half brother tried to hyjack the kingdom as well. The people loved David, and David love them and God. How do you follow that? Imagine.
If God asked you that question what would you say?
Scripture: Ephesians 4:25-5:2
The practical advice from Paul in these verses seem really simple, but… When was the last time you were faced with one of these issues. Let’s just take the points one at a time and reflect on them.
Put away falsehood. What exactly would this mean if we were to do this today. The simple answer would be stop lying. The more difficult answer is lying includes so many things like exagerations and gossip. If we were to be honest our native language would be falsehoods.
Be angry but do not sin. This is a funny statement. The line between good anger and sinful anger is so fine we can step over without a second thought. When you mix anger with falsehood, which is what most of our anger is. Anger fueled by lies is probably the most common anger. We either are angry because we were given information that was lacking or we fail to gather the truth. So to be angry without sin we should be diligent in finding the truth and then respond accordingly. The statement, “do not let the sun go down on your anger,” means we need to work quickly to put out the falsehood and work things out.
The theme of falsehood continues in the advice to the theives. Make an honest living. Robbery is a deep ill in our culture. I deal with it every day in my jobs. There is more to stealing than just taking something that is not ours. There is also fraud of many types, people defraud assistance agencies daily. Helping others who are in actual need is good in fact we are commanded to do this. Unfortunatly many people have been burned by robbers.
Now we get to our speech. Our manner of speech can do many things. Our words can be used to harm or to heal, to hender or to release. The state song of my home state says, “where seldom is heard a discuraging word.” I pray that as we draw closer to Christ that these word will become our way of life.
In the discipled life with Christ all these things boil down to honesty, or truthfulness. Quakers have had a rich heritage of truthfulness and integrity, this is why an oat company has used our name to sell their wares. This is not something held only by the Friends, but should be a testimony of all disciples of Christ. Our words and deeds should be of one word, the truth. Our actions should reflect the witness of our mouth and our speech should be filled with grace and truth.
How are we doing in this area? Are our actions and words filled with truth or are they filled with flatery and curses? It is easy to loss ourselves in dishonesty, or to flater people with empty words. Let us today be very diligent in filling our words and actions with the love of Christ, as we reflect on the words written by Paul.
Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
There are several people that really bother me, I do not know why all the time but many times it’s because… well I’ll leave it at that. The life of David is weird this guy is great and all but sometimes he just responds to things in a way that is so unnatural. First off his son basically steals the country from him, secondly he chases him out of town, and third tries to kill him any one of these things is crazy but what is crazier is David’s response. Sure we may look at this as the greatness of a father’s love for his children, but this is beyond the family it has gone into the criminal realm. Yet David commands the men not to kill the boy.
David’s son is sinful in many ways, trying to take over the kingdom by force is only one he is also vain, and he is riding on a mule (which is not kosher from my understanding). This man is about as far from God as any gentile yet David wants to extend grace. The men who sided with David do not seem to have the same view, they love their king and were goingto protect him and the kingdom with all they had. But at what cost?
Absalom was a sinful man but he was loved by the king. No matter how far he erred his father still loved him and wanted to have continued fellowship with him. This got me thinking about how I am treating people. Like those people that really irritate me for various reasons. They are loved by the king, they are the children of the king, I know it sounds crazy but the very God that I say I love loves them just as much as me. He wants to be in continued fellowship with them just as much as me. I wish they would fall off the face of the earth, but that won’t happen because God created gravity…because he loves us and doesn’t want us to fly off into space.
Back on point… We tend to get all worked up about thing, many of those things are very important essencials to what we believe in God. Then their are other issues that are important but are not as important as we think. To David being king was less important than being a dad. He would rather have a relationship with his son than to see his son killed. Jesus is similar yes he would like to be king of all, but really He would rather have a relationship. It does not change the fact that He is king but it does change how we respond.
Today as you pray I encourage us all to imagine David’s love for his son, imagine the fear in Absalom as he ran from the army of the king, and imagine those people causing us that trouble. Are those people sons and daughters of God living in fear because they are trying to steal the kingdom or are they enemies? How we answer tht question speaks values to who we are and what our relationship with God is like.
While we were still enemies, Christ died for Us.