The Business of Life
1 Kings 9: 10 -28
10 At the end of twenty
years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the
king’s house,
11 and Hiram king of
Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he
desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12 But when Hiram came
from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please
him.
13 Therefore he said,
“What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are
called the land of Cabul to this day.
14 Hiram had sent to
the king 120 talents of gold.
15 And this is the
account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the
Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and
Megiddo and Gezer
16 (Pharaoh king of
Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed
the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his
daughter, Solomon’s wife;
17 so Solomon rebuilt
Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon
18 and Baalath and
Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,
19 and all the store
cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for
his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon,
and in all the land of his dominion.
20 All the people who
were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—
21 their descendants
who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to
devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to
this day.
22 But of the people of
Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials,
his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.
23 These were the chief
officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the
people who carried on the work.
24 But Pharaoh’s
daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built
for her. Then he built the Millo.
25 Three times a year
Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that
he built to the Lord, making offerings with it before the Lord. So he finished
the house.
26 King Solomon built a
fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea,
in the land of Edom.
27 And Hiram sent with
the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with
the servants of Solomon.
28 And they went to
Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it
to King Solomon.
The pages of the Bible can sometimes
read like a novel, with something interesting or exciting happening on every
page. It is easy to forget that those passages are merely snapshots of events
that happened in the lives of God’s people. Not every day was filled with God’s
voice, mighty miracles, or supernatural events. The heroes of the faith spent
their days much the same as we do, working, sleeping, eating, raising families,
being with friends. Think of the years
Moses and Abraham spent walking around the wilderness. Paul spent a great deal
of time (14-17 years) after his conversion in solitude just learning about
Jesus, and even when he was on his missionary journeys he spent months making
tents with fellow craftsmen. Even Jesus and His disciples spent days and days
walking from one village to another just talking and being together. Life
marched on then just as it does now for we are no different from them.
Our passage from today gives a glimpse
into everyday life while Solomon was the king. People worked, had families,
prayed, celebrated; lived – died. The challenge is to allow God to be a part of
the mundane, seeking His face when everything is normal or quiet. Solomon went
to the Temple 3 times a year to offer burnt offerings. Hopefully, we go more
often than that, leaving the burnt part out. As things roll along, we are
tempted to relegate God to a back burner. If I’m not in trouble, I won’t
trouble God. Bad idea. Any
relationship relegated to the back soon withers and dies. No, our challenge
lies in continuing to seek God’s face even when life is just marching along. It
requires intent and commitment. It sounds simple, but it’s not.
Comments
Post a Comment