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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hey, you are listening to A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace. This is Shelby and Paul. We're in the book of first Kings, and today we're talking through chapters four through six. What's going on in these chapters, Paul?
- [00:17]
B
Yeah, so we're getting kind of the introduction to Solomon's reign more formally. And there's kind of one scripture I just want to point to real quickly as we're. We're starting. It's 1st Kings 4:20 that makes this comment that the people of Israel were as vast or as numerous as the sand of the seashore. And we've seen this language before in Genesis 22:17 in a promise to Abraham. And so there's these little illusions that you pick up when you're reading the whole Bible like this, that, hey, we've read Genesis before. If we take note of those. That language, we see it come up here. So the Lord's been faithful to them. They've multiplied. Solomon is now leading them. And we get the introduction to the Temple narrative here. And it's kind of a callback to 2 Samuel 7 when David talks about, hey, I'm going to build a temple for you, God. And he's like, no, actually your descendant, your son is going to build it. And so we get a paraphrase kind of of some of that 2nd Samuel 7 language in 1 Kings 5. 5. And yeah, so we're just getting this temple introduction and Solomon's reign and all that.
- [01:26]
A
So, yeah, those connections are so cool, especially when we've just read through those books. And so I'm glad you brought those up. You also mentioned that we're more formally introduced to Solomon here. So what do we learn about Solomon? Because he's the guy we're following here for a while through these chapters.
- [01:42]
B
Yeah. So we're really getting our first look at him, which is important because he's a pretty critical figure overall. And really, I think the thing to take away is to really associate Solomon with the Temple. And I think a good example of this is how with US Presidents, we kind of tend to associate them with certain projects or moments in history. So, for example, you know, Theodore Roosevelt, we kind of think about the National Park System and fdr, we think about, like, the New Deal and after the Great Depression, things like that. And so for Solomon, we want to think about the Temple. That's like the central big thing that he does during his reign.
- [02:19]
A
Okay, that's super helpful and something for us to remember as we continue to follow him. As I was doing the reading in these chapters, I noticed something in First Kings 6, in it's verses 11 through 13, it was language that sounded really familiar, language that we've seen repeated really since Genesis, which is God's command for the people to obey and his promise that if they do obey, then his presence will be with them. Did you also notice that in today's reading?
- [02:47]
B
Yeah, and I'm actually just going to read these verses here. It's 6, 11, 13. It says, the word of the Lord came to Solomon. As for this temple you are building, if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people Israel. And so it's not the building of the temple that gives Solomon favor with God. And even though that's kind of the thing we associate him with, it's actually his obedience that guarantees the presence of God. And, you know, this is something that his Father David knew. He writes in Psalm 51:16, he says, you do not want a sacrifice or I would give it. And he also says, the sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. And so ideally, Solomon would have, you know, know the same lesson. And I think the promise of his presence is one that we shouldn't lose the weight of. You know, we saw back in Exodus that God said, hey, I'm going to remove my presence from you because you've disobeyed. And Moses is like, well, if we don't have your presence, what's the point? Right? I would rather not go into the land, thank you, you know, not have your presence. And so I think we should think about how all the way back in Genesis, sin is the thing that distances us from God. It's the thing that forces us out of the garden, out of God's presence. And so we're seeing this theme continually come up over and over and over again and again. The thing in the Old Testament at least, that really guarantees that is obedience. And throughout 1 and 2 kings, we're going to see that the king's obedience is central to this. And so, you know, God's presence here is not just predicated on the behavior of the people. It's really the kings specifically. And here in these chapters, unfortunately, we already kind of get a few hints to Solomon's heart state and kind of the fact that, you know, things may not end well for him. And we see in 4:27 through 28 some pretty heavy taxation on his people. And then he's also using slave labor to build the temple. And that's mentioned in 5, 13, 18. And these aren't the Israelites. He's using other nations, but, you know, it's still forced labor. Right. And so, you know, I think that points us really ultimately to our need for a greater king. Right. That this one king is the one that guarantees or prevents God's presence. But one day we're gonna have a new king that is the very presence of God himself on earth, and that's Jesus. And so that's something that I think throughout the entire book we are gonna continually see, is that in these kings failures, we see our need for Jesus as our true king.
- [05:44]
A
Yeah, I love that you're bringing Jesus up here because we're gonna see failed human beings, failed and flawed human beings all throughout 1 and 2 kings and truly for the rest of the year as reading. But Jesus is God and he is perfect. And so even maybe ourselves, we've experienced leaders that were supposed to lead us and failed in doing that. My takeaway and my comfort in this is Jesus is the perfect king who is obedient and who leads his people to obey. And even more than that, he has sacrificed himself because we haven't obeyed. And now his obedience is ours and his spirit is in us. And so again, holding on to that glimmer of hope, even though we're starting to see things move in a direction, that's a little discouraging and disheartening here. All right, thanks, Paul. We will be back with more in 1 Kings tomorrow.