~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
1 Kings 5:1-6:38 ~ Acts 7:1-29
Psalm 127:1-5 ~ Proverbs 16:28-30
Old Testament - Wow. Big readings today in First Kings. Solomon builds the Temple of the Lord! Below is "King Solomon praying before the Temple" by Bonito, c. 1750:
It is great to read about Solomon & King Hiram of Tyre's dialogue and agreement to send cedars and cypress from Lebanon to Jerusalem for the Temple. You'll recall in our readings from 2 Samuel chapter 5 verse 11 that Hiram indeed was a loyal friend of David just after David conquered Jerusalem - "Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David." Below is a beautiful stain glassed image of King Hiram of Tyre in the forests of Lebanon:
So why were cedars and cypress from Lebanon used for the temple and not wood from Israel? Well, because these precious woods from Lebanon were very close-grained, rot-resistant, and very hard. They were also beautiful and had a fragrant scent. Below is an image of Cedar of Lebanon - also known as Cedrus Libanotica.
1 Kings 6 verse 7 tells us - "The stones used in the construction of the Temple were prefinished at the quarry, so the entire structure was built without the sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site." This shows how reverent the workers were in building the temple of the Lord. They felt it was honoring to build on the temple site without the sound of an iron tool. In 1 Kings 5 verses 13 & 14 I thought Solomon's wisdom was incredible - "Then King Solomon enlisted 30,000 laborers from all Israel. He sent them to Lebanon in shifts, 10,000 every month, so that each man would be one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of this labor force." He wisely cared for his workforce! Below is an image of the workers building the temple -
New Testament - Today we read the beginning of Stephen's amazing sermon to the Sanhedrin in the Temple. You'll recall from yesterday's readings in Acts 6 verses 8 through 10 - "Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them was able to stand against the wisdom and Spirit by which Stephen spoke."
So, men began to lie about Stephen, and then we get into the sermon Stephen gives to the council today. It is clearly a great sermon today from Stephen! Today he is beginning to set the stage for his zinger closing statements. He's like a lawyer today laying out his opening arguments for the case. Unfortunately, things will not proceed well in the coming days readings for Stephen. After he concludes this speech, Stephen will soon be the first Christian martyr...
A great look at the characteristics of Stephen's sermon today is at Bible.org at this link.
Psalms - It is interesting to note that Psalm 127 today is written by Solomon. Think he might have written this around the time of building the temple? It would be very fitting! Psalm 127 verse 1 I think I heard for the first time verbally a couple of years ago on a Habitat for Humanity job site. Each morning the volunteers would take turns leading devotions before the day’s build. One morning a volunteer read Psalm 127 verse 1 to all of us, which was absolutely fitting for working on a Habitat house - "Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is useless. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good." Great stuff and I believe this verse is not only applicable to working on Habitat houses, but is very applicable in our own lives as well. Are there things we are building or creating in our life that might be outside of God's will for our life? Are we building these things on our own? If so, should we be building these things? Will we take to prayer all that we build in our lives and seek God's guidance and blessing upon our work? Is God building our life or are we attempting to build with our own power? Is God protecting our life or are we attempting to protect ourselves with our own power?
Speaking of work, I also love verse 2 in this Psalm: "It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones." Great verse to combat our workaholic tendencies, no? :) Do you overwork yourself these days? What for? Is this pleasing to God? Are you taking a Sabbath day of rest once a week to simply be in relationship with God? To enjoy God's rest? Bible.org's commentary on Psalm 127 titled "A Word for Workaholics" is at this link.
Proverbs - Proverbs 16:28 today teaches us: "A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends." I do have to admit here that I have been guilty of gossip all too frequently. I think it's one of the easiest sins for many of us to fall into. Everyone else is doing it, we might think, so why shouldn't we? Well, we know why we shouldn't. It's a sin. And it's a sin that I'm afraid sometimes can be found all too often in churches. I would take this Proverb a step further and say that gossip separates not only the best of friends, but separates the best of churches. Let us stop the gossip in our lives and realize it is a sin!
Comments from You & Questions of the Day: Like me, have you ever struggled with gossip? How have you been able to stop yourself from gossiping about others? Have you ever stopped gossip from happening within a church? Or have you ever just let it happen and fester? Should we be more vigilant about stopping gossip within our churches and within our hearts and minds and on our own tongues? Also, what verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings? Please post up by clicking on the "Comments" link below!
God bless,
Mike
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.......
Yet Moses had asked God to find someone else to use because he wasn't strong in speech!But God still used Moses mightily and was his friend:).It warms my heart today to see how God uses us inspite of our short comings.......
Gossip goes on big time at work and yesterday I was happy I didn't join in to gossip about how corrupt the authorities are...God did ask us to pray for them(not gossip about them)
Posted by: A | June 08, 2007 at 06:55 PM
Whatever else Psalm 127 is about let's not miss the obvious application to our marriages and families and homes. We know this to be true since in 127 he talks about "builds the house" and then he talks about children who are to be shaped like arrows, and later in Psalm 128 he will continue to speak about the home again when he talks about those who fear the Lord, and "your wife will be a fruitful vine" and the children will be live olive plants around the table, and he even goes on to talk about the children's children. For me these two psalms paint a picture of the beginnings of a marriage centered in Christ. Twice he says, "unless the Lord"--which means at the inception of a marriage/family put the Lord right at the center of it. Don't let the Lord be incidental to one's life or an 'extra', but the FOCUS. My wife and I married relatively young at age 23 and 22, but right from the beginning we were guided to this Psalm 127 passage by our mentors to take seriously this admoniton to let the Lord be the Lord of our marriage and family. We did that 30 years ago this month, and we are glad He stills gives grace to keep on doing it. A good cross reference to this is Deuteronomy 6:4-9 where we get some detail on the great Shema, the greatest of all the commandments and how it is to affect us personally and as a family unit. May we all take this psalm to heart as we near another Father's day. And dads, like me, let me remind us to take the lead with our wives to build our homes on a solid foundation thereby leaving a lasting legacy to our sons and daughters and grandchildren.
Posted by: L | June 08, 2007 at 06:55 PM
>>Like me, have you ever struggled with gossip? How have you been able to stop yourself from gossiping about others?>>
Yes, gossip is soooo easy to fall into because when we our outside of getting our value from Christ, gossip lowers the person or people we are dishing the dirt on in our eyes and in the eyes of others. We are rising ourselves up above the objects of our poison tongue by standing on their backs, which is the sin of Satan. Gossip may be hard to identify by people who are raised in families who gossip (Abnormality seems normal because it is so common), so stopping that behavior may require very severe actions. I have developed the following method, I say, “O, no—that’s not good—let’s pray for them.” The person is usually so shocked that they are stopped right in their tracks and usually hurry off or change the conversations. By the way, I have had only one person to take me up on that offer and when we held hands to pray their hands were like dead fish.
A praying for those who have rule over us can also include prayers where you ask God to expose their wickedness or remove them from office. Check out some of David’s prayers they were all not what we would call “nice-nice.”
Posted by: R | June 08, 2007 at 06:56 PM
I Kings 5-6:38
Went looking up Cedar and Cypress (Translated as Fir in King James) and found out a lot about the Cedars of Lebanon. Although there are only about three-hundred remaining due to them being a hot commodity even before Jesus was born, the Ciders of Lebanon are the most impressive of all Cedar Trees. Of the ones still standing, about a dozen are more then 1,000 years old with the youngest being about 200. They measure 40 to 50 feet in girth and are extremely dense, growing in an altitude of more than 5,000 feet. The wood is so dense it is considered virtually indestructible. Although the wood is sweet smelling it is bitter to the taste keeping out insects. http://www.ourladyoflebanon-dc.org/histcedars.htm
One can see why this wood was so prized and why Solomon wanted to use it to build a temple that would represent an indestructible God who is also incorruptible.
Acts 7:1-29
Of everything, Stephen preaches/teaches about in his speech, the following has caught my imagination,
22 Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he became mighty in both speech and action.
If Moses was mighty in “speech” while in Egypt, had he lost his ability to speak “mightily” while he tended sheep in the desert for forty years after killing the Egyptian or was he using false humility? If he had indeed succumb to that “Use it or Loose It” saying, the lose would require him to rely totally on God for the words he would need to speak to the people he had been sent to deliver and to Pharaoh, very interesting.
Do we have to be brought to a place of total incompetence in the use of the gifts we think we have before God will use us? Moreover, if the gift is in our control would we give the glory to God or would we take it for ourselves: just a thought.
Psalm 127
How fitting that this Psalm that begins with,
1 Unless the LORD builds a house,
the work of the builders is useless. Unless the LORD protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good,
follows the New Testament reading that has captured my imagination and thoughts.
Proverbs 16:28-30
I heard a statement by the late Ed Cole of the Christian Men’s Network, “You can’t make peace with someone who has hate in their heart.” The three verses seem to validate his statement. So how do you influence a troublemaker and or a violent person to come to change/repent? I once tried to reason with some men who were known to be sexual predators in a Church Bible Study, but most of them were trying to convert me to their way of thinking as I was trying to convert them to the wisdom of the Bible. Any suggestions out there?
Posted by: R | June 08, 2007 at 06:57 PM
I like this question and challenge: “Should we be more vigilant about stopping gossip within our churches and within our hearts and minds and on our own tongues?”
About the tongue: James 3 says that the tongue is full of evil. However, it also says that the tongue is a rudder. We can use our tongues to speak and meditate on righteousness to help us be more established in God.
I Kings 5 – Hiram, King of Tyre
LATER HISTORY OF TYRE – from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A church was founded here soon after the death of Saint Stephen, and Paul of Tarsus, on his return from his third missionary journey, spent a week in conversation with the disciples there.
According to Irenaeus of Lyons in Adversus Haereses, the female companion of Simon Magus came from here.
From the JewishEncyclopedia.com:
“Simon Magus was the founder of a Gnostic sect.” In light of the current fascination with the deception of Gnosticism espoused in the book, “The Da Vinci Code”, I thought this was interesting.
“Justin relates ("Apologia," i. 26, 56) that he was born in Gitta, a Samaritan village, and that he traveled together with a woman named Helena, whom he declared to be the "First Intelligence," he himself claiming to be the first manifestation of the hidden power of God.”
“This story has been proved by the fact that the statue said to have been erected to him with the inscription "Semoni Sancto Deo Fidio" has been discovered, and it proves to have been dedicated to an ancient Roman deity.”
During the time of the Crusades: In 1291, it was retaken by the Mameluks. Mameluks were slave soldiers who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs. A Muslim caliph is a title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. The Mameluks also later served the Ottoman Empire during the Middle Ages.
Tyre was under Ottoman rule before the modern state of Lebanon was declared in 1920.
MODERN LEBANON IS TYRE. Is that not fascinating?
~~
It is interesting and fascinating how the Lord used a pagan king to help Solomon build the Temple of God—where the Presence of God in the OT was manifest. This shows me that God is Lord of the entire world, and all peoples—even pagan peoples—will glorify the true and living God, and will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fact that the Temple was dedicated to the true and living God, and that God was literally manifest there explains the importance of I Kings 6:7 – “When the house [Temple] was being built, its stone was made ready at the quarry, and no hammer, ax, or tool of iron was heard in the house while it was in building.”
This is important for many cultures fashioned their gods with tools after the image that was in their minds. These were false gods. The true and living God did not want in any way to associate Himself with these false gods.
God Himself must tell us the way to worship Him so our worship is true and pure. For our human tendency is to “imagine” a god that is not God at all. Thus, in Exodus 20 our Father God says this:
25
And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
26
Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.
~~
Acts 7
Like Stephen, we really need to give ourselves totally over to the Holy Spirit and to His Word. Then—and only then—can the Lord Jesus do His work through us to reach people who are lost.
I Timothy 4 (NKJV)
15
Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.
16
Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Ephesians 5 (Amplified)
18
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but ever be filled and stimulated with the [Holy] Spirit.
Vance
Posted by: Vance | June 08, 2007 at 06:58 PM
As I was reading the description of the inner sanctuary, I could not imagine a *golden room*!!
In a book I'm currently reading, the author suggests that the interior of this sanctuary was to be a representation of the Garden of Eden. The garden depictions on the wall, the cherubim covering the holiness of God, with access denied to man because of sin. He also explains that the future New Jerusalem will be the ultimate *garden* environment where once again, sinless mankind will share personal and intimate fellowship with his Creator.
Just thought that was interesting.
Posted by: Jo Anne | June 09, 2007 at 06:30 AM
psalm 127:1
Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of builders is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.
The War on Terror, our Department of Homeland Security...all 21st Century necessities living in our world today. Yet, the Lord protects a city, and our preventative measures will do no good in the long run unless we turn to the Lord.
Posted by: | June 09, 2007 at 01:38 PM
Verses that stood out for me today:
1 Kings 5:5 "So I am planning to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord my God, just as he had instructed my father, David. For the Lord told him, ‘Your son, whom I will place on your throne, will build the Temple to honor my name.’ ~ Beautiful ... everything according to His plan and on His time ...
Psalm 127:2 "It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones". ~ Makes me think about all those people who are overworked, living on prozac, trying to keep their lives together. Rest is very important! Also makes me think about Mary and Martha. Taking the time to listen to God's Word ... not worry too much about hard working.
Gossip ... sigh ... yes ... I'm trying not to, honestly! But you know, I never really know when 'talking about someone' goes into 'gossiping'. I mean, we are allowed to talk about people, right? I mean, just talk about them, how they are doing, what they are doing. But when does it become gossiping? I surely don't want to gossip! I've been the victim of gossiping and it's ugly! I guess as soon as we start talking about someone and add mean things to it and don't tell the truth, then at that point it becomes gossiping? That's what happened to me, things were said that weren't true and I couldn't make those wrongs right. It was their word against mine ... it hurt me so bad! I don't want to gossip! I know it's a sin, I realize it's a sin. It's just soooooooo mean!!!
Posted by: Mae | June 09, 2007 at 05:43 PM
Okay! here it is...the definition of gossip from the Webster dictionary:
gos·sip (gŏs'əp) Pronunciation Key
n.
1. Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature.
2. A person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts.
3. Trivial, chatty talk or writing.
It is cruel and inconsiderate. But, I do think we have all been guilty of it at one time or another:(
The rule of thumb I like to use which is my boundary when to stop before it goes to gossip is the following:
If I say something about someone else... it should be something I could say in front of the person of whom I am speaking about. So, In other words...if I could not say it in front of them I should not say it at all.
I think many of us Christians are guilty of this with the pretext that we want to pray for someone and by mention of them we speak about intimate things that are private. All with the intention of praying for the person.
Dear Lord Please forgive me for any words that have been uttered by me that have been offensive to you or any other person. Help me to bless others and be of good testimony for your name sake where ever I go. That I may please you in every word that comes out of my mouth. In Jesus' name Amen!
I loved todays reading and the devotional. Thanks for all the work you put into these teachings. God bless you! IN HIM carmen<
Posted by: Carmen | June 09, 2007 at 05:44 PM