Tag: Solomon

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

A shipment of baboons

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Lisa Stockton on Unsplash

This is a “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 9.

I tend to zip through the books of Chronicles, but one verse slows me down and makes me smile. “Once every three years the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks” (2 Chronicles 9:21).

The writer is describing the wealth of King Solomon, an ancient version of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Solomon didn’t have to do much to grow his assets. In addition to gold and silver, every explorer merchant, king, and governor who stopped by brought gold, silver, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules (9:24). And apes!

On the one hand, I have to wonder, “Why apes?” On the other hand, when you’ve got money to burn, why not? My research revealed that nobility would train baboons to climb palm trees and bring down coconuts. I suppose that’s like training your dog to bring in the newspaper in the morning.

Besides the parallel passage in 1 Kings 10, this is the only place that apes are mentioned in scripture. My trips to zoos always include time in the primate exhibit. Watching monkeys, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas is as entertaining as any movie or TV show. Baboons are fun to watch, but they usually don’t do much other than look back at me.

When the first Six Flags Great Adventure park opened in Jackson, NJ, it featured a drive-through safari which included a baboon exhibit. We had to keep our car windows closed because the apes would climb on the car and peer in the window at us. If your car had a vinyl landau roof, forget it. The baboons tore many to shreds!

Solomon didn’t have to worry about that. He had lots of chariots but no vinyl. Plus, I’m confident he had skilled trainers for his collection of palm-tree climbing, coconut grabbing baboons.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Riddle me this

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Bianca Ackermann on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 9.

“Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles” (2 Chronicles 9:1 NASB). Other translations (ESV, NIV) say, “hard questions.” For the moment, I like riddle.

A riddle is a question that seems to be silly but has an amusing answer.

  • What’s black and white and red (read) all over? A newspaper. (A macabre answer: A bloody zebra).
  • Say my name and I disappear. What am I? Silence.

Samson posed a riddle to entertain and take advantage of the Philistines. “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” Spoiler: it’s the lion he killed with his bare hands where bees made a hive filled with honey (Judges 14).

So if I had a chance to speak with Solomon, a king gifted with divine wisdom, I’m not sure I would come with riddles. Instead of trick questions, I would want to know about his father David. I’d have questions about the temple. And the amazing wealth he had. And all the foreign dignitaries he had come to visit him.

So many tell me the questions they will have for Jesus when they finally see him face-to-face. I just smile. I have a feeling that none of those questions will matter when you’re with Jesus.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

More names for a smooth transition

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the bible” devotion from 1 Chronicles 23-27.

More names? Oh, yeah, and lots of them. King David’s reign is coming to an end and his son Solomon is ready to assume the throne of Israel (2 Chronicles 23:1). So David gets his house in order, and the write of Chronicles chronicles all of it for us.

David organizes the Levites for all the work in and around the temple Solomon will build. He organizes the priests to offer up the daily sacrifices. David organizes the musicians, gatekeepers, treasurers, and military divisions. Every name is recorded. Everyone knows their job.

When I was getting ready to retire from full-time pastoral ministry, there were a lot of lists to leave behind for my successor.

  • I updated the membership database.
  • I made sure every member was properly assigned to an elder, and made each elder had a current list of their assigned families.
  • I left a list of all the children and youth members for the youth directors.
  • I complied a list of all the homebound members and the last time I had visited each.
  • I arranged for the welcoming of new members, one last confirmation class, a few baptisms and a funeral.

Just like David, I tried to tie up all the loose ends as new leadership came on board. It turned out to be a larger task than I imagined. Which is why it takes up five whole chapters in 1 Chronicles. I had a lot of that information in my head and on my calendar. I downloaded it all to the church office.

I did a good job. I only got one or two phone calls over the next year about things I forgot to write down for someone else. I’m sure David did a good job, too.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Turn around

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jim Wilson on Unsplash

I was talking with someone about faith. I asked him if they were sure they were saved. He said, “I don’t know. I don’t know what my life or my faith will be like in the future.”

I had no idea what to say. I just listened.

I think it’s fair to say that Solomon had it all. Scripture tells us that “King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom” (10:23).

Suddenly, it all goes south. First, “King Solomon loved many foreign women” (1 Kings 11:1). Is that a problem? Not at first. “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods” (11:4).

Now it’s a problem. “His heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God” (11:4). It only takes eleven verses of scripture for a king who has it all to be the one who threw it all away.

I don’t get it. How could Solomon’s world famous wisdom let him down in his personal life? How could his unequaled discernment and judgment not protect him from idolatry and unfaithfulness?

I’ve thought about this a lot and haven’t come to any conclusions. But the words of Jesus keep coming to mind: “Unless you repent” (Luke 13:3). Living in an information age, it doesn’t matter how much I know about God. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve been blessed. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve trusted God. It doesn’t matter how much wisdom I have.

It’s about turning to him. It’s all about repentance.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

A box for God’s people

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the Bible” devotion from 1 Kings 8.

“Will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built” (1 Kings 8:27).

So why build a temple? Why build a church? Why make it look like your God lives in a box?

We naturally have places for things. Countries have capitals where the government is. Kitchens have cabinets where we stack the plates. Houses have shelves where we line up our books. Medicine cabinets hold all our pills.

So why wouldn’t you have a place for your God?

For many people, walking into church makes you feel closer to God. For some that’s a good feeling. For others, it’s ominous.

But some feel close to God walking down a trail through the woods. or looking up at a starry sky. Or holding an infant. Or reading a bible.

Bottom line: the box is for people, not God. The building is a place to gather and to be together. It’s a place to learn together, cry together, pray together, and celebrate together. If we could do it in our homes, we would, just like the early church. But when the Holy Spirit does his thing and the church grows, we just might need a bigger place to gather. It could be the beach. Or an amphitheater. Or a sanctuary.

No you can’t confine God to a box. But he’ll be there, wherever his people gather.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

How much is all this going to cost?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

“So Solomon built the house [of God] and finished it.” (1 Kings‬ ‭6‬:‭14‬).

When I asked a Bible study class how much they thought should be spent on a church building, most replied, “Less than we do.” I thought that was an interesting answer. People like beautiful, well-maintained spaces for worship. But many underestimate the cost and commitment involved.

The temple Solomon built in Jerusalem was beautiful. Huge rocks from a quarry. Cedar-paneled walls overlaid with gold. Carved angels, engraved Palm tree and flowers, and olive wood doors. The furnishings and fabrics were exquisite.

How much did this all cost? Scholars disagree. At the very least it’s tens of millions of dollars in today’s currency. It probably cost far more than that. Too much? Appropriate for the Almighty God?

It’s true that the overhead of a building consumes a significant part of a congregation’s budget. But it’s also true that a church building is a visual that God is a part of a community. It provides a place for God’s people to gather and encourage one another to live out our faith. It is a place to go in the worst moments of life to find hope. It’s a place that reminds us we’re not alone in this. We rejoice, mourn, live, and die together as God’s people.

God didn’t need a temple. Neither did his people. They worshipped for a long time without one. They would still fall into sin with one.

When a woman anoints Jesus’s feet with costly perfume, he’s touched by the nice thing she did for him. Perhaps we should look at temples and church buildings in a similar way.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

It’s getting crowded in here

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the bible” devotion from 1 Kings 4.

You begin as two. You have a few kids. Before you know it, they’ve grown up. They get married. They begin to have children.

Suddenly, you hardly have room for everyone for a birthday or holiday get together. You don’t have enough chairs for everyone to sit at the dinner table. There isn’t enough room in the driveway for everyone’s cars.

What a wonderful problem to have!

As the writer of 1 Kings describes Solomon’s staff and wealth, he adds this amazing update:

“Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance” (1 Kings 4:20).

This is exactly God promised Abram in Genesis 13:16. It takes a while (about 800 years) but God did it.

I guess that’s a good reminder that many good things don’t happen overnight. Or in the course of a year. Or maybe in a lifetime.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

What should I ask for?

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the Bible” devotion from 1 Kings 3.

What do you want for your birthday? What do you want for Christmas? What are your salary expectations? What do you want for supper?

God says to Solomon, “Ask what you want me to give you” (1 Kings 3:5). Later Jesus would say, “Ask…seek…knock” (Matthew 7:7).

A blank check from the omnipotent God. What do you ask for? What do you dare ask for?

It’s got to be big, right? You might not get another chance. But not too big. You don’t want to sound greedy or selfish. Do you ask for something that will last? Or for a moment you’ll never forget?

Solomon asks for “an understanding heart to judge and discern” (3:9). It’s a noble, humble, and insightful request. Probably better than anything I would have thought to ask for.

So God gives Solomon “a wise and discerning heart” (3:12) as well as riches and honor (3:13). Before long, all would know that “the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice” (3:28).

So exactly what is the wisdom of God? What does it look like? I think of it it’s the ability to discern what is going on, so you know what to do or not do in a situation.

  • Knowing the right thing to say. Or when to just be quiet.
  • Knowing when to act. Or when to wait.
  • Knowing how to listen and hear what someone is saying. Or know when they’re lying.
  • Knowing what to ask for when God says, “What do you want?”

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

A bloody transition of power

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A “through the bible” devotion from 1 Kings 1 and 2.

I’ve heard about a “peaceful transition of power” when new leaders are elected and begin their terms of office.

It certainly doesn’t happen like that in scripture.

Adonijah thinks he has a good chance of being king after David. But when David names Solomon as his successor, Adonijah knows he’s in big trouble. Solomon says, “You have nothing to worry about.”

However, when Adonijah makes a play for David’s nurse Abishag, it’s over. Solomon doesn’t give him an inch. He sends Benaiah to execute him. End of that discussion.

Joab was a pretty good general for David, but he was an Adonijah supporter. Solomon has him executed, too.

Then there is Shimei, who threw rocks at David when he was fleeing from Absalom. Solomon puts him under house arrest. But when Shimei goes out looking for some missing servants, Solomon orders his execution, too.

And that when “The kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon” (1 Kings 2:46). I’m amazed at how bloody the transition of power is in the first two chapters of 1 Kings.

It gets messy as God fulfills his promise to David, that his descendants will always be on the throne. Jesus’s life was threatened by King Herod before he’s two years old. He endured a bloody beating and crucifixion before he’s exalted and everyone knew bows and every tongue confesses him to be Lord.