Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Solomon is now firmly in place as the king.  It is time for him to build the temple of the Lord.  We see early in our reading that he is also in need of a new home for himself, but we find that his priority for now is to build a temple, a home, for God.  Because he was able to unify the land even more than how it was unified under David, he is able to get help from all the surrounding regions to build the house of the Lord.  

Before we get to the building we can’t just skip over that Solomon asked from God wisdom.  God says to Solomon in 1:7 – “Ask what I should give you” and Solomon respond in 10 – “Give me now wisdom”.  God does that.  That was a big deal to God that Solomon asked for wisdom and not for riches or any of the things that most people would ask like riches or fame or power.  Just give me wisdom and the rest will follow, if it is the will of God.  Then he reaches out, in wisdom, to the other kings to help him build the temple of God. 

Once the temple is build we hear a song raised by all the Levitical singers where we find the words: “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”  When we get to Psalm 72 we find ourselves in a classic kingly Psalm.  It is Psalm that lifts up the needs of King and asks for the protection and safety of the king and the grace of God to fall upon the king.  We find the phrase – “long may he live!”  That is still used in connection to the kings and queens of this earth even to this day.

David’s life comes to an end and once again the preparations, the detailed preparations are tended to by David.  He calls all the people together and repeats to those who are present the words that God spoke to him about why he could not build the temple himself.  I am a warrior  and so God does not want me to build the temple but I’m putting everything in place so that my son, and I have a lot of sons, but my son Solomon is the one who is going to be building this temple.  

He also encourages Solomon and tells him to be strong and courageous.  That should sound familiar, remember Joshua when he was terrified to take over from Moses and how he was told by God to be strong and courageous.  Well, this is kind of similar although it is David who speaks to his Son and not God who speaks to Joshua.  

In Psalm 32 we find that phrase that gives us hope and also directs our steps:  Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  We know that in Jesus our transgression is covered.  We know that by no act of our own Jesus covers us with his pinions and protects us.  We find in Psalm 32 a reassurance that is covered by the blood of Jesus.

Proverbs covers a few areas of life that could be considered relevant for today.  We are given investing advice in vs.11:  wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but those who gather little by little will increase it.  A little warning to all those cryptocurrency folks.  We have advice on how to raise children in vs.24:  Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them.  

Let’s start with Psalm 127 and we find ourselves in a very familiar Psalm.  “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”  I love that verse.  It can apply to our families, it can apply to our churches, it can apply to our government systems, it can apply to our friendships, it can apply to…you name it.

Solomon is given the complete book on how to build the temple and given full capacity to build the temple from materials to people to whatever else he might need to build it.  But David is still king and just isn’t given the power to build the temple.  We then transition to those who are going to play a pivotal role in the temple especially those who will be officiating, who are Aaron’s sons.

We begin in I Chronicles with basically the same words as what we find in Psalm 29.  So, I Chronicles 16 looks like it is taken from Psalm 29.  I love the repeating words which  n state “the voice of the Lord…” and then some sort of poweful event takes place.  The most powerful event that takes place where the voice of the Lord speaks is seen in Genesis 1 in creation.  God speaks and creation happens.  The Word of the Lord is all poweful and without comparison.  That is why the Gospel of John is able to say…”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  This is for us as Christians a direct reference to the power of Jesus in our midst.

So we covered Psalm 29 but Chronicles continues to document the battles and the wars of David as he takes out not only the Philistines but anyone who comes in his way including the Ammonites and those who become their allies.  There is a clouded reference to Goliath and his type of people as they are called the giants and David’s brother Jonathan who brings down one of those people.  

We transitioned away from Saul and his death to now David ruling Israel and his primary foe is the Philistines.  You can find just about all of these same stories in I Samuel and so if you think you have heard these stories before, you probably have especially if you have been following along we looked at David and his the early days of his reign in March.

I hope you notice that before he went into battle he asked the Lord for advice as to whether he should go into battle or not.  Once God says yes, go into battle, and the second time he says no, but go into battle this way.  God gives actual tactical advice and how to place your troops and where to place your troops.  

This  section ends with the ark of the tabernacle being transported correctly to Jerusalem and it hangs out in a tent.  It will take David’s son, Solomon, before the temple is built.

Psalm 28 end with the psalmist requesting God to be the shepherd of his people.  I love that image, God as a shepherd of his people.

We transition from the slog to a final story that is the description of the end of an era.  We find ourselves being led up to the Saul who becomes the first king of Israel.  He enters the picture with his geneaology in chapter 8 and 9 gives even more description of his descendants and his ancestors until we are led to his death in chapter 10.  An interesting progression which takes us to his death and the end of his era.  Notice that his life is described as one of being unfaithful and so as a result God had to replace him.  Not a great legacy.

Psalm 27 is one of my favorites.  The psalmist encourages the reader to wait for the Lord even in the midst of times in life when it seems like the Lord is delaying.  That is actually exactly what happend with Saul.  He felt like he wasn’t hearing from God and so he went about finding his own way of getting a response as to whether he should attack or not.  I love the final verse: “Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

On Sunday I described Chronicles as a slog.  Probably not a very respectful description for any book of the Bible.  But it is.  Name, after name, after name is listed and I know you are wondering what the reason and what the purpose of it is.  I told someone on Sunday that one of the primary reasons for the names is to ensure that the land that was promised to the people of God ended up in the right hands and in the right families.  As I read through these names I’m thinking there is also another reason.

It is important to remember our history.  It is important to see the hand of God and be able to identify the hand of God as such in our history.  These names and this listing of families provides an opportunity for the people of God to be able to trace their roots all the back even to Adam.  That was the purpose, it was to remind the people that God has been faithful to you from the beginning of time, and look, here is your family to whom God has been faithful.

There is probably one verse in these first five chapters that is fairly well known.  Look at I Chronicles 4:9-10 where you will find the prayer of Jabez.  I have said this in the past, but I really do see this as a bit of a selfish prayer.  I know that cultural Christianity has taken it on as something that we ought to pray, that God would enrich our borders and basically make us wealthy, but I’m not into that kind of a prayer.  I’m much more into: give us this day our daily bread, type prayer instead.  

The Apostle Paul is writing to Titus whom he calls his “true son”.  He lays out the command that Titus has to establish leaders in all of the churches and the bar which each person must reach in order to be a leader.  I need to warn you that it is a pretty high bar.  You can see the list of qualities in 1:6-9.  I read this list to all of our officers during the training so that they can understand what they are up against and that they would recognize that we are not called based upon our skilles but rather based upon the grace of God.  

For Psalm 16 there is a phrase that struck me and which you find in a popular song that I enjoy.  Look at vs.8: “I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

I didn’t remember how the end of Esther came about.  I remembered Haman being hung and also all of his family, but I had forgotten that since the original edict of the king could not be reversed the king had to allow for another edict in order to counter ballance the first one.  If the first one said that the Jews were fair game and anyone could attack them and steal their property the perfect foil for that would be an edict that says that not only could the Jews defend themselves but they could also proactively take out their enemies.  It sounds a lot like the purge if you have seen any of those movies.  They are not great movies, so hopefully you haven’t seen any of them.

All that is carried out and we also get the command to celebrate this day in the future and the name of the celebration was to be called Purim because pur was the lot that was cast against the Jews was turned on its head and against Haman and his family.  

The three psalms that we read point to how the ungodly have become a very strong presence in the world and the Lord is not happy about it.  Psalm 14:3 states: “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”  It should sound a lot like Romans 3:23

Providentially this past Sunday Pastor Konstantin Reznik preached on Esther and gave us four impactful ways in which we as a church have been formulated for such a time as this.  But the story of itself is very disturbing and quite violent.  You have a petulant king who wants to assert his dominion over his wife and basically kicks her out of the house and then wants to find one who is more amenable to his desires and whims.  Along comes young Esther and she pleases the king and she is made queen in place of Vashit.  Did you know that Esther’s original name was Hadassah?  You can find that in 2:7.

But the story of the salvation of the Jews is one that repeats itself time and time again in history.  Remember the Jews only find themselves in the reign of Xerxes because they had been taken into captivity by the Babylonians and so were captives in that land during this entire story.  Haman was plotting against basically a slave who would not bow down to him.  But this slave, Mordecai, who was the cousing of Esther, had already saved the king’s life.  Providence allows the king to discover once again how he was saved which in turn saved all of the Jews in the land.  But the story does not end there.  Let’s see what these last chapters hold.