Day 25: I Kings 7:38 - 16:20

Today's reading is a bit depressing. We start with the high point of the dedication of the Temple. The presence of the Lord descends and it's pretty awesome. We end with Judah being split off from the rest of Israel and each of them having king after king who does evil in the eyes of the Lord. How do we get from point A to point B? Let's take a look.

First up—the dedication of the temple. Everyone in Israel assembles for the Ark to be moved into the temple. The priests take the Ark into the Most Holy Place. And then the cloud fills the temple, and the priests cannot perform their services because the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Solomon prays a prayer of dedication that reveals he really understands his theology. He understands that God doesn't actually dwell in the Temple, for all of heaven cannot contain Him much less a building. However, he is physically manifesting His presence there for the sake of the Israelites. I liked a part in Solomon's prayer when he asks that God would hear prayers of the foreigners who have come from a distant land.

Everyone in the world is amazed by Solomon's great wisdom. The Queen of Sheba comes to test Solomon with hard questions because she's heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship with the Lord. I'm curious what sort of questions she asked him. Ethical questions? Philisophical? Math? Science? Who knows. But she leaves praising God for placing Solomon on the throne.

In chapter 11, we find out where Solomon messes up. He loved many foreign women from all the nations about which the Lord said, "You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." As he got older, he wives turned his heart after other gods and he was no longer fully devoted to the Lord. He began to worship their gods with them and build altars to their gods. The Lord tells Solomon that he will tear his kingdom away and give it to one of his subordinates. But for David's sake, he will wait until Solomon dies and will allow his son to remain king of Judah. God tells Jeroboam (the soon to be king of Israel) that if he walks in obedience and does what is right in God's eyes, he will build his dynasty and bless him.

Solomon dies and his son, Rehoboam becomes king. The people come and ask him what sort of king he will be. Rehoboam takes his friends' crappy advice over his father's advisers, and he tells the people that if they thought his father was harsh, just wait. The people (except for Judah) say, no thanks we'll take Jeroboam as our king instead.

Jeroboam creates golden calves for Israel to worship because he doesn't want them to go to the temple in Jerusalem (capital of Judah) for fear they'll return to Rehoboam. He tells Israel that these calves are their gods that brought hem out of Egypt. He built shrines on high places and appointed anyone as a priest--not just Levites.

One day, a man of God shows up at the high place when Jeroboam is standing to make an offering and tells Jeroboam that a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. And he will kill the priests who make offerings at the high places. As a sign he says that the altar will be split in two. Jeroboam reaches out his hand to tell his men to seize him, but when he does it shrivels up and the altar is split.

Here's where that story gets a little weird. God instructed the prophet to go, deliver the message, and to return home. He wasn't to even stop to eat or drink before going home. But he gets tricked by an old prophet into staying for dinner. The older prophet tells him that God told him that he should stay. While they're eating, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet and he tells younger prophet that he defied the word of the Lord by not going straight home. After dinner, he's eaten by a lion on his way home. The old prophet mourns for him and buries him. And it turns out that Jeroboam still doesn't change his evil ways.

Rehoboam doesn't do any better than Jeroboam. And then Jeroboam's son, Abijah doesn't do any better. Next up for Judah is Asa who does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. His heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. But we're now in a cycle where king after king after king does evil in the eyes of the Lord. Every so often, there's a good one, but for the most part, they're all pretty bad. And it all started with Solomon's compromise by marrying so many foreign women to turned his heart away from the Lord.

Tomorrow is I Kings 16:21 through II Kings 4:37.

Peace.