Archive for the ‘1st and 2nd Kings-BibleTrekToday’ Category
Scripture reading for April 7th: 1st Kings 12-16
After the death of Solomon and his 40 years of peace and prosperity, Rehoboam, a son of Solomon, took over the throne of his father. Rehoboam had the wisest man who ever lived up to that time as a father and example. Even though wise, Solomon was still human and a sinner and his son Rehoboam failed to learn from the wisdom and truths available to him. When we fail to listen and learn and let pride determine our conduct, trouble always results.
Rehoboam brought the wise older advisers of his father before him for advice. The men of Israel had approached him appealing to him to lower their taxes and lighten their load of forced labor for the king. These older advisers told Rehoboam to listen and lighten up the load. Rehoboam then went to his peers for their advice. They told him to make the load heavier and mocked the people. (1st Kings 12:6-15) Rehoboam liked the younger peers advice and answered the people harshly. This turned their hearts against him.
Scripture notes that Rehoboam’s action was from the Lord to fulfill a word of prophesy spoken to Jeroboam by Ahijah the prophet. God knows all things and sees the end from the beginning. This doesn’t mean that God was controlling the situation as much as that He knew the response before it happened and was working everything out for His purposes! We do well when we listen and obey the word of the Lord! Wise counsel is a precious commodity for those in leadership.
Rehoboam’s decision caused Israel and their ten northern tribes to choose Jeroboam as king. Jeroboam, however, also disobeyed the Lord’s word and direction by making two golden calves and setting up an alternative place of worship. He also placed in the priesthood all who desired to be priests. He did this because he feared the Israelites going down to Jerusalem for sacrifices. (1st Kings 12:26-33) Operating in fear instead of faith always leads to trouble! The sin of Jeroboam led to the downfall of his house, and the many kings of Israel who followed him also held to this idolatry and a false priesthood.
Take a moment today and commit your life to obedience to the Lord and ask God for wise counsel in your life. Ask for discernment and walk by faith!
Scripture reading for April 6th: 1st Kings 9-11
Solomon’s life looked like a modern day success story! He was blessed coming and going. Everything he did seemed to turn to gold! He was well-liked and sought after for his wisdom. Gold flowed into his treasuries like water. (1st Kings 10:10,14) Women were attracted to him and he married three hundred foreign wives and had 700 concubines. (1st Kings 11:1-4) He lived in a wonderful mansion and worshiped God in a gold-lined temple. God Himself had appeared to him twice and spoken a warning to him about staying humble and obedient. If he strayed, disaster would come. (1st Kings 9:3-9)
One would think that Solomon would continue on his path of serving God. But wealth and fame and popularity have ways of testing us even more than poverty and lack. The gold brought Solomon power and luxury and the ability to have whatever he desired. The women fed his ego and his lust. Beautiful women brought idolatry into Solomon’s life and he no longer served God whole-heartedly! (1st Kings 11:4-6) The Lord became angry with Solomon and raised up an adversary against him. (1st Kings 11:14) The wealth and fame and women did not bring the happiness that Solomon had envisioned. Grief came instead because of God’s anger against the sin of idolatry!
This story has been repeated countless times over the years. Men in ministry have fallen because of these same traps. Men who started out right to serve God and do something great for Him ended up shipwrecked because of temptations of money, women, and along with those, idolatry! Grief has come to these men and their families as it did to King David and Solomon after him. We must learn from the word of God what pleases the Lord and what angers Him! Living by humble faith is always the best.
Check out your own heart and life today. Has God prospered you and given you riches? Be careful that you are not led astray! Are you enticed by beautiful women or sexy men when you should be satisfied and in love with your spouse? Is your heart fully sold out to the Lord? Why not avoid the grief by repentance and renewed commitment! Now is the time before the grief comes!
Scripture reading for April 5th: 1st Kings 5-8
“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through his servant Moses.” (1st Kings 8:56)
Solomon had spent 13 years building a temple for the Lord and used much manpower and many craftsmen to carefully construct the building. It was a massive undertaking that required much silver and gold, cedar and stone, and skilled effort. According to Scripture, Solomon had thirty thousand laborers who worked in Lebanon cutting cedar in shifts and another one hundred fifty thousand men who worked cutting and carrying stone. Thirty three hundred more were foremen who were in charge of these men. (1st Kings 5:13-15)
Solomon spent this early part of his reign building this special house for the Lord. He trusted God for His promises and God was always faithful to him! When the work was finally completed, King Solomon called the elders and leaders of Israel together to move the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy of Holies of the new temple. Solomon sacrificed so many animals, that they could not be counted or recorded! (1st Kings 8:5)
After the priests placed the Ark in the new Holy of Holies and withdrew, the cloud of the glory of the Lord filled the temple so much that the priests could not minister! (1st Kings 8:10-11) Solomon stood before the people and blessed them by telling of God’s faithfulness to his father David and now to him following his father on the throne and now in the building of the temple. Solomon then faced the altar, knelt, lifted his hands and prayed to the Lord, asking for His grace and mercy to answer prayers offered in that temple. (1st Kings 8:52-53)
King Solomon’s humility and prayer is a testimony to his faith and trust in the promises of God and His word. Solomon believed God’s word and knew that God had been faithful and would be faithful. Israel celebrated God’s faithfulness and goodness for seven days and then celebrated seven more because they enjoyed it so much! (1st Kings 8:65-66) They went home joyful and glad at all the good things God had done! His word never fails and can be counted on! Remember, not one word of God has ever failed!
Dear Friends,
Greetings on this Resurrection morning! Christ the Lord is risen indeed! We are so blessed to have a living Savior who ever lives and promises to come back and take us to Himself! The grave could not hold Him and Satan was stripped by Him of the keys of death and hell! The curtain was torn from top to bottom and all who believe on Jesus Christ have access into the throne room of God where Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand.
Jesus Christ is the King of Peace! Like Solomon of old, He is a the wisest King who ever lived. His manifold wisdom was displayed at the cross where He offered Himself to make peace with God the Father for our sins. Isaiah named Him the Wonderful Counselor, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6) We now have peace with God through Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ is the King of Love! Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus Christ laid His life down for us, His friends! His love provided what we really needed to give us eternal life! His love was demonstrated in perfect obedience to the Father. His love reaches out to the whole world of lost humanity and draws each person who will respond to saving faith!
Jesus Christ is the King of Kings! There have been many kings over the ages. Scripture records many kings of Israel and Judah. All of them died; some were great and others were evil. Jesus Christ is the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God! He was and is perfectly righteous and holy. He is alive forever and ruling with justice and mercy. His throne endures forever and His rule will cover all time, space, and matter and every creature that He created!
May the King of Kings grant you His peace and love as you rest in Him this resurrection day!
In His Love, Pastor John
Scripture reading for April 3rd: 1st Kings 1-4
“At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” (1st Kings 3:5)
“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1st Kings 3:9)
Solomon sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings at Gibeon as he took the throne of his father David. He knew that he needed God’s wisdom and favor to govern God’s people wisely. God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a blank check–he could ask for whatever he wanted! Solomon asked for a wise and discerning heart to administer justice! God was pleased and gave him what he desired as well as riches and honor.
Immediately after this, Solomon was tested with a difficult case. Two prostitutes came before the king arguing over their baby sons. One baby had died and his mother had tried to replace the dead son with the other mother’s live son. The king gave an order to bring a sword and cut the live baby in half. The real mother had compassion and wanted to give her son away to save his life. The other mother wanted to kill the baby. Solomon awarded the live baby to the compassionate mother and all Israel marveled at his wisdom. (1st Kings 3:15-28)
Solomon grew in wisdom and insight and had great understanding. He spoke 3000 proverbs and authored over a thousand songs. He was a scientist and understood plant and animal life. People from all over the world came to hear Solomon’s wisdom.
Solomon is a type of Jesus Christ. He is a son of David. He was humble when anointed to be king. He was the wisest man who ever lived, other than Jesus Christ. Scripture says that in Jesus Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3) We who have Christ as Savior have access to that wisdom for He was made unto us wisdom! (1st Corinthians 1:30) People from every tribe, tongue and nation are coming to Christ for wisdom and understanding!
Have you asked God for a discerning heart? Discernment is pleasing to God and so necessary in the day in which we live. This prayer is fully answered in a relationship with Jesus Christ!
Scripture reading for April 16: 2nd Kings 22-25
Josiah became king of Judah when he was just eight years old! By the time he was 26, he was ready to begin what was to be the last revival in the land of Judah before God’s Word brought judgment! Josiah was a king who did right in God’s eyes and tried to follow the Lord in obedience. He was concerned for the temple, which had fallen into disrepair. As the work was going on, Hilkiah, the high priest found the Book of the Law and gave it to Shapan, the secretary to the king. Shapan read the Book, and then took it in to the king and began to read it to him. As the king heard the Word of the Book, he was humbled and tore his robes. He realized that God’s anger was against them because of their disobedience!
Josiah sent the leaders to seek the Lord and they went to Huldah the prophetess. She told them of God’s coming judgment and how the Lord was merciful towards King Josiah because he humbled himself and wept before Him. King Josiah called the elders together and they went up to the temple where he had the lost Book read in their presence. They renewed the covenant of the Lord that day by pledging themselves to the Lord. (2nd Kings 23:1-3)
Where do we end up when we lose track of the Book? First, the temple of God will be in disrepair! Without God’s life-giving Word, things decay fast! Death and sin do their destructive work among God’s people without continual contact with the Book! Second, idolatry will fill the void. The idols had crept into the temple of the Lord! Josiah’s revival of reading the lost Book brought recognition and destruction of the idols in the land. (2nd Kings 23:4-7) A key element was the response to the Word of the lost Book. Conviction brings repentance that leads to true change of direction. Humbling and response from the heart is what God is looking for.
Have you lost track of God’s Book? Why not get back on track with your life today by responding to this reading as the Word suggests? Now is the right time to make the change! Humility and repentance is the right posture to receive grace from the Lord! He is watching and waiting to restore and heal you! You’ll never be ashamed of responding as Josiah did!
Scripture reading for April 15: 2nd Kings 18-21
In 1980, my wife and I were caught in a financial crisis beyond our ability to handle or fix. We had borrowed money to buy land and equipment and build our farming business and now the interest rates had more than doubled. Many neighbors had lost farms to the banks and creditors because they were unable to pay and our situation looked bad. We had rededicated our lives to the Lord just a few years earlier and as we studied the Word of God, we knew we needed to humble ourselves and repent and ask God for His mercy. Mary and I knelt by our bed and did just that in an act of faith and desperation.
Hezekiah, one of the kings of Judah, was a man of faith. Scripture says that he “held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.” (2nd Kings 18:5-6) Because he trusted the Lord, the Lord was with him and he was successful in all he did. One of his first moves was to destroy the bronze snake that Moses had built to stop the plague of serpents in the desert. God’s people had made an idol of it and were burning incense to it! (2nd Kings 18:4)
Hezekiah was tested by the Assyrians. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, the military power of that day, and would not serve him. Assyria captured Samaria and Israel (the ten tribes) in Hezekiah’s sixth year. In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, Sennacherib, king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. (2nd Kings 18:13) Hezekiah tried to buy off the king of Assyria with gold from the temple, but a large army showed up surrounding Jerusalem. Hezekiah was told of this situation and he immediately went to the temple in a humbled posture to seek the help of God. As he prayed for help, God sent word by the prophet Isaiah that God would intervene and deliver them! (2nd Kings 19:6-7)
Hezekiah let his faith lead him to prayer. His prayer was a humble appeal to the Lord of Heaven. It was a confession of helplessness and need. God proved true to His own Word again! Solomon had prayed earlier at the dedication of the temple for people who were at war and would cry out to God that God would hear and answer! (1st Kings 8:44-45) Prayers said hundreds of years earlier are still being answered! God has a good memory!
What are you facing today that seems like a mountain? Go to God in prayer! Let your faith move you to prayer action. Go humbly if you need to confess how your own sinful actions led to the trouble. Go expecting God to hear and answer you! The answer is already on the way! By the way, eight years after we prayed, my wife and I were debt-free! Faith and prayer gives direction and patience!
Scripture reading for April 14: 2nd Kings 13-17
Even though God the Father is Spirit, He has the ability to see and know all things. The writers of Scripture often speak of the “eyes” of the Lord. God’s eyes are able to see in different ways than our eyes function. His eyes are able to penetrate into the depths of our thoughts and motives. His eyes see what we think we are doing in secret. His eyes can see in the darkness as if it is daylight and no detail escapes Him. His eyes are able to weigh good and evil and make righteous judgments.
As we read through the stories of the various kings of Israel and Judah, we have one of two remarks that are repeated time and again. If the king was good, the writer states that “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord”. (2nd Kings 15:3) If the king was wicked, the writer states that “he did evil in the eyes of the Lord”. (2nd Kings 15:9) Those kings who obeyed the Lord and sought to walk in honor of Him were seen by the Lord and rewarded accordingly. God’s eyes are always watching for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him so that He can show himself strong on their behalf. (2nd Chronicles 16:9)
We would also do well to remember the “eyes of the Lord”. God is watching us as well! David asked God to keep him as the “apple of His eye”. (Psalms 17:8) God told Solomon that His eyes and heart would always be in the Temple he had built. (1st Kings 9:3) We are now the living stones of the new Temple built by the greater son of David and Solomon! God’s keeping eye is upon us today. He looks in love upon us because of His Son. He lives and dwells with us and in us by His Holy Spirit. He is with us always to watch over His Word and bring it to pass in our lives as well. Take a moment to look up today and thank God for his marvelous eyes!
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;” Psalm 34:15
Scripture reading for April 13: 2nd Kings 9-12
My father is a man who is true to his word. As I was growing up, he would buy and sell cattle worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over the phone. He would call the banker and tell him how much he needed put into his bank account as a loan. They would do it and he would come in later and sign the note. My father knew the value of a good reputation and it was a badge of honor to be a man of your word. In fact, this trait is honorable because it is one of God’s character traits, too! In today’s reading, we hear the writer of 2nd Kings recounting time after time how God’s Word was spoken by men and how it came to pass.
The prophet Elisha sent a word with one of the members of the company of prophets. He was to anoint Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat to be king over Israel. He was also to give Jehu a mission of destroying the house of Ahab and Jezebel for their murderous and adulterous behavior. (2nd Kings 9:6-10) He told Jehu that dogs would devour Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel that she had stolen from Naboth and that no one would bury her. Jehu went to Jezreel, found Jezebel and had her killed. As he rested, dogs came and ate up her body. The Word of the Lord was fulfilled! (2nd Kings 9:34-37)
Next, Jehu went after the remaining sons of Ahab in Samaria. He came to Samaria and killed all who were left of Ahab’s family. (2nd Kings 10:17) This was according to the Word of the Lord spoken to Elijah the prophet. (1st Kings 21:20-22) This word was given several years earlier. Time may pass, but God’s Word remains true!
We would do well to heed the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is the only source of ultimate truth. (John 17:17) God is faithful to watch over His Word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12) Heaven and earth will pass away, but God’s Word will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35) As we approach the last days of these last days, it is more important than ever to give attention to God’s Word.
As we rest today and reflect on the reading of the past week, we can’t help but remember what a special day this is! This day is a day that has forever changed history in a number of ways! First, the calendar went from “BC” to “AD” marking a turning point for all mankind. Secondly, Jesus Christ so loved us and all of mankind made in God’s image, that He willingly gave his life for us. He took our sins in His own body on the cross and became a curse for us in order to remove from us the curse of sin (Galatians 3:13-14) and it’s resulting penalty, death. (Revelation 1:17-18) His last words, “it is finished”, (John 19:30) marked the end of all that was necessary for us to have the gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit. (John 14:25-26) The Holy Spirit marks us with an invisible mark telling the Father that we are now His. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
Christ was buried in a tomb and it was sealed over and guarded by tough Roman soldiers. (Matthew 27:65-66) Early in the morning on the first day of the week, however, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty! The women coming to embalm the body heard the glorious and puzzling angelic announcement: “He’s not here; he has risen just as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.” (Matthew 28:6-7) Jesus was alive and showed himself to those who were close to him. Eyewitnesses touched, handled, and examined his resurrected body. Over 500 saw him at one time. (1st Corinthians 15:3-6)
Jesus is alive today! He is seated at God the Father’s right hand. He is waiting for all his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. (Hebrews 10:12-13) He is waiting for the command of the Father to come back again for those who are His! All who are ready and watching for His return will be taken to be with Him forever! (Matthew 24:42-44) Those who have died in faith will rise first and we who remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we will always be with the Lord! Comfort one another with these words! (1st Thessalonians 4:11-18) Now that will be a “resurrection day” for us all to prepare for! Jesus is alive and coming soon!
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen, Come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20