The Second Book of Chronicles Chapters 1-4
Thursday, November 23
The life of King David comes to an end and ushers in the life and times of
King Solomon. II Chronicles opens with “Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and Yahweh his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly.” This verse would be a great way to end the story of his life, but these are the early years when he was still seeking after God.
Solomon decided since his kingdom was in order he was going to reward himself and prepare a feast for his friends and family and fans to attend. He also offered great sacrifices to God. It was a partay magnificent~ He was consumed with doing everything right and pleasing God, but his spirituality was more of a surface variety and didn’t hold up to future challenges.
After the great amount of feasting and great amount of offerings, God came to Solomon in a dream that night and tells him to “ask what I shall give you.” I had never noticed this before. I had always assumed that God told him to ask for whatever he wanted. God was ready to tell Solomon something important and instead Solomon reminds God how he had shown grace to David and explains to God how he needs wisdom and knowledge to be a leader and judge Gods people.
God gives Solomon what he asked for and then tells him that all he achieves will be additional gifts from God. His riches, wealth, honor unlike any before him or after him will be from the hand of God. Solomon goes on to do marvelous deeds. He builds the temple and his own personal home (Palace) and hanging gardens that were the envy of the world. Leaders came from far away, just as God promised to bow down and offer gifts. He is a man on the rise. Only he isn’t the messiah, and he is also ready for a fall.
David had prayed that Solomon would be the Messiah and at times Solomon seems to believe he was. David prayed specific prayers over Solomon (Psalms 72) and he seems to try and live up to his father’s desires, but he falls short. Solomon, for all his wisdom and attempts at trying to be the messiah fails and shows us once again the need for a true savior.
I think we all need to look at v.7 again and put our name in place of Solomon. “In that night (after feasting and worshiping God and giving gifts to God for all his blessings) God appeared to _______ and said, Ask what I shall give you.
“Ask what I shall give you!”…. He is our reason for all our Thanksgiving. Find a way today to bridge a gap or help heal a hurt or simply remind someone how much God has given and stands ready to give.
Glennis Walters
SeekGrowLove.com 