Friday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 4, 2022 by under
Scripture: 1 Kings 9:1-9 (NKJV)
9:1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do, 2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them.’”
Devotion
The first time the Lord appeared to Solomon was in a dream. And the Lord said, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon asked for wisdom. God granted him wisdom and riches. When Solomon awoke, he went to Jerusalem. He offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.
The second time the Lord appeared to Solomon was in a dream also. The Lord had heard Solomon’s prayers for blessing on the temple he was building. The Lord answered Solomon’s prayers by placing His Name (God’s Name) on the temple.
With the blessing of Solomon’s temple and the placing of God’s Name and eyes and heart on and in the temple, God gave a blessing and a warning. If Solomon followed in his father David’s ways, then God would bless Israel and allow Israel a king. But, if Israel turned to other gods, then the Lord would cut off their kings and kingdom and destroy the temple. History proves this warning to have been fulfilled.
God led other nations to destroy Israel and Judah. The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. It was rebuilt in a modest fashion by Zerubbabel around 530 BC. King Herod began to rebuild that temple about 46 BC. It was finished about the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Finally, it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. No longer needed, a new temple had been erected to God in the flesh of the God-Man Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
