Friday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 27, 2023 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
Jesus applied the same “because … therefore” to Jerusalem and the temple of His day when He predicted their destruction in Matthew 23:37ff . It still is true that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Christ references the same words of warning used in this Old Testament proclamation to Solomon’s prayerful plea of blessing toward the temple he has endeavored to build for God.
The Lord is long suffering, merciful, and abundantly gracious—but He will not tolerate hypocrisy or idolatry in those He has called to be His elect people of grace and faith. The faithful believer who clings to the promise of the Redeemer will be blessed in grace and faith, while the unfaithful hypocrite, apostate, and idolater will be the recipient of a righteous and just condemnation for his rebellion and rejection of God’s merciful grace. We, like Solomon, know abundance and prosperity through the gracious blessing of being God’s chosen people. This reality makes it especially imperative that we look to our Lord and continuously thank Him for all that we have received, and shall receive.
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.
