Key Verse: 1 Kings 9: 6 & 7a
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, 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.
The first years of Solomon’s reign were glorious. He was busy leading his people into great prosperity, international fame, and peace in the then known world. In Europe, Greece and Rome were just beginning to emerge into prominence. Solomon had it made…except for the matter of obedience to God! God, knowing what would happen, was driving home the absolute necessity of obedience. In this most important matter, Solomon was a failure. Yes, we know that he loved God. In 1 Kings 3:3 we are told that Solomon “loved the Lord.” His actions in these early years would seem to prove that. However, there remained the issue of full obedience.
We do not obey God to get admission to Heaven; we obey God because our entrance into Heaven is secure by God’s grace through faith. Jesus made it totally clear that those who really love Him are those who obey Him. He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Let’s take a moment for a New Testament reading in John 14: 8-21.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I have sinned and come short of Your Glory. Forgive me for my disobedience. I humbly ask for more grace to obey You more fully than ever. In and through the One who always obeyed fully, my Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
When I visit Solomon’s Pillars (pictured above), my imagination is fired up with the thought of those early miners and the open smelters which were refining copper and other metals. When I visit Solomon’s chariot city of Megiddo, I can almost see the great stables full of huge war horses (pictured below).
Yours for obedience in doing all God has purposed, now and throughout eternity,
David
Up Next in Year 1 | May
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100 Words - YR1 May 2 - FROM WISDOM T...
Key Verse: 1 Kings 11:4
For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.In the world of the ancient kings, the most common way of confirming treaties was through marriage...
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100 Words - YR1 May 3 - DIVISION
Key Verse: 1 Kings 12:13
Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him…As the wall in the photograph shows, the land is divided. In the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, it was also divided. Friedrich Hegel, the philosopher, said, “We learn from ...
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100 Words - YR1 May 4 - JUDGEMENT
Key Verse: 1 Kings 14:22
Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.“Here we go again.” This was a defining line spoken by candidate Ronald Reagan to President Jimmy Carter in an ...