Temple Temptation 1 Kings 9:6-8

“But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’”

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ 

Solomon spent seven years and many millions of dollars to build the house of the Lord. He dedicated it with a great feast and prayed one of the most famous prayers in all of Scripture. Yet despite all the money and all the fanfare, God’s response was exactly what you’d expect. The Lord was not impressed with all of Solomon’s accomplishments or his wealth,  nor was He wowed by Solomon’s success. In the end God was not after the building but after a people who would worship Him Anna over Him. 


After his prayer God responded to Solomon about His desire for relationship with him. Above all else that was all that really mattered to God- would His people remain in relationship with Him or would they forsake Him for other gods as in previous generations? Instead of congratulating Solomon on all of His accomplishments as everyone else had done, the Lord replied with a serious warning. 


God knew then as He does today that the human heart tends to seek after lesser things- the things of this world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” instead of relationship with the Creator. He knew that within a generation the people of Israel would again return to worshiping other gods and that the temple of Solomon would ultimately fall to the Babylonians because they turned away from Him to worship idols. God was true to His promise that His glorious temple would become a pile of rubble before He would share his people with other gods. 


For all of Solomon’s gain and his best intentions, he ultimately failed to guard His heart from turning away after other gods and later exchanged a relationship with the Lord with his own sinful desires. His life is a testimony of Jesus’ words, “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits His soul? What would a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:28). 


The true riches of life are never found in the abundance of shiny things but in relationship with the Lord. So long as we have Christ we gain everything, even if we own nothing. If we have everything but forsake Christ then we have nothing. In the end that is the first decision that will matter eternity. 


God would rather we lose everything if it causes us to seek relationship with Him. The lesson of the temple of Solomon is that the Temple God desires most is not composed of expensive things but of something far more valuable- our hearts.


We are the Temple God desires to dwell in today and nothing can truly compare with Christ who is far greater than the Temple of Solomon ever was. Once  we can realize that truth and value Him above all else, we will become wiser than Solomon and more wealthy than any earthly king eternally. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is our Hope in Life and Death? - Remembering Charlie Kirk (Acts 6-7)

Acts 6:10 "But they could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit with which he was speaking."  Yesterday Charlie Kirk was murdered in cold blood in broad daylight. Why? Because he spoke the truth of God openly, in public. He was unashamed of the name of Jesus and shared the gospel of Christ boldly.  He was brilliant, eloquent, and persuasive but his life was cut short in front of the entire world because of his faith and witness. He was unjustly put to death for the same reasons they killed the very first martyr Stephen in the early Church.  In Acts 6 it says the crowds approached Stephen to debate him but “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (vs 10). Sound familiar? A few verses later in Acts 7, Stephen delivers a master class Old Testament survey (from memory) and argues powerfully from the Scriptures that Jesus was not only the Messiah but that their hard-hearted unbelief in Him was the very thing that caused His death.  Their reacti...
Read more

Jesus Take the Reel

2000 years ago the church in Rome was one of the most divided, polarized group of Christians when it came to cultural differences between Jews and Gentiles. When they came to the Lord’s table to eat each week each group rolled their eyes at the opinions of the other when it came to their vastly different food habits. Some preferred meat and some only vegetables, both for different reasons and each side thought the other side were idiots, causing a lot of strife and offense among these brothers and sisters in Christ. Go figure, each person had their minds made up and insisted on forcing their opinions on the other to the point that Paul had to waste precious time and ink to address their beef (pun intended).  The more you think about it, this behavior sounds awfully familiar in the age of social media. Even among Christians it’s pretty common to see brothers and sisters publicly and adamantly airing their personal opinions on the daily. One side can’t resist the urg...
Read more

The Why? (Luke 1:35-39)

"The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled." Then the angel left her. At that time Mary got ready and HURRIED to a town in the hill country of Judea..." (Luke 1:35-39 NIV) You have to admit, the writers of Scripture have an annoying tendency to relay supernatural events like they're no big deal. For instance, THE Angel Gabriel appears out of thin air to an innocent teenage girl drops the following bomb shell: 1. You're get pregnant outside of marriage. 2. God Himself is going to cause this to happen. 3. Your Baby is going to be God's but He doesn't f...
Read more