9/29/11
Today, the queen of sheba visits solomon, we see into the heart of the king, and finally, witness his demise... women... over 1,000 of them! Buckle up...
1 kings 10-11
Chapter 10 starts out with - upon hearing great rumors of solomon and his great wisdom as well as the many great things he owned (both gifts of the lord as a result of his lovely prayer for a discerning heart) - the queen of sheba coming for a visit.. oh ya, she brought 4.5 tons of gold with her as a gift to the host.. a bottle of wine wasn’t enough? maybe a flower? ha. Anyway, she see’s his wisdom, and says it is twice what the rumors told of... this guy was wiiise! In verse 24 it says "the WHOLE WORLD sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart." Wow... oh, and "all of them who came brought a gift - articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules." These people knew the value of the wisdom which dripped from his lips. Is it really that surprising though? I mean, the one blessing the lord gave specifically to solomon... the one thing he gave him was a new heart! “a wise and discerning heart” to be exact. I can’t imagine how wise he must have been... oh wait, ya I can! He wrote two of my other favorite books in the old testament, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs! Men... picture the scene.. I like to read Ecclesiastes and imagine solomon, eighty somethin years old, all gray headed just sittin there in what was probably an uncomfortably large leather chair next to a huge fire place... maybe coat made of wolf fur over his shoulders, who knows. Point being, this guy is an oldy sharing his wisdom.. dream mentor... and we learn today the source of that wisdom & how valuable people believed it to be.
It’s important the setup in chapter 10, learning the value of his wisdom, because in the next chapter, what it takes to break through that amount of wisdom is, well, lots of women... like a thousand of em. It says in 11:1 “solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharoh’s daughter (his wife).’ These women were from nations that earlier the lord had specifically told the people of israel, solomon included, “you must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” And this guy, man, its funny even as I type it thinking of this many women, but he had over 700 wives, and 300 concubines! Ha!
So, scripture tells me here (the spirit tells me here...) that it’s not the wives or the concubines that were the issue in and of themselves. It was the potential of them to mislead this man, and turn his heart from his God. In solomon’s case, it wasn’t until he grew old (v4) that they were able to turn his heart to other Gods... his wise and discerning heart was strong. So I want to explore a tangent, but the chapter ends with - because his heart is now turned to other gods in his old age - the lord bringing two adversaries against him, the taking away of his kingdom from his son (but not from him, because of the promise God is keeping with David!), and then his death.
So you have these women... Solomon's reign is being torn... dang.
It’s been a fresh subject. I’ve shared stories with several close friends lately who I share a similar past with. The story is this:
Guy grows deeper in the Spirit... Guy gets good tastes of the love that comes from being near Him... meet amazing woman with a heart for the lord... grow deep together, and "in love" for the first time becomes something that needs not, or cannot be explained (finally)... make plans with this woman... *** ... considering the lords calling on a man and how to treat a woman, eventually break physical boundaries, because "it's natural, comfortable, ___???___"... physical relationship crowds out richness of spiritual & emotional relationship... “we need time...”... relationship ends... comfortable encounters linger... the temptation remains... girl suffers more than guy...
Cool story huh? Ya, maybe if your name is Screwtape... Oh ya, the *** is where him and his minions decide to join the party..
Wormwood and his cohorts have devised a pretty good strategy, no? .. (and this is just one of soo many.. women have a whole other box reserved for them, enticing them away from their creator). I wonder how many young men “they” have pulled this card on and ruined a good thing? And the thing is, it’s not the women’s fault at all... just like solomon, it’s the turning of the heart from god that makes god angry. It’s just the fact of the matter that if we had loved them as christ loved the church (Eph 5:25), they would grow in confidence, in beauty, in nobility... but we fail in loving, in honoring, in being steadfast... which leads to infection... which leads to the eventual victory for wormwood.
Solomon, it took a thousand women. David too, his one slip up was lusting after, sleeping with, killing the husband of, and impregnating a woman.. what, thats it?? ha (scripture tells that he almost had another, but was stopped by a strong, beautiful woman, and so he married her! I’ll tell that one later... lesson learned:)). God took that child.. took it home, to Him... it became sick, and died. David’s response? Worship (my favorite passage on how to mourn/worship well).
Solomon and his wisdom - the same wisdom people would come from all corners of the earth bearing gifts just to get a seat in the audience for - that wisdom was his gift from God, a wise and discerning heart... it's essentially hearing God's wisdom, which is what we seek... and he had it always, and so did others who heard him share. This was given him, and many other beautiful things, because he already had a heart soaked, dripping with affection for his Lord and his prayer revealed this purity.
So, today i pray to learn to love my God in this way, to where the things i desire are pleasing in his eyes, that he may gift me with beautiful things pleasing to him. Let us learn from eachothers experiences, give us wisdom to see in advance the strategies of the great Screwtape, and come to you lord for strength. Lord, keep our hearts turned towards you, so they might grow warm in the fruits of your spirit. Turned towards, but still seperated from... we thank you for the gift of your spirit which is always near, whether or not we realize or accept it (jn1:5).. lead on spirit!
Today, the queen of sheba visits solomon, we see into the heart of the king, and finally, witness his demise... women... over 1,000 of them! Buckle up...
1 kings 10-11
Chapter 10 starts out with - upon hearing great rumors of solomon and his great wisdom as well as the many great things he owned (both gifts of the lord as a result of his lovely prayer for a discerning heart) - the queen of sheba coming for a visit.. oh ya, she brought 4.5 tons of gold with her as a gift to the host.. a bottle of wine wasn’t enough? maybe a flower? ha. Anyway, she see’s his wisdom, and says it is twice what the rumors told of... this guy was wiiise! In verse 24 it says "the WHOLE WORLD sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart." Wow... oh, and "all of them who came brought a gift - articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules." These people knew the value of the wisdom which dripped from his lips. Is it really that surprising though? I mean, the one blessing the lord gave specifically to solomon... the one thing he gave him was a new heart! “a wise and discerning heart” to be exact. I can’t imagine how wise he must have been... oh wait, ya I can! He wrote two of my other favorite books in the old testament, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs! Men... picture the scene.. I like to read Ecclesiastes and imagine solomon, eighty somethin years old, all gray headed just sittin there in what was probably an uncomfortably large leather chair next to a huge fire place... maybe coat made of wolf fur over his shoulders, who knows. Point being, this guy is an oldy sharing his wisdom.. dream mentor... and we learn today the source of that wisdom & how valuable people believed it to be.
It’s important the setup in chapter 10, learning the value of his wisdom, because in the next chapter, what it takes to break through that amount of wisdom is, well, lots of women... like a thousand of em. It says in 11:1 “solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharoh’s daughter (his wife).’ These women were from nations that earlier the lord had specifically told the people of israel, solomon included, “you must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” And this guy, man, its funny even as I type it thinking of this many women, but he had over 700 wives, and 300 concubines! Ha!
So, scripture tells me here (the spirit tells me here...) that it’s not the wives or the concubines that were the issue in and of themselves. It was the potential of them to mislead this man, and turn his heart from his God. In solomon’s case, it wasn’t until he grew old (v4) that they were able to turn his heart to other Gods... his wise and discerning heart was strong. So I want to explore a tangent, but the chapter ends with - because his heart is now turned to other gods in his old age - the lord bringing two adversaries against him, the taking away of his kingdom from his son (but not from him, because of the promise God is keeping with David!), and then his death.
So you have these women... Solomon's reign is being torn... dang.
It’s been a fresh subject. I’ve shared stories with several close friends lately who I share a similar past with. The story is this:
Guy grows deeper in the Spirit... Guy gets good tastes of the love that comes from being near Him... meet amazing woman with a heart for the lord... grow deep together, and "in love" for the first time becomes something that needs not, or cannot be explained (finally)... make plans with this woman... *** ... considering the lords calling on a man and how to treat a woman, eventually break physical boundaries, because "it's natural, comfortable, ___???___"... physical relationship crowds out richness of spiritual & emotional relationship... “we need time...”... relationship ends... comfortable encounters linger... the temptation remains... girl suffers more than guy...
Cool story huh? Ya, maybe if your name is Screwtape... Oh ya, the *** is where him and his minions decide to join the party..
Wormwood and his cohorts have devised a pretty good strategy, no? .. (and this is just one of soo many.. women have a whole other box reserved for them, enticing them away from their creator). I wonder how many young men “they” have pulled this card on and ruined a good thing? And the thing is, it’s not the women’s fault at all... just like solomon, it’s the turning of the heart from god that makes god angry. It’s just the fact of the matter that if we had loved them as christ loved the church (Eph 5:25), they would grow in confidence, in beauty, in nobility... but we fail in loving, in honoring, in being steadfast... which leads to infection... which leads to the eventual victory for wormwood.
Solomon, it took a thousand women. David too, his one slip up was lusting after, sleeping with, killing the husband of, and impregnating a woman.. what, thats it?? ha (scripture tells that he almost had another, but was stopped by a strong, beautiful woman, and so he married her! I’ll tell that one later... lesson learned:)). God took that child.. took it home, to Him... it became sick, and died. David’s response? Worship (my favorite passage on how to mourn/worship well).
Solomon and his wisdom - the same wisdom people would come from all corners of the earth bearing gifts just to get a seat in the audience for - that wisdom was his gift from God, a wise and discerning heart... it's essentially hearing God's wisdom, which is what we seek... and he had it always, and so did others who heard him share. This was given him, and many other beautiful things, because he already had a heart soaked, dripping with affection for his Lord and his prayer revealed this purity.
So, today i pray to learn to love my God in this way, to where the things i desire are pleasing in his eyes, that he may gift me with beautiful things pleasing to him. Let us learn from eachothers experiences, give us wisdom to see in advance the strategies of the great Screwtape, and come to you lord for strength. Lord, keep our hearts turned towards you, so they might grow warm in the fruits of your spirit. Turned towards, but still seperated from... we thank you for the gift of your spirit which is always near, whether or not we realize or accept it (jn1:5).. lead on spirit!
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