Bible in 90 Days - Day 25 (1 Kings 7:38-16:20)

God, source of all light,

by your Word give light to our lives. Amen.

We see the heights and the depths of Solomon’s reign. What could be more glorious than the dedication of the temple and the reports of Solomon’s wealth? What could be more heartbreaking than the way Solomon turned away from God? Somehow all that world famous wisdom didn’t protect Solomon from incredible foolishness. (And then I see my finger pointing back at myself.)

As we begin to look at the kings and the downfall of Israel and Judah, I think we would do well to look at two flashbacks to Moses in Deuteronomy:

Deut 12:2-3 “Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains and on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.”

Deut 17:14-20 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”