Building Your Own House - I Kings 6-7 and Luke 20:27-47
As we read about Solomon building the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, it is interesting to understand the details and to visualize how beautiful it must have been. However, God came to Solomon at the very start of the process and told him that He was more interested in Solomon keeping the covenant than building a building. What did Solomon do? Did he put his effort into keeping the covenant or into other things? I believe there is one disturbing fact. Solomon spend almost twice as long building his own houses as he did building God's house. Also, in the process he built a house for his wife, who was Pharaoh's daughter. When I read this, and I don't read about any other indications of what Solomon was doing, it makes me think that his emphasis was on building his own house. His mind was on his own agenda, instead of God's covenant. This is a disturbing reality. How much time and effort do you and I spend on building God's house, or God's kingdom, versus the time we spend building our own house? If we understand the purpose of life, we will be about Our Father's business, and we will be putting His kingdom first, not our own.
Jesus ran into this mindset with the Sadducees and the Scribes. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they tried to build up their view by asking Jesus a difficult question. The problem was that it was not difficult for Jesus. They had missed the point of the Old Testament, because they were busy building their own house. The Scribes were the same way, so Jesus quizzed them about David's statement in the Psalms to get them to see His Lordship. Then, He warned the people not to listen to them. They were into wearing long robes, being seen by people going to worship, and making long insincere prayers. They even stole money from widows. Why did they do these things? They were building their own house. Jesus said they would receive greater condemnation. Why was Jesus hard on them? They should have known better and so should we. Take a while to consider whose house you are building.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 8-9 and Luke 21:1-19.
Jesus ran into this mindset with the Sadducees and the Scribes. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they tried to build up their view by asking Jesus a difficult question. The problem was that it was not difficult for Jesus. They had missed the point of the Old Testament, because they were busy building their own house. The Scribes were the same way, so Jesus quizzed them about David's statement in the Psalms to get them to see His Lordship. Then, He warned the people not to listen to them. They were into wearing long robes, being seen by people going to worship, and making long insincere prayers. They even stole money from widows. Why did they do these things? They were building their own house. Jesus said they would receive greater condemnation. Why was Jesus hard on them? They should have known better and so should we. Take a while to consider whose house you are building.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 8-9 and Luke 21:1-19.