STRENGTH TURNED INSIDE-OUT (2 Chronicles 8)

Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly--whenever a whim took him. (2 Chronicles 8:6)

Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from the City of David to a house built especially for her. "Because," he said, "my wife cannot live in the house of David king of Israel, for the areas in which the Chest has entered are sacred." (2 Chronicles 8:11)

I believe that my weaknesses are my strengths carried to excess.

My ability to focus on writing in excess has led to a lack of physical exercise with fairly bad consequences.

I see the same principle at work here.  Solomon clearly had great skills as an administrator.  He led two detailed building projects (temple and palace) plus a long list of other places.  He made sure the accounts were handled to the penny.

But he was impulsive in his building. In fact, Solomon liked it so much, that he ended up building temples to his wives' gods. Starting with the holy-sounding reason, "I can't let Pharaoh's daughter live in a place which housed the Chest of God."

Sounds good, especially if she made no effort to worship Solomon's God.

But . . . would Solomon's story have ended differently if he had sought to include his wife in worship?  If instead of shutting her away from God, he had introduced her to Him instead?

In his impulsive building decisions, would Solomon have listened to a prophet warning him, "God says no," the way David listened about the temple? (In fact, I find it hard to believe that prophets didn't warn Solomon about building those temples. But that's only supposition, no record kept.)

God has generously given each of us gifts, of personality, and family, work and spiritual gifts, material goods and immaterial blessings.  But they still belong to Him--and perhaps we should check in more often before we get carried away.

LIKE FATHER, NOT LIKE SON (1 Chronicles 22)

You are not the one to honor me by building a sanctuary--you've been responsible for too much killing, too much bloodshed. But you are going to have a son and he will be a quiet and peaceful man. (1 Chronicles 22:7-10)

David wanted to build a temple for God, but God said no, his son would build it instead.

Today's verses led me to think about how different David and Solomon were.  Oh, they had some major traits in common. They both had a heart for God, an almost unhealthy interest in women, and musical/writing ability.

David was a man of bloodshed, and Solomon lived in a time of peace. But the difference relies on more than military conflict. It's also a matter of their personalities.\\

David wore his heart on his sleeve. He danced before the Lord with abandon. He bought the threshing floor where the plague ended with his hand over his heart, "I won't offer something to God that cost me nothing." He grieved his son's death and his friend Jonathan's death deeply.  Whatever David felt, the kingdom knew--that included the times he went to war.

In that sense, Adonijah and Absalom were probably a lot more like David than Solomon ever was. Absalom was furious about what  happened to his sister and let it color his judgment. Perhaps David secretly favored Absalom as his favorite son, because he reminded David of himself. Adonijah had the gumption to make himself king when David was close to death.

While young Solomon waited, not acting--probably realizing the time wasn't right, like David when he was in the caves so many years before.

Instead God chose the son the least like David as the next king. Quiet, peaceful Solomon, the son who would rather negotiate a settlement than fight it ought, who could listen to all sides of an argument and come up with a solution that was fair and best for all. Part of his wisdom was supernaturally, God-enhanced. But by nature he was a lover and not a fighter.

And Solomon knew how to be tough. He followed through on his father's final wishes to get rid of threats. When his son become king, people complained to him on the high taxes and work force required by Solomon. But he didn't usually do the dirty deeds himself.

Of course God's choice of Solomon as king shows His mercy--as He included Tamar and Rahab in Jesus's ancestry, now Bathsheba joins those other shady women. God chose the offspring of the union between David and his one-time-mistress-now-wife as a king.

God chose two wildly different men as the kings of Israel's golden age. Both leaders, both committed to God--but very different.

News flash: God doesn't use a single type of individual to lead or for any needed tasks. Certainly He calls a wide variety of people to write!.

Question: Are you  more of a David or a Solomon? Or someone else?