Fr. Mike reinforces the power of God's presence in the Temple, and the importance of worshipping God the way he desires to be worshipped. We also begin to hear how Solomon starts disobeying God and setting himself up for idolatry. Today's readings are 1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 7-8, and Psalm 66. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of the Bible in a Year podcast?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Chapter 2: What readings are covered on Day 147?
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 147. We're reading from 1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 7 and 8. We're also praying today, Psalm 66. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version.
It's the Second Catholic Edition. And I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe. Very simple, very easy. As I said, it's day 147.
And that means, not only does it mean that we're almost...
to day 150 which means halfway to day 300 which means closer to day 365 but it also means that shortly after this in maybe i would say roughly i don't know let's say give or take seven days from now we're going to be having our second messianic checkpoint in seven days from now so one week from today we're having our second messianic checkpoint with the gospel of mark you would know this if you had downloaded the bible in your reading plan but if you didn't now you do and it is awesome because
We're going to get the chance, just like we did a while back with the gospel of John. We're going to be able to walk through this gospel in the middle of this whole story, right? With Solomon and the temple and Solomon and building things in Solomon's wisdom.
We're going to take a break and we're going to jump ahead to Jesus and see how he is the fulfillment of everything that God has wanted his people to know and not just to know, but to be. Ah, so that's where we're at now, and that's where we're going to be in just a week from today. But as I said, it's day 147. We're reading 1 Kings 5, 2 Chronicles 7 and 8, and Psalm 66.
The first book of Kings, chapter 5. Preparations and materials for the temple. Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David.
And Solomon sent word to Hiram, You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.
And so I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, your son, whom I will set upon your throne in your place, shall build a house for my name. Now, therefore, command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set."
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Chapter 3: How did Solomon prepare for the Temple?
I am ready to do all you desire in the manner of cedar and cypress timber.
my servants shall bring it down to the sea from lebanon and i will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct and i will have them broken up there and you shall receive it and you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household so hiram supplied solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired
while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cores of wheat as food for his household and 20,000 cores of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year, and the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. King Solomon raised a levy of forced labor out of all Israel, and the levy numbered 30,000 men.
And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the levy. Solomon also had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 hewers of stone in the hill country, besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried out the work.
At the king's command, they quarried out great costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gabal did the hewing and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.
The Second Book of Chronicles Chapter 7 The Consecration of the Temple
When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.
When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement and worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord saying, For he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.
So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts. The Levites also with the instruments for music to the Lord, which King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Whenever David offered praises by their ministry. Opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the consecration of the Temple?
But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from the land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
And at this house, which is exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, Why has the Lord done thus to the land and to this house? Then they will say, Because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil upon them.
Chapter eight, Solomon builds many cities. At the end of 20 years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, Solomon rebuilt the cities which Haram had given to him and settled the sons of Israel in them. And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and took it. He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities which he built in Hamath.
He also built upper Beth Haran and lower Beth Haran, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.
all the people who were left of the hittites the amorites the perizzites the hivites and the jebusites who were not of israel from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of israel had not destroyed these solomon made a forced levy and so they are to this day But of the sons of Israel, Solomon made no slaves for his work.
They were soldiers and his officers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. And these were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250 who exercised authority over the people.
Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, My wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy. Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the vestibule, as the duty of each day required.
offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
According to the ordinance of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates. For so David the man of God had commanded."
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Chapter 5: What promises did God make to Solomon?
You have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water. Yet you have brought us forth to a spacious place. I will come into your house with burnt offerings. I will pay you my vows, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams. I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Come and hear all you who fear God and I will tell him what he has done for me. I cried aloud to him. and he was extolled with my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, but truly God has listened.
He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his merciful love from me.
Father in heaven, we give you praise.
You do hear our prayers. God, I mean, every time we talk to you, Lord, you hear our voices. You know the longing of our hearts. You know the depth of our prayer. You also know our distraction. You know how easily we can be distracted from loving you with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our whole strength. You know how easily it is that we are turned aside from you. And so...
We thank you for being able to hear through all the noise, cutting through all of the distraction, cutting through all of the turmoil that our hearts can experience because you know our hearts. You not only know the peace in our hearts, you know the troubled hearts that live in our chests. And so we ask you, please.
Once again, let your ears be open, let your eyes be open to see who we are, to see us truly and to hear our voice and to hear our prayers this day and every day. You make this prayer in Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, okay, this is one of those kind of
moments where, yes, clearly 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles are connected, but they're a little bit disconnected, right? In the sense that they're talking about some of the same things, but we're just on a little bit of a different timeline. Yesterday, we had King David dedicate the great prayer. The temple is dedicated. The Ark of the Lord is there. This is what we're going to be worshiping.
And today in 1 Kings chapter 5, we're back with him getting the cedars and the cypress trees for building the temple. And so it's one of those things where we just kind of remember Oh, that's right. First Kings are a little bit behind Second Chronicles. They're a little bit ahead and they're looking back over this history and recounting what had gone down then.
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Chapter 6: How did Solomon's reign reflect his relationship with God?
And the temple is essential because God's presence would abide there. Absolutely. That's absolutely clear. But it's also essential because that is where the people would offer their worship and And this is just so critical for us. It's so critical for us to understand the importance and the necessity of worshiping God as he has asked us to worship him.
And it's just, so as I said, in 1 Kings 5, preparations for building the temple and Solomon's working with his man Hiram. Hiram was good buddies with King David and he praises the Lord, which is so interesting. Hiram is not a Jew, but he's praising the Lord.
He gives praise to God that David has such a wise son and helps him out with the cedars from Lebanon and everything that he needs with a bunch of people as well to have the labor that goes into building the temple. But then also we have just something interesting, a couple of things interesting about 2 Chronicles 7 and 8. And what are we talking about?
What we're talking about is the fact not only that in the beginning of Chronicles chapter 7, Solomon ends his prayer, fire comes down from heaven, and the glory of the Lord fills the place. So, so, so beautiful and powerful. But also we have... A couple notes in chapter seven, Solomon finishes the house of the Lord and his own house, the King's house. And the Lord appears to Solomon by night.
He appears to him once again in the way that he had appeared to him before saying, ask me anything and I'll give it to you. And this time he doesn't say, you know, what do you want? He says, here's what I need you to know. He says, I need you to know that if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sins.
I'll heal their land. Like I basically here's God saying, whenever you're not faithful, just remember, I am faithful. Turn back to the temple worship. Turn back to this place. Turn back to my presence. Turn back to worship.
turn back to obedience of my commandments and i will hear your prayers and but then he says but as for you and this is so critical as for you if you walk before me as david your father walked doing according to all that i've commanded you keeping the statutes and also saying he says i'll be with you as i was with your father david but if you turn aside and forsake my commandments and statutes and go and serve other gods and worship them then i will pluck you from the land now god is giving king solomon
clear, clear commandment. He's given him wisdom. Solomon knows stuff, right? He's also given him a direct, direct warning saying that just stay faithful to me and stay close to me and I'll be with you. What we know is that Solomon will not. In fact, in chapter eight, what It says, Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her.
He said, my wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord have come are holy. So you think, oh, yeah, no, he's making it separate. He's keeping Pharaoh's daughter away because she's not part of the covenant. She's not part of that covenant.
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