One Year Bible Wednesday June 8th "God Grants Solomon Great Wisdom and Prosperity" "The Apostles Delegate Work to the Deacons"
Solomon had a dream in which God asked him what he wanted. Solomon asked for wisdom, which pleased God greatly. God not only granted Solomon wisdom, but also riches and fame greater than anyone in the world.
Solomon Judges Wisely
The chapter gives us a quick story on how Solomon used God's wisdom to make decisions. Two prostitutes had a baby within a few days of each other. One of the babies died, so the grieving mother took the other child, lied, and said the mother had rolled over on the baby during the night. So an argument ensued about what woman was the mother of the son.
Solomon used quite an unusual method to discern who the real mom was. He had the boy brought to him and threatened to saw the boy in half and give one half to each mother. But the real mom cared so much about the boy, she told the king to give the son to her adversary. The other woman didn't protest, so it was clear to Solomon that the woman who was willing to give up her son, so he could live was the real mom. Everyone marveled at Solomon's great wisdom.
Solomon's Officials and Governors
The first 19 verses of chapter 4 give a detailed account of Solomon's many high officers and district governors.
Solomon’s great wisdom, this chapter also shows Solomon’s wisdom. The wise way he selected, trained, empowered, and supervised leaders is clearly seen. Solomon was a leader of leaders. No wise leader does it all themselves. They know how to delegate responsibility and authority and get the job done. Solomon’s great wisdom enabled him to see the needs to get, train, and employ the right people to meet those needs.- Guzik
Solomon’s Prosperity and Wisdom
We see the material prosperity of Solomon, as he ruled over the vast areas of land around Israel, was given massive amounts of food that came into the king's palace, and owned 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses and 12.000 other horses.
The reign of Solomon was a golden age for Israel as a kingdom. The population grew robustly and it was a season of great prosperity, allowing plenty of leisure time and pursuit of good pleasures. Guzik
Solomon was also highly gifted in many subjects of academia like science, biology and ecology. In addition, he was a prolific writer of proverbs and songs. Kings of every nation came to Solomon just to listen to his wisdom.
In the glory years of Solomon’s kingdom, he used the great wisdom God gave. Sadly, he did not always use this wisdom, and later fell away from his devotion and worship of God (1 Kings 11:1-11).Guzik
Have you been given great natural abilities, wisdom, or material resources? Are you using them to glorify God? If you have, you have been blessed by God, and you will receive even greater blessing if you use what God has given you to bless others.
Seven Men Chosen to Serve
Similar to Solomon's wisdom, the first apostles realized they could not do everything, so they delegated tasks like feeding the Greek speaking widows to 7 men. They called these men and appointed and called them deacons. The word deacon means "servant", and many churches elect people as deacons or deaconesses in the church today to do many of the tasks in and around the church.
Pastors are blessed if they have many volunteers around them that can do many of the ministries of the church. They could not possibly do all of them unless they were to neglect their other pastoral duties of teaching, preaching, and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Not only will the pastor get burned out, but the people won't exercise their God given gifts as part of their being a disciple of Christ.
Nicky Gumbel, who started the Alpha Course in London, likened it a football game where there are 22 men on the field badly needing a rest, being watched by 22,000 people badly in need of exercise.
Stephen Is Arrested
The deacons were also filled with the Holy Spirit and did miraculous signs and wonders like the apostles. Stephen was a deacon and some of the Jews in from foreign cultures were so jealous of him. They had tried to debate him and lost because of the wisdom the Holy Spirit given Stephen. So they became jealous and started spreading rumors that Stephen was blaspheming Moses. This aroused the ire of the Jewish leaders, and Stephen was brought before the council to defend himself.
Lying witnesses accused Stephen of claiming Jesus was going to destroy the temple and other falsehoods about teaching against the Jewish laws. But when they looked at Stephen his face was shining as bright as the sun (Son)!
Stephen’s face did not have that mild, soft, angelic look that we see in so many paintings; nor was it a look of stern judgment and wrath. Instead, his face reflected the perfect peace and confidence of one that knows and trusts his God. His face had the same reflected glory that Moses had as he beheld God intimately.
“The description is of a person who is close to God and reflects some of His glory as a result of being in his presence (Exodus 34:29ff).” (Marshall) The face of an angel also means that Stephen was at perfect peace. His face was not filled with fear or terror, because he knew his life was in God’s hands and that Jesus never forsakes His people. Guzik
When you are accused falsely or belittled for your faith in Jesus, do you react defensively or allow God to shine through you, like he did with Stephen? It is God who will justify your cause so you don't have to. It is an honor to stand up for the Lord and He will give us great peace when we do so.
Comments
Post a Comment