A message to all the agnostics out there and maybe the Christians/Catholics who don’t like reading the Old Testament: The First Installment of Kings is long and extremely repetitive. My wife said it best, “I’ll let you read it all (old testament) and then I'll just read your blog, so I won’t have to waist my time.” So that’s what it’s come down to, huh? Well in this instant, I would say she just might be right. I now understand why I know so many religious people who can’t tell me anything about the Old Testament, it sometimes does fell like a big waist of time. About 3 hours and 23 minutes. If you count, research time spent looking up unexplained words, history and places. However, like every great excavation you spend so much time in what seems like a futile search, before you make that one golden discover. And for all those who haven’t read it, I stand here as a witness to tell you that there is buried treasure within the pages of 1 Kings.
The arcing theme throughout the entire story is to use your own heart or discernment when it comes to following God. In the first few chapters of 1 Kings (1-6, 8) we read about King Solomon and how the wisdom bestowed on to him by God brought him great discernment as well as great wealth. With this wealth, he built the first temple for God, that God actually approved of and dwelled in. However, as the multitude of people from many nations flocked to seek counsel from Solomon’s great wisdom, he himself began to ignore God’s word and his covenants. Solomon began to bed women whom God warned him to stay away from, which lead him to worship other God’s and build statues in their image. And as you can guess, this pissed God off and He in turn ended the reign of Solomon’s greatness.
What is important to know about this story is that unlike many other Kings, who had only the words of their advisers or priest to tell them what God said, Solomon was able to see and speak directly to God (1 Kings 3:5 and 9:2). Therefore, Solomon unlike many Kings knew God personally and still he chose, under the influence of others, to worship false idols.
Well, in today’s society we have so many people who claim to have a direct line with God, so many in fact that even the thought of asking, “What does God expect?” can be overwhelming. Every preacher or “holy man” out there can have a different answer for you. You can read the Bible, Quran, Torah, and many other religious guides and still not find the perfect answer. However, what I found in this story shines a great example on where to go to find the right answer… turn inward to pray. However, not the falsity of sitting in a dark room with a man you call father, but the true one on one connection granted to Solomon, when he was in his time of great need. I do believe that God is willing to talk to us if we are willing to listen. If we can quiet our minds and just focus on our on direct personal connection with the Creator, then we will hear the words that are right for us.
Another great example of this comes in the story of a mysterious man with no name, identified only as “A man of God” (1 Kings 13). He comes from Judah to warn King Jeroboam against making offerings at the false alter. The “man of God” is told by God to not eat or drink anything while in the king’s kingdom, so when the king offers him refreshments he declines. However, when one of the king’s prophets says to him “I am also a prophet and God has told me you must come and eat and drink with me”, the man of God foolishly follows him. Therefore, when he disobeys God’s word by eating the prophet’s food, a lion kills the “man of God” that very same day.
The word of God is a tricky thing, but the message he speaks to you is clear. Hold on to that over all else and follow it. Let know man, prophet, book, movie, or website tell you something that is false to what your own heart is telling you. If God dwells inside us He must speak to us from the inside, those gut feelings, that tiny voice, or in Solomon’s case that dream. And when you hear it, hold fast to it and let know one deceive you from following your covenant with God.
Today I will pray for discernment in all that I read and all that I say.
See, here's another one of those things that nobody wants to discuss:
ReplyDeleteIf God made us in his image, he's flawed, not just a "mysterious way" guy.
If God gave us autonomy, why would HE punish us and not just let our actions have their repercussions.
If God is essentially our "great parent" (because he loves us unendingly but will still punish us and do things we don't understand), then why don't we treat our biological parents with the same reverence? The Native Americans do, and that makes far more sense. Sure, there's that whole "spark of life" that you can attribute to God if you want, but if your parents never got together in the first place, you wouldn't be here to have a God to pray to. Nor was it "God's will" for you to be born because he gave humans autonomy over their lives, remember.
Plus, this is a book. It was written by people. I once again go back and claim that Ovid's Metamorphoses is just as accurate as the Bible. Plus, cooler stories.
Matt, I like this idea of what you're saying. However, I do believe that it is possible to have autonomy of your life, and still be punished for your actions. Even in a biological parenting stand point, I think we allow are children to make their own decisions but we do warn them of the consequences that might happen.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes the repercussions of our actions aren't brought on to us by our parents but by other outside forces like, the law or some random guy who wants to exact revenge. Now just like God, our parents may or may not be the arbitrator of our punishment. But they are they're to set up guidelines on how to act in life.
I would have to say that I do treat my parents with the same reverence as God. I have always tried to be respectful of my parents, but much like my relationship with God we have had our ups and downs. But in the end it is always the love that we share that keeps me eternal connected to them. My mother was part Native American and Ghanaian, so the mentality of treating your parents with the same respect and love, as you would the "Great Spirit", is something that we believe in.
But you are right, the bible is only a book. And like any book it can contain messages of great wisdom or endless tedious useless babble. I have never read Ovid's Metamorphoses, but on your recommendation I will and I hope it's much shorter and concise in it's message.
By the way, I got my first spiritual connection from watching "Nightmare on Elm St.", so even though a book (or a movie, in my case) may be written by man, I never rule out the Great Spirit's ability connect with you through the material.