Smarts!

Who wrote the book of Proverbs? Some of the book of Proverbs is attributed to “Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel”

Remember this?

While Solomon was at Gibeon, The LORD came to him at night in a dream. God said, “Solomon, ask me what you want me to give you.” Solomon answered, “You were very kind and loyal to your servant, my father David. He was faithful to you and lived a good, honest life. And you showed him the greatest kindness when you let his son take his place as king. LORD my God, you have made me the king in my father’s place, but I am like a small child. I don’t have the wisdom I need to do what I must do. I am your servant here among your chosen people. There are so many that they cannot be counted. So I ask you to give me the wisdom to rule and judge them well and to help me know the difference between right and wrong. Without such great wisdom, it would be impossible to rule this great nation.” The LORD was happy that Solomon asked for wisdom. So God said to him, “You did not ask for long life and riches for yourself. You did not ask for the death of your enemies. You asked for the wisdom to listen and make the right decisions. So I will give you what you asked for. I will make you wise and intelligent. I will make you wiser than anyone who ever lived or ever will live. And I will also give you what you did not ask for. You will have riches and honor all your life. There will be no other king in the world as great as you. And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws and commands as your father David did.” Solomon woke up and knew that God had spoken to him in the dream. 

1 Kings 3:5-28

We have already shared one judgement that led people to see and understand what king Solomon had been blessed with.

We must not forget what David went through:

David was not safe in Israel since Saul sought to kill him. He thought he would be safer with the enemies, the Philistines. The Bible does not say why David thought he would be safer with the Philistines. Perhaps he thought they would not recognize him as the one who killed Goliath, and that they would welcome him as a wayfaring stranger. The Bible does say that when David arrived in the Philistine town, people recognized him right away. After all, in addition to killing Goliath, David had a reputation for exceptional military prowess.

David became afraid when the Philistines recognized him. Would they imprison him? Kill him? So David pretended to be insane: “pounding his head on the city gate and foaming at the mouth, spit dripping from his beard.” (The Message, I Samuel 21:13) The Philistines wanted nothing to do with him. Achish the king said, “Can’t you see he’s crazy? Why did you let him in here? Don’t you think I have enough crazy people to put up with as it is without adding another? Get him out of here!” (The Message, I Samuel 21:15) And so, David managed to escape.

David, Solomons father was a man of war. He had blood on his hands. To build His temple, God raised Solomon up.

Solomon Builds the Temple

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of The Lord.

The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple extended the width of the temple, that is twenty cubits, and projected ten cubits from the front of the temple. He made narrow windows high up in the temple walls. Against the walls of the main hall and inner sanctuary he built a structure around the building, in which there were side rooms. The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits and the third floor seven. He made offset ledges around the outside of the temple so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls.

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

The entrance to the lowest floor was on the south side of the temple; a stairway led up to the middle level and from there to the third. So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.

The word of the Lord came to Solomon: “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”

So Solomon built the temple and completed it.  He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.

He prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there.  The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty wide and twenty high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold, and he also overlaid the altar of cedar. Solomon covered the inside of the temple with pure gold, and he extended gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, which was overlaid with gold.  So he overlaid the whole interior with gold. He also overlaid with gold the altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.

For the inner sanctuary he made a pair of cherubim out of olive wood, each ten cubits high. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing five cubits—ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.  The second cherub also measured ten cubits, for the two cherubim were identical in size and shape.  The height of each cherub was ten cubits. He placed the cherubim inside the innermost room of the temple, with their wings spread out. The wing of one cherub touched one wall, while the wing of the other touched the other wall, and their wings touched each other in the middle of the room.  He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. He also covered the floors of both the inner and outer rooms of the temple with gold.

For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made doorframes out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings.

And he built the inner courtyard of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams.

The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

In life there are no secrets! Our ways are Known before we are born. We are living a pre-wrirten story. Conscience is a “director” for we are told from within (where we truly are) what is right or wrong.

Your conscience is part of your human psyche (your mind). God created it when he gave you the abilities of self-awareness and rational thinking. Notice that it’s spelled with two words, con and science. … Simply stated, your conscience recalls what you have accepted as right or wrong.

We are all Created for a purpose; pray yours to the forefront of your existence. It is your reason.

https://www.cornerstone.edu/blog-post/what-is-gods-purpose-for-your-life-and-how-to-find-it/