Do Not Abandon the Word of the Lord! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 13:16-19,

"The man of God said, 'I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: "You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came."' The old prophet answered, 'I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: "Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water."' (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house."

A young prophet was sent to tell King Jeroboam of God's judgment because he was engaging in what I will refer to as "religious malpractice." Something that goes on all the time, everywhere in our day.

When he was sent, the Lord told the young prophet not to stay, eat, drink where he was being sent, or to return home the same way he came.

Leave it up to an older, wiser, practitioner of "religious malpractice" to lead the young prophet astray! With the reassuring words "I too am a prophet..." an older man (we are told he was "a certain old prophet living in Bethel") led the younger man astray by convincing him to return to the old man's home to eat and drink.

We find the old prophet lying to the young prophet, "'I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house."

After the young prophet went to the old man's home, the old prophet received a real prophetic message from the Lord for the young prophet, "You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you."

It cost the young prophet his life. A lion killed him as he left for home.

When we have received truth from the Lord, do not stray from it! Countless are the religious leaders who would lead us all astray! I'm not a prophet and I don't receive special prophetic messages from the Lord. But he has provided me a wealth of direction from his word. He had the Bible written for our benefit, that we might understand and know him, that we might understand what he is like, what he has done in the past, what he is doing today, what is to come in the future, what his agenda is.

We turn from that to follow others at our own peril! Woe to the man who abandons the word of the Lord to follow someone else- including those who claim to speak for the Lord!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Lord Uses Our Own Foolishness Against Us - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 12:8,

"Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him."

As the son of King Solomon, Rehoboam ascended to the throne in Israel following his father's death. However, we read that the Lord sent a prophet to Jeroboam, a man who had rebelled against King Solomon, to tell him the Lord was going to take the ten northern tribes of Israel from Solomon's house and give them to Jeroboam to rule. Due to the sinful direction Israel had taken, it would now become a divided nation.

The way the Lord carried this out was he simply used Rehoboam's own foolishness against him. Upon his assumption of the throne, Rehoboam wisely consulted his father's counselors, but unwisely rejected their counsel. Instead, he chose to pursue the counsel of "young men who had grown up with him". The outcome was predictably disastrous. Consulting one's own inner circle never provides anything beyond what already resides in that inner circle, nullifying any help or advantage consulting advisers might provide.

The response of the Israelites to the direction Rehoboam took was, "When all Israel saw that the king [Rehoboam] refused to listen to them, they answered the king: 'What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!' So the Israelites went home." 1 Kings 12:16.

We read in Proverbs 12:15, "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice." Implied in that proverb is that a wise person will listen to wise advice, but fools don't know what to listen to. This is what makes them fools, and Rehoboam was a fool. Given the father Rehoboam had in Solomon, the wisest man that had ever lived, how corrupt this man Rehoboam must have been to lack the ability (or possibly the desire) to listen to wise advice. Quite possibly Proverbs 14:15 might fit here, "The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps." It is evident Rehoboam either didn't care or just did not have a clue. Either way, the Lord used the foolishness bound up in the heart of Rehoboam to take ten of Israel's tribes away from him.

The Lord's use of a person's corruption (or a people's corruption) to bring about what he intends to accomplish is a theme often seen in Scripture's accounts of the Lord's devastating judgments. While the Lord certainly could have divided the nation through other means, this is how he did it.

I suspect we can assume the Lord still operates in just this very way, both with individuals as well as with nations.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Challenge Within Our Hearts - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 11:6,

"So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done."

Solomon's father, David, had given him this counsel, "'I am about to go the way of all the earth,' he said. 'So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: "If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel."'" 1 Kings 2:2-4.

Solomon's start as king over God's covenant people was remarkable. We read in 1 Kings 3:3, "Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except..." It is within those exceptions where the trouble resides!

We see that the Lord blessed Solomon, "God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else..." 1 Kings 4:29-31. We also read in 1 Kings 10:23-24, "King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart."

However, the Lord warned 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." 1 Kings 6:12-13. Also, "As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel. But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble." 1 Kings 9:4-8.

In spite of the Lord's warning to Solomon, we read in 1 Kings 11:6, "Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done." The evil Solomon pursued was represented in the hundreds of women Solomon had taken for himself. "As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites." Verses 4-5.

Such is the depravity of the human heart. With the very best of the Lord's blessings, wisdom beyond any other, riches and fame beyond any other, there was no blessing the Lord could provide King Solomon to keep his heart where it needed to be - on him. As we read in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of why we see the Lord inaugurate a "new" covenant. Where the first covenant with the people of Israel was to show to them how sinful they were (thus needing a savior with God's judgment looming), by providing commandments that no one kept, ("no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin" Romans 3:20), the new covenant brings an inner change to those who embrace the Lord in faith.

This new covenant provides something unseen before, "'This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.'" Jeremiah 31:33.

The way the Lord writes his laws in our minds and on our hearts today is through the Holy Spirit that comes and takes up residence in our lives when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith. This is seen in passages such as 1 John 3:9, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God."

The new birth brings about the Holy Spirit indwelling our lives such that where God's greatest blessings (even as great as the blessings given Solomon) are unable to bring about a lasting inner change - the Holy Spirit does.

The accounts provided us in Israel's history helps us understand the Lord's workings in our lives today!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

On Being Blessed - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 10:23,

"King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth."

Solomon was incredibly blessed with the world's riches, pleasures, wisdom and fame. I suspect no one has ever lived a life of such opulence. Riches, fame and fortune hardly begin to describe the life of Solomon.

While we might view King Solomon as someone who experienced the very best anyone could possibly hope for, wish for, fantasize about in this life, we may want to take a closer look. Riches, fame and fortune were not all Solomon possessed. He also possessed a wisdom from the Lord that was without equal. Without equal in his day and without equal up to and since his day. Where we have advancements in technology, the best and brightest in our day could not hold a candle to King Solomon's wisdom.

Solomon knew the Lord. He had given his heart to the Lord in a way seldom seen in the Scriptures. Certainly, aside from his father, King David, no other king in Israel came close to harboring a passion and desire for the Lord than King Solomon. When asked of the Lord, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you.", 1 Kings 3:5, Solomon asked for those things that pleased the Lord. Solomon did not ask for the riches, fame and fortune that eventually came his way. He acknowledged the Lord's kindness to his father, David, and he expressed a humility before the Lord, "I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties." 1 Kings 3:7. It was this that concerned Solomon. He wanted to excel in serving the Lord with a wisdom he knew he needed, "Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" Verses 8-9. The Lord granted that to him. He also gave Solomon what he did not ask for, but many of us might have asked for (were the Lord to approach us) - the riches, fame and fortune that eventually came his way.

Many today feel if they could just win the lottery, their life would be satisfying. Many today feel if they could just get that promotion at work, that pretty girl for a wife, that advanced degree in this or that, their life would be satisfying. Solomon did not ask for those things. He asked for those things that would equip him to carry out the Lord's desires among his people.

I recall an interview with the late George Harrison, who observed that he was very blessed to be a part of a music group, the Beatles. He said the blessing was that at a young age, early twenties, he and his band members learned that fortune and fame was not "it". "It" being satisfaction, fulfillment in life. Unfortunately, many of us have never had an opportunity to learn this for ourselves and so we mistakenly and blindly pursue that which won't provide our true heart's desires (a pursuit most all of us will fail at in any event) - satisfaction and fulfillment in life.

There are only a few in life that attain to what we mistakenly view as that which brings happiness in life. There are relatively few who possess the riches, the fame and the fortune (and none more than King Solomon) the rest of us think will bring us happiness and fulfillment in life. Those who have attained it report back to the rest of us that we are mistaken in thinking happiness and fulfillment in life is found in these things.

There is one entire book in the Scriptures that is devoted to George Harrison's observation in life. It is written by King Solomon himself. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that what we think will bring us happiness is really an emptiness. Vanity of vanities!

What brought King Solomon happiness and fulfillment was his desire to do a good job at leading the Lord's covenant people. We might also observe that along that route, in his devotion to the Lord, he was provided these other things as well, riches and fame and the wisdom to know where to pursue his happiness.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Delegated Outcomes - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 9:4-7,

"As for you [Solomon], if you walk before me [the Lord] faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.' But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name."

Following King Solomon's completion of the temple of the Lord and his building of the royal palace, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time. In his words to Solomon, the Lord laid on the Israelite's shoulders the responsibility of determining their own outcomes: if they remained true to the Lord they would be blessed by him, but if they turned from the Lord, the Lord would cut them off.

This delegation of assigned outcomes makes some who hold a certain theological perspective very uneasy. Unable to understand that a sovereign person can delegate the fortunes or outcomes to those under them based on their performance and still remain sovereign, they feel what we read in this chapter to be an outrageous challenge to the notion of the supremacy, the sovereignty of the Lord. So, back at their theological desks, they invent convoluted explanations in an attempt to make the Scriptures say what they don't. In this instance, they explain to us, we are to interpolate between the lines that the Lord will determine what the Israelites do and therefore determine what the outcome will be for the Israelites.

What we read in the history of Israel, is that they will, in fact, turn their back on the Lord and eventually lose the promised land, with the temple Solomon built destroyed, along with Jerusalem, and a small remnant carried off to Babylon - the remainder slaughtered.

I reject any notion that the Lord does not engage any of us in determining our own outcomes with him. While I do recognize it is the Lord to whom we must give an account of ourselves, and it is the Lord who will either bless us or judge us, based on what we choose to do, nevertheless, the Lord has left it up to each and every person to determine where they will end up in the resurrection. 

This is the simple message of all the Scriptures - none more clear than right here in this chapter of 1 Kings.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Adorning the Temple - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 7:48-50,

"Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the Lord's temple: the golden altar; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary); the gold floral work and lamps and tongs; the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple."

This list of furnishings for the temple is only a partial inventory of all that was made and provided the temple by Solomon. Huram, a highly skilled craftsman from Tyre, created all kinds of things for Solomon for the temple. In verses 41-45 we read of what he created, "the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars); the ten stands with their ten basins; the Sea and the twelve bulls under it; the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls."

The temple of the Lord that Solomon built was well appointed with the most exquisite and artful furnishings that could be had anywhere. No expense spared and no talent, no skill and no experience spared in the building of it.

I note that the Lord is building his temple today. All who embrace Jesus Christ in faith become a part of this temple within which the Lord lives through his Spirit. Again, I am reminded of Peter's words, "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ... you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:4-10.

As God builds his "spiritual house", his temple, he is furnishing it with the most precious of furnishings, furnishings artfully and skillfully created to suit his perfect purposes. Since his is making a temple of us within which he abides through the Holy Spirit, he does a magnificent work in each of our lives to appoint his temple with only the best of things. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23.

Among the purposes of transforming us, the fruit of his Spirit, is that we might "serve one another humbly in love", Galatians 5:13. Peter instructs us to use what the Lord has done in our lives (those things he has done to adorn his temple…), "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:8-10.

Just as Solomon equipped the temple with the very best of things to provide an abode for the Lord and a facility within which to worship him, so the Lord does likewise in his work within us today!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The Temple Completion - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 6:1,38,

"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 [Solomon] began to build the temple of the Lord... 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."

These verses which comprise the first and last verse of chapter 6 in First Kings provides us with the time frame of the building of the first temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. To this point in Israel's history, the worship of the Lord in Israel was confined to the tabernacle, the tent built by Moses following the Israelite's exodus from Egypt.

It is the time frame that catches my notice this morning. This first temple, by all accounts a magnificently planned and executed structure, beautiful and well-appointed in every detail, took seven years to complete. We will read in Israel's history that about a half millennium later this temple would be destroyed and another, smaller one would be built as its replacement.

Seven years. Really a remarkable time frame for such a structure. This will be ground zero, the vortex of all things of a godly nature for some time to come. This is where God's people would go at the appointed times for the festivals and feasts in her religious calendar. This is where God's people went to bring their sacrifices and offerings, where they would go to meet with the priests that served in the temple worship, where they would go to pray and worship.

This structure of vital importance to God's covenant people took time to complete. Although the seven year time frame is amazing in itself, it nevertheless took time to build.

I am reminded of another temple - a temple the Lord is building himself. This temple is currently under construction yet today, requiring time to complete in its every aspect. This temple is the earthly temple the Lord occupies today, "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house..." - the temple of the Spirit of God!

This temple, likewise, takes time to build - and the Lord is actively building it. We read in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." We see the Lord, investing time in the building of his spiritual temple. He tarries as he awaits all who will embrace him in faith. He awaits until that very last soul that will comprise the completion of this temple is brought in.

Those of us who are believers await our arrival in the resurrection. We can't wait for this age to come to a close so that we can enter into the next age, into the resurrection when we will live in God's very presence. While we wait, it is not for wait's sake. It is for the sake of the temple the Lord is building: his kingdom, his family, out of all those who embrace him in faith.

Until that very last soul is saved and brought into God's family, we are to wait patiently. We await our hope. We await our Savior. In the meantime we are called to be patient and we are called to endurance. The world hates those who belong to the Lord because the world hates the Lord. We experience the brunt of that (and, by the way, that will never change until this age comes to a close.) We are also called to endure as we abide in this lost and fallen world, vexed and distressed by the sin all about us, vexed by the rebellion, vexed by the unjust treatment this world dispenses. Just as Habakkuk, we look to the Lord to bring the sinful condition all about us to an end.

However, just as Solomon's temple took time to build, so the Lord is taking time to build the temple he abides in today. Be strong, be encouraged, because just as Solomon's temple was completed, so the temple the Lord is making of us will be completed and then the Lord comes for us!

How exciting is that?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Our Training in Godly Wisdom - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 4:29,

"God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore."

Solomon had a heart for the Lord, just as his father, David. When approached by the Lord in a dream, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Solomon asked for those intangible elements that would make him a useful and wise king over God's covenant people, "give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong." 1 Kings 4:9. The Lord gave it to him.

While Solomon is admired for asking the Lord for such a wonderful thing, and, as we see Solomon exercising the wisdom God gave him, Solomon tells us the Lord is offering the same to us, "The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young— let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise." Proverbs 1:1-6.

Solomon's book of Proverbs has as its primary function the wherewithal to train us all in the wisdom the Lord gives! The training begins with, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge... " at the end of the prologue to the book, Proverbs 1:7, and then takes us on the journey to learn the wisdom the Lord provides. It is ours for the taking!

There are thirty-one chapters in the book of Proverbs, one for each day of every month. Why would any believer not want to pursue that wisdom the Lord gave Solomon? Open up that book today and begin your training in godly wisdom! Read the chapter for today's day of the month.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Delayed, but Inevitable Justice - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 2:25,

"King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died."

Adonijah had previously attempted to seize David's throne for himself. The throne was to be Solomon's and when Solomon ascended to the throne he allowed Adonijah to live. Now, however, in this second attempt to wrangle the throne for himself, he tried to trick Solomon into giving David's companion, Abishag, to him. He used Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, to aid in the subterfuge. For Adonijah to take the previous king's woman for himself, it would have seriously imperiled Solomon's rule.

Here is what I see as a new effort on Adonijah's part that deserved his punishment of death. However, it also fulfilled a delayed execution of justice in Solomon's court. This chapter features several of these instances of delayed justice.

Another example of delayed justice was Joab who had earlier killed Abner and Amasa during peacetime (not as a result of war). He had also challenged Solomon's ascension to the throne by placing his support behind Adonijah. David made Solomon promise he would not allow Joab's "gray hair go down to the grave in peace." Verse 6. Joab was put to death at the horns of the altar.

Another example in this chapter is Shimei who had called down curses on David as he escaped his son Absalom, who attempted a coup on his father's kingship. David let Shimei live when he returned to Jerusalem, but now David, at his death, told Solomon to "Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood." Verse 9. After Solomon gave Shimei fair warning not to leave house arrest in Jerusalem, that it would result in his death, Shimei yet again showed disrespect for the house of David by violating King Solomon's edict. Shimei paid for it with his life, in yet another act of both delayed justice as well as justice for current activities. "Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down and he died." Verse 46.

We are told that following the resolution to these acts of justice, "The kingdom was now established in Solomon's hands." 1 Kings 2:46.

I am reminded of another king who will establish his throne at the completion of exercising delayed justice. When Jesus Christ comes at the end of the age, we read, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 'He will rule them with an iron scepter.' He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords."

While we may be vexed with the injustice and lawlessness all about us (as was Habakkuk), it is our job to remain patient and wait for the Lord. He will make all things right in the end - no matter how frustrated we may feel about the things people do and get away with. "Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away." Psalm 37:1-2. Also, "Hope in the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it." Psalm 37:34.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

An Illegitimate Move for the Throne - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my heart and mind in 1 Kings 1:5a,

"Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said,
'I will be king.'"

Adonijah was next in line for David's throne (due to Absalom's death)
according to the custom of the day. It was the oldest surviving son
that typically assumed the throne upon his father's retirement or
death. At this point David is well over seventy years of age and no
longer actively attending the affairs of state.

As God's covenant people, God himself should have been sought for
confirmation for the continuation of the throne in Israel. Leave it up
to a rebellious and wayward people to ignore what God's desires might
have been. The only cause of Israel's very existence was God's
intentions of using his people to carry forward those activities that
would eventuate into God's redemption of all mankind - yet God's
people often did not pursue the Lord's intent.

Mankind is greedy and mankind craves power, influence and fame. Add to
that the forces of darkness who have anything in mind but God's
agenda, and we see an illegitimate pursuit to take the throne.

These events happened over three millenia ago. What has changed in all
that time?

Where sinful man pursues his desires, it is God's purposes that
ultimately prevail... always! This case, as we read through the
chapter, is no exception. There never is an exception, but that
compulsion mankind has results in mankind never learning anything,
even given the opportunities three millenia might provide.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send
me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are
receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just
respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

"Leaning on Her Beloved" - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Song of Songs 8:5,

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?"

As the friends see the lover and his beloved "coming up from the wilderness", they ask the question. It is an observation that the beloved, the woman, is coming up from the "wilderness" while leaning on Solomon. 

This simple picture conjures within my mind the specter of the Lord leading his "bride" (see Revelation 19:7-8) up from the wilderness of this lost and fallen world, estranged from God - separated from him, leading her into everlasting life in the resurrection.

It is a picture of lovers, and not of master/servant. It is a picture of lovers, and not of rabbi/congregant. It is a picture of lovers and not of teacher/student. It is a picture of lovers and not of Creator/creation. While each of the preceding relationships are all accurate depictions of the nature of the relationship between the redeemed and their redeemer, the sight of the beloved coming up out of the wilderness while leaning on her beloved is a picture of love, of desire, of possession.

Perhaps we might find our perspective on our new life in Jesus Christ to be more fully understood and experienced as we witness and embrace this passionate couple within the pages of this amazing song - observing how our new estate within the family of God is represented in this couple.

How tragic it would be to only understand our new life in Jesus Christ to be the formulations of dusty and academically ordained theology! How tragic it would be to only understand our new life in Jesus Christ to be defined by the liturgy, vestments, sacraments and ordinances of organized ecclesiastical organizations! Let us celebrate our new life in Jesus Christ within the terms of passion, of love, of ardent desire - us for our Lord and he for us!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my heart and mind in Song of Songs 7:10,

"I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me."

As believers are given to do, I have understood the need for my own
personal redemption. I knew and recognized the sin in my life and my
unfitness for heaven as I stood without Jesus Christ. With him, of
course, I now sport a breastplate of righteousness and am fully aware
that I am viewed by my God as holy and blameless in his sight,
Ephesians 1:4. I am aware that I now share in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ himself as I have embraced him in faith, I have been made
perfect, I have been made holy, Hebrews 10:14. Not because of anything
I have done but because of his mercy. When Jesus Christ died on that
cross, and the moment I placed my trust and faith in him, I was
redeemed from my empty way of life. It was he who did these things
within me.

People who do not recognize their shortcomings before God do not
realize they are in need of the Savior. Saving is a felt need only by
those who recognize they are imperiled and I certainly was in peril
with God's judgment of me - looming in the future. Having recognized
that need, and having responded to the gospel by embracing Jesus
Christ in faith, I am now acceptable to God.

But that is not the whole story. Due to the sinful nature that dwells
within me that has prompted me to say, do, think and feel things that
are worthy of God's judgment of me, I tend to not think too highly of
myself. I suspect many of us may do. On the one hand that has led to a
healthy humility on my part (something sorely needed by me), but I am
sure it has skewed my understanding of God's desire for me. How could
our Creator God have any desire for someone as me?

While the answer to that may be unfathomable to me, the Scriptures are
loud and clear from every corner as to the desire our Lord has for me,
for each and every one of us!

I am reminded that it was in our lost and fallen state Jesus Christ
came and died on that miserable cross on our behalf. In doing so, he
expressed God's intense desire for us, "For God so loved the world
that he sent his one and only Son..." John 3:16. I am reminded of what
John had to say in his first letter, 4:10, "This is love: not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins."

God's desire is for us! "I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me."

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send
me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are
receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just
respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

"I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine" - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Song of Songs 6:3a,

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine"

As the romance between the lover and his beloved is revealed to us through a variety of expressions of sensual metaphors and similes, the urgency of ardent love is expressed in terms like, "Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers." 1:4. And, "Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me." 2:13b.

The above expression is of that kind. It expresses both the reality as well as the desire of each of the lovers to possess one another, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine".

As we may muse on how our relationship with our Savior may be reflected in this grand love affair of Song of Songs, we find some important aspects illuminated. In this phrase I am reminded of Romans 14:7-8, "For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord." This very important passage speaks of the unbreakable bond between the Lord and those who are his.

No matter what experience we may find ourselves in, whether good or bad, whether exciting or painful, whether happy or bereft of happiness, facing life or facing death, the Lord's people belong to him and he belongs to them. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39.

While many may debate a spurious concept, that somehow we can be separated from the Lord, how comforting to know the reality is, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine"!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com