THE LORD SPOKE (June 26)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: II Chronicles 9-10

Moses warned the people against a king who would act inappropriately and drag down the nation (Deut. 17:16) in three specific areas. He would:

• "acquire great numbers of horses"
• "take many wives"
• "accumulate large amounts of silver and gold"

Solomon's record is painfully on target:

• II Chron. 9:25, 28 - "Solomon had 12,000 horses...imported from Egypt and from all other countries"
• I Ki. 11:3 - "he had 700 wives...and 300 concubines"
• II Chron. 9:13-20 - "the weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was [25 tons]...[and] silver was considered of little value"

How could someone who started so right go so wrong?? How? Solomon nurtured a love for dominating everything and everybody throughout his entire life. His wealth and place in life gave him a position in which he was always in the front, the object of deference and respect from all others. He had total liberty in devising and shaping policy and it went to his head. Read Ecclesiastes! He had the means to try every possible avenue of human experience and, in doing so, he missed the road to genuine, sustained, spiritual growth. His soul withered. He stooped to the lowest imaginable extremities and was accountable to no one.

Thankfully, it does appear that Solomon came back to his spiritual senses before dying. The chronicler doesn't tell us anything about this but some of Solomon's last written words were, "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.... Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man..." (Eccl. 12:1, 13). Jesus said, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." We may not be anywhere near as rich but, like Solomon, we will ultimately be judged not so much for how we used our resources but for what we didn't do that we could have done with them. That's why it's of no value to compare your output with someone else's. The standard of judgment will be different. It will examine what you could have done for the Lord with what you have. He has given you abilities and resources to use for His glory. How well do you rate on that scale?


New Testament: Philippians 3

He went from being self-centered to being centered in Christ. Paul’s pilgrimage began on the road to Damascus though most would have thought him a spiritual man long before that. To be sure, he was on a religious journey but it was in the wrong direction. He describes that in Philippians 3:5-6.

But he came to recognize that it was a “righteousness of [his] own” (Phil. 3:9). Though he could say it was “faultless” (Phil. 3:6b), he also had to say it was extremely shallow. The trajectory would never reach up to God. He needed more than a transfusion; he need a transformation. And he found that in Christ.

It means “sharing in His sufferings” and “becoming like Him in death” but that only turned out to be greater gain. In fact, everything that Paul had previously thought of as most valuable and important was really only “rubbish” (Phil. 3:8). It was the pursuit of Christ that put him on a different plain.

Switching to athletic imagery, Paul likened it to a race. Fixing his eye on the goal, he began his kick. At sprint speed he pressed forward to the finish line, not looking aside or back (“forgetting what is behind”). What was/is the goal? It is our “citizenship in heaven and the moment when, through resurrection, Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:2-21). We eagerly await the resurrection from the dead. This is “the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

Twice Paul speaks of the awesome power that will bring this about. In vs. 10 he expresses his desire to know/experience “the power of his [Christ’s] resurrection” and again in vs. 21 he anticipates the power that “will transform our lowly bodies” to be like His. This will be the greatest “rush” known or knowable to man. What Hemmingway and others have foolishly sought in their own power, is promised to every believer. “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”