Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Authority
- Authority: Our calling. This comes from God as king. Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
This
passage opens with God’s response to Solomon.
Even after all that happened in the last few chapters – God still feels
it necessary to remind Solomon that what is important is obedience to His
ways. God isn’t impressed with the
lavish sacrifices and the opulent building.
He is impressed by a contrite heart – something which Solomon has yet to
demonstrate giving.
I think
that at this time it is fair to ask where Solomon considers authority to come
from. If Solomon truly thought authority
was coming from God, why would God always have to remind Solomon about the
right way to do things? If Solomon was
truly getting his authority from God, we should see more of what we see between
God and David rather than God’s consistent reminder about what it takes to
really please Him.
In fact,
let’s look at what we see in the end of this chapter with respect to
authority. Solomon makes a pact with
Hiram. Then we hear Solomon making a
pact with Pharaoh and taking his daughter to dwell among the Hebrew people. We hear about other pacts made by Solomon. Solomon isn’t deriving his authority from
God. Solomon is using human political
maneuvering to gain authority.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment