Building The Temple

1 Kings 6:7 reveals an important detail about the construction of the temple Solomon built and dedicated to the Lord: 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. It was to be a holy place, and not to be spoiled even by the sound of hammers and chisels as it was constructed. The stones were prepared far away and brought to the temple to be put into place.

God calls us before Him to worship, but we cannot approach Him in any fashion we choose. Worship that is half-hearted is not worship at all. We can’t enter church on Sunday wishing we were elsewhere, just waiting until we are excused and are able to go out and get our “real” Sunday started. We can’t approach the Lord’s Day with hearts that are bitter because God is taking up so much of our precious time on the weekend. Our hearts must be prepared to properly worship our loving God.

The work of preparing doesn’t begin once we get to church; the preparations must begin “the quarry”- in our homes. True worship comes in setting aside that time for the purpose of humbling ourselves before God, for gathering as the body of Christ in joy and love. It comes in preparing our hearts to be moved by the Word and to do what we can to move others by the way we share with them in the Word. The sounds of the hammers and chisels and iron tools must be heard in the way we live all week long. The blocks must be made ready for use in building upon their arrival at the temple site.

Ask What You Wish Me To Give You

Now Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, "Ask what you wish me to give you."

The temple was still to be built at the time the events in 1 Kings 3:3-5 take place. The people of Israel offered their sacrifices to God, but they sacrificed in places that had been established without God’s blessing. Even wise Solomon, the king, sacrificed in those places. And regardless of how often he sacrificed or how much he offered, God still met with Solomon on His own terms. Instead of appearing to him in the place in which he worshipped, God appeared to Solomon later on, in a dream.

This reminds me of my life before I came to know Christ. At times, I told myself I believed in God. I even prayed. But I was not in the place God had provided for me to worship Him- I was not in Jesus Christ. God came to me, but it was on His terms and it was not until He had taught me that I had nothing in this world, but that I had everything in Heaven. He did not come to me until he had taught me that there was nothing in this world that was going to save me; that my salvation was in Jesus Christ.

In those times before I knew Christ, when I prayed, it was mostly for the purpose of asking God for what I wished Him to give me. It was not until He met me on His terms that He said to me, “Ask what you wish me to give you.”

Too Weak to Stand?

“He bitterly regretted his foolishness, and reproached himself for weakness of will; for he now perceived that in putting on the Ring he obeyed not his own desire but the commanding wish of his enemies. He wondered if he would remain maimed for life, and how they would now manage to continue their journey. He felt too weak to stand.”

With these words from The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien characterizes Frodo Baggins as extremely regretful after using the Ring of Power, an evil artifact that had come into his possession, which his wisest friends had instructed him not to use. For even though the Ring could turn its wearer invisible, and Frodo had been in great need when he’d used it, it’s use opened him up to the device’s insidious will.

What stuck with me about this passage was how similar Frodo’s regret over using the Ring is to a Christian’s regret when he commits sin. We know that to pursue the temptation to sin is foolish; we also know that often we pursue sin because of our own weak will. Through Christ we are freed from slavery to sin; we are blessed with “free will,” the ability to pursue that which our hearts most desire. Apart from Christ, our heart’s only desire is for sin; in Christ, we are awakened to a life of righteousness that is not our own, but ours through Him. So it is that when we pursue our temptation to sin, we are not obeying our desire to do rightly and honor our Lord; we are turning away from our Savior’s Holy Spirit within us and opening ourselves up to the will of our enemy.

And so often, once the fleeting pleasure of our sin has dried up, we are left feeling foolish and weak. Sometimes, we even feel as if we’ve been harmed, perhaps even permanently. We often wonder how we can continue thinking of ourselves as Christians in light of the knowledge of the depth of our own sinfulness. We wonder if Christ will indeed continue to lead us on toward Heaven in light of how we’ve offended Him.

The event described in the passage above was not the last in Frodo Baggins’ quest to destroy the Ring and free himself and indeed all the people of Middle-Earth from its evil power. Our regret over our own sin is not the end of our journey either. Jesus came and died for us in order for us to be able to continue our journey, not on our own merits, but on His. God does not see us in light of our inability to meet His perfect standards; He sees us in light of the perfect ability of His Son to meet those same standards and His sacrifice for us. We are not maimed by our own sinfulness, because Christ was maimed for us. We are not “too weak to stand” because we do not stand on our own; we stand on the sufficiency of Christ.

The Fellowship of the Ring is only the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo Baggins had far to go before he saw his enemy thrown down. The victory over evil in Middle-Earth was yet to come. Our enemy has been thrown down already. The victory over evil on God’s Earth has been won for us by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Not Finished With Us

2 Samuel 11 tells us the story of David’s sin with Bathsheba. It serves as an example for us of what can result from pursuing temptation rather than turning away from it. But we can also learn a valuable lesson regarding our living faith.

The beginning of the first verse of this chapter establishes the setting for these events. The Life Application Study Bible explains that in and around ancient Israel, kings went to war in the spring because the roads were dry, which allowed easier movement of troops, and because the crops, an important food source for traveling armies, were ready for harvest. It is revealed that David had sent Joab and the armies of Israel to war against the Ammonites, while the king himself remained in Jerusalem.

Why did David remain in Jerusalem? After all, if he’d been marching with his army against his enemies, he would have had no opportunity to be on that rooftop where he spied Bathsheba for the first time. Yes, it was undoubtedly God’s purpose that the events surrounding David’s sin were thus set in motion so that we might learn through him a lesson regarding temptation. But in David’s mind, what was his reason for remaining? He had been extremely successful in battle against his enemies prior to sending Joab out against the Ammonites. David was a faithful man and trusted in God to deliver his enemies into his hands. Could it be that David took God’s presence in his life for granted?

I wrote previously about how I have often failed to accept the offer to have brothers and sisters in Christ pray for me. I know I need prayer; I submit myself to God’s will many times a day and I know that even that is not enough to cover all my sin outside of Christ. Am I waiting for things to become really bad before I humble myself before my Christian brothers and sisters and ask them to help me lift up my needs before God? Was David’s attitude similar to this as he went up on the roof that night? Maybe he was thinking, “Hey, my life is pretty good right now. No matter what happens, I know God is on my side.”

God is on our side; He sent His only Son to die for us as proof. But He never guaranteed us a “good” life. What happened to David could easily happen to any Christian if we take our faith for granted. It could easily happen if we start thinking that just because we needed Him and He met that need that He is finished with us. God had made David king of all Israel, but He was not finished with him. He would not be until a descendant of David’s royal bloodline died on the cross for us all.

"Blessed be He!"

"When He died in the Wounded World He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less." -C.S. Lewis, Perelandra