Closer to God, Part 1 - Priorities
2 Chronicles 7v11-12a
6th January 2017
Solomon the son of David built the first Jerusalem temple, using the best cedar wood, the best stone, the best gold. It was glorious, magnificent, wonderful. And when he'd finished it, the Holy Spirit came and filled the temple so full of God's glory that had to leave. God was demonstrating that this was His temple, and He would presence Himself there in glory, for as long as the people of Israel kept His covenant. But if we read 1 Kings carefully, we discover that after Solomon finished building the temple, he then started building his own palace. He spent 7 years building the temple, and then 13 years building his palace, which tells us something about his priorities.
2 Chronicles 7v11-12a
When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in
mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace,
the Lord appeared to him
It was only after Solomon finished doing what he wanted to do that God came back to him, and spoke to him.
This makes me think about our lives. We're excited about the temple of God - the New Testament temple, which is the church - and we're also excited about our own houses (compare the prophecy of Haggai) - our own comfort and our own lives.
To judge by the time involved, Solomon was almost twice as excited about his own house as he was about God's house. And while Solomon was building his own house, God refrained from speaking to him. God waited and waited, until Solomon had finished doing what he wanted to do. I get the impression that God was thinking, "Ahhh, at last, you've stopped building your stuff, perhaps we can talk now?"
And this speaks to us, especially to middle-aged Christians. I hope we've more or less finished building our lives now. We're not looking for another promotion any more. We don't really care about getting a bigger or faster car. We've stopped worrying about whether we can afford a fourth holiday. We've been through all that, and we've come out the other side. We just want to be God's now. The ambition has gone. We're ready to listen to God again.
It's time for us to get back to being concerned for the millions of people who don't know Jesus yet, and the many thousands of Christians who've drifted away from Him, and the people we know who are ill, or depressed or lonely. It's time for us to renew our concern that God is not honoured as He should be in our nation, and that His laws are not understood to be far wiser than man's laws.
Maybe we're getting to the point where we care about God's temple more than we care about our own.
Maybe we're beginning to regret that we neglected God's glory, God's kingdom, God's work, for so many years. Maybe we're wondering what Almighty God would have done through us if we'd co-operated with Him sooner.
Well, we still have some time.
Maybe we want to put God first now.
How can we re-orient our brains back towards God? Somebody once remarked that it would be a good idea to insert the words "and not mine" into the Lord's prayer sometimes:
"Our father who art in heaven,
Hallowed by thy name, and not mine.
Thy kingdom come, and not mine,
Thy will be done and not mine
..."
I hope I may be getting to the point where I'm prepared to say, "Never mind my will. My will's not very important. God's will is what matters." I've started praying, several times a day, "Thy will be done, and not mine". It's a very humbling experience.
How about you?
More on 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 next time.