April 22, 2025 - 2 Chronicles 1-4

Solomon asked for wisdom and got it.  He was given much wealth.  He built the temple and furnished it.  It might be said that Israel, though perhaps David was greater in many ways, had never seen such a king and never would, again (Of course, none of the kings could equal THE King, the promised descendant of David!).  Still, Solomon, with all his shortcomings, was an amazing leader and he accomplished what even his father David was unable to accomplish:  “Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God” (5:1).  Maybe the lesson, here, is:  None of us are perfect.  And, though this acknowledgment does not excuse us from our failures (i.e., just because no one else is perfect), it is true that each of us is an amazing contradiction (as someone has put it).  Especially, in Christ, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west.  No charge can be laid against us.  We stand before our Creator with the full righteousness of his Son.  But, wow, we are far from perfect (just yet).  Nevertheless, God calls us to faithfulness.

It may not be on the mountain’s height

Or over the stormy sea,

It may not be at the battle’s front

My Lord will have need of me;

But if by a still, small voice He calls

To paths I do not know,

I’ll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in Thine,

I’ll go where You want me to go.

I’ll go where You want me to go, dear Lord,

O'er mountain or plain or sea;

I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord,

I’ll be what You want me to be.   –Mary Brown (1891)