This morning in my dreams before waking up I distinctly heard, "1 Kings 10:1-5." That was it. No commentary or elaboration. Just those words. I was asleep but alert. I repeated the words. I made note of them. I was still dreaming, yet able to make arrangements to look up the passage once I was awake. But my alarm went off at 7am, I went through my morning hygiene routine (use restroom, wash hands, floss, brush, mouthwash, brush beard) and then headed out to the dining table for my morning devotions.
t was a rainy morning and overcast and dark enough that without a light, it felt much earlier. I looked up 1 Kings 10:1-5 on my phone, but my fat fingers must have pushed on 1 Samuel instead of 1 Kings. So I read an account of David sending condolences to a foreign king and that king's advisers responding with suspicion resulting in the shameful treatment of David's messengers. I moved on to my regularly scheduled devotions committed to dwelling more on the matter after I'd devoted my time to my readings and my morning walk and prayers.
Once home and settled in and caught up with my morning's work, I hunkered down to mull over the meaning of the text and to puzzle the possibilities of it being brought so clearly to my attention this morning. However, when looking up what I had copied and pasted to myself from my phone, I realized I was reading 1 Samuel 10:1-5 and not 1 Kings. I now looked that up and am prepared to ponder it and my mistake in reading 1 Samuel this morning.
1 Kings 10:1-5
And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.
OBSERVATIONS:
Solomon had free publicity that spread his fame far and wide without a marketing campaign. This reputation reached the Queen of Sheba, but she assumed it was too good to be true, but good enough to be worth the trip to check it out in person. She didn't send someone else to verify it, she wanted to see it with her own eyes. Her mission was to expose or prove Solomon by hard questions. She brought her A game and an impressive entourage in order to ensure everyone in Solomon's court knew that she was not nobody. Upon being granted an audience with him, she gave vent to every question she had, holding nothing back. And Solomon was proven. He satisfied her inquisition. She laid herself bare and hid nothing and Solomon was filled with wisdom and no answer escaped him or remained hidden. After hearing him and seeing his kingdom, the Queen of Sheba had the wind knocked out of her sails, she had no fight or bark left. She had nothing left but to accept the reality of what she had heard. It had not been overstated. It was not embellished. If anything, it was understated. It paled in comparison to the reality. Solomon defended the faith by his life and doctrine, his kingdom and his conversation confirmed it.
APPLICATION:
TBD. At this point, it's unclear. I will continue to mull this over as I engage with what's in front of me, pondering possible application points. I should also ask Paige if she has any insights or thoughts in response.
ADDENDUM:
Incidentally, in my morning reading, I also read this in a Year with Bonhoeffer devo I'm reading...
"The ancients had a persistent sense of man's helplessness while sleeping, of the kinship of sleep with death, of the devil's cunning in making a man fall when he is defenseless. So they prayed for the protection of the holy angels and their golden weapons, for the heavenly hosts, at the time when Satan would gain power over them. Most remarkable and profound is the ancient church's prayer that when our eyes are closed in sleep God may nevertheless keep our hearts awake. It is the prayer that God may dwell with us and in us even though we are unconscious of His presence, that He may keep our hearts pure and holy in spite of all the cares and temptations of the night, to make our hearts ever alert to hear His call and, like the boy Samuel, answer Him even in the night: 'Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth' (I Sam. 3 : 9). Even in sleep we are in the hands of God or in the power of evil. Even in sleep God can perform His wonders upon us or evil bring us to destruction. So we pray at evening:
'When our eyes with sleep are girt,
Be our hearts to Thee alert;
Shield us, Lord, with Thy right arm,
Save us from sin's dreadful harm.' - Martin Luther
But over the night and over the day stands the word of the Psalter: 'The day is thine, the night also is thine' (Ps. 74:16)." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
No comments:
Post a Comment