Category: Bible (Page 276 of 419)

Poor Solomon. We don’t read about him marrying the love of his life. His book Song of Solomon speaks of love, so perhaps he found love among one of his 700 wives. But his other marriages solidified treaties and non-aggression pacts with neighboring countries, and the most politically advantageous involved Pharaoh’s daughter.

Marrying into the Egyptian royal family undergirded Solomon’s wealth and power. Pharaoh wanted to pull Israel close, and Solomon hoped to pacify his powerful neighbor. Both got what they wanted from the deal, and even Pharaoh’s daughter got a palace, so what’s not to like?

But Pharaoh (and his successors) held more than one card. At the same time the Egyptian rulers smiled at Solomon, they welcomed in at least two men who hoped to overthrow him. These rebels found homes and resources and allies in Egypt. Destabilization featured highly in the foreign policy of Egypt.

Solomon surely understood the great game. In his wisdom he knew Pharaoh coveted the wealth of Egypt’s former slaves. Solomon did all he could to secure his nation’s borders and create strong defenses. The nods of Pharaoh hid the darkness of his schemes, which Solomon saw clearly.

Unfortunately, Solomon spurned his best and surest defense against Pharaoh and his rebels—devotion to the Lord:

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not totally devoted to the Lord his God…he followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

Solomon turned his people away from their most powerful defender. A king who had it all left a bitter legacy, along with a keen lesson for me as I attempt to live a life of consistent faith to the end of my years.

1 Kings 11 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by GR Stocks

I’ve been fortunate to live most all of my life in and around mountains and hills. I grew up in the Ozark Mountains, my first job after college took me to the Flint Hills of Kansas, and now I wake up every day and look at the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

David lived among hills all of his life, encountered the Lord among them, and took comfort in their midst. I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Being from the Ozarks I’ll admit I’m partial to the King James rendering—I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills…)

But hills or mountains, the Lord dwells there. Or prairie or lowlands for that matter.

The solidity of the mountains moved David to write of the security found only under the stable hand of the Lord. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber…the Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life.

The good news for us today? Those same mountains David gazed upon still stand, and the Lord still watches over me and you. Indeed, even if those hills fall down, the Lord will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Misael Moreno

In the first century widows lived a precarious existence. While some possessed property and financial resources, many suffered after the death of their husband. Few jobs existed for widows, and most were dependent on family for help.

This grew into a big enough problem for Paul to address with Timothy. As the church leader in Ephesus, Timothy needed wisdom to deal with a growing crisis of widows.

Paul wrote a long list of instructions. When to care for widows, when to wait, when to encourage them to re-marry, how to charge them to spend their days.

While this at-risk group of women challenged Timothy’s congregation, they also proved a valuable opportunity. As the church supported and valued widows, people in the surrounding city noticed. The widows served others and passed on the love they received.

At a time when many widows sat ignored and grew destitute, a little church in Ephesus reached out to help. This care for the vulnerable yields one clue as to how a few scattered assemblies in the Mediterranean world grew to the world-wide body of believers we see today.

Not only was it the right thing to do, but care for the vulnerable spread the faith. It remains the right thing for us to do today, and few things we do as Christians get noticed more than how we care for the vulnerable among us.

1 Timothy 5 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Mikita Yo

If you are reading through the Bible with me in 2022, then when you finished reading today’s selection you are officially halfway through—congratulations!

The reading plan I use orders the readings chronologically and includes both Old and New Testament readings daily. But if you were to start at the left cover of the Bible and read straight through, at the halfway point you would read Psalm 103:1-2 (due to an even number of verses, these two form the middle crest):

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

As we read the Scriptures, we discover his benefits. As we read over and over, those benefits sink deeper and deeper into the pools of our soul.

The time and energy and sacrifice and challenge necessary to read all the Bible pays off. Your soul, indeed all that is within you, thanks you.

Halfway through reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Walter Walraven