2 Chronicles 1:1-17

Solomon begins his reign in the best way possible.  He calls the people together and goes before the Lord with sacrifices recognizing that it was a great blessing as well as a great responsibility to be king over Israel.  Solomon wants everyone to know from the very beginning that he is dependent upon the Lord.  Solomon’s dedication to the Lord and his desire to serve the people with divine direction pleases the Lord very much and God blesses Solomon with incredible spiritual as well as material gifts.  God is pleased when we seek Him and He loves to bless His children in amazing ways.  All of the blessings in heaven and earth are at God’s disposal and He longs to share those blessings with us; but our hearts must be right before Him or many of these blessings could cause us to stray from the Lord.

SOLOMON STARTS HIS REIGN WITH THE WORSHIP OF GOD: Solomon’s first official act as king is to gather all of the leaders together and to show and tell them how the worship of God would be the focus of his life.  He calls the assembly together and thanks God for the opportunity to serve as king and then he offers sacrifices before the Lord.  Solomon is grateful for and humbled by the opportunity to be king over Israel.  God delights in the praise of His people and in a heart that is humble and contrite before Him.  We have a tendency to focus on all that we want God to do for us instead of praising Him for all He has done for us.  We need to humble ourselves before the Lord and have grateful and broken hearts before Him.  True worship springs from a heart that is pure and longs to praise the Lord.

SOLOMON REQUESTS THAT HE RECEIVE WISDOM FROM GOD: God is so pleased by Solomon’s attitude and actions that He appears to Solomon and asks Solomon what he desires to receive from the Lord.  Solomon humbly recognizes that his job as king requires a greater wisdom than he possesses and the desire of his heart is to be able to serve the Lord and His people with great wisdom.  Solomon wants to do a good job as king but knows that he will only be able to do so by the grace of God.  Once again Solomon demonstrates humility and a true desire to live in a way that pleases the Lord.  This is how God desires every one of us to live.  We should all desire to serve the Lord with excellence but with the realization that we will only be able to do so as a result of His grace being revealed in our lives.


SOLOMON IS BLESSED WITH GREAT WEALTH BY GOD: God is once again very pleased by Solomon’s selfless request.  God decides to bless Solomon with the wisdom that he requested as well as the wealth and well-being that Solomon did not request.  It is a wonderful thing to be blessed by God and the result was that Solomon made gold and silver common in Israel and Solomon became a powerful and influential person throughout the entire world.  His wealth was immeasurable and his military might was so impressive that he had no cause to use it since all the nations recognized the superiority of Israel.  God is very good at blessing.  We need to make sure that our hearts and priorities are right before the Lord and then be content with how the Lord decides to bless us.  The fact that we are even alive is a tremendous blessing from God that should fill our hearts with worship.

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