{"id":34650,"date":"2025-02-14T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-kings-9_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T13:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T20:07:46","slug":"1-kings-9_15-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-kings-9_15-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon used slaves. Jesus uses servants"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings 9:15-28 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 9:15-28.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 9:15-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the\u00a0LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land,
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses–whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All the people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites),
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0that is, their descendants remaining in the land, whom the Israelites could not exterminate–these Solomon conscripted for his slave labor force, as it is to this day.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects–550 officials supervising the men who did the work.
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the supporting terraces.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a015-24:\u00a0 According to these verses, Solomon subjected people from other nations to slavery and forced them to build the temple, his palace, terraces, walls and cities.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have any record of how Solomon treated these slaves.\u00a0 Still, to me there\u2019s a great contrast between how Solomon built his kingdom and how Jesus builds His kingdom.\u00a0 Solomon mainly used slaves outside his kingdom and forced them to do his bidding.\u00a0 Jesus mainly uses servants who are already in his kingdom and who willingly, cheerfully give themselves to do Jesus\u2019 will.<\/p>\n

Though part of your destiny on earth is to serve in God\u2019s kingdom, God won\u2019t force you to serve Him while you live on this earth.\u00a0 Rather, He waits for you to willingly offer yourself for His service.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s when you can really be used by God to make an impact for His glory.<\/p>\n

1 Kings 9:25-28 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the\u00a0LORD, burning incense before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Hiram sent his men–sailors who knew the sea–to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men.
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.
\n<\/em>
\nOn verses 25-28:\u00a0 One commendable thing about Solomon here is that he seems to have been consistent in giving his regular offerings to the Lord.\u00a0 In so doing he \u201cfulfilled the temple obligations\u201d (v25).\u00a0 It\u2019s no coincidence that this was also the time in Solomon\u2019s life when Solomon, relatively speaking, was at his best and most prosperous.\u00a0\u00a0You are always at your best and most prosperous when you are not just spending on yourself, but being a consistent and generous giver in God\u2019s kingdom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You that Your heart is not to used forced labor, but willing servants, to build Your kingdom.\u00a0 So I willingly offer myself to You to be used for Your kingdom\u2019s purposes.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

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opyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 9:15-28.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

1 Kings 9:15-24 (NIV)
\n15\u00a0\u00a0Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the\u00a0LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.
\n16\u00a0\u00a0(Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a015-24:\u00a0 According to these verses, Solomon subjected people from other nations to slavery and forced them to build the temple, his palace, terraces, walls and cities.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have any record of how Solomon treated these slaves.\u00a0 Still, to me there\u2019s a great contrast between how Solomon built his kingdom and how Jesus builds His kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34653,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34650\/revisions\/34653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}