Reading from Thursday, June 10

Good gravy, what a day. I had this video thing that I was working on that didn't have audio so I had to get the audio from a different source. THEN the audio was playing at a slightly different speed than the video so every few minutes I had to adjust the audio to realign it with the video. All this was happening while I was moderating another session in the next room. Now I need to get it out to the UPS store before it closes and sent it overnight to someone. Stress zone 50. That's the worst stress zone to be in.

Reading for June 10
1 Kings 7:1-51
So Solomon spent 7 years building the temple of God. On the contrary, he spent 13 years building his own palace - almost twice as long. The text doesn't give any clues as to whether or not Solomon should be revered or hated because of this. For me, I would think that spending twice as long on yourself as you spend on something for God should be something that is admonished.

I often find myself in the same position however. I will rush through doing this blog so I can play video games or eat dinner or whatever other selfish task. So while its left up to the reader to make what they will of this information, I will take it as a personal challenge to spend less time on myself than I do for things that honor and glorify God.

Acts 7:30-50
Oh man, what a great follow up to reading about the construction of the temple. So here, Stephen continues his speech to the Sanhedrin, recounting Jewish history. Thinking a little more about this, its likely that he was quoting all of this history to defend himself - he, like Peter, knew his audience was made up of staunch Biblical scholars and Jewish historians - showing off of his knowledge was likely something Stephen thought would help his case.

The coolest thing here though is Stephen's interpretation of the building of God's temple:

 ⁴⁴"Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, ⁴⁶who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[g] 47}But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
 ⁴⁸"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
 ⁴⁹" 'Heaven is my throne,
      and the earth is my footstool.
   What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
      Or where will my resting place be?
 ⁵⁰Has not my hand made all these things?'

Beautiful.

Psalm 128:1-6
This psalm says blessed are those who fear the LORD. Then it goes into specifically what those blessings will be:

That the person will have a good wife and good sons and live to see his children's children. First of all, its completely male focused, but such is the writing of the time. Secondly it's entirely focused on ones family, as if the writer was giving the best possible blessings. Do you think these would be any different if they were written today?

One thing that comes to mind is televangelists claiming that God wants to make you rich and wants you to have a Lexus. The difference between them and the writer of this psalm is that there is a prerequisite to the blessings in the psalm: fearing God. Peter Popoff claims that nothing is required. Nothing except the special anointing oil and prayer handkerchief for 12.95 plus shipping. But I mean, what Christian is complete without his or her prayer handkerchief?

Proverbs 16:31-33
 ³¹ Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
       it is attained by a righteous life.
 ³² Better a patient man than a warrior,
       a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
 ³³ The lot is cast into the lap,
       but its every decision is from the LORD.

I like the one about gray hair. I need to remember that for when my friends start going gray.