Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Happens When We Lose Sight of God’s Holiness | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 9.1-9

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. I hope that you enjoyed our series on favorite verses. One of our favorite speakers in that series was Tanya Wilmuth. In fact, we liked her talk so much that we've invited her to come on and co-host with us at 10-minute Bible Talk. So if you start hearing a new voice, which you will hear today, that is Tanya. Just a quick reminder of who she is.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Tanya is a mom, a former English teacher, and she's also a Bible teacher. And I think that you are really going to enjoy learning from her. She's got a different style and amazing insights that I don't think Keith or I could bring to the table. So enjoy listening to her today and from that point forward. During the summer of 2016, our family was between houses. We sold one, and it wasn't quite time to move into another. So we did what all responsible adults, with four kids do, and we sublet from a college student.

Starting point is 00:01:07 Two guys who had just finished grad school had new jobs and were ready to move to new places, so we took over their lease for June and July and moved our family of six and a cat into a duplex surrounded by college students. Where there were six of us on our side, two lovely college-age girls shared the other side of the walls. We lamented on what it would be like to live in the same amount of space with two people instead of six. When I pulled up to the unit and parked our minivan on the street,

Starting point is 00:01:37 you could see students out in their driveways counting the number of kids that actually piled out of the car and through the front door. It was funny, interesting, uncomfortable, thankfully, temporary. We knew it was worth it because we were anticipating something better. Solomon and the people have also been anticipating something better. They have been worshipping the Lord on the move in the wilderness in temporary places for a really long time. They've been waiting for generations to have a permanent house of worship.

Starting point is 00:02:08 Through Solomon, not only has God given them the temple, but he's giving them something even better than a beautiful temple. He's giving them himself. The Lord says to Solomon in 1st Kings 9.3, I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. So we live in a generation that has transitioned away from the Ten Commandments hanging in our living rooms to coffee mugs that say,

Starting point is 00:02:43 just give me coffee in Jesus. So we might be tempted to overlook the wonder that the Holy Lord, the one who is written as Yahweh, the Hebrew word that means too holy to be named in our passage in 1st, Kings 9, comes to Solomon as second. time to confirm his promise to fill the temple with his holy presence. The people would now be able to come to this place and worship God as king, and he would hear them, forgive them, and make things right for them. God intended the temple to be a place for remembering what he had done for them and for them to remember their allegiance to God. But the Lord knows that people tend to be forgetful, so he says to Solomon in 1st Kings 9-6, But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children,

Starting point is 00:03:35 and do not keep my commandments, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight. As God warns, losing sight of His holiness is dangerous. The Israelite people would gradually forget how God had delivered them and turned to other gods and idols. As their story unfolds, new ideas, different building projects, and lesser gods drifted their hearts away from the Holy Lord Almighty.

Starting point is 00:04:12 Instead of being euphoric about the temple, it was just another beautiful building. They lost sight of the holiness of God. When Braden, our oldest was too, he was in a preschool class that learned the words to the hymn, holy, holy, holy. He had been a late talker, so this was one of his first experiences with words and the power they had over people, especially adults. Our family must have thought a two-year-old singing a hymn was about the best thing ever, because, of course, we would beam holding that video camera with the red blinking light while he sang, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, God in three persons, Holy Trinity.

Starting point is 00:04:54 We loved it, and he loved the. attention. It was all about him. The danger in losing sight of God's holiness is that we make it all about us and we make him like us. We try to hinge his promises on our ability to uphold them. Can we walk in his statutes and keep his commands? Well, on a fundamental level, we know we can't, but we try. We try to cover up a deep need for someone better than ourselves with our words and our that make us look and feel like God will love us, like we are holy, holy, holy. Maybe we do this because we're afraid God won't love us,

Starting point is 00:05:38 that he'll remove his name and his security, and we really will be left to our own devices. For King Solomon, this meeting with God should be a career highlight. It should be a life highlight. Who is he to have been given the Lord's abundant gifts of wisdom and resources to build this beautiful temple? Who is he? to have been called on by the Holy Lord.

Starting point is 00:06:00 Solomon needed look no further for a better king. God was right before him. But Solomon got stuck on the temporary fix instead. It was like God was inviting Solomon into a loving, obedient relationship that existed out of that sublet duplex, but Solomon said, no thanks. I'll take what I have instead. I'll trust what I want today over.

Starting point is 00:06:26 what you have for me in the long view. I'll trust what feels good over what your commands say is good. I'll trust myself to build this kingdom instead of following a better king. On this walk with Solomon, don't you just want to shake him and tell him it's not worth it? Don't you just hope like a movie that doesn't end the way you want, that Solomon will take a different path? I want to feel superior to Solomon, but I think I'm just like him. In a mushed up pit of self-righteousness and disobedience and misplaced desire mixed with love for God and pursuit of his mercy, I need Jesus to step in for me just like he did. Where are the places you're tempted to exchange the path of least resistance over the holy pursuit of God? In his book, the knowledge of the holy A. W. Tozer says,

Starting point is 00:07:25 the man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of 10,000 temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters, which at the most cannot concern him for very long. When I read that book several years ago, I had listed out in the margins, those temporal problems as they came to my mind. They were anxiety, self-consumption, unmet expectations, dissatisfaction, disappointment, and guilt. I would be a hypocrite and a liar if I told you that my belief in God has solved and removed

Starting point is 00:08:05 all of those things from my life, for it has not. I still experience probably daily each of those things, but I hope that their power over my life has been minimized. Or maybe I should say, I see that their power is shadowed. in a growing view of God's holiness. And I hope, along with you, that the God of the Bible, who makes and keeps his promises, will continue to meet us with His holiness

Starting point is 00:08:34 and never-ending love, and through Jesus Christ, call us his own. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually.

Starting point is 00:09:02 If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Happens When We Lose Sight of God’s Holiness | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 9.1-9

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