Peace on all Sides

 DEVOTION

1^ST KINGS

PEACE ON ALL SIDES

1 Kings 5:8-12

8 So Hiram sent word to Solomon:

"I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and pine logs. 9 My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household." 10 In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and pine logs he wanted, 11 and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths  of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year. 12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, just as he had promised him. There were peaceful relations between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

NIV

That is about one hundred and twenty-five thousand bushels of wheat and one hundred and fifteen thousand gallons of olive oil, year after year. Solomon was indeed a generous king, although all that was also supplied to him by each of the twelve tribes year after year. Nevertheless, this treaty between Harim and Solomon, although made by men, was the LORD's doing, so that Solomon could complete the building of a temple in the name of the LORD. We know from the gospel according to Luke that no word from the Lord will ever fail. We also know that it was Solomon who would build this temple, and so the beginning of what will be one of the greatest temples built in the name of the LORD. When it comes to doing something for the Lord, how can it be anything but the best? That should give us our story as to how we are to approach our service to our Lord. He gave us His very best, Jesus, who came to teach and show how to live under the authority of the Father, then gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, taking them all upon Himself. How could we not give ourselves fully to the service of our Lord? How could we even try to live with a divided heart, or divided interests? Why do we still try to serve our own interests? Of course, we are living in this world, and need the normal things to sustain our lives, and we must work. If we take the lesson that God gave Adam, that he was to labor by the sweat of his brow all the days of his life, then how do we find ways to store up enough to stop working and sit back doing nothing, as the world has established as the way of life? We know we cannot give up being in service to our Lord, no matter what the world considers the way of life. Solomon wanted the best for the LORD’s temple, and as we are now the Lord’s temple, he is transforming us into his design and filling us with the Holy Spirit, who is all we need to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Just as there was peace between Harim and Solomon, there is now peace between God and us, peace on all sides.