King Solomon – According to the word of the Lord – The sons of Esau, Eliphaz – Who is able to govern – Gold & Silver, Friends – Cup bearer to the king – Respect

I must admit it was kind of weird to skip through this section of the history of the Jews in so few chapters. As my friends told me, its is not a way to study the bible. It is a way to learn more, and that is my purpose.

One of the “historical” learnings I see in the Bible is the unceasing drive for those in power to dethrone those in power. Saul had been king for almost no time at all, and he became obsessed with David being the next king. David had to withstand two of his own sons trying to be king before Solomon. Solomon was saved from these efforts as a reward from God for David, and Solomon trying to do the right thing. But Solomon did a whole lot wrong during his time as king. He has such a positive connotation in society, probably just for the excess in his worldly sins.

The phrase “according to the word of the Lord” stuck out in my mind when reading 2 Kings 1. I am now reading book four in the Dune series “God Emperor of Dune”. People in the book try to raise the leaders of Dune into a godlike position, but both of them acknowledge that they are only trying to lead according to the path the real creator of the universe is leading them. No matter how great we are, God will get His way.

Since I am doing a long term deep study of Job, the phrase “with Eliphaz” in it stood out from 1 Chronicles. I could actually see this being Job’s “companion” (the son of Esau), but it only has a trivial consequence.

One of the repeated concepts Solomon followed before God was this “who is able to govern”. The second leader in Dune lived for something like 4,000 years. And even in that time, a person can not learn enough to govern in a “right” manner. Solomon was humble before God in this aspect and in a reverse sense, it confirms my distrust of politicians who think they know better.

Nehemiah was cupbearer to the king, and I often forget this and think he was a prophet. The cupbearer has an important job; test everything for poison and die to protect the king. The cupbearer is replaceable in every fashion. Yet it was a cupbearer who asked the king to restore the temple and Jerusalem. Our impact can be big no matter our role.

In reading the first chapter of Ester, I was struck how the story started with a wife disrespecting her husband and the husband’s friends making it a big deal and demanding respect of woman to their husbands. The king sinned by showing off and trying to show off his wife. The friends pushed it along until it became a horrible racial episode of death and mayhem. The Bible calls a wife to be respectful, but it also calls the husband to love.

Ezra had a term about gold and silver and based on my person circumstances, I translated this into a phrase about friends. I think the line is new friends are like silver, but old friends are like gold. I have a few old friends and I cherish their friendship, but there is a part of me that needs to value new friends enough to go make some. When God calls me to heaven, if I only have old friends, my funeral will be pretty small.

God puts roles and people in our lives as opportunities to do good. It is not up to us to pick which roles and which friends will be glorifying, rewarding, challenging, or painful. It is up to us to do our thing, to do it as well as we can, and to enjoy the journey.