1 Kings 3 - Wishes and Wisdom

One of my favourite questions to ask people is: What’s your favourite Disney movie? I’ve heard a lot of Lion King’s and Frozen’s and Beauty and the Beast’s over the years, but my personal favourite is probably Aladdin. The songs are fun, the story is interesting, and who doesn’t love Robin Williams as the Genie? The movie’s just super entertaining!

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a magic lamp with a genie that grants three wishes. What would you ask for? Would you ask for a million dollars? A fancy trip somewhere? An entire garage full of new bikes? A million more wishes? (That last one has to be cheating!)

Some of us might really like the idea of a genie offering us anything we could ever want on a silver platter. And sure, that idea sounds nice, but I wonder what we would do with all the stuff we might be tempted to ask for.

They say that people who win the lottery don’t end up being happier than they were. Sure, there’s the initial excitement of winning and getting to spend all that money, but eventually you realize having that much cash isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You quickly realize that money actually can’t buy happiness.

That’s why I think Solomon’s story is so interesting. Solomon was one of Israel’s greatest kings. He was David’s son and took over ruling Israel after David died. He learned from his dad that being a good king meant following God’s commands and having a relationship with Him.

Now, back in the Old Testament, a large part of having a relationship with God meant offering sacrifices. Some sacrifices were done to cover up people’s sins so they could meet with God again, while others were just ways of thanking and praising God for everything He gives us. Thankfully, we don’t have to offer sacrifices anymore because Jesus took care of our sins forever when He died on the cross. And we have other ways of saying thank you to Him – like singing songs, listening to His instructions, reading the Bible, and stuff like that.

But back then, Solomon knew the importance of making sacrifices. The Bible actually talks about one time where Solomon made 1000 sacrifices to God at one of Israel’s altars. 1000 sacrifices! Can you imagine? Only a king would have all the animals and food stuffs needed to make that many sacrifices at once!

But our story really picks up the night after those 1000 sacrifices. The Bible says that while Solomon was asleep that night, God appeared to Solomon in a dream.

Try to picture that for a minute. There you are, sleeping away, dreaming of swimming across the ocean or flying through outer space or climbing a mountain made of Kit-Kat bars when all of a sudden, God appears in your dream. I don’t care that it was only a dream – once I realized it was God in my dream, I’d immediately fall on my face and worship.

But then God said to Solomon, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!” (1 Kings 3:5 NLT).

Now this isn’t quite a genie offering three wishes. If anything, it’s even better. The God who made the entire universe and rules over every living thing has just offered you anything you want. Anything.

And I wonder, if we were kings or queens, what would we have asked for? Would we have asked for our kingdoms to be richer than anyone else around us? Would we have asked for success in battle so we could conquer other nations? Or would we have asked for peace on our borders so our people would be protected?

I’m sure all of these things ran through Solomon’s mind. I could do great things with more money! Solomon would have thought. I could build roads, build castles, build temples. I could help the needy and make sure no one ever starves again!

But after all these things ran through his head, Solomon realized there was something that was more important. He thought of his father and how close David had been with God. And he remembered what his dad had taught him – that having a close relationship with God will make you a better king than any money or power or fame ever could.

So Solomon said to God, “Lord, you showed great love and kindness to my dad. You helped him rule well because he was faithful to You. And because he served You, You gave his throne to me so I could rule.”

Then he continued, “Now, O LORD my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9).

Wow. What a thing to ask for! Solomon asked for wisdom. He knew he was young and still had a lot to learn. Sure, money and power would have helped, but wisdom would make the people love and respect him. It would make other nations come to him for advice and help him know how best to rule over Israel with the resources God had given him.

This was an extremely humble and selfless thing to ask for. Solomon was putting the interests of his kingdom before himself. And actually, Solomon showed great wisdom by asking for wisdom. He understood that wisdom begins with knowing God.

God was pleased with this request. He said, “Because you asked for wisdom and not for money or power or long life, I will give you what you asked for. I will give you a wise heart like no one ever before or after you. But not only that, I will give you what you haven’t asked for! You will be rich. You will be famous. No other king in the world will compare with you for the rest of your life! And if you obey me, like your father David did, then that life will be long.”

At that, Solomon woke up. He had to wonder if the whole thing had been just a dream. He probably didn’t feel all the different, rolled over, and went back to bed.

But we do know this – it wasn’t just a dream. Read the next few chapters of 1 Kings, and you’ll realize that Solomon truly was a wise king. In fact, there are stories of rules from countries miles and miles away coming to visit Solomon to hear his wisdom.

And with his wisdom came a great rule. Under Solomon’s leadership, Israel’s borders grew to the biggest they’ve ever been in all of history. And Solomon ruled so well that the country became extremely rich. So rich that “silver was considered worthless in Solomon’s day” (1 Kings 10:21). Can you imagine that? Silver being like the change you have in your pockets!

Of course, things didn’t stay perfect with Solomon. He eventually let his wealth and power get the better of him. He stopped focusing on God and used his wisdom to get power and status for himself. And this led him down a dangerous road. He turned away from God and worshipped idols instead. And his decisions had consequences that echoed through Israel’s history for hundreds of years after that.

Why do I bring that up? Because Solomon forgot what he knew when he was young. Wisdom begins with knowing God. Proverbs 9:10, something most people think Solomon wrote when he was a younger man, says, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”

This isn’t fear as in, “Ah, a big scary monster is trying to eat me!” No, this kind of fear is more like reverence. That means it is honouring God and being amazed by how great He is. Fearing God means putting Him first and letting Him direct our paths, the wisest thing we can do.

Jesus says something similar in the New Testament. He says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33). Solomon sought God and His wisdom first, and as a result, God gave Solomon everything he could ever want or need. But Solomon lost track of this wisdom at the end of his life, and his relationship with God and his kingdom suffered for it.

Wisdom begins with knowing God. When we know Him, everything else will follow. This means the wisest thing we can do in this life is grow closer to our Lord and Saviour. We don’t even need a genie to do that! We can start right here, right now.

So do the wise thing. Read your Bibles. Get to know God. Let Him teach You about who He is and how much He loves you for who you are. And as we grow closer to Him, He’ll share His wisdom with us each and every day.

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Hey all! Thanks for checking in! Because of the chaos and busyness of life, you may have noticed I'm posting a tad less frequently. Going forward, I'm hoping to maintain a posting schedule of about every three weeks (with the odd exception). That means next time should be March 18, where we'll pick up a little bit later in Solomon's life. Hope to see you all then!

~Brentagious

Matthew 25:14-30 - The Homonym Parable

Who knows what a homonym is? It’s an English grammar term for two words that have the same spelling but mean different things. Think of the word, “duck.” I ducked as the duck flew over my head. The first “duck” means to bend over, while the second is the quacking bird. Or how about “long”? I long for a long pair of long johns. The first “long” means want really badly, the second is the opposite of short, and long johns are full body underwear.

I studied English in school, so things like homonyms get me all giddy inside. But even if you find English and grammar super boring, keep homonyms in mind for today’s story. It’ll help us make sense of some stuff when we’re through.

Our story today is from Matthew 25, and we’re looking at the 2^nd of 3 parables Jesus told just a few days before He was crucified. He told these parables so His disciples would know what the Kingdom of Heaven is going to look like. But He was also telling these parables so they would know how to respond while He was gone.

And I don’t just mean after He was crucified. Jesus didn’t stay dead, but God raised Jesus from the dead three days later. But He didn’t stay here on Earth. 40 days later, Jesus rose to heaven on some clouds, promising that He would come back soon. We don’t know when that will be, but in these 3 parables, He teaches us that we need to always be ready because He could come back at any time!

That means we shouldn’t waste the time God has given us. Jesus wants us to use this time to tell others about Him so they can believe in Him too! Because when Jesus comes back, it will be too late for us to tell others about Him then.

But this second parable – the one we’re going to talk about today – tells us there are other things we shouldn’t waste while Jesus is gone. It begins with a master going away on a long journey. Just before he left, he called over three of his servants and gave them each some money. Or more specifically, “talents.”

In Jesus’ day, talents were like really expensive coins. They didn’t have bills or credit cards, so coins were worth a lot more than a nickel or a quarter (or a toonie for all us Canadians!). It’s hard to know exactly how much a talent would have been worth by today’s standards. Some say it was somewhere between $1,000 and $30,000. Others think that talents were worth close to a million dollars. Can you imagine that? An a million dollar coin!

This is why some translators of the Bible choose to use a different word than “talent” in this story. They might use bags of gold or silver. But I’m going to stick with talents.

 

Anyways, the master called over three servants. He gave one of them 5 talents, one 2 talents, and the last 1 talent. Even the servant who only received one talent must have held that money very carefully. This was a LOT of money their master had just given them. Think of all the stuff they could do! With that kind of money, their families would be well fed for a long time. They could have parties and buy the best donkey in town!

Of course, it wasn’t their money. And though the Bible doesn’t say the master gave his servants any instructions, we can assume he wanted them to take care of the money as if it were their own. In other words, don’t waste it. Keep the money safe and use it well.

We can imagine the master leaving, his servants waving at him as he rode off into the sunset, and then the first servant saying, “Well, time to get to work!”

“What do you mean?” the third servant asked. “Our master’s gone!”

“Well, sure,” the first servant replied, “but I don’t think he’d like it too much if we just sat around in his absence. He gave us this money, so I’m going to use it. I’ll invest a little, maybe use some to buy an extra field, hire some workers, and see if we can’t bring in a bigger harvest than we’ve ever seen! If I play my cards right, these five talents could easily become six or even seven!”

“That’s not a bad idea,” the second servant said, scratching his beard. “I’ve always thought about setting up a little carpentry shop in town. I already make the master’s furniture! If I use this money to buy some supplies, I could easily make some tables and chairs and make him a profit!”

“Are you guys nuts?” the third servant cried. “You’re gonna spend our master’s money? Do you have any idea what he’ll do to you if he finds out? Or if all these big dreams of yours fail and you lose money? He’ll have your hides for sure!”

“So what are you going to do with it?” the first servant replied.

“Bury it, of course!” the third servant said, grinning.

The first stared at him, mouth open. The second just shook his head.

“Think you know better, do you?” the third servant said as the silence dragged on. “Well, we’ll see who’s laughing when our master comes home!”

And so the three servants each went off to their own plans. The first servant bought that field and hired those workers. It was an extremely successful year, and the master’s property brought in more grain than it ever had. So much more that when they sold it all, the servant had enough to buy another field the next year!

The second servant started his little carpentry shop. It was tough slugging, and he was even nervous he would lose his masters money for a while, but by his second year in business, he had a solid group of clients and was making some decent money. He made back his two talents and then some.

The third servant did exactly what he said. He found a spot deep within the master’s fields and buried the money. He continued doing his normal jobs, confident the master would be happy to receive his money back exactly as he left it.

After two years, the master finally returned home. As his wagon approached, the first and second servants talked about their new work and how successful things had been. They compared notes on farming strategies and the best way to fix a crooked table. The third servant stood a few feet off, glaring at them.

They all greeted the master warmly, and he invited them into his home to eat with him. As the cooks were preparing dinner, he asked his servants how they had spent their time while he was gone.

The first servant said, “Master, I’m pleased to report that I’ve bought you two extra fields and hired a number of new workers while you were gone. But don’t you worry, those five talents haven’t been lost. In fact, I have ten talents now!”

The master smiled. “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (Matthew 25:21 NLT).

Then the second servant spoke up. “Master,” he said, “I’ll admit the last few years have been hard. My skills have always been in carpentry, so I decided to set up a practice while you were gone. There were times I thought I was going to lose those two talents you gave me, but business has been going well lately. Those two talents you gave me have become four!”

Again the master smiled and gave the same blessing. “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!” (Matthew 25:23 NLT).

The master then turned to the third servant, who had grown very quiet. He wasn’t so confident anymore. He swallowed, feeling like all the moisture had gone out of his mouth, and said quietly, “Master… I know you can be a hard man, growing angry with waste and harvesting crops you didn’t plant. I didn’t want to lose your money, so I hid it. Look, here’s your talent back.”

The master’s eyes narrowed. He took the talent back and said, “You wicked, lazy servant! If you knew this is how I would react, why didn’t you use the money better? You could have at least put it in the bank! Then it would have made interest! But as it is, you have wasted what I gave you.”

He then turned to the first servant and said, “You may have the talent the third servant wasted.” And he continued, “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away” (Matthew 25:29).

Hearing that must have been devastating! The third servant meant well, but he completely misunderstood his master and his instructions. That’s why it’s important we get our instructions right too. The master in this story is Jesus, who has gone on his long “journey” to heaven. In his absence, He wants us to use what He has given us to glorify Him. The worst thing we can do is waste it.

So let’s talk about homonyms. We also have a word “talent” in English that has nothing to do with money. For us, talents are those things we are good at. In our story, the first servant was a great organizer and farmer, while the second was good at carpentry. They used their talents to double the money their master gave them.

God has given us many things. He’s given us time, money, and talents. But He didn’t give us those things so we could simply sit around and enjoy our time here on earth. Sure, it’s fine to have a good time, play some games with our friends or enjoy a meal out or something, but we must be careful not to waste the stuff God has given us. That includes sitting back and not doing anything at all.

Don’t waste anything God gives you. If you have a job or receive an allowance, consider using some of that money to help others. If God has gifted you with the ability to talk easily with others or teach or play soccer, then use those gifts to show and tell the world what it means to be a follower of Christ! And don’t just use your time for yourself, but use it to help build God’s kingdom.

We probably won’t literally double our money or talents when we use those things for the glory of God, but God does promise us a reward – a stronger and closer relationship with Him! And honestly, that worth way more than any talent ever could!

~Brentagious

Luke 19:1-10 - Meeting Jesus

I know Christmas was three weeks ago now, but forgive me for still having it on the brain a little bit. I remember seeing a Christmas play some years back I really enjoyed. It was really more like a bunch of small skits and in one of them, four adults pretended to be kids putting on a Christmas pageant.

The whole thing was super hilarious, but one part of it sticks out in my mind when I think about today’s story. The girl playing Mary had to read the beginning of Luke chapter 2. So she says, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that the whole world should be…” and then she scrunched up her whole face and said in her biggest, meanest, most disgusted voice, “TAXED!”

Some of the older people reading this might feel that way about taxes. We work hard for our money, but then the government takes some to help take care of our cities and repave our roads and pay for schools and stuff. Taxes are important, but no one wants to spend money they don’t have to.

Well, we’re going to be hearing from a guy who collected taxes back in Bible times. His name was Zacchaeus, and he wasn’t liked very much… But we’ll get to that in a minute. For now, sit back and relax as we hear from Zach himself about the day he met Jesus and had his life changed forever!

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Ah, my guests have arrived! Come in, come in, all of you. Please, warm yourselves in my home. There’s always room for another guest here. He taught me that. Who’s He? Why, the Lord Jesus of course! You have heard of Him, haven’t you?

It’s not a bother to tell you about Him. Really, it’s not. I don’t even mind that it brings up my past. I was a different man before I met Jesus. A very different man. I wouldn’t have given two hoots for any of you back then. That’s probably why most people avoided me.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start with who I am. My name is Zacchaeus, and for many years I was a tax collector here in Jericho. It was my job to collect money from people in town, bundle it together, and send it off to people on the other end of the Empire to take care of.

Tax collectors never had the greatest reputation, especially among my people, the Jews. The Jews never quite accepted that the Romans ruled over them. God promised us a nation many years ago, and they didn’t like that Rome has been ruling over us for generations. And they especially didn’t like the idea of paying taxes. We have to pay money to help pay for Roman roads and Roman armies and Roman trade? When we should have our own kingdom? Unacceptable!

But while a lot of us Jews didn’t like the Romans, tax collectors were probably hated even more. Why? Because tax collectors, in my day, were Jewish people who collected money for the Romans! And not only that, but a lot of us would… charge a little extra. We didn’t think much of it at the time. Say a person owed 10 dollars, we would charge them 11. 10 would go to Rome and 1 would stay in our pockets. The Romans knew we were doing this, but they didn’t make a fuss. So long as they got their money, we could do what we wanted.

What we were doing was wrong. We made it sound professional and legitimate, but we were just stealing money from people by making them pay more than they had to. No wonder I didn’t have many friends.

I only say all this because it explains some of what happened that day. You see, we’d been hearing about Jesus for a while now. We knew He was this amazing prophet, wandering the countryside and giving a new message that seemed to fly in the face of what the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders always talked about. Even a hated tax collector like me couldn’t help but imagine what Jesus would do if He came here.

I had been out collecting taxes that morning as usual when I saw people running – literally running – to the other side of town. One of the guys in line asked someone running by what was happening, and all he yelled back was “Jesus.” Half the line took off.

I jumped up on my chair and started yelling for them to come back, but they wouldn’t listen. In fact, before I knew it, the whole line had slipped away. I wanted to be angry, but I found I couldn’t be. Jesus was in town! The rest of my people may not have liked me all that much, but I was still excited to hear that Jesus, this man who was making such a difference, was passing through.

I locked up the tax money, left my post, and scurried over to where Jesus was. It wasn’t hard to figure out. There was a huge crowd of people lining the streets. But that’s when I realized I would have a problem. I couldn’t see.

You see, I’m not exactly a… tall man. Usually when I want to see something important, I make sure I’m there early, but I didn’t have the chance this time. And here I was, this tax collector who could normally make anyone give me whatever money they had in their pockets, and I didn’t have a chance in the world of seeing someone walk down the street.

I politely asked if some people would make room, but nobody budged. I tried to shove my way through, but no luck there other. One guy almost moved, but when he saw who I was, he just grunted and started standing on his tiptoes.

I wanted to plough him one, but I controlled my temper. Think, man, I thought to myself, There must be some way you can see Jesus! I looked up the street a way and that’s when it hit me. The tree!

Honestly, I hadn’t climbed a tree in years, not since I was a boy. But there was this sycamore tree that was perfect. From there, I’d have a perfect view. So off to the tree I went and shimmied up. And let me tell you, I was a lot better at climbing trees as a boy! But after a couple of false starts and some scrapes, I got to the top, looked out, and…

…and there He was. Jesus! I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew something was special about Him just by looking at Him. Nothing stood out about Him appearance-wise, but looking at Him made me feel… peaceful. And a little guilty.

As Jesus came closer, I shied back in the tree a little bit, trying to hide behind some of the leaves. Climbing a tree was one thing, but there was no reason He needed to know I was up there. But maybe about 10 feet before the tree He stopped, looked up, and with a big grin on His face, said, “Zacchaeus! Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today” (Luke 19:5, NLT).

My face went pale, my eyes wide. Me? I thought. He wants to eat with me? At my house? NOBODY eats at my house. But He just stood there, smiling, waiting.

I didn’t want to keep Him waiting, so I immediately climbed down the tree. A couple of people helped me down now that I had Jesus’ attention, but they looked as dazed and confused as I felt. But my uncertainty didn’t last long. Soon I was smiling, laughing. It took everything in me to not grab Him by the hand and drag Him to my house!

The crowds didn’t just disappear at that point. Many people followed after us. And though I was happy to have Jesus as my guest, I couldn’t help but overhear some of them grumbling. “He’s eating with Zacchaeus?” “That seems an odd choice?” “Do they even know each other?” “Why would Jesus eat with a guy like Zacchaeus? He’s a sinner! A tax collector!”

The thing is, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, they were right! I mean, I’m no more a sinner than anyone else – I realize that now – but I certainly wasn’t a kind or giving person. I didn’t deserve to have someone like Jesus come and eat with me. I treated a lot of people poorly and cheated a lot of people out of a lot of money.

Just before we got to my house, I stopped dead in my tracks. The whole crowd rippled as they were forced to halt too. Jesus simply turned, looking at me with a hint of a question on His face.

I looked back at the crowd for a moment, nodded, and then looked right at Jesus. “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord,” I said, “and if I have cheated people on their taxes,” (and there were lots of people I had cheated), “I will give them back four times as much!” (Luke 19:8)

That questioning look on Jesus’ face broke into a grin. “Salvation has come to this home today!” Jesus said, proudly. And I do mean proudly. I had learned that my money was far less important than how I treat others or how I treat God. He wants us to be kind, compassionate, and listen to His instructions. By choosing to give up money and pay people back what I had stolen from them and more, it was a sign that I wasn’t just going to meet with Jesus once and forget about Him. Meeting Jesus changed me – giving the money away was just the result!

For me, the issue was money, but all of us have something that gets us down. Maybe we like to pick on others, maybe we know we can boss our siblings around, maybe we even like to take things from people or stores when nobody’s watching. But when you meet with Jesus... That’s when everything changes. 

I did exactly what I said. I paid those people I had cheated back, and I sold a bunch of my stuff to help the poor. I never met Jesus face to face again, but that one meeting changed my life. I knew that His way was better, and I’ve lived that way the rest of my life.

I hope you will too. It won’t always be easy or fun. Living the way Jesus wants will test you, and not everybody will understand why you do it. But take it from me – Meeting Jesus always changes us for the better! Because I know Him, I’m a better person for it. And I can never say thank you to Him enough!

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So there you have it! The day Zacchaeus met Jesus. It was a normal, ordinary day, but it changed everything about him. Who knows? Today might be that ordinary day for you too! All it takes to be changed by Jesus is to believe in Him, to ask Him to forgive you, and to thank Him for dying and rising again so you can be saved! That’s it. At the beginning of this year, there’s nothing more important you can do than meet Jesus for the first time!

Now for the boring stuff (so you can tune out here if you want). If you’re a regular reader, you may notice I’ve shifted from the NIrV to the NLT. Trying something new to start the year – we’ll see how that goes. This month is also crazy hectic for me, so I probably won’t be getting a new post up until early February. Not sure what that will be on yet, but probably not a Second Sunday Switch-Up.

Otherwise, Happy New Year all. Can’t wait to see where else this adventure in shedding our Sunday School Glasses takes us!

~Brentagious