I am a missionary at Called Christians in Jinja, Uganda. I am working on education, helping to educate the staff and anyone who wants to know more about Jesus Christ. Each week the staff comes together for a devotion. A devotion is sharing what God is talking with you about. The staff takes turns sharing what God has shown them through their personal daily study time with Him. It was my turn to share a devotion this week and I was studying 1 Kings.
1 Kings 2:1-4 is what I shared about. Here is what is going on in these verses – David is giving some solid advice to Solomon before he dies. David died when he was 70 and Solomon was 21 so we know they were both somewhere near these ages.
Let’s dive into these verses, what he is talking about and what it made me think about.
1Kings2:1 When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying,
David is getting ready to die. He was physically in great shape in his youth. He killed lions, Goliath the giant, he was a soldier of the highest order, physically, this guy was probably one big muscle. But he was 70 now and bedridden. We are all headed this way. One day our bodies will break down. These bodies were not meant to last forever. One day you are out chopping wood and the next you hurt your back standing up too fast. It’s coming for us all.
Solomon, however, is still in his prime. He is about 21 years old, which is a lot younger than David was when he ascended to the throne. David was about 30 years old when he began ruling. I find it interesting that Solomon was so young when he took over. He had some wisdom to start with before God gave him an extra measure. And to have it at such a young age is amazing. I remember being 21 and I was not that wise. I am still working on wisdom myself (remember God gives to those who ask, James 1:5).
David is giving a charge (NIV) or a command (ESV) to Solomon. In the Bible, this is a normal act. When a man is dying he gives advice to his son or his son in the faith. Here’s an example, we see Moses do this for Joshua (Deut 31). God even reinforces the idea for Joshua again in Joshua 1:6-9. Moses tells him to be strong and courageous. This happens to me, too. When God tells me something I see it being repeated. Like He is making sure I am getting it correctly.
1Kings 2:2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man,
To go the way of the earth really means to die. Which, remember from verse 1, all of us will experience this. It reminds me again we all have a limited time here. That I should, we should, have long term thinking. Really long term thinking. Eternal thinking. Not be bogged down in the day to day that happens. For me right now, I am having a lot of physical problems. This momentary affliction (2Cor2:14) will not be remembered in 10 years, let alone into eternity. God is asking me to stand firm and He will take care of what I need. It says in Isaiah 41:10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. This tells me that long term I will be okay. Whether that means physical healing here on earth or ultimate healing, going the way of the earth, to be with God himself. And that short term God will help me to stand firm. Am I leaning on Him and His strength?
Verse 2 goes on to tell me to be strong. Made me wonder what strong means. I often look up words to make sure I know for sure what they mean.
Strong:
Definition 1: physically able to do demanding tasks
Definition 2: able to withstand force, pressure, or wear
When you say strong people’s first thought is physically strong but definition two means something else. Helping you to stand. You know those people who seem to get so much opposition yet they are full of joy. They keep pressing forward. They are strong. Strong can mean physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I think this is what David is talking about to Solomon. To stand firm, to be strong in all these ways.
David goes on to say show yourself a man. My first thought here is, does this apply to me? God made me female, I am a woman. I looked up man in the original language and it means: husband, father, man, sir. So this definitely doesn’t mean I should be a man. I think it does apply to me (and you no matter what gender you are) the idea behind it, though.
I think what he means here by showing yourself a man is to be responsible. He’s talking about responsibility. Which ties in directly with the first part of the verse. With great responsibility you need great courage and great strength (in all meanings). I believe this applies to anyone in a leadership role. That includes pastors, ministers, directors, bosses, husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, older siblings… anyone who has influence. A leader is someone with influence. You don’t have to be the #1 in charge to have influence. We are all leaders in many ways in our lives.
1Kings 2:3 and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,
To keep the charge, to walk well in this responsibility. My first thought is how? How do we do this? I kept reading to see if the text tells me how. It says to walk in his ways and keep his statutes, commandments, rules and testimonies (regulations in the NIV), as written in the 10 commandments (the Law of Moses). Decrees, commands, law, testimonies (regulations). These all point to Gods promises to us. Walking out what He has promised us and how He is working in our lives. Walking out what I am learning and what I know of God and His character.
God gave us the 10 commandments in the Old Testament (Exodus 20) to follow. Bringing this to what we know today, Jesus fulfilled the old covenant. He then gave us new commands. It says in Mark 12:30-31 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all you strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. I believe the 10 commandments are contained in this new decree. Love God and love others.
He also goes on to explain why in the same verse. So that… God will prosper you. Many people think the word prosper means you will be financially rich and have worldly things. I am thinking prosper means something different to God. Prosper means you will have peace and joy. That you will become more and more sanctified (conformed to the image of Christ). You will be successful according to God’s standards, not the worlds. His opinion is the only that counts in the end.
This prosperity God talks about, being transformed into His image, is about your whole life. The verse says all that you do and wherever you turn … That means no matter what you are doing or where you are at, you should be representing Christ well. Everywhere you go someone is watching you. Yes God is with you always but there are human beings everywhere here. Someone is watching you. Watching to see how you act and react to things. Are you being Christ like in how you live? Are you representing Christ well?
1Kings 2:4 that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
Here we continue to see David explaining to Solomon why he should walk in Gods ways. The promise God gives them here, to always have someone from the house of David on the throne, is conditional. The IF is the key here. If you watch how you live, if you walk faithfully, if you love God with all your heart and soul, THEN the line of David will always have the throne of Israel.
This can be applied to us today too. Many questions came to mind: Do you watch how you live? Are you representing Christ well? Reminds me of that saying, what would Jesus do? Are you doing that? Are you walking faithfully? When I start asking myself these questions I usually think HOW? How am I to do this?
The how is pretty simple. Well, it can be hard, but it’s simple. You work on your relationship with Jesus. How do you build a relationship? You spend time together. You get to know Him better day by day. This means your daily time studying the word, praying, applying it to your life is so important. My mom used to say, you are who you hang out with. Who are you hanging out with?
This also brings me back around to the same idea in Mark 12:30-31. Love God and love others. God also gives us a promise about this, too. See Matthew 6:33, he says he will provide all the things we need. Not all the things we want, but all the things we need, when we focus on Him first. Everything else falls into place.
Each of David’s descendants did not follow this advice. There were many in the line of David that followed their own ways. Did you know Jesus is from the line of David? Jesus did live according to Gods laws, he walked faithfully and he loved with all his heart and soul. In Amos 9:11-12 God talks about restoring the line of David to the throne. He is pointing to Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:3-4 he verifies it is Jesus who is David’s descendant. And He verifies Jesus has risen and is the Lord over all. Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise in this verse. He is on throne forever, just like promised. God is faithful.
Through these verses God showed me I have that hope for my future and that I should be walking out what I know about Him. That He is good, he upholds me when things are good and when things are not so good, too. My job is to continue to seek Him and represent Him well. He will take care of everything else.
Steep order if you ask me. But it is possible. I have needed strength and courage lately. I have had a series of seemingly random physical trials. Bilharzia, eye infection, intestinal problems from the bilharzia medicine, burns, and mango worms. One thing after another. Well, not after another. The next would start before the last was cleared up. This is my reminder that people are watching how I act and react to things. Am I representing Him well during these trials?
What about you? Is your life perfect, no bumps? Are you getting your strength, your courage from the source that never runs dry?
Pray this today:
Thank you Lord for providing the hope for our future, for providing Jesus Christ. Help us Lord to walk out what we know about You. To represent you well in all we do, wherever we go, no matter what is coming at us. Thank you for upholding us with your righteous hand, for your strength and help as the bumps of life happen. Thank you for loving us where we are at and for loving us enough to not leave us there. In Jesus’ name I pray.
FYI scripture taken from ESV unless otherwise noted.
