October 7th, 2012
II Chronicles 9 (1 Kings 10:1-29; 11:41-43; Psa 72; Isa 60)
“Discontented Contentment”
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. — Colossians 3:4
As Carver said, “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also–if you love them enough.
Is it possible that our lack of ideas is really a lack of love?
God’s ideas aren’t the by-product of genius, they are the by-product of love. The more you love God, the more God reveals. If you love Him enough, not for what He can do but for who He is, then God will give up His secrets. Why? Because that is the essence of love. The more you love, the more you reveal. And there are so many secrets waiting to be revealed. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 128)
Background Information:
- The place name “Sheba” is usually equated with ancient Saba, commonly identified with modern-day Yemen in the southern Arabian peninsula. According to Dillard, we should not be surprised at the queen’s active role in her nation’s foreign policy, as there is a strong tradition of female leadership in pre-Islamic Arabic society.
It seems likely that the queen’s 1,400-mile trek to Israel is motivated by economic interests as much as curiosity about the reports of Solomon’s wisdom. Solomon and the nation of Israel control overland trade routes linking Arabia, Africa, and regions to the north such as Aram and Anatolia (most notably the King’s Highway, a major north-south road connecting Damascus and the Gulf of Aqabah). Israel’s recent alliance with Hiram of Tyre for the purpose of a joint venture in maritime trade may also have prompted the queen’s visit (cf. 8:17-18; 9:10-11). The economy of ancient Saba was based on spice trade, and these developments may have affected that commercial enterprise in some way. (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 406-07)
- (v. 1)The spices in question are most likely frankincense and myrrh (9:1, 9). Frankincense is extracted from the resin of certain species of trees from the genus Boswellia of the family Burseraceae, which grow almost exclusively in southern Arabia. Myrrh is a fragrant gum extracted from several different shrubs and trees, especially the Commiphora myrrba (a thorny tree peculiar to southern Arabia). (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 407)
- (v. 1)These aromatic resins (whether in the form of powder, solid sticks, or oil) were prized possessions and enjoyed wide use in the biblical world in cosmetics, embalming, religious offerings, and pharmacopeia. Frankincense was an ingredient in the mixture of spices burned on the altar of incense in worship (Ex 30:34); it accompanied the grain offerings (Lv 2:1-2, 15-16) and was placed with the loaves on the table of the Presence as well (Lv 24:7). Myrrh was an essential ingredient in the sacred anointing oil used to sanctify objects and persons in Hebrew worship (Ex 30:23). The pleasant odor, high demand, and restricted sources of these perfumes made them expensive commodities in the ancient times. Myrrh was also used in burial (cf. Mk 16:1; Jn 19:39). The value of these ointments, often classified with gemstones and gold, made them appropriate gifts for royalty–including the infant Jesus (Mt 2:11). (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 407)
- (v. 4) Solomon’s accomplishments take her breath away (with the JPSV; the NBSV of 9:4 reads more woodenly, “there was no more spirit left in her”). (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 150)
- (v. 4) The ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord (1 Kngs10:5) was one of the things she saw. To her it spoke of that higher life which was the real glory of Solomon’s character and reign. (A.B. Simpson, The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, 391)
- (v. 9) When royalties paid visits to foreign courts, or commissioned their representatives to go, it was an invariable custom, both in courtesy and diplomacy, to take and to receive presents. The awkward aspect was that the value of the gifts given and taken was regarded as a measure of the power and prestige of the donors. (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible Vol. 3, 467)
- (v. 18-19) In the Hebrew Bible, the lion is associated with royalty, and especially with the royal tribe of Judah. (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 151)
- (v. 29) Ahijah the Shilonite has not yet been mentioned in Chronicles. However, he plays an important role in 1 Kgs 11-15, especially in 11:26-40. It is Ahijah who prophesies to Jeroboam, “thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes’” (1 Kgs 11:31). The reason for this, Jeroboam is told, is that Solomon has worshiped false gods, and “has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as his father David did” (1 Kgs 11:33). None of this is retold in Chronicles. But the reference to Ahijah the Shilonite in 2 Chr 9:29 shows that the Chronicler presupposes it, and assumes that his readers are aware of it. (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 152-53)
- (V. 30) The referrent for the third prophetic source, “the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat,” is far less clear. No visions of Iddo are described in either Chronicles or Kings, although he is cited as a source for the reigns of Rehoboam (2 Chr 12:15) and Abijah (2 Chr 13:22) as well as Solomon. An Aramaic inscription from around 800 B.C. has a term similar to “Iddo” in combination with the word “seer” (the title given to Iddo in 2 Chr 9:29 and 12:15); evidently the term describes some kind of prophetic activity. The name “Iddo” has a good prophetic pedigree in the Hebrew Bible as well; the prophet Zechariah was the “son of Berechiah son of Iddo” (for example, Zech 1:1).
Josephus refers to the anonymous “man of God” in 1 Kgs 13 as “Iddo” (Greek Iadon), as do some rabbinic sources (Japhet 1993, 645). While this identification may itself be dependent upon 2 Chr 9:29, it is certainly suggestive, as this man of God predicts the eventual desecration and destruction of Jeroboam’s altar at Bethel (1 Kgs 13:2-3; for the prophecy’s fulfillment, see 2 Kgs 23:16-17). Between them, then, Ahijah the Shilonite and Iddo the seer would sum up the course of the northern kingdom, from its beginning to its dissolution. (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Chr, 153)
- (v. 25-28) Solomon is doing everything that God told him not to do (Dt 17). Maybe Solomon thinks he is above the common people and that, because of his great wisdom, God no longer needs to speak to him. But he soon finds out how wrong he is and how prideful his attitude has become (2 Chr 9:25-28). (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quicknotes, 1 Chr Thru Job, 73)
- For the chronicler, none of the historical kings, including Solomon, fulfilled all the expectations of the promise to David. Some came close, like Solomon and Josiah, but none could be pointed to as the final fulfillment. That is the basis of the hope that underlies the chronicler’s work–the true Messiah is yet to come. (John Sailhamer, Everyman’s Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Chr, 82)
The questions to be answered are . . . What does the Chronicler hope to teach through this story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon? What message did it communicate to the original audience? What does it communicate to us today?
Answer: I believe the Chronicler hopes to demonstrate the unfathomable benefits that come when God’s people are ruled by God’s blessed king, the son of David. This story would have been a powerful encouragement to the original audience who were struggling to simply exist. For us today, it inspires our imagination as to what the consummated Kingdom of God will be like when ruled by God’s ultimate Son of David: Jesus.
“He who is satisfied has never truly craved,” said Abraham Heschel, and he said this, I think, because he knew that heaven’s richest food does not satisfy our longings but rather intensifies them. (Ken Gire, The Reflective Life, 186)
The Word for the Day is . . . WOW!
What does the Chronicler hope to teach through this story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon and what message did it communicate to the original audience?:
I. God’s king will blow you away with his wisdom, knowledge, resources and ability to apply all to God’s people. (2 Chr 9:1-6, 13-16, 21-24; 1 Kgs 10:1-7, 23-24)
Solomon passed the Queen’s test. He answered all her questions without difficulty. Her best efforts to expose his shortcomings were unsuccessful; nothing was too hard for him (9:2). This feature of the story fits well with the view that Solomon was the wisest of all kings (see 1:11-12; 9:23; also 1 Kgs 3:12; 4:29-31; 5:12; 10:23). (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 256)
What she saw of Solomon in all his glory and wisdom was far greater even than the reports she had heard, reports which had themselves been so unbelievable as to move her to undertake the journey for herself. (Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chr, 157)
None of her searching questions caused Solomon any difficulties at all (v. 2). She saw how his mind had given birth to beauty and order, to abundance among his people, and to splendor in his offerings to God (v. 3, 4). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 2 Chr, 124)
Solomon’s wisdom, then, is perceived by the queen in terms of his practical ability to act as a great king, to manifest the attributes of kingship in a conspicuous way. This perception tells us something of what the queen’s real motivation was in coming to Solomon. The fact that the story is sandwiched between passages (8:17f., 9:13ff.), which tell of Solomon’s success in the realm of international trade, suggests that the queen’s visit is nothing other than a trade mission. (J. G. McConville, The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 & 2 Chr, 146)
It was his wisdom and goodness that impressed her most. To her he represented the character of God and helped her to understand that greater Being in whose bosom the heart finds its resting place. (A.B. Simpson, The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, 390)
As viewed here it seems to be the knowledge of how to do things (vss. 3-4), functional knowledge as applied to building, organization, arrangements in his court, etc. Along with these qualities went that of a shrewd trader, as the queen must have learned even before her mission to Jerusalem. (Jacob M. Myers, The Anchor Bible, 2 Chr, 57)
The Arabian queen comes bearing tribute, as the Chronicler emphasizes in 9:1 and 9:9, but it is his wisdom that takes her breath away (9:3-6). The breakdown of this wisdom in terms of the splendor of his palace lifestyle leads to a testimony to the hand of God in all this (9:8). (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 248)
One way we glorify God is by exploring and educating ourselves about everything He has created. The innate impetus is holy curiosity. And the result is the praise of discovery. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 98)
II. God demonstrates His love for His people by the work done by His appointed King (2 Chr 9:7-8, 25-28; 1 Kgs 10:8-9)
The idea that the Davidic throne was the throne of God appears several times in Chronicles. The Queen also recognized Solomon’s throne as a benevolence to the nation. God made Solomon king because of the love of…God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever (9:8). This theme also appears a number of times in Chronicles. Finally, the Queen mentioned that the divine purpose for Solomon’s throne was to maintain justice and righteousness, a motif often associated with the Davidic line (see 2 Sm 8:15; 23:3-5; 1 Chr 18:14; 1 Kgs 3:11, 28; 10:9; Ps 72:1-2; Isa 9:6-7; 16:5).
By maintaining this passage from Kings in his history, the Chronicler once again supported points of view presented elsewhere in his history. Solomon’s wisdom was so great that it convinced even a foreigner of the divine purpose of kingship in Israel. If one outside of Israel understood these things, surely the post-exilic Israelites to whom he wrote should acknowledge the importance of the Davidic line for their day. (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 257)
III. Honoring God’s king with gifts always results in you being blessed beyond the value of your gift (2 Chr 9:9-12; 1 Kgs 10:10-13)
The Hebrew that underlies the NIV wording “he gave her more than she had brought” (to the king) is compressed and difficult; but it should probably be rendered “every wish she desired, he gave her a return for,” or, according to what “she had brought” (cf. 1 Kgs 10:13, which literally reads, “he gave her according to the hand,” i.e., “power” or “authority,” of the king). (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, 471)
To close off the story, the text reports that the Queen of Sheba returned home with her retinue (9:12b). She left richer than when she came. Solomon had received blessing from her, but he in turn was a blessing to her. This theme recalls the patriarchal promise to the same effect (see Gn 12:1-3). (Richard L. Pratt, 1 & 2 Chr, A Mentor Commentary, 258)
CONCLUSION/APPLICATION: What does the story of the Queen of Sheba tell us about our relationship with Jesus today?:
A- Jesus (as the One greater than Solomon) will blow you away with his wisdom, knowledge, resources and ability to apply all to God’s people. (Mt 12:42; Lk 10:23-24; 11:31; Jn 1:1-12; 14:6; 1 Cor 2:9; Eph 1:3-7; 3:14-21; Col 2:9-11; Phil 1:6)
Solomon was wealthy beyond compare and lived his life in fabulous luxury. But what do we see in Jesus? He said of himself, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Lk 9:58).
Jesus’ words, even though they brought amazement to his fellow townsmen, brought very few of them to faith (Lk 4:22-30). He was considered wise by many for a time; yet the majority, in the end, “turned back and no longer followed him.” The wisdom he spoke was too hard to hear (Jn 6:60, 66). And more often than not, his message evoked the fury of his listeners rather than their admiration. His followers were not the mighty, the noble, the wealthy, the wise. Fisher-folk and tax collectors, former prostitutes and common people made up his loyal band. We could say he had a rich man’s grave, like Solomon’s, but only after he had suffered a slave’s death on a cross. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 2 Chr, 130-31)
Banquets were an important aspect of life in the ancient Near East for both the divine and human realm as reflected in numerous texts and iconography. In the royal realm, the variety of dishes served, the number of guests accommodated, and the number of servants used demonstrated wealth and prestige–and, by extension, evidence of divine favor and blessing. In addition, royal banquets mimicked the banquets of the gods by the scale of the feast and the degree of celebration. (John H. Walton, Zondervan Ill. Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Vol. 3, 320)
A man’s reach must exceed his grasp of what’s a heaven for. (Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto , line 98)
The deepest desire of our hearts is for union with God. God created us for union with himself: This is the original purpose of our lives. – Brennan Manning (John Eldredge; Wild at Heart, 118)
The question arises, If there is to be no eating nor sex, will there by any pleasure in heaven? It should be understood that the experiences of heaven will far surpass anything experienced here. Paul said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’–but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:9-10). It is suprasexual, transcending the experience of sexual union with the special individual with whom one has chosen to make a permanent and exclusive commitment. (Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 1239-40)
Those who have tasted transcendental reality can never again be convinced that this world and the society that regulates them can satisfy their needs. Those who have tasted of the heavenly gift will always hunger because they know there is more to life, and that something more is not controlled by the system but lies beyond anything that the rulers of the system can provide. Out of such holy discontentment new movements are born. The sense of what is absent makes us discontented with what is present. (Tony Campolo, Carpe Diem, Seize the Day, 144-45)
Plato believed that “no state can be happy which is not designed by artists who imitate the heavenly pattern.” (The Republic VI. 500 E.) (The Interpreter’s Bible Vol. V, 707)
Did you know that astronomers estimate the existence of hundreds of billions of galaxies? That is more than ten galaxies per person alive today! You won’t run out of things to do or discover during your earthly tenure. And you certainly won’t run out of things to do or discover on the other side of the space-time continuum either. Heaven will be anything but boring. It’s taken thousands of years for billions of humans to explore one tiny planet in one tiny galaxy. And we’ve barely scratched the surface. Exploring the wonders of the new heavens and new earth will keep us curious forever. And our love for God will grow infinitely larger. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 101)
The eardrum can only hear sound waves that vibrate between 20 and 20,000 hertz. Anything outside that range is inaudible. The human eye can only perceive light waves that are between 0.00007 and 0.00004 centimeters long. Anything outside that range is invisible.
Let me try to put our visual limitation in perspective. Our visual range is the equivalent of one playing card in a stack of cards stretching halfway across the universe. In other words, we see a very thin slice of reality. And the same is true spiritually. I think of omniscience as a complete 260-degree perspective, logically and chronologically. God sees all the way around everything. He sees everything from every angle because He exists outside our space-time dimensions. Our perspective, on the other hand, is very limited, logically and chronologically. The most brilliant among us have less then one googolplex of 1 percent of perspective. And that ought to keep us humble.
Some things cannot be perceived. They can only be conceived.
Some things cannot be deduced. They can only be imagined.
Some things cannot be learned. They can only be revealed. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 62)
In his book Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot, Richard Restak shares a profound truism: learn more, see more. He says, “The richer my knowledge of flora and fauna of the woods, the more I’ll be able to see. Our perceptions take on richness and depth as a result of all the things that we learn. What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned.
When astronomers look into the night sky, they have a greater appreciation for the constellations and stars and planets. They see more because they know more. When musicians listen to a symphony, they have a greater appreciation for the chords and melodies and instrumentation. They hear more because they know more. When sommeliers sample a wine, they have a greater appreciation for the flavor, texture, and origin. They taste more because they know more.
Simply put: the more you know, the more you appreciate.
So what? Well, how much you know may have more to do with how much you love God than you think. Consider what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well: “You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship.” Another translation says, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know.” The Samaritans were worshiping God out of a lack of knowledge. And when you worship out of ignorance, worship is empty. God doesn’t just want you to worship Him; He wants you to know why you worship Him. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 102-03)
There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of “Heaven” ridiculous by saying they do not want “to spend eternity playing harps.” The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them. All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible…People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, He meant that we were to lay eggs. (Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root, The Quotable Lewis, 284-85)
There should be no disconnect between spiritual and intellectual pursuits. The mind and soul are not enemies. They are allies. I don’t think you can be spiritual, in the truest sense of the word, without being intellectual. And I don’t think you can be intellectual, in the truest sense of the word, without being spiritual. As the mind expands, so does the soul. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 103)
C.S. Lewis once referred to himself as the most reluctant convert in all of Christendom. The night before his conversion, he had a long conversation with fellow writer and friend J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien tried to convince him of the credibility of Christ, but Lewis was full of objections. Then at a critical moment in the conversation, Tolikien countered Lewis’ objections with a profound statement: “Your inability to understand stems from a failure of imagination on your part.”
A failure of imagination.
That isn’t a peripheral problem. It’s our primal problem.
Lack of faith is not a failure of logic. It’s a failure of imagination. Lack of faith is the inability or unwillingness to entertain thoughts of a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. Thank God for logic. Without it, nothing would make sense. So it’s not that imagination is more important than logic. It’s just more neglected. A loss of curiosity has led to a loss of creativity. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 112)
If you want to think new thoughts, then read new things, meet new people, and go new places. Learning about something new forces your mind out of its natural tendencies. Meeting new people challenges your subconscious biases. And going new places makes your mind observe what you typically ignore. That’s one reason why mission trips, leadership conferences, and church retreats can be so life changing. Geography affects spirituality. I get some of my best ideas at thirty thousand feet, especially if I’m in an exit row. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 123)
I was recently listening on my iPod to a lecture delivered at a TED (Technology, Education, Design) conference. Listening to TED lectures is a form of intellectual exercise I get while doing my physical exercise on an elliptical. During this particular lecture, Al Seckel, an expert in visual perception, showed the audience a wide variety of images. One of them was a stenciled drawing of a couple intimately embracing. The audience immediately recognized the image. But Seckel revealed that when that image was shown to children, almost like a Rorschach test, and they were asked to describe what they saw, the children could not see the couple. Why? Because the kids didn’t have a prior memory to associate with the picture. They didn’t have a cognitive category for a couple intimately embracing. Most of the kids saw nine dolphins!
Here’s why: you cannot see what you do not know. Even our imaginations are limited to extrapolations of what we have seen or heard or experienced. Ideas don’t materialize out of thin air, unless of course it’s a God idea that bypasses the five senses and is revealed by the Holy Spirit. But by and large, our imaginations have boundaries based on our experience and education. The goal of learning is to expand our God-given imagination so we expand our appreciation of who God is and what God has made. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 101-02)
If, indeed, we all have a kind of appetite for eternity, we have allowed ourselves to be caught up in a society that frustrates our longing at every turn. Half our inventions are advertised to save time–but for what? Never were people more harried by time: by watches, by buzzers, by time clocks, by precise schedules, by the beginning of the programme. There is, in fact, some truth in “the good old days”: no other civilization of the past was ever so harried by time.
And yet, why not? Time is our natural environment. We live in time as we live in the air we breathe. And we love the air–who has not taken deep breaths of pure, fresh country air, just for the pleasure of it? How strange that we cannot love time. It spoils our loveliest moments. Nothing quite comes up to expectations because of it. We alone: animals, so far as we can see, are unaware of time, untroubled. Time is their natural environment. Why do we sense that it is not ours?
C.S. Lewis, in his second letter to me at Oxford, asked how it was that I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. “Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?” Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?
It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it–how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren’t adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home. ” (Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, 203-04)
It is this spiritual intercourse with God that is the ecstasy that is imagined and hinted at in all earthly intercourse; physical or spiritual. And I think that is the ultimate reason why sexual passion is so strong and so different from other passion; so heavy with suggestions of profound meanings that always just elude our grasp. I don’t think any practical need can account for it. I don’t think any animal drive can explain it. No animal falls in love or writes profound romantic poetry or sees sex as a symbol of ultimate meaning of life because no animal is made in the image of God. Not just sexuality, but human sexuality is that image. And human sexuality is a foretaste of that self-giving, losing and finding the whole self, a foretaste of that oneness and manyness that is the very life of the Trinity and the joy of the Trinity. And that is why we long for without knowing it. That is why we tremble to stand outside of ourselves in the other. That is why we long to give our whole selves, body and soul, because we are images of God the sexual being. We love the other sex because God loves God. And this early love is so passionate because heaven is full of passion, of energy, and dynamism. That is one of the reasons God invented families. You can’t love or hate anybody as much as your own family. Families are full of passion. Heaven is not boring or blasé. It is passionate because God is passionate. Jesus Christ who is our window to God was not a stoic or a Scribe or a Scholar. He was a lover. I think we correctly deny that God has passions in a passive sense. He is not moved or driven or conditioned by them as we are. He cannot fall in love for the same reason the ocean cannot get wet. He is love. (Peter Kreeft in a lecture given entitled “Sex in Heaven” 47:15 into the lecture)
Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more–food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilisation as long as civilisation is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 118-19)
B- God demonstrates His love for His people by the palingenesic work done by Jesus (Mt 19:28; Jn 1:1-12; 3:16; 4:14; 6:40; 15:1-7; Acts 3:21; 10:43; Rom 3:19-26; 5:8-10; 6:23; 8:1; 1 Cor 1:30; 15:22; 2 Cor 1:19-21; 5:17-21; Gal 2:16-17; 3:26; 2 Pt 3:11-13; Jude 1:24; Rv 21:5)
Had Adam and Eve retained their original state, they never would have died. But Eve and then Adam yielded to the serpent’s temptation, and death came into the world. Before that moment, they were in a beautiful, pristine state. They existed on a level far above the present condition of the human race. It is difficult to imagine what man was like then by viewing him as he is now. It would require something like trying to reconstruct the original version of an aircraft from its wreckage. If we knew nothing of flying, we would hardly suspect that it had once soared above the earth. The material would be the same; the capability of flight, however, would be lost. (David Breese, Living For Eternity, 99).
The word palingenesis or rather palingenesia may be traced back to the Stoics, who used the term for the continual re-creation of the universe by the Demiurgus (Creator) after its absorption into himself. Similarly Philo spoke of Noah and his sons as leaders of a renovation or rebirth of the earth, Plutarch of the transmigration of souls, and Cicero of his own return from exile.
In philosophy it denotes in its broadest sense the theory (e.g. of the Pythagoreans) that the human soul does not die with the body but is born again in new incarnations. It is thus the equivalent of metempsychosis. The term has a narrower and more specific use in the system of Schopenhauer, who applied it to his doctrine that the will does not die but manifests itself afresh in new individuals. He thus repudiates the primitive metempsychosis doctrine which maintains the reincarnation of the particular soul. Robert Burton in the Anatomy of Melancholy (1628) writes, “The Pythagoreans defend metempsychosis and palingenesia, that souls go from one body to another.”
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is quoted in Greek (although his historical utterance would most likely have been in Aramaic) using the word “palingenesia” to describe the Last Judgment foreshadowing the event of the regeneration of a new world. Palingenesia is thus as much the result of, or reason for, the Last Judgment as it is directly the Judgment itself. (www.wikipedia.org)
“‘Your thoughts of God are too human.’ said Luther to Erasmus. This is where most of us go astray. Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality of His limitless wisdom and power. Because we ourselves are limited and weak, we imagine that at some points God is too, and find it hard to believe that He is not. We think of God as too much like what we are. Put this mistake right, says God; learn to acknowledge the full majesty of your incomparable God and Savior.”(J. I. Packer; Knowing God, 78-79)
Contentment: Realizing that God has provided everything I need for my present happiness.
Always be content with what you have, but never with what you are.
Whatever else heaven may be like, this much about it to my mind is certain. Heaven will be a place of fulfillment. We leave this life undeveloped, unfinished, with imperfect souls, meager knowledge, defective judgment, limited insight, and an unsatisfied craving for self-improvement. God would no more leave us in this uncompleted state than would a farmer harvest his grain while green, or pick blossoms from his apple orchard before they could develop into fruit. If this life and the life to come makes sense at all, we are not cut off in our imperfections. Death is like birth and it is birth.
Our faith, as believers, signifies that death is not symbolized by a period, meaning a complete stop to life, but by a comma, confirming there is more to follow. The best is yet to come. -Harold Kohn
I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven. (A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 13)
A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT – by Sophia Loren, in USA Today 2/4/99
“I’m not a practicant, but I pray. I read the Bible. It’s the most beautiful book ever written. I should go to heaven, otherwise it’s not nice. I haven’t done anything wrong. My conscience is very clean. My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight, straight to heaven.”
We can become so shallow and “content” with the addiction to things that we cease to look for anything deeper and more satisfying (Deuteronomy). We no longer groan (Romans 8) looking forward to a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly world (Hebrews and 1 & 2 Peter). In fact, we can become so content with this world that we are dull and anaesthetized to all that God has for us. We fail to be repentant because we are confident we have all that life can offer. — Pastor Keith
C- Honoring Jesus with gifts always results in you being blessed beyond the value of your gift (Ps 16:11; Isa 65:17; 66:22; Mt 6:19-34; 19:29; Rom 8:12-17; 2 Cor 3:18; 4:17; Gal 3:26-4:7; Eph 3:14-21; Phil 3:9, 20-21; 4:19; 1 Pt 1:3-5; 2 Pt 1:4; 1 Jn 3:2-3)
These ancient pictures are also meant to tell us, just as the Chronicler intended them to tell his own people, that the best is yet to come. The promises have not yet come true in all their perfection, not, at least, in a way that we can see now. But one day we will. Jesus will return, not as the Suffering Servant, but as the Lord of glory. He will drive away these shadows that cloud our vision, pull away the shroud that covers mankind, and put an end to death’s gloomy reign. Then every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess him as Lord. “Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne…establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness…forever” (Isa 9:7). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 2 Chr, 132)
. . . heaven may be defined as follows: Heaven is the place where God most fully makes known his presence to bless. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1159)
But here in the heavenly city we will be able to endure the power and holiness of the presence of God’s glory, for we will live continually in the atmosphere of the glory of God. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (21:33). This will be the fulfillment of God’s purpose to call us “to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pt 1:3): then we shall dwell continually in “the presence of his glory with rejoicing” (Jude 1:24; cf. Rom 3:23; 8:18; 9:23; 1 Cor 15:43; 2 Cor 3:18; 4:17; Col 3:4; 1 Thes 2:12; Heb 2:10; 1 Pt 5:1, 4, 10). (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1164)
It may seem strange that she should bring such a costly gift to one who did not need it, for he was richer far than she. But that is just the reason God asks our gifts. He does not go begging for help for His cause because He is in distress, but He tells us that all the fowls of the mountain are His, the cattle upon a thousand hills (Ps 50:10-11) and all the gold of earth’s mines, and that He asks our offerings not for His sake, but for ours, that we may be kingly, too, and like Him in our largeness of heart and fellowship of service. He gives us the privilege of taking part with Him in the work of these momentous days. Some day we shall understand what a privilege and honor it was. We are to bring Him our gifts as the recognition of His sovereignty and our trust and love, and He, like Solomon, will show His character by giving back to us more than we brought. (A.B. Simpson, The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, 389)
Tribute and esteem are, relatively speaking, universal. The section begins with “all the kings of the earth,” has “all the kings” at its heart, and closes with “all lands.” This position of universal power and prestige is traced back to God’s endowment in the case of Solomon’s wisdom (9:23). Again, the account is intended to transcend history. It foreshadows the coming time when not only would the “kings of Tarshish” and “Sheba” bring tribute, but “all kings” would “fall down” and “all nations serve” the restored Davidic king (Ps 72:10-11). The reader of the first Gospel is familiar with prodigious history of this type. The Magi came from the east bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus in His role as King of the Jews (Mt 2:1-12). They “fell down and worshiped” (or “served”) Him. Implicit in Matthew’s account is a fulfillment of Psalm 72 (see also Isa 60:5, 6). It is not of course intended as a complete fulfillment but as an anticipatory one. (Leslie Allen, Mastering the OT, 1, 2 Chr, 249)
The reward of the righteous is described as eternal life, that is, not merely an endless life, but life in all its fullness (Rom 2:7). The fullness of this life is enjoyed in communion with God, which is really the essence of eternal life, Rv 21:3. They will see God in Jesus Christ face to face, will find full satisfaction in Him, will rejoice in Him, and will glorify Him. We should not think of the joys of heaven, however, as exclusively spiritual. There will be something corresponding to the body. There will be recognition and social intercourse on an elevated plane. It is also evident from Scripture that there will be degrees in the bliss of heaven, Dn 12:3; 2 Cor 9:6. (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 737)
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, bk 3, ch 10)
My suspicion is that when sin affected man so deeply, it touched his spiritual dimensions most severely of all, while leaving the original physical appetites and desires virtually undiminished. Our instinctive preoccupations with food, sexual pleasure, and security are probably close to their original levels. It may be helpful to speculate that man in his sinless nature once probably had as great, if not greater, desire for communion with the Creator as he has for the satisfaction of the natural and very real appetites and instincts that we live with today. (Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World, 146)
Christian interpretation has developed the passage along the two prominent themes, Solomon’s wealth and wisdom. The magi from the East with their gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh repeat the journey of the queen of Sheba; the wealth and admiration of the Gentiles flow to Israel’s king as a realization of prophetic hopes (Isa 60:6; Ps 72:10, 15). Jesus himself appeals to the passage (Mt 12:42; Lk 11:31) in commenting that the queen “came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.” (Raymond B. Dillard, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 15, 75)
Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God.
The opposite of covetousness is contentment in God. When contentment in God decreases, covetousness for gain increases. That’s why Paul says in Col 3:5 (RSV) that covetousness is idolatry. “Put to death what is earthly in you; fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. It’s idolatry because the contentment that the heart should be getting from God, it starts to get from something else.” (John Piper, Future Grace, 221)
Lyle Schaller writes: “In any discussion of intentional change it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of discontent. Without discontent with the present situation there can be no planned, internally motivated and directed intentional change. And this is the job of the change agent: to ‘rub raw the sores of discontent.’” (Aubrey Malphurs, Pouring New Wine into Old Wineskins, 129)
What if being human means to keep vigil, to long to be free, to battle with pain, to be discontented with the fallen world in which we live to weep, to hunger, thirst, to mourn to wait. What if to become inhumane is to accept this fallen world as the norm? (Paraphrase of Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out, 24)
“Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.” -Jean-Paul Sartre
Our faith, as believers, signifies that death is not symbolized by a period, meaning a complete stop to life, but by a comma, confirming there is more to follow. The best is yet to come. -Harold Kohn
“All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever”( C. S. Lewis; The Problem of Pain)
Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -Susan Ertz (RD 10/00, 73)
Worship point: You will never know life in all of its abundance until you know Jesus. And when you know Jesus it will be easy for you to worship because you will know that you have a life and those without Jesus can never have a real life.
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things the beauty, the memory of our own past are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (C. S. Lewis; The Weight of Glory)
Death is the godly man’s wish, the wicked man’s fear. (Samuel Bolton; The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 46)
We know we need to return to a former glory whose status eludes us but whose lure demands our attentions. — Pastor Keith
Spiritual Challenge: Never stop striving to know more and more about the comprehensive “life” God desires to bring to you through Christ Jesus. Never stop asking God for more light to see what Jesus has done. Never stop seeking to discover more about God through His Word and His creation. Never stop knocking in pursuit of what God wants you to enjoy.
Seen on a bumper sticker on I-94 September 6th, 2012 “Don’t let the car fool you. My treasure is in heaven.”
C.S. Lewis preached in 1941:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (John Piper, Desiring God, 88)
Quotes to Note:
And where is it to be found? We may let that enlightened lady the queen of Sheba have the last word. She is reported in 1 Kgs 10:9 as saying to Solomon: “The LORD your God…has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel.” The Chronicler’s version puts his sermon in a nutshell: “The LORD your God…has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the LORD your God” (9:8). Solomon is only the temporary occupant. It is the Lord’s throne, and today we rejoice to submit to the last and greatest of the rulers of God’s choice. Where Christ by his Holy Spirit is enthroned in the hearts of his people, there the blessings are poured out. So we are back after all with the types. “The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth” to see the power of Solomon, to share his worship, to marvel at his riches, and to hear his wisdom, “and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Lk 11:31). (Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chr, 161-62)
Christ:
Our Hope of Glory
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