1 Kings 5-6

(July 21, 2014)

                The highlight of these chapters was the voice of the Lord speaking to Solomon.  Sometimes I think that we feel that the scriptures tell of a time much different than our own, when the voice of the Lord came readily to the prophets, but I doubt that is true.  We have the voice of the Lord recorded frequently in the scriptures, but that is because we are reading scriptures.  It is both a highly spiritual record and compresses decades sometimes in a few chapters.  If we were to count the number of times the Lord spoke to Solomon, my guess is that it would likely be in single digits.

                Is that not consistent with our own lives?  Do we not have the voice of the Lord come to us that often?  Maybe not every day – we get the feeling that it should come every day from the scriptures – but enough to keep us on track, and doing what the Lord wants us to do.  In my life, I have had enough miraculous events happen that if I were to condense the whole of my experiences into a chapter or two in the Old Testament, I think I could fit right in – and some future reader likely would wonder whether things were just different in my day or whether I was gullible or superstitious to think the Lord would speak to me like this.  I don’t think I am that different in my experiences from others – I  wonder whether we all have miracles enough to make us live lives as the prophets of old, but we forget or don’t notice or downplay them because they are only occurring every few years (as if the Lord was on Solomon’s speed-dial).

                Anyhow, the Lord’s words were the highlight here.  Notice what he said to Solomon – Solomon was the build the temple, but the building of the temple (while necessary) was not sufficient.  He also had to live righteously and keep the commandments.  I think that we in the Church sometimes believe that our membership in the Church is enough – we avoid serious transgressions and sins, and given enough time we will reach Exaltation.  But just having the temple in our lives is insufficient as well – we must also be continually striving to live the commandments, so the Lord will dwell with us, as He did with Israel.