Week 19: An Unchanging Word in a Changing World | Day 4

Tasks for this week:

  1. Watch all three parts of An Unchanging Word in a Changing World
  2. Complete daily Bible reading
  3. Memorize Psalm 139:1-3 and Psalm 139:15-16

Week 19: Day 4

Today’s F260 Bible reading: 1 Kings 3; 6

3:1 Solomon made an alliance by marriage with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; he married Pharaoh’s daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he could finish building his residence and the temple of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 2Now the people were offering sacrifices at the high places, because in those days a temple had not yet been built to honor the Lord. 3Solomon demonstrated his loyalty to the Lord by following the practices of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for it had the most prominent of the high places. Solomon would offer up 1,000 burnt sacrifices on the altar there. 5One night in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. God said, “Tell me what I should give you.” 6Solomon replied, “You demonstrated great loyalty to your servant, my father David, as he served you faithfully, properly, and sincerely. You have maintained this great loyalty to this day by allowing his son to sit on his throne. 7Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in my father David’s place, even though I am only a young man and am inexperienced. 8Your servant stands among your chosen people; they are a great nation that is too numerous to count or number. 9So give your servant a discerning mind so he can make judicial decisions for your people and distinguish right from wrong. Otherwise no one is able to make judicial decisions for this great nation of yours.” 10The Lord was pleased that Solomon made this request. 11God said to him, “Because you asked for the ability to make wise judicial decisions, and not for long life, or riches, or vengeance on your enemies, 12I grant your request and give you a wise and discerning mind superior to that of anyone who has preceded or will succeed you. 13Furthermore, I am giving you what you did not request—riches and honor so that you will be the greatest king of your generation. 14If you follow my instructions by obeying my rules and regulations, just as your father David did, then I will grant you long life.” 15Solomon then woke up and realized it was a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant, offered up burnt sacrifices, presented peace offerings, and held a feast for all his servants. 16Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house. 18Then three days after I had my baby, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one else in the house except the two of us. 19This woman’s child suffocated during the night when she rolled on top of him. 20She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your servant was sleeping. She put him in her arms, and put her dead son in my arms. 21I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.” 22The other woman said, “No! My son is alive; your son is dead!” But the first woman replied, “No, your son is dead; my son is alive.” Each presented her case before the king. 23The king said, “One says, ‘My son is alive; your son is dead,’ while the other says, ‘No, your son is dead; my son is alive.’” 24The king ordered, “Get me a sword.” So they placed a sword before the king. 25The king then said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other!” 26The real mother spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were awakened. She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him. Let them cut him in two!” 27The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.” 28When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected the king, for they realized that he possessed divine wisdom to make judicial decisions. (NET Bible)
6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, during the month Ziv (the second month), he began building the Lord’s temple. 2The temple King Solomon built for the Lord was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 3The porch in front of the main hall of the temple was 30 feet long, corresponding to the width of the temple. It was 15 feet wide, extending out from the front of the temple. 4He made framed windows for the temple. 5He built an extension all around the walls of the temple’s main hall and Holy Place and constructed side rooms in it. 6The bottom floor of the extension was 7½ feet wide, the middle floor 9 feet wide, and the third floor 10½ feet wide. He made ledges on the temple’s outer walls so the beams would not have to be inserted into the walls. 7As the temple was being built, only stones shaped at the quarry were used; the sound of hammers, pickaxes, or any other iron tool was not heard at the temple while it was being built. 8The entrance to the bottom level of side rooms was on the south side of the temple; stairs went up to the middle floor and then on up to the third floor. 9He finished building the temple and covered it with rafters and boards made of cedar. 10He built an extension all around the temple; it was 7½ feet high and it was attached to the temple by cedar beams. 11 The Lord’s message came to Solomon: 12“As for this temple you are building, if you follow my rules, observe my regulations, and obey all my commandments, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. 13I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.” 14So Solomon finished building the temple. 15He constructed the walls inside the temple with cedar planks; he paneled the inside with wood from the floor of the temple to the rafters of the ceiling. He covered the temple floor with boards made from the wood of evergreens. 16He built a wall 30 feet in from the rear of the temple as a partition for an inner sanctuary that would be the Most Holy Place. He paneled the wall with cedar planks from the floor to the rafters. 17The main hall in front of the inner sanctuary was 60 feet long. 18The inside of the temple was all cedar and was adorned with carvings of round ornaments and of flowers in bloom. Everything was cedar; no stones were visible. 19He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord could be placed there. 20The inner sanctuary was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. He plated it with gold, as well as the cedar altar. 21Solomon plated the inside of the temple with gold. He hung golden chains in front of the inner sanctuary and plated the inner sanctuary with gold. 22He plated the entire inside of the temple with gold, as well as the altar inside the inner sanctuary. 23In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood; each stood 15 feet high. 24Each of the first cherub’s wings was 7½ feet long; its entire wingspan was 15 feet. 25The second cherub also had a wingspan of 15 feet; it was identical to the first in measurements and shape. 26Each cherub stood 15 feet high. 27He put the cherubim in the inner sanctuary of the temple. Their wings were spread out. One of the first cherub’s wings touched one wall and one of the other cherub’s wings touched the opposite wall. The first cherub’s other wing touched the second cherub’s other wing in the middle of the room. 28He plated the cherubim with gold. 29On all the walls around the temple, inside and out, he carved cherubim, palm trees, and flowers in bloom. 30He plated the floor of the temple with gold, inside and out. 31He made doors of olive wood at the entrance to the inner sanctuary; the pillar on each doorpost was five sided. 32On the two doors made of olive wood he carved cherubim, palm trees, and flowers in bloom, and he plated them with gold. He plated the cherubim and the palm trees with hammered gold. 33In the same way he made doorposts of olive wood for the entrance to the main hall, only with four-sided pillars. 34He also made two doors out of wood from evergreens; each door had two folding leaves. 35He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flowers in bloom and plated them with gold, leveled out over the carvings. 36He built the inner courtyard with three rows of chiseled stones and a row of cedar beams. 37In the month of Ziv in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple. 38In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul (the eighth month) the temple was completed in accordance with all its specifications and blueprints. It took seven years to build. (NET Bible)

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),
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