1 Kings 5

1 Kings 5:1-18

Breaking Three Commandments 1 Kings 21:1-29; 1 Kings 1:1-53; 1 Kings 2:1-46; 1 Kings 3:1-28; 1 Kings 4:1-34; 1 Kings 5:1-18; 1 Kings 6:1-38; 1 Kings 7:1-51; 1 Kings 8:1-66; 1 Kings 9:1-28; 1 Kings 10:1-29; 1 Kings 11:1-43; 1 Kings 12:1-33; 1 Kings 13:1-34; 1 Kings 14:1-31; 1 Kings 15:1-34; 1 Kings 16:1-34 From a worldly point of view Naboth might have done a good stroke of business by selling his estate to. Ahab. A royal price and assured favor might have been his-but he had a conscience! Above the persuasive tones of the monarch’ s offer sounded the voice of God: “ The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine.” See Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:7; Ezekiel 46:18. Ahab knew perfectly well that Jezebel could not give him the property of another except by foul means, but he took pains not to inquire. Though the direct orders for Naboth’ s death did not come from him, yet, by his silence, he was an accomplice and an accessory; and divine justice penetrates all such specious excuses. God holds us responsible for wrongs which we do not arrest, though we have the power. The crime was blacker because of the pretext of religion, as suggested by a fast. See also 2 Kings 9:26. The blood of murdered innocence cries to God, and his requital, though delayed, is inevitable. See Revelation 6:9-10.

1 Kings 5:7-18

Preparations for the Great Task 1 Kings 5:7-18 It was good for Hiram and his Tyrians to be associated with the servants of Solomon. Together they hewed immense blocks of stone, some of which were thirty feet in length and six feet in breadth, and which still form foundations on the ancient Temple site. Together they hewed down and fashioned the cedar and fir trees on the slopes of Lebanon. May we not learn from this partnership that Gentiles are to be associated with Jews in that one holy Temple, which through the ages is growing into a habitation of God by His Spirit? Ephesians 2:21-22. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision. The treaty between the two kingdoms was eminently wise, because they differed so widely-the one being pastoral, the other commercial. It was wise for Peter and John to enter into close friendship, and together ascend the steps to the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, Acts 3:1-3. Be content to be a hewer on the mountains, shaping rough blocks of granite, but, do something toward building the Temple of God, which arises slowly amid the wreck of all human structures.