“When Hiram heard Shlomo’s message, he was very happy and said, ‘Blessed be Adonai today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people.‘”-1 Kings 5:21
When we last left off, Solomon had just entered into a monumental collaboration with King Hiram to build a house for the Lord.
To kick things off, Hiram was requested to have his men cut cedar trees from his land.
This included territory in Lebanon.
But, as we discovered yesterday from the passage in 1st Chronicles, David had already stockpiled a ton of materials for this very project.
To be clear, Hiram wasn’t handing over his lumber as a gift or tribute.
Solomon made it clear he would pay no matter the cost.
He would even send his own laborers up to Lebanon to help Hiram’s workers out.
But Hiram’s men would take the lead, given their expertise in selecting and cutting down the trees.
As I pointed out earlier, this is a beautiful picture of Jew and Gentile working together in peace and love to accomplish something wonderful for the Lord.
King Hiram was so overjoyed that he proclaimed…
“‘Blessed be Adonai today, who has given David a wise son to rule this great people.’”
What’s interesting is that Hiram didn’t declare a blessing in the name of Adonai.
He declared a blessing in the name of YEHOVAH.
He used the tetragrammaton, to use a 2-dime word you’d normally only hear in a seminary.
However, don’t get too excited.
Just because Hiram used the God of Israel’s personal name in no way means he worshipped or accepted the Lord as his own God.
It was a sign of deep respect for Israel’s God and the Jewish people.
There’s an important takeaway here.
If there’s anything I despise, it’s the condescending attitude that some Christians take towards the Jewish people because they “still haven’t accepted Jesus as their Messiah,” as they put it.
There’s a lesson here, homies.
Instead of coming at the Jewish people from the attitude of you’re wrong because you’ve rejected the Messiah…
Why not take the approach that we love you because we worship the same God as you?
Ya feel me here?
If you’re a Christian, the roots of your faith grew out of the faith of Israel anyway, man.
So get off your high horse, homies.
What Paul said in the Book of Romans is most applicable here.
You are a wild Gentile branch that has been grafted into the Hebrew olive tree through your faith in the Jewish Messiah.
The olive tree supports you, NOT the other way around.
That’s why I think it’s idiotic when Christians turn against Israel or the Jewish people.
They’re literally attacking the spiritual foundation that undergirds their faith.
If anything, out of their own self-interest, Christians should be Israel’s most loyal allies.
Why?
Simply because the Bible repeatedly shows that God has a special relationship with Israel.
From Genesis to Revelation, we see that God blesses those who bless Israel and stands against those who come against her.
Whether you like that or not, that’s the pattern you see throughout Scripture.
I hope you’re feeling me here, man.
Done.
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