“Adonai, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant with your servants and show them grace, provided they live in your presence with all their heart.” – 1 Kings 8:23
There’s another point I gotta make about Solomon’s opening statement when he dedicated the Temple.
Did you notice he says that Israel’s blessings are contingent upon their obedience?
Israel is blessed provided they walk in the Lord’s ways.
If they stray from that path, the blessings will be replaced by heavy discipline.
The same principle is laid out for us in the New Testament:
“If firstfruits are holy, the whole loaf.
Holy root means the branches are holy.
Some branches were broken off, you grafted.
You, a wild olive, joined among them.
You now share the rich olive root.
So don’t boast as better than branches.
Remember, you don’t support the root.
The root is the one supporting you.
You may say, branches were broken off.
They were broken off so I enter.
True, but they fell through lacking trust.
You remain only because of your trust.
So don’t become arrogant; instead, be terrified.
God did not spare natural branches either.
So take God’s kindness and severity seriously.
Severity toward those who fell away.
Kindness toward you, if you remain.
Otherwise, you too will be cut off.”
—Romans 11:16–22 CJB
One almost gets the feeling that Paul had Solomon’s words in mind here when he penned these words.
The bottom line is that God’s kindness ain’t something we take for granted.
Paul makes it clear we gotta continue walking faithfully with God if we want to remain in His kindness.
What does faithfulness look like?
It starts with trust…
And then moves to totally surrendering our lives to Him.
Now this is a point where a lot of Christians start smoking too much marijuana.
They think all you gotta do is walk down an aisle at some evangelical event…
Say the sinner’s prayer…
And then when they get home…
It’s right back to the pork and porno binges.
I ain’t joking.
What I just said is a lot more accurate than you can imagine.
And I’ve been there myself.
So I ain’t judging anyone here.
Here’s the bottom line.
In the Apostle Paul’s words above…
Trust is NOT just something you say.
It’s gotta show up in how you live, homie.
That means you show your trust by obeying God’s commandments.
It really is that simple.
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
“Wait a minute.
I thought that trusting God today means…
All I gotta do is put my trust in Christ…
And then it doesn’t matter how much fornicating I do afterward.
I mean the Messiah’s blood has got my adulteries and other sins covered, right?”
Look man.
While that may sound cool in theory…
Pay close attention to who Paul is talking to here.
He ain’t talking to people who are thinking about following Messiah.
He’s talking to people who’ve already confessed faith in him.
They’ve been grafted into the olive tree.
He’s warning folks who’ve already been saved (to use Christian speak).
That makes his warning in Romans 11 serious all hell.
Paul is telling Believers they need to persist in God’s kindness.
This ain’t a warning to people who’ve never put their trust in Messiah.
And this brings us right back to Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings.
Solomon’s prayer is a blessing…
But it also contains a serious warning.
And that warning is that…
God’s favor is connected to walking faithfully before Him.
This matches EXACTLY what Paul was saying in Romans 11.
Ya feeling me here?
Done.
Leave a Reply