Mindcraft

“There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.” 2 Chronicles 9:2

Solomon was the wonder of the ancient world. In far away places, they heard tell of a little kingdom to the east, or to the north, to the south, or perhaps westward, where a strange people lived, whose king was blessed by the gods with great wisdom. The Queen of the South wasn’t so sure what she thought about all this. Who could believe such things anyway? She must find out for herself.

The event is well known and still cherished by several cultures (some hit and miss art stands in its memorial). Of all the peoples who sent to inquire about Solomon (1 Kings 4:34), why is Sheba’s visit recorded in Scripture? Well, for one thing, she asked a lot of questions. She was wise and inquisitive (which are sometimes the same thing, and sometimes the opposite!). In her case it was highest wisdom; the Lord himself speaks in her honor (Matt 12:42).

Her questions gave Solomon a chance to spread his wings. How high could he reach? What limits were set on his knowledge? There had to be a roof, a ceiling past which he could not go. But there wasn’t. For all practical purposes from the human point of view, he knew everything. This was quite astonishing. Whatever wisdom or knowledge you desired, it was there, like treasure, hidden away in the vast mind of the king. He reminds me of Another.

If you want something undone yourself

“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15

The Garden sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. It seems a brief moment, but it is a moment of, shall we say, great moment. The transactions which take place here teach us the lay of the land: God’s goodness, God’s holiness, and God’s grace—his goodness in creating the Garden and giving it to Adam and Eve, his holiness in reserving one tree for himself to remind them that he is better than all the best things, and his grace in promising mercy even before he pronounced the curses of sin upon the man and his wife.

The One who walked with them in paradise was God the Son. No one has ever seen God the Father, not even Adam and Even (John 1:18). God the Son has always been the brightness of his glory to mankind, “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man” (Prov 8:31). So when he told the serpent that one of their children would crush his head and undo his wicked work, what he was really saying was, “I’m coming here as one of them to finish this myself.” As the saying goes, If you want something done right, do it yourself, or in this case, If you want something undone right, undo it yourself.

It was all a dream

“They are like a dream.” Psalm 90:5

Moses was a man of deep feeling. When he prayed, he meant it. This psalm is one of his prayers, and it is one of our treasures. Apparently, he was the first national prophet and the first psalmist; Jesus is the Last.

This poetic prayer is a sober look at our sinful morality in light of God’s holy eternality. We are evil and easily killed; God sees all and lives forever. The saying before us—they are like a dream—springs out of these thoughts.

Our likeness to dreams comes as a shock. Is that what our lives really are? Before techie-thoughtie leaders talked about the simulation, the man of God talked about the strangely dreamlike nature of our lives. At first it sounds like a good thing. But what Moses means is not so pleasant: we vanish like a dream, and are gone forever.

The longing feeling you get when you wake up from a good dream is a microdose of the pain we feel when people die. They’re gone and we can’t find them anymore. But that is not the end. Eternity welcomes all, some to life, some to death that never dies.

Listen! For the sake of your own souls, and for the sake of your loved ones, make sure you are safe in Christ today. Flee to him and you will (in the words of another psalm) “be like those who dream” (Psalm 126:1).

Got you covered

“There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb” 2 Chronicles 5:10

What’s up with the ark? Well, God sat enthroned atop the ark, from whence he reigned among the people of Israel. Incidentally (or was it?) the throne covered something, the commandments. Perhaps… No, it can’t be. But yes. It must be. The mercy seat, where mercy was dispensed, covered the peoples’ sins of commandment breaking.

But it didn’t really, did it? Only the blood of Jesus washes away sin (Heb 10:4). I suppose we have to take this as yet another figure of the atonement; the text forces us once again to consider Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus ascended to the true throne of grace once for all for all of us, and our law-breaking is covered by his reign of grace. Gone. All gone! Let us go to the throne of grace today to receive grace to help, that we may run in the way of God’s commandments with the heavenly joy and energy that come from divine forgiveness, full and free.

Head Lights

“Your eye is the lamp of your body.” Luke 11:34

What you look at matters. Your eyes allow light into your body, so the images you see are brought within. But what you think about is even more important than what you look at, for the things we think about make the closest approach to our selves. The eyes of your heart let things into your soul.

When you look at wickedness longingly, it walks right in and makes itself at home in your heart. When idols consume your thoughts they consume your self. If you set sin sludging through your feelings, is it any wonder that darkness is formed in you? This is more than negative thinking, it’s necrothought. Death is welcomed when sin is treasured.

So look to Christ. Those who do are radiant. Their faces brighten and their souls come alive under the golden rays of the Sun of Righteouness. Think about Christ today. Think about how far he traveled, how much he suffered, how greatly he loved, and how powerfully he won, to save you. Such things will lighten the soul even as honey brightened the eyes of Jonathan.

Spiritual smell-good

“for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him” 2 Chronicles 2:4

Smells. The best are heavenly, the worst are hellish. The worship of God in ancient Israel included aromas of the most pleasant sort, as Solomon says here. In fact, he came to really know about this stuff. Sheba blessed him with mad spices not long after (2 Chron 9:9).

The temple smelled delicious all the time. Why? What did it mean? It meant that the worship rising from that place was pleasing to God. Our assemblies are now cloudless. Apart from scented smoke machines for the seeker sensitives, the incense has passed away. But our gatherings do bear the pleasing aroma of worship. Especially prayer: “golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev 5:8).

Our prayers are sweet to God. Doesn’t that make you want to pray? Prayer works a wonderful fragrance into our whole lives. A prayerless life is a stench to both God and men, and is not easily masked. The Way is open. Go now and pour your heart out before him who cares for you.

Gimme the loot!

90s hip hop artist Notorious B.I.G. famously uttered these words (professional advice: don’t listen to the song). Another emcee spelled out the matter as follows:

Surrender your goods and your merchandise for no purchase price, it’s certainly a heist.

It’s a stick up!

We all know that our Lord likens himself to a thief in the night. By this he intends, of course, his stealthy return. But, shockingly, he also pictures salvation as a straight up armed robbery (Luke 11:21-22). Satan is a strong man, well-armed, who imprisons sinners as his valuables. But a Stronger Than He lays assault to his castle, kicks in the door, waves the 4-4, and says (if you will), “Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot!”

In his death, Jesus stripped Satan of his armor and snatched up his armaments, undoing his work, ransacking his vaults, and setting us free from the kingdom of death. Our loving Savior launched a full-scale spiritual operation for the recovery of sinners like us. No purchase price. He took us from the devil by force; we are his beloved spoils of war. The cross was a cosmic stick up at the devil’s front door in broad daylight.

Stick em up.

333

“Choose what you will: either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.” 1 Chron 21:11–12

David was moved by Satan to number the people. How often have we taken prideful stock of our possessions, successes, or allies? (And, more likely than not, we have found that the stock was much lower than we expected! Perhaps the Lord protects us more than we imagine.) The people of Israel were many, but whatever flush of gratification David felt, it was quickly pushed aside. He had other things to think about: Gad the seer appeared with a peculiar dilemma for him.

Some of my readers will remember the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. Perhaps you recall agonizing over which course to take. Well, here was a real puzzler for David. He must choose his own exaction. He casts himself upon the Lord, asking only that he not be given into the hands of men. And the Lord chooses pestilence. It is the severest, but shortest, of the three. This tells us something about the God whose “mercy is very great” (v 13).

By the end of the matter, David is doing a very noble thing by calling for the judgment to fall upon him instead of the people (v 17). This whole situation makes us think of our beloved Savior, who took upon himself (and himself alone) all our judgment. His too was a suffering of three, but one that David couldn’t handle, even had he wished. It was too pointed, too concentrated: not three years, three months, or even three days. It was three hours of God’s wrath. “Third time pays for all.”

Release the River

“God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like a bursting flood.” 1 Chronicles 14:11

This was such a unique victory that David named the place after it. A powerful burst of divine energy had surged through David and his troops, overwhelming the Philistine forces. God promised never to flood the earth again, but he never said there wouldn’t be little floods like this. In fact, all the battles God has called us to wage are in some measure this very thing: the bursting flood of God’s power and grace to push us right through the enemy.

Sin assaults us on every side. This very hour temptations are swirling about in your head; your heart is being wooed by the sirens of ten thousand unspiritual distractions. The assassins of unbelief have loaded their rifles and marked thee for death. What shall we do? Cower before them? Surrender? No, we shall trust God to decimate them all through our David, the Lord Jesus Christ who loves us, who has gone before us with swift power and decisive victory straight through every enemy.

Say word

“…but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” Matthew 8:8

The centurion had faith, and apparently a good bit more than God’s chosen people (v 10). His servant was in a great deal of pain and Jesus offered to come heal him. But the Roman soldier stopped the Lord and asked that he only say the word, and it would be done. And he did, and it was.

Many of us are stuck at home for a little while. How can we improve our situation? By pondering the faith of the centurion. He saw spiritual realities. He knows he has no power to heal his suffering servant. He even knows (bold belief!) that Jesus’ physical presence will add nothing. What was really needed was a command from the top of the ranks.

How does this apply to us? There are many things we cannot do right now. What a wonderful time to reflect on all the things that Jesus can do from where he sits. Let’s crowd his throne with prayers for things like salvations, comforts, and merciful healings to go out into the world. It’s nothing but a word to him, for all these things are under his pulsating authority.