365 Reflections

I cannot get past this Proverb as I read through Proverbs 27.  Proverbs 27:21 (ESV) The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise. What a thought on which to meditate. Praise, not problems alone is a test of character. And like problems, the test of praise does not produce character, it reveals it.  What happens to you when people approve of you? That is what praise expresses. Someone or some group thinks you've done well, you're a stand-up person, you're on the top of your game. You've just entered a testing ground of character.  One textual note. In the original text, the word "tested" is not there. It is inferred and translated into "tested" by the ESV and "valued" by the NKJV. The point? You know yourself in relation to the consideration you place on others' opinions of you. And therein lies the danger.  Now if you know anything at all about people it is the temporary nature of their pra...

If Solomon had a problem with women, his son Rehoboam had a problem with friends. He really needed to know they liked him. The story goes that after Solomon's death, Rehoboam is beseeched by the people who are tired of working so hard for the royal family. They need a reprieve. And they ask for it from the newly anointed king. Very oddly, he doesn't know what to do. He needs time to think. 1 Kings 12:4–5 (ESV) “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away. And three days go by and this is how Rehoboam responds: 1 Kings 12:12–15 (ESV) So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13 And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, 14 he spoke to them according to the couns...

1 Samuel 10:25–27 (ESV)   Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord . Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. 26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. The problems with Saul's kingship begin early. Here we have what looks like a noble moment. The nation is provided a copy of the rights and duties of the kingship by Samuel. But the moment fails to live up to the Lord's Word concerning the kings of Israel. We have to go back to Deuteronomy to see how God stipulated the king's relationship to the book of the Lord. Deuteronomy 17:18–20 (ESV) “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical...