Picture this: deep in the night, a voice calls out to you. The speaker identifies Himself as the Lord God. The purpose of His visit? To ask you a simple question:”What do you want? Whatever it is, name it and you’ve got it!” What would you say?
This actually happened to a guy named Solomon. This is how the story goes:
2 Chronicles Chapter 1
1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.
2 Then Solomon spoke to all Israel—to the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, to the judges and to all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families- 3 and Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place at Gibeon, for God’s Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the LORD’s servant had made in the desert. 4 Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was in Gibeon in front of the tabernacle of the LORD; so Solomon and the assembly inquired of him there. 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
Imagine that! 1000 burnt offerings. If you read this chapter from the beginning, you notice the Lord asking Solomon to make that sacrifice, right? Wrong. At no point is there a record of the Lord instructing
Solomon to make such an enormous offering.
So here’s a guy, recently crowned king and what is his first executive action? Come on folks, lets offer 1000 burnt offerings to the Lord.The guys probably said to him- you mean a hundred to which he replied-… well you get the drift…
How long does it take, to offer 1000 burnt offerings? I mean, for all the technology we have, Kenya Meat Commission kills (or is it harvests?) 1000 animals a day! Whose animals were they to begin with? how many men did it take to get it done? I mean, I think about it and it really strikes me the magnitude of sacrifice that Solomon offered unto the Lord!
No wonder there is no record of the same offer being made by God to anybody else- ask for anything and I will give you. At least none that I have found. No instructions and no precedent and this guy offers God a
sacrifice that He couldn’t ignore. Wow!
what am realy getting from this is;
1.solomon gave it all to God
2.No prior instructions to solomon from God to give.
3.God stoop and looked at David.I mean the offering seriousily caught Gods attention.
We should never limit to God when we are Giving Back to Him.He is the one who has given all that we possess hence making us custodians.
We get our share from Him depending with the way we give back to Him.
Remember He loves a cheerful giver.
I wonder how many things do we do en touch God to stoop.
Am challenged.
wow!!! this amazes me and somehow makes me sad.
more mystifying is that he actually had a response to that question…..now that i think about it….until i went to church and learned about wisdom i knew the least there was to know about it…how did he know what to ask for?? yes yes upon reading you realize that he was constantly conscious of the responsibility ahead of him and the history of his father before him. but still…
its stories like his and that of Daniel that leave me asking myself…what to do?…what to do…..?
i mean, where does a simple Jane Anne and Mary like me start? wow!!!
hi to everyone.BLESS US ALL!!!!!!!!!!
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