As a reminder, the history of the Kings of Israel which we read in the 2 books of Chronicles gives us a different perspective of the period than the books of Kings for Chronicles was written after the Jews returned from exile. The main focus of the writer is on faithful worship of the Lord in the light of Israel’s past history. This 2nd book resumes the history with the reign of Solomon. The writer immediately focuses us on God as our first priority. As Solomon took over the Kingdom of Israel he did so with an act of worship before the Ark of the Lord at Gibeah. This demonstrated that he desired the Lord and dedicate His life to God.
The Lord responded to His worship with a promise to grant Solomon any thing he asked. Solomon did not ask anything for himself. He asked for wisdom and knowledge so that he could perform the work of the Lord and serve God’s people with righteousness and sound judgment.
The Chronicler wrote of this incident because he wanted to teach his readers a lesson about prayer. We must not be afraid to ask God to fulfill His promises, but He is not a genie that will grant us every wish. He wants us to ask for that which will help us perform the work of establishing His kingdom. As with Solomon, once we have the Lord’s agenda as our first priority, He will bless us with the wisdom and guidance to perform His work. We will also find that those who follow the Lord’s advice will be blessed with prosperity as well as security. These are fitting words to ponder as we approach the end of the year. We should submit our will to that of the Lord in the coming year 2012 so that we can be at peace no matter what occurs.
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