(in the voice of the late legend Doc Harris)
Previously, on Seasonal Inventory – October 01-10, 2024 (290/365):
(end voice)
Now here’s something – I’m finding out that there are certain declarations to be made depending on the season… and for the record, I’m going to go through snippets, words and sentences I’ve been taking down in passing as I let life happen these recent days, and I’m not going to be surprised if we find Scripture and consequent words to say and declare, appropriate for this season.
…And here’s what we have so far:
Christ is our wisdom from God. Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification (our holiness) and our redemption.
Through Christ, we are blessed. The community rejoices when we are blessed, and we are blessed when the community rejoices.
Christ humbled Himself and was given the greatest honor.
Christ humbled Himself, and we were honored.
Christ was honored, and we are humbled.
Because of Christ, we have the opportunity and privilege of prayer. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray, reminding ourselves of His presence, keeping corruption at bay.
We pray, and we have divine guidance and Godly wisdom for the power we have.
Because of Christ, we have the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us into all truth. We proclaim Christ, and we have victory; No weapon formed against us shall prosper, no tongue that speaks against us shall condemn, and our enemies will fight among themselves.
Apparently I started this with ‘snippets, words and sentences’ from the month of October, but I think there are a couple of things here and there from September we can draw declarations from as well.
And last September, someone somewhere (I really should put the time and place WITH the actual words and sentences, huh?) quoted this verse:
‘…but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.’
Isaiah 40:31
We love to hear this verse, and, sure, we really ought to be focusing or appreciating the fact and Truth that all we have to do is wait on the Lord, or wait FOR the Lord – that is, versus fawning so much over the benefits: We shall renew our strength, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint. Beautiful.
But there’s also that one part where it says we mount up with wings like eagles… and it never fails, there are a lot of speakers, not even pastors necessarily, that like to follow that up with the story of the old eagle.
What story? You know, the one where they share how when the eagle sees its beak and claws are dull, it has to decide then and there – to do nothing, waste away, and die, or to smash its beak and beat its claws off for a new set to grow back.
The eagle must choose between comfort unto death, or excruciating pain, unto a new lease in life.
All of a sudden the following verses from this Psalm of David takes on a darker tone than we’re used to:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalms 103:1-5
But maybe not. Maybe all of this is for us to say that in our own seasons of pain, we’re having our own old beaks and claws beaten and scrubbed off, to the flesh and until we bleed ourselves.
In this pain, in this suffering and the toiling, may we continue to bless the Lord. May we look beyond the pain, and remember our Savior – For through Christ, our iniquity has been forgiven, our diseases have been healed.
Through Christ, our lives have been redeemed from the pit, and we have been crowned with steadfast love and mercy.
Indeed, even in our seasons of pain, we are satisfied with good, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Every organization is a kingdom of its own, more or less. And every king has succession and/or continuity in his mind…
…Or, at least they should.
We see in the case of Solomon, who died suddenly, that in all the wisdom God gave him – and I’m making a pretty bold and possibly arrogant assumption here – that succession and continuity wasn’t necessarily one of his priorities.
This is, after all, the famous wise king who famously managed so many wives and so many concubines… but here’s a shocker. One would assume that he had a lot of children with these ladies, but if we’re to base a number from the Bible, we’re going to fall extremely short of the numbers we expect. I’m drawing this from a lady who posted on Quora:
“King Solomon had a lot of wives so you would think he would have a lot of children. He may have had a lot of children but scripture only records three. Two daughters are mentioned in 1 Kings 3 and one son is mentioned in 1 Kings se. The latter was Rehoboam, whose mother was an Ammonitess.“
… and as to why there were no records of any other possible children, a fellow Filipino posts a dark theory:
“King Solomon according to the bible had 700 wives, 300+ mistresses. I doubt he stopped at 1000. He wasn’t impotent or infertile because the bible records that he had at least a son that later succeeded his throne. Mathematically he should have dozens upon dozens of kids if not hundreds if not thousands.
Strangely the bible makes no mention at all of other children of grand proportions. As if having hundreds of women didnt make God mad enough, King Solomon made God really mad by also worshipping an ancient pagan god called Molech.
Molech was a child sacrifice god. I think he impregnated all his women and had them throw their kids in the fires of Molech. There is circumstantial evidence that his wives offered burnt sacrifices to this pagan god”
I’ve always thought of King Solomon as someone who went all out in all he set out to do, based on what he wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes. If he would party, he’d party hard, if he would do businesses, he’d go all out… so it makes sense that if he would marry, he’d go all-in in sowing his royal oats (fans of the original 80’s movie Coming To America would understand)…
…and, though the possibly grisly details may not be mentioned, if he’d worship other gods, well, he’d do a pretty good substantial job in doing so; that’s a pretty tame way of saying it.
I say succession may not have been part of his priorities, because if so, we would have read about it from his own account, or from the account of our other brothers who contributed to the Old Testament.
I’d assume that the same man who wrote ‘train up a child in the way he should go’ could have been more than wise enough to apply what he shared, not only by raising one of his own in the Lord, but also writing it down – I mean, for the latter, I’m sure he did but besides that one verse (which a whole bunch of schools, especially Christian one, use a lot) but honestly, nothing really pops up for me at the moment.
Imagine, we could have had records of endorsement in the end of Ecclesiastes (which I’m assuming was written close to the end of his life). Also, in reading these writings of his, we can say that of all people, he KNEW the causes of blessings and the effects of evil, much so that He wrote just enough Proverbs so we’re able to read one per day for a month!
Also, while we read a lot about how David moved, even in his old age, to secure Solomon’s succession across chapters in the Bible (and, take note, this was even when David knew that God promised him that one of his descendants will always be on the throne)… when it came to Solomon, we only have this to read:
41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? 42 And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.1 Kings 11:41-43
So my point in all this is, if we’re going to be truly thankful about our blessings, we really should take some serious time and thought to have a succession or continuity plan in place – because though we think we live forever in this reality, the fact of the matter is, well, memento mori – we ought to be in constant remembrance that we can die at any moment.
That’s ONE way of seeing it, at least. Praise God, because through Christ we are able to see things in a more excellent way – because the other side of memento mori is memento vivere: Remember to live…
And in our remembrance of life, may we realize and take the initiative to to what we can to continually encourage and celebrate those in our circles… that we leave Christ with them as much as we could, so that no matter what happens, they can pick up where we left off.
You know, I didn’t really think I was going to be writing about Solomon in such detail, I really wanted to just talk about Rehoboam, but here we are.
Aware of memento mori, I move in memento vivere – by the grace of God, by the finished work of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So I declare: I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD (Psalms 118:17)
…and I’d like to append, for intentionality: ‘I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD for the generations to hear and repent.’ (‘Repent’, of course, primarily in the sense of metanoia, or the changing of our mind/the way we think)
Speaking of deeds of the Lord, I’m compounding from what I pulled up earlier in Psalm 103:1-5:
Through Christ I am forgiven of all my iniquity, I am healed of all my diseases.
Through Christ my life is redeemed from the pit, and I am crowned with steadfast love and mercy.
and even in my pain, Christ fully satisfies me with good so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
So far, so good.
From here I’m reading 1 Kings 12:1-14:
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 “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.
6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”
First of all, we would do well to respect the counsel of the people before us. We ought to be thankful for their advise, no matter how we are tempted to assume that it’s outdated.
Outdated it may be, but what our elders, our old men and women have to share to us comes from a greater dataset – or, more years, months, and days of experience. Also, they’ve spent more time in this world to take in wisdom – and true wisdom is timeless, never obsolete.
Second, take note of their choice of words. In the aforementioned true wisdom that they have, they emphasized the people. In other words, they could have said ‘speak good words to them when you answer them,‘ …’and your kingdom (your reign/power/influence) will be assured.’ They realized, as we realized, that without the people, there is no kingdom.
Unfortunately, the son of wise Solomon had this as a response:
8 But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
Rehoboam chose the ‘young men who had grown up with him and stood before him’ over ‘the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive’.
The old men advised: “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever” …
But by the choice of words of the young men, he would not speak good, but bad words to them when he answered them, being a tyrant instead of a servant to the people: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
12 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 counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
And what was the result?:
16 And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents.1 Kings 12:16
Kings and leaders may or may not have old and young counsel… but they should never forget that they are kings and leaders only because of the people. The people did not break away from Rehoboam because he did not listen to the old men, nor did they break away because he only took the counsel of the young men – when they saw that he did not listen to THEM, they ‘went to their tents’.
(Christ) sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Mark 9:35-37
The old men said, ‘be a servant to the people’, and Christ tells his disciples who were arguing about who was the greatest, that for them to be first (He chose to say ‘first’ over ‘greatest’), they should be ‘last of all and servant of all’… and this, at the very least, entails that we should listen to the people – I believe that in so doing, we receive them, and Him who sent them.
The people take priority over the counsel, whether old or young. And there’s no better motivation, no better reason, no better inspiration, no better power for us to be servant to the people, last of all and servant of all, than Christ – serving all by laying down His life for all, the Alpha becoming Omega, that all who would believe would not go to their tents, but be reconciled to Him.
So we declare:
Through Christ who was the last of all and servant of all, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will receive all who are sent to me, I will listen to them, and be a servant to them.
Because Christ is humble, so I am humble. I will speak good words to them.
(in the voice of the late legend Doc Harris) In this episode (end voice) we touched on our youth constantly being renewed even in our pain.
We talked about how, in all humility, we ought to remember the goodness of God – for it is not merely for our own benefit, but for the raising of the next generations.
Finally, we talked about how true continuity is not found in demonstrations of power, but in humility. We serve the people brought to us by listening to them.
So here’s an updated draft of all we have so far:
Christ is our wisdom from God. Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification (our holiness) and our redemption.
Through Christ, we are blessed. The community rejoices when we are blessed, and we are blessed when the community rejoices.
Christ humbled Himself and was given the greatest honor.
Christ humbled Himself, and we were honored.
Christ was honored, and we are humbled.
Because of Christ, we have the opportunity and privilege of prayer. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray, reminding ourselves of His presence, keeping corruption at bay.
We pray, and we have divine guidance and Godly wisdom for the power we have.
Because of Christ, we have the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us into all truth. We proclaim Christ, and we have victory; No weapon formed against us shall prosper, no tongue that speaks against us shall condemn, and our enemies will fight among themselves.
And here we’re adding these:
I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD for the generations to hear and repent.
Through Christ I am forgiven of all my iniquity, I am healed of all my diseases.
Through Christ my life is redeemed from the pit, and I am crowned with steadfast love and mercy.
and even in my pain, Christ fully satisfies me with good so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Through Christ who was the last of all and servant of all, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I will receive all who are sent to me, I will listen to them, and be a servant to them.
Because Christ is humble, so I am humble. I will speak good words to them.
So far, so good. Obviously I’ll be going through these and refining them further. We’re still in September and there’s already so much to appreciate – certainly a renaissance of sorts, of new ideas and revelations.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Please continue to pray for me because writing all of this does have its costs – not in cash, but in so many other things. And then there are the temptations to throw me off my focus.
Until the next post, may God bless us all. Amen.
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