Week #24 | "Living For a Legacy"

[BANNER IMAGE TO BE UPLOADED LATER. WEEK 24 = DAYS 161-167]

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Read 1 Kings 10-17; 1 Chronicles 3; 2 Chronicles 1, 9-16; Psalm 91; Ecclesiastes 7-12; 

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

History is leadership literature. I was once invited to talk to a group of people on a subject that I felt was important, with the challenge that it could be about anything other than the Bible (this was connected with a communication course that I was taking). I cheated, a little. I talked about the importance of history for making leadership decisions in any area of life--parenting, organizational management, governance, etc. While the talk did not make any explicit references to the Bible, the thought comes straight out of the historical accounts of the Old Testament kings. Here we see that what seems like a pragmatic solution in one generation actually shows itself to be disastrous over time. We see results that take decades, sometimes even more than a century, to fully play out. We see bad parenting and governance choices that show an initial benefit, but soon take on a negative life of their own that take over a century to undo. However, on the other hand, we also see good examples of how previous generations succeeded in building up their families and communities for long-term health, sometimes by making decisions that those around them did not agree with or understand at the time. By understanding the lessons of history, we can learn both from great ideas that worked long term, and we can learn from what went wrong so that we can do better. For Solomon, the alliance-building marriages that helped him to establish trading partners and build wealth for his kingdom in his generation, actually "bore fruit" (bad fruit!) and resulted in generations of division and spiritual brokenness after his death. Solomon pushed the people very hard in order to establish lasting monuments to his might; but instead, the resulting dispute over the labor ensured that Solomon's lasting legacy would be the permanent (until the return of Jesus) division of the Kingdom into Israel (in the north) and Judah (in the south). However, Solomon did build the Temple, collect and organize Proverbs, and write his own songs and wisdom literature sharing the lessons he learned, and those also continued on to draw people back to God after his lifetime. So, much of the brokenness that came afterward originated with Solomon, but so did some of the things that helped to draw people out of that brokenness. That's a complicated legacy. If you think of history as leadership literature, what lessons could you learn from these historical chapters about the kind of legacy that you want to leave?

Insights from Archaeology. As we get into the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah, we're going to see more instances where we could almost walk through almost the entire history of the Old Testament only by referring to the archaeological record. For instance, two of the kings of Israel mentioned in Week #24, Omri and Ahab, have archaeological profiles so large that we now know the Bible only shares a fraction of what they did during their reigns. King Omri, to whom only twelve verses of Scripture are devoted, was such a successful (in a worldly sense) ruler that over 100 years after his death, the Assyrians were still referring to Israel in their writings as "Omri-Land." The large army that King Ahab commanded and the battles that he fought are not detailed in the Bible, but they are recorded in Assyrian records, which show Ahab as a leader of a coalition of regional kings who appear to have successfully held off Assyria. It also appears (but is not absolutely certain) that the seal of Jezebel (Ahab's wife) and Naboth's vineyard (we'll get to that) have been discovered. If you're interested, you can go check out The Biblical Archaeology Report's "archaeobiographies" of Omri and Ahab for yourself. One of the great things about God giving us a book of history is that we can independently verify large chunks of what it reveals to us, and we can even gain greater perspective on some of the events mentioned in the Bible by looking at archaeological discoveries (though you do not need to learn about archaeology in order to understand the lessons that God wanted the authors of Kings and Chronicles to share with their readers--those are out there for anyone who can read to discern, pray for wisdom about, and understand).

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean