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Day 111, or April 21, Solomon in all his glory. Our thoughts today are rooted in two chronicles,

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chapter 1, verse 7. That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask for whatever

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you want me to give you. Now the big picture surrounding this verse. When Solomon replaced

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his father David as King of Israel, on the face of it he had the world at his feet. He

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was promised wisdom from God, and then went on to build the temple that had been the dream

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and vision of his father David. The chronicler repeats many of the details that are recorded

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earlier in the Bible, including lots of information about the furniture as well as the temple

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itself. We have to remind ourselves that his record was made many years after the temple

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had been built and later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army. If, as many believe, the

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chronicler was Ezra, he was heavily involved in seeing the temple rebuilt under Zerubbabel

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when the Jews returned to the promised land after the exile.

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And now today's action step. In our daydreaming moments how many of us will have wondered

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what we would do if we had a genie in a bottle and were granted one wish. What would we ask

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for and what would our motives be? Solomon made the most of his opportunity with God

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and asked for wisdom and knowledge. His was a world where material wealth and the ostentatious

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showing off of it were very important. Wealth and power were closely entwined. In our 21st

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century world, where we are encouraged to think that the more we know the more we can

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do, it's interesting that Solomon asked for wisdom and then knowledge. Knowing how

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to use what you know is so much more important than simply knowing lots of stuff. It's

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fascinating to ponder on this because what it tells us is that with wisdom from God we

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can each be as useful to God as the most gifted academic. Why not ask God how you can better

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use what you already know rather than simply trying to know more?