When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the LORD today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” (1 Kings 5:7, NIV).
When one of David’s allies, Hiram king of Tyre, heard that David had died and Solomon had become king he send envoys to Jerusalem to find out what his intentions were concerning the city of Tyre. David had amassed a lot of wealth and power over his 40 year reign…crazy amounts of both. It was wise and prudent of Hiram to quickly enquire what David’s son was going to do with it all.
Solomon responded saying that he intended to continue the good relationship that he had with David and that he wanted his help in building the Temple. Solomon was not looking to take advantage of him or his workers, rather he wanted to pay and pay well for what he was asking.
When Hiram got the message he was he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the LORD today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.”
One of the things I take away from this is how great an illustration it is of how we should see and respond to those whom God has greatly blessed. When Hiram found out how greatly God had blessed Solomon with wisdom to go along with the “great nation” that God had blessed him with, and seeing that this blessing was far greater than he had himself, he was happy for him and praised God for doing so. We need to emulate that. So often our first response is more like jealousy, resentment, because we think we deserve as much and wonder why God did not bless us the same way; or we get depressed because we assume we conclude we must not be worthy of such a great blessing. The first comes from pride, the second from fear. Hiram’s response came from humility and God-grounded confidence. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less and thinking more about the needs of others. God-grounded confidence is a strength that is built on the foundation that God supplies all that you need when you need it, it is a confidence that looks to God and not to self to be enough. With these two attitudes we can rejoice when God greatly blesses another without being jealous or depressed.
A second thing I take from this chapter is how those whom God has greatly blessed should respond to those around them. Solomon does not use his wealth and power to make Hiram surrender to his rule, rather he uses it to invite Hiram and his people to partake in and enjoy his blessings by joining with him in the work of building the Temple to the God who blessed him so much (1 Kings 5:3-6). God’s blessings are never meant to be private. They are meant to be shared. They are given that they might be given by us to those around us, that we might lift them up and so illustrate from them that God blesses and how He blesses.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 