1 Kings 10:5
And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.
Among the other things that the Queen of Sheba was impressed with was "the ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord."
This could be speaking simply of the beauty of the steps to the house themselves. John Gill says of those steps that they, "...were so curiously devised, and so artificially wrought, that it gave the queen, among other things, a sensible proof of his great wisdom, as well as of his religion and piety."
But I thought of the Psalms of ascent that the Jews used to sing on their way to the house of the Lord to prepare themselves for the worship. Could it be that the thing that impresses the Queen so was not the physical steps to the Temple, but the spiritual attitude that Solomon demonstrated on his way to the house of the Lord?
There is a lot of difference between coming to a religious service and coming to meet the Lord. I wonder how many of us miss the Lord altogether at church because we have taken the whole experience too casually. Solomon, remember, had just received a second vision and promise from the Lord in just the chapter previous to this. When a person knows God is at His house, surely his "ascent" to that house will reflect it.
And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.
Among the other things that the Queen of Sheba was impressed with was "the ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord."
This could be speaking simply of the beauty of the steps to the house themselves. John Gill says of those steps that they, "...were so curiously devised, and so artificially wrought, that it gave the queen, among other things, a sensible proof of his great wisdom, as well as of his religion and piety."
But I thought of the Psalms of ascent that the Jews used to sing on their way to the house of the Lord to prepare themselves for the worship. Could it be that the thing that impresses the Queen so was not the physical steps to the Temple, but the spiritual attitude that Solomon demonstrated on his way to the house of the Lord?
There is a lot of difference between coming to a religious service and coming to meet the Lord. I wonder how many of us miss the Lord altogether at church because we have taken the whole experience too casually. Solomon, remember, had just received a second vision and promise from the Lord in just the chapter previous to this. When a person knows God is at His house, surely his "ascent" to that house will reflect it.
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