Reading the Bible Together

The Passage for the day

 29 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. 32 He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33 He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 34 From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom . . . 

 10: 1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the LORD, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.

    6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.” 

Points of interest:

•  ‘God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight’—God had granted Solomon one wish.  With it Solomon asked to be given the wisdom he would need to rule the people of Israel as well as his father David had.
•  ‘greater than all the wisdom of Egypt’—it’s interesting to hear that there was something of an international market for wisdom.  People were willing to take the best wisdom they could find, wherever it originated.  During Solomon’s time, Israel goes from being a net importer of wisdom to a major exporter.  Egypt was the center of power, knowledge, and culture at the time, at least in Israel’s neighborhood and perhaps in the whole world.
•  ‘From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom’—Solomon himself is the biggest example of his hope at the dedication of the temple coming true.  Solomon’s prayer for wisdom is answered, and it draws others.  Other kings (and queens too) are especially interested.  They want the same wisdom to rule their own nations.
•  ‘When the queen of Sheba heard’—we’re not sure exactly where Sheba is.  It was probably in East Africa, southern Arabia, or both.  If it’s any of those places, Sheba would have been at the very edges of the Israelites’ awareness.  The author of I Kings is saying that someone travelled from the other end of the world (as far as they knew) to check out what they’d been hearing about Solomon.
•  ‘and his relationship to the LORD’—the queen of Sheba is aware that Solomon’s wisdom has a supernatural source.
•  ‘ I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes’—what she sees when she arrives in Israel matches, and even goes beyond, the rumors she had heard.
•  ‘Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel’—the queen is willing to grant that Israel has something special going on.  She also seems to think that she can get a share of that same favor.  I hear in her exclamation a desire to follow Solomon’s example, in wisdom and relationship with God.

Taking it home:

• For you: God seems to be very willing to give wisdom to those who ask, and not just about spiritual matters.  Solomon gains wisdom about wise government, and even about the workings of nature.  Do you find you need wisdom?  Maybe it’s about a problem you’re encountering at work, a challenge you’re having raising your children or caring for your parents, a puzzle in your research, a difficult subject at school.  Ask God to give you the wisdom you need to succeed.
• For your six: One thing I notice in this passage is that wisdom is meant to be shared.  Ethan the Ezrahite, Mahol’s sons, the Egyptians, Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba are all passing along whatever wisdom they find—and other people are glad to pick it up.  What can you learn from your six?  What wisdom do they have that could be of help to you?  Is there anything you have to offer them?  It would be a pity if any wisdom you or your six have went to waste.
• For America: The thing that impresses me most about the Queen of Sheba is that, though she is the powerful leader of a prosperous nation, she doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out.  She is willing to seek and take advice.  Pray for the leaders of our nation—President Obama, the leaders of both parties, and the leaders of both houses of Congress—that they would have the same humility and wisdom.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

¹ Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

¹ Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. ³ This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. ⁴ And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

⁵ In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”

⁶ And he says in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”

⁷ During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

⁸ Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ⁹ and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. ¹² It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

¹³ So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷ Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. ¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

²² If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him— ²³ then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. ²⁴ Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

²⁶ See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; ²⁸ the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David.

¹ Listen to my prayer, O God,
do not ignore my plea;

² hear me and answer me.
My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

³ because of what my enemy is saying,
because of the threats of the wicked;
for they bring down suffering on me
and assail me in their anger.

⁴ My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen on me.

⁵ Fear and trembling have beset me;
horror has overwhelmed me.

⁶ I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.

⁷ I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;

⁸ I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.”

⁹ Lord, confuse the wicked, confound their words,
for I see violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰ Day and night they prowl about on its walls;
malice and abuse are within it.

¹¹ Destructive forces are at work in the city;
threats and lies never leave its streets.

¹² If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.

¹³ But it is you, one like myself,
my companion, my close friend,

¹⁴ with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.

¹⁵ Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
for evil finds lodging among them.

¹⁶ As for me, I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.

¹⁷ Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.

¹⁸ He rescues me unharmed
from the battle waged against me,
even though many oppose me.

¹⁹ God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.

²⁰ My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.

²¹ His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.

²² Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.

²³ But you, God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
will not live out half their days.
But as for me, I trust in you.