29 Then King David turned to the entire assembly and said, “My son Solomon, whom God has clearly chosen as the next king of Israel, is still young and inexperienced. The work ahead of him is enormous, for the Temple he will build is not for mere mortals—it is for the Lord God himself! ² Using every resource at my command, I have gathered as much as I could for building the Temple of my God. Now there is enough gold, silver, bronze, iron, and wood, as well as great quantities of onyx, other precious stones, costly jewels, and all kinds of fine stone and marble.

³ “And now, because of my devotion to the Temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction. This is in addition to the building materials I have already collected for his holy Temple. ⁴ I am donating more than 112 tons of gold from Ophir and 262 tons of refined silver to be used for overlaying the walls of the buildings ⁵ and for the other gold and silver work to be done by the craftsmen. Now then, who will follow my example and give offerings to the Lord today?”

⁶ Then the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and captains of the army, and the king’s administrative officers all gave willingly. ⁷ For the construction of the Temple of God, they gave about 188 tons of gold, 10,000 gold coins,^[e] 375 tons of silver, 675 tons of bronze, and 3,750 tons of iron. ⁸ They also contributed numerous precious stones, which were deposited in the treasury of the house of the Lord under the care of Jehiel, a descendant of Gershon. ⁹ The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord, and King David was filled with joy.

1 Chronicles 29:1-9

Dear God, I noticed two things when I read this passage this morning. One is not as important, but the othere is the one I want to spend some time on. The first that’s not as important is the difference between how 1 Kings 1 tells the story of Solomon ascending to the throne and how the succession planning is described here. It seems much more orderly and organized in this telling of the story. Which was it? I tend to believe the messier version. This one feels a little too tidy.

The more important thing I want to spend time with is the joy of giving. Verses 6-8 describe how the people all joined together in giving to you for your glory, and then verse 9 says, “The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord, and King David was filled with joy.” There’s a reason you commanded us to love you and then love others. It wasn’t for you. It isn’t even as much for the others. Giving of ourselves is for us. Giving our possessions and money. Giving our time. I mentioned the other day that it feels like I’m getting more selfish with my time, and it’s starting to bother me.

Then I was praying with my wife this morning, and we were talking about some relatives we would love to be able to show love to, but we are physically separated from them and we can’t. My prayer was that you would raise up people in their lives who could love them for us. Then I thought to pray (Holy Spirit nudging?) that you make us those proxies to love others around us who can’t be loved by their loved ones.

Father, help me to be your ambassador. Help me to love well. Help me to celebrate you and then share that celebration with others. Help me to represent a life that is reconciled to you, and please make that life attractive so that others might be drawn into being reconciled to and in relationship with you as well. Do all of this for your glory and for my neighbors. And show me the cost that I must pay to do this, and help me to be willing to joyfully pay that cost.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen