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For the week of February 1

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For the week of February 1

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For the week of February 1

For the week of February 1

This week’s study notes were written by Will Buschmann, our Co-Director of Student Ministries.

Welcome to week 5 of Desiring the Kingdom. Over the next three weeks we will focus on Solomon’s building of the Temple and all things Temple! We will look at a mix of passages from 1 Kings 6-8 and as you begin reading you will see why.

If you have not yet watched it, we encourage you to take the time to watch the following video from The Bible Project giving an overview of 1st and 2nd Kings. Extremely useful and highly recommended!

Prayer Initiative

Beginning on January 13th and continuing for 11 weeks, Rio Women invites you to join them for their latest prayer initiative, based on the classic book “The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life.” They meet via Zoom call on Wednesdays at noon. If you can’t attend the meeting, get the book, find a partner, and follow along. (If you have questions or need assistance, email Beth Hendrikse, our Prayer Coordinator, at bethh@riovistachurch.com.

Get the Book
STUDY QUESTIONS

Index to Days 2 through 5

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

Day 1

Generational Preparation

2 Samuel 7:1-17

The Lord’s Covenant with David
7 Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Consider

Oftentimes in Scripture the major biblical characters do not get to see what they’ve worked for come to fruition (think Moses and the Promised Land). This was with David as well. David would not be the one to build the House of the Lord, but David’s life and his actions were monumental in preparing a way for Solomon to be able to build the House of the Lord. David’s life was preparation for the next generation to fulfill the promise of God when it comes to the Temple.

Questions for Reflection

  • What part of the Kingdom of God are you longing to see in this life?
  • What if you do not get to see it in your lifetime? Where in your life are you preparing the next generations to maybe be the ones to see that longing come to fruition?

Lord,

You have given us here at Rio the blessing of a multi-generational Church. Any Sunday, we have everyone from babies to those in their 80’s and 90’s. What a beautiful picture we get to see as we worship. We ask now that you give us a passion for the generations that are to follow us, that we would find our place in preparing them for what you have for them. That the older generations would see it as their responsibility to share their wisdom, life, and faith with the younger generations. What a picture of the Family of God that would be.

Amen

Day 2

Walking with God

1 Kings 6:11-13

11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

RELATED SCRIPTURES

2 Samuel 7:13
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

John 14:15-17
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

John 15:4-7
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Consider

The promise that God gives to Solomon is not just for Solomon. Jesus comes to us in the Book of John and promises similar things when it comes to our obedience and his presence. There is one huge difference, our promise comes with the Helper. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to come alongside us in our journey of obedience.

Questions for Reflection

  • What does walking with God look like in your life?
  • What does the Holy Spirit as a Helper mean to you? Where do you need the Holy Spirit’s help in your life right now?

Lord,

Today, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit on me. I pray, “Come Holy Spirit.” I ask for his help in my struggles, in my doubts, in my anxieties. I ask for his help in my obedience, especially when obedience is difficult. I pray that you would pour out the Holy Spirit upon me, your child. That I would feel your presence today as I seek to walk with you. 

Amen

Day 3

Details, Details, Details

2 Timothy 3:16-17

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

RELATED SCRIPTURES

1 Kings 6:1-6
Solomon Builds the Temple
6 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. 3 The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and ten cubits deep in front of the house. 4 And he made for the house windows with recessed frames. 5 He also built a structure against the wall of the house, running around the walls of the house, both the nave and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers all around. 6 The lowest story was five cubits broad, the middle one was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad. For around the outside of the house he made offsets on the wall in order that the supporting beams should not be inserted into the walls of the house.

1 Kings 6:14-22
14 So Solomon built the house and finished it. 15 He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar. From the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with boards of cypress. 16 He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls, and he built this within as an inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place. 17 The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. 18 The cedar within the house was carved in the form of gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was seen. 19 The inner sanctuary he prepared in the innermost part of the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar. 21 And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. 22 And he overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

Psalm 139:13-16
13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

Questions for Reflection

  • What do the details of the Temple show us about God? About who he is? About his relationship with his people?
  • What does the fact that we were created by the hands of God tell us about God? What does it tell us about who we are?

Lord,

I am fearfully and wonderfully made! When I look at the Temple I see the beauty of your work. I am in awe of the structure and the plan that you created for your dwelling place, but then I look at myself. I realize I am not made by the hands of man, but I am made by your hands. I was intricately woven in my mother’s womb and I am astounded that you care about me enough to do that. I am created well, I am created purposefully. I was your first thought in that moment and with that my heart sings in praise. Lord remind me of this fact when my worth and value seem trivial. Remind me that I am created by a God who loves me enough to create with precision and detail. 

Amen

Day 4

From Tabernacle to Temple

Exodus 35:30-35

Construction of the Tabernacle
30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

RELATED SCRIPTURES

2 Chronicles 2:12-3:6
12 Hiram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

13 “Now I have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi, 14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father. 15 Now therefore the wheat and barley, oil and wine, of which my lord has spoken, let him send to his servants. 16 And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem.”

17 Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600. 18 Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.

Solomon Builds the Temple
3 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 3 These are Solomon’s measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. 4 The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. 5 The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it. 6 He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim.

Questions for Reflection

  • Where have you seen the presence of the Lord in your own life throughout different seasons of time? Different times, yet strikingly similar presence?
  • Where do you need the presence of the Lord to meet you right now in the season of life that you are in?

Lord,

You are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You are the only one in our lives that we can say that about. This world and the people in it are fickle, but you are consistent. For thousands of years your same presence has met your people and you continue to meet us today. Lord, we beg of you to pour out your presence on us, let us feel you intimately today. 

Amen

Day 5

Temple Courtyard

2 Chronicles 4:1-6

The Temple’s Furnishings
4 He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. 2 Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 3 Under it were figures of gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. 4 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward. 5 Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths. 6 He also made ten basins in which to wash, and set five on the south side, and five on the north side. In these they were to rinse off what was used for the burnt offering, and the sea was for the priests to wash in.

RELATED SCRIPTURES

John 1:29
Behold, the Lamb of God
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Hebrews 9:11-14
Redemption Through the Blood of Christ
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Isaiah 53:1-6
53 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Questions for Reflection

  • Who or what are you taking your sins to? Are you trying to work better and be better or are you taking them to the sacrificial lamb we have in Jesus?
  • No question, just rest in the sacrifice of Jesus for a few minutes. See that no longer are you covered by the sins of animals, but you are covered by the sacrifice of a Savior who loves you. See how much greater Jesus is than Solomon’s Temple could ever be!

Jesus,

You are the lamb that was slain for me. You laid aside the glory of Heaven to come down for me. You lived the life I could not live and you died the death I deserved. Your love for me was proven on Calvary’s hill, now I sit in awe of what you have done. Take me back to your cross, give me the boldness to approach your throne with my failures and shame. You are the sacrifice of all sacrifices, let me rest in that grace today. 

Amen

Watch for other Personal Worship pushes!

  • Friday you’ll receive Worship Prep guidance and Sunday’s songs. Take time to learn those you don’t know so that you can join in worship in full voice!

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