Our Best - Our All

I Kings 6-7

There is a hymn that is very fitting for the test today. The hymn is "Our Best" and the chorus goes as follows:

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Every work for Jesus will be blest,

But He asks from everyone his best.

Our talents may be few, these may be small,

But unto Him is due our best, our all.

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That is exactly what we read about in the passages from today. I am going to blend the two chapters together in my summary because they really could be one chapter. We read about the building of two houses. The first is the Temple of God and the other is Solomon's house. Both were massive structures!

The temple took 7 years to build! Solomon's house took 13 years! If you read yesterday's devotion, you know that men were on rotations gathering the building materials. There were three groups and each group worked for a month and was off for two. They rotated so that one group was always working and two were at home taking care of their normal responsibilities. This went on for a long time.

What stands out more to me than the length of time it took to build the houses, and their massive size, is the cost and effort that went into them. For instance, the temple was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. It was made of stone and overlaid in wood and precious metals (gold, silver, and brass). There were no power tools, all the stone was hand carved in quarries and moved to Jerusalem, which was on a mountain. Verse 7 of chapter 6 tells us, "And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building".

There are two people I want to consider from this text. First, is Solomon the king. Solomon had the ability to get the very best for the temple, and he did. This was done through taxes and conscription (mandated by the government) labor. What is important to note is that Solomon did not rush through the building of the temple so that he could focus on his house. He did not cut corners or use substandard materials. He gave the best he could get to God. I believe it took Solomon 13 years to build his house because God's house was the primary focus. The first seven years went to the building of the temple and the next 6 years was the focus on his house. I could be wrong, but that is the way the text strikes me.

The second person is Hiram of Tyre. Hiram was skilled in brass work and Solomon hired him to oversee the metalwork of the building. The text says that "he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass" (7:14). God gave him a talent and he used that talent to build the house of God. Who would have ever thought that being able to work with brass could be used for God. If anything, people may have associated it more with creating idols than serving Jehovah God.

God gives us all talents. Sometimes, it is easy to see how our talents can be used by God. For example, churches need teachers and musicians. These talents are easily used. However, other talents are not as easily incorporated into service. For Hiram, this was a one time job. The temple would only be built once, but no one would argue that he did not have a very important job for this period of time.

What is your talent? How can you use it for God? Do you know? If you happen to have one of those talents that are harder to apply to Christian service, pray about it. Ask God to show you how he can use the talent that he gave you. I know mechanics, welders, builders, electricians, travel agents, and many other seemingly "unusable" talents that people are using to glorify God. He can and will do the same for you!

Give God your best and your all!