June 5, 2026; 1 Kings 5 and discussion with Emmy R.

Daily Dose of Hope June 5, 2026   Scripture:  I Kings 5   Prayer:  Abba Father, We come to you today in awe of your love for us.  Thank you, Lord, for your sacrifice.  Thank you for sitting high and looking low.  We give you all the glory and praise, Lord Jesus.  Help us to be less selfish and more like you.  On our own, we mess it up.  We need you, Jesus.  We need you minute by minute.  Guide our thoughts today, Lord.  Guide our words and guide our actions.  May we look more like you today, Lord, than we did yesterday.  In Your Name, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Daily Bible reading plan.  This week, we have starting digging into 1 Kings.  Our reading for today is 1 Kings 5.  I'm going to do a short devotional on today's reading and then we will be joined by Emmy Roberts, who leads our youth (and does a lot of other stuff) here at New Hope.  She is wonderful and I know you are going to enjoy having her with us on the Daily Dose. On to today's chapter - now that there is peace in Israel, Solomon decides that it is time to begin work on the temple.  As you might recall, David had wanted to build a temple for the Lord but God had declined.  Instead, God simply wanted David to lead the people.  God also made a covenant with David that one of his descendants would be on the throne forever.  In the covenant (refer to 2 Samuel 7), God also mentions that one of David's descendants "will build a house for my name."  That descendant is Solomon.  Thus, Solomon hatches a plan.  He makes an alliance of sorts with the King of Tyre who can provide labor and lumber. As we read in the chapter, the men of Israel also had to play a role in the manual labor required for the massive undertaking.  Solomon enlists the very unpopular practice of conscription, forced labor, but he does not make slaves of the people.  They work in shifts.  This required tremendous coordination, management, and skilled labor.  I was trying to think of a more modern equivalent to compare this to, maybe the making of some of the larger cathedrals.  What kinds of massive undertakings do you know of that humans have taken to please the Lord? Now, for those who are listening to the podcast, welcome to my discussion with Emmy Roberts...