Scripture Text:
(click to open in a new window)1 Kings 9:1 – 9
2 Chronicles 7:11 – 22
Questions:
1. What place have you once visited or lived that captured your eyes or heart? Why there?
2. What is the most memorable or emotional dream you have had? What did it mean to you?
3. Which did your parents or guardians use to motivate you as a child: carrot or stick?
4. This is the second time the Lord appears to Solomon in Gibeon, in a dream. (Compare with the first time in 2 Chronicles 1:7ff and 1 Kings 3:5ff.) Does this second time smack more of “the carrot” or “the stick”? Explain your answer.
5. In what way did God consecrate the temple (1 Kings 9:3)? Is God more present in the temple than anywhere else? How so?
6. What situation and people did 2 Chronicles 7:14 originally address? How would this verse still apply today?
7. Compare God’s words to Solomon with Solomon’s words to Israel (1 Kings 9:4; 1 Kings 8:61) and David’s words to Solomon (1 Kings 2:2 – 4)? What do you see? Why is that significant?
8. What happens if Solomon or his heirs are disloyal? Who will scoff?
9. Is Solomon saying, “If we obey we will prosper, if we sin we will suffer”? Is God’s love that conditional?
10. Is rejection by God a fear you struggle with? What to be done about that?
11. What modern gods compete for your allegiance? How does God stake His claim to be “the one and only” in your life?
12. What might God say to you if He appeared to your nation’s leader tonight as He did to Solomon?
13. Do any of your nation’s problems happen because people “serve other gods and worship them” (verse 19)? What can (or should) be done about that?
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Refresh My Heart In Christ 