‘Disruptive’:

What comes before disruption? This is an intriguing question that 1 Kings 5 vs 1-6 unfolds.

‘Trust me, you can’t change anything without causing disruption. It’s impossible; that is exactly what change is. Some people are uncomfortable with the disruption that change causes, but the disruption is necessary if anything is going to change.’-Afeni Shakur

As I write this blog, I feel a sense of joy and gratitude towards God. Amidst the busyness of work, I had prayed for help in maintaining the closeness of our relationship. To my surprise, God woke me up at 03:27 with a sense of urgency in my spirit. As I delved into God’s Holy Word, I felt inspired to write this blog, drawing from the message in 1 Kings 5. While it initially serves as a stunning reminder of our duty to worship God through service, further exploration reveals a profound lesson and compelling archaeological evidence that align with Biblical accounts.

What has me smiling about this moment in God’s Holy Presence is the title, ‘Disruptive’. Only after the fact that the Holy Spirit draws my attention to the lesson in 1 Kings 5, do I register that God disrupted my sleep to answer my prayer to stay close to Him, and then points out the disruption found in the text. Like seriously!

To grasp this lesson about disruption, we need to look through eyes that ask, “Why does disruption precede growth and peace?”

Before we delve into 1 Kings 5 mining God’s Word gives us the right context.

1. Historically, Deuteronomy 9 vs 4-5, clarifies why Solomon in 1 Kings 5 explains that David had to first subdue enemies before peace allowed for the building of a temple to praise God.

   Deuteronomy 9 vs 4-5: ‘But when GOD pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that GOD has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually, it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that GOD, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word.’

2. God’s Holy Word draws us into understanding that by default of our fallen world, we find ourselves at enmity with God when we reject His Will to save us from an enemy that wants to kill us. By default, as we turn to God we not only find our conditioning challenged but it tears us away from destructive habits and relationships. Deuteronomy 9 vs 4-5 shows us that because the people were evil in God’s Eyes we can draw from the words of Messiah King Jesus in Matthew 10 vs 34, that this evil was due to the denial of THEE ONLY LIVING GOD. 1 Kings 5 vs 5 verifies this train of thought. To quote, ‘I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God: Of course, Solomon did not build a temple for a name but for a living God. This is a good example of avoiding direct mention of the name of God in Hebrew writing and speaking. They did this out of reverence to God. Solomon also used this phrase because he wanted to explain that he didn’t think the temple would be the house of God in the way pagans thought. “It is to be ‘a house for the name of the LORD.’ That is not the same as ‘for the LORD.’ Pagan temples might be intended by their builders for the actual residence of the god, but Solomon knew that the heaven of heavens could not contain Him, much less this house which he was about to build” (Maclaren).’- https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-kings-5/ Matthew 10 vs 34: ‘But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.‘
3. God defines Himself as our Father who fiercely destroys anything that threatens us harm. Our unwavering faith as children of God rests solely on trusting His plan for our lives and relying entirely on Him. 1 John 3 vs 2: ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’

With the above three points of understanding as our guide, interestingly, M.A. Southam-Gerow, Encyclopedia of Adolescence, 2011, ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Adolescents’, tells us regarding dysfunctional disruptive behaviour, ‘Disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs) are a cluster of disorders that are defined by the presence of a persistent pattern of negative, defiant, or rule-breaking behaviours.’ Further strategies of the same research recommend, ‘The key strategies of these approaches include- Identify and reduce positive reinforcement of disruptive behaviour/ Increase reinforcement of prosocial and compliant behaviour/ Use of appropriate punishments for disruptive behaviours.’ Again, the study elaborates, ‘It is important to help parents make lasting changes to their own behavior and well-being in order to help their children. Families may also benefit when parents engage in individual or couple’s therapy to address individual psychopathology or marital discord that may be having an adverse effect on the youth or the youth’s treatment.’- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B978012373951300106X

Building up our arsenal of comprehension that disrupting disruptive behaviour is necessary to restore peace through growth by observing our own motives, and holding each other to account to strive for God’s Standard, let’s look at 1 Kings 5 vs 1-6.

Verse 3 ties this train of thought about the origin of disruptive/ evil behaviour. ‘Enduring Word’ educates us with a startling realisation, which I believe is the crux of what God is teaching in this blog- ‘Until the LORD put his foes under the soles of his feet: “To put enemies under the feet was the symbolic act marking conquest. In contemporary art enemies were often depicted as a footstool (as Psalm 110:1).” (Wiseman) There is neither adversary nor evil occurrence: The word adversary here is literally Satan. The Latin Vulgate translates this, “nor a Satan.”’- https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-kings-5/

Here is where things start boiling. Not only do we know that The Fall was because Adam and Eve disrupted God’s plan by falling for satan’s temptation thereby passing to every generation the craving to sin which becomes our battle, personally and collectively to overcome, but we discover in this text 1 Kings 5 vs 1-6, three pieces of archaeological evidence verifying The Holy Bible.

1.  “Hiram is an abbreviation of Ahiram which means ‘Brother of Ram,’ or ‘My brother is exalted,’ or ‘Brother of the lofty one’… Archaeologists have discovered a royal sarcophagus in Byblos of Tyre dated about 1000 b.c. inscribed with the king’s name, ‘Ahiram.’ Apparently it belonged to the man in this passage.” (Dilday)-https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-kings-5/ To quote, ‘King Ahiram, Ruler of Byblos Initially, the sarcophagus was thought to have belonged to the 13 ^th or 12 ^th century BC, due to other artifacts in the tomb that date to this period. This dating, however, was later challenged by scholars who examined the sarcophagus’ inscription. Today, King Ahiram is commonly believed to have ruled over Byblos around 1000 BC. It has been pointed out that King Ahiram is not attested in the known literary corpus of the ancient Near East. His sarcophagus, however, is evidence of this ancient king’s existence.’- https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/inscribed-curse-sarcophagus-king-ahiram-displays-earliest-use-phoenician-021110
2. Then Solomon sent to Hiram: “According to Josephus, copies of such a letter along with Hiram’s reply were preserved in both Hebrew and Tyrian archives and were extant in his day (Antiquities, 8.2.8)” (Dilday).-https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-kings-5/
3. Cut down cedars for me from Lebanon: The cedar trees of Lebanon were legendary for their excellent timber. This means Solomon wanted to build the temple out of the best materials possible. “The Sidonians were noted as timber craftsmen in the ancient world, a fact substantiated on the famous Palermo Stone. Its inscription from 2200 b.c. tells us about timber-carrying ships that sailed from Byblos to Egypt about four hundred years previously. The skill of the Sidonians was expressed in their ability to pick the most suitable trees, know the right time to cut them, fell them with care, and then properly treat the logs.” (Dilday)-https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-kings-5/ To quote, ‘The Palermo Stone confirms that the ancient Egyptians had already developed the technology to smelt copper and create copper statues by the Second dynasty And it records a trading mission to an unnamed exotic land during the reign of Sneferu which returned with forty ships bearing precious wood and mining expeditions to Sinai to quarry turquoise. The stone also records military expeditions by Den to the east and by Sneferu to Nubia and Libya.’-https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/palermostone/

You and I are reminded in this passage, 1 Kings 5 vs 1-6, that God will disrupt our lives to draw us into Himself so that His Plan to restore us back to Eden is accomplished, However, God will not force us to be saved by Him, and if we reject Him, as did the pagans mentioned in 1 Kings 5 vs 1-6, we can expect a similar fate. But as God reminded the Israelites that righteousness is not ours to claim as our doing, God reminds us too that we are because we are called by Him first.

1 John 4 vs 18-20:

Love Comes from God
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.’