Daily Devotional For Sunday, May 24, 2026
Good morning and good day in the Lord Southside! We are following the Scriptural readings from the One Year Chronological Bible. Today’s text comes 13 years after Solomon had finished his palace and the Temple. The Lord came and spoke to him warning him what would happen if he or the nation ever abandoned its commitment and obedience to the Lord.
To some, the celebration of the completion of Solmon’s palace should be an “up” moment, but in it God gave a grave warning to Solomon. Why would it seem that God was trying to “rain on Solomon’s parade” so to speak? Why not let Solomon have this moment? Because God knew something Solomon did not – the fall of his heart from the Lord and the destruction of the nation was coming. Think of it this way:
You have your child’s birthday party at some place that caters to children such as Chuck E. Cheese. Lots of other children have been invited to this birthday party. You want your child to have fun, but you also do not want that child to get unruly or disrespectful to you in front of the other parents, children and staff. So, ahead of time you warn your child about behaving and what will happen if they do not – even at the birthday party.
We see God warn Solomon ahead of time in 2 Chronicles 7:12-22:
“So Solomon finished the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do in the construction of the Temple and the palace. (12) Then one night the LORD appeared to Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. (13) At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. (14) Then if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. (15) My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place. (16) For I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be holy—a place where My name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to My heart. “ (17) “As for you, if you faithfully follow me as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, 18 then I will establish the throne of your dynasty. For I made this covenant with your father, David, when I said, ‘One of your descendants will always rule over Israel.’ (19) “But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the decrees and commands I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, (20) then I will uproot the people from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make it an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. (21) And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?” (22) “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why he has brought all these disasters on them’” (NLT).
The path into worship and through any sin is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Instead of us showing up on Sundays with an attitude that says, “Make it all about me, my likes, my tastes and my desires,” we should come first in humility. To dictate to God what we want is not only arrogant, but is idolatry. We are making ourselves the object of our worship. Humility says it is all about God, His will and His purposes for my life. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (NASB). Notice we are to humble ourselves before coming before the Lord.
Second, then we pray to God. We are to pray to God more than just in times of need, but especially in that same attitude of humility when we sin against the Lord. What are we praying in humility? Something similar to the David in Psalm 51:10-13:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (11) Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit. (13) Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You” (NASB).
.That is praying in humility. Third, we are to seek God’s face. What does that mean and how do we do this? To seek God’s face is to seek His will. Jesus commanded us to do this in The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10, ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (NASB). Just in case we missed it, Jesus repeated it again in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (NASB). How? We go to God’s word and ask God’s Holy Spirit to speak to us.
Fourth, we repent or turn from our “wicked ways” or sins. When you go to God’s Word, His Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin. The goal is twofold: confession – you agree with God that what God calls sin, is sin. Second, you repent – you do about face, a 180 with that sin. And third, in some cases, you may have to make some kind of amends or apologies or restitution for your sin. We do not fix our sin; we let God do that. But we do owe up to our sin.
Devotion to God is not heard in our words, but it is seen in our actions. 2 Chronicles was written in what is called the post-exilic period. This was probably written after the nation split into two separate nations. Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In 722 BC, Assyria conquered Israel. Under the leadership of the following Assyrian rulers, Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V, Sargon II, and Sennacherib, Israel fell. The Assyrians took thousands of Israelites back to Assyria to live as slaves. Some of them intermarried with Assyrians, thus corrupting the Abrahamic bloodline. The Israelites in the south became highly prejudiced against these Jews in the north for this. As a result, some of them came to be called Samaritans.
Eventually the Jews in Judah rebelled against God and God sent them to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar who conquered them. He attacked Judah in 606 BC, 598 BC and 586 BC. He literally destroyed Solomon’s Temple, carrying off the gold, the silver, the bronze etc. He also destroyed the wall around Jerusalem. He enslaved thousands of Jews from Judah and forced them to travel across the desert, where many of them died en route. One Jew who had to travel was Ezekiel, who saw the rotting corpses and bones of these Jews. God gave him a vision that God would one day give life back to the Jews in this valley of dry bones.
Eventually, Persia in 539 BC conquered Babylon under Cyrus the Great. In 537 BC, Nehemiah requested permission to take Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around it. He was granted permission to do that. In fact, Cyrus gave money to help the wall be reconstructed. Ezra returned with them to teach the people the Mosaic Law. God said the people would be in exile or captivity for 70 years and they were. Though no one knows for sure, scholars speculate that Ezra wrote 1 & 2 Chronicles while living in exile in Persia or in Jerusalem soon after his return.
You may ask: If 1 & 2 Chronicles were written over 500 years after Solomon, how did they know what Solomon said as well as God’s response? We believe that all scripture is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16-17). God told Ezra or the Chronicler what to write for us today. Whether or not Ezra wrote 1 & 2 Chronicles or contributed to them is not relevant. God inspires them and that is all that matters. Most scholars think the earliest writing would be around 539/6 BC based on 2 Chronicles 37:21-23 and Ezra 1:1-4. The latest possible date would be before 330 BC – prior to Alexander the Great, since Greece and he are not mentioned at all.
2 Chronicles 7:14 summarizes the theme of the rest of 2 Chronicles. The Chronicler will note the promising moments when the later kings and people of Judah humble themselves (see Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 12:6-7), pray repentantly (see Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:20), seek God as their only hope (see Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah in 2 Chronicles 20:3-4), and turn away from sin to obey God’s laws (see Asa and the people in 2 Chronicles 15:4). The Chronicler will also note kings who fail to do those things. Those who repent are forgiven and prosper, while those who don’t repent are responsible for God’s tragic final decision to send the Babylonians.
God’s warning to Solomon comes as a result of Solomon’s prayer in which he feared that in the future the people of Israel would walk away from the Lord. As a result, God would send no rain, causing a drought (see 2 Chr. 6:26-27) thus causing famine. God would send locusts to devour crops (2 Chr. 7:13) and God would send plagues (2 Chr. 6:28-31) to inflict sicknesses and more death on His people. In all of these, God presents Himself as the central agent who will cause these to happen in the future.
Reflection Assignment: What is God warning you about today? Is it something from your past you are carrying over to the present? Is it something unique to today? How quickly do you do the 4 steps God outlines in 2 Chronicles 7:14? – humble yourself, pray, seek God’s face and repent? Do you make excuses for things in your life God calls sin?
Scripture To Meditate On: Galatians 6:7, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I come before You with no pretense or defensiveness. I have sinned. I confess this to You now and offer myself to You in repentance. I make no excuses. I am only sorry that I have not humbled myself sooner to You. Thank You for forgiving me of my sin. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly