I can’t figure out why I dream the way I do. One aspect of dreaming is repairing old scenes that never concluded, fixing weird loose ends, finishing conversations. I get that, and appreciate it. Our memories are editable, which means our future is also editable. There’s not fate as in you can’t fix things or change things, but there CAN be certain challenges that God wants to move you thru. Preparing to prosper you. God wants you to find peace from the past in preparation for His future. Give Him your burdens. 

Oh, the new scenarios in my dreams, the most vivid storylines. Some people are known, some are not. Weird scenes, movie quality editing, but then the cat wakes me up and I realize I have a strange double memory-making system going on while I sleep. If only I got the steps in, for exercise, while walking thru my dreams. I can’t figure out what this dreaming is going to be used for in my life. Sometimes situations I end up saying, “well, that’s a shame.” Or “I can’t do anything about that ” not in frustration as much as acceptance. Wisdom from God makes me appreciate acceptance. 

Maybe God repeats life lessons – yes, fix your memories and move forward. Approach life as: doing what you can, moving past what you can’t, accepting there exists what is unacceptable. But know troubles crop up in a worldly way, so you have to keep moving past them.

Editable living not fatalism.

Acceptance is not approval. 

Maybe our dreaming is for us to know the Lord is capable of entering our thoughts, is able to use multiple folds of our brain that we don’t. Maybe we are being practiced in thinking for Heaven, because if He doesn’t stretch out minds now, He will really blow our minds when we see Heaven. Can you imagine meeting the history of people, understanding the un-understandable, WOW.  Plus, He will heal our wounds, resolve our tears. WE WILL SEE HIS GLORY.

I bet God is stretching our minds, like Jesus is stretching our road for walking and the Holy Spirit is stretching our jar of clay stronger and deeper. (KNOWING HIS GLORY, let us ask for a HOLY SPIRIT FILLING). 

Here’s where scripture, for some reason, details a deep list of unfathomable wealth, supplies and wonder: King Solomon, 1st Kings. Details not of just King Solomon’s bounty AND wisdom, but also a visit from the rich Queen of Sheba and her blessings. (Isn’t that an old phrase?  “more X,Y,Z than the Queen of Sheba.”)

God seems to have allowed this accumulation of wealth and for some reason points out there was no silver as it wasn’t valuable. Gold as valuable as it is, is of course less precious than what God can give us in wisdom. 

Wisdom, that Solomon had, was more than what Sheba had, because that intense level of Wisdom WAS/IS a gift from God.

This is where the Queen said: “But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes.” – AH, MAYBE that’s why God takes our nights for us to dream, so He can show us things to our inside eyes so that we will TRUST HIM, now and in the future. Not faith by sight externally but faith by internal knowledge. Hopefully we will crave His wisdom MORE than worldly Gold, and certainly not see it as worthless silver. Faith is like wisdom to trust. 

What IS clear, is that we are taught this scripture for a reason. The lesson after this is that Solomon turned his thoughts and heart away from God, so sad. He is with nearly 1000 women, builds and worships banned gods, becomes warped in worship. Now wisdom withdrawn, the kingdom blessings wither. EXCEPT for the ONE PROMISE that God made to David, about Jesus. Forever King, Jesus’s birthplace and birth family came from their lineage. 

What’s the take home message here? God desires our devotion and love more than anything, God desires us being with Him enough to sacrifice His own Son, Jesus, for our ransom. God stretches our minds and teaches us patience, asks us to tap into His Wisdom, and not be wooed by the world (good or bad).

Jesus reminds us Our Father gives us what is MORE valuable and forever. We shall be clothed in His Glory. 

A simple flower is more beautifully dressed than Solomon yet fleeting and tossed into the fire (Luke 12), we however have something more valuable, FOREVER LIFE. God’s care.

Surely our wisdom can be used to appreciate HIM. 

Stretch our Faith, Lord. We are to know, we will be Clothed in Your Glory. 

Amen 

—-

1st Kings 10

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.  But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.  How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

(Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir; and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood and precious stones. The king used the almugwood to make supports for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

Solomon’s Splendor

The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.

King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold.  The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days. The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.  The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. 

They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.