Gilbert House Fellowship

Gilbert House Fellowship

Weekly Bible study with authors and analysts Derek and Sharon Gilbert

Episodes

March 10, 2024 70 mins
IT’S APPARENT why the Song of Solomon is not often preached in church. 

It is a beautiful and poetic description of the love and desire felt by a husband and wife, but the euphemisms that describe physical intimacy between Solomon can raise awkward questions from children in the congregation! But if you have been blessed with a loving marital relationship, you know.

We also begin the proverbs of Solomon this week. Chapter 1 emphasiz...
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THE SONG OF SOLOMON has layers of meaning. On the surface, it’s a beautiful depiction of the intimate relationship between a husband and wife. At a deeper level, it’s a picture of the mutual love between Christ and his church.

We discuss the first five chapters and note the bride’s description of herself as “very dark, but lovely,” which is not based on racial characteristics but implies one whose skin is darkened by the sun—a labo...
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SOLOMON’S PRAYER for wisdom pleased God, who honored Solomon’s wish and granted him more besides.

2 Chronicles picks up the story of Solomon from the beginning of his reign around 971 BC. At this time, the tabernacle of Moses was still at Gibeon, a city in the territory of Benjamin just north of Jerusalem, although the ark of the covenant was in Jerusalem.

The wealth of Solomon is legendary. It’s possible that the political situati...
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SOLOMON BEGAN his reign with a prayer for wisdom, a prayer that was answered by God in a dream.

We discuss some of the interesting differences in the Septuagint and the Masoretic Hebrew text, which is the basis for our English language Old Testament translations. It appears the Masoretes made minor changes to make David and Solomon appear even more powerful and wise than in the older Hebrew text that was translated into the Greek S...
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    WE OFTEN WISH that God would show us the road we’ll travel for the rest of our lives. That’s not the sense of His promise in Psalm 119:105.

    The Hebrew word translated “lamp,” ner, is a small clay lamp with a single wick. In other words, it illuminates enough of the path to see that our next step or two is safe, but after that we have to trust that He’s leading us where we need to go.

    The overall theme of Psalm 119 is that those who...
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    PSALM 119 is sometimes called the Mount Everest of psalms.

    Not only is it long, its length is due to its unique construction: It’s an extended alphabet acrostic divided into 22 stanzas, one for each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Further, each of the eight verses in every stanza begins with that Hebrew letter. For example, the eight verses of the first stanza all begin with alef, the verses of the second stanza with bet, an...
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    It’s tempting, when looking at the state of the world, to conclude that God has abandoned us to the wolves—evildoers who think nothing of enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else.

    The psalms in this week’s study are a reminder that God has not forsaken us, and that those who trust in Him will ultimately be rewarded while for those who do not things will not end well.
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    The succession of Solomon to the throne of David wasn’t secure even through the final days of the old king’s life.

    Like his brother Absalom before him, Adonijah declared himself king over Israel before the death of David. The difference is that Adonijah’s insurrection took place after David publicly named Solomon his heir and successor.

    We discuss the political machinations of Adonijah and why Solomon had him killed for asking to h...
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    PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING is at the heart of this week’s collection of psalms.

    From the awesome power of God and His mastery over the sea to His protection during times of distress, our God’s chesed, translated “steadfast love,” “loyal love,” “lovingkindness,” “mercy,” and other English words that don’t fully convey the concept, will never end.
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    Our Build Barn Better project is nearly done! Our 1,200 square pole barn now has HV...
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    THE AMOUNT of precious metal used in the construction of the Temple is astonishing. The gold and silver donated by King David and the leading men of Israel would be valued today at roughly $20 billion!

    David alone contributed about $7.5 billion worth of gold and silver. The point of this week’s study, however, is not that one can buy God’s favor, but that whatever we have is His, to be used at His discretion and for His purposes.
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    DAVID PREPARED the way for his son, Solomon, to take the throne and build the Temple. As we’ll see in the months ahead, our best laid plans don’t guarantee a smooth, trouble-free life.

    This week, we read through the divisions of priests, the organization of the military, and David’s farewell address to Israel. It may surprise some, like us, who thought that Solomon designed the Temple. The reading today makes it clear that it was D...
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    DAVID EXPERIENCED more during his life than a Hollywood action movie character. It’s remarkable that despite his accomplishments, David recognized that his success was entirely due to God.

    This week, we study a half-dozen psalms written toward the end of David’s life that explore the king’s relationship to his Creator from birth to “the eternity of the eternity.”
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    IMAGINE AN ORCHESTRA of 4,000 musicians playing hymns of thanksgiving and praise! That’s what David envisioned when he organized service for the temple that would be built.

    This week, we read through the detailed description of the plans made by David for temple service. It may seem like a boring section of scripture, but it illustrates the central role of God in the lives of His people—at least for a while. As with people througho...
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    DAVID SAW into the throne room of God—a vision used by Jesus himself to reveal his divinity.

    Psalm 110:1 reads:

    [Yahweh] says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

    Jesus used this verse to teach that “my Lord” (Hebrew adoni) was not David, since David was the author of the Psalm (see Matt. 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42, and Acts 2:34). The conclusion is that the Lord to whom David referred wa...
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    A PLAGUE that spread through the kingdom of David led to the consecration of a 35-acre piece of ground that is fought over to this day.

    This week, we discuss the sin of David in ordering a census of his kingdom. If God “incited” David, why was the census a sin? And why is there is a difference between 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, which names Satan (or “an adversary”) as the one who incited David to order a census?

    It’s possible that ...
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    A DAY is coming when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.”

    This is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Yahweh, which culminates at Armageddon. Zechariah saw the coming of Messiah, and the key verse in our view is Zechariah 12:10:

    “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom ...
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    THE CONFLICT between Israel and Hamas continues with a ground assault of Gaza apparently imminent.

    We continue our review of scriptures that appear to prophesy a coming destruction of the territory around Gaza that was Philistine from the time of the Judges until the Persian conquest of the region in the 6th century BC.

    We learned this week that the chief god of Gaza, Dagon, continued to be worshiped under the Aramaic name Marna (“...
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    YOU KNOW by now that Israel was surprised by an attack from Gaza Saturday morning, which was essentially the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

    We set aside our scheduled reading for today to discuss the events in Israel, which as of this recording have left some 600 Israelis and 370 Palestinians dead, with thousands injured on both sides. Instead, we look at the books of Amos and Zephaniah for what may be “already-but-no...
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    ONE OF THE JOYS of Bible study is discovering layers of meaning that you’d missed on your first reading.

    This week, we run into another instance of the English phrase “worthless idols” (Ps. 97:7b). We think the context indicates that the Hebrew word elîlîm refers to supernatural beings (angels, if you like), not carvings of wood and stone. This is emphasized by the exhortation to the unseen realm in the sentence that follows: “Worsh...
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    GIVING THANKS in the middle of trouble is difficult, even contrary to our nature. But David did it again and again, even when he was surrounded by enemies—not all of which were human.

    This week, we discuss a preview of the last words of David juxtaposed with a psalm he probably wrote while hiding from Saul at the cave of Adullam. The “lions” and “fiery beasts” of Psalm 57:4, while linked to “the children of man,” suggests that Davi...
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