1 Kings 15: Delight – Part I
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
As we move through the Christmas season, let us pause to consider what delight we take in God’s great gift of self to humanity, and what gift we give to God in return.
Tirzah, located in the Manasseh tribal region, rose to importance under King Baasha (900 – 877 B.C.E.). This king was buried in Tirzah and is, in fact, the only Israelite king whom the Bible specifically states was interred in the city. Tirzah’s significance dwindled after Omri shifted the northern kingdom’s capital to Samaria. At that time Tirzah was abandoned as is evidenced by materials left behind: partly-dressed masonry blocks alongside well-dressed masonry, and the absence of ruins. “Song of Songs 6:4 sets Tirzah alongside Jerusalem as one of Israel’s two great cities, indicating that the Song was written during Tirzah’s glory days”. (Zondervan 509)
This city, once so important that the king wishes to be buried within her precincts, is later abandoned and we do not know why. We might use this Noontime to examine the history we see attached to people and places. It also calls us to examine our own contribution to the common history we leave behind. What will future excavators find when they exhume our lives? Will they find forsaken shells of something once important? Are songs written to our beauty? Do we leave a legacy that indicates that we were once loyal and faithful followers of Christ? What is the treasure we have amassed? Does it have a positive influence here in this world? Does it live forever in the next? What is the significance the sum total of our actions? What is the name with which we tag the space and time we have occupied here on earth? Is there anything about this record of ourselves that we wish to change?
Tomorrow, gifts accepted, and gifts abandoned.
For Biblewalk through the Tirzah Valley, click on the image above or visit: http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Makhruk.html
ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY BIBLE (NIV). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. 509. Print.
Adapted from a favorite written on December 22, 2009.
The Noontimes 