June 30-July 4
[M] 1 Kings 10-11; 2 Chr 9; 1 Tim 6
[T] Ecclesiastes 1-3; Ps 45; 2 Tim 1
[W] Eccl 4-6; Ps 125; 2 Tim 2
[T] Eccl 7-9; Ps 46; 2 Tim 3
[F] Eccl 10-12; 2 Tim 4
Dwell Plan Day 131-135 | CSB | Digital PDF | Printable PDF
Notes from Jon & Chris
Monday
1 Kings 11 | This is one of the more depressing chapters in the Bible. Solomon started out so strong, so wise and in tune with God. But we already saw the red flag waving from early on. He married outside of God’s kingdom, and (as God warned everyone) it drew him away from God. Away from his God and right into the arms of idols. How could the wisest man who ever lived make such a catastrophic mistake? I would guess that it probably crept up on him. We all drift in life, unless we work against it. We all slowly will turn from God and true worship, unless we fight that evil selfish tendency. And it’s made that much worse by being united to unbelief. So what does the wisest man who ever lived actually become? A cautionary tale. If Solomon can fall, then what does that say about the rest of us? How much danger are we all in? Run to Jesus, fix your heart on Jesus, and ask Jesus to give you perseverance to the end. He’s the one that can do it, not us. And praise Him that He does.
1 Kings 11:1-8 | Solomon’s downfall is both tragic and familiar. The wisest man on earth, blessed beyond measure, loved many foreign women, clinging to them in love despite God’s clear command. This was not about ethnicity but idolatry; the Lord had warned that these women would turn away [his] heart after their gods. And so it happened. Solomon, who had once built a glorious temple for the living God, now built high places for Chemosh and Molech. The issue wasn’t merely disobedience—it was a loss of love. God’s commands are not arbitrary restrictions; they are expressions of His heart, designed to keep us within the orbit of His grace. To defy them is to drift from joy. Solomon wandered not only from obedience but from intimacy with God.
This passage is a sobering reminder that unchecked affections can ruin even the most gifted lives. Solomon’s heart didn’t turn all at once—it was not wholly true to the LORD. That’s the danger: a divided heart.
And yet, this text points forward to a greater King. Where Solomon’s love led him away from God, Christ’s love led Him to a cross. Jesus is the true and better Solomon, whose heart was never divided, who perfectly kept God’s commands so that our wandering hearts might be brought home. In Him, grace abounds for idolaters and those who stray. The gospel doesn’t just forgive us; it reorients our affections. It heals the divided heart that we all possess.
Interestingly, this account is only found in Kings, not Chronicles. That’s intentional. Kings is a theological explanation of the exile—a record of the people’s rebellion and God’s justice. Chronicles, written after the exile, emphasizes God’s covenant faithfulness and offers hope to a returning remnant. Together, they tell the full story: human failure and divine faithfulness. But in Jesus, these two strands converge. He takes the exile we deserve so we can know the restoration only He can give. And so, 1 Kings 11 is not just a warning, it’s an invitation to cling, not to false loves, but to the true King.
1 Timothy 6:10 | The Bible is misquoted all the time. It’s annoying. There’s this tendency in us, which perhaps you could describe as thoughtless arrogance, to edit and improve on aphoristic sayings. And somehow these slight misreadings or misquotes become a meme, a universally embraced truth that’s said and resaid millions of times. The way you often hear this verse “quoted” is: money is the root of all evil. Maybe Karl Marx started this misquote, I don’t know. But one way or the other, it isn’t money that’s evil. It’s the love of it. And that’s a problem for poor folks, rich folks, and all the folks in between. You can love it when you’ve got lots of it, and you can often love it even more when you don’t have any! What your treasure is, that’s where your heart lives.
Tuesday
Ecclesiastes | One of my favorite professors from seminary was Jerram Barrs. If you’re able to pick up his books, it’s definitely worth it. It was reading Ecclesiastes that saved his life. As a young man in England, he had come to the point of complete despair. He had no experience of Christianity that was good, and hadn’t ever read the Scriptures. For some reason, that day when he drove down the cliffs of Dover, there was a Bible in the car. The cliffs of Dover give you a perfect view of the English channel, with large cliffs towering over sandy strips of beach—much like some of our coastline here in Northern California. They had become, and still are, a popular place to visit and walk. The green rolling hills come to an abrupt halt, with paths to guide you to different vistas. It’s very pretty countryside. It’s also a destination for a number of people to commit suicide, and that’s what had brought Jerram there. Before doing that though, he had decided to at least read something in the Bible. Perhaps it might give him hope or some reason to live, so he opened it up. By God’s grace he came to this book, Ecclesiastes. He was stunned. He had read and searched in many religious and philosophical books for meaning, but this was shocking. It was so honest. It told the truth about what he was feeling and experiencing. Life had no meaning and everything seemed empty and futile. This book was describing his own heart so clearly that he changed his mind about ending his life. If this book was this honest and wise about the problem, is it possible it has an answer? That began his journey to faith in Christ.
Jerram’s experience is, in a nutshell, why this book is in the Bible. It maps out the truth of our experience with ruthless honesty, but that map isn’t complete until you find the answer in God’s love for us in Jesus. Once you trust the map itself, realizing how true and accurate it is, you can find our God’s answer. Praise Him.
Ecclesiastes | This whole book can be confusing. If you ever want to understand it better, I have an amazing book for you to check out: Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us To Live Life in Light of the End by David Gibson. It’s available for purchase in all the usual places, but if you have a SF library card, it’s also on Hoopla.
Ecclesiastes 3:5 | This reference to gathering stones and scattering stones isn’t about construction. It’s about execution in ancient Israel, which was a community thing. So gathering stones was in order to execute criminals for serious crimes, with everyone throwing the stones at the person until they died. Whenever I hear the Byrds song Turn, Turn, Turn, an old hippie song from the 60’s that uses these first eight verses for the song lyrics, I think they didn’t know what verse five meant. I’m not sure they would have included it!
2 Timothy 1:5 | Paul honors the sincere faith that first lived in Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice—a quiet yet powerful testimony to the sacred calling of gospel-shaped parenting. Our primary mission as parents is not to produce star athletes or Ivy League students, but humble, grace-saturated disciples who know the gospel, love Christ, and see that love embodied in our daily repentance and worship. Children learn what matters most not just by what we say, but by what we treasure. That’s why I always recommend that parents read Parenting by Paul Tripp. He reframes parenting as a ministry of grace, not control. Tripp reminds us that we’re not called to be saviors, but ambassadors of the one true Savior, pointing our children to Jesus in both our failures and our faith. I think that’s what Timothy’s mom and grandma seem to have done so well.
Remaining notes coming soon!