No 23
(Orderliness)
This virtue is not exclusive to Christians, many people have it
and we will see how nature and the Bible give us examples of this desirable
quality. In nature, the Lord shows us orderliness
in a small, sometimes pesky little animal that finds its way into gardens and
golf courses; this animal is the ground hog or the woodchuck and its habitat is
Canada and the
North-eastern United States. The ground hog demonstrates orderliness in
the way it digs its home; it is a maze of tunnels and compartments. Some of the tunnels are for food, some are
for sleeping, some are for waste and a ground hog’s home or den always has an
emergency exit tunnel. The Lord gave it
these traits so that it would survive in the wild. Oh, by the way, it cannot forecast the
weather with its shadow in the beginning of the month of February. In fact, it
is unlikely that it even leaves its den during that period.
The Bible gives us several examples of this virtue but we will
be looking how the Lord gave orderliness to the third king of Israel, Solomon. As
we know, God’s Temple was to be built by Solomon and it is fascinating to see
just how much orderliness Solomon used to accomplish this monumental task; the
work actually took seven years (1 Kings 6:38).
His father David had amassed a huge amount of gold, silver and precious
stones prior to his death and when Solomon began to build the Temple, he put in
much effort organizing his resources. He sent many thousands of skilled workers
to neighbouring countries to collect the stone and lumber that was required for
this massive structure. After 4 ˝ years
of gathering material, he began the actual building and there were 70,000 men
working under the direction of 14,000 supervisors. Solomon can also be used as an example of
how not to have orderliness. During the last years of his life, he was
anything but orderly and this was to the demise of Israel because the
kingdom was divided after his reign. The
orderliness that he possessed at the beginning of his life eluded him later on
and he became bitter and disillusioned. He following verse sums up how he felt
towards the end “Vanity of vanities,
saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2