No doubt you have heard—and probably said—“First things first!”

But it’s terribly easy to get off the path we know we ought to be traveling.  Suddenly, first things can become second.

Consider, for example, the story of Solomon and his building projects.  I was reading this account just this morning during my devotional time.  I was stopped in my tracks by the very first verse I read.

“It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace.”  (1 Kings 7:1, NIV )

“Where on earth did the translators get the word “however” in this text?” I asked myself.

I wouldn’t say that I know Hebrew super-well, but I do know that verses are usually strung together with a simple waw.  This Hebrew conjunction can often be translated “and,” but translators do often need to try another word to translate this Hebrew word.

Sure enough, it was a waw at the beginning of this word.  So, how on earth did the translators decide on “however”?  I decided to have a closer look.  I’m glad that I did!

The translators were apparently going on word order.  Hebrew word order is flexible, but generally, Hebrew prefers a verb-subject-object order.  “Dog bites man,” is the English/American word order.  The “normal” word order in Hebrew is “Bites dog man.”  If you put the object of the verb (“man” in this simple example) first, it is usually done in order to emphasize the object.

The Hebrew word order in 1 Kings 7:1 may be translated literally as follows: “His (i.e., Solomon’s) house built Solomon.”

In other words, it is emphasized that Solomon’s own palace took thirteen years to complete, whereas the Temple of the LORD had taken only 7 years to build—a fact that had just been mentioned in the preceding verse.

Of course, this does not necessarily mean that his own palace was more important than the Temple.  Perhaps Solomon had even more workmen building the Temple than he had working on his palace.  Perhaps.  Perhaps.

However, two things make me wonder.  The first is that Solomon’s palace was much larger than the Temple.  Why?  To accommodate all the offices and officials who would serve Solomon?  To accommodate Solomon’s wives?  Or there is another possibility: Did Solomon want his house, the palace, to be the biggest, most impressive building in Jerusalem?

A second thing makes me wonder.  Why is it that the narratives about the furnishings of the Temple and the dedication of the Temple come only after the report of Solomon building his palace?  Admittedly, Hebrew writers did not always proceed chronologically, but this literary positioning is intriguing.  Might it suggest that the building of the Temple was interrupted so that Solomon could build his own palace?

Well, all of this is interesting, but by no means without doubt.  But there is another thing that is surely beyond doubt: Sometimes we all get our priorities out of order.  We major on minors, and minor on majors.  I had a friend who said years ago, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  True that!

If God comes first, everything else will fall into its proper place—or it will fall out entirely, if it needs to.  I frequently willfully forget this.

Right now, I teach as an adjunct at a Christian institution, I teach a Hebrew class, I wait tables at two different restaurants, I try to be active in my church, attempt to be a good househusband,  I blog, and am trying to find time to write a book.

Too often, I don’t ask myself a crucial question: What would most honor God right now?  I don’t ask the question, in part, because I don’t want to hear the answer.

If God were writing the story of my life (and maybe He is), would he chronicle what I had done to honor Him?  But would God have to insert a “however,” indicating that I had been primarily interested in building my own palace?