What Are Your Spiritual Ships Bringing Back?

Close your eyes for a moment and picture this: a grand harbor along the ancient Mediterranean coastline. The air smells of salt and cedar. Ropes are straining. Sails snap open like white flags of adventure. And there goes Solomon's navy, the ships of Tharshish, setting out on a voyage that will last three whole years.

Three years! I can barely commit to a three-week meal plan, and Solomon's men were heading out to sea for three years. And here's the best part: they weren't sailing all that way to bring back ordinary things. Oh, no. They returned with gold and silver, of course, but they also brought back ivory, and...wait for it...apes and peacocks.

Can you just imagine the scene when those ships finally returned to port? A harbor full of Israelites who had never seen a peacock in their lives, suddenly watching this magnificent bird strut down the gangplank, tail feathers fanned out in all his glory? I would have lost my mind!

I Kings 10:22 tells us plainly: "For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."

These were not things native to Solomon's daily experience. They were wonders. Treasures from a world most of Israel had never seen. And Solomon's ships made it their business to go out and bring them back.

Now, here's where another interesting thought struck me. When we sit down with our Bibles and spend time in the Word of God, we are doing the very same thing. We have the opportunity to bring back wonders and treasures every single time.

Think about it. Every time you open the Scriptures, you are launching your own spiritual navy. You are pushing out from the familiar harbor of your daily life and setting sail into a vast, deep, wonder-filled ocean, the boundless waters of Scripture.

And the cargo you can bring back? Oh, friend. It is unlike anything else on earth. Peace that makes no earthly sense. Wisdom that no classroom can teach you. Joy that has absolutely no business showing up on a Monday morning when everything has already gone sideways. Comfort that reaches you at two o'clock in the morning when anxiety won't let you sleep. These are not things that your daily life manufactures on its own. They are brought back from somewhere far greater, the depths of the Word of the living God.

The psalmist understood this when he wrote, "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep." (Psalm 107:23-24)

Notice who it is that sees the wonders. It's not the ones watching from the dock. It's not the ones who stop by the harbor for a quick peek. It's the ones who go down into those great waters. The ones willing to push out from the shore and sail deep.

And here's what really gets me about Solomon's ships: they weren't gone for an afternoon. Three years. There is no shortcut to the exotic cargo of apes, ivory, and those glorious peacocks. The richest treasures required a long, committed voyage. And the richest treasures of God's Word work the same way. They're not always sitting right at the surface. The deepest gold is found in chapters you return to again and again, in passages that challenge, convict, and stretch you, and in verses that suddenly shine like a beacon at exactly the moment you need them most.

Solomon's ships never came home empty. Not one voyage. And neither will yours.

"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm 119:18)

Friend, that is a prayer worth praying every single morning before you open your Bible. Ask God to show you the wonders. Ask Him to help you see the ivory and the gold. Then climb aboard and sail.

Your ships are sitting in the harbor. The sails are ready. The wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing.

What's stopping you from setting out?