1 KINGS 4-10 ISRAELS GOLDEN YEARS2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Kings 4-10 Israels Golden Years

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. And we're going to be in 1 Kings this evening. We'll be looking at 1 Kings chapter 4 through 10 as we continue our journey through the Bible in three years.

As we look at the book of 1 Kings this evening, we do not know exactly who the author was. It's a compilation of several different records that are kept for all of the kings. We're looking at Solomon tonight, but there's many other kings we'll be looking at throughout the rest of 1 Kings. The time period it covers is about 100 years, from about 972 to about 863 B.C.,

And the theme of the book is what we're focusing on is the kings of Israel and Judah. It's soon after Solomon's reign that the kingdom is divided. And so there's a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah. And so first kings will be following the kings in both of those kingdoms, the northern and the southern kingdom. And so we'll be seeing that.

Here's what it looks like on the timeline. We're in the middle of Solomon's reign as we begin. Actually, we're near the beginning of Solomon's reign as we begin in chapter 4. We'll be going through towards the end of Solomon's life. We'll finish that up in the coming chapters in this coming week. But the book of 1 Kings will continue on into the divided kingdom and then into the different kings that are reigning over the next 100 years or so.

As we look at the geography, here's what it looks like. Solomon's kingdom was quite vast. The borders were expanded greatly by David and the battles that he fought. And Solomon maintained those boundaries here. And we'll see that this evening as we look through our chapters together. And so this is on the left-hand side, uh,

the territory that he ruled over. And then on the right side, you have the divided kingdom. And that's going to be happening this coming week as we continue to read through our chapters where the kingdom is going to be split in two. The northern kingdom is going to set up their own king and their own method of worship. And then the southern kingdom, Judah, is going to set up their own king and continue to worship at the temple.

that Solomon is building. And so we're going to be seeing that unfold this week in our reading. Well, that brings us to chapter 4 this evening as we begin our chapters that we read this past week. And verse 21 is the key verse. It says, So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

So here in chapter 4 we have verses 1 through 6, the officials of Solomon's kingdom. Then we have the governors that he set up, 12 governors in verses 7 through 19. And then we have the extent of his reign there in verses 20 through 28 from the river to Egypt and we'll talk about that. And then we have some highlights of Solomon's wisdom there in verses 29 through 34.

So Solomon, he's reigning over this kingdom. Of course, he has many different officials. He has the priests who are serving the spiritual needs of the people, the scribes who are recording the laws, recording the things, recording the scriptures. He also has the labor force involved.

And those who are overseeing the labor force for all of the massive buildings he's about to begin to work on. And then, of course, he has an army and the commander of the army. And so that's all there under the officials.

Solomon also divided up the kingdom into 12 divisions. And so he had 12 governors that were over different regions of the land. And they were responsible for providing some of the food and meeting the needs of the king's household. And we'll see that there in verses 20 through 28 as this great provision is going on.

Well, as we look at the rain that he had from the river to Egypt, again, these are the borders that were expanded by David. And I'll put the map on the screen once again for you. So the river...

is the very top there, right, where it says Tipsa, and there's the blue line, that's the Euphrates River. It goes down, of course, all the way south to Babylon from there. But, so, that was the northern extent of his kingdom. And then down to the south, it was the border of Egypt. And so, this is far greater than, you know, what was experienced under King Saul. And so, the borders were vastly expanded, and

The children of Israel didn't populate all of this area. They still populated the middle section there where you have the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Right there where it says Gibeon and Beersheba. That was the area that they populated. But the other areas that they weren't actually populating, there was other people living there and they were paying tribute to

to Solomon. And so it was part of their kingdom, although the children of Israel weren't necessarily populating those areas. And so this is the area that he controlled, that he ruled over, and the nations in those areas paid tribute.

Here in this portion, it also talks about the daily provision for Solomon's household, which was quite extraordinary, quite vast. Daily, they would have 10 oxen for their meals. They would also have 100 sheep, as well as other game that they would be able to hunt.

Then they would also have 30 cores of flour, or you and I could think about it as like a 55-gallon barrel, 30 of those filled with flour. That was the daily provision, and so each of the 12 governors were responsible to provide one month of the year of food for

for the household, the king's household and all of his servants and everything. And so it was a massive amount and it was a good example of the prosperity. What we're looking at here in chapter 4 through 10 is the golden years for the nation of Israel. This is when they're prosperous. This is at the peak of the nation, the peak

of Solomon's reign but but the peak of Israel as a whole they are wealthy they're prosperous they're doing very well and this is an example of that that they're able to provide for the king's household to this great extent

What we also see in this passage, the wisdom of Solomon is emphasized or highlighted. In verse 29, it says, And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore.

And so this is, you know, the fulfillment of Solomon's prayer that we saw last week where Solomon asked God for wisdom and here God has given him that wisdom just as he said he would. And so the record of that is, well, he spoke 3,000 Proverbs. We have some of those recorded, of course, in the book of Proverbs, but there were many more beyond that. He also wrote one

1,005 songs, which we don't, we have, you know, a couple of his songs, but we don't have very many of them. But then he also had wisdom regarding trees and animals and fish and birds and just all kinds of things. He was wise and he understood all of these things. And so people sought him out. And we'll see that at the end of our chapters this evening. Verse 34 says...

And the men of all nations from all the kings of the earth who heard of his wisdom came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And so this is the establishing of his kingdom. He's wise and now he's getting ready to build the temple that his father David had instructed him to build and given him the provision and the plans to build. Well that brings us to chapter 5, the key verse is verse 18.

It says, So Solomon's builders, Hiram's builders, and the Gebelites quarried them, and they prepared timber and stones to build the temple. Here in verses 1 through 6, Solomon asks Hiram for cedar for the temple. So Solomon now asks,

this relationship with Hiram. Now Hiram was a king to the north of Israel in the area that's known as Lebanon or it was the king of Tyre at the time. And so he was up there and that region is well known for its cedar trees. And so Solomon says, I'm going to need some cedar trees. Hiram, let's make a deal. Can you help me? I need to build the house of God. And so Hiram

He asked Hiram for cedar. Now cedar trees are, like I said, they're all throughout Lebanon. If you don't know what a cedar tree is, it's an evergreen tree. They grow from about 90 to 180 feet tall. And they were very, very useful for building structures. They were used all throughout the Mediterranean area for building these types of things.

And so he sends to Hiram and asks if he would provide the cedar for the temple. And then in verse 7 through 12, you have Hiram replying and he agrees. Yes, I will provide the cedar that is necessary for the temple. And then in verses 13 through 18, we have the record of Solomon raising up a labor force.

And it was quite a labor force. 30,000 men that he would send to Lebanon to help them cut down the trees, harvest the trees, and to be able to bring them down to Jerusalem. He also had another 70,000 who would carry burdens

another 80,000 who quarried stone for the temple, and then another 3,300 who would be supervisors and be making sure that the work is done properly. So total is up to about 188,300 men that were part of this labor force that Solomon put together.

And so he's getting ready. He's about to, you know, he's making the arrangements. He's getting the workers ready, getting the hiring done so that he can begin to build the temple that his father David had commanded him to build. Remember, God told David, you can't build the temple, even though David wanted to. He said, your son Solomon will build the temple. And so now he's about to embark on that and build the temple that David had prepared to build.

Well, here on the map, you can see the route that would have been taken. Tyre is up there on the north. That's where Hiram was. And so that's where, you know, the areas of the trees that they would be chopping down. And then what they would do to get them all the way to Jerusalem is they would float them down the Mediterranean Sea just along the coast. They'd make little rafts out of them.

and bring them down to Joppa, and then they would carry them from Joppa to Jerusalem by land. And so this was the way that they would be able to get all of the wood that was necessary for the temple, and then all of the other buildings that Solomon was working on. Well, that brings us to chapter 6. Verse 38 is the key verse. It says, "...and in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished."

So here in chapter 6, we have the seven years of building that was required for the temple. In verses 1 through 4, we have the basic overview of the house of the Lord.

It tells us that the work began in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. And so we understand, you know, it took him a little bit of time to get the labor force, to get the arrangements, to get the materials all ready. And then now it's time to break ground. And that happened at the fourth year of his reign. The dimensions...

are also given here for the house of the Lord in verses 1 through 4. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. It's some, a little bit of changes from the tabernacle, which we're familiar with from our previous studies. But he changes it slightly and we'll get to see that.

In verses 5 through 10, it also describes one of Solomon's additions is he added chambers all around the tabernacle. And this would be used for storage. It was three stories high. And the tabernacle did not have this, but this is an addition that he added as he's building the temple.

Then in verses 11 through 13, the Lord speaks to Solomon and he tells Solomon, hey, if you walk in my statutes and execute my judgments and keep all my commandments and walk in them, he says, then I will perform my word with you, which I spoke to your father David. And so as Solomon is in the midst of building this temple, God gives him some encouragement. He says, hey, I'm with you. Continue to walk with me and I'll fulfill all the promises that I have given to you.

Then in verses 14 through 35, it describes for us the inside of the temple. On the outside, there was the stone that they were coring and that was providing the structure. But then inside of that, there was cedar and then they would overlay that cedar with gold. And so it was stone and then cedar and then gold on top of that for the inside of the temple.

In addition to the walls of gold, Solomon also made new furnishings to go along with the temple. Now, you might remember in the tabernacle, and I'll show you a couple diagrams in just a moment, but in the tabernacle, you had the table of showbread, you had the lampstand, you had the altar of incense, and then if you went into the Holy of Holies, then there was the Ark of the Covenant.

Well, Solomon extended this a little bit. And so instead of just one table, there was 10 tables for the showbread. Instead of just one lampstand, there was 10 lampstands, five on each side of the lampstands, five on each side of the tables. And you can see that in 2 Chronicles chapter 4, where it gives that detail there.

And so he expanded a little bit. So he brought in the table and the lampstand from the tabernacle, but he also reproduced nine more of them so that there was ten altogether within the temple. Another thing he did that's described here is that he added cherubim to the Holy of Holies.

So inside the temple, there was two divisions. There was the holy place, which that's where the table of showbread was. That's where the lampstand was. The altar of incense was. And into the holy place, the priests would go regularly. They would go in the morning. They would go in the evening. It was, you know, where the priests would always go to serve the Lord.

The most holy place was beyond the veil, remember, and the priest would only go in there, only the high priest and only one time a year because that's where the presence of God dwelt. And so he was only allowed to go in there on the day of atonement after fulfilling the sacrifices that God had prescribed.

So inside the most holy place, or also known as the Holy of Holies, that's where the Ark of the Covenant was. That's where the presence of God was. Well, in the temple, as Solomon is building it, he also puts in the most holy place two large cherubim.

are angels. And so he puts these statues of these angelic beings there in the most holy place or the holy of holies. Now to give you an idea, it says that they were 10 cubits wide and 10 cubits high. The

Speaker stands here, these silver posts. These are 10 cubits apart or 15 feet apart. So one of the cherubim with its wings out like this would have been this wide. Now it also would have been that tall, which is quite impressive to think about. It would go beyond our ceiling. Our ceiling is about 10 feet tall. So add another five feet up and you would get an approximate size of one of the cherubim.

Now the way that this building is actually situated, it's roughly the size of the holy place. Not the holy of holies, but the holy place. So the width is about the same. So the two cherubim in the most holy place would be touching that wall and that wall and their wings would touch in the middle. That's the size of these cherubim and the temple that Solomon is building.

And so pretty massive, these cherubim. I think, I was kind of thinking in terms of if I was the high priest, I would already be a little bit fearful about entering into the most holy place that one time a year. And I'd be like, great Solomon, you just made it a little bit more scary because now I got these big statues looking down at me when I walk in there. And I think it would have been quite fearful to behold and to walk in there in that way. But

Here you have a little bit of a sample of the size of these cherubim that Solomon added. Well then in verses 36 through 38 it tells us that it took seven years to build it. So this is kind of a little bit of an overview. He just, you know, goes through the structure, talks about what's inside of it, and then concludes saying it took about seven years to build it.

Now in verse 1, it tells us that this happened in the 480th year after they had left Egypt. So here's a quick look back at the timeline. They left Egypt right around 1400. You could try to pinpoint it to about 1447 or so. Whenever you go try to pinpoint dates this far back, it always gets a little bit, you know, speculation. But from the time that they left Egypt...

So 480 years is when Solomon now begins to build the temple. So for that 480 years, they've been using the tabernacle that God instructed them to build in the wilderness. And so during the time of their wilderness wanderings and then into the

the promised land with Joshua through the times of judges with Saul and then David and now Solomon. The tabernacle is what was being used and all of those instruments and furnishings and everything that God instructed them to build, you know, they've lasted for these 480 years and now they're being moved into this permanent structure, the temple, and that's going to be where they remain.

Here's a quick look at a kind of a side-by-side comparison of the tabernacle versus the temple. So here on the left you have the tabernacle. We went through this extensively. If you guys were with us, you'd remember we kind of moved everybody over on this side and we saw that, you know, right about here to the wall, that's the size of the tabernacle. You know, this building actually fits it pretty well, pretty perfectly. And then we went through this extensively.

The temple now is twice as wide and twice as long. So it's actually about four times the amount of space as the tabernacle. So it's quite a bit larger. It's 30 feet wide and 90 feet long. And it's also 30 feet high. Or actually 45 feet high. So it's quite large.

But it was the same basic layout. So you had the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant. That was the same, except for Solomon added two cherubim in there. Then you had the holy place, which is where the priests would go to minister. And so in there you had the lampstand, you had the table, the tabernacle only had one of each.

The temple had ten of each. And then you also had the incense altar that stayed one in the tabernacle and one in the temple. So that's a little bit of a glimpse of what it would have looked like as far as being compared to the tabernacle. Here's another example.

of what it might have looked like. And so you can see a little bit more zoomed out. You can see the courtyard. You can see the bronze sea, which we'll talk about, and the altar, the pillars, the levers around the outside. We'll talk about that in just a moment. The storerooms, which that's what Solomon built around the temple.

And then you can also see the cherubim there inside the Holy of Holies overshadowing the Ark of the Covenant. So that's a sample of what it might have looked like. Here we have a diagram. This is not an actual picture. This is just an artist rendering, but something it might have looked like. So you can kind of see the structure. It's tall. You have the pillars in the front.

the wall, what's circled right there is the chambers that would have been outside. And so to get inside the chambers, you wouldn't go into the tabernacle. It was actually on the outside. It was really a separate structure that you would enter in from the outside and that would be a storehouse and pretty much, you know, any of the priests could go there anytime to get whatever out of the storage that they needed. But inside the tabernacle, that was strictly for the worship of the Lord, the maintaining of the candles,

the lampstands and so on and so forth. And so this is a rendering of what it might have looked like as you would walk up to it. Remember that the children of Israel as a whole, they really never got to see the inside of the tabernacle. This is really all that they would see. It was only the priests who were allowed to enter in to the temple. And so they would be the only ones who would get to see the things that were inside.

Here's another diagram which kind of gives you a sense of what was inside the temple. Same view, same kind of perspective. You have the bronze sea at the bottom there with some of the levers and the altar. You have the two pillars. And then as you walked in, then the walls would be solid gold because it was that cedar overlaid with gold. You would have the lampstands all along the side, the table of showbread as well with the altar of incense.

And then if you kept going. You would enter into the. The Holy of Holies. And there. Is their rendition of the. Two cherubim. And the Ark of the Covenant. And so it kind of just gives you a sense. And you can also see. The storehouses on the side. So you'd enter in from there. And then you'd have to go up the stairs. To the next level. And then the next level. So it kind of gives you a sense. Of what this temple was like. As Solomon was building it. Now.

What I thought was interesting as I was considering this is the value of this temple and really the vast cost of making it. We looked at the tabernacle and you might remember the tabernacle as we looked at it. It was impressive how much gold and silver and bronze that went into the tabernacle. It was a lot and it was quite costly. But the temple exceeds that by...

I mean, it just exceeds it. And here's a little sample of that. So the tabernacle gold weighed about 2,350 pounds.

That was a lot of gold. And remember they had to carry this through the wilderness. So you probably wouldn't want to carry much more than that. At today's rates that would have been about 49 million dollars worth of gold. An impressive amount of gold. But you can see there the temple gold was at least 640,000 pounds. Which you know it's quite a bit more. And you can see this from 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

where David and the leaders of Israel are giving gold for the work of the temple. And so it records there the amounts that are given. So that would have worked out to, what is that, $13 billion, $13.5 billion or so for the gold in the temple. Now, this is a little bit...

by scholars and those who, you know, like to discuss these things. But 1 Chronicles chapter 22 verse 14, if you want to check that out later on, it actually records a different number where David is declaring how he has prepared the materials.

David really wanted to build the temple, but God said, no, you're not going to. You're a man of war. You've shed much blood. And so your son Solomon, he's going to build the temple. So David's like, okay, that's great. I won't build the temple. But he did everything he could to prepare for the temple. And so he conquered all these lands. He brought in gold. He prepared it. And in 1 Chronicles 22, 14 says,

As he's recording all of these things, he declares in verse 14, he says, I have taken much trouble to prepare for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold and 1 million talents of silver and bronze and iron beyond measure, for it is so abundant. I've prepared timber and stone also that you may add to them. So David declares in 1 Chronicles 22, 14 that he has...

and stored up 100,000 talents of gold. Now,

Right here, this amount, 640,000 pounds, if I remember right, it's about 8,000 talents of gold. So 100,000 talents of gold is, you know, like 10 times or 100 times more than this. So some people, some scholars, you know, say, well, could that be? Is there that much gold at that time? And, you know, they work through all those things. I tend to just believe

what the scriptures say. So I'm inclined to believe that, that David. So that would, you know, make this even exponentially more valuable, more costly, and more impressive as you consider all of this, this gold and this fine, you know, valuable materials that went into the temple.

And so we see here in chapter 6 this impressive, whether it's the 8,000 talents or the 100,000 talents, either way, it's really impressive what went into this as Solomon is building the temple. Well, that brings us to chapter 7, verse 51 is the key verse.

It says, So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated, the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

In verses 1 through 12, we have the record of Solomon's building. So he built the temple, but then he also built his own home, which had kind of several parts to it. The main part was the house of the forest of Lebanon. And it was called that because of the massive amount of cedar that was used throughout his house. And then he also had the hall of pillars and then the hall of judgment where he would sit and he would judge cases that were brought before him.

And so the record of these different parts of his home and the buildings that he made are there in verses 1 through 12.

We also have in verse 13 through 14, it kind of rewinds a little bit to talk about a man named Huram who comes to help build the temple. And so he comes and he's talented and gifted and working with bronze. And so he's doing the work of fashioning and crafting the molds for these massive bronze works that they're going to be doing. And so we see the two bronze pillars in verses 15 through 22.

And then we have the bronze sea in verse 23 through 26. Then we have the 10 carts and lavers in verse 27 through 39.

And then a summary of all Hurom's work there in verses 40 through 51. In verse 46 it says, And so what they did is they made clay molds and then they would fashion or pour in the bronze to fit these molds and then they would bring the final product to the temple.

In verse 47 it says that Solomon did not weigh all the articles because there were so many the weight of the bronze was not determined. So the weight of all the bronze that was going into this was really beyond their capacity to be able to measure and keep track of. And so they do not have the final record of that.

Going back to this diagram or this image, these are the two pillars that are being talked about here. So there was two pillars with capitals or tops that would be put upon them. And so these pillars were made of bronze, fashioned in clay molds, and then brought here to Jerusalem. They were 18 cubits high.

which is about 27 feet high, but then on top of that was another 7 1⁄2 foot high capital or top that would go on top of the pillar. And it was quite large. It was 12 cubits in circumference or 18 feet in circumference. So all the way around it was about 18 feet all the way from one end to the other.

These pillars are impressive and so they actually give them names. The right one they named Jachin and the left one they named Boaz. Jachin means he shall establish and Boaz means in it is strength. And so established and strength are the names of these two pillars that were standing in front of the temple. Then he also fashioned the bronze sea.

Now for the tabernacle, they had a lever.

It was a little bit more simple than this. But that's where the priests would wash. They would do their ceremonial washing as part of their sacrifices and such. And so this is kind of a new upgraded version of that. It's a little bit bigger. And then they also added these oxen underneath, which are fashioned out of bronze. And they kind of made the stand for this laver. And so the laver would rest on these oxen.

This lever was about 15 feet in diameter.

So about the same as the cherubim from post to post right here. It was about that wide or that was the diameter. And it was about seven and a half feet high. So just a couple inches taller than me. Just kidding. Seeing if you're awake. So that's the bronze sea and that's where the priests would wash and be doing the ceremonial cleansing as part of the sacrifices. In addition to that though, there was the ten lavers.

the ten levers that were on the ten carts, so they would kind of be mobile, they could move them around. And so these would be used by the priests when there was a multitude of sacrifices that were being offered, then they could also use these levers as part of that as well. And so they put five on each side of the tabernacle and we'll see them put to use in a few minutes as Solomon begins the sacrifices at the temple.

Well, that brings us now to chapter 8 here of 1 Kings. Verse 29 is the key verse. And it says, In verses 1 through 13, the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the temple.

The Ark of the Covenant was that place where God said that he would meet with his people. On top of the Ark of the Covenant was the fashion of two cherubim. And God said that his presence would dwell between the wings of the cherubim. And so that was where the presence of God was. Now David had set up a tent for it there in Jerusalem. And so it had been there. But now Solomon moves it into the completed temple there.

And now that's going to be the beginning of the temple's function and its use in the worship of God. It's interesting, in verse 9 it tells us that there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb.

When Moses was at Mount Sinai and he got the two tablets from the Lord, the Ten Commandments, they put those in the Ark of the Covenant. But then as we went through Exodus, we saw God also told them to put the manna inside the Ark of the Covenant, as well as Aaron's rod that had budded to prove that he was the one that God had chosen to be the priest. And so those were all inside of the Ark of the Covenant, but

early on but at this point in verse 9 the only thing that's left in there is the two tablets of stone the ten commandments we don't know what happened to the other things at some point perhaps when it was in the land of the philistines they took those things out

We also know when it came back from the land of the Philistines, remember that the people of that town that it came to, they opened it and looked inside and then a bunch of them died. And so perhaps they were pulling stuff out of it. We don't know. Just kind of guessing here. But at some point, you know, those things, the manna and Aaron's rod were taken out.

In verse 10, it tells us that the priest carried the ark into the temple. And then when the priest came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. Now, if you remember back when we were going through the tabernacle, when the service of the tabernacle began, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In the same way now, God is doing the same thing with the temple. And so he's indicating, you know,

He's carrying on this same relationship with his people now through the temple in place of the tabernacle. And so now that's being transferred. The tabernacle will not be used anymore. The articles from the tabernacle were put in the temple. And so the temple now is the place for people to come to worship God, to meet with God, to offer their sacrifices. This is the place. And God signified that as the glory filled the temple, the cloud of the Lord filled the temple.

when they put the Ark of the Covenant in there.

And so in verse 14 through 21, now you have Solomon blessing the assembly. He's declaring David wanted to build the temple. God said that Solomon would. And now he says in verse 20 that the Lord has fulfilled his word. And so he's rejoicing and celebrating how God has been faithful to his word. Then as you go on in verse 22 through 53, quite a longer portion of scripture, you have the record of Solomon's prayer.

prayer for the temple saying God please recognize this temple please hear the prayers that are offered here hear the prayers that are offered toward this temple kind of the major theme of his prayer is that God would hear and forgive he

He keeps talking about sin. How he says we all sin. There's nobody who does not sin. And so when people sin and they pray to you here at this temple, hear them and forgive them. And so Solomon is asking God to be faithful to his covenant, faithful to the sacrificial system that he has established, that he would bring forgiveness as people come to pray to the Lord and to ask for forgiveness.

He also though mentions Gentiles and other nations that when they come, hear their prayer and fulfill their requests that they would know that you really are God, that you reign on high. And so he's desiring that God would be glorified through the temple and the things that take place there.

When he's done praying, verse 54 through 61 gives us another blessing that he gives to the assembly. He says there in verse 56, "...Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he has promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised through his servant Moses."

Again, what we're looking at here in Solomon's reign is the peak, the pinnacle of the nation's history and Solomon's reign. And they are seeing the fulfillment of all the things that Moses had declared, all the things that had been promised through Moses and even promised through David in the building of the temple and the establishing. Remember in Deuteronomy, God kept saying,

go to the place, you know, find the place where I've chosen to put my name and that's where you're going to come and worship me and sacrifice to me. And now that's been fulfilled, it's taking place here on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The temple is built. All of these things are being fulfilled just like God said that it would be.

In verse 61, he tells the people, Solomon says, So walk with him. Keep his ways.

Don't wander off. Now it's interesting that Solomon encourages the people in this because we'll see as we continue to read our chapters even tomorrow as we look at chapter 11. Solomon will at this point begin to wander away from God and he will not keep to the ways of the Lord. He will begin to fall away from God. And so he's encouraging the people, hey God's been faithful so be faithful to him.

But he's not taking his own encouragement as we'll see. And then in verse 62 through 66, Solomon consecrates the temple. He begins the sacrificial system there, offering the peace offerings. And there's a great barbecue that happens, a great feast. 14 days they have this feast as Solomon offers this massive amount of peace offerings.

Now remember, the peace offerings were offerings that part of the animal would be sacrificed and offered on the altar to the Lord. But the majority of the animal would be kept and eaten by the people who are offering it. And so it was a fellowship offering or a peace offering where like...

we would describe as a barbecue. You know, we're hanging out together. Part of it would be burned unto the Lord, but the rest would be eaten by the family that was offering it. So Solomon here offers as peace offerings 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep. So quite a long barbecue. Massive barbecue. Lots of carne asada. However you want to describe it. I mean, they just had this great celebration.

as the tabernacle is consecrated, dedicated to the Lord. They're fellowshipping. They're rejoicing in the peace that they have with God. And now this opportunity to meet with the Lord here at the temple.

This is a quick reminder if you've forgotten what the Ark of the Covenant is like. It was something like this. Again, it's not an actual diagram. We don't have it. We don't know if it exists still to this day. But it was basically a box with rings on it with poles that went through the rings and

It was all made out of wood and then overlaid with gold. And then the top of the box, the lid of the box called the mercy seat was made out of solid gold and it had the two cherubim on top of it. And the poles were for the priest to carry the Ark of the Covenant around the wilderness and then into the promised land. But now it's going to rest within the temple. The poles were to remain in there and we see that also in the passage.

That would be placed now within the temple here in the Holy of Holies. And again, this is where the presence of God would dwell. This is where God said, I will meet with my people. And so it's the permanent residence now between the wings of the cherubim. It's interesting that now there's four cherubim in the Holy of Holies. There's two on the ark and then there's the two statues that Solomon built.

And it reminded me, maybe there's a connection between this and then the four living creatures that are described in Ezekiel chapter 1 and 10. And then also by the Apostle John in the book of Revelation. There's the four living creatures that are there in the presence of God at the throne of God. And so now there's four cherubim here in the Holy of Holies. And perhaps that's a reference to what actually exists in heaven with the four living creatures.

Well, that brings us now to chapter 9, verse 5 is the key verse. It says,

In verses 1 through 9, we have the Lord appearing to Solomon. This is the second time. The first time happened in chapter 3 when God gave him the opportunity to ask for whatever he wanted and he asked for wisdom. Now God's appearing to him again after the temple has been built.

And as he appears the second time, I think it's really interesting what God tells him. In verse 4, he says, now if you walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and my judgments, and he goes on to say, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to bless your sons, and as long as they continue to walk. So he's giving him these promises that

It's important to note that these are conditional promises. It's conditioned upon if you walk before me as your father David walked. If you continue to walk in my ways. So again, we're at the height right now, the peak, the pinnacle of Solomon's life, of the history of Israel. And God's saying, if you continue to walk, I'm going to continue to bless. I'm going to continue to establish you.

But then he goes on in verse 6. He says, But if you or your sons at all turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them. Then he goes on to talk about the removal of the blessing and the destruction that will come upon the nation and upon this house that Solomon has built if...

He or his sons turn from following the Lord. So the first time God appeared to Solomon, he said, hey, ask whatever you want. I'm going to give it to you. The second appearing of the Lord to Solomon is vastly different. It's an encouragement, you know, remember my promises and I'll be faithful. But it's also a warning. It's a warning to not turn away from the Lord.

There's a great tendency, and you can see the pattern throughout the history of the world, where God works within a people. He blesses them as they look to Him and rely upon Him. And we can see this in our own lives. But then in the midst of prosperity, in the midst of all the blessing, enjoying what God has given,

There's a tendency to wander from the things of God. There's a tendency to walk away from the Lord. And so here's Israel at the peak, at the height. They're in peace. You know, there's not threats from the surrounding nations anymore like there was under Saul and David. Those have been resolved. God's just blessed them abundantly. There's prosperity. There's wealth. Things are going great. And so this warning is necessary.

God warns Solomon not to turn from him. I would remind you that God does not warn without reason. It's not just by coincidence that God appears the second time and gives this warning. And then in two chapters we're going to see that Solomon falls away from the Lord and begins to walk away.

According to His own ways and not according to the ways of God. It's not by coincidence. It's by design. God knew what was coming and so He brought the warning. I think this is so important for us.

We need to take heed to the warnings of God because he does not warn without reason. At this point, Solomon could have thought, what are you talking about? I'm not going to fall away. I mean, look how much you've blessed us. We've got the temple now and we can go and worship there. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be awesome. We're going to serve you for the rest of our lives. And then my sons are going to serve you and their sons are going to serve you. It's going to be awesome. I think that's what I would have thought. It's probably what Solomon thought.

But this warning was for a reason. And it was because, well, he was going to fall away. And God was giving him an opportunity to prevent that. Now, God says that he would bring destruction upon the nation and upon the temple. We see this fulfilled.

As God appears to Solomon and speaks to him these things, we'll see this fulfilled as we get to the end of 2 Kings, as all of this happens when Babylon conquers Judah, because God's people continue and insist on being rebellious against God and unfaithful to Him. I really like what Weersbe had to say about this, though. He said, God would rather destroy His holy temple than permit His people to pollute it with their sin.

Think about, you know, all the glorious things we saw in the temple. The great value that was there. I mean, he spared no expense. He put all of this into the temple. God says, look, that's not that valuable to me. It's not that important to me. What's more important to me is your hearts. And if you're not going to walk with me, if you're not going to follow me, I'm going to get rid of that. I'm going to just destroy it. I'm going to take it out of the way. Because it's your hearts that I'm interested in. It's you walking with me. It's that relationship with me.

That's more important to me than this great building that you have built. So the Lord appears to Solomon there in verses 1-9. Then we have in verses 10-14 the 20 cities that Solomon gives to Hiram. They had this relationship. He's supplying the wood. Now Solomon gives him 20 cities. Hiram also gives 120 talents of gold at that point. And then verse 15-24 says,

You have the labor force described again. It's pointed out that the laborers were not from Israel, but they were the people that were there in the land. Remember, Israel was supposed to drive out the inhabitants of the land, but they never did. And so what Solomon does here is he puts them to work. The Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, all those that were still within the land, he puts them to work and those are the laborers

For the temple and for the projects that Solomon was building. Verse 25 talks about Solomon's offerings each year. So three times a year. Which probably correspond with the three main feasts. Remember three times a year all the men of Israel were to appear before the Lord. At Pentecost, at Passover and at the Feast of Tabernacles. They were to appear before the Lord and bring an offering and a sacrifice.

And then it talks about in verse 26 through 28, Solomon's fleet of ships. So now, you know, he's built those things. Now he's expanding his borders and his wealth by trading beyond, you know, what's immediately around them and going out on the Mediterranean and on the Red Sea.

Here on this map you can see the northern part of Israel which is known as Galilee which is the area around the Sea of Galilee and it's from this area that Solomon gave cities to Hiram and so that's the region that they were in. Hiram wasn't really excited about the cities. He's like what are these things that you've given me? They're not very impressive but that's what he gave him.

Here you have the Red Sea. Now it talks about Ezean Giver there. That's the port city. The Red Sea goes up and then it splits off into the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of something else, I forget. But it's still part of the Red Sea. And so that's where...

The port was, that was the southern tip of the nation of Israel under Solomon's reign. You can barely see right above it, you know, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee up there. And so that was the port. And so they had ships there. And it talks about them going down to Ophir, which is down in the southern part of Arabia. So they would sail down there. It's about a thousand miles or so that they would go down the Red Sea there.

And they would trade there. They would bring back gold and apes and monkeys and ivory and all of that kind of thing. They would also sail on the Mediterranean Sea. So here Israel is in the bottom right corner. In fact, right where it says the scale of miles, that's where Israel is. That's where their ports were.

And so from there, they were also able to go all around the Mediterranean Sea. It mentions specifically Tarshish in a couple places, which is believed to be in Spain. And so they would kind of cover the whole area of the Mediterranean Sea. They would go to the different places. They would trade. They would bring back gold and all types of different things. And so Solomon was expanding this and becoming very commercial there in Israel.

Well, that brings us to our final chapter this evening, chapter 10, verse 3. It says, So Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. In verses 1 through 13, we have the queen of Sheba who comes to Solomon. And then the description of his great wealth in verses 14 through 29. The queen of Sheba, she's from a great distance away. She hears about Solomon and she says...

I need to check this out. I want to ask him the questions that I have. I want to see if I can stump him. And so she makes the journey and she asks her questions and he's able to answer because of his great wisdom and understanding. In verse 7, she says, I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes and indeed the half was not told to me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.

So again, we're describing, we're looking at the peak, the pinnacle of Solomon's life, of Israel's history. There's just great prosperity here. There's great wealth. And of course, he had great wisdom, which left her speechless.

It goes on to describe his wealth there. The tribute that he got every year, 666 talents of gold. In addition to that, he had the resources from all of the trading, the profits from that. In verse 21, it talks about all of his drinking vessels were gold. And if you go to Pastor George's house, you'll have a similar experience. All the vessels are plastic. No, I'm just kidding. So,

So all of his utensils, everything was gold. There was no silver because it says in verse 21 that silver was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. Can you imagine that? I mean, that gives you a glimpse of the prosperity. It's like silver, toss it out the window. No big deal. It was, well, in verse 27, he says the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. So it was just like all the rest of the rocks that were lying around.

And then, of course, cedar trees were abundant, sycamore trees, and so on and so forth. So there was this great prosperity. And then it also talks about the set rate to hear Solomon. Everybody wanted to hear Solomon's wisdom. So they would set a rate every year. This is the cost.

So if you want to hear Solomon, here's what it's going to cost you. And so they would bring that in as well. And so here it's again the peak of Solomon's reign, Israel's history, as this great man of wisdom is sitting on the throne. And it's just a glorious and prosperous time for Israel. Here's a map to kind of give you some sense of the Queen of Sheba and her travels. So Sheba is believed to be there in the southern part of Arabia.

And so she would have traveled up either by land or by sea. We don't know for sure. But it would have been about 1,200 to 1,500 miles for her to travel to get to Israel, to Jerusalem where Solomon was. And so she took this journey to hear Solomon in person based on this testimony of others that were telling her about Solomon. So quite a journey that she took.

Again, about 1,200 to 1,500 miles to hear him.

We talked about his wealth there at the end of the chapter. Here's a little bit of an idea of what it was like. The gold that the Queen of Sheba brought, it says, was 120 talents. So working out the weight and then going by today's prices, that would be about $202 million of gold that she brought to him. Now that's not counting all the spices and everything else that she brought, but just the gold because that's the actual amount that we know.

The yearly gold that said that Solomon would receive was 666 talents, which works out to just over a billion dollars of gold. And so that was his annual tribute from all of the nations that were around.

Of all of this gold, he made 200 large shields, which had 600 shekels of gold each. That adds up to about $67 million worth of gold into those large shields. And then he made 300 smaller shields, which only had three minas of gold each, which works out to about $25 million worth of gold. And then the 1,400 chariots talks about, you know, they were 600 shekels of silver each.

And so that was not that impressive, $270,000 worth of chariots. So just to, again, give you kind of a sample. This is just what was coming in continually. Yearly he would have this great wealth coming in.

In addition to all of his trading and all of those things. So here we're seeing the glory. Now tomorrow as we go into chapter 11, we're going to see the fall. And we're going to see him begin to walk away from God. And then upon his death, the kingdom is going to be divided. And it's like downhill from here on out. As Israel progressively goes further and further away from God. All the while having an opportunity to repent. Now up to this point, we haven't really seen prophets yet.

We're going to start seeing prophets now as we go forward in 1 Kings. Because the prophets were sent by God to call the people back to God. They refused to listen, except for like little pockets of revival that would happen. But overall, the people refused to listen. And so they continued this downward spiral to destruction as they refused to listen to the Lord. Now,

To finish up this evening, I want to remind you of what we read on Sunday from Luke chapter 11, where Jesus said, he mentions the Queen of Sheba. And he says, she heard about Solomon and she came to hear him. Now, think about what that would have taken for her to travel 12 or 1500 miles to hear Solomon based on other people's testimony of this man that she'd never met.

And then he said that she would rise up in the judgment because a greater than Solomon was there. And although Jesus was there, the people, they weren't listening. They weren't responding. They were not receiving him. And as I encourage you and challenge you on Sunday, I want to encourage you and challenge you again today. There's a need for us. We have greater resources than history has ever known. We have access to God through what Jesus did for us upon the cross.

There's no limits to our relationship with the Lord, except for what we put. There's really no limits. We have the Holy Spirit. We have everything that we need. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 3, that God has given us everything that we need for life and for godliness.

Everything that you need for your job, everything that you need for, you know, to be the parent that you need to be or to be whatever you need to be, everything that you need for life and everything that you need for godliness is found in the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. It's found in a relationship with Jesus. It's found in knowing Him. We have everything that we need through our relationship with Jesus.

The Queen of Sheba went through great difficulty to hear Solomon. That's what Jesus says. We have so great access to God, to resources, to know Him, to understand His Word. And it's through that, that we have everything that we need for life and godliness. And yet, we don't have everything that we need for life and godliness because we're not as faithful, we're not as diligent, we're not as determined as the Queen of Sheba.

And a greater than Solomon is here. We have access to our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you to be faithful and diligent in your relationship with God. Be faithful and diligent in your time of prayer. Be faithful and diligent in your reading of the Scriptures. Be faithful and diligent to know God, to walk with Him, to hear from Him. Because you have incredible access that's granted to you

By what Jesus did for us upon the cross. And through that he will provide you. Everything that you need for life. And for godliness. And if you don't. If I don't. The queen of Sheba will rise up. In the day of judgment when we stand before God. And she'll condemn us. She'll say look I went to great lengths to hear Solomon. I didn't have the opportunity that you have. But I was faithful and diligent when I heard about him. How come you weren't faithful and diligent. When you had access to God.

Such a great need for us to walk with the Lord. And I know that Solomon at the peak of his glory, at all these glorious things happening, he probably thought, I'm never going to walk away from the Lord. Just like you and I think. Yeah, that's never going to happen. And so we don't take things seriously. We don't take our time with the Lord that seriously. Because we think, I'm never going to walk away from the Lord. But there's a reality. Solomon fell away. There's a reality. You fell.

Are capable of falling away. So be diligent. Be faithful. To continue. In the relationship with God. Through Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. I pray that you would help us. To be diligent and faithful. Lord that you would give us a thirst for you.

Lord, that we would not be satisfied with just a little bit, just scratching on the surface of who you are, but I pray, God, that you would help us to crave you, to desire to know you. Lord, that we would seek you, that we would be diligent. Lord, that you would be first and foremost, and knowing you would be the most important part of our lives.

Lord, that we would desire to know you more than we would desire to accomplish things at work or accomplish things in life. That knowing you would be our priority. It would be our goal. It would be our purpose each day. Help us, God, to have that passion, that fervency to love you, to follow you, to walk with you. Lord, that we might have everything that we need for this life.

But more importantly, God, that you might be glorified in us. Lord, that others might come to know you through our relationship with you, through the testimony that's displayed as we walk with you. And so, Lord, I pray that you would draw us near. Give us, Lord, that discipline, that diligence, that we would continue to be faithful to seek you first in your righteousness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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