Tag Archive | riches horses wives

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 151

May31

Day 151.  Reading 1 Kings 3-4.

Read Today’s Scriptures.
What do you see of God’s heart in these chapters?
1 Kings 3.

What??  Marry the daughter of Pharaoh!!  Where God had delivered His people from slavery??? Seriously??  Bad boy, Solomon!  What was he thinking?  Political alliances and stature in the world, that’s what.

Note verse 3.  “Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David, his father …  ONLY (except), he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.” Already, you see Solomon’s heart dividing, using those pagan places to “worship God.”

God is SO gracious to him (and to us). He came to Solomon in a dream, and asked what He could give to the new king.

  • Wow, what would I ask of God if given that opportunity?  Search your heart with me, and let’s see our priorities. What is important to us?

Solomon lists the kindnesses and love God had shown to his father, how David had walked in God’s ways, and how God had chosen

Solomon to rule. (Was he stalling, thinking of what he wanted?)  And then he thinks of his inexperience and the hugeness of his responsibility to God’s chosen people.

“Give your servant an understanding mind to govern Your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this Your great people?”  (In my mind, he should have asked to discern between good and evil IN HIS OWN HEART!)

But God was pleased that he hadn’t asked for a long life, riches, or victory over enemies.  And God gave him a “wise and discerning mind like none other.”  God also gave him what he didn’t ask for: riches and honor greater than any other king.

“And if you will walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

Right after that, Solomon went to the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, offered sacrifices to God, and gave a feast to the people.  His heart is right NOW. Will he continue on?

  • As if to confirm to the people (and maybe Solomon himself) a situation arose that tested and highlighted the extensive WISDOM God had given him.  Two prostitutes (living together, perhaps even with others) came to Solomon, both claiming the baby boy they brought was THEIRS.  They’d both given birth, but in the night, one baby got suffocated when one of them rolled over onto him.

How do you tell the true mother?

  • Solomon quickly identified her by exposing the women’s hearts.  “Get a sword and cut the baby in half. Give a half to each woman.”  YIKES!  The un-mother agreed (the boy wasn’t hers, after all.)  But the true mother cried out to keep him alive, even if it meant giving him away. Solomon saw her love and settled the dilemma.

“And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.”

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1 Kings 4.

This chapter is loaded with statistics and praise for King Solomon.  It gives a glowing overview of his kingdom and rule. (The next chapter begins the construction of the Temple,)

Much like David, Solomon appointed high officials, including the priests, secretaries, recorder, army commanders, other officers, governors over other lands, people in charge of the palace, and the … forced labor.  He also appointed leaders around the country who would provide his food for himself and his palace, month by month.  Judah and Israel ate and drank and were happy.

  • “Solomon ruled (eventually) over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt.  They brought tribute and served him all his days.”

He had peace on all sides around him. And Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beersheba (north to south), with every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.

Ah-oh! Wait!  “Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen!!!

  • Didn’t we read in Deuteronomy 17:16 God’s rules and cautions about future kings… “He must not acquire many horses for himself or return to Egypt to acquire many horses.”  And… don’t we also read there in verse 17, “He shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.  NOR shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold ….”

And again, this chapter tells of Solomon’s wisdom (in ruling others, it seems).  “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of the people of the East and all Egypt.

“Solomon also spoke 3,000 proverbs!   He wrote 1,005 songs. (We will read some of these soon.)

People of all nations and kings of the earth came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

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  • Oh, LORD, how easy it is to turn from loving and serving YOU to loving the things you give us.  Help me not to value “stuff” more than my relationship with You. Solomon had everything in abundance … and it did turn his heart away.  In Ecclesiastes, he said (late in his life) that all he experienced, and possessed,  and was honored for … was vanity … futility.  ONLY YOU are worth my adoration!

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 172

Jun20

   Day 172—We are in the 6th month of Bible reading and continue in the History of Israel.

 Day 172 – 1 Kings 10-11, 2 Chronicles 9. (The Queen of Sheba pays a visit to Solomon, his great wealth, and his gradual turning from the LORD.)

News of Solomon’s wisdom and wealth had spread to Sheba (probably Ethiopia) and the Queen wanted to see for herself. She traveled about 1,200 miles to visit Solomon.  She came to hear about “the name of the LORD” and to test his wisdom with hard riddles.

The queen brought Solomon a ton-load of gifts (a hard task, for he had EVERYTHING!)  A very great quantity of mid-eastern spices (“never again came such an abundance of spices”) seemed to top the list, plus “very much” gold (about 4.5 tons) and precious stones. 

The queen told Israel’s king everything on her mind (nice that he let her speak first), and he answered all her questions.  These were riddles, trick questions, to “test” his advertised wisdom.  “There was nothing hidden to Solomon that he could not explain to her.” And she exclaims, 

“The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and your wisdom,
but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it.
And behold, the half was not told me.
Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.
Happy are your men!
Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel!
Because the LORD loved Israel forever, He has made you king,
that you may execute justice and righteousness.”

I Kings 10:6-9

Besides what he got from the Queen of Sheba, King Hiram of Tyre brought Solomon gold from Ophir. The weight of the gold in one year was 666 talents (about 25 tons). He made and covered everything with gold, from his 600+ ceremonial shields to his own drinking cups. None were made of silver because silver was considered “nothing” in those days, “as common as stone in Jerusalem.”

Solomon also gathered 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen he stationed in his “chariot cities.”  “Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt… A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, so, through the king’s traders,, they were exported.” 1 Kings 10:28-29

And Solomon built for himself a magnificent throne. It was made of ivory and overlaid with pure gold. It had six wide steps and a footstool of gold. On each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve more lions stood there, one on each end of the steps. “Nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom.”  “Thus, King Solomon excelled over all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.”

This reminds me of God’s promise to Solomon the night he asked God for wisdom to rule His people. (1 Kings 3:10-13) “Behold, I give you a discerning mind so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.”

Unfortunately Solomon was not wise for himself.  i Kings 11:1  says that King Solomon loved many foreign women (Egyptian, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite) from the nations which the LORD had said Israel was NOT to intermarry with BECAUSE THEY WOULD SURELY TURN AWAY THEIR HEARTS AFTER THEIR PAGAN GODS. 

“Solomon clung to these in love (700 wives and 300 concubines), and they TURNED AWAY HIS HEART. For in his old age, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God…..

……as was the heart of David, his father.

(Read Deuteronomy 17:14-17 for God’s rule for Israel’s kings, about riches, horses, and wives.)

Solomon built high places for the gods of Moab and Ammon on the mountain east of Jerusalem.  And the LORD was angry with him and said to him, (1 Kings 11:10b-11) “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I WILL SURELY TEAR THE KINGDOM FROM YOU AND GIVE IT TO ANOTHER.

And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon. Hadad the Edomite, and then Jeroboam from Ephraim.  One of God’s prophets told Jeroboam that he would tear 10 tribes from Solomon’s son, and reign in the North.