Overview of 1 Kings, Adult Discipleship Class

All right, so if you will open in your Bibles and turn to 1 Kings, that will be where we are at today. We finished up 2 Samuel last week, a foundational book certainly for our understanding of Old Testament theology. We saw the rise of David in his reign, as well as his troubles after his transgressions. The most significant aspect, perhaps, of 2 Samuel is chapter 7, where we explore the Davidic covenant, which will find partial fulfillment in Solomon and 1 Kings, but ultimate fulfillment in Christ. And today we come to the first book of the Kings. We left off with much tragedy in David’s life. The narrative itself in 2 Samuel changes dramatically after his sin with Bathsheba, And then after all of the troubles that come with that, with Amnon and Tamar and Absalom and his rebellion, we see David ordering a census that also brought about God’s discipline on Israel. So that sort of is the background context for this book of 1 Kings. Now, as we approach the Kings, once again, should be understood as one book, just the same with Samuel. We don’t approach history neutrally.

You know, a lot of times people wonder why, if you go to a secular university and you study math or science or history or literature, why it seems that subjects such as those would bring about some sort of agenda. Perhaps you study math and you find out that math is somehow racist. Or maybe you study literature and it’s just a Bible-bashing class. Or you study science and it’s just why Christians have their heads in the sand. Or you study something… I mean, any of these classes like that, history, and you see that, well, Christians are just responsible for all the problems in society, the oppressors and the oppressed. And why is this?

Well, it’s because no subject can be properly studied neutrally. All of us, as we have brought up before, are not neutral, especially as it pertains to worldview, and worldview is the foundation for everything that we know. Theology is the queen of the sciences, and we can’t escape this even if we reject God himself. We still will have some sort of particular bent that we will study the subjects with. And so rather than our goal to be a purely neutral study of history or of anything for that matter, we should seek to study it faithfully according to the biblical worldview.

And the book of Kings is evaluated not only on objective history, but also theologically. The book of the Kings, 1st and 2nd Kings, takes a look at the history of Israel’s kings, both for Israel and Judah, even after the split, and evaluates them from a theological perspective. Were they a good king? Were they a bad king?

And this is meant to point us back to the Mosaic Covenant, a reminder that God promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience to Israel. If we were to think about the whole of 1 Kings as a book, a theme that would properly suit the book is the God who divides. The God who divides.

This book, there’s so many things about it, specifically focusing on Solomon and his reign towards the beginning. But one of the ways that it informs our understanding of the Old Testament the most is the division of Israel in the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom later on in the narrative. If we were to think about structure for the book, it can really be evenly split into two different sections, along with that understanding that the split of the kingdoms is perhaps the focal point of this narrative. And the first section would be the United Kingdom under Solomon, not Her Majesty or, whoops, R.I.P., His Majesty, no. The United Kingdom of Israel under Solomon, chapters 1 through 11.

And the second would be the divided kingdom under many kings, chapters 12 through 22. And at the very beginning of this narrative in 1 Kings 1, we see the issue of succession. When much power and influence is involved, one of the most messiest of processes when it comes to change is that of succession. We think about historically Alexander the Great and the many years of war that took place after his death. when power and influence was involved.

I even hear in the headlines today much discussion about the present administration and who will replace the president. Is it going to be the vice president? Is it going to be the secretary of state? We don’t really know. There’s probably going to be much conflict over that.

And in a similar way, we see this in David’s old age. Who’s going to replace King David? King David, sort of the, even though he had his faults, sort of known as the best king of Israel, if you will, up until Christ. So what we see in verses one through four is that David is old. Now we have an old King David, and he can’t even keep himself warm. They hire a servant to keep him warm, nothing sinful involved with this. Verse four, the end of verse four makes that very clear. But David is not who he used to be.

And because of this, his son, verse five, Adonijah, the son of Hagith, exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And so what we have is one of his sons assuming the role of king because he recognizes in his father’s decline, this is his opportunity to shine. Why Adonijah? That’s an interesting question. Usually kings would be the firstborn or the oldest of his heirs would rule.

And if you remember from 2 Samuel, we didn’t have too much time to talk about it last week, but there was much strife and turmoil in David’s family. We know that Absalom killed his son Amnon. So Amnon, his oldest son, was killed. So he wouldn’t be the successor to David. We also see in 2 Samuel 3, there is a son named Chiliab, which also in a cross-reference is also described as Daniel, going by both names. Because he isn’t mentioned in the rest of the narratives, it’s assumed that he died in some way, somehow. So he’s not in the running, the second born.

The third is Absalom. And Absalom was killed, and so Absalom is no longer in the running, which leads to the fourthborn, Adonijah, to be the heir. And so Adonijah, verse 5 says, he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with 50 men to run before him. Verse 6, his father had never crossed him at any time, asking, why have you done so?

And he was also a very handsome man. And he was born after Absalom, fourth born. Always interesting whenever they describe someone as beautiful in appearance or handsome. It’s inspired, right? Inerrant word of God, objective. But David isn’t really interfering. David’s showing he doesn’t really have that much power anymore to do things on his own or concern, I guess.

But this is problematic because he told Bathsheba that Solomon would reign after him. With Adonijah, a certain group of Israelite men of influence followed him. We see in verse 7, Joab, we remember the military commander for David that killed Abner, as well as Abiathar, the priest, followed Adonijah and they helped him. But verse 8 says that Zadok, the priest, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, Nathan, the prophet, Shimei, Ray and the mighty men who belong to David were not with Adonijah. And so Adonijah sacrifices animals in verse 9. And he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants.

But, verse 10 says, he did not invite Nathan the prophet, which we remember he was the one who confronted David for his sin with Bathsheba. And Benaiah, the mighty men, and also Solomon, his brother, no doubt because he knew of David’s promise to Bathsheba and Solomon.

So then eventually Nathan speaks to Bathsheba, because this is a problem for them. Their safety is certainly at stake, as well as the fate of the kingdom. And he confronts Bathsheba saying, you know, this Adonijah guy has exalted himself to be king. And it’s almost like David doesn’t know it. And so he implores her, verse 12, he gives her counsel and saves her life and the life of Solomon. He says, verse 13, Go at once to King David and say to him, Have you not, my lord, O king, sworn to your maidservant, saying, Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then has Adonijah become king? And so Bathsheba goes into David’s bedroom, informs him of the matter. Who’s that in verses 15, 16? Oh, we see it,

17. And 18 as well, and she eventually says in verse 20, as for you now, my Lord, the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my Lord, the king after him. So all eyes are on David, but David is very sick.

And so he eventually vows in verse 29 to Bathsheba. He says, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, surely as I vow to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying your son Solomon shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my palace, I will indeed do so today. So eventually he calls Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, verse 32 says, and commands them to put Solomon on David’s own mule. In the modern equivalent, it would be like placing someone, it would be like, in the illustration of the president, it would be like placing the vice president or the secretary of state in his limo, as sort of a demonstration of David, to show his authority. He says in verse 34, let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel and blow the trumpet and say long live King Solomon.

Then you shall come up after him and he shall come and sit on my throne and be king in my place where I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah. It might be easy to be mistaken by riding on a mule or a donkey to be purely an expression of humility. There is some element of that when Christ rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. But in another way, in the ancient Near Eastern context, riding on a mule or a donkey sort of demonstrated a power that they didn’t need to have some sort of military horse to be ridden on because he was so powerful he didn’t even have to worry about that really. And sort of like we hear peace through strength often is a motto that’s brought up in our culture, kind of like that.

And so eventually verse 40 says all the people went up after Solomon, after he’s been anointed by Zadok the priest and represented by Nathan and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and many others. And Adonijah hears about this, and there is much worry, of course, with Adonijah. So eventually David gives a final charge to Solomon in chapter 2. He tells him that he’s going to die. Verse 2 and verse 3.

He says keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes his commands his ordinances and his testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn this isn’t a personal salvation sense so much as corporate Israel representing corporate Israel as a king with a Mosaic Covenant.

If he obeys he should expect what blessings or curses. Blessings, right? If you obey, Israel’s going to be blessed. In verse four, he continues, so that the Lord may carry out his promise, which he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. This is conditional, and there is a conditional element of 2 Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant, the promise to bless the reign of David’s descendants.

And so, David also warns him, interestingly enough, we talked last week about David not choosing to exercise personal vengeance and leaving vengeance to God. But here he tells Solomon to take care of Joab, the military commander, because of what he did to me, verse five says, it seems like personal vengeance because of what he did to Abner, Amasa. He’s not worthy to be trusted. And he says in verse six, do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.

He’s essentially saying you got to kill him. Just kind of a little bit interesting. I’m still thinking through this itself. He says, but show kindness, verse 7, to the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for they assisted me when I fled from Absalom, your brother. He also tells him in verses 8 and 9 to watch out for Shammai, the one who cursed him. Once again, sort of a personal vendetta, it seems like.

However, there might be some political aspect as well. Demonstration of justice, just to sort of let everyone know that Solomon means business, and says at the end of verse nine, you will bring his gray hair down to Sheol with blood to death. You’re gonna need to kill him.

So eventually, verse 10 says that David slept with his fathers. That means he died and was buried in the city of David. He reigned 40 years, verse 11 says, and sort of the theme, at least at the beginning of 1 Kings is found in verse 12, one of the main themes, as Solomon reigns. It says, Solomon sat on the throne of David, his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. If we skip a little forward, we get to verse 46. The end of verse 46 says that the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

So eventually, Solomon executes Adonijah, his brother, who was going to be king. The reason for this is that he asked for one of his father’s servants, who sort of was like a concubine to him, for himself, and did it sort of through a backdoor channel, and it was sort of a power play. against Solomon, and so Solomon recognized that Adonijah was not going to be peaceful, and so he executed him. And so eventually, Joab is executed as well.

We see that in verses 28 through 35. Shimei as well, verses 36 through 38. 46, and then, like I said, the theme is that the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon. Now, eventually, Solomon’s rule is consolidated in chapter 3, and we see in verse 3 that Solomon is identified as a pretty good king, at least at first. It says, now Solomon loved the Lord. walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” So, real quick, what does this mean? Why is this problematic?

Back then, there was no temple, right? Solomon built the temple, and the tabernacle was located in Gibeon. That was where the sacrifices were supposed to be if they were to obey God. Now, for one reason or another, many people sought to sacrifice even to God, the right God, but in the wrong manner on different hills across the land. This probably was out of convenience. It might’ve been inconvenient for them to travel all the way to Gibeon to sacrifice in the tabernacle. But also Israel had a little bit of remnant, I don’t know, sort of like the practices of the Canaanites. They would worship on the high places.

And so perhaps the time of the judges and the influence of the peoples had still rendered the people somewhat idolatrous, if not worshiping the wrong God, perhaps in practice as well. And so verse four says that the king Solomon went to Gibeon, which is where the tabernacle was at. So he sacrificed there and offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar. And it’s from here, from this act of worship, this moment that Solomon prays to God.

He says in verse six, you have shown great loving kindness to your servant, David, my father. According, as he walked before you in truth and righteousness, an uprightness of heart toward you. And you have reserved for him this great loving kindness that you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. God, you’ve been faithful to the Davidic covenant.

We see it in real time. Now, oh Lord, my God, verse seven, you have made your servant king in place of my father, David. Yet I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or to come in. In other words, he’s saying, God, I don’t know what I don’t know. And there’s a possibility for much damage with this.

He says, your servant, verse 8, is in the midst of your people, which you have chosen a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. Now that phrase, too many to be numbered or counted, that points to God’s faithfulness to what covenant? Abrahamic, exactly, right? Land, seed, descendants, and blessing. God, you’ve been faithful to the Abrahamic covenant.

And so, verse 9, give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours? God, give me an understanding heart to be able to discern between good and evil in your sight, to be faithful to you in my administration of justice over your people. So God is pleased by this request. And God says to Solomon, verse 11, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice.

Behold, I’ve done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart so that there has been no one like you before you. and nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. Here’s conditional, verse 14.

If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days. So we need to remember God has blessed him, but specifically when it comes to the Davidic covenant, being a descendant of David, he must seek the Lord, or else the curses for disobedience will fall on Israel as a nation. We see that Solomon is very wise in his judgment.

One of the most vivid illustrations of this is verses 16 through 28, which we see the two prostitutes that come before him. A very common story where two prostitutes came in. Both were claiming that this baby was theirs. One had killed her baby by accidentally sleeping on top of the baby in the middle of the night and had replaced the other one, supposedly, as we see in the text, actually, and had taken the living baby for herself. The mother of the living baby, the actual mother, was frustrated by this, came to Solomon, understandably so. And Solomon said, what? OK, we’re going to figure this thing out. What are we going to do? Cut the baby in half, right? Boy, what a gamble, huh? And eventually, the real mother showed that she wanted the baby to live regardless of wherever the baby would go. And the mother who, or the one who was not the mother, was satisfied with that. So then Solomon gave the baby to the actual mother.

And Solomon’s wisdom, we see, Verse 28, when all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice. So then we see in chapter four, Solomon’s officials are mentioned. One verse that I think is really helpful is verse seven. It says, Solomon had 12 deputies over Israel who provided for the king and his household. Each man had to provide a month in the year. This is taxation. And so as Samuel promised when Israel asked for a king, bringing on a human king would bring taxation, which would be a burden to the people.

And as far as I have looked in chapter four, I haven’t found one specific of these or one of these mentioned that are of Judah necessarily. I don’t think there’s evidence in the text that Judah had to pay taxes because Solomon represented Judah and Jerusalem represented Judah as a tribe. And I think that that would build towards sort of an ongoing animosity of other tribes towards Judah, which eventually will feed into the division of the kingdoms. Verse 20, it says, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.

What covenant does this point to? Abrahamic. God uses this very illustration. The author of First Kings is trying to get in our minds. You remember that promise God made to Abraham? Well, look, it’s fulfilled right here. They had land, verse 21. I find this really interesting too. Verses 22 through 24, or 25, excuse me. Sorry, it’s 22 through 23 describe his provision for one day.

And I may or may not have asked chatGBT what that equates to people. And the estimate with AI was that this much provision would represent 10,000 people. So I mean, he threw down some pretty crazy parties, it sounds like. 10,000 people fed in one day.

I think this helps inform our understanding of Ecclesiastes 2. Just if anyone were to know finding the reason for life and this world’s Entertainment it would have been Solomon and yet he still called it vanity We see in verses 24 through 25. God has been faithful to the land promise to Abraham And that we see in verse 25. So Judah and Israel lived in safety and It’s amazing. Verse 26 talks about Solomon’s 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen.

Maybe if you remember back in Deuteronomy 17, God commanded that kings would not multiply gold for themselves, horses, or wives. And this is one I’m still wrestling with. I think the reason why this isn’t explained as something negative is because these horses have not, at least according to the text, been imported by Egypt. Whereas later when Solomon begins to import horses from Egypt, it directly disobeys the command in Deuteronomy 17, and so is more of a negative, viewed negatively.

Whereas this is viewed in a more positive section of his reign. Verse 29, it says, now God gave Solomon wisdom, and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.” Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men, some listed there. And the verse says, his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

You see the influence of Israel and the rest of the nations. This is tying back into their role as a kingdom of priests and what holy Nation. Israel in Exodus 19, after they had been brought out of Egyptian slavery, was told that they were to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation, that as they worshiped the true God and God blessed them, that the nations would see and want to follow God. They were to be a light to the darkness of the outside nations. And what we see here is that Solomon’s wisdom is reaching the nations. Verse 34 says, men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. Israel is becoming more and more like a kingdom of priests and holy nation.

He makes an alliance with King Haram. David himself had made an alliance with this king, this king of Tyre, who had some relationship with the Hebrews. I believe his mother was Hebrew. And Solomon now instructs him that he wants to build the temple. He says in verse four, the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. Now that there is rest in the kingdom and that he is not a man of war like his father David, a man of bloodshed, he is the one who’s to build the temple. And eventually when Haram hears this proposition, he praises God and says, blessed be the Lord, verse seven, today, who has given to David a wise son over this great people. We see a foreigner praising God because of the leader of Israel, kingdom of priests, holy nation.

Verse 12 says, the Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as he promised him. And there was peace between Haram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant. And so eventually, We get many details about the construction of this temple. It was 480 years, chapter 6, verse 1 says, since Israel left Egypt, that they began the construction of this temple, this house of the Lord.

And God’s word came to Solomon in verse 12 saying, concerning this house which you are building, If you will walk in my statutes and execute my ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out my word with you, which I spoke to David, your father.

I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will not forsake my people, Israel. It’s conditional here, remember. 2 Samuel 7, Davidic covenants, conditional upon the king’s obedience. And God promises that if he obeys as a king, and they seek to honor him as a nation, he will dwell among the sons of Israel.

Like we saw at the end of the book of Exodus, the question was, how can a holy God dwell in the midst of sinful people? And the answer is in Leviticus through a proper worship sacrifice. and through the walk with God, the obedient lifestyle, they were to obey God according to the Mosaic Covenant.

Now, I think there’s a theme too with all of these details we see in chapter 6 about the temple. I think there is some tie-in to Eden. I think that the dwelling place of God and access to Him, there is some relationship. We see in verse 18, there’s carved gourds into elements of the temple. Verse 29, we see carved engravings of cherubim. Remember, cherubim were the ones who guarded the Garden of Eden once Adam and Eve were out. We see palm trees, open flowers. It’s very garden-like. That’s something I’m still thinking through, but it’s interesting to consider. Solomon’s palace is constructed. Amazing dimensions. Chapter 7 verses 1 through 12. Haram. As he works in the temple, we see verses 13 all the way, I mean, we see all the way through really verse 51 of details of the temple. We see verse 18, there’s pomegranates. Verse 19, lily design.

I think once again, this is pointing to sort of Edenic conditions. We even see verse 29 that there’s lions and oxen almost together inside of this temple. Solomon’s a man of peace, and he’s the one who constructs the temple. There’s peace, and it’s the presence of God, and it’s like Eden. There’s something going on here. Chapter eight, the ark is brought into the temple.

And we see that in verse five, King Solomon and all of Israel were sacrificing before the ark so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. This is a huge cause for celebration. And we see in verse 10 that God’s glory, his visible glory, which has been described by some as the Shekinah glory, the cloud, filled the house of the Lord. We saw this in the Old Testament when God led them after leaving Egypt, right?

And in the wilderness as well, when the cloud went up, they would follow the cloud. Now it’s settled. It’s settled inside of the temple. This is where God wants them to be. We see in verse 11 that this cloud filled the house of the Lord so much so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord, or the weightiness of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. He addresses the people, King Solomon, eventually in this construction of the temple, in this great celebration. He praises God in verse 15.

He spoke with his mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with his hand. God has fulfilled the Davidic covenant. You all witnessed this. We’re witnessing this in real time. Verse 20 again. The Lord has fulfilled his word which he spoke. God is faithful to his word. And so Solomon dedicates the temple through prayer to God. And there’s so many amazing things about this prayer. Verse 23, he says that there’s no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath. He’s a holy God, not like the gods of the nations.

He keeps covenant. He’s faithful to the covenant, to the promises. And showing loving kindness to your servants who walk before you with all your heart. You’ve kept with your servant, my father David, that which you have promised to him. Look at how faithful God is, is what this text is saying, what Solomon is telling the people.

But eventually he prays to God and implores him and asks for him to hear their cry of repentance in the future. And I find this really interesting in verses, we see this initially in verses 33 and 34. He says, when your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you, remember corporate disobedience, they get curses. If they turn to you again and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in the house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land which you gave their fathers. So it’s pointing a little bit to what’s expected to happen in the future, that there will be an exile and he prays that God will hear their prayer, their cry, which he answers in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, which we will see later. We see verse 41, he says, also concerning the foreigner who is not of your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for your namesake, for they will hear of your great name in your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays towards this house, here in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that, and here’s the key, all the peoples of the earth may know your name to fear you as do your people Israel. Kingdom of priests and holy nation, Lord, please fulfill this role in us.

And eventually, he talks more about exile in verses 46 through 53. Verse 53 ends by saying, for you have separated them from all the peoples of the earth, Israel, As your inheritance, as you spoke through Moses, your servant, when you brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord God, you have been faithful all the way from our very beginning of our history, Lord. And it’s a time of rejoicing for Israel. So, verse 56, Solomon gives a benediction.

He says, This is a theme again and again in Solomon’s words to the people, is God has been faithful. He’s been faithful. He says, may the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to himself to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances which he commanded our fathers. He recognizes that there is some element of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience and so prays that God would position their hearts towards him.

And once again, this is for the purpose, verse 60, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God, there is no one else. Israel’s role is to be a light to the nations, to show them who the true God is, so that the whole world might even come to know Him.

And so they eventually give some more sacrifices, verses 62 through 66. And God gives a promise as well as a warning to Solomon, we see in chapter nine, verses one through nine. He says in verse four, as for you, if you will walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David saying, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following me, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight.

So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. This last week I’ve been teaching in Olive Tree, Old Testament, we’ve been going through Ezekiel, we just finished it. It’s an amazing book. And there’s so many elements about how Israel had been unfaithful to God in this Mosaic covenant, and that they were receiving curses for disobedience.

Judgment was coming to Judah, and Babylon was going to destroy Jerusalem, including the temple. Some people had taken sort of comfort in the fact that the temple was still around. Surely God would not destroy Judah, because the temple is here. And yet, God says even earlier they should have known that He promised that if they did disobey Him, He would even destroy this temple.

And the reason for it, we see at the end of verse 7, is ultimately that Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. Because think of this, if Israel disobeyed God blatantly, worshiping idols, as God’s holy people, and God did nothing about their sin, would the nations be motivated to obey God? No, not at all. And so as a kingdom of priests, because they are sort of, they’re viewed by the rest of the nations as serving the true God, they must be punished for their sin as well.

We see that Haram is given cities in verses 10 through 14. This is problematic because he’s a foreigner. I find it quite interesting, too. When he eventually sees the cities that Solomon gave him, he says in verse 13, what are these cities which you have given me, my brother? So they were called the land of Kabul to this day. And Kabul means as good as nothing. I just find it kind of funny.

Yeah, I think this also shows that Solomon’s resources in the kingdom have been somewhat depleted with these building projects and this would have had a certain weight on the people that they wouldn’t have been super happy about. These cities also were in the more northern part of Israel and so once again the animosity that northern tribes might have against Judah is only growing. We see eventually that the sons of Israel in verse 21 who were unable to destroy the peoples in the lands utterly. And so Solomon levied forced laborers even to this day. We saw in the conquest, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Believe the peoples in the land, foreigners. Bad. Molo, muy molo, right? Not good.

Chapter 10 is sort of, I tell my students, this is the peak of Israel. Israel is peak here. This is where, as kingdom of priests and holy nation, perhaps the greatest and most vivid illustration of this is with the Queen of Sheba. It says in verse one, now when the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions. So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue. It’s retinue, right? That’s the way you pronounce that word? Retinue kind of rhymes with revenue? I think so. with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones.

When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. And Solomon, it says, answered all her questions. Nothing was hidden from the king, which he did not explain to her. And she eventually sees the wisdom in verse four, in the house that he had built.

Verse five, the food of his table, the seating of his servants, attendance of the waiters, and his attire, his cupbearers, and the stairway which went from his house to the temple, It’s the text says there was no more spirit in her and she said I didn’t believe the reports that I had heard about Your greatness in Israel’s greatness, but she ends up praising God in verse 9 She says blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel Because the Lord loved Israel forever therefore he made you king to do justice in righteousness foreign queen comes to Israel, sees how God has blessed Israel, and praises God. This is what Israel was made for, to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation. It’s as if, like, they finally have made it almost, it feels like in the narrative. Like, sure, there’s mistakes, they’re not perfect, but it seems like this is the peak of Israel’s history as a kingdom of priests and holy nation, and will certainly be until the millennial reign of Christ.

Eventually, we see in verses 14 through 29, we see Solomon’s riches. And as of last night, once again, I asked AI to do a mathematical thing for me about how much the 666 talents of gold would likely be worth in our today’s dollars, US dollars. And the number that came out is 3.7 billion, that Israel would bring in 3.7 billion worth of gold alone a year, in our equivalent.

A very, very wealthy God blessed him tremendously. Eventually, it says that in verse 27 that the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. Silver was worthless. Stones were essentially worthless. Going back to verse 23, It says, so King Solomon became greater than all of the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom, which God had promised. God had fulfilled that. And verse 24 says, all the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Kingdom of priests and holy nation. Man, if they could only, if it could only stay this way, right? We eventually see in verses 28 and 29 that Solomon imported horses from where?

Egypt, Egypt. Just think about this for a second. Let’s just take a step back. Israel was delivered from slavery under what country? Egypt, the exodus, right? Egypt. Egypt is associated with this horrible, the horrible circumstances of the slavery that Israel endured under them.

They were delivered from Egypt, set apart to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation, only now to go back to Egypt, who want to get things from them. At first, it didn’t seem terrible because Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter. That wasn’t in the part of the narrative where it really shows the decline of Solomon. But importing horses from Egypt is explicitly forbidden in Deuteronomy 17 for kings, and Solomon is deliberately disobeying God here. which then leads us to chapter 11. It’s no longer peak anymore.

We see that Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and the Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you.

For why? Why? Is it just because of their melanin color? No, of course not. They will surely turn your heart away after their gods. And Pastor Ron, and I know TJ and Katie’s wedding, I might have brought this up before, use sort of a parallel between in our New Testament context, we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. We’re not to marry unbelievers. And in a similar way, in the Old Testament, Israel, to marry foreigners was to marry people who worshipped different gods. If you married a foreigner, they likely would tempt you to worship their own gods.

So they were deliberately commanded not to do that. We see it wasn’t just a few either. Verse 3, 700 wives, 300 concubines. Just crazy. His wives turned his heart away. Verse four, for when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods.

Verse five, they went after Astereth, the goddess of the Sidonians. Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not follow the Lord fully as his father David had done. We even see that he worshipped Molech, which meant that there would have been child sacrifice.

And God confronts Solomon about this. He says that because of his disobedience, verse 11, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. And so God then raises adversaries against Solomon.

We see an Edomite in verse 14. We see Rezin is the second one in verse 23. In verse 26, we see Jeroboam becomes problematic in Solomon’s reign. And eventually, Jeroboam becomes the king of the northern kingdom when they split. What we see at the end of chapter 11, 41 through 43, talks about the death of Solomon. It’s very brief, sort of a sad whimper of Solomon’s life is left in the narrative. We can think that would be the time he would have written Ecclesiastes. And then the second section is chapters 12 through 22.

It’s the divided kingdom under many different kings. Solomon has a foolish son that then decides to, rather than giving Israel a little bit of a break because they’re frustrated with the taxation, the heavy load that Solomon had placed on them, decides to threaten them further, which makes all the other tribes, with the exception of Benjamin, to go up north, followed by Jeroboam. And throughout the rest of the Book of First Kings, there is a certain animosity, generally speaking, between the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. And an easy way to remember this with the whole history of the northern and southern kingdom is how many good kings were in the northern kingdom.

Any guesses? What? Zero! That’s right, absolutely. Easy way to remember. Zero good kings in the Northern Kingdom, hence probably why they went into exile first. And then in the Southern Kingdom, roughly a third, I think the number’s like 7 out of 21, were basically good kings. And so because of Israel’s disobedience corporately in Solomon’s introduction of idolatry into Israel, Israel was split into North and South, Israel and Judah. And we will see that history picked up next week in the book of Second Kings. Let’s pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word, even just