DEALINGS WITH GOD AND THE NATIONS
1 Kings 9:1 - 10:29
We have been dealing with
Solomon’s reign. It is a story that
began on a very positive note. Solomon
asked God for wisdom and he was granted, not only wisdom, but also riches and
honor and a magnificent kingdom. Throughout
this section, we will see Solomon’s wise dealings with a number of different
groups.
9:1 |
9:10 |
9:16 |
9:17 |
10:1 |
Solomon’s wise dealings with... |
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The Lord |
Hiram |
Pharaoh |
Pagan
inhabitants |
Queen of |
With God |
With Men |
And yet, throughout these
dealings, there will be several hints of problems upon the horizon.
·
The Lord will
warn Solomon of the consequences of breaking the terms of the covenant.
·
Hiram will
express dissatisfaction in his dealings with Solomon and his gift of certain
border cities.
·
The Israelites
were unable to complete the purging of the Canaanites from the land. There remained a remnant made up of Amorites,
Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites
and Jebusites in the land (9:20). Although these were subjugated peoples,
their continuing presence in the land would be a pagan influence.
In spite of these hints, the
overall mood of this section is a positive one with the glories of Solomon and
his wisdom still at the forefront.
SOLOMON’S COVENANTAL
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (1 KINGS 9:1-9)
Now it came about when Solomon
had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that
Solomon desired to do, 2 that the Lord
appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. (1
Kings 9:1-2).
This marks the second time
that the Lord had appeared to Solomon.
This was not a common occurrence.
God did not do a lot of appearing to people in the Scriptures. Such appearances were very rare and
special. Solomon had been greatly
blessed in the fact that God had appeared to him.
There is a principle
here. It is that great privilege is
accompanied by great responsibility.
When you have been greatly blessed by God, it is also true that you have
a greater responsibility to act in accordance with that blessing.
Verses 4-9 contain a
repetition of the promise originally given to Solomon in 1 Kings 6:12-13. However this time there is a difference. This time the promise is accompanied by a warning.
9:4-5 |
Promise |
IF you walk
before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of
heart and uprightness, doing according
to all I have commanded keeping my
statutes and ordinances THEN I will
establish the throne of your kingdom over |
9:6-9 |
Warning |
IF you or your
sons shall turn away
from following Me shall not keep
My commandments & statutes go and serve
other gods and worship them, THEN I will... Cut off This house will be ruined Everyone will be astonished |
There is a principle
here. It is that God WILL always be
glorified in His people. He will either
be glorified when they are obedient or else He will be glorified when they are disobedient.
Notice that it was not mere
outward obedience that was required. God
is not only interested in outward actions.
He is also interested in what goes on in the inside. He is interested in “integrity of heart and
uprightness.”
SOLOMON’S RELATIONSHIP
WITH HIRAM, KING OF
And it came about at the end of
twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord
and the king’s house 11 (Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar
and cypress timber and gold according to all his desire), then King Solomon
gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. (1 Kings 9:10-11).
The cities which Solomon gave
to Hiram were boarder towns located in Galilee in the western part of the
Solomon Exports |
Solomon’s Imports |
Wheat and oil (5:11) |
Cedar wood |
120 talents of gold (9:11,
14) |
Boarder towns (9:13) |
So Hiram came out from
And he said, “What are these cities
which you have given me, my brother?” So
they were called the
The word “Cabul”
is rather obscure. Several different
interpretations have been suggested.
1. Josephus
suggests that it is Phoenician for “worthless.”
This would fit the idea of verse 12 that the gift of these cities were
displeasing to Hiram (literally - “they were not right in his sight”).
2. Keil connects it to a root that gives it the idea of that
which is “pawned or pledged.” Viewed in
this manner, the cities were merely the guarantee on a loan which, when repaid,
reverted the ownership of the cities back to Solomon. 2 Chronicles 8:2 does seem to indicate that
these towns were eventually returned to Solomon’s ownership.
SOLOMON’S BUILDING
PROGRAMS (1 KINGS 9:15-28)
In this section, we are given
an abbreviated list of some of Solomon’s building accomplishments.
1. The Millo.
This
is a transliteration from the Hebrew meaning “the filling in.” It seems to refer to a series of
fortifications within the city - perhaps the building up of the walls which
surrounded the
2. Fortifications.
Three
cities are mentioned with regard to their fortifications. Archaeologists have uncovered some of the
fortifications of this period. They
included a system of double walls entered by a series of double gates overseen
by twin towers. The casements of these
gates are inset into the city to allow an invader to be virtually surrounded.
These
extensive fortifications also resulted in the gates of a city becoming a
traditional meeting place and even a location for conducting business. Remember that Boaz conducted his business
with his relative and in the presence of witnesses at the gate of the city.
3. The
Cities.
|
It lay on the road which
connected the cities of Beth Horon to the
coast. As such, it had served as a
border city between It had first been conquered
by Pharaoh Thutmose 3rd and more recently had been burned by a later Pharaoh. |
Hazor |
The major city in the
north. It had originally been
destroyed by Joshua and later rebuilt. |
|
This ancient city guarded
the main road from the Plain of Sharon on the coast to the |
Beth Horon |
These were two cities which
controlled the access to the highlands of Judea from the coastal plain
through the |
4. Pharaoh’s
Daughter & Worship in the
Verses
24 and 25 contain what seem to be two totally unrelated ideas - the moving of
Pharaoh’s daughter into the city of
Verse 24 |
Verse 25 |
As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter
came up from the city of |
Now three times a year
Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he
built to the Lord, burning incense with them on the altar which was before
the Lord. So he finished the house. |
Hint of what was WRONG with
Solomon’s reign. |
What was RIGHT with
Solomon’s reign. |
The
placing of these two fact side by side is not
coincidence. It is a hint of what is
soon to take place within Solomon’s reign.
It is a hint of problems on the horizon.
There
is no explicit statement that Solomon’s relations with Pharaoh or with his
daughter were wrong. And yet, there is a
hint here that similar problems will lead to future problems. The contrast is between what is RIGHT within
Solomon’s reign versus what will be WRONG with Solomon’s reign.
This
is not the first time that we have seen these two ideas in juxtaposition. Richard Pratt suggests that this is the organizing
principle of this section of the book of Kings.
Pharaoh’s Daughter (3:1) Sacrificing at High Places
(3:2) |
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First Appearance of the
Lord to Solomon (3:4-15) |
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Solomon’s Wisdom at Work (3
- 4) |
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Solomon’s Building Projects
(5 - 8) |
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Second Appearance of the
Lord to Solomon (9:1-9) |
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Pharaoh’s Daughter (9:24) Sacrificing at the |
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In
the second appearance, the Lord warns Solomon what will be the consequences if
he or his descendants do not follow the Lord.
5. Solomon’s
Fleet.
King Solomon also built a fleet
of ships in Ezion-geber which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the
And Hiram sent his servants with the
fleet, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon.
Ezion-geber is literally, “backbone
of the man.” The modern name Aqaba
mans “back.” |
And they went to Ophir,
and took four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to
King Solomon. (1 Kings 9:26-28).
New
land acquisitions in the south made it possible for Solomon to build a port
city on the northern shores of the
This
was an entirely new venture for
The
resulting voyages took ships southward to Ophir. The location of Ophir
is debated. Josephus identified it as a
place in
SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF
1. The
Coming of the Queen of
Now when the queen of
This country evidently found itself
under the rule of a queen. While this
was rare in the ancient world, it was not unknown. A few hundred years earlier, Hatshepsut had
ruled as regent over
The
queen of
Queen of |
Magi |
Ruled over |
Held positions
of authority in |
Came bearing
gifts of gold, spices and precious stones |
Came bearing
gifts of gold, frankincense & myrrh |
Came to see the
wisdom of Solomon |
Came to see the
Messiah |
In
both cases we see Gentiles traveling from a great distance to learn of the
Lord’s anointed one. It was because of
this that Jesus commended her and contrasted her faith to the unbelief of the
Pharisees who had the Wisdom of God in their very midst and did not accept Him
(Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31).
2. The
Testimony of the Queen of
6 Then she said to the
king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and
your wisdom.
7 “Nevertheless I did not
believe the reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the
report which I heard.
8 “How blessed are you men,
how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear
your wisdom.
9 “Blessed be the Lord your
God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of
This
foreign queen bore testimony to the grace and the love of God in sending a king
who would “do justice and righteousness.”
Solomon is seen as a type of Christ - the King of Israel who has been
sent to earth, not only to do justice and righteousness in His own person, but
to lead all men in the way of justice and righteousness. It is through faith in Him that a man is
declared to be just and right before God.
Jesus
spoke of this encounter between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and He made an
application from it. The application is
to ask whether you will see what she came to see. She came to see a man of great wisdom and of
great wealth. But that is not all. She also came to see what God had done.
Have
you seen it? Have you seen what God has
done in the coming of the One who was greater than Solomon? If you have not seen Him and if you have not
given your life to Him, there is coming a day when the Queen of Sheba will rise
up and condemn you because you have had the opportunity to see what she saw and
even more.
THE WEALTH OF SOLOMON (1
KINGS 10:14-29)
1. The
Value of Gold & Silver.
And all King Solomon’s drinking
vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the
The
great prosperity brought with it a corresponding drop in the value of
silver. Silver was considered a standard
currency and, while the point of this statement is to manifest the prosperity
of Solomon’s reign, this would lead to a corresponding devaluation of silver
shekels as well as a growing inflation.
2. The
Ships of Tarshish.
For the king had at sea the ships
of Tarshish with the ships of Hiram; once every three
years the ships of Tarshish came
bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. (1 Kings 10:22).
Tarshish
is the old name for
3. Solomon’s
Chariot Corps.
Now Solomon gathered chariots and
horsemen; and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them
in the chariot cities and with the king in
Chariots
were to the ancient warfare what armor is to modern military. They provided a mobile shock force which was
able to freely maneuver over a battlefield.
However,
there was a problem in Solomon’s gathering of chariots. Deuteronomy 17:16 had expressly forbidden
that a king “multiply horses for himself.” The passage goes on to make three prohibitions:
Verse |
Prohibition Against
Multiplying... |
17:16 |
Horses |
17:17 |
Wives for
himself |
Silver and Gold
for himself |
Why
would horses be forbidden? There are two
reasons given in the passage.
a.
b. Having
begun to collect horses,
There
is a lesson here. It is the lesson of
the prosperity test. It can be difficult
to trust the Lord in times of prosperity because you can begin to trust in your
prosperity rather than trusting in the Lord.
Are
you in a time of prosperity? This
doesn’t mean that you don’t have to work for a living. There was a lot of work going on in Solomon’s
kingdom. Prosperity is not an absence of
work. Prosperity is the fruitfulness of
work.
The
American church at the beginning of the 21st century is going through a
continuing period of great prosperity.
And in this prosperity there is a test.
The test is whether we shall be more enamored with the blessings of the Blesser.
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