Tonight, let's turn to 1 Kings, beginning with
chapter 1.
1 Kings, of course, is just the continuation
of the history of the kings of Judah
and Israel.
1 and 2 Samuel are taken up pretty
much with the time from Samuel through the
reign of David.
As we get into the book of the
kings, we continue now the story of the
history of the kings of Israel and Judah
after David passes from the scene.
1 and 2 Kings actually cover a period
of approximately 400 years, and they give to
us the record of the kings.
First of all, those that ruled over Judah.
Now, as we get into 1 and 2
Chronicles, you have a repetition of a lot
of the history, but 1 and 2 Chronicles
are the chronicles of the kings of Judah,
so they don't really deal so much with
the kings of Israel, whereas 1 and 2
Kings deals with both Israel and Judah, the
kings that reigned in the north, the kings
that reigned in the south.
So, in chapter 1, we read, Now King
David was old and stricken in years.
When it says that they were old and
stricken in years, it means that they had
begun to become an invalid as others in
the Old Testament.
Some, of course, like Moses, their strength abated
not.
His sight and all was excellent right up
until the day of his death.
But others, it declares that as they became
old, they became stricken in years.
It is tragic to see a person stricken
in years, such as David, who lives such
a vital, active life.
But David, as he got older, just wasn't
the person that he was when he was
younger, as is the case for all of
us.
But David, as he became older, was out
in battle, you remember, last week and started
to faint, and so they said, Hey, you're
not going to go out and fight anymore.
You know, you stay home, we'll do the
fighting.
But now, as he continues to age, he
becomes sort of an invalid, stricken in years.
It's a sad statement of that invalidism that
oftentimes overtakes an elderly person.
So this is far from David, the great
warrior, and David, the man who was so
active as he becomes old.
In fact, I hate to see my hero
this way.
He's putting on blankets and he's still shaking,
you know.
And so, someone suggested that they get hold
of a young virgin, that she might stand
before the king and love him and cherish
him and take care of him, and lie
in his bosom that he might be warmed.
And so, they sought for a beautiful damsel
from all of the areas of Israel, and
they came across Abishag, a Shumanite.
And they brought her to the king, and
she was very beautiful, and she loved the
king and ministered to him, but David did
not have relations with her.
Now, David's son, Adonijah, who was the brother,
full brother of Absalom.
He was the son of Haggith, this Jezerite.
She bore David at least two sons, and
both of them actually sort of rebelled against
their dad.
And Adonijah, when he saw that his dad
was getting old and feeble, decided that he
would take over the kingdom.
And so, he gathered together Joab, who was,
of course, David's chief general, Abiathar, who was
the priest during the time of David, and
he conferred with them of his desire to
take over the throne of his father.
But Zadok, the other priest, and Benaniah, and
Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and other mighty
men, which were with David, did not go
along with Adonijah.
But Adonijah threw a great party.
Killing many sheep, and oxen, and fat cattle,
and had this big sort of an announcement,
or pronouncement, of himself as king over Judah.
But Nathan the prophet, and Benaniah, and these
other fellows weren't invited.
So, Nathan came to Bathsheba, and he said,
did not David promise to you that Solomon,
your son, would reign in his stead?
Now, you better hurry and get in unto
David, because Adonijah is gathering men around him,
and is planning to take over the kingdom.
And so, you go into David, and you
say to David, did you not promise me
that my son Solomon would reign in your
stead?
How is it that Adonijah has set himself
up as king?
And while you're talking to David, I will
come in and confirm to David that what
you're telling him is true.
That Adonijah, in reality, has gathered Joab, and
these other fellows, and is trying to set
himself up as king.
So, Bathsheba came into David, and said, according
to the words of Nathan, she said, how
is it, you know, I thought that, David,
that my son Solomon was going to get
to reign in your stead, you know, and
all.
And how is it that Adonijah now is
setting himself up, and what's going on?
And David, of course, was not aware of
what Adonijah was doing.
And while she was talking, Nathan came in,
and David questioned Nathan.
Nathan confirmed the fact that Adonijah had called
these fellows together, and was having this big
shindig in which he was making the announcement
of himself as king, and the people were
saying, long live Adonijah the king, and all.
And so, David then ordered that they take
his mule, and set Solomon upon it, and
take him through the streets, and let the
people proclaim, long live Solomon the king.
Take him down to the spring of Gihon,
and there let him be anointed as king
over Israel by Zadok the priest.
And let Benaniah go before him and the
mighty men, and announce the reign of Solomon
with David's blessings, that David has declared Solomon
to be the king.
And so, the king said, call Bathsheba, and
she came back in, and stood before David,
and the king swore and said, as the
Lord liveth that hath redeemed my soul out
of all distress, even as I swear unto
thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying,
assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me,
and he shall sit upon my throne in
my stead, even so will I certainly do
this day.
So, Bathsheba bowed with her face to the
earth, did reverence to the king, and said,
let my Lord King David live forever.
And so, he made the arrangements then for
Solomon to be anointed by Zadok the priest
there at the pool, or the springs of
Gihon, and then to be led into the
city, proclaimed as king.
So, verse 39, Zadok the priest took the
horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and
he anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet,
and all the people said, God save King
Solomon.
And all the people came up after him,
and the people piped with their pipes, and
rejoiced with great joy, and the earth was
torn with the sound of them.
And Adonijah and all of the guests that
were at his party, when they heard all
of the noise and the town, the trumpets
blowing, and all of the uproar, they said,
someone came in and said that Jonathan, the
son of Abiathar, the priest came, and Adonijah
said unto him, come in, you're a valiant
man, you must have good news.
He said, not so good.
He said, the king has sent Zadok the
priest, and he has anointed Solomon to be
king.
And Nathan the prophet, they've gone before him
there at Gihon, anointed him.
And this is the meaning of all of
the rejoicing.
This is the noise that you hear, for
Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom.
And moreover, the king's servants came to bless
our Lord King David saying, God make the
name of Solomon better than thy name, and
make his throne greater than thy throne.
And the king bowed himself on the bed.
In other words, when they came to David
and said, may God bless your son even
greater than you've been blessed and all, David
acquiesced and acknowledged, you know, by his bowing
to Solomon's reign, and the declaration that Solomon's
reign should be even greater than David's.
One verse here that especially stood out in
my mind, verse 29, as David was addressing
his wife Bathsheba, he declared as the Lord
lives that hath redeemed my soul out of
all distress.
What a glorious testimony that is.
Now, he didn't say the Lord kept my
soul from all distress.
A lot of times people have a mistaken
notion that God somehow is going to give
me divine immunity from problems.
That somehow I'm going to be immune from
any kind of distressing or vexing situation.
Not so.
As a child of God, I face many
distressing situations.
I have no immunity from problems, from suffering,
from hurts, nor will you.
But I do know that God will deliver
me out of all my distresses.
Now, you see, the difference between a Christian
and a non-Christian isn't the fact that
a Christian doesn't have distresses and doesn't have
problems, because I have just as much distress
and problem as an ungodly person has.
The only thing is, I have one who
redeems me out of them all.
The ungodly, not so.
They've got to make their way the best
they can through them or perish in them
or whatever, but the Lord will redeem my
soul out of all distresses.
So, Paul the Apostle spoke, who hath delivered
me from so great a death?
Who doth now deliver me?
And I am confident that he shall yet
deliver me.
But being a child of God did not
give any kind of protection against problems, against
battles.
And if you think that being a Christian
means that life is just going to be
a pleasure bed of roses, then you're due
for some very difficult and rude awakenings in
your Christian experience.
If you think now that you're a Christian,
you're not going to have any problems, that's
not so.
And you're apt to get very discouraged when
problems come.
But if you know that as a child
of God, I'm going to face problems just
like everybody else, but the Lord will be
with me and redeem me and help me
in my problems and will bring me forth
victorious.
That's the important thing.
So that even in my problems, I do
have a different mental attitude than the non
-Christian.
They don't know what's going on or what's
going to happen to them, whereas I know
that the Lord is going to see me
through.
I know the Lord is going to deliver
me out.
And so David's glorious witness, and this is
the end of his life, the end of
the road.
What a beautiful witness.
Oh, as the Lord liveth that hath delivered
my soul out of all distresses.
So Solomon is now sitting on the throne.
And when Adonijah heard this, of course, his
guests all fled.
And Adonijah ran in and grabbed hold on
the horns of the altar.
Now on the altars that they used to
make, on the corners of the altar, they
had these little raised areas that looked like
a horn.
On the four corners of the altar, these
little areas, we saw one of the altars
that the archaeologists uncovered in Beersheba, the ancient
city of Beersheba.
And they haven't really uncovered too many altars
whole.
In fact, this is one of the first
one where all four horns were still intact.
And they're just little horns that sort of
come up on the edge.
Well, Adonijah went in and grabbed hold of
the horns.
And when you read, he went in and
grabbed hold of the horns of the altar,
it means he grabbed hold of these two
little handle-like things that come up that
look like horns there on the corners of
the altar.
And so they came and told Solomon that
Adonijah is afraid of you.
And he's in holding on to the horns
of the altar saying, let Solomon swear to
me this day that he will not slay
me with a sword.
And Solomon said, if he behaves himself, he'll
be all right.
Let him go home.
So Adonijah went to his own house.
Now, the days of David drew near when
he was going to die and he charged
Solomon, his son saying, I go the way
of all the earth.
Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a
man.
Now here's father to son.
And in his typical fatherly advice, show yourself
a man, son, be strong, show yourself a
man.
David coming to the end of the road.
Now, it is interesting to me that David's
later years were spent in a feeble physical
condition, a man who must have been in
tremendous physical shape in his prime.
He talks about, by the Lord, I've run
through a troop, I've leaped over a wall.
And you see the rugged country that David
fled from Saul, the wilderness of Ziph and
down in Gedi and some of this rugged
area.
You know that the guy had to be
in top physical shape.
But yet in the later years, stricken and
now about to die, God doesn't give us
immunity from death.
God doesn't give us immunity from feebleness, perhaps
before death.
This business of every child of God ought
to live prosperous life and healthy lives isn't,
it doesn't follow in the scriptures.
Here is David, a man after God's own
heart, stricken in his older years and now
ready to die.
Others are healthy up until death, but it
really, you know, it isn't fair.
It isn't right to say, well, brother, if
you just believe God and think positively, you
know, you could be healthy and you wouldn't
have to suffer like this.
Not so.
There is no explanation why sometimes
very godly people suffer.
We don't know the reasons and don't feel
that a positive attitude is going to give
you immunity from any suffering either.
David's advice to Solomon was very good to
begin with, but then it sort of lapsed
into personal vengeance that David wanted Solomon to
take.
So typical of David, had his capacities for
extremely high spiritual characteristics, but then also had
the capacity to be very human.
I'm going the way of all the earth.
Be strong, show yourself a man and keep
the charge of the Lord thy God to
walk in his ways, to keep his statutes
and his commandments and his judgments and his
testimonies, as it is written in the law
of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all
that you do and whithersoever you turn yourself.
So good advice.
Walk in the ways of the Lord.
Keep his statutes, commandments, judgments, testimonies, in order
that you may be prosperous.
Now, earlier David had written, blessed is the
man who walks not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor stands in the way of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of the
scornful, but whose delight is in the law
of the Lord.
And in this law does he meditate day
and night, for he shall be like a
tree planted by the river of water, bringing
forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper.
When Moses was giving Joshua the charge, Moses
said to Joshua much of what David said
to Solomon in his command to Joshua that
he might keep the commandments and ordinances and
statutes of the Lord.
For thus shalt thou make thy way prosperous.
So the key to prosperity is obedience to
the laws of God.
Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
So excellent advice by David to his son.
And David reminds him of God's conditional promise.
But notice that it is a conditional promise.
Now there are those today, they call themselves
British Israelites or you've got Herbert W.
Armstrong and his errant son Ted.
And they proclaim that the King of England
is actually a direct descendant of David.
Because of it being the only, what they
say, continuing monarchy.
And God promised David that there would never
cease one of his family from sitting upon
the throne.
And so a part of the tribes migrated
to England.
And the Anglo-Saxon races are actually a
part of the ten lost tribes.
And they seek to trace names, you know,
so many Jacobs and so many of the
various Israelite-ish names on through to England
and through Europe and so forth.
And so their whole premise is that the
ten lost tribes are actually the Anglo-Saxon
races today.
And that God's promise is fulfilled that Prince
Charles is actually a direct descendant of King
David.
And so when he ascends to the throne
is just a continuation of God's promise to
David.
But notice that God's promise to David is
conditional.
It is conditioned on, if thy children take
heed to their way to walk before me
in truth with all their heart and with
all their soul, there shall not fail thee,
said he, a man on the throne of
Israel.
But that is not an unconditional promise.
That is a conditional promise.
And David's descendants did not meet the conditions.
And so the story that Jeremiah hid one
of David's descendants and fled ultimately to England
with him and all is just so much
conjecture.
And it does lack in real evidence and
proof.
The promise to David was conditional.
But by the time Judah fell to the
Babylonian Empire, they had so corrupted and turned
from God that they had become as godless
as the nations around them, worshiping in lasciviousness
the other gods of the nations around them.
So David had a conditional promise of God.
His descendants did not walk before the Lord
in truth, and thus there came an end.
Yet the promise to David is to be
fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ.
For that everlasting kingdom that was promised to
David is to be fulfilled when Christ comes
and he shall sit upon the throne of
David to order it and to establish it
in righteousness and in judgment henceforth from henceforth
even forever the zeal of the Lord of
hosts shall perform this.
So God will fulfill the promise, but it
will be through Jesus Christ when he comes
again to reign.
Now David gets into the more David side
of the whole thing.
David was just like we are.
He carried grudges and animosities and all.
And so he now talks to me.
He says, this guy Joab, man he was
a pain.
And he gave me a lot of trouble.
And he killed Abner and also Amasa.
And he shouldn't have done that.
Don't let his old gray head go down
to the grave in peace.
Take care of it.
But do show kindness unto Barzilla and to
his family because they came out and helped
me at the time of Absalom's insurrection.
But this guy Shimei, the Benjamite, you remember
him who went along the hill cursing and
throwing rocks.
Don't let his gray head go down to
the grave in peace.
Don't hold him guiltless.
You're a wise man.
Now take care of it.
So David slept with his fathers and was
buried in the city of David.
And the days that David reigned over Israel
were 40 years.
Seven, the first seven in Hebron reigning over
Judah and then the last 33 in Jerusalem
reigning over all of Israel.
And Solomon sat upon the throne of David,
his father in the kingdom was established greatly.
Now Adonijah came to Bathsheba and he said,
I want you to do a favor for
me.
Please don't say no.
She said, well, what is it?
And he said, I want you to go
to your son Solomon because surely he won't
refuse you anything.
And ask Solomon to give to me Abishag,
David's concubine, that beautiful gal that was brought
in at the end to be with David.
And so Bathsheba came into Solomon and he
said, oh, sit down here mom.
And he made a place for her sitting
at his right hand.
And she said, son, I want you to
grant me a favor.
And he said, you say whatever it is,
mom.
And she said, well, I want you to
give Abishag unto Adonijah.
And he said, oh, that guy Adonijah, surely
he has, you know, done this to his
own hurt.
He's going to be slain for this.
You see, a part of the ascension to
the throne was the receiving of the concubines
of the previous ruler.
Now we mentioned this when Absalom came into
Jerusalem and set up the tent on the
roof of David's house and took the ten
concubines that David had left to keep the
house and all, and went in unto them
there on the roof.
And that, in a sense, is a mark
of the ascension to the throne.
David had even taken some of Saul's concubines
when he came to the throne.
So Solomon saw this as a desire of
Adonijah still to take the kingdom.
It's the way that he interpreted it.
And he says, does he want the kingdom
also?
I mean, he's upset over the request.
So King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying,
God, do so to me.
And more also, if Adonijah has not spoken
this word against his own life.
Now, therefore, as the Lord liveth, which has
established me and set me on the throne
of David, my father, who made me a
house as he promised, Adonijah shall be put
to death today.
And he sent Benaniah down to kill him,
which he did.
And then Abathar, the other priest that had
gone with Adonijah and conspired with him against,
or to put Adonijah on the throne.
Solomon banished him from serving in the priesthood.
He just sent him off to the farm,
put him out to pasture, and that was
the end of him as far as any
service to the priesthood was concerned.
And thus God did fulfill, because Abathar was
a descendant of Eli, God did fulfill the
word which he spoke concerning the house of
Eli and the end of the priesthood of
the house of Eli.
In first Samuel chapter two, verse 31 to
35, where Eli's sons were so evil.
Now, tidings then came to Joab that Solomon
is moving now against the rebellion of Adonijah.
And he's, you know, Adonijah has been killed
and Abathar has been sent out to the,
uh, banished really from the capital city.
So Joab ran in and grabbed hold of
the horns on the altar.
It was a position of real supplication unto
God.
You grab hold and you really cry out
unto God, holding onto the horns of the
altar.
So Solomon ordered Benaniah to go out and
to kill Joab for all of the innocent
blood that he shed.
And so he came and said, come out
from the altar there.
And Joab says, no way I'm staying here.
I'm hanging on.
So he came back and he told Solomon,
he said, I ordered him to come away
from the altar.
He's holding on the horns of the altar
and he said he won't leave.
He said, all right, his way, kill him
right there.
So he came in and slew him as
he was holding on to the horns of
the altar for the innocent blood and thus
sort of a purging or a cleansing of
the, uh, bloody reign of David, which much
of it, of course, could be laid at
the feet of Joab.
So Benaniah was made the head over the
army and Zadok became the ruling priest.
Now this guy Shimei that had cursed David
and David told Solomon take care of him.
He called him in and he said, look,
you're to stay within the gates of Jerusalem.
As long as you stay here and behave
yourself, you'll be all right.
But the day you leave the city of
Jerusalem, you're taking your life in your own
hands.
Do you understand this?
Shimei said, yeah, I understand it.
He said, okay.
So Shimei lived there in Jerusalem for a
couple of years, but he had a couple
of servants that ran off and they went
down to Gath, one of the Philistine cities.
And he heard that the servants were there
in Gath.
And so he left the city of Jerusalem
to go down and get his runaway servants.
And it was told King Solomon, Shimei has
left the city.
So when he got back, he said, didn't
you understand that you were to stay in
the city?
And if you left, that was it.
And he said, surely you've brought the death
sentence upon yourself.
And so Shimei was also executed.
Now Solomon begins the gathering of wives of
which it seemed had no end.
He made a affinity with the Pharaoh of
Egypt.
And he took the Pharaoh's daughter and brought
her to the city of David until he
had made an end of building his own
house and the house of the Lord and
the wall of Jerusalem round about.
So he took first of all, the Pharaoh's
daughter as his wife.
And later on, he built her a house
there in Jerusalem, but he was wanting now
to build a house for the Lord, the
temple in Jerusalem, because the people sacrificed in
those days, just on the high places, because
there was no house built in the name
of the Lord until those days.
And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the
statutes of David, his father, only he sacrificed
and burnt incense in the high places, which
was more or less copying after the pagans
around them.
So the king went to Gibeon and there
on the high place of Gibeon, he offered
a thousand burnt offerings on an altar there.
So had a great sacrifice unto God.
Now, it must not be thought that these
animals were just sacrificed and burned on these
great offerings like this.
These were peace offerings or oftentimes as a
peace offering, they were more or less celebrations
almost, where they were just great feasts.
You're going to have a gigantic barbecue, but
they would offer the animals, they would sacrifice
the animals to the Lord.
In other words, the idea was, Lord, we're
sacrificing these animals for you, an acknowledgement that
you're the giver of all of these good
gifts and so forth.
But then they would go ahead and roast
the meat and they would all have a
gigantic barbecue, big party, and everyone would eat
of it.
So they were times of feasting.
And it is interesting, you remember, they were
called feast days because they were times of
great feasting.
When you would come before the Lord, it
was always a time of celebration and feasting
because God wanted the thought of worshiping Him
to be associated with joy and with happiness.
I don't know where people got the idea
that worshiping God should be sad and mournful.
It's tragic that the church went through a
period of its history where the more somber
and sober you looked, the more righteous you
were thought to be.
So all of the ministers were seeking to
affect a very serious, somber appearance.
And they even developed voices with just that
great, you know, kind of a of a
mournful, like, you know, the more you could
sound in a mournful tone, really, the more
spiritual and righteous you were.
Hello, brother.
You know, and you're supposed to look real
solemn and sober and all, you know, and
that's supposed to mean that you're very righteous.
And if you dare crack a smile, man,
you've had it.
They know that you've been, you know, not
doing your job or something, you know, because
somehow they didn't relate worshiping the Lord with
joy.
And yet God wants us to relate the
worship of Him with joy, with thanksgiving, with
party, if you please, with just great rejoicing
and happiness in the serving of God.
For it should be a joyful, happy experience.
Fellowshipping with God should be the greatest joy
that a person can experience.
And you should always go away from true
fellowship with God with your soul lifted and
your heart light and just rejoicing in the
glory and the goodness of the Lord.
So Solomon offered a thousand sacrifices there.
So there was a time of great feasting.
And of course, you eat a lot of
that lamb and you get sleepy.
So he went to sleep and he had
a dream.
And in his dream, the Lord came to
him and said, Solomon, ask whatever you will.
If God should say that to you, what
would you ask for?
This can be very revealing.
It can reveal an awful lot about you
if you'll be truly honest in this.
If God should say, ask me anything you
want, what would be your request?
For your answer to that would reveal whether
or not you are living on the flesh
side or the spiritual side of your nature.
If your desire would be for great riches,
if your desire would be for fame or
honor or glory, it means that somehow you're
still suffering under the illusion that you can
one day maybe find satisfaction in your flesh
and in things of the flesh.
Never.
But if your answer be, oh God, that
I just might walk with Thee in close
fellowship.
Lord, that I might be the person you
want me to be.
Or if your answer is in the spiritual
things, then that indicates also the fact that
your heart is really after God and the
things of God for your desiring spiritual benefits.
So Solomon said, Lord, here I am sitting
on the throne of my father David, ruling
over your people, such a great number and
multitude that they can't be numbered.
And Lord, I really don't know what I'm
doing.
I'm a novice at this.
I don't know what a king's supposed to
do.
I don't know how to go in and
come out before the people.
Lord, there are so many important decisions that
have to be made and people are looking
to me for judgment.
Grant me, Lord, that I might have wisdom
and understanding that I may properly discern and
judge over these people.
And it pleased the Lord.
And the Lord said unto him, because you
didn't ask for riches or for long life
or for the life of your enemies, but
instead you asked for wisdom and understanding in
ruling the people.
I will give to you wisdom and understanding
above any who has ever come before or
who will come after you.
Now as you go down into the fourth
chapter and in verse 30-29, And God
gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and
largeness of heart, even as the sand that
is on the seashore.
And Solomon's wisdom excelled, the wisdom of all
the children of the east country and all
the wisdom of Egypt.
And he was wiser than all the men,
than Etham the Esarathite, and from Heman and
Chalco and Darda, the sons of Mahal.
And his fame was in all of the
nations round about.
And he spake three thousand proverbs.
He wrote a thousand and five songs.
He spake of trees from the cedars, tree
that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop
that springs out of the wall.
He spake also of beasts, of fowl, the
creeping things, of fish.
And there came of all people to hear
the wisdom of Solomon from all the kings
of the earth, which had heard of his
wisdom.
God give me wisdom.
And God said, because you've asked for wisdom,
understanding, I'm going to give it to you.
But I'm also going to give you that
for which you did not ask, great riches.
And honor.
And if you will walk in my commandments,
I'll also give you long life.
Again, that's a conditional.
But I'm going to give you more than
what you ask.
I'll give you what you ask, but even
more.
Now, the principle is stated by Christ.
If you seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, all these things will be
added unto you.
Now, it is wrong for us to think
that riches are either signs of spirituality or
morality.
Riches are amoral, really.
However, riches can be a hang-up.
They did become a hang-up for Solomon.
Fame can be a hang-up.
It became a hang-up for Solomon.
The Bible says, set not your heart upon
riches or seek not to be rich.
That should never be a goal or an
ambition of your life.
Seek not to be rich.
And they that will be rich, we are
told, fall into diverse temptations that drown men's
souls in perdition.
Bible also said, if riches increase, set not
your heart upon them.
Let your heart remain set upon the Lord.
Never upon riches.
Never trust in riches.
Trust in the Lord.
And so, God promised to him more than
what he asked.
And this, again, is just one of those
indications of God's grace giving more than what
we ask.
Now, unto him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think.
God's desire is to give good gifts to
his children.
He delights in doing so.
God delights in just giving to you, even
as parents who are able delight in giving
to their children or to their grandchildren.
It's a joy.
It's a thrill.
So, God delights in giving to his children.
So, Solomon woke up.
And behold, it was a dream.
And he came to Jerusalem and stood before
the Ark of the Covenant.
And he offered up burnt offerings and offered
peace offerings.
Burnt offerings are offerings of consecration, the consecration
of my life to God.
The peace offerings are the offerings of communion,
entering into communion and fellowship with God.
So, there came two women to Solomon.
They were prostitutes.
They were living together.
And the one said, we both of us
had children within a few days of each
other.
And she, in the night, rolled over on
her child and suffocated it.
And she pulled the switcheroo.
She put the dead child next to me.
And she took my live child.
The woman said, no, the live child is
mine and the dead child is hers.
And they were both affirming that the child
belonged to them.
And so, Solomon said, bring a sword.
The women arguing over it, cut the live
child in two and give them each half.
And the true mother of the child said,
oh, no, no, no, no.
Give her the child.
Don't do that.
Give her the child.
And the other one said, oh, no, that's
a good deal.
Cut it in half and divide it.
And Solomon said, give the child to its
mother.
And all the people heard of this.
And they marveled at the wisdom of Solomon
in dealing with this particular issue.
Now, as we get into chapter four, we
have listed here those princes that were prominent
during the reign of Solomon.
And then the twelve officers who were over
all of Israel who provided the food for
the king's household, each man in a month
of a year.
So he had twelve men and each of
them were responsible to provide the food for
one month during the year.
So that's a pretty good job.
You work one month and you have eleven
months vacation.
No, really, they were probably trying to gather
everything that they needed during the eleven months,
because when you read what it took to
run his household.
Now, of course, remember with wise and concubines,
there was a thousand of them, plus all
of the servants that he had and and
everybody else that takes a lot of food.
So in verse 22, we have the provisions
that it took to provide Solomon's household each
day of his life.
His provision for one day was 30 measures
of fine flour.
Now, a measure is about 10 bushels.
So 300 bushels of fine flour a day,
plus 60 measures of meal or 600 bushels,
10 prime beef and 20 commercial grade for
the servants and the wives.
Well, really, the wives didn't have anything but
just one step above a servant.
The women didn't have it too well.
10 fat oxen, 20 oxen from the pasture.
So the fat would be prime out of
the pasture is just commercial.
You don't, you know, feed them in the
grain and so forth.
A hundred sheep beside the hearts and the
robux and the fallow deer and the fatted
fowl, the turkeys and the chickens and all.
Man, that really is a lot of food
to be consumed in a day's time.
But he did have an awful lot of
mouths to feed because each of the wives
were probably having children somewhere along the line.
For he had dominion over all the region
on this side of the river and over
all the kings on this side of the
river.
And he had peace on all the sides
around him.
Now, the areas from which they gathered the
food, if you'll look up these names from
Mount Ephraim and so forth, you'll find that
actually the whole land of Israel each had
its turn in providing Solomon.
So one fellow was over each of the
parts, even over the other side of Jordan,
the area of Gilead and Moab and so
forth.
They also were providing for his food, if
you follow it through.
Plus, he had 40,000 stalls for his
horses.
Now, that sounds like an exaggeration.
And for a long time, people thought that
the Bible had just exaggerated.
Until the archaeologists began to uncover throughout the
land, up in Megiddo and all over the
land, they've uncovered some of Solomon's stables and
the hundreds of stalls in some of these
cities that they have discovered, so that the
figure 40,000 no longer seems like an
exaggeration.
40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots
and 12,000 horsemen.
And those officers provided the food for the
King Solomon and for all the king to
his table.
Every man in his month, and they lacked
nothing.
And also the barley and the straw for
the horses and the camels.
And God gave the wisdom to Solomon and
so forth, which we alluded to earlier.
And the many Proverbs.
Of course, we have the Book of Proverbs.
Now, many of the Proverbs do deal with
the discipline of children.
And no doubt because Solomon observed the errors
of his father David.
Now, Adonijah, the one son that rebelled against
him that we studied in chapter 1 tonight.
There's a verse there that David never did
correct Adonijah.
Never did correct him.
Said, why do you do that, son?
Never did speak a word of correction to
Adonijah.
And Adonijah, of course, later rebelled against his
father David, which probably prompted Solomon to write
in one of the Proverbs, a child left
to himself will bring reproach to his mother,
or the foolishness of the world is bound
up in the heart of the child, but
the rod of instruction drive that far from
him or spare the rod and you will
spoil the child.
Spare the rod and spoil it.
My son used to think that was a
commandment.
He couldn't understand.
He thought he was supposed to be spoiled.
He said, but the Bible says spare the
rod and spoil the child.
It's interesting the way people can fit the
scriptures to accommodate themselves.