57. Beginner Bible Course: The story of King Solomon, Israel's third King

EPISODE 57   The simple Bible overview of…THE STORY OF SOLOMON, ISRAEL’S THIRD KING

We now continue in the fifth book...

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...of old Testament history. Second Kings in the story of Solomon Solomon was the son of King David. And he became the third King of Israel in his late teens. The kid almost lost the throne before taking it, his big brother at a Nijah who had tried to take the throne through a coup comes to Solomon's mother Bathsheba and asks a favor. He said, so I didn't become King, but I'd like a consolation prize. Would you please go to King Solomon my brother and ask if I can have David's hot water bottle. The young woman, Bathsheba seems to think this is reasonable. So she goes to Solomon and makes the request I'd like to ask a favor. Solomon said mam, anything for you to agree to let out of Nigeria marry Abishag Solomon thinks for a moment says, mom, you can't be serious.

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He's my older brother. He tried to take the throne. Now he wants the woman who was last lying in my father's arms. Why don't we just cut to the chase and make them straight up? King Solomon the teen shrewdly see is write through the plan that afternoon David's son ad in Nigeria is executed for treason. I'd like to stop a moment in back up to Nathan, coming to David, to rebuke him about his sin with Bathsheba. After explaining the story of the poor men with the sheep, David gets enraged and says that man will pay four times over. Remember David had Uriah killed with the execution of Adda. Nijah. David has lost four sons, the baby with pass Shebaa Amnon, his oldest Absalom and the tree.

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And now add a Nijah could be coincidence, but it makes you wonder young Solomon then cleans house. He D frocks the high priest who's on. And I just side, he then goes after general Joe AB he murdered two good men. Solomon makes some pay for it shortly after cleaning house, God appears to Solomon in a dream like a genie and the bottle he offers Solomon anything he desires. Solomon thinks about it and says, I'm just the kid. How am I going to govern this great people? My request is wisdom to lead these people. Well, God smiles and States. That's a good ass. Solomon many men would have asked for long life for riches that you ask for wisdom.

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So I'm going to answer that request. I'm going to make you the wisest man who's ever lived. And I'm going to add the constellation prize of riches. You're going to be rolling in dough. And if you'll obey me and live well, I'll add a long life. On top of that, the text immediately demonstrates the kind of wisdom. This kid got. Two prostitutes have babies. Three days apart. One of the babies is laid on by the mother. They bring the living baby into Solomon in the middle of a terrible argument over, which is the mom, both claim. The living child, both are very convincing. How is Solomon supposed to look into their hearts? And judge Solomon pauses for a moment and God gives him insight.

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He tells the guard, cut that kid and half and give a half to each mom immediately. The real mom says, give the baby to her. Don't kill it instantly. Solomon knows that's the real mom word gets out of what Solomon's done and people are stunned. We're going to see in our next episode, Solomon was kind enough to write down this distilled wisdom for us under this wise leadership Solomon expands the area of Israel even beyond what David did under Solomon. They occupied the entire land promised by God, to Abraham and Genesis from the Euphrates to Egypt. He establishes a lavish economy Israel as safe and sound from top to bottom, having conquered all of these people, he gets rich on their taxes.

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In fact, he becomes so rich that he uses gold utensils in his kitchen. We'll discover he used gold 20 ounce nails in building his temple. Can you imagine 20 ounce gold spikes? We're told he had 40,000 chariot stalls built and 12,000 horsemen. He was an artist in a writer writing 1,005 songs. And 3000 wise Proverbs were told he was a brilliant botanist and a zoologist people came from all over the world. When they heard about this brilliant man, he held smart conferences in Jerusalem, having established wide peace and prosperity.

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Solomon turns his attention to fulfill David's desire about building God's house. The temple first Chronicles tells us David thought of the blueprint and assembled many of the materials, but Solomon pulled the trigger and started the project. It was a massive project. 30,000 men were his lumber guys taking shifts, going to Lebanon to get the Cedar 80,000 more were stonecutters working. The quarries tooling, the stones for the temple and 70,000 more were manual laborers hauling these stones to the temple. Exactly 480 years. After coming out of Egypt, Solomon having assembled the materials began the project of his temple to guide the project, took a whopping seven years while it was lavish.

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The footprint of his temple was not that large. Part of the reason it took seven years was silent construction. That's correct. No hammer was hurt on the work site. Everything was tooled. Offsite makes you wonder what happened. If a worker got his fingers caught between two of these massive blocks, it was opulent. The floors walls and ceiling were Cedar overlaid with pure gold. When the structure was built, Solomon turned his attention to the furniture. One interesting item was called the sea where priests would wash their hands. It held 11,500 gallons of water.

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During this construction project, God takes Solomon aside and reminds him. Obedience is more important than the sacrifice and building this lavish temple. Do you understand Solomon it's obedience that I'm looking for when Solomon finished God's temple. He dedicates it first with sacrifice. He sacrificed 120,000 sheep. That's hard to even fathom, but Solomon was filthy rich. And he had a view of God. That was massive. And there were hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the city for the dedication. Next in the dedication was his pastoral prayer. Talk about a lack of separation of church and state Solomon stands in front of the altar, raises his hands to God and prays the most amazing prayer.

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Please read it in chapter eight. It's a prayer of an incredible heart of a man of God over and over. He says, God, when we, as the people commit this sin and wound your heart, please hear from heaven, forgive us and heal us little. Did he know he would be needing that hearing from heaven and forgiveness for himself? When the dedication was done, God again, in the form of a cloud fills the temple so much so that the priest couldn't even function. What a day in Israel, then God reminds Solomon about their deal. God had promised Abraham unilaterally to give his descendants the land, but then keeping the land was conditional, conditional on their obedience and loyalty to God.

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Here's the deal. Solomon your Bay. You stay other gods when your heart over it's over. We're next told Solomon built his palace. It's interesting to note, it took twice as long to build and was more than twice as large as God's house. He also built the palace for his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh. That was probably a political move. Farrah was not likely to attack and destroy Jerusalem. If his daughter and grandkids live there. Speaking of his wife, it seems Solomon had an Achilles heel maidens. He multiplied wives exponentially. Some of these were clearly political alliances, but political alliances don't explain 700 wives and 300 mistresses.

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Solomon had an addiction for maidens key, married wives from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Eden Sidon, and Hittite nations. Disobeying God in this area, both in having more than one wife and in marrying women, he had no business affiliating with was bad enough, but the text tells us these foreign wives brought with them foreign religions, which Solomon first tolerated, then embraced. We're told he worshiped Ashura. The goddess of the <inaudible>. He worshiped Malek, the detestable, God of the Ammonites East of Jerusalem. He built a shrine for chemo, Ash, the detestable, God of Moab.

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And then another one for Malec as if one wasn't enough. We're told he did this for his wives. Don't blame the ladies. They were just worshiping their God doing what came naturally. I picture these wives inviting Solomon to church. First. He stood there holding their hymnal. Then his heart was tugged toward the detestable. God, they worshiped. God got very angry and God warns him, but Solomon won't listen. It's tough to get the attention of an addict. Think back with me when Saul disobeyed God regarding doing the sacrifice himself and saving the King in some livestock and the Amalekites, God ripped away the kingdom from the first King.

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But compared to what Solomon did, SOL's disobedience was child's play. Solomon the one who started out so great. The one that God had blessed so much, the wisest man who ever lived becomes the complete fool. Jesus laid down a principle and the new Testament to whom much is given much is required. Solomon had it all directly from the hand of God. So God decided to take it all from Solomon's hand. Well, almost all of it. God had promised David that his son would sit on the throne and someone from his line would continue to sit on that throne until one day one would come from his line whose kingdom and rule would last forever.

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So unless God could find someone else in David's line to take over his King, God had to leave a piece with Solomon and that's what God tells Solomon. He'll do out of respect for your father, David, whom I loved, I won't rip this from you in your lifetime, but from your son, I'll rip most of it. In the remaining years of Solomon's life, he got to watch this glorious nation Israel begin to deteriorate. It becomes kind of like the time of judges, enemies start to nip away at their territory, their economy and their power it's as if God's protection and blessing is oozing away. We're told Solomon rain 40 years and died, which means he was in his mid to late fifties.

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Thankfully his wisdom didn't die with him. Solomon left this three books, Proverbs Ecclesiastes, these and song of Solomon or song of songs. Talk about the riches of Solomon. I have a hunch. You'll find these three books are a gold mine for you will mind that first book of Solomon Proverbs in our next word picture.