Bible Reading Plan

Day 163 - Read 1 Kings 9-10

The Lord appeared to Solomon again and instructed him to remain obedient. God promised to establish his throne over Israel forever. God told Solomon that if he or his descendants were not obedient and turned to other Gods, He would bring them to ruin. Solomon built all that he desired in the land possessed by Israel. The people who remained who were not of Israel became slaves to Solomon. The queen of Sheba went to Solomon to test his wisdom. She found Solomon’s wisdom to exceed all that she had been told. Solomon’s wealth and wisdom continued to increase. Many sought to hear his great wisdom which God had put into his mind, bringing gifts of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules.

Broadcast on:: 03 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

"Hello, and welcome to our daily Bible reading. Today we are looking at 1 Kings 9 and 10. The Lord appeared to Solomon again and instructed him to remain obedient. God promised to establish his throne over Israel forever. God told Solomon that if he or his descendants were not obedient and turned to other gods, he would bring them to ruin. Solomon built all that he desired in the land possessed by Israel. The people who remained, who were not of Israel, became slaves to Solomon. The Queen of Sheba went to Solomon to test his wisdom. She found Solomon's wisdom to exceed all that she had been told. Solomon's wealth and wisdom continued to increase. Many sought to hear his great wisdom, which God had put into his mind, bringing gifts of silver and gold, garments, murs, spices, horses, and mules. So along with me as I begin to read, starting in 1 Kings 9, verse 1, "As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord in the King's house and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever. As I promised, David your father saying, 'You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.' But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight. And Israel will become a proverb and a by word among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. And passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to his house?' Then they will say, 'Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worship them and serve them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.' At the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord in the King's house, and Hiram King of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress, timber and gold. As much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, 'What kind of cities are these that you have given me my brother?' Therefore they are called the land of Kabul to this day. Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold. And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house, and the millow, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Heizor, and Megiddo and Geezer. Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Geezer and earned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city and had given it as dowry to his daughter Solomon's wife. So Solomon rebuilt Geezer and lowered Beth Horam, and Beloth, and Tamar, in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities of his chariots, and the cities of his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion, all the people who were left of the Amorites – the Hittites, the Parazites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites – who were not of the people of Israel, their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction, these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. But of the people of Israel, Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen. These are the chief officers who were over Solomon's work, 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work. But Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the millow, three times a year Solomon used to burn offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it before the Lord's. So he finished the house. The king Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ision Gebur, which is near Eloth of the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom, and Hyrum sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon, and they went to Ophur, and brought from their gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. Chapter 10 Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retina, with camels bearing spices and very much gold in precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendants of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her. And she said to the king, "The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpassed the report that I had heard. Happy are your men. Happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness. When she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones, never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Moreover the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from over, brought from over a very great amount of Alma, wood, and precious stones. And the king made of the Alma, wood, supports for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, also liars and harps for the singers. No such Alma, wood, has come or been sensed to this day. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold. As that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold. Six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold. Three menas of gold went into each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top. And on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests. While twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with a fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present. Articles of silver and gold, garments, mer, spices, horses, and mules. So much year by year. And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone. And he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the shephala. And Solomon's imports of horses was from Egypt and coup. And the king's traders received them from coup at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150. And so through the king's traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and Kings of Syria.