Read the Bible in Lockdown - Day 61 - 1 Kings 10

well do you remember the time way back when when we could have visitors into our homes well this passage takes us back there as uh king solomon welcomes the queen of sheba into his home and uh he'll also showcase all his uh splendor as king of israel i will see if that's a good thing or a bad thing as we head to one kings let's hear from the word of god today 1 kings chapter 10 when the queen of sheba heard about the famous solomon and his relationship to the lord she came to test solomon with hard questions okay so the queen of sheba shebo is an area in the arabian peninsula probably around modern-day yemen so she's traveled a long way just to meet solomon heard about his fame and his relationship to the lord so uh she acknowledges that all solomon's glory is because he has been appointed by and empowered by the lord as king right she's come to test him with hard questions verse two arriving at jerusalem with a very great caravan with camels carrying spices large quantities of gold and precious stones she came to solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind solomon answered all her questions nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her when the queen of sheba saw all the wisdom of solomon and the palace he had built the food on his table the seeding of his officials the attending servants in their robes his cupbearers and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the lord she was overwhelmed reminds me a bit of this famous painting by edward pointer of the arrival of the queen of sheba to solomon's temple uh even with peacocks uh in the in the um picture we can see here the queen of sheba acknowledging the great glory and wonder and wisdom of king solomon because of his empowerment by the lord as we open our minds and open our hearts to receive the wisdom of god as found in the bible then we the great glory that is behind that wisdom is revealed uh let me keep reading verse six she said to the king the report i heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true but i did not believe these things until i came and saw it with my own eyes indeed not even half was told me in wisdom and wealth you have fire exceeded the report i heard how happy your people must be how happy your officials who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom praise be to the lord your god who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of israel because of the lord's eternal love for israel he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness let's just reflect on those uh verses there she declares this foreigner declares how wonderful it is to be one of god's people because of the wisdom of their king and so she praises the lord praises the power behind the king praises the lord god who has placed solomon on his throne because of the lord's eternal love for israel he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness well similarly the lord's eternal love for us his people has been shown by making jesus king who maintains justice and righteousness and as we'll see in a minute we'll see that we'll see more of the glories of solomon's kingdom but now as god's people we can rejoice because we have a wise king in jesus and we have the promise of his glorious kingdom we're not experiencing all the riches and things now as solomon was but the promise is to come in the new creation when jesus returns so we can rejoice like the queen of sheba is a rejoicing over the lord and declaring how happy we can be knowing that we live under a wise king we'll come back to that though let me finish off the bit about the queen of sheba verse 10 she gave the king 120 talents of gold large quantities of spices and precious stones never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of sheba gave to king solomon and solomon's response in verse 13 skipping down king solomon gave the queen of sheba all she desired and asked for besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country so solomon there or israel through solomon is being a blessing to other nations just as god promised the descendants of abraham would be but if that's not enough uh let's finish off the chapter verse 14 the weight of gold that solomon received yearly was 666 talents that's about 23 tons of gold annually not including verse 15 not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the arabian kings and the governors of the territories king solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold 600 shekels of gold went into each shield he also made 300 small shields of hammered gold with three miners of gold in each shield the king put them in the palace in the forest of lebanon then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold the throne had six steps and its back had a rounded top on both sides of the seat were arm rests with a lion standing beside each of them twelve lions stood on the steps one at either side of each step remember the lines from the picture nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom all king solomon's goblets the cups were gold and all the household articles in the palace of the forest of lebanon were pure gold nothing was made out of silver because silver was considered of little value in solomon's days the king had a fleet of trading ships remember israel's landlocked but he's built some ships along with the ships of hiram once every three years it returned carrying gold silver and ivory and apes and baboons king solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth the whole world sought audience with solomon to hear the wisdom of god the wisdom god had put in his heart so it wasn't just the queen of sheba year after year everyone who came brought a gift articles of silver and gold robes weapons and spices and horses and mules solomon accumulated chariots and horses he had 1400 chariots and 12 000 horses which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in jerusalem the king made silver as common in jerusalem as stones and cedar as plentiful as sycamore fig trees in the foothills solomon's horses were imported from egypt and from q the royal merchants purchased them from q at the current price they imported a chariot from egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty they also exported them to all the kings of the hittites and of the arameans so here we see the vast amount of wealth that solomon had what a picture of blessing and luxury that uh this king of israel has a little glimpse of the eternal kingdom to come so through this chapter we see the glory of solomon in his wealth and in his wisdom but there's another thread that comes through as well because once again let's head back to deuteronomy 17 remember this we looked at a few times this is kind of the standard for kings of the lord how they are to be and how they are to live and we've got some troubling things again popping up in the height of solomon's reign it says here god says the king moreover verse 16 must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself and he did that as we saw at the end of this chapter also he must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold oh he has definitely done that hasn't he so even in this chapter we've got some warning signs that uh here is the pride before the fall and the fall will come up when he disobeys again verse 17 or the first half and we'll see that next next time but for now with those warnings we can also uh reflect on the glory that god has given solomon but moreover we can turn our minds to jesus and rejoice because we have a wise king in jesus and the glory of solomon is just a pale reflection of the glory to come when jesus returns and so let us today be trusting in and sending our minds to the promise of king jesus's glorious kingdom to come

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Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021