“To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion— A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:2-7).

Solomon tells us that the purpose of Proverbs is “To know wisdom and instruction”, and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. Knowledge is the understanding or skill that you get from experience or education, and wisdom is what you do with the knowledge you have obtained. Solomon says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge – what makes a person wise is what they do with that knowledge.

So we first must ask the question, what is the fear of the Lord? Solomon explains — “My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path” (Proverbs 2:1-9).

God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His word. To know the Lord you must know the word. If you receive His word and obey His commands, then you will understand the fear of the Lord. We can‘t create our own god and what we think our own god tolerates and doesn’t tolerate. True fear of the Lord comes through the revelation in Scriptures that God is the Creator of all, He knows all things past and present, He knows the heart and thoughts of every person, and He will one day judge us all. Christians, ones who put their trust in Jesus Christ, do not have to fear this judgment because our salvation is secure in Christ. Christian fear of the Lord is a reverence of God – “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

With fear of the Lord comes obedience and a desire to serve God. Solomon says “My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands” (Proverbs 3:1). This is the same command the Lord gave His people in wilderness – “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good” (Deuteronomy 10:11-12). 

The Lord is the one who will guide our ways for our good if we submit to Him— “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths… My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3, 5-6, 11-12).

Fear of the Lord is the knowledge that the Lord loves His children and hates sin. Out of love for us, the Lord will discipline His children when we veer off the path of righteousness – “For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10-11).

JI Packer also defines the fear of the Lord as reverence and explains how it leads to wisdom in his book “Knowing God”:

“Where can we find wisdom? What steps must a person take to lay hold of this gift? There are two prerequisites, according to Scripture.

1.) We must learn to reverence God. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10; compare Job 28:28; Prov. 1:7; 15:33). Not till we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty (‘the great and awesome God’, Neh. 1:5; compare 4:14; 9:32; Deut. 7:21; 10:17; Ps. 99:3; Jer. 20:11), acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.

It is to be feared that many Christians spend all their lives in too unhumbled and conceited a frame of mind ever to gain wisdom from God at all. Not for nothing does Scripture say, ‘with the lowly is wisdom’ (Prov. 11:2 KJV).

2.) We must learn to receive God’s word. Wisdom is divinely wrought in those, and those only, who apply themselves to God’s revelation. ‘Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,’ declares the psalmist; ‘I have more insight than all my teachers:’ why? – ‘for I meditate on your statutes’ (Ps. 119:98 f.).”

Then Packer asks this question – “How long is it that you read right through the Bible? Do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do even with the newspaper? What fools some of us are! – and we remain fools all our lives, simply because we will not take the trouble to do what has to be done to receive the wisdom which is God’s free gift.”

Thank you Lord for the gift of your word which gives us sweet intimacy with You and wisdom to navigate this messy world. Keep reading. (Proverbs 1:1-4:27)

“Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” 

“And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.”

Solomon is the wisest man alive because his wisdom comes from the Lord. In order to execute justice, we must seek the Lord as Solomon says in Psalm 72. Solomon speaks of his current reign as king, as well as the future reign of the coming King, Jesus Christ— “Give the king Your judgments, O God, and Your righteousness to the king’s Son. He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice. The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor” (Psalm 72:1-4).

Solomon desires a heart that seeks justice and cares for the oppressed. This is the heart of the Lord. When Jesus arrives on the scene, He will stand in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth and read from the book of the prophet Isaiah — “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).

After reading the word of God, Jesus will be rejected by the people in His hometown. Eventually Jesus will be betrayed and killed by His own people, but this is all part of the Lord’s plan for salvation for the world. Jesus is going to defeat death by rising from the grave three days later. Then after forty days on earth, Jesus will ascend to His Father in heaven, where He is currently sitting at the right hand of the Lord. But one day Jesus is going to return as the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), and every knee will bow down to Jesus and every tongue will confess to God (Romans 14:11). David’s son Solomon is currently experiencing a peaceful and successful reign as king, but an even greater reign is coming through the future Son of David, Jesus Christ — “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before Him, and His enemies will lick the dust… Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him. For He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper. He will spare the poor and needy, and will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence; and precious shall be their blood in His sight” (Psalm 72:8-14). 

We are all needy. That is, we are all in need of a Savior. Our blood is so precious in the sight of Jesus that He is going to shed His own blood on our behalf so that we may have the abundant life; a life filled with fellowship with the Lord, until He takes us home where we will praise Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords for eternity — “His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen” (Psalm 72:17-20).

Tomorrow we start day one of eight days reading Proverbs. Solomon is going to share with us how to live wisely, so keep reading! (1 Kings 4:1-34, Psalm 72, Psalm 127)

Twenty years later, after the completion of the temple and Solomon’s palace, Solomon continues to build “and all the chariot cities and the cities of the cavalry, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion” he built! Solomon building up his cavalry goes against the Lord’s instructions for kings (Deuteronomy 17:16). The Lord desires for His people to trust Him and not in horses and chariots – “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

“Now Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, ‘My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.’” Several commentators concluded that Solomon knew that his pagan wife was unholy and that his marriage to her was not pleasing to the Lord. However, at this time, Solomon is still worshiping the Lord and has not turned to foreign gods. Eventually Solomon will marry many more pagan women, which will lead to his downfall. But for now, Solomon is faithful to the religious practices of the Lord at the temple – “Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built before the vestibule, as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.”

Solomon raises up a labor force from the people who were left in the land. He doesn’t make the Israelites forced laborers, but he uses them to oversee the labor force. However, at some point Solomon puts his people under heavy labor because when his son, Rehoboam, becomes the next king, the people are going to ask him to lighten the heavy burden that his father put on them (1 Kings 12:3-5).

“Now when the queen of Sheba heard the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions… So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.” When she sees his wealth and wisdom with her own eyes, she professes “Blessed be the Lord your God!” The Lord pours out His blessings upon His people to not only bless them, but so those around them will take notice and praise Him! When Jesus arrives on the scene, He will rebuke religious leaders with this story of the queen of Sheba when they ask Him to perform a sign to prove Himself. In response, Jesus will say “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign… The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:38-42).

The Lord is the One who made Solomon great —“So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.” However, Jesus is declaring in His statement to the religious leaders that He is greater than Solomon because He is! He is God! The religious leaders will not believe that Jesus is Lord, even after He performs numerous miracles. Their request for a sign will just be another attempt to find something on Jesus to bring Him down, and Jesus knows this. The story of the queen of Sheba points out the fact that a pagan queen traveled from far away to see the splendor of the Lord. However, Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, will stand right in front of these religious leaders’ faces, yet they will not believe, and they will be condemned for it. 

We end the reading with a description of all the silver and gold Solomon acquired for himself, as well as the horses, some of which he imported from Egypt for trade. Solomon is disobeying several rules laid out by God for His kings – “But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17). In Solomon’s later years, he will write the Book of Ecclesiastes, which we will soon read, where he will conclude that there is no meaning to be found in worldly pursuits and possessions —it is all meaningless apart from the Lord.

Solomon is just a man, like his father David. Although the Lord anointed them as kings of Israel, the people are still in need of a better King, the perfect sinless King Jesus Christ. Solomon is going to suffer consequences for his own disobedience, but Jesus is going to suffer, not for his own disobedience, but for the sins of the world. Soon we will read about the consequences as a result of Solomon’s rebellion against the Lord, but before we get to that part of the story, tomorrow we begin reading some of Solomon’s writings. So keep reading. (2 Chronicles 8:1-18, 1 Kings 9:15-10:13, 2 Chronicles 9:1-12, 1 Kings 10:14-29, 2 Chronicles 9:13-28, 2 Chronicles 1:14-17)

The temple was completed in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon’s reign as king, and the dedication was eleven months later during the Feasts of Booths (also called the Feast of Tabernacle, Feast of Ingathering, Feast of the Lord and Sukkot). During this annual feast, the Israelites live in shelters or booths for seven days as the Lord instructed in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:33-43). This was a great celebration for the Israelites where they gave thanks to God for his current provisions as they remembered His deliverance from Egypt and His provisions during the forty year wilderness journey. The Lord wants His people to remember that He is the One who provides for them. He provided their salvation from Egypt, and He is providing eternal salvation for the world through the coming Messiah. 

Solomon says today “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.” 

Solomon requests that the Lord’s favor be upon them so that “all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God.” The Lord’s plans are much bigger than just blessing Israel. He is working His plan through the Israelites to bless all the families of the earth, just as God promised their forefather Abraham- “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). This blessing will ultimately be fulfilled through Abraham’s coming descendant, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

After the extended and elaborate celebration, the completion of the house of the Lord, and the completion of his own house, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time. The Lord responds that He has heard Solomon’s prayer, and if the people “humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” And the same is true today! 

Then the Lord says directly to Solomon, “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’ But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”

Now we know that David was not a perfect man by any means. However, David loved the Lord, and he always desired closeness between him and God. And when his own sin got in the way of their relationship, David would confess, repent, and turn to the Lord for mercy and grace. So the Lord isn’t asking Solomon to do something that is impossible. The Lord is asking Solomon to trust Him, to walk with Him, to obey Him, to repent when he stumbles, and to guard his heart from that which will harm him.  

God has poured His blessings upon Solomon. He has given him wisdom, riches, and honor, and now Solomon’s fame is known throughout the world. When the Queen of Sheba hears of Solomon’s fame, she comes to test him with some hard questions. That’s up tomorrow, so keep reading! (1 Kings 8:54-66, 2 Chronicles 7:1-10, 1 Kings 9:1-9, 2 Chronicles 7:11-22, 1 Kings 9:10-14)

Today the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord and all of the furnishings of the tabernacle to the temple – “Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim… Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.” There is no mention of the pot of manna and Aaron’s budding rod which were set before the ark in the wilderness. Some commentaries say that they were placed elsewhere in the temple, and others say that the Philistines probably took them when they captured the ark in battle. However, the final destination of the pot of manna and the budding rod is unclear. 

When the priests came out of the Most Holy Place, the Levites who were singers began praising the Lord – “indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,’ that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” 

Then Solomon blesses the assembly of Israel – “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father David.” The Lord chose Jerusalem as the place to put His name, David and his descendants to rule over His people, and Solomon to build the temple. All that the Lord had spoken is being fulfilled. So Solomon says a prayer dedicating the temple to the Lord:

• “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.”

Although the Lord has a distinct presence in the temple, Solomon knows that God can not be limited by a place. The Lord’s presence fills the heavens and the earth. Then Solomon prays specifically on behalf of the people. He says if anyone sins, because we all sin, may they repent and turn to the Lord for forgiveness and restoration. Solomon cites examples of when the people will need God’s grace and mercy:

• “If anyone sins against his neighbor.”
• “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You.”
• “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You.” Soon in the story, during the Divided Kingdom Era, the Lord will stop the rain for three and a half years in an effort to get Northern Israel to repent and turn to Him just as Solomon prayed – “that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.”
• “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is.” 
• “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple.”
• “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them.”

Solomon says after each, if the people turn from their sins, repent, confess His name, and pray toward the temple, may He forgive their sins and restore them. Solomon concludes his prayer saying, “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.” 

Later in the story, during the Captivity Era, when the Israelites are taken into captivity by the Babylonians, Daniel will risk his life believing this is true. King Darius will approve an ordinance that says anyone worshiping any god or man besides him for thirty days will be thrown into the den of lions. “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously” (Daniel 6:11). Daniel believes that the Lord will hear the prayers of those who pray toward His temple and that He will deliver them, and Daniel is correct! When he is thrown in the lion’s den — “no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in God” (Daniel 6:23). 

However, much more unfolds in this story before we get to the story of Daniel. Tomorrow the Lord responds to Solomon’s prayer and supplication, so keep reading. (1 Kings 8:1-11, 2 Chronicles 5:1-14, 1 Kings 8:12-21, 2 Chronicles 6:1-11, 1 Kings 8:22-53, 2 Chronicles 6:12-42)

Solomon is a man who loves to build. It took him seven years building the temple for the Lord, and then he took thirteen years to build an elaborate palace for himself. Included in Solomon’s luxurious palace is the House of the Forest of Lebanon, which serves as an armory, the Hall of Pillars, the Hall of Judgment where Solomon sits to judge, and two palaces, one for Solomon and one for “Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken as wife.” 

For the furnishings of the temple, Solomon hires a bronze expert, Huram. “He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work.” 

“So Huram finished doing all the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of the Lord: the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars); the ten carts, and ten lavers on the carts; one Sea, and twelve oxen under the Sea; the pots, the shovels, and the bowls.”

The two bronze pillars at the entrance of the temple are named Jachin and Boaz. Jachin means “He will establish” and Boaz means “in Him is strength”, which is a reminder to all that the Lord is sovereign and we are dependent upon Him. The Sea of cast bronze, which Huram built, is a massive and decorative basin for the priest to use for ceremonial washings. 

Huram made the articles for the temple of burnished bronze, and Solomon made the furnishings out of gold – “Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, and the table of gold on which was the showbread; the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold; the basins, the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner room (the Most Holy Place) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple.” And once the work of the temple was complete, Solomon brought in all the things his father, King David, dedicated to the house of the Lord.

Tomorrow, the glory of the Lord fills the temple, so keep reading. (1 Kings 7:1-51, 2 Chronicles 3:15-4:22)

Today Solomon’s gift of wisdom shines when two harlots come to him with a dispute. One rolled over on her baby during the night, killing her son. Then she switched her dead child with the other harlot’s baby. Now both women are standing before Solomon claiming to be the mother of the live child. 

Solomon uses his wisdom to flush out the liar as he orders the baby to be cut in half, and half given to each woman. The real mom is identified as she is the one who pleads for her baby’s life. Solomon returns the child to her. “And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.” 

So God uses a dispute between two harlots to bring all of Israel together in agreement over their new king. God could have chosen any way to show the world Solomon’s wisdom, but He chose to use these two harlots in His story. Isn’t that something?! The Lord wastes nothing and uses the unlikely to accomplish His purposes! 

Solomon then builds a relationship with Hiram, king of Tyre, as his father, King David, had done. Solomon says to Hiram, “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’” 

Solomon arranges a business deal with Hiram for cedar and cypress logs from Lebanon. And the Lord says to Solomon, “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.” And seven years later, the temple is complete! 

Tomorrow, Solomon builds his own house and furnishes the temple. Keep reading. (1 Kings 3:16-28, 1 Kings 5:1-18, 2 Chronicles 2:1-18, 1 Kings 6:1-13, 2 Chronicles 3:1-14, 1 Kings 6:14-38)

Solomon is now on the throne, “So the Lord exalted Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.” One of Solomon’s first acts as king is that he serves justice to the wicked: 1) his brother, Adonijah, for attempting to take the throne, 2) the priest, Abiathar, for supporting Adonijah as the next king instead of the Lord’s chosen king, 3) Joab, for his ruthless murders of Abner and Amasa, and 4) Shimei, for cursing David as he fled from his son Absalom.

1. Adonijah, Solomon’s older brother, attempted to take the throne for himself so David quickly gave it to Solomon. Adonijah then feared Solomon, but Solomon said nothing would happen to him if he proved to be a worthy man (1 Kings 1:52). Today Adonijah proves not to be a worthy man as he asks to marry Abishag, the lovely woman who cared for King David in his old age. This was another shot at the kingdom because back then men would make claims to the throne by sleeping with the king’s concubines like Absalom did with his father, King David’s, ten concubines on the rooftop (2 Samuel 16). However, Solomon sees right through to Adonijah’s true wicked motives and has him killed.
2. Solomon removes Abiathar as priest for supporting Adonijah, “that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh” (1 Samuel 2:27-36, 1 Samuel 3:11-14). Abiathar is the last descendant of Eli’s to be High Priest of Israel.
3. Solomon has Joab killed per David’s final instructions to him (1 Kings 2). Solomon instructs his servant Benaiah to “strike him down and bury him, that you may take away from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed. So the Lord will return his blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword—Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his descendants forever. But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord.”
4. Shimei, from the clan of Saul, cursed David while on the run from Absalom, so David instructed Solomon not to allow Shimei to die in peace (1 Kings 2). Solomon first shows mercy to Shimei by telling him he would live if he didn’t leave Jerusalem. However, Shimei breaks their agreement, and Solomon has him killed.

Solomon places Benaiah over the army in place of Joab and Zadok as the priest in place of Abiathar. Once “the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon,” Solomon makes a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and marries his daughter; “then he brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall all around Jerusalem. Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.”

Remember, the Lord has given Israel five rules for kings (Deuteronomy 17:14-20):

1. Shall not be a foreigner 
2. Shall not multiply horses for himself or return to Egypt to multiply horses
3. Shall not have multiple wives, lest his heart turn from God
4. Shall not multiply silver and gold for himself 
5. Shall write his own copy of the Book of the Law and read it all the days of his life so that he does not elevate himself above his brethren. 

Solomon is on a slippery slope by making a treaty with Egypt and acquiring more wives, foreign wives who worship false gods. However, at this time Solomon is worshiping the Lord extravagantly by offering a thousand burnt offerings to Him at Gibeon. The Lord tolerates the worship on the high place at Gibeon because this is where the tent of the tabernacle of meeting with God is currently located. After the temple is built and Solomon moves the tabernacle to the temple, along with the ark of the covenant which is currently in Jerusalem, the worship at Gibeon will not be acceptable. The temple will be the one place that the Lord chose for His people to worship Him (Deuteronomy 12). 

After the corporate worship, the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream and says, “Ask! What shall I give you?” Solomon humbly responds, “Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore, give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 

Solomon knows the responsibilities of a king are too much for him to handle on his own — he needs help from a higher power! This request pleases the Lord so much that He not only gives him wisdom but also riches and honor. Then He says to Solomon, “There shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 

How will Solomon steward the gifts and promises he has received from the Lord? Keep reading to find out. ( Psalm 83, 1 Chronicles 29:23-25, 2 Chronicles 1:1, 1 Kings 2:13-3:4, 2 Chronicles 1:2-6, 1 Kings 3:5-15, 2 Chronicles 1:7-13)

Psalm 81 is a festival psalm where God is praised for His faithfulness. The trumpet is blown, and the people are gathered together to worship the Lord and to remember His lovingkindness:

• “Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day. For this is a statute for Israel, a law of the God of Jacob. This He established in Joseph as a testimony, when He went throughout the land of Egypt, where I heard a language I did not understand” (Psalm 81:3-5).

The Lord is reminding His people how He liberated them from Egypt, where they were once enslaved, and how He gave them the Law in the wilderness so that they would be people set apart to Him. The Lord delivered them from a land immersed in the worship of false gods and brought them into the wilderness to teach them how to walk with Him, to trust Him, and to obey Him. The Lord commanded them time and time again not to live like the people around them who were steeped in idolatry: 

• “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:8-10).

However, the Israelites continued to reject the Lord in spite of the marvelous works He performed on their behalf. The Lord longed to pour out His blessings upon His people as He says “open your mouth wide, and I will fill it”, but the people lacked faith; therefore, the Lord gave them over to themselves:

• “But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels” (Psalm 81:11-12).

The Lord’s warnings were ignored by the Israelites as their hearts went after the idols of the nations around them, so the Lord gave them over to “their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels”. Being left to ourselves is a death sentence. Jeremiah will later say, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). An unrestrained person acting out of the lust of his own heart will always default to evil and wickedness. The Lord knows this and that is why He pleads for His people to obey His good commandments because He knows what is best for them:

• “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him, but their fate would endure forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you” (Psalm 81:13-16)

The Lord wants only good for His people – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). However, we must cooperate with the Lord, as Paul will later say, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). In order to be transformed, we must spend time in the presence of the Lord and in His word — we must be people of discipline and self restraint.

Tomorrow, Solomon sits on the throne as the new king of Israel. Just as the Lord has warned His people against idolatry and commanded them to walk in obedience all throughout the story, He will soon give the same charge to King Solomon – “Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples” (1 Kings 9:4-7).

Solomon, like everyone else, will have a choice to make — obey the Lord and walk in His ways or don’t. Keep reading to see the life of King Solomon unfold. (Psalm 79-82)

In a time of trouble and despair, Asaph begins to question the Lord:

• “Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” (Psalm 77:7-9).

Asaph’s questioning leads him to remembering the Lord’s past faithfulness:

• “And I said, ‘This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds” (Psalms 77:10-12).

Remembering what the Lord has done in the past allows us to trust Him in the present. And you can’t remember the faithfulness of the Lord unless you know His story. Asaph is a man who knows the story of the Lord as he recounts it Psalm 78:

• “Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers” (Psalm 78:12-16).
• “Had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full” (Psalm 78:24-25).
• “He also rained meat on them like the dust, feathered fowl like the sand of the seas; and He let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings” (Psalm 78:27-28).

The Lord’s story not only highlights His faithfulness but also exposes mankind’s disobedience and lack of faith:

• “In spite of this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear” (Psalm 78:33-33).
• “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, when He worked His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan” (Psalm 78:40-43).

Of course God’s power cannot be restrained, but we can limit the Lord’s activity through our own lives by not surrendering to Him. When Jesus arrives on the scene, He will be rejected in His own home town. Matthew will write about how Jesus’ works were limited there because of the people’s lack of faith – “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). The Lord desires to bless us and to lead us, but we must give Him full access to our lives. 

Asaph says that not only did the people rebel against the Lord in the wilderness, but also when He brought them into the promised land:

• “He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies” (Psalm 78:55-56). 
• “When God heard this, He was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel, so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had placed among men, and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand. He also gave His people over to the sword, and was furious with His inheritance” (Psalm 78:59-62).

Despite the people’s lack of faith, the Lord was faithful as He defeated the Philistines, brought the tabernacle back to Israel, and gave them a leader who was after His own heart, King David:

• “But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which He has established forever. He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; From following the ewes that had young He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78:68-72).

The Lord is still faithful today, in spite of man’s disobedience and lack of faith – “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). God is sending a better David to rescue and lead His people. This entire story is about the Lord’s Son Jesus Christ who is coming to live a sinless life we can’t live and die a horrific death that we deserve, so that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ shall be deemed righteous, not based on our own merit but His, and restored to the Father. Today, right this moment, God is working to bring salvation to anyone who believes – to anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done. Anyone who prays a prayer of genuine repentance and asks Jesus to be Lord over their life will be grafted into His Kingdom – “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12-13,19).

We have an awesome God with an incredible story of how He sent His Son to save the world! God commands His people to know His story and pass it down from generation to generation to remind them of the Lord’s faithfulness, and to encourage them to walk in the ways of the Lord:

• “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done” (Psalm 78:1-4). 

It only takes one generation not knowing the Lord and His ways to lead future generations away from God and into full blown idolatry as we saw in the Judges Era (Judges 2:10). May we be a generation that knows the Lord and His story and passes it down. 

We have one more day of reading the psalms, and then we will jump into the life of King Solomon, so keep reading. (Psalms 75-78)