CALVARY PANDAN - an exception? Was he not endowed PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH with godly wisdom that should have prevented his falling away? [Adapted from Bethel Bible-Presbyterian Church, 10 Downing St. Oakleigh, Vic., 3166] In these two chapters, we see establish himself and bring

the nation, , to the height of its DHW BIBLE CLASS glory, splendour and power. LESSON 5A Chapter 9 records God’s THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS second appearance to Solomon (vv.1- 9) and Solomon’s ambitious building CHAPTER 9 projects. Solomon’s name became so famous that the queen of Sheba took INTRODUCTION the trouble to visit him and Israel with a large retinue. Chapter 10 relates this visit (vv. 1-13); and the rest of the We have seen Solomon’s chapter explains Solomon’s wealth religious piety and enthusiasm in and the construction of his beautiful building the “house of the LORD” in and impressive throne. Chapter 8, and also his great palace. Twenty four years had passed since David, his aging father, had named OUTLINE him as his successor to the throne. 1. God appears to Solomon Chapters 9 and 10 describe Solomon’s again (vv.1-2); large building projects and the 2. The Conditions for Blessings strengthening of Israel with all the (vv.3-5); other nations of the world. It was a period which can be called “The 3. The Conditions for Punishment Golden Age of Israel” when the nations (vv.6-9); of the world acknowledged her glory 4. Solomon Strengthen Israel and paid homage to King Solomon. (vv.9:10-24); God had blessed Solomon with 5. Solomon’s Religious wisdom and wealth. The acquiring of Commitment (vv.25-28) wealth and wisdom has its dangers and temptations. Many who have been blessed by God in their younger and COMMENTARY formative years and who have God Appears to Solomon achieved their desires with prayerful help from God have fallen at the hour Again 9:1-2 of testing. They have succumbed to God took the initiative in temptations which irreparably destroy appearing to Solomon the second time their spiritual lives. God knows our at the same place where He first human nature and frailty. Is Solomon appeared to him in a dream (3:5). The DHW LESSON 5A 1 KINGS 9 words of God to him this time shed power to make a place or a person some light as to why God spoke to him holy. God revealed that He was again. Sometimes when a person has pleased with Solomon for building the completed a challenging task, he is temple. Solomon had asked God that tempted to take some time off and His “eyes may be open towards this relax. His commitment and self house night and day, even toward the discipline in life begin to slacken and place of which thou has said, ‘My he begins to give in to self-indulgence. name shall be there, that thou mayest It was possible that Solomon was in hearken unto the prayer which thy danger of adopting this attitude which servant shall make toward this place’” would subsequently affect his spiritual (8:29). God not only answered his life and relationship with God. God prayer, but God granted more than he knows our weaknesses and so He asked. God said that not only His eyes decided to speak to Solomon a second would be toward the temple, but His time. heart would be there, and not only day and night, but perpetually! This would be the second turning point in Solomon’s life. The first Second, God promised that He time round was the LORD meeting a would establish his rule over Israel for new king who had little confidence in ever as He had promised to David, his himself. This time the LORD would be father – “there shall not fail thee a man meeting a king with much worldly upon the throne of Israel” (9:5b). But experiences and who had already with this promise, God set forth some done much for the LORD The Word of conditions. The first condition was: “if the LORD would be strict and firm. He thou wilt walk before me, as David thy was no longer speaking to a child but a father walked” (9:4a). God made David grown man. In fact he was addressing the model for all the succeeding kings an experienced ruler. in walking before God. David had The Conditions for Blessings– 9:3-5 sinned in the Bathsheba affair which resulted in the murder of Uriah. But God’s words of a success David confessed to God and repented kingdom to Solomon can be applied in of his sin. God then forgave him. The two ways. injunction to Solomon to “walk before First, God gave him an Me” was to live with a continual assurance. He told Solomon that he consciousness of the presence of God had heard his prayer and supplication, and His law. It is to realise that God’s referring to his lengthy dedicatory watchful eye is constantly overseeing prayer at the temple when it was everything we say or do. It is not a life completed. God assured him that He of perfection but one of holiness. had “hallowed” the temple, which he The second condition was: “if had built to put His Name there thou wilt walk in integrity of heart” perpetually, and that His eyes and His (9:4b). The heart is the centre of our heart would be there perpetually. We personality and the seat of our learn that God alone can and have the

2 DHW LESSON 5A 1 KINGS 9 decision-making. One of Solomon’s injunction was about obedience. proverbs is (23:7): “For as he thinketh Obedience to God has always been in his heart, so is he”. God reminded the true test of faith. If we believe in Solomon to be absolutely sincere in God, and who God is, we will and his heart in his relations with Him. This ought to obey Him. God commanded was of ultimate importance. His Solomon to obey Him and to keep all motives must be godly. Solomon must His commandments. This obedience is beware of an external life of holiness based upon the perfect Word of God. It without the internal. He would be is not something subjective or arbitrary surrounded by wealth untold and an that is, it is not up to each and every opulent lifestyle that would put any man to decide how he should walk king of this world to shame. His with God. The blueprint for this is the “external” religious way of life must Bible. No matter how sincere a man is, reflect a heart that loves the LORD. It he can be sincerely wrong if his action must not be for show to please men, is against the Word of God. especially important and famous men The Conditions for Punishment– and women. 9:6-9 The third condition was: “if thou The next word “then” wilt walk in uprightness” (9:4c). This announces the consequences of was to perform righteous deeds. This obedience. God firmly promised came after the injunction to walk in Solomon that He “will establish the integrity of heart. It is of no use to throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for possess a righteous heart if the life is ever.” The blessings of the LORD from full of unrighteous deeds. There are day one have always been conditional. many people today who possess a Human responsibility always enters good and sincere heart but they do not the equation of blessings even as we have the courage and strength to do remember the sovereignty of God. The the right things at the right time. They nature of a conditional blessing is that fear man rather than God. They may there is a flip side to it. When the man possess all the wisdom and blessings sins and disobeys the Word of God, he from the LORD and have been will be punished. There will not be a endowed with wisdom from God and situation where nothing happens to great knowledge but if he is partial in him when he fails and wilfully his dealings and do not uphold justice, disobeys. He will be punished for his he is a failure in the sight of God. disobedience. Solomon must live a holy and God- pleasing life. He had to walk uprightly. Having given His conditions for the fulfilment of His promises, God The fourth condition was: “if solemnly warned Solomon. If Solomon thou wilt walk to do according to all and all his successors would turn from that I have commanded thee” and this following God and worship and serve included the next two, “wilt keep my other gods instead, God would statutes and my judgments”. This severely punish Israel.

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The punishments would affect incapable of saving them. It is their the land, the temple and the people. punishment for their rebellion and God would “cut off Israel from the land” apostasy. which means that Israel would be God’s word to Solomon was separated from the land which God timely. He had given wisdom and had given to them (9:7a). In other wealth to Solomon. Solomon was then words, God would send them away 1 a rising star, which shone brighter than from the land. God also said that He all the others. The danger of falling into would cast the Temple out of His sight. the temptation of pride, forgetting God Israel sinned and the Temple was and being self-serving was real. God’s destroyed twice. The first destruction desire was for Solomon and Israel and of the Temple happened when the all the succeeding kings to walk in His Babylonians invaded and sacked ways and not be disobedient and not . After 70 years of their to sin against Him. History tells a sad captivity in Babylon, the first Jewish story. For notwithstanding God’s returnees went back to their homeland assurances, promises and warnings, led by Zerubabbel, whose initial task they did sin against Him and had to was to rebuild the Temple and the altar face the consequences. and to resume the sacrifices and worship. Then in 70 A.D. the Romans Solomon Strengthen Israel– 9:10-24 under General Titus destroyed This section describes how Jerusalem and the Temple again. Solomon obtained his resources to Since, there has been no Temple built. build fortress cities, store cities, cities In fact, the Mosque of Omar sits on the for stables for his horses, chariots and site of the Temple today. The people his large army. He also built ships and would be “a proverb and a byword had a navy. among all people” (9:7c). The nations At the end of the twenty years of the world would speak mockingly when Hiram had finished building the and spitefully of Israel. They would Temple and the palace, Solomon gave shake their heads and remarked: “Why Hiram twenty cities in the land of hath the LORD (YAHWEH) done thus (9:11). It seemed that Solomon unto this land and to this house” (9:8)? could not honour his commitment to They would answer: because they had Hiram and instead gave him twenty forsaken the LORD their God. It is not cities. Hiram went to look at the cities, that the LORD God is weak or and he was dissatisfied. He remarked after seeing the cities: “What cities are 1 Israel sinned by worshipping other gods, and in 722 B.C. the Assyrians invaded and carried these which thou has given me, my away the northern tribes. In 586 B.C. the brother?” And he called them “the land Babylonians invaded Judah, destroyed the Temple, of ” (9:13). “Cabul” means “good- and carried the Jews to Babylon. And in 70 A.D. when they rejected and crucified Jesus Christ, they for-nothing or sterile”. were dispersed to the four corners of the earth. Jerusalem and the land of Israel were under Gentile Hiram accused Solomon of rule until May 15, 1948 when the nation Israel was meanness as the latter had pretended born again.

4 DHW LESSON 5A 1 KINGS 9 to offer him cities which were Promised land. He conscripted slave- supposed to be more valuable than labour from the Amorites, the Hittites, they really were. Hiram apparently the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the gave the cities back to Solomon and . But for the children of Israel, Solomon improved on them and he did not conscript them. He caused to dwell there. 2 appointed the Israelites to be soldiers, Chronicles 8:2, “That the cities which officers and princes, captains and Huram had restored to Solomon, rulers of his chariots and his Solomon built them, and caused the horsemen. children of Israel to dwell there.” King Solomon was also Despite what Solomon did to him, involved in ship-building. He had a Hiram still sent Solomon 120 talents of fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, a place gold. Each talent is about 70.4 pounds. which was near today’s Elat, on the Hiram’s gift, calculated at the present northern tip of the Gulf of Aqabah. equivalent price for gold, would come Hiram seized the opportunity for trade to approximately $50,688,000 (U.S. and he sent his sailors to sail dollars)! Perhaps this money was used Solomon’s ships. Being Phoenicians by Solomon to rebuild these 20 cities they were experienced sailors. There to make them habitable. was international trade. In particular, Some Bethelites who visited the the ships sailed to Ophir (The ruins of this city saw a large model of , the Greek translation Bible this fortress city. The city was rendered Sophir the name for India) strategically located at the entrance of which was a source of gold. The ships the plain of Jezreel. It showed stables, fetched 420 talents of gold and chariot stalls, barracks, and stone brought them to King Solomon. This walls. Evidently, it was wise military amount of gold was three and half planning that made Israel a prominent times the amount Hiram gave to world power in that period. The Solomon. Needless to say Hiram stood Pharoah of Egypt had conquered the to gain from the gold producing city of Canaanite city of and given it as Ophir! a present to his daughter whom Solomon’s Religious Commitment – Solomon married. Solomon rebuilt 9:25-28 Gezer (9:17). After building the house for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, Three times annually Solomon Solomon built at Jerusalem. It appeared before the LORD. He offered was a very strong fortification for the burnt offerings and peace offerings defence of the Jerusalem. unto the LORD. These were the three main festivals in the year. They were Solomon needed a large labour the Passover (celebrated in the month force for all his building projects. He of Nisan, between March-April); conscripted slave-labour from the Pentecost (celebrated after seven Canaanites who were not destroyed by complete weeks counting from the the Israelites when they entered the second day of the Passover, in the

5 DHW LESSON 5A 1 KINGS 9 month of Sivan, May-June); and DAILY READINGS & DISCUSSION Tabernacles (in the month of Tishri, QUESTIONS September-October). These were the Daily Readings three annual pilgrimage feasts. MONDAY: 1 Kings 9:1-9;

John 14:14-15; 15:7; James 1:5-7. PRACTICAL VALUE TUESDAY: 1 Kings 9:10-23; 1 The first thing to learn about the Timothy 6:6-11. LORD our God is that He always gives more than we can think or ask for. WEDNESDAY: 1 Kings 9:24-28; Solomon, in the beginning, asked for Deuteronomy 16:1-17. wisdom. God gave him not only THURSDAY: 1 Kings 9:1-28 wisdom but wealth and honour. FRIDAY: 1 Kings 9:1-28. Solomon at the dedicatory prayer for the Temple asked that God put His name and “eyes” in the temple so that Discussion Questions whenever people prayed towards it, He would hear them. God answered 1. What promises did God make in that He would put His name in the His words to Solomon? What temple perpetually, and not only His conditions were mentioned in eyes but His heart! God is faithful in all connection with these promises? And His promises. He fulfilled all that He what warnings did the LORD give had promised Solomon. Solomon’s Solomon (9:3-9)? wisdom was known throughout the ______world. He was richer than all the kings ______of the earth (10:23). All the kings of the earth honour him. ______God also teaches us a vital ______truth. All of Solomon’s wisdom, and ______wealth and honour would be reduced ______to nothing if he did not walk in the ______ways of the LORD and worship and serve only Him. He might have done ______good works and built beautiful and magnificent structures, but they would 2. Consider the achievements and all come to nought if he were to activities of Solomon. Which of these disobey God. God’s word of assurance do you think were the most pleasing and promise, as well as of warning to and displeasing to God (9:10-28)? him (9:1-9) is applicable to us today both individually and corporately as a ______church. AMEN ______

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______fame (10:14-29). But what was going on in his heart with respect to ______his affections for God and his ______relationship with Him? ______3. What do you think in God’s view is ______the most important role and ______responsibility of a king? How can you apply it to the church? ______6. In the light of the Lord Jesus ______Christ’s words in Matthew 6:19-24, ______what do you think Jesus’ views on ______Solomon’s wealth and splendour ______are? What lesson can we learn? ______

______4. Compare Solomon’s action in 10:26 & 28, with the rule stated in ______Deuteronomy 17:16. Was he guilty ______or not? ______

5. Solomon was outwardly at the height of his power, wealth and

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