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.
And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will answer, because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them. Now it happened at the end of 20 years when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house.
Hiram, the king of Tyre, had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold as much as he desired. The king Solomon then gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee. Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him. So he said, what kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?
And he called them the land of Kabul, as they are to this day. Then Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold. And this is the reason for the labor force which King Solomon raised, to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Milo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire, had killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
And Solomon built Gezer, lower Beth-horon, Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land of Judah. all the storage cities that Solomon had, cities for his chariots and cities for his calvary, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel, that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel had not been able to destroy completely. From these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. But of the children of Israel, Solomon made no forced laborers, because they were men of war and his servants, his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry. Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon's work, 550 who ruled over the people who did the work.
But Pharaoh's daughter came up from the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Milo. Now three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord. And he burned incense with them on the altar that was before the Lord.
So he finished the temple. So Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Etzion Geber, which is near Eilath on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir and acquired 420 talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon.
Amen. Well,
Introduction: Chapter 9 as Hinge
essentially what we have in this particular chapter is God's second appearance to Solomon. Remember that God comes to Solomon in chapter 3 and tells Solomon to ask whatever it is he wishes. Therein, Solomon prays for wisdom, God grants wisdom, and then we see the proof or the evidence of that wisdom fleshed out in several subsequent chapters. We saw the preparation to build the temple in chapter five, and then the actual construction in chapter six and seven, and then last week and two weeks prior, we looked at chapter eight, where it was the dedication of the temple.
Solomon prays, dedicates the temple, they then sacrifice to the Lord, and all Israel leaves, If we look at chapter 8 verse 66, on the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the Lord had done for his servant David and for Israel his people. Now essentially what we have in chapter 9 is a bit of a hinge. What we have preceding is the Golden Age. We have Solomon's ministry, Solomon's reign, and it's viewed only positively.
Well, here in chapter 9, we see God tell them, or tell Solomon specifically, that faithfulness will result, or faithlessness will result in the temple's destruction. And not long after chapter 9, we see the decline of Solomon in chapters 10 and 11. And when he dies, then it comes to a head in chapter 12 with the division of the kingdom. So this is a bit of a hinge, as I said.
We have the preceding era, which is the golden era, and then we see the downfall of Solomon from this section on. Not here technically, but I think there are hints in chapter 9 that foreshadow the fall of Solomon. So we'll look at the two broad sections in this chapter. In the first place, there is an exhortation to maintain faithfulness, and that's verses 1 to 9.
And then secondly, the description of ongoing political pursuits in verses 10 to 28. We'll spend the most time on that first section tonight.
The Occasion: Temple and Palace Complete
Note in the first place the occasion, verses 1 to 3, the completion of the temple and the palace. After the completion of the temple and the palace, the temple is dedicated, Solomon prays, and we see that the Lord God hears that prayer and answers that prayer. It came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he wanted to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as he had appeared to him at So, again, the second appearance of God to Solomon. And note in verse 3, there is the confirmation of God's approval upon Solomon's endeavors up to this point.
Again, we're going to take a turn for the worse subsequent to chapter 9, but here God is reporting favorably on what has occurred. It says, the Lord had heard the prayer of dedication in chapter 8. The Lord had consecrated this house to himself. In other words, he approved of it.
We saw that in chapter 8, when the glory of God came and dwelt among the people there in the house of the Lord. And then notice at the end of verse 3, we have something there called an anthropomorphism. It says, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. Anthropomorphism is when we attribute to God physical features.
Now, God doesn't have physical features. God doesn't have eyes. God doesn't have a heart. Now, that may sound blasphemous to say that God doesn't have a heart, But he doesn't.
He is a spirit. He doesn't have the physical features that mark men. This is anthropomorphic. This is language that is accommodating to us as people to understand something of God.
And I suspect that when it says that his eyes would be there perpetually, his providence, his care, his concern, his watchfulness, his stabilizing influence, his security over his people Israel. And then when it speaks of his heart being there perpetually, most likely it means his intimate presence. He will be their God. They will be his people.
He will be near unto them and enjoy that fellowship and communion with the people of Israel. So it's an anthropomorphism. That is the attribution of physical features or attributes to God. The arm of the Lord was demonstrated before the nations.
God doesn't have an arm. The eyes of the Lord, according to Chronicles, run to and fro throughout all the earth. Again, God doesn't have eyes. He is spirit.
So this is anthropomorphic language that God uses often throughout Scripture to convey truth concerning himself, but in a manner that we're able to grasp. There's something else called anthropopathism, and that's the same sort of thing. That's when we attribute human feeling to God. When the scriptures reveal that God wept, or God sorrowed, or God agonized over His people Israel, well, God is eternally blessed.
That language is designed to teach us something concerning God, but it doesn't literally mean that he has these feelings that shift and ebb and flow the way that human beings do. So anthropomorphism, anthropopathisms teach us truth about God, but in a manner that we can grab hold of. As I've said before, Much of Scripture is like baby talk. God speaks to us the way that we speak to little children, because they cannot understand if we speak to them as if they were college students.
God speaks to us in His Word in a manner that is consistent with our ability to understand. So that's the occasion.
The Assurance of Covenant Blessing
Notice the assurance in verses 4 and 5. God assures Israel, God assures Solomon that if they are faithful, then good things will follow. We need to remember that so much behind the scenes of 1 Kings and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Samuel is the book of Deuteronomy and as well the book of Leviticus. We have seen that a number of times, the covenant curses and the covenant blessings.
Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy chapter 28. And we see that same sort of thing fleshed out here by God. Now note, he refers to the Davidic standard in verse 4. He says, 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." Notice that David is a standard.
Now, we have studied together 1 and 2 Samuel. We have seen together that David had many sins. We have seen that David was not a faultless man. In fact, David committed two of the most grievous sins that are a violation of the Decalogue.
He murdered and he committed adultery. So how in the world could Yahweh say, now if you walk before me as your father David walked, Because though David was faultless, he was not an idolater. We see the primary sin condemned by God, specifically in verses 6 to 9, and subsequently with reference to Solomon, is the sin of idolatry. God does hate and despise the sin of idolatry.
So as sinful as a man that David was, nevertheless, his heart was faithful to the living and true God. He exercised fidelity. He didn't chase after Baal. He didn't go after Molech.
He didn't go after Asherah. His heart was faithful to the God of Israel. And that is what we see in this particular passage. Not faultless, but he was never an idolater.
As I've said before, Solomon ends up in idolatry. Again, I think this is foreshadowed here in chapter 9. We'll see that at the end tonight. Notice as well, with reference to this standard, He says, if you walk before me as your father David walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness.
I think that Christians have this idea that the Old Testament was only external. It was only formal. It was only exterior. In other words, as long as you toed the line externally, everything was okay.
It was always a religion of the heart. You were never to engage in simply an external form. It was never to be a formal exercise of religion devoid of heart commitment. God stresses upon Solomon that if you walk before me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness.
You see, those two concepts have never, ever, ever been removed. They were true for Solomon, they were true for Adam and Eve, they have been true throughout the ages, and they're true for us. We are not the kings over Israel, but we are nevertheless bound by God to walk in integrity of heart and in uprightness. That is to be the pursuit of God's people, integrity of heart.
Again, when we compare ourselves with David, or when we look at David rather, we see it's not sinlessness, it's not perfectionism, it's not faultlessness, but there is a core integrity. There is this constant attitude of commitment to the living and the true God. That's what the Lord requires of us. And this whole idea of uprightness.
We are to pursue those things that are pleasing to God. We are to resist murder. We are to resist adultery. We are not to steal.
We are not to lie. We are not to covet, or break the Sabbath, or be insubordinate to those over us, or blaspheme, or commit idolatry. Integrity and uprightness. If it was good for the King of Israel, it is certainly good for the followers, for the servants in Israel, us as well.
And then notice, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and my judgments. So we see the emphasis on the heart, not a mere externalism, and then the necessity to obey the entirety of the law as revealed through Moses. Again, I think the five books of Moses, primarily the book of Deuteronomy, is at the forefront in this emphasis. to do according to all that I have commanded you. And then this moves into the specific assurance of verse 5.
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. So the establishment of Solomon's throne would indeed be confirmed, it would be assured, and obedience was the means by which it would be achieved. If I were to ask you what text lay behind this particular promise, I know that in unison everybody would say, 2 Samuel chapter 7. That is where God promised David that there would be a son of David that would rise up and sit upon the throne.
Now it was realized at least partially in Solomon, but he served as a type pointing forward to David's greater son, even our Lord Jesus Christ. And that brings us to the warning.
The Warning: Covenant Curses
Note specifically in verses 6 to 9. The specific violation is highlighted in verse 6. It says, 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. I think before we move on, we ought to see the heightened responsibility of leaders here.
You or your sons. So Solomon and his dynasty is being addressed. The king of Israel stood in a very chief position. The king of Israel would set the example for other Israelites.
And as a result, the sin of the king would heighten his responsibility before the living and the true God. We ought not to diminish that reality. James picks up on this in James chapter 3 with reference to the church. He says, let not many of you become teachers, for we shall receive a stricter judgment.
In other words, Jesus condemns those religious leaders in Matthew 23 because they sit in Moses' seat, they command persons to do what Moses commands, but they themselves do not do it. Jesus calls them hypocrites. He calls them a brood of vipers. It is a high responsibility to lead the people of God, and the Lord God holds them accountable.
If you or your sons at all turn from following me." There is a general disobedience to the law, and as I suggested earlier, the specific violation is found at the end of verse 6. It says, but go and serve other gods and worship them. You see, this would be the problem for Israel. Not that Sabbath breaking, or murder, or adultery, or any of those other things were not important.
But you need to understand something about the Ten Commandments. Remember last time, when we considered Solomon's prayer. Who comes first in Solomon's prayer? God, right?
He first ascribes praise to God, and then he indicates or lists several petitions that he wants God to fulfill or to answer. We saw that same pattern in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught us to pray in the first place, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. So God is conspicuously first.
There is a priority in Solomon's Prayer. There is a priority in the Lord's Prayer. That same priority exists in the Ten Commandments. We see the first two deal with God and idolatry.
You shall have no other gods before me. In other words, you're supposed to worship the true God. The second is you're supposed to worship the true God truly. In other words, once you've identified the true God of the First Commandment, you ought to worship that true God in a proper manner according to the Second Commandment, you see?
We identify Yahweh, and then we worship Him as He commands. That's the specific sort of flow of those two commandments. But that's foundational to the rest of the commandments. What happens when a people rejects the living and the true God?
Everything else goes out the door. In other words, a refusal to obey the first table of the law will inevitably lead to a desecration of the second table of the law. If men do not esteem, worship, and glorify the living and true God according to the first four commandments, they're certainly not going to have respect toward man according to the last six commandments. This is the flow.
And God indicts them, and God puts His finger, again, anthropomorphically speaking, on the root problem. If you engage in idolatry, if you go after other gods, if you abandon the Lord Most High, then bad things are going to come your way. And then he indicates that specific curse in verse 7. It's covenantal in nature.
Actually, verses 7 to 8a. They would,
Loss of Land
first of all, lose their land. Notice in verse 7. Then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them. Remember this was the blessing that was made or the promise made by God to Abraham and it's been achieved.
It has been realized. The people of Israel are now in the land of promise. It is theirs. They have cast out the inhabitants of the land.
Although, unfortunately, not all of them. That would prove to be at least contributing factor to their downfall. But they possessed this. This was prime real estate.
This was God's covenantal blessing upon them. But he says, if you go a whoring from me, and you follow after other gods, then you will be dispossessed from the land. The way that the Canaanites were dispossessed from the land for their idolatry is the same sort of curse that will fall upon the Israelites. This is the point of the book of Judges.
We see the Canaanization of Israel taking place at the time of the Judges. Israel was to go in and dispossess the land of the Canaanites. Israel was not supposed to go in and be conquered by the Canaanites spiritually. They were not supposed to become like them.
They were not supposed to be worshippers alongside of them, and that is precisely what happened. So God says, if you refuse me, reject me, and rebel against me, you will lose your land.
Loss of Temple
Secondly, they would lose their temple. Notice in verse 7, and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight. So you see, on the occasion of the prayer of dedication, right after that, Yahweh comes to Solomon and says, if you reject me, I will see to it that this house is destroyed. God is not messing around with reference to this heart obedience.
God is not messing around with reference to His demand for our integrity and for our uprightness. God does not, you know, have dealings with a people who continue impenitently in disobedience against Him. And as we trace through the rest of Scripture, we see that in fact this comes to pass. This temple that Solomon built was destroyed in 586 BC.
You can read about that in 2 Kings 25 9. Jeremiah 39 describes the invasion of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. So God is not making idle threats. The nation of Israel had rejected their God, and as a result, God sends the Babylonians in and destroys the temple.
But it happens subsequent to that as well, because remember, after the Babylonian captivity, they spend 70 years in exile, they return to the land of Judah, and what is it that they take to doing? They build the temple again. That's the second temple. And we see the prophets Zechariah and Haggai are the preachers at that particular time to encourage the people of Israel that they would indeed build that temple.
What happens? Israel continues to go a whoring from God. She continues to reject and rebel and resist God. It culminates when God incarnate comes down.
The Messiah himself comes to the nation of Israel. and instead of bowing before Him and confessing Him as Lord and Savior, they crucify Him and nail Him to a tree. Then God brings the Romans to destroy the temple in A.D. 70. All of this 1 Kings 9, verses 6-9 stipulates. In fact, I would submit that verses 6-9 here in 1 Kings 9 is programmatic for the rest of Scripture, at least with reference to Israel's history.
They reject God, they rebel against God, what happens? They're removed from their land, they lose their temple. This is according to promise. When we get to Matthew 24, and the Lord Jesus there is prophesying the destruction of the temple, never forget 1 Kings 9, verses 6 to 9.
I'm sure that I pointed us there in the exposition in Matthew 24. Matthew 24 and its application to Jerusalem in AD 70 should never surprise any student of the Old Testament. It should have never been like, wow, I can't believe that Jesus is actually speaking to his contemporaries. It is consistent with what already had been spoken to them time and time again.
They had rebelled, they had rejected, they had resisted their God, and as a result, they would be judged. They would lose their land, they would lose their temple, and then
Loss of Status Among the Nations
thirdly, they would lose their status. Notice, it says at the end of verse 7 there, Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. In other words, they'll be a joke. You can turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28.
Deuteronomy chapter 28, to see this as a curse of the covenant promised by God there. I think that if you see these threads move through Scripture, by the time you get to Matthew 24, you have to be a preterist. I don't want to be mean or vicious or unkind or make you feel bad if you didn't agree with the exposition, but if you understand the curses of the covenant, specifically in Deuteronomy 28, and you follow the history of Israel, and then you see what the Lord Jesus does in Matthew 21, 22, 23, and then you get to 24 and you miss the significance for the Jews in AD 70, I would suggest you need to go back and connect some dots because it is crystal clear what our Lord is doing there in Matthew 24. But notice in Deuteronomy 28 at verse 37, and you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
Could you imagine in Babylon? Could you imagine people saying, why are you here? What's up with you? Didn't you have your own city?
Didn't you have your own temple? Didn't you have the one God who supposedly created the heavens and the earth? They would be mocked for the reality that now they sat languishing in a foreign land under a foreign government. Notice in Psalm 44, the same language is employed.
Psalm 44. Verses 13 and 14, you make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those all around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. Ridicule, scorn, derision would all be cast into the lap of these Israelites because they defected from the living and true God.
They got cast out of their land. they saw their temple destroyed, they ended up under foreign and oppressive governments. Jeremiah 24, specifically in verse 9, the same language is used. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers." You see, there is this consistent thread throughout Scripture that when Israel disobeys God, when she rejects God, and it's seen primarily in that commandment that they shall not become idolaters, the Lord brings judgment to bear upon them.
And then back in 1 Kings 9, we see the
Divine Indignation and Providence
divine indignation in 8b and 9. In 8, verse 8, it says, and as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? It is intriguing. They wouldn't ascribe the destruction of the temple to the military superiority of Babylon.
They wouldn't describe or ascribe the destruction of the temple in AD 70 to the military superiority of the Romans, but they would ascribe it to the living God. They knew that providence was a reality. They didn't live in a world that was governed by impersonal forces or by chance. Notice verse 8, and as for this house which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?
That's why I emphasize, it's Christ at the right hand of God most high who through the Roman armies brings judgment to bear upon Jerusalem in the same manner that Yahweh, through the Babylonian armies, brought judgment to bear on Jerusalem in the 6th century BC. It is indeed the second cause, the Babylonians and the Romans, but the first cause and the primary reason is the Lord God Most High. He uses means, specifically Babylonians and Romans, but the cause or the indignation is His. And then note the answer to that question in verse 9.
Then they will answer, because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, the God of the Exodus, the God who delivered them from bondage, the God who brought them out of slavery, and they have embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them. Again, persons struggle with the idea of God's comprehensive sovereignty. We need to come to grips with the fact that the Lord brought this calamity on Israel. The Lord brought this judgment upon Israel, both by Babylon and by the Roman armies.
And this is precisely what Christ is speaking to in the Olivet Discourse. So the destruction of the first and the second temples was not due to the superior armies of Babylon or Rome. It was due to the hand and the power and the majesty of God in accordance with the covenant curses spoken by God in Deuteronomy 28 against his faithless people. Now,
Warning Passages as Divine Mercy
I would suggest this is an act of mercy and an act of kindness, not the destruction of the temple necessarily, but the fact that Yahweh warns them The fact that God takes pains to exhort Solomon to faithful living in light of the law of Moses. In other words, God takes the effort or makes the effort to tell Solomon what will be the event or the eventuality of faithlessness and Israel. And I suggest that we ought to read the New Testament in that same light. There are several warning passages in the New Testament.
We are to take them seriously. We are to heed what God says. We are to understand that if we perpetuate the same sorts of sins that we see in the Old Testament Scriptures, then God will in fact deal severely with us. And those warning passages are an act of God's mercy.
It's a blessing when we tell our children not to lick their fingers and put them into electrical sockets. Even if we have to yell at them to do that, it's a mercy and a kindness that we warn them because we know the danger that lie ahead. And the same thing is true of the warning passages in the New Testament. Praise God that He made the effort to tell us not to go after harlots.
Praise God that he gives us that example or that long detailed description of idolatry in Romans chapter 1. Praise God that 1 John ends on this particular note, my little children keep yourselves from idols. Praise God for the warning passages that are used by Him to keep us in line so that we may walk in integrity and in uprightness. You see, the Lord has His means to produce and promote holiness in His people.
And part of the means, or one of the means, is His Word. The warnings, the promises, the blessings, the encouragements, all of those things ought to function in such a way as to move our souls to this integrity and to this uprightness. If we are not reading our Bibles, we're not attending Bible study, we're not listening to the Scriptures preached, then we are rejecting one of the means that God has employed or given for the good of our souls. I can't believe that somebody is going to be the man described by God in terms of the Davidic standard, walking in integrity and in uprightness, a man who is very unfamiliar with the Scriptures is probably not going to be the holiest brother in the church.
This is what the Lord says, and we need to take it to heart, we need to understand, and we need to look at the reality that faithlessness will always bring down God's wrath and indignation upon us. So that's the exhortation to maintain faithfulness.
Solomon's Ongoing Political Pursuits
The latter part of the chapter is a description of ongoing political pursuits. And we ought to view these ongoing political pursuits through the lens provided by God here in this warning passage. In other words, is Solomon functioning as a man of integrity? Is he functioning as a man who is pursuing uprightness?
Is he functioning in a godly way? And I would break this section down into four particulars. First of all, foreign affairs, verses 10 to 15. Secondly, defense, verses 15 to 24.
Thirdly, worship, verse 25. And fourthly, trade, in verses 26 to 28.
Foreign Affairs with Hiram
Note his foreign affairs. He's not the sweetest guy to Hiram. Now, I'm not suggesting this is indicative of the fact that he is lacking integrity and he is lacking uprightness. But he gives, which in and of itself is suggestive of some problems.
Why would the king of Israel give covenanted land to a pagan? That doesn't sound right, does it? Now, these may not have been the best cities, as Hiram says, but they were nevertheless God's covenanted promised blessing to Israel. Still, Ralph Davis says, it's not kosher for Solomon to give covenantal land to Gentiles, right?
So as he deals here, we see, again, something that is at least suggestive of things that ought not to be. Now, Hiram does not discontinue his relationship. And I think that's for two reasons. One, I don't think he could have.
I don't know how much of a partnership they had. I think it was more that Solomon was in charge and Hiram basically towed the line. But as well, Hiram towed the line because it was profitable for Hiram. Later on in the chapter, Hiram is right there along in the trade.
In fact, it's Hiram's men that navigate Solomon's ships in order to go to Ophir and collect gold. Certainly, Hiram would be a benefactor of that particular situation. So with reference to foreign affairs, we see Solomon going on in this particular situation. Now, verse 14 probably is prior to the building of the temple.
Verse 14, rendered by the new king James, says, Then Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold. It seems a bit odd. He's been given these 20 cities he's not really a big fan of. In fact, if you notice how Hiram does this in verse 13.
So he said, what kind of cities are these which you have given me? My brother. He complains, but he greases the wheel with my brother. He doesn't want to complain too loudly or too bitterly.
And then it says he gave him this 120 talents of gold. excuse me, the NIV probably gets it right. It's called the pluperfect tense. It probably means he had given him this prior or previously. So I doubt it was the case that he reflects on these terrible cities that he just received and said, well, I know, I'll give him 120 talents of gold.
That's a lot of gold. This probably precedes the building of the temple.
Military Defense and Forced Labor
The next section deals with defense. The emphasis is on military defense. Now, there's nothing wrong with having a military. There's nothing wrong with having a standing army.
There's nothing wrong with Solomon doing what he's doing here, at least to some degree. Now, we need to remember, and I'll suggest this later on in our study, as we look at the foreshadowing that this chapter may indicate concerning Solomon's downfall. The strictures of Deuteronomy 17. The king of Israel was not to multiply wealth, women, or weapons.
Didn't mean he couldn't have wealth, didn't mean he couldn't have a woman, and it didn't mean he couldn't have weapons. It just meant he couldn't multiply them in such a way that that became his focus rather than God. In other words, if he's trusting in his weapons, he's trusting in his wealth, or in Solomon's case, his wives take his heart away from the living and true God, that's a problem. Again, wealth in and of itself, for the king of Israel, is not a bad thing.
Weapons are not a bad thing. In fact, they're a very excellent thing, especially when, you know, these nasty items are running over, trying to get over our wall and invade our city. Weapons are a most blessed thing at that time. Of course, a good wife is always a blessing, a gift from Yahweh.
But notice, the emphasis on military defense in verses 15 to 19, the forced labor of the Gentiles remaining in the land, verses 20 and 21. Just back up for a moment to verse 16. We don't have a lot of time to go through all these things in detail, but notice in verse 16, Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gethsemane and burned it with fire, had killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. Verse 20, all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel, that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel had not been able to destroy completely.
Why not? How come? If Pharaoh was able to go into Gethsemane and take out all the Canaanites that were still in Gethsemane, why didn't the Israelites get rid of all the Canaanites that were still in the land? Well, it might be suggestive of the reality that Solomon liked that forced labor.
Now, I'm not suggesting if I was a king, I wouldn't like forced labor, too. I mean, a king doesn't want to go out there and move boulders. He wants Canaanites to do that for him. But the demands of Deuteronomy 7 were not take them prisoners and make them boulder carriers.
The demands of Deuteronomy 7, in terms of holy war, was to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. So if Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was able to go into Gezer and burn it with fire and kill any Canaanites who dwelt in the city, I think when we read verse 20, we might just ask the question, why couldn't the Israelites? especially in the golden era of Solomon, when the boundaries and territory had expanded, when the dominion of Solomon was extensive, and when Israel was in a very blessed position. Again, just suggestive that things may not be as wonderful as it appears, or at least this transition is in view here. And then notice the seasonal labor of the Israelites in verse 22.
We're reminded, something that chapter 5 indicated, of the children of Israel, Solomon made no forced laborers because they were men of war and his servants, his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry. And then we've got officials or leaders in verse 23, and then Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter in verse 24. Now, Pharaoh's daughter was, of course, Solomon's wife, and she had her own house.
But here she's being moved. Pharaoh's daughter came up from the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Milo. A parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 8, 11 basically tells us that she was removed from the complex of where the Lord's house stood, probably because she was a pagan and she wasn't supposed to be there.
Again, probably a political alliance was forged by Solomon when he married this particular woman, but she was indeed a pagan. And it does foreshadow what happens in chapter 11. He marries a great multitude of pagan women. the slippery slope that led to an unfortunate reality for Solomon. And then
Worship: Three Annual Feasts
notice this whole idea of worship in verse 25. This is a positive statement. This is a good thing. Again, as we're just pointing out some things that may indicate that what we find with reference to Solomon at least will foreshadow some later things in his career.
It doesn't mean everything is bad. Solomon did a lot of great things. Notice in verse 25, three times a year, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, which he had built for the Lord. And he burned incense with them on the altar that was before the Lord.
So he finished the temple. Now, the specific feasts in view, according to the parallel in 2 Chronicles, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles. Now, when it says that the temple was finished, we saw that in chapter 7. Are we suggesting or are we saying here that now the temple is finished?
Again, the NIV actually gets two things right in chapter nine. But the NIV, I think, translates it properly. It says where we are and so fulfilled the temple obligations. In other words, once these things occurred or once these things transpired, it fulfilled the temple obligations.
Not that the temple was finished, but that the purpose for which the temple stood in terms of this sacrifice, and this observance of these feasts, these obligations were fulfilled. And then
Trade with Ophir
finally, trade. Verses 26 to 28, the ships were built by Solomon. They were utilized by Hiram's servants who knew the sea. And what did they do?
They went to Ophir and took gold, 420 talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon. So
Application: Lessons from Chapter 9
in conclusion, just a few lessons that I think we need to reiterate. First, the necessity of obedience to the law. God is not secret when it comes to what he wants from us. I mean, there's no secret.
No one should ever say, I really don't know what God wants me to do. Certainly you do. You know that he doesn't want you to worship other gods. He doesn't want you to blaspheme.
He doesn't want you to Sabbath pray. He doesn't want you to be insubordinate. He doesn't want you to murder, adult, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet. God's will, as revealed in Scripture, is perfectly clear for us.
And it was so for Solomon and for subsequent kings. The entirety of the law, the entirety of the man, especially the heart, is to obey. The necessity of obedience is conspicuous in 1 Kings chapter 9. Secondly, the necessity of faithfulness on the part of Israel's king. faithfulness on the part of Israel's king.
Verse six, if you or your sons at all turn from following me. One of the commentators, Paul House says Solomon's dynasty could have weathered foreign, domestic and economic challenges, but idolatry makes the Lord an enemy. David weathered a whole host of things, didn't he? I mean, when you watch or you trace the career of David, he had nothing but problems, and yet the dynasty marched onward under David.
Why? Because the Lord wasn't his enemy. The Lord was his friend. The Lord was on his side.
I think Hauss is absolutely right. Solomon's dynasty could have weathered foreign, domestic, and economic challenges, but idolatry makes the Lord an enemy. Davis makes this comment. Yahweh's second advent, the second appearance, to Solomon is sobering.
Over half of his words constitute warning. Yahweh wants to impress Solomon with the high cost of apostasy. Infidelity will bring the loss of turf, temple, and throne. I think that's a good way to sort of remember that section, the three T's, turf, temple, and throne will be forfeited if Israel is disobedient to God.
The first involves the loss of the land and the eclipse of the Abrahamic covenant. The second involves the loss of the sanctuary and the visible means of grace just climaxed under Solomon's regime. And the third, implicitly from verses four and five, will entail the loss of kingship and the eclipse of the Davidic covenant. Only a fool would flirt with faithlessness.
Now, it's easy for us to go, wow, that's true. Solomon, how dare you? We leave chapter 9, the queen of Sheba comes and marvels at your kingdom in chapter 10, and in chapter 11, it is an absolute mess. It's easy for us to see that in the life of Solomon, but it's not so easy for us to see it in our own lives, is it?
It's not so easy for us to see our own faithlessness, or our own cutting the corners, or our own compromise or our own relaxing when it comes to spiritual earnestness or fervor or integrity or uprightness. You know, it's one thing to Monday morning quarterback Solomon and, you know, sort of pick on him. And I'm hoping that I'm not coming across that way. I'm just trying to point out some things in the narrative that sort of foreshadow his downfall in a couple of chapters.
But it's easy to see the faults of these particular brothers and not always see our own faults. It's easy to see the faults of other brothers that are near and dear to us and yet not see our own. I just don't know how that can be. Well, I know how it can be.
We're sinners, right? And we're prejudiced, and we have this narcissistic tendency. It's not just the selfie generation out there posting everything they do on Instagram. It's us.
We're all narcissistic. We all got that strain in us. We all tend to minimize our shortcomings while maximizing the shortcomings of others. Let us not look at Solomon and say, how dare you, Solomon, be this faithless wretch.
Well, brethren, we're not ruling over an empire. We have to rule over eight hours a day and a job and a few hours at night and a home. And we still are faithless in a whole host of ways. So let's not be too hard on Solomon and not be so soft on ourselves.
And then, as I mentioned, the foreshadowing. The commandment with reference to Israel's king, Deuteronomy 17, 16, and 17, do not multiply weapons, women, or wealth. Now, there are two references to Solomon acquiring gold in chapter 9. In chapter 10, that seems to be all he's doing is acquiring gold.
I mean, gold, gold, gold, gold, lots of gold. Again, it's not wrong to have wealth. And we need to be very careful because it's easy to say, well, that much and no more. You know, we want to be the arbitrators of what our brethren can have.
Well, you've got enough gold, you shouldn't have any more. That's not our call to make. But when we hear Deuteronomy 17 say, don't multiply wealth, and we see Solomon with two arms open and gold coming to him, you know, from various avenues. I mean, chapter 10 has that over and over again, lots of gold going on.
And it's, at that point, not just for the house of the Lord. It's not for the hinges on the door that separates the holy place from the holy of holies. It's not anymore the Lord's house. It's just about everything Solomon has.
So there seems to be this subtle shift by the narrator to show us, with Deuteronomy 17 in mind, that things aren't as good as they may appear. So again, we don't want to judge Solomon for having too much gold, but we want to observe that in light of Deuteronomy 17, maybe he should be putting the brakes on some of that gold acquisition. But we ought to really not be so judgy of others. Well, you know, they got a brand new car last year.
Why did they get in? That ain't your business. Brethren, if God in his mercy wants them to have a new car, they're getting a new car. That's between them and the Lord.
If they're ready to stand before God and give an account for the new car they bought, why is it that we have that? Well, I got a new car and I didn't. That's not right. That's too ritzy.
That's not our business. That is not what I'm trying to do here with reference to picket on Solomon and his acquisition of gold. Just Deuteronomy 17 and this whole prohibition against too much wealth. Solomon ought to be careful as he's got two arms open. the acquisition of a foreign woman.
Again, this does not bode well, especially in light of Chapter 11. If we didn't have Chapter 11 and the subsequent devastation in Chapters 12 and following, this would be nothing but great, wonderful. But we can't read Chapter 9 in isolation from Chapter 11. We've got to hear the text and perhaps the narrator, I don't think perhaps, I think the narrator is carefully weaving this story to show us the golden era is going to decline into a not so golden era.
Then that whole observation with reference to the failure to rid the land of the Canaanites. Again, they may have been worse than the various cities that Israel had to contend with, but Pharaoh and Getzer didn't have too much problem getting rid of Canaanites there. I don't know why if you have military superiority, you're the rulers in the land. I mean, come on, why make them force labor?
You were supposed to dispossess them. You were supposed to destroy them. Maybe Solomon had a heart of compassion and didn't want to kill poor Canaanites, but that was disobedience to Deuteronomy 7. They were supposed to go and destroy Canaanites.
So, the theological function, the Golden Era, chapters 5 to 8, the decline of Solomon, chapters 10 to 11, this is a theological hinge of sorts, which Ian Proven says, the temple is no sooner built than we hear of its inevitable end. The empire is no sooner created than we hear of its inevitable destruction. And even if we're completely wrong in terms of this isn't foreshadowing, isn't it intriguing? The prayer dedication, God answers and says, if you sin, I'm going to take this temple away from you.
It's kind of how we are, aren't we? We give our children a present. Now, if you disobey me, I'm going to take that away from you. Right?
There's a warning appended to it. There's a warning attached to it, and it comes right on the heels of this dedication, when all Israel is glad. You can't miss the contrast between 866, when everybody goes home to their tents, joyful and glad of heart, to the beginning of 1 Kings chapter 12. What happens in 1 Kings chapter 12?
The northerners are upset. They don't like the way Solomon has run his regime. And they don't like the fact that Rehoboam, his son, is probably going to do much the same. So Jeroboam leads the revolt in this particular situation.
There's a definitive contrast between the end of chapter 8, when everybody's happy and glad and going joyfully to their tents, and 1 Kings chapter 12, when you see the division of the kingdom.
Christ Fulfills What Solomon Forfeited
But we ought to end on the covenantal faithfulness of God. The eclipse of the Abrahamic covenant is righted by the Lord Jesus. See, never forget that the Lord Jesus ultimately fulfills the Abrahamic covenant. That promise of land?
Romans 4.13 tells us that Abraham would inherit the world. When Abraham looked north, he looked south, he looked east, he looked west. That was the entirety of the earth acquired by the seed of Abraham. So what was lost in terms of the old covenant is gained anew by our Lord Jesus.
The loss of the temple is righted by the Lord Jesus. The temple was lost, wasn't it? But what's the temple in the New Covenant? It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wrote a book this recently, and the comment that this brother made on John 2, you know that passage where Jesus goes in and he cleanses the temple, and then he says, then his disciples remember that it was written, zeal for your house has eaten me up. Zeal for your house has eaten me up. That's why he goes into the temple and he drives out the money changers, because zeal for the house of God has eaten me up. And the author makes the application to the passion narrative.
You see, the house of God in the New Covenant era is Jesus Christ, isn't it? Isn't he the temple of God? Because John goes on to say, Or John's gospel goes on to say, but he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
So zeal for God's house has eaten me up. in terms of the earthly temple in John 2 that he goes in and he cleanses. But as that temple is now realized in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, zeal for your house has consumed me. literally in the death pangs at Calvary. It had indeed eaten him up. In fact, Bates says, zeal for God's house quite literally has consumed Jesus since his zeal has led him to cast his own body, the true house of God, into the insatiable gaping mouth of death for the sake of the Father.
Beautiful concept there. I thought that was just amazing. Anyways, the loss of the king, thirdly, is righted by the Lord Jesus. Isn't it?
When God says, if you are your sons, you're going to lose your land, you're going to lose your temple, and you're going to lose the dynasty. It is righted by the Lord Christ, Luke chapter 1, verses 31 to 33. So the unfaithfulness of King Solomon is righted by the obedience of the Lord Jesus, who's identified by himself as a greater than Solomon. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the warnings that you do give us in Scripture, give us ears to hear and hearts to receive these things, and the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to put them into practice. We thank you, God, for Jesus. We thank you that in him we have the land, we have the temple, we have a king, we have all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord. We ask that you would go with us, watch over us, bring us together on the Lord's day that we may worship you.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.