it’s about time for us to begin, so we’ll go ahead and get started. Okay.<inaudible> I hope everyone is doing well. Uh, keep Joe in your prayers. We’ll get more details on his condition, um, soon, but, uh, at during the the, but uh, keep him in your prayers and all the others who are dealing with health issues or difficulties at this time.

Um, I know they will appreciate that. Let’s, uh, let’s begin with a word of prayer. Gracious father in heaven, we bow before you at this time. Great. Grateful for this day that you’ve given to us for the life that you’ve blessed us with and the opportunities that we have to serve you. We’re grateful for all that you do for us on a daily basis.

The rain that nourishes the ground and the sun that provides life to this earth. We pray that you be with those that are struggling, especially those dealing with illnesses at this time. Mindful especially if Joe, uh, at this time as well pray that all will will be well and they’ll figure out what’s going on. Pray that you watch over all those that are dealing with difficulties and illnesses,

pray that they recover and come back to their full desired health. We pray that you be with us as we go throughout this night. May we remain safe. We pray for the elections that are coming up in this period and later on this year as well, that the path that you would choose for this country will be the path that we will go down and that we will remember always to speak boldly the word of truth.

No matter who is in office, no matter what comes in this world or in this nation around us. All this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We are in first Kings chapter four<inaudible> In the life of Solomon willing to see his life recorded As history. Uh, there won’t be nearly as many of the details of his life as there were of David’s life.

And yet we have many of the things which Solomon wrote the whole book of Proverbs, Mo, or at least the majority of the book of Proverbs originated with Solomon. The book of Ecclesiastes is originated with Solomon. So we have a number of, of the writings that would come from Solomon and we have accounts of his kingdom and his reign and those things are are important.

We just don’t have the breadth of detail of individual events that we have within the life of David. But what we are going to begin to see in chapter four are the beginnings of choices made that will lead to the division of the kingdom. And these are areas where you, if you pay attention, you’ll notice what the, the writer is, is leading you to.

And as far as the coming chapters and the things that will happen after Solomon’s reign is finished. Verse one. So King Solomon was King over all Israel. And these were his officials as Ariah, the son of say, doc, the priest, uh, um, Eli whole riff and, uh, Hijah the sons of shisha scribes Jehoshaphat’s the son of a highlighted the recorder benign,

the son of Jehoiada over the army doc and Abiathar the priests. It’s interesting here that both Zadar and Abiathar are still mentioned, even though, uh, it seems as though Abiathar is no longer serving in the function of the priest. He is still listed as one of the priests. Uh, though that primary function has been taken over by ZETAC, um,

based upon Abiathar is choosing to, uh, support at a Ninja instead of Solomon a high Shar over the household and add, uh, uh, Adoniram the son of Abda over the labor force. That particular reference is going to be interesting because while we will read, or we read in second Samuel about David making preparations for the temple, he assembled, uh,

things that would be needed in building the temple. And we read about David building the city of Jerusalem out and building, beginning to build the wall of Jerusalem. Um, and we read about all of those things. What we never read is about the people who were doing the work and we never read about the force of people or how that all worked out as far as having people come and do labor and build these things,

whether it was the people of Jerusalem who were living there that were doing it, we don’t know. But under Solomon, we’re going to see a change. We’re going to see the conscripting of a force of workers for from the nation for building these things that Solomon would build. Uh, so you have a Adoniram who will be over the labor force and Solomon had 12 governors over all Israel who provided food for the King and his household.

Each one made provision for one month of the year. So here’s where the Kings are coming from. They’re coming from different places throughout the kingdom. Uh, as a result of the actions of these governors, these governors are providing one month of the year provisions for the King’s household. Uh, the picture I get of this is this is the beginning of levying tribute and taxes from within the nation.

Um, so others may get a different idea of what’s going on here. But that’s what I’m seeing. That that’s, that’s what I get out of this is because you remember, you come forward to the time of Rehoboam and the people say to rehabilitate them, lighten our load. Your fathers laid heavy taxes on us. He did all of these things make it easier and the people will love you and the people will support you.

And Rehoboam would return to them with the wisdom of his age and the people who grew up with him and say, the load that my father put on you will be like my pinky. And so here you have an indication of some of this, at least in my judgment, where these governors are bringing the supplies, are bringing this tribute as it were,

and supplying the needs of the house of Solomon. Um, Solomon had 12 governors over all Israel who provided food for the King and his household. Each one made provisions for one month of the year. These are their names. Ben Hur in the mountains of Ephraim. Then, uh, Decker in Macaisa or McKay’s Schaumburg. Kim Beth Shemesh, Ilan, Beth Hanan,

Beth, or excuse me, Ben, he said in a Rudolph to him belonged Succo and all the land of heifer. Ben a bene down in all the regions of door. He and TAFE fath the daughter of Solomon, he had TAFE fath, the daughter of Solomon as wife Benet, the son of a lot, uh, excuse me, uh, highlighted in Teaneck Maketto and all best Shan,

which is beside Xero tan below Jezreel from best Sheehan to Abel may. Hola as far as the other side of jock Niamh, Ben gibber in Ray moth Gilead to him belong the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh in Gilliad to him also belong the region of our gum in Beijing, 60 large cities with walls, Bronx gate, bronze gate bars, a Benadette or excuse me,

a hint, dab the son of<inaudible> in<inaudible>. Hi, Matt says in NAFTA lie, he also took Bassam math, the daughter of Solomon as wife Bina, the son of who shy in Asher and a loft. Jehoshaphat’s, the son of<inaudible> in his a car shimmy. I the son of ILA in Benjamin Gaber, the son of you, Ryan in the land of Gilead in the country of Sai Hong,

King of the Amorites and of Augur, King of Batian. He was the only governor who was in the land. Okay, so you’ve got these governors spread out there providing for the needs of the, the food for the King’s family. Um, so this is kind of an interesting point because when you look at, uh, the old Testament law, where did the Levis receive or where did the priests receive their provisions?

Okay. From the alter, from the sacrifices, from all the people throughout all the land they provided for the priests. Well, now you’re seeing Solomon Institute a provision for the King and for the Kings house where the King’s house would receive things from all the land through the function and the work of these governors. So then notice verse 20, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude eating and drinking and rejoicing.

What was the state of Israel and Judah at the time? They were peaceful, they were happy, they were rejoicing, and they were prosperous. There this, this is a picture, this idea of eating and drinking and rejoicing. This is a picture of prosperity. This isn’t a picture of famine. This isn’t a picture of toil. This is a picture of prosperity.

Part of that prosperity came number one because they had peace from the being constantly in conflict, a conflict with the Philistines and with other nations around them, but also because the nation was receiving what from all the nations around them tribute. So the nation is receiving tribute from all the nations around them. They’re in a time of prosperity. They’re in a time of rejoicing,

but you know what often comes with that? His poor choices, the diligence of the past. When times were hard, when things were difficult, when reliance upon God was in necessity just because they were in so much danger and so much struggle. Now things are easier now. It’s a time of prosperity. Now it’s a time of rejoicing and now they begin to fail.

They begin to forget. They begin to not do what God has said. We saw this cycle in the book of judges. Anytime you study the book of judges, you’re going to see that they get deliverance that time there’s a time of peace and then they turn right back to sin and right back into the progression. Okay, you’re going to see that type of thing begin again in Israel during the reign of Solomon.

But what you have right now is you have a time of prosperity. You have a time of peace, which God said would occur during the reign of Solomon, but during a time of peace you also have to recognize the, because you have peace and especially if you have peace and prosperity at the same time doesn’t mean you deserve what you have. Yeah.

There’s a mentality that comes with prosperity and this is a struggle we have in America that says if we’re prosperous, it’s because we deserve it and if we’ve become unprosperous is because somebody took something we deserve to have and that’s not the picture of scripture. That’s not the picture of what gun says a nation goes through. God says, when you follow after me speaking to Israel,

when you follow after me, when you follow my law, when you do what I command you, then I will make your way prosperous. But if you turn from me, if you do this, if you do this, then you will receive these other things. And so Israel is hitting a high point. Israel is hitting a prosperity time. Israel is hitting time with peace and Israel is going to begin to make choices that will lead to the destruction of the nation.

Notice what we begin reading. Verse 21 so Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and serve Solomon all the days of his life. Now there is one thing that ought to be mentioned and that is that when you look at this description of the land that Solomon rained over,

it is a complete picture of all the promised inheritance that God promised to Abraham. In addition to everything that had occurred in the days of Joshua, where you really, you have the statement, God delivered everything that he had promised. God fulfilled what he had promised to give Israel. Here you have that full picture because God also told them it will take time to drive these people out to conquer the entire land.

And I’m not going to give it to you all at once because then the land will be overtaken with, with beasts and such. He says, so it’s going to take time to drive out all of these nations. By the time you get to the time of Solomon, you see, David has completed that task. There are those who claim today who are of a pre-millennial persuasion that Israel never received the full inheritance.

Israel never received the promise that had been made to Abraham, and that promise is still to be fulfilled someday in the future in physical Israel. Uh, and that’s just simply not true. First Kings chapter four, verse 21 makes it clear. Solomon reigned over this land. Here was the extent of it and it was the full extent that was promised to Abraham and so this inheritance and that part of the promise,

you can check it off. It’s done. What Israel does after this point is begins to lose what God has given them. They begin to lose it because they stop following him. Okay? Verse 22 now Solomon’s provisions for one day. Now here, this will give you a picture of when you know when they say the King’s household that the governor’s provided for the King’s household.

That’s not like, Hey, we’ve got a family of five over here that needs a table and something to eat. Okay? Now the provision for one day was 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal, 10 fatted oxen, 20 oxen from the pastures and 100 sheep besides Deere, Gazelles, Robux and fatted. Foul one day, One day.

That’s one day’s meal or meals for the King’s house. Four he had dominion over all the region on this side of the river, from Tibbs, even to gazer, namely over all the Kings on this side of the river. And he had peace on every side all around him. So not only does Israel have their inheritance, not only is all of the land subjugated to them,

and do they have, have they received their inheritance, but also then nations around them are paying tribute. They’re at peace, they’re there. Rain Solomon is reigning over them and everything is going smoothly. Okay. So yeah, 240 bushels of flour, uh, is, is a, is a measurement there. So, um, you know, I,

I didn’t watch it, but I saw an advertisement for a video on YouTube. You know, how in the world do they prepare enough food on a cruise ship for however many, you know, 3,500 people who are all on a cruise all at one time. What’s that food prep process to be able to feed that many people every day? Well, this is far more than that.

Okay. So you’re, you’re dealing with a massive undertaking just to provide for the needs of the household of Solomon. Now, uh, also very in mind, I mean, there comes to, there comes a point where there’s how many wives and how many concubines<inaudible> 700 wives, 300 concubines plus whatever children come along, plus servants, maid servants and,

and such. I mean, you’re talking about, I mean, I grew up in a town of 6,000 people in Eastern Kentucky. You’re talking about the whole town you’re talking about all downtown is nothing but, but Solomon and his family. Okay. Uh, so the notice verse 25, and Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree from Dan,

as far as bear, Sheba, all the days of Solomon, there’s this, there was this goal. They said, give us a King. They wanted a King because they wanted to be near like the nations around them. They wanted a King because they wanted someone to go out and fight their battles. They wanted a King because they wanted to feel safe.

And for about 40 years, they got what they wanted. But you’ll see just as God said, it’s going to come at a price God through Samuel told them, you’re going to get what you ask for. You’re going to get a King, but he’s going to take your best men. He’s gonna take your best sons. He’s gonna take your best daughters.

He’s going to take this, he’s going to take that. You’re going to pay him tribute. All of these things are going to Curt. And they all did. Yes. Uh, even in Josh<inaudible>, Correct. Correct. They had the inheritance divisions though those divisions, it was still their responsibility to the people out who were still within those divisions.

And an example of that is the city of Jerusalem that was part of somebodies inheritance, but they hadn’t taken it yet until David, uh, told Joe AB go take it. Um, I had thought of a point I wanted to make right before you mentioned that and I don’t remember it. It, it’ll come back to me. Oh, I remember what it is.

Interesting contrast. When you go back and look and read about Moses, one of the declarations of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy is to the nation of Israel. I’ve taken nothing from you. Moses makes the declaration at the end of his life, all of these things have occurred. All of this is transpire, but I have taken nothing from you, Israel in all the 40 years that I led you.

I never received tribute. You never paid me. You never knew, never supplied my beads. I took nothing from you. And you contrast that with the political and national structure of a King. And bear in mind, Rehoboam is going to say what my father required of you will be nothing by comparison to what I require. We need to learn the lessons.

And by the way, there’s a reason why the framers of this country spent so much time talking about the old Testament because you see the political structures and you see the judicial structures and they, you see, they learn the lessons in a lot of areas about what’s a bad idea when it comes to government. And they learned it from the old Testament. Okay.

So, uh, verse 25, and Judah and Israel dwells safely, each man under his mind in his fig tree from Dan as far as bear sheep. But all the days of Solomon, Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. These and these governors, each man and his month providing food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table,

there was no lack in their supply. They also brought barley and straw to the proper place for the horses and steeds each man according to his charge. And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart, like the sand on the seashore. So the governors are supplying this food, this, these supplies, not only to the house of Solomon,

but also to the stables of Solomon. And Solomon will have this very large number of horses. He’ll have 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots. I mean, I don’t know how many horses per chariot, but one to two to I know sometimes in, in ancient times they even had four horses for a chariot, depending upon what it was. But,

uh, you know, you’re, you’re talking minimum there. If we just do the math on a maximum number of horses for a chariot, you’re talking 10,000 chariots. Oh no, wait a minute. What did God said to Israel in the law about getting horses and chariots and multiplying military power to themselves? What did God said?<inaudible> They would lose their dependence on God and they would begin to think that they were something significant.

You know, you’re, you remember back to when David conquered the army that had all these chariots and what did they do to the horses? They hamstrung them not to where they couldn’t live anymore, but to where they couldn’t be used as military forces anymore because God had said, you don’t do that. But now Solomon is going to begin to do exactly that and the reliance on God is going to wane.

The reliance on God is going to disappear and they’re going to say, we are strong. We are mighty. We are powerful. We have this great military, therefore we don’t need God. Solomon, uh, will have wisdom, exceedingly great understanding. Now we noticed, uh, on, I think it was on Sunday, that this pus, this specific area where he had wisdom and understanding was in judgment,

was in judicial matters, was in leading the nation. Uh, it’s not going to be in every choice. It’s not going to be in and certainly many moral choices that he will make, uh, but it will be in his judgment. Thus, Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was four.

He was wiser than all men from Ethan. The Ezra thought, the Ezra and he men Che Cole and Darda, the sons of may hole. And his fame was in all of the surrounding nations. So if you were to put the Solomon up against the Wiseman of Egypt, they wouldn’t stand a chance. If you were to put him up against the wise men of the people of the East,

they wouldn’t stand a chance. If you put them up against these three that are mentioned here, they wouldn’t have stood a chance because his wisdom originated with God. Then notice verse 32, he spoke 3000 Proverbs and his songs were 1005. Uh, now you will find in the book of Psalms, there are some Psalms that by indications of, of tradition originated with Solomon.

Uh, not all of the Psalms that are in the Psalms are from David. Not even all of them come from David’s time period. Uh, some of them come from after the Babylonian captivity, but there are some in there from Solomon as well. Um, 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 the 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. Uh, one of the things you kind of get here is a picture of someone who’s interested in science as well. He doesn’t just, uh, you know,

write about and speak about humanity, but he studies and speaks about nature and the things around him. So that’s kind of the picture that you’re getting there. So all the people from, from all the nations and from the Kings of all the earth send messengers or come themselves to come into here. Solomon’s wisdom Course that coming to really hear the wisdom of a man<inaudible> I mean they may think they are,

but is that what they’re actually hearing? No, they’re hearing the wisdom of God. There’s a, there’s a time there for us to just step back and go, wait a minute.<inaudible> While we’re not Solomon, we don’t have that wisdom miraculously. What is that telling us about what we can do with this book? What is that telling us about what we should do with this book?

Nations have literally set the foundations of their countries on this book. You can go read all of the latest Harvard law review you want to and you won’t find more wisdom than you find right here. If people would apply this book, if people would learn these lessons, if people would open the book of Proverbs and read everything that this wisest man, whoever lived by way of judicial matters spoke,

and then they would apply that to their lives. Think of how much better their lives would be, but too often what we do is neglect this book. We need to make a hard choice. We’ll turn to friends, we’ll turn to family, we’ll ask opinions, and we’ll never open this book. We want to set a path for our lives. We want to know which direction we should go in life.

We want to choose a spouse. We want to choose this and that. We’ll choose. We’ll talk to everybody else, but we’ll not open this book. A lot of them don’t understand it, but a lot of them don’t try. You know, one of the things Solomon writes in Proverbs to his son is give diligence to understand these things. Many people want to open up that book and go,

you know what? Let me just read a few verses and then I’ll understand it. No, you won’t. You’ve got to give yourself to it. You’ve got to spend time with Paul would write to Timothy study, give diligence to show yourself approved under God, a Workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. These things that are in here take time and yes,

we ought to speak to others and we ought to gain wisdom and we ought to seek the instruction and knowledge of those around us, but we ought to test it against what’s in this book and when the knowledge and wisdom and instruction from around us conflicts with what’s in this book, we ought to reject that wisdom or that knowledge or that instruction and stick with this book because the man who had more wisdom than anybody else who Kings came and sought after his wisdom wasn’t speaking from himself.

He was speaking from the one who wrote this book. We need to learn that lesson above all the lessons that we learned from Solomon is that it wasn’t Solomon. Solomon wasn’t anything other than a spokesperson for God. He just happened to be one people would listen to because he was rich. He was powerful. He had might, he had influence and he had peace,

but he didn’t have the wisdom of God separate from God. And when we begin to reject God, we begin to lose the one thing that is most valuable in guarding and guiding our lives. Let’s go through the questions real quick.<inaudible> Question number one, during the reign of Solomon, the people of Judah and Israel are described as being as numerous as Sand of the sea.

By the way, was that also one of the promises God made to Abraham stars of heaven, sand to the sea? You’re seeing the picture of this covenant and of this promise being fulfilled. The people of Judah and Israel are described as a joyful, be unconcerned, see, rebellious or Dee sorrowful during the reign of Solomon. Hey, joyful. Question three,

describe the borders of Solomon’s kingdom. Okay. From the river, uh, indication is the river. There is the river Euphrates up in the North, down to the land of the Philistines, down to the land of Egypt. Uh, the rain, um, of Solomon is described as a time of a war or B, peace, peace. Compare Solomon’s wisdom with others.

Of his time Wiser than all men. It would be one except the Lancer excelled beyond the wise men of the East. And the West would be another answer. Say what? Yours is the shortest that is correct. That’s, that’s great. Mine might be right. And yours might be no, no either. Either one of those will be fine during the Bible.

No comparison. Well that there’s no comparison to that answer and the other. So Number six, Solomon spoke 3000 blank and saying 1005 songs, Proverbs or number seven, did people of other nations respect the wisdom of Solomon? Yes, they did. Okay. Any comments or questions before we close? Yeah, I was under the impression. Well, and that’s one of the things that when you read these,

this portion, you’re not necessarily getting the picture that this is all happening at the beginning of his reign as far as the governors and you know, one of them ends up being married to one of his daughters that may not have been, you know, in, in the timeline that may just be dropped in here as here’s one of the governors. And Oh by the way,

he ends up married to one of the daughters of Solomon. So I, I’m not sure about the actual timeframe of the events we’re reading in chapter four. If they’re all, you know, here’s the picture, one point in time, state of the nation or if it’s more a picture across the 40 years of the nation. Uh, and these governors being those who are simultaneous with Solomon during his reign,

uh, cause obviously 20 years later, if he’s had daughters, they would be a marrying age, um, you know, 20 years into his reign or something like that. So, I don’t know if, like I said, if this is a chapter that’s a snapshot, everything at one point in time or more a picture across across the whole time so that would explain it and the other comments,

questions if not, you are dismissed until the devotional. Thank you for your attention.<inaudible> Good evening. Good to see everybody out tonight. Mmm, we got a good many on our sick list tonight and got some too. They had to it. I think Rodale and Arthur are still in the same situation. The is still pretty weak from her bronc or pneumonia.

Okay. Is it home?<inaudible> is still in Germantown. Methodist. Don Robinson’s brother has been diagnosed with incurable lung disease. Tommy O’Neil is going to have some more heart tests and uh, tomorrow and a stress test Friday at his loud are still in the Jewish home, but she will be coming home Saturday. No thing on Gladys. Uh, her daughter called today and talked to Jenny for a while and you know,

she has a fib and I think she said she’d go, had to have the same thing done. Janie, and I can’t even say the word, but we all know what ma’am, Gladys put her daughter. Did I not say her daughter? I’ll go make me forget half of what I’m going to read down here or let it get cold enough. I can’t read.

Um, so is in the hospital tonight. Blood PR blood, not his blood pressure. I don’t heart rate. We got blood pressure here but he’s in the hospital to Germantown Methodist and um, they don’t want any gestures or phone calls right now. Ashley Richardson had her procedure today. They didn’t have to do any surgery. They stuck a needle in that thing on deck and uh,

got a biopsy that way. So a good surgery, ladies Bible class will not meet tomorrow. Saturday at 4:00 PM the children will be participating in an area wide Bible bowl at cold water. And if you would like to go there as a are pooled on the bulletin board, he’d remember the rush mower there in Guyana and the tax letter that we put out,

I’m going to take the blame for it cause I didn’t look it over good. It has the year 2020 on it. There’s supposed to be eight, two. You can bring them to me and I’ll Mark it out. Anyway, all of that, we will get that correct.