Solomon
Son of King David and Bathsheba
1 Kings 4:29-34 (NIV)
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight,
and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand
on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom
of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom
of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite -wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol.
And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered
a thousand and five. He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of
Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the walls. He also spoke
about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. From all nations
people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the
kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.
1 Kings 6
Solomon builds the Temple
1 Kings 6:38 (NIV)
The entire building was completed in every detail by mid autumn,
in the month of Bul, during the eleventh year of his reign.
So it took seven years to build the Temple.
1 Kings 7:1 (NIV)
It took Solomon thirteen years, however,
to complete the construction of the palace.
Temple Palace
7 years to complete 13 years to complete
90x30x45 150x75x45
2700 sq. ft. 11,250 sq. ft.
1 Kings 9:3-7 (NIV)
“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me.
I have consecrated this temple, which you have built,
by putting my Name there forever.
My eyes and my heart will always be there.
As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart
and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command
and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne
over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said,
‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV)
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women
besides Pharaoh’s daughter – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which
the Lord had told the Israelites,
“You must not intermarry with them, because they will
surely turn your hearts after their gods.”
Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV)
He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and
three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods,
and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God,
as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth
the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god
of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord;
he did not follow the Lord completely,
as David his father had done.
1 Kings 11:9-13 (NIV)
So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude
and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees,
which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the
kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it
during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him,
but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant
and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
1. Money won’t buy Satisfaction.
2. We keep forgetting that.