I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 9-10.

    God responded to Solomon’s prayer. He stated that He had indeed set the Temple apart as holy. God promised to watch over the Temple for all time. However, God warned that the people of Israel would only benefit from His watch so long as they did not abandon Him nor disobey His commands. God acknowledged Solomon’s petition and will do the same for anyone who turns to Him, even those who have never before known Him.

    Every time I read the story of the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon I wonder what was going here. I think from the context that the Queen’s visit was a trade mission. I believe that the reason the Queen of Sheba was so impressed by Solomon was because he did not try to make the trade negotiations a win-lose deal. Instead, he dealt with her so that both came out as ahead. She arrived prepared to use his attempts to defeat her at the trade table to defeat him. Instead, Solomon made trade deals with her that were calculated to bring benefit to both sides. I could be reading my own bias into the story, but it is clear that Solomon was a master of trade. My experience is that those who truly reach the pinnacle of trade do so by making deals which benefit their trade partners as much as themselves.