Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 4-6.

We learn from this passage that King David had left Solomon a unified country with no enemies threatening it.  King Solomon was able to build upon this and maintain the peace for which his father had fought.  King Solomon established a bureaucracy which allowed him to spend time studying many other things without having to spend all of his time governing. It seems that this study did not just generate useless knowledge since the kings of many nations sent envoys to learn from King Solomon.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 2-3.

I noted yesterday that Shimei was one of the people who refused to support Adonijah’s bid to become King David’s successor.  Yet here in today’s passage we see Solomon ordering Shimei to never again leave Jerusalem, and having him executed when he eventually does so.  David’s instructions to Solomon regarding Shimei in this passage makes one wonder why David had been so angry with Abishai over Abishai’s wish to kill Shimei for cursing King David.  The only conclusion that I can reach is that Shimei controlled a political faction or trade which was essential to the well being of the kingdom of Israel. I would also note that there are hints here, and elsewhere, that Shimei may have worked to undermine King David’s attempts to consolidate power.

I always debate about writing about Solomon responding to God by asking for wisdom, or his decision between the two women.  Today, I am going to try to combine them.  When God told Solomon to ask him for whatever he wanted God to give him, Solomon asked for the discerning heart needed to properly govern God’s people.  This was consistent with the wisdom which Solomon showed in recognizing that Adonijah’s request to marry Abishag was a second attempt to steal the throne (Solomon had given Adonijah the benefit of the doubt on his first attempt as Adonijah could claim he thought the throne would come to him as the elder son), and in giving Shimei an opportunity to live out his life, despite Shimei’s apparent attempts to undermine the power of the throne.  Then in his judgement between the two women Solomon shows his true wisdom.  Usually I here people who comment on this judgement say that Solomon showed great wisdom in determining which of the women was the boy’s biological mother.  In fact, Solomon did not determine which was the child’s biological mother.  Instead, he determined which woman loved the boy in the way that a mother ought to love her son.  Solomon did not care which woman had given birth to the boy.  He sought to determine which woman would be mother to the boy, and the answer to that question was the one who would rather give up her claim than see the boy harmed. Let us judge people as Solomon judged these two women and let us treat others as the woman who was willing to see another benefit at her expense rather than see someone else come to harm.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 20-22.

There are multiple things about the attacks by King Ben-Hadad of Aram on Samaria and King Ahab that provide us with useful life lessons.  By this point, we know that King Ahab did not serve God, not even a little bit.  However, after Ben-Hadad was defeated the first time he chose to attack again.  The second time, he based his strategy on the idea that God was geographically limited.  God proved that he was mistaken.  But what I want to focus on is what happened after that second battle.  When King Ahab’s forces captured Ben-Hadad after the battle, he was happy to learn that his enemy survived.  This was not the happiness of a man who did not want to see anyone die (see his later reaction to the death of Naboth).  No, King Ahab was happy because he viewed Ben-Hadad and himself as part of a group which was above, and better then, the common people.  King Ahab viewed himself and Ben-Hadad as members of the elite, those who should be treated differently from the common people.  Despite the fact that Ben-Hadad would happily cause misery and death for those for whom King Ahab was responsible, King Ahab wanted to see Ben-Hadad treated well.  Later, when King Ahab went to war with Aram to regain a city Ben-Hadad had taken from him, we learn that Ben-Hadad did not return this feeling.  We often see leaders today with the same attitude as King Ahab had here towards leaders of other countries who have the attitude of King Ben-Hadad.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story about the competition Elijah sets up between himself and the prophets of Baal.  It shows how Elijah was a great showman and understood how to capture people’s attention.  It reminds us that there is nothing wrong with using showy techniques to attract people to follow God.  However, today I want to focus on some lesser things we can learn from this passage.  First, we have King Ahab.  He was responsible for the well-being of his people during a terrible drought, but what motivated him to do a desperate search for water and a place where plants were growing?  His people were dying of thirst and starving, but King Ahab was not motivated to make a desperate search for water until his horses were in danger.  Then when King Ahab met Elijah, Ahab called Elijah a troublemaker for having told him that there would be a drought.  Elijah accurately points out that it was King Ahab who had caused the trouble by disobeying the Lord and worshiping Baal.  We find the same sort of thing happening today.  For example, there were people who protested and made a big fuss accusing Samaritan’s Purse of bringing hate and vitriol to New York City during the pandemic because they opened an emergency tent hospital in Central Park.  The question is, who was spreading hatred and vitriol?  The ones who were treating the sick, all of the sick, who came to them for care?  Or the ones shouting and screaming because they did not like the beliefs of those providing care?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 15-17.

The writer of this passage tells us that Rehoboam’s grandson Asa was the king of Judah after David to do what was pleasing in God’s sight.  The passage lets us know what he did right, and how he fell short of ideal.  King Asa got rid of the shrine prostitutes throughout the entire territory which he controlled and destroyed the idols made by his predecessors.  He even deposed his grandmother from the role of Queen Mother and tore down the Asherah pole she had built (which Asa subsequently destroyed).  King Asa is considered to have done what is right in God’s sight despite taking the silver and gold out of the Temple treasuries to buy an alliance with the king of Aram against the king of Israel.  A later king of Judah did something similar and was condemned by a prophet for doing so.  King Asa’s heart remained faithful to the Lord his entire life…the passage says “completely faithful”.

Meanwhile, Israel was ruled by a succession of kings who each did what “was evil in the Lord’s sight.”  Until we get to Omri, and then his son Ahab, about each of whom we are told that they did more evil than any of their predecessors.  King Ahab went so far as to introduce Baal worship.  This suggests that before Ahab the kings encouraged worship practices similar to those practiced in the Temple in Jerusalem, but before the golden calves which Jeroboam had made.  Ahab’s actions resulted in God sending Elijah to him to announce a famine, which gives rise in tomorrow’s passage to one of my favorite stories in the Bible.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 13-14.

The story about the man of God who came from Judah and prophesied against the altar which Jeroboam had built has a feature which always puzzles me: why did the old prophet mislead him about God’s will to get him to eat before leaving the Northern Kingdom?  I don’t have an answer to that question.  However, the story has a lesson for us.  When Jeroboam offered the man of God food and drink, he refused it.  But when the old prophet claimed that an angel of God had told him to bring the man of God home and give him food and drink, the man of God never questioned what the prophet said.  If someone tells us that God told them to have us do something that goes against what we have heard God tell us, we should not just take them at their word.  First, if God told them to do as they are doing, He may have done so to test us.  Second, they may be making up the message from God which they are telling us.  We should always seek God’s guidance before accepting what someone else tells us is God’s will.  Or, to put that another way, when someone claims to speak on God’s behalf we should check what they say against what God had told us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 11-12.y

A short while back I came across a site which, when discussing King Solomon, said that this passage’s reference to him having 1,000 wives (well, wives and concubines) was surely an exaggeration because no man could sleep with that many women.  While I agree that 1,000 wives sounds excessive, when you think of some modern professional athletes (and other celebrities and wealthy men) you start to think that a man as rich and powerful as King Solomon could surely have done so if he desired.  Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with 20,000 women, and several people who knew him said it was not out of the question.  Or to use someone more comparable to King Solomon: 8% of the people living today are descended from Genghis Khan.

One result of King Solomon being such a womanizer was that he started to take part in worshiping the gods of some of his foreign wives  Again, if we look ate men who are promiscuous on the kind of scale that King Solomon was we see that many times they also get involved in strange and “exotic” rituals.  Which would explain King Solomon’s involvement with these other gods.  Whatever the reason, it led to the dissolution of his kingdom.  It is really two-fold.  God took the kingdom away from his son, or part of it at least.  But, the revolt of the northern tribes was also a natural human reaction to King Solomon’s giving his attention to his wives and their gods rather than to the needs and wants of the people he ruled.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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

Today’s passage begins with God’s reply to King Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the Temple.  Solomon had asked God to watch over the Temple and to hear prayers directed towards it.  God responded that He would indeed watch over the Temple until the end of time.   But He warned the people of Israel that if they disobeyed God’s commands and worshiped other gods, the destruction of the Temple would serve as a warning to all peoples.  And today in Jerusalem we see that promise fulfilled.  The remains of the Temple are a platform upon which the worshipers of another god have built their own temple.  I believe that at some point those people will learn the lesson the Philistines learned when they put the Ark of the covenant in a subordinate position to their god, Dagon.  More importantly, it should serve as an object lesson to people today.  If we turn to God and serve Him, He will bless us, but if we turn from Him, our lands will become a desert and a ruin.

Every time I read the rest of today’s passage I am struck by how King Solomon’s wisdom led him to build a trading empire rather than one of conquest.  We see how he entered into a trading alliance with King Hiram of Tyre.  Tyre was the dominant trading empire in the Mediterranean, yet Solomon’s apparent control over the land trade routes to Asia gave him the dominant role in his partnership with Hiram.  Then once King Solomon began sending trade ships out into the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea the Queen of Sheba came to see what his intentions really were.  She had heard of his wisdom as a trading partner, but did not truly believe it until she met him.  I read this account as showing us that King Solomon entered into win-win trade relationships.  He did not seek trade agreements where he won and his trade partner lost.  We see that with both Tyre and the Queen of Sheba.  With Tyre, he sold King Hiram lands which were basically worthless, but invited Hiram into a partnership of trade out of a port city which Solomon controlled.  The Queen of Sheba brought Solomon gifts of great value, but he sent her on her way with gifts she would have considered of as great, or greater. value.