Discover the fascinating narrative of King Solomon’s start in leadership, where his earnest pursuit of wisdom sets the stage for an era of prosperity in Israel. Through a deep dive into 1 Kings chapters 3 and 4, listeners are invited to reflect on how God’s blessings are woven with His guidance when humility reigns in our hearts. From marriage alliances to governing choices, gain insights into Solomon’s successes and challenges, offering timeless lessons for leaders of all walks.
00:00:08 Introduction to Add Bible and Today’s Chapters
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
Today we will cover two chapters in 1 Kings, chapters 3 and 4. We’ll learn about Solomon’s prayer for wisdom and the result in great wisdom and great wealth that he had. We’ll listen to our guest reader, Senator Kevin Grantham, former president of the Colorado State Senate, as he reads chapter 3. Then we’ll listen to Faith Comes Right Hearing’s reading of chapter 4.
SPEAKER 02 :
1 Kings 3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give you. And Solomon said, You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this, your great people? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life, or riches, or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you, and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, O my Lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. and we were alone there was no one else with us in the house only we two were in the house and this woman’s son died in the night because she lay on him and she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept and laid him at her breast and laid her dead son at my breast When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had born. But the other woman said, No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours. The first said, No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine. Thus they spoke before the king. Then the king said, The one says, This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead. And the other says, No, but your son is dead, and my son is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other. Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, Because her heart yearned for her son, O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death. But the other said, He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him. Then the king answered and said, Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death. She is his mother. And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. First Kings 4
SPEAKER 03 :
King Solomon was king over all Israel, and these were his high officials. Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest. Elihorif and Ahijah, the sons of Shysha, were secretaries. Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilad, was recorder. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the army. Zadok and Abiathar were priests. Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over the officers. Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and king’s friend. Ahishar was in charge of the palace, and Adoniram, the son of Abda, was in charge of the forced labor. Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for one month in the year. These were their names. Ben-Hur in the hill country of Ephraim, Ben-Dekir in Makaz, Shealbim, Beth-Shemesh, and Elan-Beth-Hanan. Ben-Hesed in Erebus, to him belonged Soco and all the land of Hefer. Ben-Abbinadab in all Naphth-dor. He had Taphath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife. Bayanah, the son of Ahilad, in Tayanak, Megiddo, and all Bethshean that is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, and from Bethshean to Abel-Meholah, as far as the other side of Jochmium. Ben-Geber, in Ramoth-Gilead, he had the villages of Jeir, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argab, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities, with walls and bronze bars.” ahinadab the son of iddo in mahanaim ahimeaz in naphtali he had taken bassamath the daughter of solomon as his wife baana the son of hushai in asher and beeloth jehoshaphat the son of perua in issachar Shimei the son of Elah in Benjamin, Geber the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of Bashan. And there was one governor who was over the land. Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cores of fine flour and sixty cores of meal, ten fat oxen and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl, For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates, from Typhsa to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him. And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon. Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking. Barley also, and straw for the horses, and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.” for he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezraite, and Heman, Kalkol, and Darda, the sons of Mahal, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand five. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.” And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
SPEAKER 01 :
In 1989, I read 1 Kings chapters 1 through 9, and I’ve already shared that journal entry, so we’ll move on to 1997, when I read 1 Kings chapters 3 through 5 on the same day, and I wrote, Solomon asked for an understanding heart to judge. God granted him a wise and understanding heart, not mind, and granted Solomon other blessings and length of days based on obedience. God granted him the desire of his heart after he was grown. In other words, God can grant us what we need to serve him, no matter how old we are. We can change to serve God because he can bless us with any gifts we need. Praise God! In 2011, I was reading the whole Bible, so I read 1 Kings 3-5 and portions of Luke this day. Concerning Kings, I wrote, The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. God initiated the offer, Ask what I shall give you. Solomon asked for an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. Solomon’s request pleased the Lord, and he granted it to Solomon. Solomon decides to build the temple, as God declared earlier to David. The first verse of 1 Kings chapter 3 says, Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. My English Standard Version Study Bible footnote on this verse says, Deuteronomy warns against their return to Egypt in terms of too close relationships with that nation. The Hebrew verb translated made a marriage alliance is translated intermarry in Deuteronomy 7.3, where the command not to marry foreigners is explicitly tied to a warning that such marriages will lead the people to serve other gods. This becomes all too real for Solomon. Even though Solomon loved the Lord, he is a king with a divided heart, failing to keep the law of Moses wholeheartedly, as David had instructed. Verse 3 shows us the result of this intermarriage. Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. These high places were altars and temples where offerings were made to God or other gods. Solomon begins to tolerate worship of the Lord at these places and ends up being drawn into full-blown apostasy. So the cracks of Solomon’s integrity, his character, appear very early in 1 Kings. But God appears to Solomon in a dream. In verse 5 he says, At this time it is not clear how old Solomon is. But in verse 7 he says, So he may be a bit overwhelmed in following in the footsteps of the great King David. In this famous chapter in scripture, he asked the Lord, Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people. That request pleased the Lord. Verse 10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for your self-understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. And because of Solomon’s humble request, God added blessings to it, riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. Chapter 4, verse 29 says, And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breath of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people. Wouldn’t it be nice for God to appear to you in a dream and ask you what you want? And if He did, what would your request be? How could God equip you to serve Him? I know for me, I’ve prayed many times for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in my own life. And I believe many times God has answered that prayer in the decisions that I’ve needed to make over my lifetime. So let’s close with a prayer request to the Lord. Father, like Solomon, we would pray, give us an understanding mind. Grant us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so that we could serve you faithfully in our sojourn on the earth. Protect us from a divided mind. May you find us walking in all your ways, keeping your statutes and your commandments. And like Solomon, might you bless us as we do. It’s in your name we ask it. Amen.
SPEAKER 05 :
The ESV Bible, the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, ESV, text edition 2007, all rights reserved. English Standard Version, ESV, and the ESV logo are registered trademarks of Good News Publishers, used by permission.
Discover the fascinating narrative of King Solomon’s start in leadership, where his earnest pursuit of wisdom sets the stage for an era of prosperity in Israel. Through a deep dive into 1 Kings chapters 3 and 4, listeners are invited to reflect on how God’s blessings are woven with His guidance when humility reigns in our hearts. From marriage alliances to governing choices, gain insights into Solomon’s successes and challenges, offering timeless lessons for leaders of all walks.
