WWUTT 629 The Queen of Sheba?

Solomon’s Wealth and the Glory of the Temple

Solomon was the richest and wisest king who ever lived. I'm not making that up, it's in the Bible. And the kingdom that he had is just a small, small, tiny, tiny picture of the kingdom of Christ when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

In our study of 2 Chronicles, we are up to chapters eight and nine today. So far in the story, Solomon has completed the temple of God. He has finished this construction effort. The Ark of the Covenant was moved into the Holy of Holies.

God filled that place with his glory in a cloud so that the priest could not even stand and minister. Just as God was present with Israel in the wilderness in a cloud, so he is showing that he is with them again in a cloud, and they know that God is in their midst and he will hear their prayer.

So Solomon first lifts up this prayer to bless the people, and then he prays unto God and asks him to consecrate this place. God who has created all things, the highest heaven cannot even contain him.

How much can this house that I have built contain you? Yet, if it would please God to dwell with his people, would he come and fill this house? And God responded to Solomon's prayer by coming down in fire and his glory filled the temple in this way so that the priests could not even enter the place or they would die.

And all of Israel celebrated that God was indeed with them and filled this house and was blessing his people. And so there was a big celebration, lasted an entire week, and that was at the first part of chapter seven.

Then in the latter part of that seventh chapter, God responded to Solomon's prayer and gave him an answer, spoke to him in a dream in the night. And it's there in 2 Chronicles 7, we have that famous verse 14 that says, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and we'll forgive their sin and we'll heal their land.

And it was primarily that verse that we focused on last week. If you missed that lesson, you can go back and listen to it. So today we're gonna be looking at chapters eight and nine. After all of this was done for Solomon, we have a list of Solomon's accomplishments in chapter eight, and that's pretty common.

Whenever a king would repent or God spoke to a king through a prophet and said that he was going to bless him, there was usually some sort of a period of accomplishment, whether that was some sort of building an infrastructure project or a military conquest.

So here we are at the start of chapter eight, at the end of 20 years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given to him and settled the people of Israel in them.

So this is the midway point of Solomon's reign. He reigned for 40 years total. This is 20 years into that reign. And he built the house of the Lord and his own house. And that's all we get about his own house.

In 1 Kings, we had a lot of details about his own house. And he actually built his house larger than he built the house of God. It's meant to show Solomon's shortcomings, kind of foreshadowing his inevitable fall, while the house of God was supposed to be a monument to the Lord so that people who passed by it saw it and they realized how great this God was that Israel worshiped and how much he had blessed them.

Yet Solomon in his pridefulness built his own house larger than God's house. But that's not necessarily the focus here of 2 Chronicles, since the focus is supposed to be on the temple. That's one of the three main themes.

So it's not gonna show Solomon's house that's larger than the temple. Again, the three main themes that we have in 1 and 2 Chronicles are the Davidic covenant, God's covenant with David, the temple, and also the people of God.

So we have less focus on the kings like we had in 1 and 2 Kings, and more focus on the people of God. So here we have Solomon dispersing the people of God more around his kingdom, conquering some of those cities that would expand the empire and then putting the people of Israel in them.

So Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and took it. He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath. He also built Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, and Beoleth and all the store cities that Solomon had and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the people of Israel had not destroyed, these Solomon drafted as forced labor.

And so they are to this day. But of the people of Israel, Solomon made no slaves for his work. They were soldiers and his officers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. And these were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250 who exercised authority over the people.

So those who were not descended from Israel were conscripted labor. Those who were descended of Israel, they got to be among the armies and the soldiers and Solomon's commanders, which was wisdom on Solomon's part.

Verse 11, Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her. For he said, my wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.

Now, while we don't have as much focus on Solomon's sin against God in 2 Chronicles, nonetheless, there are gonna be some highlights of the fact that the guy was not all wise. He was definitely the wisest king that ever lived, but he was still just a man and he still made mistakes.

And this is one of those unwise decisions that Solomon made by marrying Pharaoh's daughter. Why should Israel ever have a partnership with Egypt again? They were slaves in Egypt. God delivered them out of Egypt.

And yet here is Solomon marrying the daughter of the king of Egypt and building a house for her and moving her there. But as he says, my wife shall not live in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.

Well, if she can't live there because she's Egyptian, then why is he marrying her? So we do have some of Solomon's shortcomings highlighted here, even though we're not going to emphasize as grave sins as 1 and 2 Kings do.

And that doesn't mean that the chronicler is trying to ignore such sins, for he does highlight, even in this account, that other things about Solomon are written in the books of the kings. So you can always go to those books and see some of the details that we don't have chronicled for us here.

So now verse 12, then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built before the vestibule as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the feast of booths.

According to the ruling of David, his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required and the gatekeepers and their divisions at each gate.

For so David, the man of God had commanded. And they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and the Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries. So basically everything that was supposed to function in the temple a certain way worked like clockwork.

That's kind of what's being emphasized here. Everything was done according to exactly as the law of God commanded it and David had commanded it. So now verse 16, thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until it was finished.

So the house of the Lord was completed. Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent to him by the hand of his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea.

And they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and brought from there 450 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon. So here we are now in chapter nine and we read the famous story of the queen of Sheba.

Now Sheba was on the Southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, what is today modern day Yemen. And when Solomon was doing some of his trade in the Southern portion of the Red Sea, which we read about right at the end of chapter eight.

So Hiram sent those servants that were familiar with the sea to Solomon and he expanded the trade route going into the Southern end of the Red Sea. That would have been right around the queen of Sheba's own kingdom.

And so here she sees ships that are coming all the way from Israel. Well, she hears all these stories about Solomon and his wealth and how his empire had been blessed by God and how this man is the wisest king on planet earth.

She had heard about his wisdom. So this trip for her is primarily gonna be one of wisdom. She takes a lot of goods for trade with her and she does trade with Solomon, but this was mostly for her a benefit to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba’s Visit and Solomon’s Wisdom

So here in chapter nine, when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones.

And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind and Solomon answered all of her questions. There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials and the attendance of his servants and their clothing, his cup bearers and their clothing and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.

She was amazed at everything that she saw, the blessing of God upon this people and the wisdom that Solomon had. Clearly, this was Yahweh who had blessed his people. That's what amazed and astounded her, that even the servants and the servants of those servants were decked out in luxurious apparel.

Some of these servants looked richer than some of the kings of the earth. So verse five, she said to the king, the report was true that I had heard in my own land of your words and of your kingdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and with my own eyes, I had seen it.

And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your wives. Happy are these your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord, your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord, your God, because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever. He has made you king over them that you may execute justice and righteousness.

Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. There were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Now, there were other kings that came to Israel and would have beholden the wisdom of Solomon, all of the riches of this land and the knowledge that he possessed.

But the story of the queen of Sheba seems to be the one that singled out. And one of the reasons why I believe that's the case is because of how wealthy Sheba was at that particular time. There on the Southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, it was a major trading ground, one of the richest countries in the world because they traded spices with India.

And because of the wealth that the queen of Sheba had, it was very high profile individual who therefore went to Solomon on a quest for knowledge. She herself wanted to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But because of that impression that he made, she also opened up some of her own wealth with him and she likewise shared with her.

Because as we go on here, verse 10, and moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir brought algum wood and precious stones. And the king made from the algum wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, lyres and also harps for the singers.

There never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

And remember, all of this is being written in a post-exilic period. So this was after the people of Israel had been exiled to Babylon. They spent their time in exile since they had disobeyed God. And then the Lord returned them back to the land that he had promised them.

They've rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. They've rebuilt the temple. They're remembering some of the ways that things were prior to their being conquered by the Babylonians. And so this would have been a very hopeful story as the people of Israel were waiting for someone in the line of David to occupy the throne of Israel.

They remember that when David's son was on the throne, they were the envy of the entire world. The kingdom of Israel, the picture that we have of Israel under the reign of Kings David and Solomon is supposed to be a picture of the new heavens and the new earth under King Jesus, who is the greatest King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And here you have Solomon as kind of a picture of that in the sense that he's the envy of all the kings of the earth. Royalty from all over the place is coming to hear Solomon speak and coming to behold all of his riches and his greatness.

This is but a small, small, tiny, tiny blip compared to what Christ's and his kingdom is going to be. So that's what this is painting a picture of for us as we read through this in 2 Chronicles. It was incredible to the Queen of Sheba.

Her breath left her. She could hardly believe it, what it was that she was witnessing with her own eyes and even hearing with her own ears, the wisdom that Solomon shared. And this is gonna be the case with the whole world at the return of Christ.

Those who believe in Christ are going to marvel at him as Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians 1, and those who were against Christ will be destroyed by him. But all of the world will be silenced by his incredible majesty.

Solomon’s Riches, the Nations, and the Hope of Christ’s Kingdom

Verse 13, now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold. Don't read into that. It's not meant to be a mark of the beast. Besides that which the explorers and the merchants brought and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon.

King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold. 600 shekels of beaten gold went into each shield and he made 300 shields of beaten gold. 300 shekels of gold went into each shield and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

And that was the armory. That's what the forest of Lebanon was. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold which were attached to the throne.

And on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests. While 12 lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. Nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom.

All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. And we're gonna read coming up here later on in the chapter that silver was as prevalent in the kingdom as stone.

So there was so much gold that silver did not have nearly the value. It was, everything was in gold. Verse 21, for the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. Once every three years, the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks, these exotic animals.

Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. So when you have heard me say that Solomon was the richest and wisest king on planet earth, that's not hyperbole. That's actually what the scripture says.

And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and of gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

And Solomon had 4 ,000 stalls of horses and chariots and 12 ,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And he ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt and the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone.

And he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. Now to say that silver was as common in Israel as stone doesn't mean that as you walk down the streets, you're just kicking along silver rocks everywhere.

Because there wasn't any stone, it was all silver. Just means that the things that were overlaid with silver, if you were looking at it with your eyes, you would see the shininess of the silver more commonly than you would see the flatness of the stone, the things that had been constructed there in Jerusalem.

Verse 28, and horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all lands. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon from first to last, are they not written in the history of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shillonite and in the visions of Edo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all of Israel 40 years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place. So we don't hear about the fall of Solomon and how he built temples to false gods.

We don't read about that, not in second Chronicles anyway, though we did read about that in first Kings. Because first and second Chronicles is meant to be a little bit more hopeful for the people of Israel.

It's not meant to be as discouraging. So because they know God blessed them when a descendant of David was sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, they're looking forward to that descendant of David to assume a place on the throne again.

And not realizing that who they're waiting for, who they're anticipating is Christ himself, the very son of God. This is whom we worship, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And people from all over the world marvel at the wisdom of Christ, the things that he said, the things that he did, and the plan of God that was fulfilled by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

People from all over the world, kings to vagabonds worship Christ. His people are those who are in Christ Jesus, no longer limited to those who were descended by the bloodline of Abraham, but everybody who is in the blood of Christ is now part of the people of God.

This is the kingdom of God as it's expanded over the entire earth. And we're looking forward now to even a heavenly kingdom, that which is perfect, where there is no more evil, no more death, no more sin, no more suffering, none of these things, for the former things will have passed away, and Christ will dry every tear from our eyes.

We look forward to that great day at the return of Christ our Savior. Lord, we thank you for the wonder of the words that you have written. May they take our breath away. May we just stand in awe of how great a God you are.

Your ways are higher than our ways. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And yet you have blessed us with this word that we might see into your thoughts and know your ways according to what has been revealed to us in your scriptures.

So let us continue to be filled up with the hope of promise that has been given to us in Christ as we go throughout this day, glorifying him in all things. For to us has been given the kingdom of God if we endure to the end.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of the church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.

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