Brace yourself for some wild ish! Imagine going to church to hookup w a sex worker and get plugged at the same time!

Jesus calls out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. They are the ancient equivalent of modern mainstream media & religion, using a coordinated effort to mislead people away from righteousness to enrich themselves IS wickedness.

Imagine having the honor of getting God's directions on things and choosing to ignore it in favor of a hunch from a friend from church. 🤔 One prophet lies to another and it costs the one who was lied to and believed it his life. We are given an example of someone who gets the message straight from his God about exactly what he should do to be faithful, but also gets a contradictory message from someone with a reputation as a man of God. He chooses man's words rather than what he just heard directly from God; he is SO close to God, he's apparently granted in person appearances from The Almighty, according to the narrative, to his peril. Whether an actual historical event or an ancient parable. We are granted the opportunity to consider the paths we choose in life and how they are altered by the things, such as faith as well as life in general are determined, directed & often detoured. When we choose what is not righteous and we know it (measuring righteousness completely by your own opinion of what is right or wrong with one basic rule of, "Love your neighbor as yourself"; in essence: don't do it if you wouldn't want it done to you)

Division among the descendants.

Solomon dedicates the newly finished construction with a prayer and what reads like a BBQ.

Precious metals in abundance used to construct the buildings Solomon commissioned.

Jesus leads by example in His words and His deeds including protecting children from the threat of being left alone in the hands of those in religious positions of authority.

Solomon constructs the temple and overlays it's floors and features with gold.

So y aren't churches preaching it and saving souls??

Solomon teams up with his northern neighbors to gather materials to begin building the temple.