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If you were to read today’s three chapters separately, you might have no idea that they occurred in sequence.  In the blink of an eye, the actors, the trajectory, and even the character of the nation will change.

Solomon’s ascent continues in chapter 10, for when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, his house, furnishings, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her…  And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore…

But when the vast wealth of Solomon himself is recounted at the end of the chapter, careful readers will note a misalignment with the expectations God laid down for Israel’s king in Deuteronomy 17.  This intuition is confirmed explicitly in the opening words of chapter 11: Now King Solomon loved many foreign women… and when Solomon was old…his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God.  This infidelity is demonstrated when he commits the abomination that his father, for all his failings, had never considered: he builds altars to foreign gods. 

Note that the LORD’s anger is not with Solomon’s wives but with Solomon himself, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.  Because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness, the LORD declares that He would surely tear the kingdom from Solomon and give it to his servant.  Only a single tribe would remain in the house of Solomon, for the sake of David My servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.  And the LORD sends a prophet to Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon, to prepare the way. 

After Solomon’s death this word is rapidly consummated.  The political stimulus is the forced labor – which we first heard about in chapter 4 – that Solomon had drafted to complete his capital projects.  This labor had exacted a heavy toll on the northern tribes, and when their leader, Jeroboam, returns from exile, Judah’s leadership over the tribes is again contested.

To Solomon’s son Rehoboam this might not have stirred much urgency; after all, Israel has weathered succession crises before.  But this is different.  When Israel declares, “We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse,” and Rehoboam prepares to rally Judah and Benjamin to fight to restore the kingdom, the LORD stands between: “You shall not go up or fight against your relatives… for this thing is from Me.” 

Our verse for this week is 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Kings 10 through 12.  Now let’s read it!

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  – Exodus 40:34-35

Chapters 7 and 8 highlight the completion of Solomon’s house and, most importantly, the completion of the LORD’s house.  Solomon oversees both the construction and the grand dedication, at which the LORD makes his satisfaction evident. 

As at the end of Exodus, the author of Kings weaves a rich tapestry of detail and emotion.  My comments will be brief, so you can drink it in.  Pay attention to the variety of allusions to that long ago day in the Wilderness of Sinai: the procurement of raw materials, the attention to each element, the offerings, the Ark of the Covenant, and the glory of the LORD.  Listen as Solomon speaks to Israel words of worship, exhortation, and benediction as no leader has since the days of Moses. 

This sense that a new age is dawning is reflected in the LORD’s response to Solomon.  As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD, the LORD reaffirms His covenant with David’s house: As for you, if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked…then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever… 

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

1 Kings 7 through 9.  Now let’s read it!

“…You shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there… And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.”  - Deuteronomy 12:5 & 7

Though Solomon and David each reigned for forty years, Solomon receives less than a quarter of the airtime given to his father.  The highlight of those four decades, though, was of such importance that the author erects a milepost:

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD. 

This connection with the Exodus generation reinforces that Solomon can take no credit for the Temple, or for the conditions that allowed its completion.   For Solomon to even begin construction on so grand a structure this must have been an era of extraordinary peace and prosperity for Israel – security that those first Israelites could have only dreamed of. 

No, the Temple is the fulfillment of a promise that the LORD made to Israel 440 years ago on the plains of Moab.  Back before the land had been taken, the kingdom established, and David’s family installed on the throne.  “In the four hundred eightieth year…” is not just a chronological marker; it’s a reminder of God’s faithfulness to His covenant and to His people. 

These chapters are a reminder of all that Solomon inherited.  His father had left him a united kingdom that touched the Gulf of Aqaba in the south and the Euphrates in the north.  Tribute flowed from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Aram and Hamath.  He bartered as an equal with the wealth of Tyre and Sidon. 

And to top it all, God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure.  Listen as peace, wisdom, and blessing converge in ways we’ve not yet seen.

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

1 Kings 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!

As with the 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings can be considered a single unit, separated only by the amount of words that could be fit on a scroll.  They continue the story of the nation of Israel, inheriting the united kingdom that had existed for almost eighty years under Saul and David. 

As the first book of Kings opens, David is only nominally on the throne, and we’re immediately plunged into a succession intrigue. The featured actors are David’s oldest remaining son, Adonijah, and Solomon, the son of Bathsheba.  When Adonijah exalted himself, saying, “I will be king,” and attracts Joab and Abiathar to his side, two crises emerge:  First, that David is weak and seemingly out of touch with his kingdom; and second, that the king of Israel has to this point been anointed by a prophet.  Anyone who has taken the crown for himself – Abimelech, Absalom, Sheba – has been doomed. 

So much is hinted at in these first chapters that the imagination can run.  The observation about David’s relationship with Abishag might be highlighting David’s virtue or his feebleness.  The author makes sure we know that Adonijah is so handsome – which in Samuel and Kings is the kiss of death.  He sheds light on David’s parenting, his grievances, and on his steady gratitude to the LORD, “who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it.” 

Chapter 2 is a pivot to a clean slate.   The story of David, as well as those of Adonijah, Abiathar, Shimei, and even Joab are brought to a close.  The kingdom is established in the hand of Solomon, who, it is observed, loved the LORD, walking in the ways of David his father, [however] he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.  This crescendo reaches a peak when in chapter 3 the LORD comes to Solomon in a dream, and invites him to “Ask what I shall give to you.”   The rest of the chapter, and the rest of Solomon’s life, will bear witness to his response. 

It seems fitting to close today with this epitaph: Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.  And the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years.  He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.  So Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. 

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

1 Kings 1 through 3.  Now let’s read it!

Characters such as Jacob, Moses and Joshua have received the honor of having their “last words” recorded.  Jacob addresses his sons with a mix of observation, promise, and warning.  Moses and Joshua each recount the favor of the LORD on the children of Israel and remind Israel to honor their covenant with Him. 

In our first chapter today, David speaks the word of The Spirit of the LORD, reminding the next generation that, “when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, He dawns on them like the morning light…”  This oracle is followed by a register of David’s mighty men, recounting their importance in protecting David and securing the kingdom. 

The final chapter of Samuel once again visits an earlier episode in David’s reign.  The basic synopsis is this: the LORD’s anger was kindled against Israel, so He incited David against them.  David calls for a census; Joab protests, sensing something is amiss, but David overrides him.  God then uses this to inflict punishment on Israel, the instrument of which David has to choose.  The angel of death sweeps Israel, stopping just short of Jerusalem, and David worships.

Everybody got that?

Don’t read this story without absorbing the first line, that the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them… Everything that happens next is secondary to this premise.  There don’t appear to be hidden meanings or arrangements here, and no amount of linguistic gymnastics avoids the assertion that the LORD caused David to sin in order to have a reason to punish Israel. 

This is not unprecedented.  The LORD demonstrated His supremacy over Pharaoh by grabbing Pharaoh’s heart and compelling him to recklessness.  It is not impossible that the moments when Moses intervened between the LORD’s anger and Israel in the wilderness tests similar to this moment with David.  This could plausibly fit the author’s story arc showing the ability and integrity David had lost after his sin with Bathsheba. 

Also of interest is the reason for which the plague was halted: When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.”  This could perhaps be a primary lesson for the author, showing the LORD’s continued favor for David’s capital and presenting hope for protection for future generations. 

But this is all speculation.  As I’ve said many times, the primary character of this book is the LORD, and we have to add this event to our map of the LORD’s character.  Read it slowly and carefully. 

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2 Samuel 23 and 24.  Now let’s read it!