The One Year Bible TLB (128 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
A dry crust eaten in peace is better than steak every day along with argument and strife.
June 12When Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and all the other buildings he had always wanted,
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the Lord appeared to him the second time (the first time had been at Gibeon) and said to him, “I have heard your prayer. I have hallowed this Temple that you have built and have put my name here forever. I will constantly watch over it and rejoice in it.
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And if you live in honesty and truth as your father David did, always obeying me,
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then I will cause your descendants to be the kings of Israel forever, just as I promised your father David when I told him, ‘One of your sons shall always be upon the throne of Israel.’
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“However, if you or your children turn away from me and worship other gods and do not obey my laws,
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then I will take away the people of Israel from this land that I have given them. I will take them from this Temple which I have hallowed for my name, and I will cast them out of my sight; and Israel will become a joke to the nations and an example and proverb of sudden disaster.
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This Temple will become a heap of ruins, and everyone passing by will be amazed and will whistle with astonishment, asking, ‘Why has the Lord done such things to this land and this Temple?’
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And the answer will be, ‘The people of Israel abandoned the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt; they worshiped other gods instead. That is why the Lord has brought this evil upon them.’”
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At the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built the Temple and the palace,
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he gave twenty cities in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre as payment for all the cedar and cypress lumber and gold he had furnished for the construction of the palace and Temple. Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities, but he wasn’t at all pleased with them.
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“What sort of deal is this, my brother?” he asked. “These cities are a wasteland!” (And they are still known as “The Wasteland” today.)
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For Hiram had sent gold to Solomon valued at $3,500,000!
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Solomon had conscripted forced labor to build the Temple, his palace, Fort Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
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Gezer was the city the king of Egypt conquered and burned, killing the Israeli population; later he had given the city to his daughter as a dowry—she was one of Solomon’s wives.
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So now Solomon rebuilt Gezer along with Lower Beth-horon, Baalath, and Tamar, a desert city.
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He also built cities for grain storage, cities in which to keep his chariots, cities for homes for his cavalry and chariot drivers, and resort cities near Jerusalem and in the Lebanon mountains and elsewhere throughout the land.
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Solomon conscripted his labor forces from those who survived in the nations he conquered—the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. For the people of Israel had not been able to wipe them out completely at the time of the invasion and conquest of Israel, and they continue as slaves even today.
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Solomon didn’t conscript any Israelis for this work, although they became soldiers, officials, army officers, chariot commanders, and cavalrymen.
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And there were 550 men of Israel who were overseers of the labor forces.
Miscellaneous Notes:
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King Solomon moved Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David—the old sector of Jerusalem—to the new quarters he had built for her in the palace. Then he built Fort Millo.
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After the Temple was completed, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings three times a year on the altar he had built. And he also burned incense upon it.
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King Solomon had a shipyard in Ezion-geber near Eloth on the Red Sea in the land of Edom, where he built a fleet of ships.
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King Hiram supplied experienced sailors to accompany Solomon’s crews. They used to sail back and forth from Ophir, bringing gold to King Solomon, the total value of which was several million dollars each trip.
10:
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When the queen of Sheba heard how wonderfully the Lord had blessed Solomon with wisdom,
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she decided to test him with some hard questions.
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She arrived in Jerusalem with a long train of camels carrying spices, gold, and jewels; and she told him all her problems.
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Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him, for the Lord gave him the right answers every time.
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She soon realized that everything she had ever heard about his great wisdom was true. She also saw the beautiful palace he had built,
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and when she saw the wonderful foods on his table, the great number of servants and aides who stood around in splendid uniforms, his cupbearers, and the many offerings he sacrificed by fire to the Lord—well, there was no more spirit in her!
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She exclaimed to him, “Everything I heard in my own country about your wisdom and about the wonderful things going on here is all true.
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I didn’t believe it until I came, but now I have seen it for myself! And really! The half had not been told me! Your wisdom and prosperity are far greater than anything I’ve ever heard of!
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Your people are happy and your palace aides are content—but how could it be otherwise, for they stand here day after day listening to your wisdom!
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Blessed be the Lord your God who chose you and set you on the throne of Israel. How the Lord must love Israel—for he gave you to them as their king! And you give your people a just, good government!”
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Then she gave the king a gift of $3,500,000 in gold, along with a huge quantity of spices and precious gems; in fact, it was the largest single gift of spices King Solomon had ever received.
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(And when King Hiram’s ships brought gold to Solomon from Ophir, they also brought along a great supply of algum trees and gems.
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Solomon used the algum wood to make pillars for the Temple and the palace, and for harps and harpsichords for his choirs. Never before or since has there been such a supply of beautiful wood.)
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In exchange for the gifts from the queen of Sheba, King Solomon gave her everything she asked him for, besides the presents he had already planned. Then she and her servants returned to their own land.
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Each year Solomon received gold worth a quarter of a billion dollars,
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besides sales taxes and profits from trade with the kings of Arabia and the other surrounding territories.
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Solomon had some of the gold beaten into two hundred pieces of armor (gold worth $6,000 went into each piece) and three hundred shields ($1,800 worth of gold in each). And he kept them in his palace in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.
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He also made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.
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It had six steps and a rounded back, with arm rests; and a lion standing on each side.
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And there were two lions on each step—twelve in all. There was no other throne in all the world so splendid as that one.
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All of King Solomon’s cups were of solid gold, and in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon his entire dining service was made of solid gold. (Silver wasn’t used because it wasn’t considered to be of much value!)
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King Solomon’s merchant fleet was in partnership with King Hiram’s, and once every three years a great load of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks arrived at the Israeli ports.
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So King Solomon was richer and wiser than all the kings of the earth.
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Great men from many lands came to interview him and listen to his God-given wisdom.
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They brought him annual tribute of silver and gold dishes, beautiful cloth, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules.
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Solomon built up a great stable of horses with a vast number of chariots and cavalry—1,400 chariots in all and 12,000 cavalrymen, who lived in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
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Silver was as common as stones in Jerusalem in those days, and cedar was of no greater value than the common sycamore!
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Solomon’s horses were brought to him from Egypt and southern Turkey, where his agents purchased them at wholesale prices.
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An Egyptian chariot delivered to Jerusalem cost $400, and the horses were valued at $150 each. Many of these were then resold to the Hittite and Syrian kings.
When the apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent down Peter and John.
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As soon as they arrived, they began praying for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit,
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for as yet he had not come upon any of them. For they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.
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When Simon saw this—that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles placed their hands upon people’s heads—he offered money to buy this power.
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“Let me have this power too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”
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But Peter replied, “Your money perish with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought!
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You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right before God.
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Turn from this great wickedness and pray. Perhaps God will yet forgive your evil thoughts—
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for I can see that there is jealousy
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and sin in your heart.”
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“Pray for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things won’t happen to me.”
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After testifying and preaching in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, stopping at several Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News to them too.
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But as for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go over to the road that runs from Jerusalem through the Gaza Desert, arriving around noon.”
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So he did, and who should be coming down the road but the Treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship
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and was now returning in his chariot, reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
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The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the chariot.”
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Philip ran over and heard what he was reading and asked, “Do you understand it?”
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“Of course not!” the man replied. “How can I when there is no one to instruct me?” And he begged Philip to come up into the chariot and sit with him.
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The passage of Scripture he had been reading from was this:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the shearers, so he opened not his mouth;
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in his humiliation, justice was denied him; and who can express the wickedness of the people of his generation?
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For his life is taken from the earth.”
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The eunuch asked Philip, “Was Isaiah talking about himself or someone else?”
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So Philip began with this same Scripture and then used many others to tell him about Jesus.
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As they rode along, they came to a small body of water, and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! Why can’t I be baptized?”
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“You can,” Philip answered, “if you believe with all your heart.”
And the eunuch replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
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He stopped the chariot, and they went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
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And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch never saw him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
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Meanwhile, Philip found himself at Azotus! He preached the Good News there and in every city along the way, as he traveled to Caesarea.
O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help:
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“Hear me! Answer! Help me!”
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Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is!
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That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised.
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I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.
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O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation.
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He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.