>> Jen: Welcome faith listeners, to the Bible explained podcast. Today we're in the book of First Kings. The weather in my area finally broke. It was so sunny and so beautiful for about two weeks with not even a cloud in the sky. But now it is rainy, it's getting a little bit on the chilly side, and you can kind of just tell that fall is coming. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but I have noticed this. It just seems like the second the calendar says first day of fall.
That is honestly when the weather changes from summer to fall. It's like the weather is reading the calendar. It's like, oh, today's fall. I have to, uh, now bring rain and colder temperatures, but I hope you all have been having a really great start to your week so far. Don't forget that on Fridays, you know, I used to do an Old Testament episode, but I switched that up a little bit. And now Friday's episodes are
for members only. We are going through the Book of Psalms right now, which has been really great. And if you would like to gain access to Friday's episodes, you got to check out ko fi linked in the description below and sign, uh, up for the ko fi tier in order to gain access to Friday's episodes.
But let's get into today's episode where we're going to be talking about Solomon's organization of Israel and his wisdom, but all of the ways that he actually breaks God's laws regarding kings, which are all laid out in one kings chapter four. So were going to read the entire chapter today. Make sure to grab your cup of coffee and lets jump right in. Ill be reading from the web. King
Solomon was king over all of Israel. These were the princes whom he had Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest, Elihoref and Ahijah, the sons of Sheesha scribes Jehoshaphat the son of Ahelud, the recorder. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army. Zadok and Abiathar were priests. Azariah the son of Nathan, was over the officers. Zebod the son of Nathan, was chief
minister, the king's friend. Ahishar was over the household and Adoniram, the son of Abdah was over the men subject to forced labor. Solomon had twelve officers over all of Israel who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make provision for a month in the year. These are their ben Hur in the hill country of Ephraim ben Dacre in Mekes inshallbim Beth Shemesh and Elon Bethennan ben Hesed in Succo, and
the land of heifer belonged to him. Ben Abinadab in all the height of Dor, he had tepheth, Solomon's daughter, as wife Bana, the son of Ahilud in Tanakh, and a megiddo and Albeth Shane, which is beside Zarathin, beneath Jezreel from Bethshan to Abel Mahala as far as beyond Jochemimouse. Ben Gaber in Ramoth, Gilead, the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belong to him, and the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, six great cities with walls and
bronze bars belong to him. Ahinadab the son of Eddo in Mahanaim, Ahima in the Phtali. He also took Bassameth, the daughter of Solomon, his wife Banna, the son of Hushai in Asher and Baeloth. Jehoshaphat the son of Peru in Issachar, Shimei, the son of Elah in Benjamin Gaber, the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites and og king of Bashan, and he was the
only officer who was in the land. Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea, in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry. Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms, from the river 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 30 cores of fine flour, 60 measures of meal, ten head of fat cattle, 20 head of cattle out of the pastures, and 100 sheep, in addition to deer and gazelles and roebucks and fattened fowl. For he had dominion over all on this side of the river, from Tipsa, even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the river. And he had peace on all sides around him.
Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan, even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. Those officers provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon's table, every man in his month. They let nothing be lacking. They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were each
man according to his duty. God bless gave Solomon abundant wisdom and understanding, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom excelled. The wisdom of all the children of the east and the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Haman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahal. And his fame was in all the nations all around. He spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1005.
He spoke of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things and a fish. People of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, sent by all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. So as you guys have deduced, you can see that this entire chapter is just an overview of all of Solomon's reign from the time that he first took the throne, when he was basically a little kid, to the time that
he died. And it says overall, Israel was extremely peaceful during the days of Solomon, and extremely wealthy as well. So Solomon was an excellent leader, an excellent king for Israel, and was able to give Israel a lot of financial security and peace. And that's mostly because of how wise God bless had allowed Solomon to become. God bless gave Solomon the gift of wisdom, and Solomon used it very well to make Israel a
strong nation. So it says in verse one and two, King Solomon was the king over all of Israel. And these were the princes whom he had. The first was the high priest. And it says that Azariah, the son of Zadok, became the high priest. Now, Zadok, we know, was the high priest during the days of David, and he was also a friend of David and was very old. So probably Zadok died very quickly after Solomon became the next king. And Zadok's son Azariah became the next high priest, while Solomon was
reigning as king. Now, the scribes were two guys, it says, Elihorph and Ahijah, who were brothers. The sons of Sheesha became the scribes. And then Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, became the recorder. So I had to look up what the difference was between a scribe and a recorder. And from my understanding, a scribe was somebody more like a lawyer who would handle all the legal
documents. And they might also have some like, religious aspect to that as well, where they would, um, write down and dictate the laws of the Old Testament scriptures. But they were kind of like lawyers, whereas the recorder was more like an accountant. He would handle the financial side of things. So Solomon had two scribes or two lawyers, and a recorder or an accountant. Then he had benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, which we know that guy. He was
also alive during the days of David. And he must have been a very young man when David was relatively old, because Benaiah took over Joab's job very quickly and became the commander of the army. And it looks like he maintained that position for a very long time under Solomon. So it says that he was over the entire army, and then Zadok and Abiathar
were the priests. Now, some people might look at that and be like, well, that's a contradiction, because just two chapters ago, it says that Solomon, to punish Abiathar, specifically, took the priesthood from him. So how can he be a priest again? Well, most likely the person that was writing this down still gave Abiathar the priesthood because it was an honorable position and because he had been a priest for a short period of time during Solomon's
reign. But also, it mentions Zadok here, which, don't forget, Zadok would have died very quickly after Solomon became king because he was a very old man. So the author of first kings was just giving Zadok and Abiathus, or the honor that they were due by calling them priests. But to continue on, in verse five, it says, Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over the officers, and then his brother Zabud was the chief minister. And it says, also the king's friend.
So the chief minister would have been the king's personal priest. So Azariah, who was the high priest, was somebody different. He was the high priest over all of Israel. But Zabud would be the king's personal priest and also a good friend of the king, it looks like. And then Ahishar Washington over the household. So it sounds like he was the head servant who oversaw everything relating to Solomon's household. And then Adoniram, the son of Abda, was over the men subject to forced labor.
I don't know what it is about this time period, but everybody's name starts with an a. I mean, just look at what we just readdevelop. There's a Zaria Ahilud, Ahija, ah, Abiathar, another Azaria Ahishar, Adoniram, Abda. I mean, look at all these a names. It's just getting so confusing for me. Hopefully, they kind of peter out after a while here. Now, I'm not going to get into verses seven through 19 because all of these names, history doesn't really know much about them.
So I'm just going to do a quick overview of this paragraph. It said that Solomon had twelve officers over all of Israel who provided food for the king and his household. Each man had to make a provision for a month in the year. So these officers, as uh, scripture calls them, were the men who were in charge of their particular cities and or tribes. So it gets kind of confusing, but you can really see the organization that Solomon
put in place with Israel. He was a very organized individual and he used his wisdom to put people in places of leadership so that Solomon didn't have to do everything. So you can see how Solomon's wisdom is really shining through, actually, in this chapter, just talking about the intense organization that was taking place in Israel. And another way Solomon was very organized is that all of these officers, for one month out of the
year, because there were, there's twelve months in the year, right? And there's also twelve tribes of Israel and twelve officers overseeing those tribes. Each officer had to provide food for the king's household out of one month of every year. Now, in our perspective nowadays, that doesn't sound like it would be a lot of food, but it actually was a ton of food because Solomon had a million wives and probably a billion children, as we're going
to get into. And he also had servants and slaves and anybody else that he provided for in his family. So Solomon's household needed a lot of food every single day, and these officers would provide food every day for a month long period. And of course, these men wouldn't have to provide it out of their own budgets. It would be all of that tribe or all of that city that they were leading would provide food for the
king for that particular month. So it mentions the twelve men who are officers in verses seven through 19. But then in verse 20, it says that Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand, which is by the sea, in multitude. They were eating and drinking and making merry. So everybody was extremely happy during the days of Solomon. It was probably Israel's most peaceful time period ever. That they're ever going to experience. This short little reign that Solomon
has is Israel's most peaceful time. And that's because Solomon, not only did he have great wisdom, but he also loved the Lord, is what it said in the last chapter. And so God bless Solomon and also the people because of Solomon's love for him and because of God's great mercy. So Israel was not only numerous in people, but it sounds like they were having a whole lot of children. Sounds
like they were all very prosperous. And for the first time of their existence in Israel, like the 600 years that they have been in Israel up until this point, they now finally have complete and total peace. Somebody is not trying to come in and take them over. It says, Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
So not only was Israel providing for Solomon, but the nations surrounding Israel were also providing for Israel because of how powerful Israel became during the days of Solomon, the nations around Israel didn't want to mess with Israel because of how powerful they had become. So because they were scared of Israel, they actually paid taxes to Israel for the entire time that Solomon was the king, is what it says.
And now in verse 22, it gets into the interesting part with how much food Solomon's household actually needed every single day in order to survive. Solomon's provision for one day was 30 cores of fine flour. What's a core? It says in my footnote that a core is about 55.9 us gallons, liquid gallons, or 211 liters, or six bushels. So just about 56 gallons was one core. And Solomon's household needed 30 cores of flour every single day. And that's just in the flour
so that they could have bread every day. It says they also needed 60 measures of meal. Ten fattened cattle and I 20 cattle out of the pastures, 100 sheep. In addition to deer and gazelle and roebucks and fattened fowl, every single day. They needed 30 cows. They needed 100 sheep. And in addition to all of this, whatever deer and gazelles and roebucks and birds people could bring to sustain the rest of Solomon's household. So that is how large Solomon's household was, according to enduring
word commentary. It says that all of this food could feed from 15,000 to 36,000 people every single day. And that's probably accurate to how many people were actually in Solomon's household, if you think about it, because Solomon had close to 1000 wives, and I don't even know how many children Solomon had. Who knows how many kids Solomon had? We have no clue. So that's just Solomon's immediate family. Not to mention if any of these wives had their families living in Solomon's household.
Also, not to mention Solomon's other immediate family and the servants that all needed fed and anybody else that Solomon wanted to provide for. Maybe Solomon also provided for those princes at the very top of this chapter and those princes families as well. So who knows how many people were actually in Solomon's household. But there would have been, there would have had to be a lot, because think about just the preparation it would take to prepare all of that food for
everybody. I mean, you need like a million women baking that bread every single day. Like, baking bread takes a really long time because you have to rise that dough, you know? So, I mean, it's, it's not a fast process. And you can imagine before the luxury of convenience items that we have now, like refrigeration, kitchenaid stand mixers, and whatever else you need to cook, they didn't really have any of those modern conveniences back in those
days. So just imagine the amount of people it would take to prepare one meal for Solomon's entire household and then prepare the meal for all the servants on top of that. So all of this had to be very organized because of how insanely huge Solomon's household truly was. Now, of course, this all goes back to Deuteronomy, chapter 17, the rules for kings. And you guys know, of course, that I have to bring this up every single time I talk about a king who has more
than one wife, which is going to be all of them. So you're going to have Deuteronomy 17 memorized by the time we're done with first kings, if I have it my way, but deuteronomy 1717. That kings shall not multiply wives to himself, that his hearts not turn away, and he shall not greatly multiply to himself. Silver and gold, and actually in one kings four. Solomon breaks every single rule that God bless lays out for kings in deuteronomy 17.
Because not only did Solomon have a ton of wives, but Solomon did accrue a ton of wealth for himself, a ton of silver and a ton of gold. As we can see in this chapter, he also accrued like a, uh, trillion horses is what it says. It says that Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. Now, some people wonder if that is a translation issue, if, um, over the years, an extra zero got added there and it was really 4000 horses. But regardless, that is a lot of horses
that needed to be taken care of. And it actually says that the people who provided food for Solomon's household also had to provide food for those horses as well. They would bring barley and straw for the horses. It says that they would also gift more horses to the king as well. So Solomon had a lot of horses and a lot of people taking care of those horses as well. 12,000 footmen for all of these particular horses. So what does deuteronomy 17
say? The rules for kings, verse 16, he shall not multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he may multiply horses, because Yahweh has said to you, you shall not go back that way again. Now, Solomon already did this. Not only did he have a whole lot of horses, but he did return to Egypt and, in fact, uh, married the pharaoh's daughter. That was one of Solomon's first wives. It could have been his first
wife, we don't really know. But that was at least one of Solomon's first wives, was the pharaoh's daughter. And the reason he married the pharaoh's daughter was so that he could have security with Egypt, like have a bond with Egypt, because in biblical days, Egypt was actually notorious for how good their horses were. So Egypt was a big trade place specifically for horses, horses of war.
Solomon returning to Egypt to marry the pharaoh's daughter would have caused the pharaoh to actually help Solomon in times of need and in times of war as well, and provide those horses to Solomon during times of war. But what you can see here is that Solomon did this very unnecessarily because Israel had peace during the days of Solomon. Solomon never went to war. He was a peaceful king. And so he didn't even need the war horses from Egypt. He didn't need security from Egypt, and
yet he chose to go that route anyway. And you might be like, well, what's the big deal? Why does God bless not want Israel to make an alliance with Egypt? What's the big deal? Well, first and foremost, the king was supposed to trust in God bless for security because actually God bless was technically the king of Israel. That was God's title. God bless had been the king during the days of the judges. But the people rejected God bless. They were like, no, God bless, we don't want you as king.
We'd rather have a human kingdom. And so God bless was like, all right, I'll give you a human king because you have rejected me as your king. But that human king was supposed to ultimately give God bless the glory and still say, you know, God bless, you are in control of everything. You are ultimately the king of everything. I'm just the king that the people have selected. But as humans, it's very hard to do that because, you know, these kings were given all this power
and all this wealth. So unfortunately, the kings also rejected Yahweh as well as the people. So God bless was supposed to be the ultimate protector of Israel. But also God bless didn't want Israel making an alliance with Egypt, specifically because Egypt had enslaved his people for 400 years in the book of Exodus. And God bless didn't ever want his people relying on Egypt again because of that, because Egypt had stabbed Israel in
the back once before. So who's to say they wouldn't stab Israel in the back later on? So God bless basically told Israel, do not trust Egypt, do not go back there. And Solomon disobeyed God bless. He married the pharaoh's daughter, he gained a whole lot of horses, a whole lot of wealth, and basically broke every single rule that God bless gave the kings in deuteronomy, chapter
17. And yet, in spite of this, in verse 29, God bless gave Solomon abundant wisdom and understanding, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the seashore. So even though Solomon was a king that disobeyed God bless and broke every single rule that God bless put in place, you can once again see God's mercy towards Solomon and towards the Israelites, where he gives them peace and he gives them rest and he gives them wealth, and he gives them all of the,
these blessings. And on top of that, he gives them a, ah, leader, Solomon, who is so wise, the wisest man that was on the earth during the days of Solomon. It says Solomon spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1005. And unfortunately, we don't really have any of those songs. We do have two of them preserved in the psalms. But mostly the psalms are psalms of David and not psalms of Solomon. And then we also have the song of Solomon, which, um, Solomon wrote. And we'll get into that book, uh,
later on. But Solomon was not just wise about finances and about how to lead. He was also wise in science and in physics and all of these other things. And in farming, it says that he would speak about trees from cedars that are in Lebanon to Hyssop that grows out of the wall. So from the biggest tree to the smallest tree, Solomon understood about all of these things. He spoke of animals, he spoke of birds, he
spoke of creeping things, he spoke of fish. So Solomon not only had wisdom, but he had a thirst for knowledge. And he understood a lot. He was very, very well researched. And so people from all over the world would hear about Solomon's wisdom and they would come and listen to him speak. So Solomon would put on, um, these Ted talks and he would
share his wisdom. And it wasn't even just wisdom about the scriptures or wisdom about God bless, but he would even share wisdom about how to farm properly or how to fish or how to build. Solomon was so well researched, and he would just host all of these TED talks, and these people from all over the world would come and listened to him speak. That is how well known Solomon was. And all of this was because of the grace of God bless. Nothing that Solomon had done himself.
Faithful listeners, fall is officially here. It is now the season of fall and cold weather is on the way. And you're gonna need a nice, warm psalm 40 beanie, which is available in the shop. It is unisex. It looks great, and it has my favorite verse, which is psalm 40, verse two, right on the brim of the beanie. So make sure to check out the description the second this episode is over, which is right now. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day. I will see you tomorrow.
For an episode from first Corinthians. Happy listening and God bless.