>> Jen: Well, happy Monday, faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast as we discuss First Kings, chapter 9:15 through 28, and discuss some of the compromises that Solomon is about to make. I hope you guys had a nice, relaxing weekend. There is an episode of Discussions up now that I put up last night, and this particular episode of discussions is real juicy,
okay? Because it is talking about Margaret Sanger and eugenics, because it turns out that she happened to be very fond of eugenics herself, and she's quoted on multiple occasions appreciating and allotting eugenics. So my sister and I talk about all of that on discussions, but that is available to members only. So if you want to become a member, you got to check out Ko Fi, which is linked in the description of this episode, so you can listen to all about Margaret Sanger and her crazy
love of eugenics. Speaking of, you should check out Seven Weeks Coffee because it's the coffee brand that supports life in the womb and it also gives you a fantastic cup of coffee that's also linked in the description of this episode. But for today, we're going to be reading 1st Kings 9:15 through 28.
And this is talking about the sins that Solomon starts to do, which is real interesting because this entire passage doesn't specifically say that Solomon was sinning, but if you read other verses and other parts of the Bible, you're going to see that Solomon actually is doing a whole lot of sinning in this particular chapter. Let's go ahead and read it. I'll be reading from the web as usual. This is the reason of the levy which King Solomon raised to build Yahweh's house, his own house.
Milo, Jerusalem's wall. Hazer Megiddo Gezer Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift
to his daughter Solomon's wife. Solomon built in the land of Gezer, Beth, Horon, the Lower Belath, Tamar, in the wilderness all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem and in Lebanon
and in all the land of his dominion. As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel, their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able to utterly destroy of them. Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day. But of the children of Israel,
Solomon made no bondservants. But they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and his horsemen. These were the 550 chief officers who were over Solomon's work, who ruled over the people who labored in the work. But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of David's city to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built
Milo. Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house. King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Elath on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea. With
the servants of Solomon. They came to Ophir and fetched from there gold, 420 talents, and brought it to King Solomon. So this entire passage is outlining all of the accomplishments that Solomon did while he was king. It says that he had a levy. This means basically forced labor. He used forced labor to build Yahweh's house, his own house, this place called Milo, Jerusalem's wall. And then also to build up Hazer, Megiddo and Gezer, which were three cities that were
fortified. And for all of these things that he built, he used slave labor. And where did he get these slaves? He got them, it says in verse 20, from all of the people who were not children of Israel, who were left in the land of Israel. It says for all of the people who are left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and Jebusites, who are not of the children of Israel and their children who are left after them in the land, whom
the children of Israel were not able to utterly destroy. Of them, Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day. So Solomon compromised. He compromised because if you look back in the book of Joshua, at the very beginning, God told Joshua, when you go into Israel, drive out all of the people who live there. Do not make any kind of covenant with them whatsoever, because eventually they are going to be like a
thorn in your side. They are constantly going to lure you away with their gods and with their culture and with their traditions, and they're going to cause you to not worship me. So instead, when you get into the land of Israel, you drive them out and what that typically meant was to completely destroy them. Because the other reason that God wanted some of these people destroyed was because he was enacting judgment on
them. And he was using the Israelites to enact that judgment on those particular people. Because the Canaanites were notoriously evil. All of them were idol worshipers. They would actually kill their own children and perform human sacrifices. When they were worshiping these gods. They would also do other crazy things with their own bodies and with each other's bodies, sexual and non sexual. Not to mention
that many of them were actually terrorists. I believe the Amorites specifically, if I'm remembering correctly, had targeted Israel on multiple occasions and were just killing women and children. They would target pregnant women and rip the babies right out of the uterus. It was really gruesome stuff, what many of these Canaanite tribes would do. So God was enacting judgment on them by using the Israelites to do this. But of course, the Israelites compromised and allowed the
Canaanites to actually live among them. That is basically what the entire book of Joshua is about. That even though Joshua was a great leader and he got the Israelites into the promised land, the Israelites just did not do what they were supposed to do and did not have the courage to do what God told them to do, what God commanded them to do. So exactly what God said would happen, happened. The Canaanites became a thorn in the side of the Israelites, meaning
a constant irritation. Because there was always problems popping up between the Canaanites and the Israelites. First and foremost, they never got along with each other because the Canaanites were idol worshipers, were pagans, the Israelites were Yahweh worshipers. And those two things do not mix well. Not to mention the Canaanites hated the Israelites and vice versa. So there was always some sort of fight
going on as well. And that is why in the beginning, God told Joshua to make sure that he acts very quickly and gets all of the people out of the land, displaces them or destroys them. But the Israelites did not do that. It says here that Solomon used them as slave labor. He used them to build Yahweh's house, to build his own house, to build this place called Milo, which actually we're not really sure what Milo is.
They think it's either a palace of some sort, or it refers to, um, like decorations on Solomon's palace. From my understanding, they also built Jerusalem's wall and then fortified Hazer, Megiddo and Gezer. So that's the first way that Solomon compromised. He forced the Canaanites who were living in Israel to become slaves. And God never commanded that. He said to drive them out completely, not to make them into slaves, to drive them out
completely. Another way that Solomon compromised is actually in verse 16 it says Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife. You might wonder what happened there. And we don't really know exactly, but for some reason Pharaoh went into Gezer and not Solomon. Which is weird because Gezer is actually in the tribe of
Ephraim. And it belonged, it was supposed to belong to Ephraim, but the Canaanites were just living in Gezer. They had taken it over completely. And the Ephraimites were never able to take the city of Gezer until Pharaoh goes in and does it for them. And we don't know why Pharaoh did this. We have no clue. Some people think that Solomon had actually asked Pharaoh to do that for him because Solomon did not want
to do it. And the reason Solomon possibly didn't want to do it is because he believed that he couldn't have any wars on his hands if he was going to finish the temple to God It could also be that Pharaoh had a problem with the people that lived in Gezer, had sort of issue that popped up there and went in and totally destroyed the city. And then when he took it for himself, he actually gave it to his daughter, who happened to be
married to Solomon. So when Pharaoh's daughter got the city of Gezer, and because she was married to Solomon, who was an Israelite, the city of Gezer finally belonged to the tribe of Ephraim the way it was supposed to from the very beginning. So Solomon might have compromised when it came to Gezer and asked his father in law to do that for him. But like I said, that's speculation and
not actually stated in Scripture. We don't really know what happened exactly with Gezer, but it belonged to Ephraim at the end of all of it, the way it was technically supposed to. So it says that Solomon built up the land of Gezer, Beth Horon in the lower Balath, Tamar in the wilderness, and all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his own pleasure in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all
the land of his dominion. This verse just shows how both Organized and productive and wise. Solomon was. He really made Israel great under his reign. He organized everything. He made Israel very wealthy. It says that he had all of these horsemen, all of these chariots. He had whole cities for chariots and for horsemen, which that alone actually is a compromise because we know that God himself in Deuteronomy 27 specifically told the kings that they were not to acquire many chariots and
many horses for themselves. But here's Solomon building up whole cities for these things. And he used the slave labor of all of the Canaanites who still lived in the land of Israel to build these things. But it says in verse 22 that Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced labor. Instead, the children of Israel became warriors, men of war, his own servants, his own private servants, his princes, his captains and rulers of his
chariots and of his horsemen. So he did put the Israelites to work. But it looks like they were paid for their service. And out of all of the Israelites, it says there were 550 chief officers who were over Solomon's work, who ruled over the people and who labored in the work. So Solomon made a whole political structure to Israel as well. And 500 people were part of this political structure that oversaw all these different areas of Israel.
Verse 24. Pharaoh's daughter came up out of David's city to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Milo, whatever that might be. But we know that Solomon had built a very beautiful house that took him years to build for his wife, Pharaoh's daughter. And she went to go live in that beautiful house once it was all finished. It says, then he built the Milo. We don't know what
that is. But then after that, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar. That was before Yahweh. So he finished the house. Now, this also might be a compromise because the only people who are supposed to sacrifice the offerings to God were the priests. And the only people who were to burn incense to God were the priests. Let me bring that verse up. It's 2 Chronicles 26:18.
And this is a king in the future. One of Solomon's descendants who decided to offer incense to God this was King Uzziah. 2 Chronicles 26:18 says, they confronted King Uzziah and said, it is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD.
That is for the pr. The descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn Incense, leave the sanctuary for you have been unfaithful and you will not be honored by the LORD God That verse right there shows that only the priests were ever supposed to sacrifice the incense to God That's actually also laid out pretty clearly in the book of Exodus. When you read through all of the plans God was making for the tabernacle. The priests were supposed
to do everything. Not the king, not the other Israelites, only the priests who were from, uh, the tribe of Levi. Those were the ones who were dedicated to burning the incense and also offering the sacrifices. So with Solomon potentially disobeying God in verse 25 of 1 Kings 9, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar. That was
before Yahweh. And this is not the first time, actually, that a king would compromise in this type of way. In fact, Saul, the first king of Israel, kind of did the same thing where he disobeyed God And because Samuel, who was, uh, the priest at the time, the high priest, would not come and offer a sacrifice, Solomon decided to do it himself. And he tried to make himself out to be like a priest. And then once again, that Uzziah guy who I just read about in Second Chronicles, he also was a
king who tried to make himself out to be a priest. So it's not unheard of that the kings would try to make themselves out to be priests. Now, did Solomon compromise in this way? We're not sure. Once again, because scripture doesn't give us any more detail. It could be that Solomon didn't compromise and actually brought his sacrifice to the priest, and the priest offered it for him,
the priest burned the incense for him. But it's not laid out specifically in scripture that the priest had did it when Solomon was the one offering these sacrifices. So we don't really know if Solomon disobeyed God's commandment here or not, but he could have, and it's not outside the realm of possibility if he did. King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.
Hiram, who was the king of Tyre and good friends with Solomon, sent in the fleet of his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea with the servants of Solomon. They went to Ophir and fetched from there gold, 420 talents, and brought it to King Solomon. So Hiram, who was the king of Tyre and also very good friends with Solomon and Worked with Solomon very closely for many years, Actually lent out his servants to teach Solomon's servants the
way of the sea. Now, because of where Tyre was located, they would have had very good knowledge of the sea because Tyre was actually an island. So they were seafaring people. Solomon obviously wanted his people to learn how to be seafarers as well. Hiram kindly volunteered his servants to teach Solomon's servants how to become sailors. It says they went to the land of Ophir, and nobody knows where Ophir is. Ophir is mentioned twice in scripture without a specific
location. Some people think it was India. Nobody really knows, though, but they went to this place called Ophir. And apparently it was a very rich area, rich with gold. And they brought back a whole bunch of gold for Solomon. It says they brought back 420 talents. This would have been about 12.6, um, metric tons of gold. And this is another compromise because once again, if you go to Deuteronomy 27, which is the Old Testament law, rules for Kings,
where is it? Oh, I'm sorry, it's not Deuteronomy 27, it's Deuteronomy 17. Actually, I got it wrong. Forgive me for that. But if you go to Deuteronomy 17 and read through the rules of kings, verse 17 says, the king shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away, he shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And here's, uh, King Solomon in 1st Kings 9, bringing back 12 1/2 metric tons of gold
for himself and for Israel. You can see here, this entire chapter is just filled with compromises that Solomon made, even though he was a very wise man. And that is just sprinkled throughout this entire chapter. His organization and his and his political savvy and just all of these other things he was so good at. Unfortunately, his heart was not fully for
Yahweh. And in the next few chapters, we're gonna really see that display as Solomon makes more and more bad decisions that actually causes Israel to start worshiping other gods and abandoning Yahweh. Well, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed, uh, today's episode. If you liked today's episode, please share it and tell people that the Bible Explained podcast
exists. And also go over to the website and sign up for emails so you never miss anything that is going on at P40 Ministries and the Bible Explained podcast. Anyway, I'll see you guys all tomorrow for an episode from First uh, 1 Corinthians 6:00am or whenever you choose to wake up. Happy listening and God bless.