In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the challenges that come with completing a big project and the need to find something productive to do afterwards. The sermon is based on First Kings chapter 9, where Solomon finishes building the house of the Lord and the king's house. The Lord appears to Solomon a second time and acknowledges his prayers and supplications. The sermon then transitions to discussing the life and career of Solomon, particularly his dedication of the temple in First Kings chapter 8. The speaker emphasizes the joy and happiness of serving a great and wise king like Solomon, and draws a parallel to the even greater joy of serving Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's promises to Israel under the Old Covenant.

So tonight we're going to consider 1st Kings chapters 9 and 10 Much more on the life and the career of Solomon if you remember last time we were together in 1st Kings chapter 8 We saw this very remarkable dedication of the temple. It was a very long chapter some 66 verses long Speaking of when Solomon and the others with him dedicated the temple amidst all those many Thousands of animals sacrificed and the answer that the Lord gave him and the glory of the Lord that came upon the place But whenever you have a big project like that whenever you have a big job to do There are really two challenges involved. There's many more than two, but I'll just name two challenges One is the challenge of doing the project and then the other challenge is when it's all over Because when it's all over you you really have to find something else that is productive to do and that's sort of what we come with here in a 1st Kings chapter 9 beginning now at verse 1 and It came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house and all Solomon's desire which he wanted to do That the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as he had appeared to him at Gibeon and the Lord said to him I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have consecrated this house Which you have built to put my name there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually now if you walk before me as your father David walked in Integrity of heart and in uprightness to do according that all I have commanded you and if you keep my statutes and my judgments Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel Forever as I promised David your father saying you shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel Now this happened some 24 years after Solomon came to the throne The temple and the palace work at Jerusalem were all finished now Solomon had to deal with life after completing his greatest accomplishment You know, sometimes I think about that you think of an athlete or something Who's a you know Olympic athlete and wins the gold medal and achieves all this fame and accomplishment But they do it all when they're 22 years old and then you think what do you do with the rest of your life? When the high point of your life has already passed and you know that it is passed in here Solomon must be thinking these thoughts and of course, this is always a dangerous time in a person's life You can think well, I've done my work I finished my job now, it's not so important now It's not so vital what I did. I never forget an experience that I had in a church building project ones Actually, we weren't building a brand new building. We were just renovating and expanding into new space but it was a lot of work for our church and I had to put a lot of myself into the job and Work and work and work and work and when it was finally finished. I was so happy I was so pleased that my attitude was I don't want to do anything difficult again, and actually it was a bad attitude Because we just sort of started drifting off without much of a vision without much of a heart to go out and accomplish something Looking back on it now, I would have done it differently. I would have said okay for one month We're not going to do anything. You know, we're not going to plan anything. We're not going to do it We're just going to take it easy for one month. But then after that it's going to be Lord. What do you have for us next? What big thing do we have from from you to do next well Solomon was just in this place But God was very gracious to Solomon if you notice in verse 2 It says the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time Now God was good enough to give Solomon a special appearance at the beginning of his reign We saw that way back at first Kings chapter 3 Do you remember that whole exchange where God told Solomon whatever you want? I'll give it to you But now God was even better to Solomon to grant him a unique appearance a second time And I read that and that gives me great. Hope You know, it just makes me think that no matter what wonderful experiences you or I may have had with God in the past We can have more God gives us second experiences and I'd like to believe third experiences and fourth experiences We can just believe that God has more and more experiences for us and we don't need to be saved all over again But we do need fresh outpourings of the Spirit of God upon our life We need new rain to come upon our life. I mean you wouldn't say to a farmer Well, you had rain three years ago. Well, why do you want it again? I mean we need that continual rain and so it's good for us to anticipate it and to ask for it We want that kind of repeated blessing from God and the great blessing He had is sort of encompassed in this idea in verse 3 where God says I have heard your prayer. I Want you to think about that great prayer that Solomon offered in first Kings chapter 8 Remember when we studied it together last time? It was really one of the great prayers of the Bible one of the longest prayers recorded in the Bible Well, it doesn't matter how wonderful and artistic and poetic and powerful your prayer sounds what really matters is if God hears your prayer from heaven and This is what happened with Solomon God heard the prayer God answered the prayer and the answer wasn't this he said Again, this is in verse 3. I have consecrated the house, which you have built to my name there forever That the building was Solomon's work. It was done in the power and in the inspiration of the Lord but Consecrating the building in other words making it holy Putting the Holy Presence of the Lord upon that building. That was only something that God could do Solomon could build a building but only God could hallow it and that's what we have to consider God builds Excuse me man builds, but God makes something holy God makes something the unique resting place of his spirit And so now here's the promise that he makes to him here in verse 4 if you walk before me as Your father David walked in integrity of heart and uprightness Do according to all that I have commanded you and if you keep all my statutes and my judgments Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom now God's answer to Solomon's prayer had a very significant condition If Solomon walked before God in obedience and faithfulness Then he could expect blessing upon his reign and the reign of his descendants, but it was a big if Solomon was commanded to walk in obedience. Now. I I don't want you to think that God was expecting something unrealistic of Solomon God was not demanding perfect obedience from Solomon Think of this question did David walk perfectly before the Lord in his reign No, of course not matter of fact, there was some notorious sin and scandal Associated with the reign of David nevertheless, that's all God was asking Solomon to do Walk as your father David walks. Oh, I'm not expecting you to be perfect I'm not expecting you to never sin or never make a mistake But be like your father David when you do make such a sin when you do make such a mistake Said it right before me. It's a matter of fact starting here in verse 6. God even warns Solomon He says but if you or your sons at all Turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes Which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them Then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them and this house, which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples and as for this house, which is exalted Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss and will say why is the Lord done this to this land into this house? Then they will answer because they forsook the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and have embraced other gods and Worshiped them and served them Therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them and see again There was a positive promise Back in verses 1 through 5 the positive promise was Solomon if you obey me if you follow me if your descendants do this I'll secure your throne forever, which is a wonderful promise. You don't have to worry about the Egyptians You don't have to worry about the Assyrians. You don't have to worry about the Babylonians I will establish your throne forever But there's a negative side of the promise here in verses 6 through 9 If you don't obey if you reject me either you or your descendants Then I will cut off Israel from the land and I believe it's even a more dramatic promise that he makes there at the end of verse 7 where he says and this house which I Consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight Now God promised Back in chapter 8. I will dwell in this place. I put my glory here I am pleased with what you did Solomon But nobody should take that as some promise from God that he will remain there forever No matter what the kings or the people of Israel do God promised to bless the temple and fill it with his glory But at the same time he would cast it out of his sight if the kings of Israel forsook the Lord You know was such a glorious temple that Solomon built Israel would be tempted to forsake the God of the temple and make an idol of the temple instead Here the Lord made them know that he could never bless that error If you do this, I will cast myself my presence out of the temple and instead he says Israel will become a proverb and everyone who passes by it will have be astonished and hiss It's interesting. This is actually just a continuation of promises that God made to the nation of Israel way back in the days of Moses an Important component of the Old Covenant what you might call the Old Covenant or the Mosaic Covenant Was the choice that God gave his people and the choice was essentially this if you obey me I will bless you. If you disobey me, I will curse you and Sadly to some extent this curse became the history of Israel under that Old Covenant God promised to use Israel to exalt himself among the nations one way or another if they obeyed him He would exalt himself by blessing them so much everybody knew it was the Lord But if they disobeyed him God would exalt himself by saying no nation could be so cursed and still survive Unless the Lord was with them. I like the way that the Living Bible translates first Kings chapter 9 verse 7 It says Israel will become a joke to the nations and an example and proverb of sudden disaster Well, that's a vivid way of expressing the thought that God gave to Solomon and to all of Israel here Well, this was a severe warning and and we're almost a little bit worried when we read this warning we say Gee God, there must have been some reason why you made such an important warning to Solomon God obviously knew something that there was in the character of Solomon. By the way, I can't recall I'm just thinking about it quickly in my mind right now. I can't recall God making such a promise to David. Can you? It's as if God knew something about David that he didn't know about Solomon He knew that Solomon needed to hear this strong word of warning Whereas David didn't He knew that David was a man after his own heart Where Solomon needed the threat of punishment to encourage him to do what was right? So the question before us as we come to chapter excuse me to verse 10 and the rest of the chapter is will Solomon do? Right. Well, let's take a look at some of the business affairs of Solomon here in this chapter and in the next verse 10 Now it happened at the end of 20 years when Solomon had built the two houses the house of the Lord in the king's house Hiram the king of Tyre's had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold as much as he desired that King Solomon then gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee So do you get the feel here in exchange for all this gold from King Hiram of Lebanon? Solomon gave him some cities Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him So he said what kind of cities are these which you've given me my brother and he called them the land of Kabul as They are to this day then Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold and the implication is as he had previously promised Now again, he sent him the wood. He sent him the gold He sent him the things that he asked for and what did Solomon give to in exchange for him and it's interesting This is an interesting point how you interpret this It could be putting this here because it wants you to think that Solomon did a bad thing in Giving away some of the land of Israel Which was God's land, right? This was the land of by inheritance to the people Israel So maybe we're supposed to read this and say my heavens Solomon you fool you gave away this land What why did you ever do that or it may have another idea? It may have the idea of Oh Solomon, you're so smart you tricked Hiram of Tyre You went into a negotiation with you say I'll give you these 20 you know towns in the Galilee area in exchange for all this gold and When Hiram went and saw the towns, he said these are the lousiest little villages I've ever seen in my life who wants these that seems to be the attitude that you get from Hiram in this The idea may be that Solomon was such a shrewd businessman that he got the better of Hiram in these arrangements and So if you want an example to see that Hiram thought this was a bad deal He named the place Kabul, you know what that means literally in Hebrew good for nothing He looked at this because these are good for nothing. So I have to be honest with you I don't know exactly how to take this passage. I don't know if you're supposed to think Oh Solomon You're bad for giving away the land of Israel or Solomon. You're so smart, but Smart, but might I say? sneaky smart You know deceptively smart not necessarily the kind of smart that the people of God should be verse 15 and This is the reason for the labor force which King Solomon raised To build the house of the Lord for his own house his own house the millow the wall of Jerusalem Hazor Megiddo and gayser Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken gayser and burned it with fire and he'd killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city and had given it as a dowry to his daughter Solomon's wife and Solomon built gayser lower Beth Horan Bala and Talzmor in the wilderness in the land of Judah all the storage cities that Solomon had cities for his chariots and cities for his Calvary and Whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem in Lebanon and all the land of his dominion All the people who were left of the Amorites Hittites Perizzites Hivites and Jebusites who were not of the children of Israel That is their descendants who were left in the land after them whom the Israel people of Israel had not been able to destroy completely From these Solomon raised forced labor as it is to this day But of the children of Israel Solomon made no forced laborers because they were men of war and his servants his officers his captains commanders of his chariots and his cavalry Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon's work 550 who ruled over the people who did the work But Pharaoh's daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her then he built the millow Now here it tells you why Solomon needed this labor force He had so many massive building projects that he needed this Labor group to help him in the job And so it describes all these different places that he built But probably more interesting to us was the slave labor that he raised in order to do this Apparently this was another compromise on the part of Solomon God strictly commanded that those who were left from these tribes be driven out of the land Not that they be used as slave labors in Israel Solomon didn't make the Israelites slave laborers, and that's good But what he did is he used them to oversee the Canaanite laborers the slave laborers Which God never said make the Canaanite slave laborers. He said drive them out of the land So this is another example. We look at this in song. Mm-hmm. Not so good So do you see the progression we have here so that builds the temple? It's all great. It's all glorious God makes him this promise with a great warning and then we have the story about Solomon and Hiram not so good Now Solomon the Canaanite slave laborers not so good Let's take a look here verse 25 now three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord and Burned incense with them on the altar that was before the Lord So he finished the temple King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Gabor Which is near Eloth on the shores of the Red Sea in the land of Edom then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet seamen who knew the sea to work with the servants of Solomon and they went to Ophir and acquired 420 talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon Now it says that three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar, which he had built for the Lord. It's Possible that this is another negative comment about Solomon because it's possible that it means that Solomon himself Personally did this and that would be a violation because Kings were not supposed to offer sacrifice only priests However, I should say that it is also entirely possible that Solomon Simply did this through a priest Many times in the Old Testament when it says that a king offered such-and-such sacrifice It really means that he did it through an appropriate priest So we can't say for certain if this is a negative comment about Solomon or not But he did show great enterprise great Industriousness the idea is that he went to Ophir and in got gold from there You know, we don't know exactly where the land of Ophir is There are several different suggestions But nobody knows exactly the idea from this is to give you the impression that small the Solomon is a smart enterprising businessman Yeah, if you think about Solomon, he would be the man on the cover of one of these business magazines You know, he's smart now David would have never made the cover of a business magazine Yeah, I don't know what magazine David would have been on the cover But he wouldn't have made the cover of business magazine But people look at you know Solomon would be the guy writing the book on how to be successful in management and everybody would want to know that from Solomon David would be writing worship songs of love to the Lord. Do you see the contrast here? We kind of see it again and again sharp shrewd businessman But not much of a heart for the Lord now chapter 10 verse 1 now When the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord She came to test him with hard questions Now this Queen was from the land of Sheba. It's also known as Sabia and It's where modern-day Yemen is today Southern Arabia We know from geography that this was a wealthy kingdom. It had gold it had spices it had precious woods History also tells us that in this region the land was ruled by not only kings, but also by Queens Now this was a long trip for the Queen of Sheba to come to Jerusalem. It was something like 1,500 miles or 2,400 kilometers and she probably came there as part of a trade Delegation, you know, let's go and see if we can do business with this man Solomon and his kingdom But but there's no doubt that she was very highly Motivated to see Solomon and his kingdom because she came from such a great distance. And so when she came Having heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. It says that she came to test him Now this is an important visit the Queen of Sheba comes to Solomon when he's at his peak Everything is at the top here in chapter 10 the great prosperity and splendor and wisdom of Solomon's kingdom were internationally famous This is sort of a fulfillment of what God intended all along that the nation's would be drawn to a blessed Israel, but I need that, you know sort of push the mental pause button right here. Let's think about this Yes, Israel was blessed But I need to ask you a question were they more blessed for Solomon's sake or for David's sake Suggest to you that Israel was more blessed for David's sake than they were for Solomon's sake Anyway, it's an interesting thought you can take it or leave it as you will but let's continue on here verse 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue with camels that bore spices Very much gold and precious stones and when she came to Solomon she spoke with him about all that was in her heart So Solomon answered all her questions There was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her and when the Queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon the house that he had built the food on his table the seating of his servants the service of his waiters and Their apparel his cupbearers and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord There was no more spirit in her So she came with a large group, you know, you can just see all the people You know the businessmen all the government officials all the people dressed up nice. It's an official delegation from the kingdom of Sheba Coming to Jerusalem and when she came she wanted to talk with Solomon You see Solomon's kingdom was not only famous for its material prosperity But also for his great wisdom and so the Queen of Sheba asked hard questions difficult questions of Solomon It doesn't seem like they were just like riddles or you know trivia questions, you know You get the idea almost that this is like a game show on television, you know, Solomon Can you answer this question? But no, they were probably like diplomatic and ethical questions It wasn't just an academic or mental exercise But she wanted to get a sense of his wisdom and perhaps his integrity she's testing are you a good business partner for us in the future and So when she had seen everything and asked all their questions and inspected all the work that Solomon had done You see the conclusion of it there at the end of verse 5. It says there was no more spirit in her You know, have you ever seen an amazing? Natural wonder, you know, I don't know the Grand Canyon Niagara Falls, you know some amazing Natural spectacle, you know, the Alps are like that. You see the mountains up there the Matterhorn. It's so majestic You just look at it and it just sort of takes your breath away He There's no there's no more spirit left you Well, I would say if you took all of that and and multiplied it a couple times. That's what happened to the Queen of Sheba She was absolutely Blown away. She was overwhelmed by the wisdom of Solomon and the material splendor and glory of his kingdom and So look at her reaction here beginning at verse 6 Then she said to the king it was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom However, I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes and indeed the half was not told me your wisdom and prosperity Exceed the fame of which I heard Happy are your men and happy are these your servants who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you setting you on the throne of Israel Because the Lord has loved Israel forever Therefore he made you king to do justice and righteousness You see the Queen of Sheba heard these wonderful things about Solomon in his kingdom, but upon seeing it with her own eyes She realized that it was greater than she had ever heard. You know, it's rare for that to happen today You know, we live in a day-to-day when things are Exaggerated and hyped and and made to seem so great when they're well, it's okay It's very rare when we come to something and say, you know, I heard this was good But when I'm here, I see that it's far greater than I had ever heard And so she says listen happy are your men and happy are these your servants? It was a joyful thing for them to serve a great and wise and rich king It was a happy thing to serve Solomon, by the way, shouldn't we talk what you could make a good sermon out of this right here If it was a happy thing to serve Solomon, how much of a happier thing should it be to serve Jesus Christ? I mean, isn't that just the truth? It should be a much much happier thing to serve Jesus Christ than it ever was to serve Solomon. Yeah and then she says Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you and this is an example of what God wanted to do for Israel Under the promises of the Old Covenant. She goes away saying blessed be the Lord God promised Israel that if they obeyed under the Old Covenant He would bless them so tremendously that the world would take notice and that they would give glory to the God of Israel And that's exactly what the Queen of Sheba is doing. Let me read you from Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 1 and 10 it says now it shall come to pass if You diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today That the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they shall be afraid of you You see God said I want to bless you so much because of your obedience that the nations of the earth would take notice this reminds us That though God chose Israel He chose them to be a way that he reached the nations. He wanted to reach the nations through Israel He didn't want the choosing and the blessing to stop with Israel And so she says Blessed be the Lord your God now You want to get into a pretty good Bible debate? Here's a Bible debate Was the Queen of Sheba saved? When she says blessed be the Lord your God, is that a confession of faith unto salvation? It's a fair question Taken in the context. I don't think you can say that these words prove that she was converted Taken in context, I don't think you can say that this says I forsake the gods that I knew about in Sheba And now I will serve the Lord and him alone. I don't think you can say that No, this may be nothing more than the Queen's response to the amazing blessing That was very evident in Solomon's Jerusalem I Want you to think about the Queen of Sheba in her response here for a minute Because I think that she is a great illustration of something facing Christians and the church right now today and that's the whole business of Tailoring what we do as a church, you know making fashioning modeling what we do for the seeker Don't you think the Queen of Sheba is a great example of a seeker? I mean she really is matter of fact we can admire the way that she sought She came from a very great distance She came with gifts to bring isn't that great wouldn't you love it if people who came and stuff that they came with gifts She came with questions and she came to learn She came and she saw the riches of the king She came and she stayed for an extended period She came telling everything that was on her heart and she came and brought a bunch of people with her That's a that is like the ideal seeker You couldn't want a better seeker than the Queen of Sheba and as a matter of fact Jesus used the Queen of Sheba as an example of a seeker. Let me read to you from Matthew chapter 12 verse 42 the Queen of the South That means the Queen of Sheba the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here Jesus's whole point was that if the Queen of Sheba sought Solomon and the splendor of his kingdom so diligently How much more should people seek Jesus today and the glory of his kingdom? And believe me she will rise up in judgment of this generation But if we take the Queen of Sheba as an example of a seeker We see that Solomon Impressed her with his wealth and his splendor and he also impressed her spiritually I mean the whole thing of the Queen of Sheba was like wow This is amazing. I never saw buildings like this. I never saw people like this. I never saw glory like this It's all wonderful She was very impressed she was very touched personally But she went home apparently unsaved Doesn't that have something to teach us about the seeker sensitive movement here. I mean really Now it's wonderful that she was impressed We don't think it's a bad thing that she was impressed by the material glory and the personality of Solomon But at the end of the day, it seems that there was something missing Spiritually in Solomon to come and connect with the Queen of Sheba again. I'm just guessing here. All right. I'm just guessing That if the Queen of Sheba had visited David David would have done something different with her David would have connected with her in a way that Solomon did not this shows that Impressing seekers with facilities and programs and Organization and professionalism it might be good, but it's not enough You have to touch them with the Spirit of God. They need something from heaven They it's great if you impress seekers with all the other things But listen, they need something from heaven to touch them and it seems that this is what Solomon lacked But he didn't come out to lose her fourth though take a look here verse 10 Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold spices in great quantity and precious stones There never came again such abundance of spices as the Queen of Sheba cave to King Solomon also the ships of Hiram which brought gold from Ophir brought great quantities of Almog wood and precious stone from Ophir and The king made steps of the Almog wood for the house of the Lord and for the king's house Also harps and stringed instruments for singers there never again came such Almog wood nor has there Nor has the like been seen to this day Now King Solomon also gave the Queen of Sheba all she desired whatever she asked Besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity So she turned and went to her own country she and her servants Now the Queen of Sheba came from a region that was rich in spices and In fine woods, so it made sense that these were the gifts that she brought to King Solomon And he gave you got to love the phrase that it uses here Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity Now if you're giving according to the royal generosity of Solomon You're giving a lot aren't you it's like saying I'm giving you according to the generosity of you know Bill Gates or of the guy who owes a Kia or whatever, you know think of wow, that's a lot of money It also shows the generosity of God towards us, doesn't it? And when God gives to us doesn't he give to us out of his royal generosity? It's a great measure that God gives towards us Now I don't want to leave the Queen of Sheba without making one more just a little side point here. There's a tradition It's just a legend. Don't believe it. Don't believe what I'm about to tell you They're really just fanciful stories That the Queen of Sheba when she visited she wanted a son by Solomon And so Solomon obliged her and gave her a son Her child was named Menelik and he became the ancestor of all subsequent Ethiopian monarchs and of course the ancestor of a certain Ethiopian eunuch who was saved in The Book of Acts All right, you didn't believe that did you it's just a legend. So let's get back to the Bible instead of just legends verse 14 Wow Okay, so Let me just recap here We are left again with another story that Impresses us about Solomon, but yet there's something missing. There's something not there Now look at verse 14 the weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold Besides that from the traveling merchants from the income of traders from all the kings of Arabia and from the governors of the country 666 talents of gold This vast amount of gold came to Solomon yearly one commentator that I read he set the value of these talents of gold at Two excuse me two hundred and eighty one thousand No, no, excuse me. Let me go back. He set the value at two hundred and eighty one million dollars a year That's all in me on this and this wasn't the end of it First of all, that was just his income from the gold and that wasn't secondly all the gold that he got in This speaks not only to the great wealth of Solomon, I mean when you're making two hundred and eighty one million dollars a year You're doing pretty good But it also speaks to the fact That Solomon is the only other person mentioned in the Bible Associated with the number six six six, of course the other person biblically connected to this number six six six is The end times world dictator an opponent of God And is people not only often known as the Antichrist that's in Revelation chapter 13 in fact the book of Revelation passage says that the number 666 666 is the number of a man and When you read that you have to wonder is the man Solomon Could have it been written instead in Revelation that 666 is the number of Solomon. It's the number of a man and that man is Solomon He's the only other person with whom this number six six six is Mentioned or associated with in the entire Bible now, what does that tell us? I don't think it means that Solomon was the Antichrist or That somehow the coming Antichrist will be you know, the the reincarnation of Solomon or something like that No, no But I think it tells us something and we would only know this knowing what we know in Revelation It may indicate that the Antichrist May not be someone purely evil from the beginning That's of course always how he's pictured in the movies, right, you know the movies the omen You know the other end times moves the the Antichrist, you know, just looking at the guy, you know, he's Devilish from the very beginning. He's walking around thinking about a murder people and all of this other business. I Think that it's very likely that instead of being this man Who's pure evil from the beginning that this association between six six six with Solomon the Antichrist may be showing us that the Antichrist is actually a man who starts out good and then and then falls into evil and sin and corruption and So this is a great great principle to learn now You would say well, so what I mean, what if it was? 1665 talents of gold or seven six ten sixty-seven. Well, it would still have something to teach us about song Because the writer of first Kings gives us another warning signal here Haven't we had warning signals all the way since the beginning of chapter 9. Here's another one When you look at the instructions that God gave to the kings of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 17 one of the instructions was He shall not greatly multiply silver and gold for himself Now God blessed Solomon with great riches but Solomon allowed that blessing to turn into a danger because he disobediently multiplied silver and gold for himself This was danger he's walking in disobedience to God's command for the kings of Israel So now let's look at some more examples of Solomon's great wealth and prosperity here at verse 16 And King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold 600 shekels of gold went into each shield He also made 300 shields of hammered gold three miners of gold went into each shield The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon Now these shields made a beautiful display in the house of the forest of Lebanon But they were of no use in battle Gold was too heavy and too soft to be used as a metal for effective shields This is another indication here If you're making gold shields You want the image of a warrior King? But you're not going to fight any battles Isn't that Solomon? Yes, I have the gold shields. Look at them. I'm the warrior King. You're not the warrior King. You're just showing off You can't fight anything with those gold shields By the way, according to one commentator each large shield was worth a hundred and twenty thousand dollars Each small shield was worth thirty thousand dollars Therefore about thirty three million dollars were invested in gold ceremonial shields and Then he goes on here Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold The throne had six steps and the top of the throne was round at the back There were armrests on either side of the place of the seat and two lions stood beside the armrest Twelve lions stood there one on each side of the six steps. Nothing like this had been made for any other Kingdom All Solomon's drinking vessels were gold and all the vessels in the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold Not one was silver for this was it counted as nothing in the days of Solomon For the king had merchant ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram Once every three years the merchant ships came bringing gold silver ivory apes and monkeys So Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart each man brought his present articles of silver and gold garments armor spices horses and mules at a set rate year by year and Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as Stones and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland he was rich and not only rich but famous I Mean all the nations of the earth seemed to be bringing their wealth to Solomon just to hear his wisdom This is fulfillment of promise after promise after promise Made to the people of Israel if they would be obedient And so he built all these cities. He he accomplished all these great things. He was a man incredibly prosperous Now you have to ask yourself a question Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes He gave a very eloquent testimony in Ecclesiastes to the vanity of riches to the emptiness of wealth You don't have to be as rich as Solomon to get the same lesson you can learn from his lesson Again another warning sign look at verse 28 Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Kevith the king's merchants brought them in Kevith at the current price Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost 600 shekels of silver and a horse 150 and thus through their agents they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria at The end of this great description of Solomon's wealth and splendor we have another sound of a dark note This was in direct disobedience to God We're done with chapter 10 here turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 17. I want you to see this for yourself Deuteronomy chapter 17 Okay, I want you to notice here. Let's start at verse 14 when you come to the land, which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and Dwell in it and say I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses One from among your brethren you shall set as a king over you you may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother But he shall not multiply horses to himself Nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses for the Lord has said to you you shall not return that way again You remember verse 28 in first Kings 10 and Solomon had horses imported from Egypt in Kebbeh Command in Deuteronomy you failed it Solomon Look again now at the next verse verse 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself lest his heart turn away Did Solomon succeed or fail on that command? Anyway, you slice it 700 wives and 300 concubines that's multiplication. It's not just addition and Then at the end of verse 17 nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold to himself Isn't this amazing God told the kings of Israel three king three things to do in Deuteronomy 17 Solomon disobeyed every one But I want you to go back here to first Kings chapter 10 verses 28 and 29 and notice something I'll read the two verses again Also, Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Kebbeh the king's merchants brought that bought them in Kebbeh at the current price Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost 600 shekels of silver and a horse 150 and thus Through their agents exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Syrians Do you see how Solomon would rationalize this? Well, listen I'm importing horses from Egypt, but but I'm not doing it for myself I'm not breaking God's command. I'm just acting as a middleman. This is just a business transaction Do you see how this? way of Rationalizing sin had probably taken place in Solomon's life Rationalize sin pretty soon. It's not one wife or seven wives It's 700 Rationalize sin and no longer. Are you just wealthy, but you're insanely wealthy like Solomon By the way, did you notice what God said in Deuteronomy 17? He said he shall not Greatly multiply riches unto himself. Listen God said don't multiply wives Don't greatly multiply riches. So he said look you can have riches. That's fine But don't greatly multiply But you can see the rationalization is going on in Solomon's mind Well, you know seven to seven hundred a Little wealthy to really wealthy The horses, you know, I'm really not keeping them. I'm running an import-export business But isn't that the way for you and I look I know it is for me. I know in my life many Examples of gross disobedience Began as clever Rationalizations you can do it you can figure out a way In in the logic of our sinful nature We can figure out a way to rationalize our sin. I Think this is what we need to conclude with here from first Kings chapter 9 and 10. Listen If a man as wise as Solomon fell under these ways of rationalizing sin then I have to be careful too and I think you do too So let's pray That's what we want to do Lord. We want to be careful We look at Solomon as an example of a good man who went bad Lord we don't want to be like that We thank you for the good work of Jesus Christ in our life, but we don't want to take it for granted Lord we pray that at the end of it all you would make us more like David than like Solomon Lord we want the God who blesses More than the blessings of God Help us to keep that firm in our heart we pray it in Jesus name Amen