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2 Chronicles 8 - Solomon Breaks Every Law for Kings · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Hi there, faith listeneris welcome to the Bible explained on
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Speaker 1: this lovely Monday morning. Thank you so much for sharing
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Speaker 1: a delicious cup of coffee with me as we discuss
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, chapter eight. So you might hear some clicking
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Speaker 1: of toenails. That's my dog, Cody walking around the room.
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Speaker 1: He's not happy to be trapped in here with me.
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Speaker 1: I have my door shut because my husband's working on
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Speaker 1: something in the other room. And generally my husband's not
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Speaker 1: home when I'm recording episodes, but today he is, and
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Speaker 1: so to not bother him, and for him to not
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Speaker 1: bother me, we've got the door shut, and so Cody
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Speaker 1: is stuck in here with me, and so he's just
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Speaker 1: pacing the floor. But he should settle down in just
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Speaker 1: a few minutes here. But let's go ahead and read
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles eight the entire thing. We're gonna be discussing
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Speaker 1: the rain of Solomon and all of the various things
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Speaker 1: that he did with Israel and how impressive he really
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Speaker 1: may Israel to be. So I'll be reading this as
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Speaker 1: I usually do, from the web, But grab your favorite
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Speaker 1: version of the Bible and also your cup of coffee
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Speaker 1: this morning as we discuss this passage together. At the
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Speaker 1: end of twenty years in which Solomon had built Yaway's
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Speaker 1: house and his own house, Solomon built the cities which
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Speaker 1: Hiram had given a Solomon and caused the children of
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Speaker 1: Israel to dwell there. Solomon went to Hamath Zoba and
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Speaker 1: prevailed against it. He built Tadmore in the wilderness, and
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Speaker 1: all the storage cities which he built in Hamath. He
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Speaker 1: also built beth Horn the upper and beth Horan the lower,
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Speaker 1: fortified cities with walls, gates and bars, and Balath, and
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Speaker 1: all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the
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Speaker 1: cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and
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Speaker 1: all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
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Speaker 1: As for the people who are left of the Hittites,
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Speaker 1: the Amorites, the Perizites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, who are
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Speaker 1: not of Israel, of their children who are left after them,
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Speaker 1: in the land whom the children of Israel didn't consume.
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Speaker 1: Of them, Solomon conscripted forced labor to this day. But
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Speaker 1: of the children of Israel, Solomon made no servants for
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Speaker 1: his work. But they were men of war, chief of
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Speaker 1: his captains and rulers, of his chariots, and of his horsemen.
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Speaker 1: These were the chief officers of King Solomon, even two
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people. Solomon brought
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Speaker 1: up Pharaoh's daughter out of David City to the house
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Speaker 1: which he had built for for he said, my wife
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Speaker 1: shall not dwell in the house of David, King of Israel,
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Speaker 1: because the places where Yahway's ark has come are holy.
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Speaker 1: Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to Yahweh on Yahwey's altar,
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Speaker 1: which he had built before the porch. Even as the
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Speaker 1: duty of every day required offering according to the commandment
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Speaker 1: of Moses, on the Sabbath, on the new moons, and
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Speaker 1: on the set feasts three times per year, during the
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Speaker 1: feast of unloved Bread, during the feast of weeks, and
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Speaker 1: during the feast of booths. He appointed, according to the
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Speaker 1: ordinance of David his father, the division of the priests
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Speaker 1: to their service, and the levites to their offices, to
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Speaker 1: praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of
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Speaker 1: every day required. The doorkeepers also by their divisions at
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Speaker 1: every gate, for David, the man of God had so
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Speaker 1: commanded they didn't depart from the commandment of the king
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Speaker 1: to the priests and levites concerning any matter or concerning
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Speaker 1: the treasures. Now, all the work of Solomon was accomplished
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Speaker 1: from the day of the foundation of Yaoway's house until
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Speaker 1: it was finished. So Yaowai's House was completed. Then Solomon
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Speaker 1: went to Ezion Gaber and to Elith on the seashore
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Speaker 1: in the land of Edom. Hiram sent him ships and
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Speaker 1: servants who had knowledge of the sea by the hands
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Speaker 1: of his servants, and they came with the servants of
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Speaker 1: Solomon to o Fear and brought from there four hundred
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Speaker 1: and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.
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Speaker 1: This chapter obviously delves into Solomon's reign and just how
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Speaker 1: impressive of a king Solomon really was for Israel. Actually,
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Speaker 1: under King Solomon, Israel was extremely wealthy. It says in
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Speaker 1: First Kings that Solomon made silver as plentiful as stones
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Speaker 1: in the street. Like that was how rich Israel had become.
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Speaker 1: Because Solomon was a very wise man, as we know,
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Speaker 1: you know, God granted Solomon with essentially supernatural wisdom, where
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Speaker 1: Solomon became like the wisest man on the planet, and
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Speaker 1: other kings would come and seek Solomon's advice and counsel.
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Speaker 1: So Solomon was an impressive king, and he built Israel
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Speaker 1: so beautifully in his lifetime. So it says at the
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Speaker 1: end of twenty years in which Solomon had built Yahway's
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Speaker 1: house and his own house, Solomon built the cities which
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Speaker 1: Hurm had given to Solomon and caused the children of
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Speaker 1: Israel to dwell there. So this is actually kind of
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Speaker 1: a funny story. This is talked about in First Kings
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Speaker 1: chapter nine, where you know that King Hiram or Hiram
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Speaker 1: as Scripture sometimes names him. He was the king of Tire,
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Speaker 1: and Solomon had a very good repute Haiti with him,
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Speaker 1: and so they liked each other. They were on very
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Speaker 1: good terms. So at one point in time, Solomon actually
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Speaker 1: gave some cities to hear them. So here's what First
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Speaker 1: Kings nine ten through fourteen says. At the end of
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Speaker 1: twenty years in which Solomon had built two houses, he
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Speaker 1: always house in the King's house. Now Hiram, the King
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Speaker 1: of Tire, had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress
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Speaker 1: trees and with gold according to all his desire. King
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Speaker 1: Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
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Speaker 1: Hiram came out of tire to see the cities which
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Speaker 1: Solomon had given him, and they didn't please him. He said,
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Speaker 1: what cities are these which you have given me, my brother?
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Speaker 1: And he called them the land of Kabul to this day,
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Speaker 1: and the word kabul in Hebrew basically sounds like good
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Speaker 1: for nothing. He essentially called these cities crap and told
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Speaker 1: Solomon like, I don't like these cities, Like why are
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Speaker 1: you giving me these cities? I don't want them. So
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Speaker 1: in second chronicles eight are passage for today, it seems
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Speaker 1: like gave those cities back to Solomon, and so Solomon
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Speaker 1: built them up. In verse two, Solomon built the cities
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Speaker 1: which Hiram had given Solomon and caused the children of
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Speaker 1: Israel to dwell there. So yeah, needless to say, Hiram
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Speaker 1: did not like those cities and gave them back to
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Speaker 1: Solomon and wondered why Solomon gave him those cities. Solomon
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Speaker 1: went to hamath Zoba and prevailed against it. In verse three,
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Speaker 1: he built tad Moore in the wilderness, and all the
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Speaker 1: storage cities which he built in Hamoth. And so now
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Speaker 1: in verses three through six, it talks about Solomon's various conquests,
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Speaker 1: which were very few actually, because Solomon was a king
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Speaker 1: of peace. Interestingly enough, he didn't have a lot of
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Speaker 1: wars on his hand. He was so strong that people
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Speaker 1: just kind of didn't mess with him. So the only
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Speaker 1: area that we know of that Solomon went out to
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Speaker 1: war against was Hamath Zoba, and of course Solomon was
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Speaker 1: successful in that battle and took that city, and he
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Speaker 1: also built up the city of Tadmore and Hamath, beth Horn,
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Speaker 1: and Baleth, and all of these cities were considered to
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Speaker 1: be storage cities. So just like somebody like places all
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Speaker 1: their storage, like in their attic or in their garage
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Speaker 1: or basement or something, Solomon had so much stuff that
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Speaker 1: he had actual cities for it, and they were considered
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Speaker 1: to be storage cities. Some of these cities would hold chariots,
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Speaker 1: others would hold all the horses and whatever else Solomon
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Speaker 1: had acquired over the years. Because we know that Solomon
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Speaker 1: was very entrepreneurial, as we find out at the very
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Speaker 1: end of this chapter, he did things that Israel wouldn't
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Speaker 1: have even thought possible, probably like forty years prior to him.
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Speaker 1: So he was entrepreneurial, and he acquired a lot of things,
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Speaker 1: probably that silver and that gold, like I talked about earlier,
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Speaker 1: not to mention all these chariots and weapons and horses
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Speaker 1: that he would leave in these cities, and he actually
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Speaker 1: says he had a city for his horsemen as well.
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Speaker 1: He built everything he desired for his pleasure in Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
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Speaker 1: So not only was Solomon building up storage cities and
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Speaker 1: building fortified towns and just making sure Israel is very strong,
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Speaker 1: but he also built a lot of entertainment so that
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Speaker 1: the people would have fun things to do in every
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Speaker 1: single city. And you can see Solomon was very concerned
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Speaker 1: about beauty, about order, and about having fun, because that's
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Speaker 1: talked a lot about in the Proverbs and also in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Ecclesiastes as well, which those two books
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Speaker 1: Solomon obviously wrote. So in that way, Solomon was a
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Speaker 1: very good king for Israel. But he wasn't such a
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Speaker 1: good king for the people who were not Israelites, as
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Speaker 1: we find out in verse seven. As for all the
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Speaker 1: people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parizites,
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Speaker 1: the Hittites and the Jebusites who were not of Israel,
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Speaker 1: of their children who were left after them in the land,
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Speaker 1: whom the children of Israel didn't consume. Of them, Solomon
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Speaker 1: conscripted for forced labor to this day. So these guys
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Speaker 1: were slaves. Anybody that was a foreigner still living in
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Speaker 1: Israel Solomon put to work. He made them slaves. It
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Speaker 1: does say right here that the children of Israel, So
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Speaker 1: the Israelites themselves, Solomon made no servants for his work,
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Speaker 1: but they were men of war, chief of his captains
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Speaker 1: and rulers, of his chariots, and of his horsemen. So
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Speaker 1: the Israelite people themselves he did not make into slaves.
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Speaker 1: And forgive me, that is something I taught incorrectly. A
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Speaker 1: few episodes back, when Solomon was building the Temple, I
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Speaker 1: talked about the forced labor, and I mentioned that some
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Speaker 1: of the Israelites might have been conscripted to forced labor
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Speaker 1: as well. But that is not true. Based upon what
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Speaker 1: we read right here in second Chronicles eight, the Israelites
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Speaker 1: themselves were not slaves. However, we do find out that
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Speaker 1: Solomon put a very big burden on the backs of
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Speaker 1: the Israelites. Also, even though they weren't slaves, they were
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Speaker 1: still servants of the king. They had to do what
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Speaker 1: the king told them to do. And you can see
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Speaker 1: in this chapter that Solomon was a worker. You know.
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Speaker 1: He was doing all sorts of different things throughout his
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Speaker 1: entire reign, from building up cities, going out to war,
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Speaker 1: making all sorts of alliances with other nations, and even
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Speaker 1: having people go out to see and learn how to
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Speaker 1: become sailors. He probably expected all of these people to
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Speaker 1: work very, very hard. You know. Solomon was a workaholic
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Speaker 1: and probably expected that of his people as well. He
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Speaker 1: put big burdens on their back. And we find that
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Speaker 1: out in First Kings chapter twelve, right after Solomon dies
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Speaker 1: and Raye Boam, Solomon's son, becomes the next king. The
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Speaker 1: Israelites were very unhappy with Solomon at this time. So
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Speaker 1: here's what this says. First Kings twelve one through five.
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Speaker 1: Raye Baouam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come
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Speaker 1: to Shechem to make him king. When Jereboam, the son
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Speaker 1: of Nebad, heard of it, for he was in Egypt,
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Speaker 1: where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon,
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Speaker 1: and Jereboam lived in Egypt, and they sent and called
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Speaker 1: him Jeroboum, and all the assembly of Israel came and
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Speaker 1: spoke to Raa Boam, saying, your father made our yoke difficult.
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Speaker 1: Now therefore make the hard service of your father and
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Speaker 1: this heavy yoke which he put on us later, and
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Speaker 1: we will serve you. He said to them, depart for
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Speaker 1: three days, then come back to me. So the people departed.
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Speaker 1: Israel was very divided at this point as well. They
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Speaker 1: were extremely angry at Solomon, and there was talk of
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Speaker 1: splitting and civil war at this point. So when all
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Speaker 1: of these people go to Raya Boam and they're like,
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Speaker 1: please lighten our loads, that's kind of the deciding factor
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Speaker 1: if Israel is going to split or remain one nation.
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Speaker 1: And it turns out, if you keep on reading in
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Speaker 1: One King twelve that Raa Boam does not make the
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Speaker 1: burdens later on the people. In fact, he's like, I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna make your burdens even heavier than my dad did.
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Speaker 1: You're gonna fear me, and the people are like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: we're done with this, and then they split into two
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Speaker 1: nations and it becomes Judah, which is the southern nation
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Speaker 1: where raye Boam reigns, and then Israel becomes the northern
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Speaker 1: nation where Jereboam ends up becoming the first king. So
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Speaker 1: even though Solomon was a very good king and built
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Speaker 1: a lot of things up made Israel very wealthy, he
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Speaker 1: gave his people just too much to bear and that
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Speaker 1: caused a rift towards the end of his life and
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Speaker 1: right after he died. But going back to our passage today,
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles eight, verse eleven, it says Solomon brought up
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh's daughter out of David's city to the house that
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Speaker 1: he had built for for he said, my wife shall
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Speaker 1: not dwell in the house of David, King of Israel,
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Speaker 1: because the places where Yaway's ark has come are holy.
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Speaker 1: So that's basically Solomon admitting that his wife is a pagan. Okay,
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Speaker 1: because Solomon was not opposed to foreigners coming to the
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Speaker 1: temple of God. In fact, he said that in his
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Speaker 1: prayer a few chapters back, he asked God to actually
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Speaker 1: bless the foreigners that worship Yahway's name. So why would
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Speaker 1: Solomon be not comfy with his Egyptian wife being near
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Speaker 1: the ark of God? Because she worshiped Egyptian gods and
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Speaker 1: foreign deities, and he knew that, and yet he still
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Speaker 1: married her even though he knew that she was pagan,
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Speaker 1: and that specifically went against God's commands. For the king
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Speaker 1: and for other Israelites, they were not supposed to intermarry
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Speaker 1: with other religions. They were only supposed to marry people
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Speaker 1: within Israel, people who worshiped God. And that's the same
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Speaker 1: thing actually nowadays. You know, I'm sure you've heard the
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Speaker 1: adage do not be unequally yoked in your marriage. That
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Speaker 1: basically means, if you are a Christian, you should not
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Speaker 1: marry somebody who is not a Christian, because that's just
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Speaker 1: going to cause a divide in your marriage, like right
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Speaker 1: off the bat, because you have really different viewpoints, different beliefs,
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Speaker 1: kind of your core values are just too different, and
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Speaker 1: that causes problems. So Christians are supposed to marry Christians.
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Speaker 1: And the same thing went with the Jewish people back
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Speaker 1: in these days. They were only supposed to marry other
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Speaker 1: Jewish people, not due to racism or anything like that,
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Speaker 1: but because Jewish people worshiped God, and that was the
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Speaker 1: most important thing. Now, if Solomon's Egyptian wife had become
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Speaker 1: a Yahweh follower, there would have been no problem with
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Speaker 1: Solomon marrying her, But she did not turn to Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: and Solomon, knowing that she is pagan and unholy. Because
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Speaker 1: of this, he decides to get her out of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: and he builds her a house on the edge of
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem where he can go and visit her whenever he
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Speaker 1: wants to. But she is not inside the city because
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Speaker 1: she was pagan, because she worshiped other deities and foreign gods.
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Speaker 1: We find out later on that Solomon actually built shrines
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Speaker 1: for her gods. And Solomon married a billion other women,
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Speaker 1: and he built shrines for like all of his wives.
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Speaker 1: It was really a bad thing. But the fact of
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Speaker 1: the matter is Solomon knew the commandment and yet disobeyed it.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he disobeyed pretty much all the commandments for
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Speaker 1: kings laid out in Deuteronomy seventeen. And I've talked about
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Speaker 1: these these rules a trillion times at this point, but
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Speaker 1: I'm going to go back over them once again. Deuteronomy
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Speaker 1: seventeen fourteen through seventeen. When you come into the land
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Speaker 1: which Yahweh or God gives you, and you possess it
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Speaker 1: and dwell in it and say, I will set a
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Speaker 1: king over me, like the nations are around me. You
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Speaker 1: shall surely set him whom Yahweh or God chooses as
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Speaker 1: king over yourselves. You shall set his king over you,
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Speaker 1: one of you from among your brothers. You may not
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Speaker 1: put a foreigner over you who is not your brother.
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Speaker 1: Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause
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Speaker 1: the people to return to Egypt to the end that
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Speaker 1: he may multiply horses, because Yahweh has said to you,
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Speaker 1: you shall not go back that way again. He shall
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Speaker 1: not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away.
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Speaker 1: He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
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Speaker 1: So literally, in second Chronicles eight, I'm pretty sure Solomon
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Speaker 1: breaks every single one of these rules in this chapter
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Speaker 1: so verse and foremost he becomes unequally yoked. You know,
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Speaker 1: Solomon himself, yes, he was a Jewish man, but he
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Speaker 1: was being influenced by foreigners, by people who did not
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Speaker 1: know Yahweh or the customs of Israel and Jerusalem. And
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Speaker 1: yet Solomon had ties with these women and ended up
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Speaker 1: kind of turning his heart towards what they wanted instead
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Speaker 1: of what Yahweh wanted, So that's the first thing he
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Speaker 1: did wrong. Secondly, he made the people return to Egypt,
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Speaker 1: both for horses and also because his wife was from Egypt.
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Speaker 1: God said you should not go back that way again.
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Speaker 1: So Israel was not supposed to have any ties with
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Speaker 1: Egypt at all because Egypt was the land that had
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Speaker 1: brutally enslaved the Jewish people. God had mercy on the
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Speaker 1: Egyptians and did not destroy them because of that. But
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Speaker 1: God said, don't go back to Egypt. Don't trust them
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Speaker 1: because they made you slaves centuries before this, and they
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Speaker 1: will not be on your side. And that ended up
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Speaker 1: turning out true. Every single time Israel did make an
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Speaker 1: alliance with Egypt, Egypt would kind of like backstab them
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Speaker 1: or just not follow through, like every single time. And
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Speaker 1: then on top of that, Solomon multiplied wives to himself,
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Speaker 1: but he had about one thousand wives, seven hundred wives,
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Speaker 1: three hundred concubines, and he definitely multiplied silver and gold
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Speaker 1: to himself, which is probably what some of those storage
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Speaker 1: cities were for. So yes, Solomon broke every single rule
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Speaker 1: for the kings, and that's kind of laid out in
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Speaker 1: our chapter four today. But moving forward. In second Chronicles
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Speaker 1: eight twelve and thirteen talk about how Solomon did worship God.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he did it quite religiously. He offered a
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Speaker 1: sacrifice every single day, and also on the three feasts
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Speaker 1: every single year, and the Sabbaths and the new moons.
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Speaker 1: So Solomon was quite religious and did what God told
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Speaker 1: him to do in that respect, but unfortunately, his heart
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Speaker 1: was not fully with Yahweh, and he also did not
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Speaker 1: follow the commands of Yahweh. Verses fourteen and fifteen talk
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Speaker 1: about his organizational skills and how he made sure to
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Speaker 1: do everything that David, his father had put in place
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Speaker 1: with the levitical priests. Solomon did all of that, so
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Speaker 1: the temple ran very efficiently. And that's a good thing, obviously,
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Speaker 1: because if the temple is running efficiently and the priests
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Speaker 1: are all unified and doing what the commandments say to do,
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Speaker 1: then worship in Israel was going to be a lot
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Speaker 1: more successful than if that wasn't the case. But to
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Speaker 1: conclude this passage, it says in verse sixteen, now all
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Speaker 1: the work of Solomon was accomplished from the day of
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Speaker 1: the foundation of Yahway's house until it was finished. So
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Speaker 1: Yahway's house was completed. So everything that could have been
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Speaker 1: done in God's house was done. You know, because even
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Speaker 1: though the temple was dedicated in the past two chapters,
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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that there weren't some kinks that needed
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Speaker 1: to be ironed out. Throughout the years, Solomon ironed out
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Speaker 1: all of those kinks, and the once again the temple
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Speaker 1: was running very, very efficiently under Solomon. But verses seventeen
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Speaker 1: and eighteen are quite interesting because Solomon did something that
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Speaker 1: no Israelite king had done before and probably never even
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Speaker 1: deemed possible. It says Solomon went to Ezion Gaber and
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Speaker 1: to eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.
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Speaker 1: Hiram sent him ships and servants who had knowledge of
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Speaker 1: the sea by the hands of his servants, and they
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Speaker 1: came with the servants of Solomon to oh Fear and
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Speaker 1: brought from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold
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Speaker 1: and brought them to King Solomon. Solomon taught his peace
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Speaker 1: people to be sailors. He partnered with King Hiram, and
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Speaker 1: together they formed this alliance where they would go search
21:11
Speaker 1: the seas for all of these amazing things. They went
21:15
Speaker 1: as far as o Fear, and we have no clue
21:18
Speaker 1: where o Fear is, but some people guess actually India
21:22
Speaker 1: or off the coast of the west side of Africa.
21:27
Speaker 1: Israel had never done anything like that ever before. Yes,
21:30
Speaker 1: they had their little boats in their you know, lakes
21:34
Speaker 1: and rivers, but they had never become seafarers before. So
21:38
Speaker 1: this was something very new that Solomon had accomplished with
21:41
Speaker 1: the Israelite people. No other king had done this ever
21:45
Speaker 1: before in Israel's history, and it was an impressive thing.
21:49
Speaker 1: And you know, these Israelites were going to Fear and
21:52
Speaker 1: bringing back all sorts of silver and gold and precious
21:55
Speaker 1: jewels and ivory and all sorts of stuff those very
21:57
Speaker 1: expensive back in the days of Solomon. So Solomon achieved
22:02
Speaker 1: things that no other king had ever done. And you
22:05
Speaker 1: can see how the wisdom that God gave Solomon is
22:08
Speaker 1: really flourishing with all of the various endeavors that Solomon
22:12
Speaker 1: had his people do. But as impressive as Solomon had become,
22:17
Speaker 1: and as impressive as Israel had become, there were little
22:20
Speaker 1: cracks forming that were going unnoticed, that were becoming very
22:25
Speaker 1: very serious. Well faith for listeners, I hope you enjoyed
22:30
Speaker 1: listening to Second Chronicles, Chapter eight and the various successes
22:35
Speaker 1: that Solomon had in Israel and just how impressive the
22:38
Speaker 1: nation had become. But we'll talk more about some of
22:42
Speaker 1: the flaws that Israel is starting to show even under
22:47
Speaker 1: the reign of Solomon. So we will get into all
22:49
Speaker 1: of that on Wednesday. I hope to see all of
22:51
Speaker 1: you then, But of course tomorrow we're going to be
22:53
Speaker 1: talking more about First Timothy, and I'm excited to talk
22:56
Speaker 1: about this book. So I hope you guys tune in
22:58
Speaker 1: then six am or whenever you choose to wake up
23:00
Speaker 1: and listen for an episode tomorrow from First Timothy. Happy listening,
23:04
Speaker 1: and God bless