UNROLL
Dawn seen from the Mount of Olives across the Kidron valley: Solomon’s finished temple on its ridge, a long pale stone house with two bronze pillars before its porch catching the first light, the palace buildings beyond and the City of David running south, under a calm gold sky.

The Book of

1 Kings 9

Twenty years of building are done. Now God speaks again, with a promise and a warning.

28 verses≈ 6 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–2Solomon's throneThe kingdom made secure
  2. 3–4WisdomA discerning heart
  3. 5–8The templeA house for the LORD's Name
  4. 9–11Glory and fallSolomon's heart turnsChapter 9
  5. 12–16Two kingdomsThe kingdom torn
  6. 17–19ElijahThe LORD, He is God
  7. 20–22AhabNaboth and Micaiah

The LORD’s Response to Solomon

Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do, the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

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And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

1 Kings 9:4–5

But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

A gray morning long after: on the temple hill only a broad heap of tumbled, blackened limestone blocks and charred cedar beams, weeds in the cracks, while two travelers on the road below stop and stare, appalled.

And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

Because they have forsaken the LORD their God

1 Kings 9:9

Reflect

A heart of integrity

God’s promise to Solomon came with a call to walk “with a heart of integrity and uprightness.” Where is your heart most divided right now? Write down what wholehearted obedience would look like there this week.

Solomon’s Additional Achievements

Late afternoon on a rocky hillside in western Galilee: Hiram king of Tyre, in a red-purple robe and tall cap, stands with two attendants looking down, displeased, at a small village of rough stone houses among thin, stony fields.

Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace, King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire. So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

“What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.

And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.

0:35

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Midday at a new royal city gate on a hilltop town: a broad passage of finely dressed limestone with three guard chambers open on each side, stone benches inside, a gatekeeper with a spear and a farmer leading a loaded donkey through.

This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

Solomon’s building

Cities Solomon built

  1. Rebuilt

    Gezer and Lower Beth-horon

    So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

  2. Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness

    Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,

  3. Across his realm

    Store cities, chariots and horses

    as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

Question

Quick question

The temple and the palace are finished, and Solomon turns to cities and walls.

How long did Solomon spend building the house of the LORD and the royal palace?

A hot morning on a rising city wall of dressed stone: laborers in short tunics carry stones up an earth ramp and lever them into place, while an Israelite supervisor with a staff points to the next course and another checks a stone with a plumb line.

Solomon’s labor

Who did the work

  1. Forced laborers

    The peoples left in the land

    As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)— their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

  2. Soldiers, officers

    No Israelite made a slave

    But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.

  3. Supervisors

    550 chief officers

    They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.

As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.

Pray

A whole heart

God told Solomon, “I have heard your prayer.” Thank Him that He hears prayer and keeps every promise. Lord, give me a whole and undivided heart toward You, not only in the great moments but in the long, busy years after them. Keep me walking before You with integrity, and never let the good things You give turn my heart from You. Amen.

You’ve experienced

1 Kings 9

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A verse to carry with you

And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

1 Kings 9:4–5

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