The Maxwell Leadership Bible, NIV

N ew I n t er nat iona l V er sion

t he

Maxwell

leadership

bi bl e •

John C. Maxwell Tim Elmore Executive Editors

Nashville Dallas Mexico City Rio De Janeiro

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Introduction to

1 Kings

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irst and Second Kings give an account of the leaders who followed David: kings such as Solomon, Jeroboam and Rehoboam; prophets such as Elijah, E ­ lisha and Micaiah. These men picture the necessity of purpose-­ driven leadership—­leadership motivated by core values and strong convictions.

Some call purpose-­driven leadership visionary leadership. Visionary leadership is motivated by something that not only could be done, but should be done. The leader carries a sense of moral obligation about the vision.

First Kings describes the reign of King Solomon.

Despite his wisdom, he lacked focused leadership. He begins well, but by chapter 11 he becomes distracted from any moral obligation.

The book begins with a skirmish over who will succeed David as king of Israel. David selects Solomon, who takes over as the final king to reign over a united Israel.

Solomon recognizes the overwhelming responsibility of his position and goes to the proper Source for wisdom.

This pleases God immensely, to the point that God gives him all the necessary wisdom—­and everything else he didn’t ask for!

Yet Solomon illustrates a fundamental principle every leader must understand. While this man became the wisest human leader who ever lived and authored a number of books, the king’s poor choices and failure to apply what God told him weakened his leadership.

Before Solomon left the way of God, the Lord greatly used him. Kings and queens from distant lands visited him and became acquainted with the God of Israel—­ precisely what God had in mind for the Jews. Israel was to

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The Necessity of Purpose-­Driven Leadership God’s Role in 1 Kings

By the end of 1 Kings, the Hebrew nation lies divided, torn both by civil wars and invaders.

God seeks out godly leaders like David—­men who would listen to his voice and obey it.

As in so many Old Testament books, God’s interaction in 1 Kings appears almost entirely limited to leaders—­for if he can raise up leaders to model the life he intended for Israel, the people would almost certainly follow suit.

Leaders in 1 Kings

David, Adonijah, Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Abijam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahab, Jezebel

Other People of Influence in 1 Kings

Nathan, Ahijah, Elijah, a widow, Obadiah, Micaiah

Lessons in Leadership ■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Success without a successor is a failure.

Decision making and problem solving is the fastest way to gain influence.

Check your motives before you lead anything.

The issue is not prioritizing our schedule, but scheduling our priorities Influencing followers is addition; influencing leaders is multiplication.

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Introduction to 1 Kings

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become a light to the nations, and for a while its beacon of hope shone brightly.

But when Solomon began trusting his own wisdom and failed to stay focused on God, the Lord divided his kingdom and ripped it away. The nation remained split until outsiders like Assyria and Bab­ylon conquered one kingdom, then the next. In the difficult years in between, God had to raise up prophets as his leaders and spokesmen, since the kings frequently would not listen to his voice.

■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Keep first things first; distraction is the enemy of direction.

Leaders must touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

A divided leader eventually produces a divided nation.

Passion and conviction mark the difference between a great leader and a mediocre one.

Principles, not emotions, should guide your leadership.

Leadership Highlights in 1 Kings SOLOMON AND THE LAW OF THE BIG MO: Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend (2:1—­4:24)

page 408

SOLOMON: A Wise King Who Forgot the First Principle of Wisdom (1 Kings 4:29–­34)

page 413

REHOBOAM AND THE LAW OF CONNECTION: Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand (12:1–­24)

page 426

ELIJAH: Standing Alone, Speaking Truth (17:1—­18:40)

page 433

COURAGE: Elijah’s Fire and Passion Attract Others (18:1–­40)

page 434

CHARISMA: Ahab and Jezebel Manipulate People Because They Cannot Move Them (19:1—22:40)

page 440

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Adonijah Sets Himself Up as King When King Da­v id was very old, he ­could not keep warm even when they put cov­ers over him. 2 So his at­ten­dants said to him, “Let us look for a ­young vir­gin to ­serve the king and take care of him. She can lie be­side him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”

3 T hen they s ­ earched through­out Is­ra­el for a beau­ti­f ul young wom­an and ­found Ab­i­shag, a Shu­nam­mite, and ­brought her to the king. 4 The wom­an was very beau­ti­f ul; she took care of the king and wait­ed on him, but the king had no sex­u­a l re­la­tions with her.

5 Now Ad­o­ni­jah, ­whose moth­er was Hag­g ith, put him­self for­ward and said, “I will be king.”

So he got char­i­ots and hors­es a ­ready, with fif­t y men to run a­ head of him. 6 (His fa­ther had nev­er re­buked him by ask­ing, “Why do you be­have as you do?” He was also very hand­some and was born next af­ter Ab­sa­lom.)

7 Ad­o­ni­jah con­ferred with Joab son of Zer­u­ i­a h and with Abi­a­t har the ­priest, and they gave him ­t heir sup­port. 8 But Za­dok the p ­ riest, Be­na­ iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, Na­than the proph­et, Shim­ei and Rei and Da­v id’s spe­cial ­g uard did not join Ad­o­ni­jah.

9 Ad­o­ni­jah then sac­r i­f iced ­sheep, cat­t le and fat­tened ­calves at the ­Stone of Zo­he­leth near En Ro­gel. He in­v it­ed all his broth­ers, the ­k ing’s sons, and all the roy­a l of­f i­cials of Ju­dah, 10 but he did not in­v ite Na­than the proph­et or Be­na­iah or the spe­cial g­ uard or his broth­er Sol­o­mon.

11 T hen Na­t han ­asked Bath­she­ba, Sol­o­mon’s moth­er, “Have you not ­heard that Ad­o­ni­jah, the son of Hag­gith, has be­come king, and our lord Da­v id ­k nows noth­ing ­about it? 12 Now then, let me ad­v ise you how you can save your own life and the life of your son Sol­o­mon. 13 Go in to King Da­v id and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not ­swear to me your ser­vant: “Sure­ly Sol­o­mon your son s­ hall be king af­ter me, and he will sit on my ­t hrone”? Why then has Ad­o­ni­jah be­come king?’ 14 While you are ­still ­there talk­ing to the king, I will come in and add my word to what you have said.”

15 So Bath­she­ba went to see the aged king in his room, w ­ here Ab­i­shag the Shu­nam­mite was at­tend­ing him. 16 Bath­she­ba ­bowed down, pros­ trat­ing her­self be­fore the king.

“What is it you want?” the king asked.

17 She said to him, “My lord, you your­self ­swore to me your ser­vant by the Lord your God: ‘Sol­o­mon your son ­shall be king af­ter me, and he will sit on my ­throne.’ 18 But now Ad­o­ni­jah

1

1 Kings 1:34

has be­come king, and you, my lord the king, do not know ­about it. 19 He has sac­ri­f iced ­great num­bers of cat­tle, fat­tened ­calves, and ­sheep, and has in­v it­ed all the k­ ing’s sons, Abi­a­t har the ­priest and Joab the com­mand­er of the army, but he has not in­v it­ed Sol­o­mon your ser­vant. 20 My lord the king, the eyes of all Is­ra­el are on you, to ­learn from you who will sit on the ­t hrone of my lord the king af­ter him. 21 Oth­er­w ise, as soon as my lord the king is laid to rest with his an­ces­ tors, I and my son Sol­o­mon will be treat­ed as crim­i­nals.”

22 W hile she was ­still speak­i ng with the king, Na­than the proph­et ar­rived. 23 And the king was told, “Na­than the proph­et is here.” So he went be­fore the king and ­bowed with his face to the ground.

24 Na­t han said, “Have you, my lord the king, de­clared that Ad­o­ni­jah ­shall be king af­ter you, and that he will sit on your ­t hrone? 25 To­day he has gone down and sac­ri­f iced ­great num­bers of cat­t le, fat­tened c­ alves, and s­ heep. He has in­v it­ed all the ­k ing’s sons, the com­mand­ers of the army and Abi­a­t har the ­priest. ­R ight now they are eat­ ing and drink­ing with him and say­ing, ‘Long live King Ad­o­ni­jah!’ 26 But me your ser­vant, and Za­dok the ­priest, and Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, and your ser­vant Sol­o­mon he did not in­v ite. 27 Is this some­t hing my lord the king has done with­ out let­ting his ser­vants know who ­should sit on the ­throne of my lord the king af­ter him?”

David Makes Solomon King 28 T hen King Da­v id said, “Call in Bath­she­ba.”

So she came into the ­k ing’s pres­ence and ­stood be­fore him.

29 T he king then took an oath: “As sure­ly as the Lord ­lives, who has de­liv­ered me out of ev­ ery trou­ble, 30 I will sure­ly car­r y out this very day what I ­swore to you by the Lord, the God of Is­ ra­el: Sol­o­mon your son ­shall be king af­ter me, and he will sit on my t­ hrone in my place.”

31 Then Bath­she­ba b ­ owed down with her face to the ­ground, pros­trat­ing her­self be­fore the king, and said, “May my lord King Da­vid live for­ev­er!”

32 K ing Da­v id said, “Call in Za­dok the ­priest, Na­t han the proph­et and Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­ da.” When they came be­fore the king, 33 he said to them: “Take your l­ ord’s ser­vants with you and have Sol­o­mon my son ­mount my own mule and take him down to Gi­hon. 34 There have Za­dok the ­priest and Na­than the proph­et ­anoint him king over Is­ra­el. Blow the trum­pet and ­shout, a 5 Or charioteers

1 Kings

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1 Kings 1:35

‘Long live King Sol­o­mon!’ 35 Then you are to go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my ­t hrone and ­reign in my ­place. I have ap­point­ed him rul­er over Is­ra­el and Ju­dah.”

36 Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da an­swered the king, “Amen! May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so de­clare it. 37 As the Lord was with my lord the king, so may he be with Sol­o­mon to make his ­t hrone even great­er than the ­throne of my lord King Da­v id!”

38 So Za­ dok the p ­ riest, Na­than the proph­et, Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, the Ker­eth­ites and the Pel­e­t hites went down and had Sol­o­mon ­mount King Da­v id’s mule, and they es­cort­ed him to Gi­hon. 39 Za­dok the ­priest took the horn of oil from the sa­cred tent and anoint­ed Sol­o­mon.

Then they sound­ed the trum­pet and all the peo­ ple shout­ed, “Long live King Sol­o­mon!” 40 And all the peo­ple went up af­ter him, play­ing ­pipes and re­joic­ing great­ly, so that the ­ground ­shook with the sound.

41 Ad­o­ni­jah and all the ­g uests who were with him ­heard it as they were fin­ish­ing ­t heir ­feast.

On hear­ ing the ­ sound of the trum­ pet, Joab ­asked, “What’s the mean­ing of all the ­noise in the city?”

42 Even as he was speak­ ing, Jon­ a­ t han son of Abi­a­t har the ­priest ar­rived. Ad­o­ni­jah said, “Come in. A wor­thy man like you must be bring­ing good news.”

43 “Not at all!” Jon­a­t han an­swered. “Our lord King Da­v id has made Sol­o­mon king. 44 The king has sent with him Za­dok the ­priest, Na­t han the proph­et, Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, the Ker­eth­ites

and the Pel­e­thites, and they have put him on the ­k ing’s mule, 45 and Za­dok the ­priest and Na­t han the proph­et have anoint­ed him king at Gi­hon.

From ­there they have gone up cheer­ing, and the city re­sounds with it. ­That’s the ­noise you hear. 46 More­over, Sol­o­mon has tak­en his seat on the roy­a l ­t hrone. 47 A lso, the roy­a l of­f i­cials have come to con­grat­u ­late our lord King Da­v id, say­ ing, ‘May your God make Sol­o­mon’s name more fa­mous than ­yours and his t­ hrone great­er than ­yours!’ And the king ­bowed in wor­ship on his bed 48 and said, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Is­ra­el, who has al­lowed my eyes to see a suc­ ces­sor on my t­ hrone to­day.’ ” 49 At this, all Ad­o­ni­jah’s ­g uests rose in ­a larm and dis­persed. 50 But Ad­o­ni­jah, in fear of Sol­ o­mon, went and took hold of the h ­ orns of the al­tar. 51 Then Sol­o­mon was told, “Ad­o­ni­jah is ­afraid of King Sol­o­mon and is cling­ing to the ­horns of the al­tar. He says, ‘Let King Sol­o­mon ­swear to me to­day that he will not put his ser­ vant to d ­ eath with the sword.’ ” 52 Sol­o­mon re­plied, “If he s­hows him­self to be wor­thy, not a hair of his head will fall to the ­ground; but if evil is ­found in him, he will die.” 53 Then King Sol­o­mon sent men, and they ­brought him down from the al­tar. And Ad­o­ni­ jah came and ­bowed down to King Sol­o­mon, and Sol­o­mon said, “Go to your home.”

David’s Charge to Solomon When the time drew near for Da­v id to die, he gave a c­ harge to Sol­o­mon his son.

2 “I am a ­ bout to go the way of all the e­ arth,”

2

The Law of Legacy: David and Solomon 1 Kings 1:28–­4 0

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wo things greatly helped Solomon in his succession to the throne of Israel; both gave him the authority he required to rule. First, God chose him to be the next king. Second, David chose him as his successor.

Transitions in leadership often cause significant problems for groups and organizations. Notice what David did to smooth the transition process in his kingdom:

1. He made a public commitment (vv. 28–­30).

2. He brought key influencers into the process (v. 32).

3. He gave Solomon some of his own resources, easily recognizable to the people (v. 33).

4. He set up a public commissioning for Solomon (vv. 34–35).

5. He publicly endorsed Solomon’s leadership (v. 35).

6. He initiated a celebration to transition the leadership to his successor (vv. 39–40).

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he said. “So be ­strong, act like a man, 3 and ob­ serve what the Lord your God re­quires: Walk in obe­di­ence to him, and keep his de­crees and com­mands, his laws and reg­u ­la­tions, as writ­ten in the Law of Mo­ses. Do this so that you may pros­per in all you do and wher­ev­er you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his prom­ise to me: ‘If your de­scen­dants w ­ atch how they live, and if they walk faith­ful­ly be­fore me with all ­their ­heart and soul, you will nev­er fail to have a suc­ ces­sor on the t­ hrone of Is­ra­el.’

5 “Now you your­ self know what Joab son of Zer­u­i­a h did to me — ​what he did to the two com­mand­ers of Is­ra­el’s ar­mies, Ab­ner son of Ner and Am­a­sa son of Je­ther. He k­ illed them, shed­ding t­ heir b ­ lood in peace­time as if in bat­t le, and with that b ­ lood he ­stained the belt a­ round his w ­ aist and the san­dals on his feet. 6 Deal with him ac­cord­ing to your wis­dom, but do not let his gray head go down to the g­ rave in peace.

7 “But show kind­ness to the sons of Bar­zil­lai of Gil­e­ad and let them be ­among ­t hose who eat at your ta­ble. They ­stood by me when I fled from your broth­er Ab­sa­lom.

8 “And re­mem­ber, you have with you Shim­ei son of Gera, the Ben­ja­mite from Ba­hu­rim, who ­called down bit­ter curs­es on me the day I went to Ma­ha­na­im. When he came down to meet me at the Jor­dan, I ­swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to ­death by the ­sword.’ 9 But now, do not con­sid­er him in­no­cent. You are a man of wis­dom; you will know what to do to him. ­Bring his gray head down to the g­ rave in blood.”

10 Then Da­ v id rest­ ed with his an­ ces­ tors and was bur­ied in the City of Da­v id. 11 He had ­reigned for­t y ­years over Is­ra­el — ​sev­en ­years in He­bron and thir­t y-­t hree in Je­ru­sa­lem. 12 So Sol­ o­mon sat on the ­t hrone of his fa­t her Da­v id, and his rule was firm­ly es­tab­lished.

Solomon’s Throne Established 13 Now Ad­o­ni­jah, the son of Hag­g ith, went to Bath­she­ba, Sol­o­mon’s moth­er. Bath­she­ba ­asked him, “Do you come peace­ful­ly?”

He an­swered, “Yes, peace­f ul­ly.” 14 Then he add­ed, “I have some­thing to say to you.”

“You may say it,” she re­plied.

15 “As you know,” he said, “the king­dom was mine. All Is­ra­el l­ooked to me as t­ heir king. But ­things c­ hanged, and the king­dom has gone to my broth­er; for it has come to him from the Lord. 16 Now I have one re­quest to make of you.

Do not refuse me.”

“You may make it,” she said.

17 So he con­tin­ued, “Please ask King Sol­o­

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1 Kings 2:23

mon — ​he will not refuse you — ​to give me Ab­i­ shag the Shu­nam­mite as my wife.”

18 “Very well,” Bath­she­ba re­plied, “I will s ­ peak to the king for you.”

19 W hen Bath­she­ba went to King Sol­o­mon to ­speak to him for Ad­o­ni­jah, the king ­stood up to meet her, ­bowed down to her and sat down on his ­t hrone. He had a ­t hrone ­brought for the ­k ing’s moth­er, and she sat down at his ­right hand.

20 “I have one ­small re­quest to make of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.”

The king re­plied, “Make it, my moth­er; I will not refuse you.”

21 So she said, “Let Ab­i­shag the Shu­nam­mite be giv­en in mar­riage to your broth­er Ad­o­ni­jah.”

22 K ing Sol­o­mon an­swered his moth­er, “Why do you re­quest Ab­i­shag the Shu­nam­mite for Ad­ o­ni­jah? You m ­ ight as well re­quest the king­dom for him — ​af­ter all, he is my old­er broth­er — ​yes, for him and for Abi­a­thar the ­priest and Joab son of Zer­u­i­a h!”

23 Then King Sol­o­mon ­swore by the Lord: “May God deal with me, be it ever so se­vere­ly, if

The Law of the Inner Circle: Solomon Ensures Loyalty 1 Kings 2:1–­4 6

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olomon had to make some tough but crucial leadership decisions at the beginning of his reign. First, he had to deal with men scheming for power; even his own brother, Adonijah, tried to set up his own kingdom. One by one, King Solomon discerned the loyalties of his associates, then removed all who refused to cooperate with him.

Solomon knew he could never work with renegades, no matter how influential or strategic they might seem. The young king ensured that his inner circle would include only loyal men who wanted to work with him.

David had seen these troubles brewing on the horizon. He knew he was placing his son in a precarious leadership situation, but twice he confidently declared that Solomon would know what to do (1Ki 2:6, 9). David understood that those closest to Solomon would greatly hinder or improve his level of success. Solomon understood the same thing—­and wisely acted on it.

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21 LAWS SOLOMON AND THE LAW OF THE BIG MO Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend 1 Kings 2:1—4:24 IT TAKES a leader to create momentum.

Followers catch it. And managers are able to continue it once it has begun. But creating it requires someone who can motivate others, not one who needs to be motivated.

Harry Truman once said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” For leaders, that statement should be changed to read, “If you can’t make some heat, get out of the kitchen.”

All leaders face the challenge of creating change in an organization. Just as every sailor knows you can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving forward, strong leaders understand that to change direction, you first have to create forward progress. Without momentum, even the simplest tasks can seem insurmountable. But with momentum on your side, the future looks bright, obstacles appear small, and trouble seems temporary. With enough momentum, nearly any kind of change is possible.

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

The time of transition from one leader to another presents the most critical challenge to continuing momentum. How did Solomon so successfully take the reins from his father? Consider the following actions the young king took to ensure a smooth transition: 1.

He started with what David provided. Solomon’s father gave him everything he needed to start his reign: a stable kingdom, plentiful

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resources, wise counsel, and his public endorsement. David made it clear to everyone in Israel that he had chosen Solomon as king.

2.

He humbly asked for leadership wisdom above all else. Solomon probably became king at about 18 years of age, yet despite his youth, he recognized the difficulties of leadership. He knew he needed wisdom above all else, so he asked for an understanding heart to judge God’s people. That request kept his motives pure and made it possible for him to avoid momentum-­ breakers.

3.

He made wise decisions that won him credibility. Solomon made several deft decisions concerning enemies to his throne. He exiled one opponent, executed two others, and put a fourth under house arrest. But even more important, he cemented his credibility with the people. The wisdom he displayed in a domestic dispute profoundly impacted the people: “When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe” (1Ki 3:28).

4.

He maintained the peace. Solomon’s bold moves against enemies within Israel maintained peace at home, thus preventing a bloody civil war.

But Solomon wisely took additional

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military leader, David, created the nation’s momentum. Yet Solomon never led an army; his goals weren’t military in nature. He gave most of his attention to trade and construction—­and that meant he had to change the direction of the nation’s momentum.

measures to keep other nations from threatening his country’s progress—­ and therefore he “had peace on all sides” (1Ki 4:24).

5.

He surrounded himself with wise associates. Only Solomon among the kings of Israel can challenge David as the architect of a great inner circle. Solomon kept on a few of David’s trusted servants in his own administration, but not many.

Most of them he nurtured himself.

What It Takes to Sustain Momentum How does a winning team keep winning? What makes it possible for an organization to keep the momentum going?

The answer is not what, but who. It takes a leader to sustain momentum, a leader who possesses . . .

1.

A willingness to accept responsibility for the organization’s momentum. Most leaders happily accept responsibility so long as an organization succeeds, but hedge when the organization starts to slip. Yet momentum—­positive, negative, or nonexistent—­is always the leader’s responsibility. Olan Hendrix, CEO of the Leadership Resource Group, maintains that after you’ve led an organization for three years, every problem is your problem.

2.

A willingness to direct momentum instead of letting it direct him.

Momentum always has a direction.

Most people in an organization have little impact on its momentum; it simply carries them. But leaders cannot afford to surf momentum; they must steer it. Before Solomon became king, an outstanding

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3.

A willingness to be enthusiastic at all times. Remain positive! Some personality types find it easy to remain enthusiastic; others don’t.

Reflect on the following secrets to keeping leadership positive all the time: ■■

The work I’m doing is most important. Make sure your vision, your mission, and your actions all line up.

It’s easy to stay excited when what you’re doing really matters.

■■

The people I work with are the best.

Place a high value on everyone you work with. Expect the best of them, and they’ll give their best.

■■

The results will be positive. For the most part, you get what you expect. Only occasionally will you be surprised—­but even then, you’ll just as often be surprised by better results as by worse ones.

Have you ever met a leader with a chronically negative attitude who was able to continually sustain positive momentum?

Probably not.

No leader can ignore the impact of momentum. If you’ve got it, you and your people will be able to accomplish things you never thought possible. If you don’t, the smallest tasks will seem difficult. As the leader, you must make the choice to have it.

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Ad­o­ni­jah does not pay with his life for this re­ quest! 24 And now, as sure­ly as the Lord ­lives — ​ he who has es­tab­lished me se­cure­ly on the ­throne of my fa­ther Da­vid and has found­ed a dy­nas­ty for me as he prom­ised — ​Ad­o­ni­jah ­shall be put to ­death to­day!” 25 So King Sol­o­mon gave or­ders to Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, and he ­struck down Ad­ o­ni­jah and he died.

26 To Abi­ a­thar the ­priest the king said, “Go back to your ­f ields in An­a­t hoth. You de­serve to die, but I will not put you to ­death now, be­cause you car­ried the ark of the Sov­er­eign Lord be­ fore my fa­t her Da­v id and ­shared all my fa­t her’s hard­ships.” 27 So Sol­o­mon re­moved Abi­a­t har from the priest­hood of the Lord, ful­f ill­ing the word the Lord had spo­ken at Shi­loh ­about the ­house of Eli. 28 W hen the news r ­ eached Joab, who had con­ spired with Ad­o­ni­jah ­though not with Ab­sa­lom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the ­horns of the al­tar. 29 K ing Sol­o­mon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was be­side the al­tar. Then Sol­o­mon or­dered Be­ na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, “Go, ­strike him down!”

30 So Be­na­iah en­tered the tent of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’ ” But he an­swered, “No, I will die here.”

Be­na­iah re­port­ed to the king, “This is how Joab an­swered me.”

31 Then the king com­mand­ed Be­na­iah, “Do as he says. S­ trike him down and bury him, and so ­clear me and my whole fam­i­ly of the g­ uilt of the in­no­cent ­blood that Joab shed. 32 The Lord will re­pay him for the ­blood he shed, be­cause with­out my fa­ther Da­vid know­ing it he at­tacked two men and k­ illed them with the ­sword. Both of them — ​ Ab­ner son of Ner, com­mand­er of Is­ra­el’s army, and Am­a­sa son of Je­ther, com­mand­er of Ju­dah’s army — ​were bet­ter men and more up­right than he. 33 May the ­guilt of ­their b ­ lood rest on the head of Joab and his de­scen­dants for­ev­er. But on Da­vid and his de­scen­dants, his ­house and his ­throne, may t­ here be the Lord’s ­peace for­ev­er.”

34 So Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da went up and ­struck down Joab and ­k illed him, and he was bur­ied at his home out in the coun­try. 35 The king put Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da over the army in Jo­ab’s po­si­tion and re­placed Abi­a­t har with Za­dok the priest.

36 T hen the king sent for Shim­ei and said to him, “Build your­self a h ­ ouse in Je­ru­sa­lem and live ­there, but do not go any­where else. 37 The day you ­leave and ­cross the Kid­ron Val­ley, you can be sure you will die; your ­blood will be on your own head.”

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38 Shim­ei an­swered the king, “What you say is

good. Your ser­vant will do as my lord the king has said.” And Shim­ei ­stayed in Je­ru­sa­lem for a long time.

39 But ­t hree ­years lat­er, two of Shim­ei’s s ­ laves ran off to ­Achish son of Ma­a ­kah, king of Gath, and Shim­ei was told, “Your ­slaves are in Gath.”

40 At this, he sad­d led his don­key and went to ­Achish at Gath in ­search of his ­slaves. So Shim­ ei went away and b ­ rought the ­slaves back from Gath.

41 W hen Sol­o­mon was told that Shim­ei had gone from Je­ru­sa­lem to Gath and had re­turned, 42 t he king sum­moned Shim­ei and said to him, “Did I not make you ­swear by the Lord and warn you, ‘On the day you l­eave to go any­where else, you can be sure you will die’? At that time you said to me, ‘What you say is good. I will obey.’ 43 W hy then did you not keep your oath to the Lord and obey the com­mand I gave you?”

44 T he king also said to Shim­ ei, “You know in your ­heart all the w ­ rong you did to my fa­ ther Da­v id. Now the Lord will re­pay you for your wrong­do­ing. 45 But King Sol­o­mon will be ­blessed, and Da­v id’s ­t hrone will re­main se­cure be­fore the Lord for­ev­er.”

46 Then the king gave the or­der to Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da, and he went out and s­ truck Shim­ei down and he died.

The king­dom was now es­tab­lished in Sol­o­ mon’s hands.

Solomon Asks for Wisdom Sol­o­mon made an al­li­ance with Phar­aoh king of ­Egypt and mar­ried his daugh­ter.

He b ­ rought her to the City of Da­v id un­til he fin­ished build­ing his pal­ace and the tem­ple of the Lord, and the wall ­around Je­ru­sa­lem. 2 The peo­ple, how­ev­er, were ­still sac­ri­f ic­ing at the high plac­es, be­cause a tem­ple had not yet been b ­ uilt for the Name of the Lord. 3 Sol­o­mon ­showed his love for the Lord by walk­ing ac­cord­ing to the in­struc­tions giv­en him by his fa­t her Da­v id, ex­cept that he of­fered sac­ri­f ic­es and ­burned in­ cense on the high plac­es.

4 The king went to Gib­e­on to of­fer sac­ri­f ic­es, for that was the most im­por­tant high p ­ lace, and Sol­o­mon of­fered a thou­sand ­burnt of­fer­ings on that al­tar. 5 At Gib­e­on the Lord ap­peared to Sol­ o­mon dur­ing the ­night in a ­dream, and God said, “Ask for what­ev­er you want me to give you.”

6 Sol­o­mon an­swered, “You have ­shown ­g reat kind­ness to your ser­vant, my fa­t her Da­v id, be­ cause he was faith­f ul to you and righ­teous and up­right in ­heart. You have con­tin­ued this ­great

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kind­ness to him and have giv­en him a son to sit on his t­ hrone this very day.

7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your ser­vant king in ­place of my fa­ther Da­v id. But I am only a lit­tle ­child and do not know how to car­ry out my du­ties. 8 Your ser­vant is here ­among the peo­ple you have cho­sen, a ­great peo­ ple, too nu­mer­ous to c­ ount or num­ber. 9 So give your ser­vant a dis­cern­ing ­heart to gov­ern your peo­ple and to dis­tin­g uish be­tween ­right and ­w rong. For who is able to gov­ern this ­great peo­ ple of yours?”

10 The Lord was ­pleased that Sol­o­mon had ­asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have ­asked for this and not for long life or ­wealth for your­self, nor have ­asked for the d ­ eath of your en­e­mies but for dis­cern­ment in ad­min­ is­ter­ing jus­tice, 12 I will do what you have a­ sked.

I will give you a wise and dis­cern­ing ­heart, so that ­t here will nev­er have been any­one like you, nor will ­there ever be. 13 More­over, I will give you what you have not ­asked for — ​both w ­ ealth and hon­or — ​so that in your life­time you will have no e­ qual a­ mong ­k ings. 14 And if you walk in obe­di­ence to me and keep my de­crees and com­mands as Da­v id your fa­t her did, I will give you a long life.” 15 Then Sol­o­mon ­awoke — ​and he re­a l­ized it had been a dream.

1 Kings 3:23

He re­turned to Je­ru­sa­lem, ­stood be­fore the ark of the ­Lord’s cov­enant and sac­ri­f iced ­burnt of­fer­ings and fel­low­ship of­fer­ings. Then he gave a f­ east for all his court.

A Wise Ruling 16 Now two pros­t i­t utes came to the king and ­stood be­fore him. 17 One of them said, “Par­don me, my lord. This wom­an and I live in the same ­house, and I had a baby ­while she was t­ here with me. 18 The ­third day af­ter my c­ hild was born, this wom­an also had a baby. We were a­ lone; ­there was no one in the h ­ ouse but the two of us.

19 “Dur­ing the ­night this wom­an’s son died be­cause she lay on him. 20 So she got up in the mid­d le of the ­night and took my son from my side ­while I your ser­vant was ­asleep. She put him by her ­breast and put her dead son by my ­breast. 21 The next morn­ing, I got up to n ­ urse my son — ​and he was dead! But when I l­ooked at him close­ly in the morn­ing ­light, I saw that it ­wasn’t the son I had borne.”

22 T he oth­er wom­a n said, “No! The liv­ing one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

But the ­f irst one in­sist­ed, “No! The dead one is ­yours; the liv­ing one is mine.” And so they ar­ gued be­fore the king.

23 T he king said, “This one says, ‘My son is

The Law of Intuition: Solomon’s Problem Solving Gave Him Influence 1 Kings 3:3–­2 8

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hat would you choose if God offered to give you anything you named? King Solomon came face-­ to-­face with that delightful dilemma when Yahweh presented the young king with his equivalent of the genie in the bottle. “Ask for whatever you want me to give you,” the Lord said to Solomon one night (1Ki 3:5).

Solomon displayed a good amount of wisdom by asking for more of it to lead the people of Israel.

God not only answered his request, but also gave him what he did not ask for: riches, honor, long life and conquest. Leadership wisdom allowed Solomon to:

1. Make wise decisions for his nation.

2. Choose the right staff for his palace.

3. Judge wisely between disputing parties.

4. Recognize priorities and gain perspective.

Before chapter 3 ends, Solomon has the chance to demonstrate his wisdom. Two women bring a child to him, both claiming to be the mother. Solomon tells them to cut the baby in half and let each woman have part of the child. He wisely used his knowledge of the overpowering maternal instinct to reveal the identity of the true mother.

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a­ live and your son is dead,’ ­while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’ ” 24 T hen the king said, “Bring me a ­sword.” So they ­brought a ­sword for the king. 25 He then gave an or­der: “Cut the liv­ing ­child in two and give half to one and half to the oth­er.”

26 T he wom­a n ­whose son was a ­ live was deep­ ly ­moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the liv­ing baby! ­Don’t kill him!”

But the oth­er said, “Nei­ther I nor you ­shall have him. Cut him in two!”

27 T hen the king gave his rul­ing: “Give the liv­ ing baby to the ­f irst wom­an. Do not kill him; she is his moth­er.”

28 W hen all Is­ra­el ­heard the ver­d ict the king had giv­en, they held the king in awe, be­cause they saw that he had wis­dom from God to ad­ min­is­ter jus­tice.

Solomon’s Officials and Governors So King Sol­o­mon r­ uled over all Is­ra­el. 2 And ­t hese were his ­chief of­f i­cials:

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Az­a­ri­a h son of Za­dok — ​the priest; 3 El­i­ho­reph and Ahi­jah, sons of Shi­sha — ​ sec­re­tar­ies; Je­hosh­a­phat son of Ahi­lud — ​re­cord­er; 4 Be­na­iah son of Je­hoi­a­da — ​com­mand­er in chief; Za­dok and Abi­a­thar — ​­priests; 5 Az­a­ri­a h son of Na­t han — ​in ­charge of the dis­trict gov­er­nors; Za­bud son of Na­t han — ​a p ­ riest and ad­v is­ er to the king; 6 Ahi­shar — ​pal­ace ad­min­is­tra­tor; Ad­ o­ ni­ ram son of Abda — ​ in ­ charge of ­forced la­bor.

7 Sol­o­mon had ­t welve dis­t rict gov­er­nors over all Is­ra­el, who sup­plied pro­v i­sions for the king and the roy­a l house­hold. Each one had to pro­ vide sup­plies for one ­month in the year. 8 These are t­ heir names:

Ben-Hur — ​in the hill coun­try of Ephra­im; 9 Ben-De­ker — ​in Ma­kaz, Sha­a l­bim, Beth She­mesh and Elon Beth­ha­nan; 10 Ben-He­sed — ​in Arub­both (So­koh and all the land of He­pher were his); 11 Ben-Abin­a­dab — ​in Na­photh Dor (he was mar­ried to Ta­phath daugh­ter of Sol­o­mon); 12 Ba­a­na son of Ahi­lud — ​in Ta­a­nach and Me­gid­do, and in all of Beth Shan next to Zar­e­t han be­low Jez­re­el, from Beth Shan to Abel Me­ho­lah ­across to Jok­me­am;

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13 Ben-Ge­ber — ​in Ra­moth Gil­e­ad (the set­tle­ ments of Jair son of Ma­nas­seh in Gil­e­ad were his, as well as the re­gion of Ar­gob in Ba­shan and its six­t y ­large ­walled cit­ ies with b ­ ronze gate bars); 14 Ahin­a­dab son of Iddo — ​in Ma­ha­na­im; 15 Ahim­a­az — ​in Naph­ta­li (he had mar­ried Bas­e­math daugh­ter of Sol­o­mon); 16 Ba­a­na son of Hu­shai — ​in Ash­er and in Aloth; 17 Je­hosh­a­phat son of Pa­ru­a h — ​in Is­sa­char; 18 Shim­ei son of Ela — ​in Ben­ja­min; 19 Ge­ber son of Uri — ​in Gil­e­ad (the coun­try of Si­hon king of the Am­o­rites and the coun­try of Og king of Ba­shan). He was the only gov­er­nor over the dis­trict.

Solomon’s Daily Provisions 20 T he peo­ple of Ju­dah and Is­ra­el were as nu­ mer­ous as the sand on the sea­shore; they ate, they ­drank and they were hap­py. 21 And Sol­o­ mon r­ uled over all the king­doms from the Eu­ phra­tes Riv­er to the land of the Phi­lis­tines, as far as the bor­der of ­Egypt. T ­ hese coun­tries ­brought trib­ute and were Sol­o­mon’s sub­jects all his life.

22 Sol­o­mon’s dai­ly pro­v i­sions were thir­t y cors a of the fin­est f­ lour and six­t y cors b of meal, 23 ten head of ­stall-fed cat­tle, twen­ty of pas­ture-fed cat­t le and a hun­dred s­ heep and ­goats, as well as deer, ga­zelles, roe­bucks and c­ hoice fowl. 24 For he ­ruled over all the king­doms west of the Eu­ phra­tes Riv­er, from Tiph­sah to Gaza, and had ­peace on all ­sides. 25 Dur­ing Sol­o­mon’s life­time Ju­dah and Is­ra­el, from Dan to Be­er­she­ba, ­lived in safe­ty, ev­ery­one un­der t­heir own vine and un­der their own fig tree.

26 Sol­o­mon had four c thou­sand ­stalls for char­ i­ot hors­es, and ­twelve thou­sand hors­es. d 27 T he dis­t rict gov­er­nors, each in his ­month, sup­plied pro­v i­sions for King Sol­o­mon and all who came to the ­k ing’s ta­ble. They saw to it that noth­ing was lack­ing. 28 They also ­brought to the prop­er p ­ lace t­ heir quo­tas of bar­ley and s­ traw for the char­i­ot hors­es and the oth­er hors­es.

Solomon’s Wisdom 29 God gave Sol­o­mon wis­dom and very g ­ reat in­sight, and a ­breadth of un­der­stand­ing as mea­ sure­less as the sand on the sea­shore. 30 Sol­o­mon’s wis­dom was great­er than the wis­dom of all the a 22

That is, probably about 5 1/2 tons or about 5 metric tons That is, probably about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons c 26 Some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Chron. 9:25); Hebrew forty d 26 Or charioteers b 22

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peo­ple of the East, and great­er than all the wis­ dom of ­Egypt. 31 He was wis­er than any­one else, in­clud­ing ­Ethan the Ez­ra­hite — ​w is­er than He­ man, Kal­kol and Dar­da, the sons of Ma­hol.

And his fame ­spread to all the sur­round­ing na­ tions. 32 He s­ poke t­ hree thou­sand prov­erbs and his s­ ongs num­bered a thou­sand and five. 33 He ­spoke ­about ­plant life, from the ce­dar of Leb­a­ non to the hys­sop that ­grows out of ­walls. He also ­spoke ­about an­i­mals and ­birds, rep­tiles and fish. 34 From all na­tions peo­ple came to lis­ten to Sol­o­mon’s wis­dom, sent by all the ­k ings of the ­world, who had ­heard of his wis­dom. a Preparations for Building the Temple b When Hi­ram king of Tyre ­heard that Sol­ o­mon had been anoint­ed king to suc­ceed his fa­t her Da­v id, he sent his en­voys to Sol­o­mon, be­cause he had al­ways been on friend­ly t­erms with Da­v id. 2 Sol­o­mon sent back this mes­sage to Hi­ram:

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3 “You know that be­cause of the wars ­ aged ­against my fa­ther Da­v id from all w ­sides, he ­could not ­build a tem­ple for the Name of the Lord his God un­til the Lord put his en­e­mies un­der his feet. 4 But now the Lord my God has giv­en me rest on ev­

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SOLOMON

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1 Kings 5:9

ery side, and ­there is no ad­ver­sary or di­sas­ ter. 5 I in­tend, there­fore, to ­build a tem­ple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my fa­t her Da­v id, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the ­throne in your ­place will b ­ uild the tem­ple for my Name.’

6 “So give or­ders that ce­dars of Leb­a­ non be cut for me. My men will work with ­yours, and I will pay you for your men what­ev­er wag­es you set. You know that we have no one so s­ killed in fell­ing tim­ber as the Si­do­ni­ans.”

7 W hen

Hi­ram ­heard Sol­o­mon’s mes­sage, he was great­ly ­pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord to­day, for he has giv­en Da­v id a wise son to rule over this g­ reat na­tion.”

8 So Hi­ram sent word to Sol­o­mon: “I have re­ceived the mes­sage you sent me and will do all you want in pro­v id­ing the ce­dar and ju­ni­per logs. 9 My men will haul them down from Leb­a­non to the Med­i­ter­ ra­ne­an Sea, and I will ­f loat them as ­rafts by sea to the p ­ lace you spec­i­f y. ­There I will a 34 In Hebrew texts 4:21-34 is numbered 5:1-14. b In Hebrew texts 5:1-18 is numbered 5:15-32.

A Wise King Who Forgot the First Principle of Wisdom 1 Kings 4:29–­3 4

or a smart guy, he sure ended up doing some dumb things.

Near the beginning of Solomon’s reign, God approached the young king with a proposal: Ask me for anything you want. Much to God’s delight, Solomon didn’t ask for great riches, respect among world leaders, or an invincible nation. Solomon asked for wisdom, and God answered abundantly.

The Bible tells us that the Lord gave the king “wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore,” and that his wisdom exceeded that of anyone else (1Ki 4:29–­31). Solomon’s expansive mind explored the disciplines of botany, zoology and musicology, and pondered topics ranging from economics to communication to love.

The wisdom of King Solomon helped Israel to prosper greatly. His kingdom annually took in untold amounts of gold and silver and other precious commodities. Solomon himself amassed wealth greater than all the kings of his time (1Ki 10:23).

But by the end of his reign, this brilliant king somehow forgot the first principle of wisdom: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10). When Solomon was old, “his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God” (1Ki 11:4). Only wisdom energized by a vibrant walk with God makes godly leaders.

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1 Kings 5:10

Partnerships Allow Leaders to Achieve Far More 1 Kings 5:1–­10

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hen Solomon began his rule, Hiram, the king of Tyre, congratulated him on his new position. Solomon capitalized on the relationship and invited Hiram to help him build the temple. Together, the two leaders achieved far more than they could have alone. That’s partnership.

sep­a­rate them and you can take them away.

And you are to ­grant my wish by pro­v id­ing food for my roy­a l house­hold.”

10 In this way Hi­ram kept Sol­o­mon sup­plied with all the ce­dar and ju­ni­per logs he want­ed, 11 a nd Sol­o­mon gave Hi­ram twen­t y thou­sand cors a of ­wheat as food for his house­hold, in ad­ ­ ressed ol­ di­tion to twen­t y thou­sand ­baths b , c of p ive oil. Sol­o­mon con­tin­ued to do this for Hi­ram year af­ter year. 12 The Lord gave Sol­o­mon wis­ dom, just as he had prom­ised him. T ­ here were peace­ful re­la­tions be­tween Hi­ram and Sol­o­mon, and the two of them made a trea­t y.

13 K ing Sol­o­mon con­script­ed la­bor­ers from all Is­ra­el — ​t hir ­t y thou­sand men. 14 He sent them off to Leb­a­non in ­shifts of ten thou­sand am ­ onth, so that they s­ pent one ­month in Leb­ a­non and two m ­ onths at home. Ad­o­ni­ram was in ­charge of the ­forced la­bor. 15 Sol­o­mon had sev­en­t y thou­sand car­ri­ers and ­eighty thou­sand stone­cut­ters in the ­hills, 16 as well as thir­t y-­t hree men who su­ per­ v ised the proj­ hun­dred d fore­ ect and di­rect­ed the work­ers. 17 At the ­k ing’s com­mand they re­moved from the quar­r y ­large ­blocks of high-­grade ­stone to pro­v ide a foun­ da­tion of d ­ ressed s­tone for the tem­ple. 18 The crafts­men of Sol­o­mon and Hi­ram and work­ers from Byb­los cut and pre­pared the tim­ber and ­stone for the build­ing of the tem­ple.

Solomon Builds the Temple In the four hun­dred and eight­i­eth e year af­ ter the Is­ra­el­ites came out of ­Egypt, in the ­fourth year of Sol­o­mon’s ­reign over Is­ra­el, in the ­month of Ziv, the sec­ond ­month, he be­gan to ­build the tem­ple of the Lord.

2 T he tem­ple that King Sol­o­mon ­built for the Lord was six­ty cu­bits long, twen­ty wide and thir­t y high. f 3 The por­ti­co at the ­front of the

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main hall of the tem­ple ex­tend­ed the w ­ idth of the tem­ple, that is twen­ty cu­bits, g and pro­ject­ ed ten cu­bits h from the ­front of the tem­ple. 4 He made nar­row win­dows high up in the tem­ple ­ alls of the main hall and ­walls. 5 Against the w in­ner sanc­tu­ary he ­built a struc­ture ­around the build­ing, in ­which ­t here were side ­rooms. 6 The low­est ­floor was five cu­bits i wide, the mid­d le ­f loor six cu­bits j and the ­t hird ­f loor sev­en. k He made off­set ledg­es ­around the out­side of the tem­ple so that noth­ing ­would be in­sert­ed into the tem­ple walls.

7 In build­ing the tem­ple, only ­blocks d ­ ressed at the quar­r y were used, and no ham­mer, chis­el or any oth­er iron tool was h ­ eard at the tem­ple site w ­ hile it was be­ing built.

8 T he en­t rance to the low­est l ­f loor was on the ­south side of the tem­ple; a stair­way led up to the mid­d le lev­el and from ­there to the ­third. 9 So he ­built the tem­ple and com­plet­ed it, roof­ing it ­ uilt the with ­beams and ce­dar ­planks. 10 And he b side ­rooms all a­ long the tem­ple. The ­height of each was five cu­bits, and they were at­tached to the tem­ple by b ­ eams of ce­dar.

11 T he word of the Lord came to Sol­ o­mon: 12 “As for this tem­ple you are build­ing, if you fol­low my de­crees, ob­serve my laws and keep all my com­mands and obey them, I will ful­f ill ­through you the prom­ise I gave to Da­v id your fa­t her. 13 And I will live a­ mong the Is­ra­el­ites and will not aban­don my peo­ple Is­ra­el.”

14 So Sol­o­mon ­built the tem­ple and com­plet­ ed it. 15 He ­lined its in­te­ri­or ­walls with ce­dar ­boards, pan­el­ing them from the ­floor of the tem­ple to the ceil­ing, and cov­ered the ­f loor of the tem­ple with ­planks of ju­ni­per. 16 He par­ti­ tioned off twen­t y cu­bits at the rear of the tem­ ple with ce­dar ­boards from ­floor to ceil­ing to form with­in the tem­ple an in­ner sanc­tu­ary, the Most Holy ­Place. 17 The main hall in f­ ront of this room was for­t y cu­bits m long. 18 The in­side of the tem­ple was ce­dar, ­carved with g­ ourds and open a 11

That is, probably about 3,600 tons or about 3,250 metric tons b 11 Septuagint (see also 2 Chron. 2:10); Hebrew twenty cors c 11 That is, about 120,000 gallons or about 440,000 liters d 16 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts (see also 2 Chron. 2:2,18) thirty-six hundred e 1 Hebrew; Septuagint four hundred and fortieth f 2 That is, about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 27 meters long, 9 meters wide and 14 meters high g 3 That is, about 30 feet or about 9 meters; also in verses 16 and 20 h 3 That is, about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters; also in verses 23-26 i 6 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verses 10 and 24 j 6 That is, about 9 feet or about 2.7 meters k 6 That is, about 11 feet or about 3.2 meters l 8 Septuagint; Hebrew middle m 17 That is, about 60 feet or about 18 meters

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flow­ers. Ev­ery­t hing was ce­dar; no ­stone was to be seen.

19 He pre­pared the in­ner sanc­tu­a ry with­in the tem­ple to set the ark of the cov­enant of the Lord ­t here. 20 The in­ner sanc­tu­ary was twen­t y cu­bits long, twen­t y wide and twen­t y high. He over­laid the in­side with pure gold, and he also over­laid the al­tar of ce­dar. 21 Sol­o­mon cov­ered the in­side of the tem­ple with pure gold, and he ex­tend­ed gold ­chains a­ cross the ­front of the in­ner sanc­ tu­ary, w ­ hich was over­laid with gold. 22 So he over­laid the w ­ hole in­te­ri­or with gold. He also over­laid with gold the al­tar that be­longed to the in­ner sanc­tu­ary.

23 For the in­ner sanc­tu­a ry he made a pair of cher­u­bim out of ol­ive wood, each ten cu­bits high. 24 One wing of the ­f irst cher­ub was five cu­ bits long, and the oth­er wing five cu­bits — ​ten cu­bits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The sec­ ond cher­ub also mea­sured ten cu­bits, for the two cher­u­bim were iden­ti­cal in size and ­shape.

26 T he h ­ eight of each cher­ub was ten cu­bits. 27 He ­placed the cher­u­bim in­side the in­ner­most room of the tem­ple, with ­t heir w ­ ings ­spread out. The wing of one cher­ub t­ ouched one wall, ­while the wing of the oth­er ­touched the oth­er wall, and ­t heir w ­ ings ­touched each oth­er in the mid­d le of the room. 28 He over­laid the cher­u­bim with gold.

1 Kings 6:38 29 On

the w ­ alls all a­ round the tem­ple, in both the in­ner and out­er r­ ooms, he ­carved cher­u­bim, palm t­ rees and open flow­ers. 30 He also cov­ered the ­f loors of both the in­ner and out­er ­rooms of the tem­ple with gold.

31 For the en­trance to the in­ner sanc­tu­ary he made d ­ oors out of ol­ive wood that were one ­fifth of the ­w idth of the sanc­tu­ary. 32 And on the two ol­ive-wood d ­ oors he c­ arved cher­u­bim, palm t­rees and open flow­ers, and over­laid the cher­u­bim and palm ­trees with ham­mered gold.

33 In the same way, for the en­t rance to the main hall he made door­frames out of ol­ive wood that were one ­fourth of the ­w idth of the hall. 34 He also made two ­doors out of ju­ni­per wood, each hav­ing two ­leaves that ­turned in sock­ets. 35 He ­carved cher­u­bim, palm ­trees and open flow­ers on them and over­laid them with gold ham­mered even­ly over the carv­ings.

36 A nd he ­built the in­ner court­yard of ­three cours­ es of d ­ressed s­tone and one ­ course of ­trimmed ce­dar beams.

37 T he foun­da­tion of the tem­ple of the Lord was laid in the f­ ourth year, in the ­month of Ziv. 38 In the elev­enth year in the ­month of Bul, the ­eighth ­month, the tem­ple was fin­ished in all its de­tails ac­cord­ing to its spec­i­f i­ca­tions. He had ­spent sev­en ­years build­ing it.

The Difficulty of Handling Power 1 Kings 6:1–­3 8

S

olomon built the temple with excellence, sparing no expense and caring for each detail. He finished even the “invisible parts” with high quality and precision. Through his building program, Solomon became known everywhere and his power vastly increased.

And that may be the very thing that led to his later problems.

Every leader has power, gained in a variety of ways. Ponder the following “power platforms” and ask yourself: Which ones do I use with others?

1. Coercive Power: based on fear; failure to comply brings punishment Weakness: Volunteers cannot be forced to act.

2. Connection Power: based on who you know, not who you are Weakness: It becomes political.

3. Charisma Power: based on personality Weakness: Smiles and warm feelings cannot replace truth.

4. Competence Power: based on ability to get results Weakness: Raw ability is good, but not if it alienates or fails to empower people.

5. Christmas Power: based on gifts bestowed Weakness: People want what they don’t need, and need what they don’t want.

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Solomon Builds His Palace It took Sol­o­mon thir­teen ­years, how­ev­er, to com­plete the con­struc­tion of his pal­ace.

2 He b ­ uilt the Pal­ace of the For­est of Leb­a­non a hun­dred cu­bits long, fif­ty wide and thir­ty high, a with four rows of ce­dar col­umns sup­ port­ing ­trimmed ce­dar ­beams. 3 It was ­roofed with ce­dar a­ bove the b ­ eams that rest­ed on the col­umns — ​for­ty-five ­beams, fif­teen to a row.

4 Its win­dows were ­placed high in sets of ­t hree, fac­ing each oth­er. 5 A ll the door­ways had rect­an­ gu­lar ­frames; they were in the ­front part in sets of t­ hree, fac­ing each oth­er. b 6 He made a col­on­nade fif­ty cu­bits long and thir­t y wide. c In ­front of it was a por­ti­co, and in ­front of that were pil­lars and an over­hang­ing roof.

7 He ­built the ­t hrone hall, the Hall of Jus­t ice, ­where he was to ­judge, and he cov­ered it with ce­dar from ­f loor to ceil­ing. d 8 And the pal­ace in ­which he was to live, set far­t her back, was sim­ i­lar in de­sign. Sol­o­mon also made a pal­ace like this hall for Phar­aoh’s daugh­ter, whom he had mar­ried.

9 A ll ­t hese struc­t ures, from the out­side to the ­great court­yard and from foun­da­tion to ­eaves, were made of b ­ locks of high-­grade ­stone cut to size and s­ moothed on ­t heir in­ner and out­er fac­ es. 10 The foun­da­tions were laid with l­ arge ­stones of good qual­i­t y, some mea­sur­ing ten cu­bits e and some ­eight. f 11 Above were high-­grade ­stones, cut to size, and ce­dar ­beams. 12 The ­great court­ yard was sur­round­ed by a wall of ­three cours­ es of d ­ ressed s­ tone and one ­course of ­trimmed ce­dar b ­ eams, as was the in­ner court­yard of the tem­ple of the Lord with its por­ti­co.

7

The Temple’s Furnishings 13 K ing Sol­o­mon sent to Tyre and ­brought Hu­ram, g 14 whose moth­er was a wid­ow from the ­tribe of Naph­ta­li and ­whose fa­ther was from Tyre and a s­ killed crafts­man in ­bronze. Hu­ram was ­f illed with wis­dom, with un­der­stand­ing and with knowl­edge to do all ­k inds of ­bronze work. He came to King Sol­o­mon and did all the work as­signed to him.

15 He cast two ­bronze pil­lars, each eigh­teen cu­bits high and ­twelve cu­bits in cir­cum­fer­ence. h 16 He also made two cap­i­tals of cast ­bronze to set on the tops of the pil­lars; each cap­i­tal was five cu­bits i high. 17 A net­work of in­ter­wo­ven ­chains ­adorned the cap­i­tals on top of the pil­lars, sev­ en for each cap­i­tal. 18 He made pome­gran­ates in two rows j en­cir­cling each net­work to dec­o­rate the cap­i­tals on top of the pil­lars. k He did the

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same for each cap­i­tal. 19 The cap­i­tals on top of the pil­lars in the por­ti­co were in the s­ hape of lil­ ies, four cu­bits l high. 20 On the cap­i­tals of both pil­lars, ­above the bowl-­shaped part next to the net­work, were the two hun­dred pome­gran­ates in rows all ­around. 21 He erect­ed the pil­lars at the por­ti­co of the tem­ple. The pil­lar to the ­south he ­named Ja­k in m and the one to the ­north Boaz. n 22 T he cap­i­tals on top were in the ­shape of lil­ies.

And so the work on the pil­lars was com­plet­ed.

23 He made the Sea of cast met­a l, cir­cu­lar in ­shape, mea­sur­ing ten cu­bits from rim to rim and five cu­bits high. It took a line of thir­t y cu­ bits o to mea­sure a­round it. 24 Be­low the rim, ­gourds en­cir­cled it — ​ten to a cu­bit. The ­gourds were cast in two rows in one p ­ iece with the Sea. 25 T he Sea ­stood on t­ welve b ­ ulls, ­t hree fac­ing ­north, ­t hree fac­ing west, ­t hree fac­ing ­south and ­three fac­ing east. The Sea rest­ed on top of them, and t­ heir hind­quar­ters were to­ward the cen­ter.

26 It was a hand­breadth p in thick­ness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blos­som. It held two thou­sand baths. q 27 He also made ten mov­able s ­ tands of ­bronze; each was four cu­bits long, four wide and ­t hree high. r 28 This is how the s­ tands were made: They had side pan­els at­tached to up­rights. 29 On the pan­els be­tween the up­rights were li­ons, ­bulls and cher­u­bim — ​and on the up­rights as well.

Above and be­ ­ low the li­ ons and ­ bulls were ­w reaths of ham­mered work. 30 Each s­ tand had four ­bronze ­wheels with ­bronze ax­les, and each had a ba­sin rest­ing on four sup­ports, cast with ­w reaths on each side. 31 On the in­side of the a 2

That is, about 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high or about 45 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high b 5 The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain. c 6 That is, about 75 feet long and 45 feet wide or about 23 meters long and 14 meters wide d 7 Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew floor e 10 That is, about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters; also in verse 23 f 10 That is, about 12 feet or about 3.6 meters g 13 Hebrew Hiram, a variant of Huram; also in verses 40 and 45 h 15 That is, about 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference or about 8.1 meters high and 5.4 meters in circumference i 16 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters; also in verse 23 j 18 Two Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts made the pillars, and there were two rows k 18 Many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts pomegranates l 19 That is, about 6 feet or about 1.8 meters; also in verse 38 m 21 Jakin probably means he establishes. n 21 Boaz probably means in him is strength. o 23 That is, about 45 feet or about 14 meters p 26 That is, about 3 inches or about 7.5 centimeters q 26 That is, about 12,000 gallons or about 44,000 liters; the Septuagint does not have this sentence. r 27 That is, about 6 feet long and wide and about 4 1/2 feet high or about 1.8 meters long and wide and 1.4 meters high

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s­ tand t­ here was an open­ing that had a cir­cu­lar ­frame one cu­bit a deep. This open­ing was ­round, and with its base­work it mea­sured a cu­bit and a half. b ­Around its open­ing ­there was en­grav­ ing. The pan­els of the ­stands were ­square, not ­round. 32 The four w ­ heels were un­der the pan­els, and the ax­les of the ­wheels were at­tached to the ­stand. The di­am­e­ter of each w ­ heel was a cu­bit and a half. 33 The ­wheels were made like char­i­ot ­wheels; the ax­les, rims, ­spokes and hubs were all of cast met­a l.

34 Each ­stand had four han­d les, one on each cor­ner, pro­ject­ing from the ­stand. 35 At the top of the ­stand ­there was a cir­cu­lar band half a cu­bit c deep. The sup­ports and pan­els were at­ tached to the top of the s­tand. 36 He en­graved cher­u­bim, li­ons and palm ­trees on the sur­fac­ es of the sup­ports and on the pan­els, in ev­ery avail­able ­space, with ­w reaths all ­around. 37 This is the way he made the ten s­ tands. They were all cast in the same m ­ olds and were iden­ti­cal in size and shape.

38 He then made ten b ­ronze ba­ sins, each hold­ing for­t y ­baths d and mea­sur­ing four cu­bits ­across, one ba­sin to go on each of the ten s­ tands.

39 He p ­ laced five of the s­ tands on the s­ outh side of the tem­ple and five on the ­north. He ­placed the Sea on the s­ outh side, at the south­east cor­ ner of the tem­ple. 40 He also made the pots e and shov­els and sprin­k ling bowls.

So Hu­ram fin­ished all the work he had un­ der­tak­en for King Sol­o­mon in the tem­ple of the Lord: 41 the two pil­lars; the two bowl-­shaped cap­i­tals on top of the pil­lars; the two sets of net­work dec­o­rat­ing the two bowl-­shaped cap­i­tals on top of the pil­ lars; 42 the four hun­dred pome­gran­ates for the two sets of net­work (two rows of pome­ gran­ates for each net­work dec­o­rat­ing the bowl-­shaped cap­i­tals on top of the pil­lars); 43 the ten s­ tands with ­their ten ba­sins; 44 the Sea and the t­ welve ­bulls un­der it; 45 the pots, shov­els and sprin­k ling bowls.

All ­t hese ob­jects that Hu­ram made for King Sol­o­mon for the tem­ple of the Lord were of bur­nished ­bronze. 46 The king had them cast in clay ­molds in the ­plain of the Jor­dan be­tween Suk­koth and Zar­e­t han. 47 Sol­o­mon left all ­t hese ­t hings un­weighed, be­cause ­t here were so many; the w ­ eight of the b ­ ronze was not de­ter­mined.

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1 Kings 8:8 48 Sol­o­mon

also made all the fur­nish­ings that were in the Lord’s tem­ple: the gold­en al­tar; the gold­en ta­ble on ­which was the ­bread of the Pres­ence; 49 the lamp­stands of pure gold (five on the ­right and five on the left, in ­front of the in­ner sanc­tu­ary); the gold flo­ral work and ­lamps and tongs; 50 the pure gold ba­sins, wick trim­mers, sprin­ kling b ­ owls, dish­es and cen­sers; and the gold sock­ets for the ­doors of the in­ ner­most room, the Most Holy ­Place, and also for the ­doors of the main hall of the tem­ple.

51 W hen all the work King Sol­ o­ mon had done for the tem­ple of the Lord was fin­ished, he ­brought in the ­things his fa­ther Da­v id had ded­i­cat­ed — ​the sil­ver and gold and the fur­nish­ ings — ​and he ­placed them in the trea­sur­ies of the Lord’s tem­ple.

The Ark Brought to the Temple Then King Sol­o­mon sum­moned into his pres­ence at Je­ru­sa­lem the el­ders of Is­ra­el, all the ­heads of the ­tribes and the ­chiefs of the Is­ra­ el­ite fam­i­lies, to ­bring up the ark of the Lord’s cov­enant from Zion, the City of Da­v id. 2 A ll the Is­ra­el­ites came to­geth­er to King Sol­o­mon at the time of the fes­ti­val in the m ­ onth of Eth­a­nim, the sev­enth month.

3 W hen all the el­ders of Is­ra­el had ar­rived, the ­ rought up the ­priests took up the ark, 4 and they b ark of the Lord and the tent of meet­ing and all the sa­cred fur­nish­ings in it. The ­priests and Le­ vites car­ried them up, 5 and King Sol­o­mon and the en­tire as­sem­bly of Is­ra­el that had gath­ered ­about him were be­fore the ark, sac­ri­fic­ing so many ­sheep and cat­t le that they ­could not be re­ cord­ed or count­ed.

6 The ­ priests then ­ brought the ark of the Lord’s cov­enant to its p ­ lace in the in­ner sanc­ tu­ary of the tem­ple, the Most Holy ­Place, and put it be­neath the w ­ ings of the cher­u­bim. 7 The cher­u­bim s­ pread ­their w ­ ings over the p ­ lace of the ark and over­shad­owed the ark and its car­ ry­ing ­poles. 8 These ­poles were so long that ­their

8

a 31

That is, about 18 inches or about 45 centimeters That is, about 2 1/4 feet or about 68 centimeters; also in verse 32 c 35 That is, about 9 inches or about 23 centimeters d 38 That is, about 240 gallons or about 880 liters e 40 Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac and Vulgate (see also verse 45 and 2 Chron. 4:11); many other Hebrew manuscripts basins b 31

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1 Kings 8:9

ends ­could be seen from the Holy ­Place in ­front of the in­ner sanc­tu­ary, but not from out­side the Holy ­Place; and they are s­ till ­there to­day. 9 There was noth­ing in the ark ex­cept the two ­stone tab­ lets that Mo­ses had ­placed in it at Ho­reb, ­where the Lord made a cov­enant with the Is­ra­el­ites af­ ter they came out of Egypt.

10 W hen the p ­ riests with­drew from the Holy ­Place, the ­cloud ­filled the tem­ple of the Lord.

11 A nd the ­priests ­could not per­form t­heir ser­ vice be­cause of the ­cloud, for the glo­r y of the Lord f­ illed his tem­ple.

12 Then Sol­o­mon said, “The Lord has said that he w ­ ould d ­ well in a dark ­cloud; 13 I have in­ deed b ­ uilt a mag­nif­i­cent tem­ple for you, a ­place for you to d ­ well for­ev­er.”

14 W hile the w ­ hole as­ sem­ bly of Is­ ra­ el was stand­ing ­there, the king ­turned ­around and ­blessed them. 15 Then he said: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Is­ ra­el, who with his own hand has ful­filled what he prom­ised with his own ­mouth to my fa­ther Da­v id. For he said, 16 ‘Since the day I ­brought my peo­ple Is­ra­el out of ­Egypt, I have not cho­sen a city in any t­ ribe of Is­ra­el to have a tem­ple b ­ uilt so that my Name m ­ ight be t­here, but I have cho­sen Da­v id to rule my peo­ple Is­ra­el.’

17 “My fa­t her Da­v id had it in his ­heart to ­build a tem­ple for the Name of the Lord, the God of Is­ra­el. 18 But the Lord said to my fa­t her Da­v id, ‘You did well to have it in your ­heart to ­build a tem­ple for my Name.

19 Nev­er­t he­less, you are not the one to ­build the tem­ple, but your son, your own ­f lesh and b ­ lood — ​he is the one who will ­build the tem­ple for my Name.’

20 “ The Lord has kept the prom­ ise he made: I have suc­ceed­ed Da­v id my fa­ther and now I sit on the ­throne of Is­ra­el, just as the Lord prom­ised, and I have ­built the tem­ple for the Name of the Lord, the God of Is­ra­el. 21 I have pro­v id­ed a ­place t­here for the ark, in ­which is the cov­enant of the Lord that he made with our an­ces­tors when he b ­ rought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication 22 T hen Sol­o­mon ­stood be­fore the al­tar of the Lord in f­ront of the ­whole as­sem­bly of Is­ra­el, ­spread out his h ­ ands to­ward heav­en 23 and said: “Lord, the God of Is­ra­el, ­there is no God like you in heav­en a­ bove or on e­ arth be­ low — ​you who keep your cov­enant of love

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with your ser­vants who con­tin­ue whole­ heart­ed­ly in your way. 24 You have kept your prom­ise to your ser­vant Da­v id my fa­ther; with your ­mouth you have prom­ ised and with your hand you have ful­f illed it — ​as it is to­day.

25 “Now Lord, the God of Is­ra­el, keep for your ser­vant Da­v id my fa­ther the prom­is­es you made to him when you said, ‘You ­shall nev­er fail to have a suc­ces­sor to sit be­fore me on the ­t hrone of Is­ra­el, if only your de­ scen­dants are care­ful in all they do to walk be­fore me faith­ful­ly as you have done.’

26 And now, God of Is­ra­el, let your word that you prom­ised your ser­vant Da­v id my fa­t her come true.

27 “But will God real­ ly ­dwell on ­earth?

The heav­ ens, even the high­ est heav­ en, can­not con­tain you. How much less this tem­ple I have b ­ uilt! 28 Yet give at­ten­tion to your ser­vant’s ­prayer and his plea for mer­cy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the ­prayer that your ser­vant is pray­ing in your pres­ence this day. 29 May your eyes be open to­ward this tem­ple n ­ ight and day, this ­place of w ­ hich you said, ‘My Name ­shall be ­there,’ so that you will hear the p ­ rayer your ser­vant ­prays to­ward this ­place. 30 Hear the sup­pli­ca­tion of your ser­vant and of your peo­ple Is­ra­el when they pray to­ward this ­place. Hear from heav­en, your dwell­ing ­place, and when you hear, for­give.

31 “When any­one ­w rongs ­t heir neigh­bor and is re­quired to take an oath and they come and ­swear the oath be­fore your al­ tar in this tem­ple, 32 t hen hear from heav­en and act. ­Judge be­tween your ser­vants, con­ demn­ing the ­g uilty by bring­ing down on ­t heir h ­ eads what they have done, and vin­ di­cat­ing the in­no­cent by treat­ing them in ac­cor­dance with ­their in­no­cence.

33 “When your peo­ple Is­ra­el have been de­feat­ed by an en­e­my be­cause they have ­sinned ­against you, and when they turn back to you and give p ­ raise to your name, pray­ing and mak­ing sup­pli­ca­tion to you in this tem­ple, 34 t hen hear from heav­en and for­give the sin of your peo­ple Is­ra­el and ­bring them back to the land you gave to ­their an­ces­tors.

35 “When the heav­ens are shut up and ­t here is no rain be­cause your peo­ple have ­sinned ­against you, and when they pray to­ward this ­place and give p ­ raise to your name and turn from ­ t heir sin be­ cause

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you have af­f lict­ed them, 36 t hen hear from heav­en and for­give the sin of your ser­vants, your peo­ple Is­ra­el. ­Teach them the r­ight way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your peo­ple for an in­her­i­tance.

37 “When fam­i ne or ­plague c ­ omes to the land, or ­blight or mil­dew, lo­custs or grass­ hop­pers, or when an en­e­my be­sieg­es them in any of ­t heir cit­ies, what­ev­er di­sas­ter or dis­ease may come, 38 and when a ­prayer or plea is made by any­one ­among your peo­ple Is­ra­el — ​be­ing ­aware of the af­f lic­tions of ­their own h ­ earts, and spread­ing out ­t heir ­hands to­ward this tem­ple — ​ 39 t hen hear from heav­en, your dwell­ing ­place. For­give and act; deal with ev­ery­one ac­cord­ing to all they do, s­ ince you know t­ heir h ­ earts (for you ­a lone know ev­ery hu­man ­heart), 40 so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our an­ces­tors.

41 “As for the for­eign­er who does not be­ long to your peo­ ple Is­ ra­ el but has come from a dis­tant land be­cause of your name — ​ 42 for they will hear of your g­ reat name and your ­mighty hand and your out­ stretched arm — ​when they come and pray to­ward this tem­ple, 43 then hear from heav­ en, your dwell­ing ­place. Do what­ev­er the for­eign­er asks of you, so that all the peo­ ples of the ­earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own peo­ple Is­ra­el, and may know that this ­house I have ­built ­bears your Name.

44 “When your peo­ple go to war ­against ­t heir en­e­mies, wher­ev­er you send them, and when they pray to the Lord to­ward the city you have cho­sen and the tem­ple I have ­built for your Name, 45 then hear from heav­en t­ heir ­prayer and t­ heir plea, and up­ hold ­their cause.

46 “When they sin a­gainst you — ​ for ­t here is no one who does not sin — ​and you be­come an­gry with them and give them over to ­t heir en­e­mies, who take them cap­ tive to t­heir own l­ands, far away or near; 47 and if they have a ­change of ­heart in the land ­where they are held cap­tive, and re­pent and ­plead with you in the land of ­t heir cap­tors and say, ‘We have s­ inned, we have done ­wrong, we have act­ed wick­ed­ly’; 48 a nd if they turn back to you with all t­ heir ­heart and soul in the land of ­t heir en­e­mies who took them cap­tive, and pray to you to­ ward the land you gave t­ heir an­ces­tors, to­ ward the city you have cho­sen and the tem­

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1 Kings 8:59

ple I have ­built for your Name; 49 t hen from heav­ en, your dwell­ ing ­ place, hear ­ t heir ­prayer and ­their plea, and up­hold ­their ­cause. 50 And for­give your peo­ple, who have ­sinned ­against you; for­give all the of­fens­ es they have com­mit­ted a­ gainst you, and ­cause ­their cap­tors to show them mer­c y; 51 for they are your peo­ple and your in­her­i­ tance, whom you b ­ rought out of E ­ gypt, out of that iron-smelt­ing fur­nace.

52 “May your eyes be open to your ser­ vant’s plea and to the plea of your peo­ple Is­ra­el, and may you lis­ten to them when­ ev­er they cry out to you. 53 For you sin­gled them out from all the na­tions of the ­world to be your own in­her­i­tance, just as you de­ clared t­hrough your ser­vant Mo­ses when you, Sov­er­eign Lord, ­brought our an­ces­ tors out of Egypt.”

54 W hen Sol­ o­ mon had fin­ ished all t­hese ­ rayers and sup­pli­ca­tions to the Lord, he rose p from be­fore the al­tar of the Lord, ­where he had been kneel­ing with his h ­ ands ­spread out to­ward ­ lessed the ­whole as­ heav­en. 55 He ­stood and b sem­bly of Is­ra­el in a loud v­ oice, say­ing: 56 “Praise

be to the Lord, who has giv­en rest to his peo­ple Is­ra­el just as he prom­ised.

Not one word has ­failed of all the good prom­is­es he gave ­t hrough his ser­vant Mo­ ses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our an­ces­tors; may he nev­er ­leave us nor for­sake us. 58 May he turn our ­hearts to him, to walk in obe­di­ence to him and keep the com­mands, de­crees and laws he gave our an­ces­tors. 59 And may t­hese ­words of mine, ­which I have p ­ rayed be­fore the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and ­night, that he may up­hold the ­cause of

Leaders Know Their Source and Give God Credit 1 Kings 8:12–­61

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fter Solomon built a magnificent temple to house the ark of the covenant, he prayed a dedication prayer committing the temple to God. Despite his hard work, Solomon knew all the glory belonged to God. All leaders must recognize that lasting fruit appears only by the blessing of God.

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his ser­vant and the ­cause of his peo­ple Is­ ra­el ac­cord­ing to each d ­ ay’s need, 60 so that all the peo­ples of the e­ arth may know that the Lord is God and that ­there is no oth­er.

61 A nd may your ­hearts be ful­ly com­mit­ted to the Lord our God, to live by his de­crees and obey his com­mands, as at this time.”

The Dedication of the Temple 62 T hen the king and all Is­ ra­el with him of­ fered sac­ri­f ic­es be­fore the Lord. 63 Sol­o­mon of­ fered a sac­ri­fice of fel­low­ship of­fer­ings to the Lord: twen­ty-two thou­sand cat­tle and a hun­ dred and twen­t y thou­sand s­ heep and ­goats. So the king and all the Is­ra­el­ites ded­i­cat­ed the tem­ ple of the Lord.

64 On that same day the king con­ se­ crat­ ed the mid­d le part of the court­yard in ­front of the tem­ple of the Lord, and t­ here he of­fered b ­ urnt of­fer­ings, ­grain of­fer­ings and the fat of the fel­ low­ship of­fer­ings, be­cause the ­bronze al­tar that ­stood be­fore the Lord was too s­ mall to hold the ­burnt of­fer­ings, the ­grain of­fer­ings and the fat of the fel­low­ship of­fer­ings.

65 So Sol­o­mon ob­served the fes­ti­val at that time, and all Is­ra­el with him — ​a vast as­sem­bly, peo­ple from Lebo Ha­math to the Wadi of ­Egypt.

They cel­e­brat­ed it be­fore the Lord our God for sev­en days and sev­en days more, four­teen days in all. 66 On the fol­low­ing day he sent the peo­ ple away. They ­blessed the king and then went home, joy­f ul and glad in h ­ eart for all the good ­t hings the Lord had done for his ser­vant Da­v id and his peo­ple Is­ra­el.

The Lord Appears to Solomon When Sol­o­mon had fin­ished build­ing the tem­ple of the Lord and the roy­al pal­ace, and had a­ chieved all he had de­sired to do, 2 the Lord ap­peared to him a sec­ond time, as he had ap­ peared to him at Gib­e­on. 3 The Lord said to him:

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“I have ­heard the ­prayer and plea you have made be­fore me; I have con­se­crat­ed this tem­ple, ­which you have ­built, by put­ ting my Name ­t here for­ev­er. My eyes and my h ­ eart will al­ways be there.

4 “As for you, if you walk be­fore me faith­ ful­ly with in­teg­ri­ty of ­heart and up­right­ ness, as Da­vid your fa­ther did, and do all I com­mand and ob­serve my de­crees and laws, 5 I will es­tab­lish your roy­al t­ hrone over Is­ra­el for­ev­er, as I prom­ised Da­vid your fa­ ther when I said, ‘You ­shall nev­er fail to have a suc­ces­sor on the t­ hrone of Is­ra­el.’

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6 “But

if you a or your de­scen­dants turn away from me and do not ob­ serve the com­mands and de­crees I have giv­en you a and go off to s­ erve oth­er gods and wor­ship them, 7 t hen I will cut off Is­ra­el from the land I have giv­en them and will re­ject this tem­ple I have con­se­crat­ed for my Name.

Is­ra­el will then be­come a by­word and an ob­ject of rid­i­cule ­among all peo­ples. 8 This tem­ple will be­come a heap of rub­ble. All b who pass by will be ap­palled and will s­ coff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a t hing to this land and to this tem­ ­ ple?’

9 Peo­ple will an­swer, ‘Be­cause they have for­sak­en the Lord ­their God, who ­brought ­t heir an­ces­tors out of ­Egypt, and have em­ braced oth­er gods, wor­ship­ing and serv­ing them — ​that is why the Lord ­brought all this di­sas­ter on them.’ ” Solomon’s Other Activities 10 At the end of twen­ t y ­years, dur­ing ­which Sol­o­mon ­built ­t hese two build­ings — ​t he tem­ ple of the Lord and the roy­a l pal­ace — ​11 K ing Sol­o­mon gave twen­t y ­towns in Gal­i­lee to Hi­ram king of Tyre, be­cause Hi­ram had sup­plied him with all the ce­dar and ju­ni­per and gold he want­ ed. 12 But when Hi­ram went from Tyre to see the ­towns that Sol­o­mon had giv­en him, he was not ­pleased with them. 13 “What kind of t­owns are ­these you have giv­en me, my broth­er?” he a­ sked.

And he ­called them the Land of Ka­bul, c a name they have to this day. 14 Now Hi­ram had sent to the king 120 tal­ents d of gold.

15 Here is the ac­ count of the f­orced la­ bor King Sol­o­mon con­script­ed to ­build the Lord’s tem­ple, his own pal­ace, the ter­rac­es, e the wall of Je­ru­sa­lem, and Ha­zor, Me­gid­do and Ge­zer.

16 (Phar­aoh king of ­Egypt had at­tacked and cap­ tured Ge­zer. He had set it on fire. He ­k illed its Ca­naan­ite in­hab­i­tants and then gave it as a wed­ ding gift to his daugh­ter, Sol­o­mon’s wife. 17 And Sol­o­mon re­built Ge­zer.) He b ­ uilt up Low­er Beth Ho­ron, 18 Ba­a l­ath, and Tad­mor f in the des­ert, with­in his land, 19 as well as all his ­store cit­ies and the ­towns for his char­i­ots and for his hors­ es g — ​what­ev­er he de­sired to ­build in Je­ru­sa­lem, a 6 The Hebrew is plural. b 8

See some Septuagint manuscripts, Old Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Targum; Hebrew And though this temple is now imposing, all c 13 Kabul sounds like the Hebrew for good-for-nothing. d 14 That is, about 4 1/2 tons or about 4 metric tons e 15 Or the Millo; also in verse 24 f 18 The Hebrew may also be read Tamar. g 19 Or charioteers

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in Leb­a­non and through­out all the ter­ri­to­r y he ruled.

20 T here were ­still peo­ple left from the Am­o­ rites, Hit­tites, Per­iz­zites, Hi­v ites and Jeb­u­sites (these peo­ples were not Is­ra­el­ites). 21 Sol­o­mon con­script­ed the de­scen­dants of all ­these peo­ples re­main­ing in the land — ​whom the Is­ra­el­ites ­could not ex­ter­mi­nate a — ​to ­serve as ­slave la­bor, as it is to this day. 22 But Sol­o­mon did not make ­slaves of any of the Is­ra­el­ites; they were his fight­ ing men, his gov­ern­ment of­f i­cials, his of­f i­cers, his cap­tains, and the com­mand­ers of his char­ i­ots and char­i­ot­eers. 23 They were also the c­ hief of­f i­cials in ­charge of Sol­o­mon’s proj­ects — ​550 of­f i­cials su­per­v is­ing ­those who did the work.

24 Af­ ter Phar­ aoh’s daugh­ ter had come up from the City of Da­v id to the pal­ace Sol­o­mon had ­built for her, he con­struct­ed the ter­rac­es.

25 T hree ­t imes a year Sol­o­mon sac­r i­f iced ­burnt of­fer­ings and fel­low­ship of­fer­ings on the al­tar he had ­built for the Lord, burn­ing in­cense be­fore the Lord ­a long with them, and so ful­ filled the tem­ple ob­li­ga­tions.

26 K ing Sol­o­mon also ­built ­ships at Ezi­on Ge­ ber, w ­ hich is near ­Elath in Edom, on the s­ hore of the Red Sea. b 27 And Hi­ram sent his men — ​ sail­ors who knew the sea — ​to ­serve in the f­ leet with Sol­o­mon’s men. 28 They s­ ailed to ­Ophir and ­brought back 420 tal­ents c of gold, ­which they de­ liv­ered to King Sol­o­mon.

ques­tions. 2 Ar­riv­ing at Je­ru­sa­lem with a very ­great car­a­van — ​w ith cam­els car­r y­ing spic­es, ­large quan­ti­ties of gold, and pre­cious ­stones — ​ she came to Sol­o­mon and ­talked with him ­about all that she had on her mind. 3 Sol­o­mon an­ swered all her ques­tions; noth­ing was too hard for the king to ex­plain to her. 4 W hen the ­queen of She­ba saw all the wis­dom of Sol­o­mon and the pal­ace he had ­built, 5 t he food on his ta­ble, the seat­ing of his of­f i­cials, the at­tend­ing ser­vants in ­t heir ­robes, his cup­bear­ers, and the ­burnt of­fer­ ings he made at d the tem­ple of the Lord, she was over­whelmed.

6 She said to the king, “The re­port I h ­ eard in my own coun­try ­about your achieve­ments and your wis­dom is true. 7 But I did not be­lieve ­these ­t hings un­til I came and saw with my own eyes.

In­deed, not even half was told me; in wis­dom and w ­ ealth you have far ex­ceed­ed the re­port I ­heard. 8 How hap­py your peo­ple must be! How hap­py your of­f i­cials, who con­tin­u­a l­ly ­stand be­ fore you and hear your wis­dom! 9 Praise be to the Lord your God, who has de­light­ed in you and ­placed you on the ­throne of Is­ra­el. Be­cause of the Lord’s eter­nal love for Is­ra­el, he has made you king to main­tain jus­tice and righ­teous­ness.”

10 A nd she gave the king 120 tal­ents e of gold, ­large quan­ti­ties of spic­es, and pre­cious ­stones.

Nev­er a­ gain were so many spic­es b ­ rought in as ­those the ­queen of She­ba gave to King Sol­o­mon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon When the ­queen of She­ba ­heard ­about the fame of Sol­o­mon and his re­la­tion­ship to the Lord, she came to test Sol­o­mon with hard

a 21

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The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. b 26 Or the Sea of Reeds c 28 That is, about 16 tons or about 14 metric tons d 5 Or the ascent by which he went up to e 10 That is, about 4 1/2 tons or about 4 metric tons

Play to Your Strength: The 70–­25–­5 Principle 1 Kings 10:1–­9

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reat leaders play to their strength. They don’t spend vast amounts of time attempting to be a jack-­of-­ all-­trades. Instead, they deepen their ability to do what they do best, until they do it as well as anyone.

Solomon certainly lived by this principle. God made him the wisest and richest king of his day (1Ki 3:12–13). Other monarchs heard of his wisdom and wealth and eagerly sought an audience with him.

From all over the known world, powerful rulers from distant lands made the long trek to Israel to catch a glimpse of this young phenom. Solomon provided rich counsel and gifts to others, and quickly became known for his breadth of mind and depth of insight.

How did Solomon gain such fame? He focused on what he did best. Leaders would be wise to follow a similar pattern, called the 70–­25–­5 principle: ■■ ■■ ■■

Give 70 percent of your time to your areas of strength.

Give 25 percent of your time to the areas you want to improve.

Give 5 percent of your time to the areas of your weakness.

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