40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 1 Kings 8:54-9:5 (Episode 302)

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Solomon gives a benediction to close the dedication of the temple followed by a ton of sacrifices. Rest is what the people want but can never seem to find. And God appears to Solomon again and makes some if/then statements. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! HWSS Regional Conference 1517 Podcast Network 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 podcast, never podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast, check out all the other podcasts that are living over there while you're over there make sure you go to the events page and register for the regional event in northwest arkansas you're gonna want to you're gonna want to be at that it's april 22nd and 23rd it's a lot of fun guys and it's got a great roster this year chad's gonna be there that's probably the only thing you need you need to know as a listener to this program chad will be there i'll be there of course eric sorenson will be there and scott keith will be

there and kelsey clambora will be there and damon voris will be there and caleb keith will be there and Scott Davis will be there and Blake Flatley will be doing music and Andy Gullihorn and Jill Phillips will be doing music. I mean, I don't know how much more selling I need to do. It's only $99 for a two-day event, a Friday and Saturday event. So get that ticket.

Get those travel arrangements made. Get that hotel, too. I was actually talking to Lana, Chad, yesterday. And for those of you who don't know, Lana's the one who makes sure that we have places to stay when we go places. she's, Chad and I don't do those kind of things. Not because we're above it, but because we'd mess it up. You know, she was saying, you know, that the hotels even here get booked up quick. This

isn't such a place where there's nothing going on. And so if you're going to come, get those arrangements made and come on down to Northwest Arkansas and hang out with us. All right, Chad, we are still in First Kings 8. You know, I didn't have First Kings 8 circled as a chapter that we would spend multiple episodes in i mean i think i think now this is the third episode we've been in it to some degree yeah it is it's kind of surprising i didn't foresee that either but turns out the the more that you kind of uh you know just steep yourselves in these verses there's more more to talk about i guess because any section of scripture that tends to look forward and look back at the same time yeah tends to just invite more time to reflect upon it because you're

you're always asking yourself exactly what is he like looking back to what are the what are the actions of god in the past the promises of god in the past that he's referring to or alluding to and what is he looking forward to and we saw plenty of that too where there's already this kind of this dark cloud on the horizon the dark cloud of exile that's hinted at especially in that last petition where he talks about basically when your people rebel for everybody's sins and they end up cast out and they're far away from you then hear them when they're in their captivity in their iron furnace of the future so yeah kind of makes sense you know when you when you stop to think about it there's so much here that uh takes it takes a while but we're going to finish it

today for sure and then we'll uh we'll work our way into chapter nine as well i think uh what we're beginning with here is first kings 854 which is when solomon's going to finish his prayer yeah i feel like we teased the queen of sheba like a lot of episodes ago and we and we said it like it was coming up real soon and then we then we just stretched this sort of dedication and then this prayer and now this benediction and i just wasn't expecting to spend an episode on each yeah well but we've been watching too many netflix dramas they did the same thing that's right well gonna happen and then like eight episodes later yeah it happens man this is part of the the joy of going through the Old Testament like this

is you have a different list of sneaky, deep chapters of the Bible where you're like, hey, you know what chapter's deep that you didn't know was deep? 1 Kings 8. Yeah, surprise, surprise. So the verse begins, 1 Kings 8, 54, that Solomon finished.

So he finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord. And we're told that he got up. He arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with his hands outstretched toward heaven so this is one of those uh somewhat rare occasions where we actually are given the the posture of prayer what what it looks like i think we talked about this a couple episodes ago where you know typically people will will pray with their hands outstretched palms up in a receptive posture but here we're told that

Solomon was actually kneeling before that for that altar. Then he stood and presumably turned around, so his face in the altar praying toward God, and then he turns around and bless all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying, blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised. Of course, we've mentioned multiple times already in 1 Kings that 1-2 Kings is concerned a lot with the fulfillment of prophecy, prophecy of various sorts. A lot of what we've seen so far is the fulfillment of God's promises to David, of course. So 2 Samuel 7 talked about all this stuff that God was going to do for David, and we've seen multiple references to that, especially from the lips of Solomon himself, how God is fulfilling

what he swore to his father David. Now he's going to refer back to not something that God a promise to David, but actually all the way back to Moses. The word that you use here for rest, menuchah, is the same word that is spoken by Moses back in Deuteronomy 12. So Solomon says, blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Now you go back to Deuteronomy 12, and you read, you shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everybody doing what's right in his own eyes. So this is Solomon saying, I mean, this is Moses saying, hey, we can't continue this. For, he goes on, for you have not as yet come to the manukah, to the rest, and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. And then

he goes on to talk about how God is going to provide a place for the people of Israel, and in that place, they're going to have rest. So Solomon is saying, hey, what Moses talked about generations before in deuteronomy chapter 12 this rest that he was going that god was going to give to his people israel well we got it that's what this is we have the house for god we have the dynasty established and now god has given us this rest that he promised and then he goes on to say not one word has failed of all his good promises which he spoke by moses his servant so not one thing has has fallen is the Hebrew idiom there. So nothing has failed. Nothing has failed to happen of all that God promised to Israel via Moses. You know, rest might be an unlikely theme in the Bible.

It's something you might not think was going to show up the way that it does. But ever since sort of God pronounces what this death that Adam and Eve have earned by disobeying him, eating the food that they ought not eat, this death is attached to not just, hey, you're going to die someday, but it's attached to, you're going to work yourself to death. That's basically the curse. I mean, the curse is basically, prepare to work yourself to death. This isn't going to be a quick thing. You're going to labor and labor and labor, and you're going to toil, and then you're going to die. And then what becomes extremely elusive is rest. you never get to rest after this and and then and then you have all kinds of sin and what sin does

is it it makes everyone restless there is no there's no rest with sin i mean whether someone's oppressing you like the people of israel uh the time of of moses when they're obviously slaves in egypt there's no rest there and then they're they're wandering around the wilderness and they're searching for rest and all the time in the scriptures it's not there people aren't aren't they're not looking for peace uh they're not even necessarily looking for prosperity like that's not that's not the thing that comes up over and over again they want to know when they're going to enter into the rest of the lord like when can you stop and uh the older you get i think the more this rings true is like when do you get to quit when is everything just going to be okay where

you can just take a deep breath in it and everything is just good and you're like i think i could i think i could rest uh even jesus i think that's why when he when he shows up with the seed and he says, he starts dishing out promises. One of the most appealing promises, and the older you get, the more appealing it is. The closer you get to death, the more appealing it is, is him saying

come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you not peace, not prosperity, not power, I'll give you rest. Because you know that that's the thing I've been trying to find, trying to acquire, and it's been so elusive. Yeah, that's one of the things

that rings true with even the creation account you get to the climax you got six days where god works he makes this he makes that it's all good it's all very good and then on the seventh day of course god rest that is it seems almost anticlimactic but it's not it's actually the goal the goal is to enter into that rest just like god entered into his rest after his six days of six days of labor and of course this this does become a a huge theme all over the old and new testament you see it in the book of hebrews and i think it's hebrews 4 where the author goes through you know there was the rest in the beginning and then joshua didn't give the people rest and then later david in the psalm talks about another rest and so there remains uh hebrews says it remains as

sabbath rest for the people yeah this is i mean rest is what the sabbath is all about right i there's literally something in the commandments about trying to figure out how to have one day out of seven as a day where you could sort of get this preview of what it is that God is promising to eventually do. We want to have this little foreshadowing, and of course, we've messed it up forever. If you have worked yourself, if you've had some kind of schedule, or you've done something to where you are absolutely exhausted and you're driving home and maybe you've worked a triple shift or something. I've done this sort of thing. And there's nothing more that you want than to just go and stop, right? I just need to go to sleep. I just need to rest. I think it's really

interesting that, you know, Solomon is doing this benediction and obviously he doesn't think that this is the permanent rest that they're never going to have to work again or anything like that. But he is saying that it's a step in the right direction, right? Like we're getting closer to the big thing that God is going to do, which I don't even think Solomon fully understands, of course, in the rest that God is going to provide in Christ. But this is a step along that path, and he does realize that, at least.

Yeah, this whole story of just not only just Solomon, but the temple and really multiple chapters here. It's kind of, I was trying to think this morning of how to describe it. You got two things going on at once. We're going to see this, especially in chapter 9 and chapters 9 and 10. So we've talked about how Solomon is sort of an Adam-like figure. I mean, there is this sense, you know, he's studying botany, he's studying biology, he's studying all this stuff. So he really knows the world of creation. And of course, he's wise and he is the son of David and he has this peaceful kingdom

and he's given rest to his people. He's built this grand house and he has Gentiles, kings and queens coming from north and coming from south and they're bringing riches to the kingdom. And so you do have this almost idealistic portrayal of Solomon. I mean, he is this kind of perfect, quote unquote, air quotes here, perfect king. So you got that portrayal of him as almost this unbelievable image of human perfection. Of course, I'm speaking hyperbolically here, but you know what I'm talking about. You have that going on.

But at the same time, there's this shadow side of this whole story. And we've seen hints of that already. We're going to see a lot more of it where there's passage after passage. We'll talk about gold, gold, gold, all this gold that Solomon is bringing in. And then it's something about horses that he brings from Egypt. And then pretty soon, we're going to really fall off the edge where we have him building sanctuaries for the gods of his foreign wives. And so there's that going on as well.

It's almost like you have an ideal image, but at the same time, you have a very unideal image of him. So he's reflecting both of these realities at the same time. And I think all of this is, again, to echo what I said at the beginning of the podcast, it's pointing backwards to the fall of Adam, who was also, of course, the ideal man who fell, who had everything and still fell. And then it's also pointing forward to the fulfillment that will come in the true Solomon, the true man of wisdom, the true, true Adam Christ, who will give the full rest that this rest Solomon gives is only a partial fulfillment of. yeah that's right okay so he's given rest not one's word has failed and then he goes on to 57 to say the lord our god be with us as he was with our fathers may he not leave us or forsake us that he may incline our hearts to him to walk in his ways to keep his commandments the statutes

his rules which commanded our fathers then he says let these words of mine with which i have pleaded before the lord be near to the lord our god day and night it's kind of a it's a beautiful expression really so let all these words the words that we that we covered in the last podcast that he pleaded before the lord let those words as it were not just kind of disappear just be sounds that that uh that dissipate but let them as it were echo in god's ears be near to the lord our god day and night and may he maintain the cause of his servant literally do justice for his servant and for his people israel day by day or eat as each day requires so let my prayer always be in the ears of god may always hear that to do for to do good for his people and then he goes on

to reaffirm something that we talked about also in the last podcast verse 60 says that so this is the result that all the peoples of the earth so we're again not just looking within the borders of israel but that all the gentile peoples too that all the peoples of the earth may know that the lord yahweh that is yahweh is god and we have this this very welcome statement here there is no other so you'll often if you read scholarly literature you'll often hear you often read that there was this uh developing i suppose we could say developing monotheism throughout the old testament as if in the early you know in the early years they really didn't believe in just one god and then you know much later is when you have this immersion of of monotheism well granted yes

the people of god were always tempted into polytheism but you have here from the lips of Solomon, just like you have other places, too, this acknowledgement that, sure, to use the language of Paul, there's many gods and many lords, but really, there's only one. And as Solomon says here, there is no other. Yeah, actually, even in the Christian mind, it seems that polytheism is making a comeback, which is a weird thing. I wouldn't have thought that years ago, that that this sort of like yeah yeah yeah yeah like god's the you know yahweh's like the best of gods but like there's lots of still gods like powerful creatures you know powerful or powerful beings out there i mean yahweh might be the most powerful but that's still polytheism yeah yeah it's still

polytheism and yeah when when scripture when scripture talks about uh gods uh it can make can use that in a multitude of different ways. That is to say, when it uses Elohim, it can use that in a multitude of different ways. But it always comes back to the fact that when we're talking about God as in the divinity, the uncreated creator, then there's one. There's not a multiplicity of gods. And I think Paul gives perfect expression of that when he's writing to the Corinthians. Of course, there's plenty of gods and lords and all of that that are out there in the world we all know that polytheism is a is a rampant belief then and now but there's only one there's only one uh uncreated being and so therefore whatever is not

yahweh is a creature call it what call it what you make yeah i think the problem here is not that you can't say there's there's uh that there's people and then there's god and that's there's nothing else it's not it's not as though there's no other things the problem becomes i think exactly with what you said which is when it comes to eternal uncreated beings there's only one of those and he's three but he's he's one and there's only one of those which means to speak of him as anything other than completely separate than anything else would be inappropriate so you you can't you can't say like oh he's one among many gods and he's the most powerful god that language is confusing because it doesn't put enough separation between the what is created and what

is uncreated and that's definitely pagan theology there yeah when you talk about yeah one god among many gods he's just the most powerful well any greek or roman would be fine with that right well of course well zeus yeah he's the most powerful god and then you have you know you've got hera and you've got all these other gods yeah and goddesses and it may sound like a weird thing to bring up because like okay why are you even talking about this well one it's in the text and he says and he's making a point that there is no other right there is no other god and because oddly enough this is something that is uh is made a little bit of a comeback it's weird it's weird how old things come back and and in new ways and so i've actually

been having this conversation which is a conversation 10 years ago that i would not have thought i would be having yeah there's nothing nothing new and new under the sun for sure all these things just resurface time and time again in different dress but they always always come back and then solomon finishes up verse 61 with let your heart therefore be holy true to the lord our god walking in his statutes keeping his commandments as at this day so that's the end we had the prayer solomon which we talked about last episode this is the benediction that he offers afterward as he's speaking to to the people and then the chapter wraps up with uh basically a documentation of what all happened with regard to the celebration. So what sacrifices

were offered, how many days did they celebrate, where do people come from, all those kind of details. So that we have kind of the complete picture here of just how big an event this was. So we're told 62 that the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord. Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord a whole bunch of animals, 22,000 oxen, 120,000 sheep. So if you're a long-time listener to the program, you know that we talked about peace offerings when we covered Leviticus, as well as other places. There's sort of a play on words here, by the way. So Solomon's name, Shlomo, in Hebrew. I've always, by the way, I thought his Hebrew name was, we should really just have stuck with his Hebrew name.

Shlomo? Yeah. Sounds a lot better than Solomon. Sounds like Shlomo. Yeah, it does. Shlomo. So Shlomo, his name is derived from shalom, peace. So there's kind of a play on words here.

So Shlomo offered Shulamim, peace offerings. These peace offerings were the specific kind of offering where the blood and the fat went to the Lord or offer on his altar. And then part of the animal's meat went to the priest as his paycheck. And the rest of the animal was given back to the worshippers so that he, with his family, as well as with other people, could have a celebratory sacrificial feast. So I love the peace offerings because I think they're one of the best Old Testament parallels that we have to the Lord's Supper. So here you have the victim that is sacrificed, and then the blood is for the atonement. Blood is placed upon the altar. But then this very one whose life was given, whose blood was shed for the worshiper is then received back and actually taken into the very body of the worshiper so that they eat the very price of their redemption, which is just a beautiful picture of what the supper is about.

Yeah, these priests are about to have a huge payday because even a portion of the meat is about to be a lot of meat. I don't know how many priests they got, but they're about to be stocked up. Hopefully they'll have some big freezers back in their cities. So a lot of feasting going on here,

a lot of animals being offered. And we're told the king and all Israel, all the people of Israel, dedicated the house of the Lord. The Hebrew verb there is hanak. that is the root of Hanukkah so if you're familiar with the celebration of Hanukkah Hanukkah is a it's not a Hanukkah is not a biblical festival in the sense that it was not instituted during the uh the scriptures Hanukkah emerged during the the Maccabean revolt which was when the the Jews

revolted against their Syrian overlords and then uh had to rededicate reconsecrate the temple because it had been defiled by the offering of unlawful sacrifices. And so they Hanukkahed, they dedicated the house of the Lord, the same verb that's used here. They dedicated this house. And then we're told, it's kind of a strange scenario in verse 64, that same day, the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord.

But there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering, the fat pieces, the peace offerings. Why? Because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat pieces of the peace offering. So I guess we have the altar, even though it was pretty good size, wasn't big enough for all these sacrifices.

So they had to have, I guess, a second altar to accommodate all of these sacrifices. Yeah, it's interesting that they decided to go that direction with it. You look at all the stuff that they're sacrificing, and their conclusion is that the altar is too small, not that this offering is obviously too big. That's what I was thinking too. This isn't an altar size problem.

This is an offering size problem. Yeah, it seems a little bit overdone to have this many offerings. Is that elephant too large to fit in your car or is that car too small to fit the elephant? Now, both of these things I guess are true, but which which direction do you believe the real problem lies yeah yeah so uh first solomon decided he'd get a bigger truck yeah for the elephant he he took a look at that elephant

and he said man my car is really small and you're like no i think that is just a really large elephant yes yeah so uh they uh to accommodate the elephant they consecrated the middle of the court for all these sacrifices and uh verse 65 tells us that they held the feast at this time and i believe we talked a couple times ago about this was uh the feast here is referring to the feast of sukkot or tabernacles which was the fall festival and uh appropriate time because that that festival was the time when the israelites remembered when their forefathers lived in the desert in tents and so they would live in these temporary shelters it's sometimes translated as a booth but anyway just a kind of a it's a tent more or less and so they they remembered that time but

now they're here for the feast of tabernacles to celebrate not a tabernacle but the temple the permanent structure so they held they held the feast all israel great assembly and then we're used to hearing from dan to beersheba right that's kind of the typical north south references But here we have something else. It says from Lavo Hamath, which is in the north, to the brook of Egypt, of course, which would be in the south. So just a different kind of north-south designation, not the one that we're accustomed to. But the impression is that people gather from the very far ends of the kingdom of Solomon to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this before the Lord our God. Well, the ESV has seven days. The Hebrew there is actually seven days and seven days, 14 days. the so i don't want to really get into it because it's too complicated but sometimes your english

translations instead of going with the hebrew text will go with the greek translation septuagint which is what they've done here and sometimes it makes sense sometimes uh i think like in this case they're just choosing something which they think fits better with the flow of the narrative i mean tabernacles was technically a seven-day feast this is a special kind of tabernacle so it's easy to believe that Solomon decided, hey, let's just stretch this into two weeks. We're going to do 14 days, which is what the Hebrew would represent here. But either way, whether you go Greek, Septuagint, or Hebrew, so 14 days or seven days, it was a celebration feast. Then verse 66 says, on the eighth day. Now, if you go with the Septuagint, this is the day after

that seven-day celebration. If you go with the Hebrew, this would have been the eighth day after the second week, so technically the 15th day. But either way, at the very end of it, Solomon sends the people away. They blessed the king, went to their tents, literally went to their homes, joyful, glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, his servant. So it doesn't say Solomon, but to David, his servant, and to Israel, his people. So it wraps up with a statement which kind of just tries to communicate that this is sort of an acme. This is a summit of joy for the people of Israel. This is, as we discussed several episodes ago, this is the end of the Exodus because God has finally planted himself in his house on his temple. And this is a cause for

celebration because God's given rest to his people. He's anointed the son of David. He's on his throne. Everybody's happy. Everybody's full. They've just feasted in this great celebration. they're able to go home joyful because of all the goodness that god has shown to to david his servant and to the entire people of israel so certainly a the note of of joy and intense satisfaction is how this whole chapter wraps up yeah this is this is the the conclusion here this is one of the few times they end a chapter in a really good spot uh this this could be like roll credits everyone's happy everyone's partying it's a great time uh of course it never stays that way because it's not like jesus has come back so uh he doesn't even come the first time so

obviously this cannot last forever also there's seven days and seven days is the most old testament thing ever uh where an author could say 14 days and they said no no this is a really pivotal moment uh this is two seven days that's what this is yeah that is a typical old testament thing to do how many days was it it was seven it was seven plus seven it's seven plus seven so 14 no no no It's seven and seven? Yeah. Yeah, especially with numbers. Hebrew is very strange, the way that it will express itself.

But, yeah, that's just kind of what you come to expect. It's a big deal. They didn't want to write the number 14 right there. That's weird. Yeah, yeah. Why would you do that? Okay, so, hey, we finished. We did.

We got there. What do you know? Three episodes, but we're not done. So don't hit pause on your iPhone or whatever you're listening to this on, because we got 10 more minutes we got to go into uh first kings nine and this is going to be the the second epiphany second uh appearance of god that solomon receives the first one of course we talked about a few chapters ago when he was a relatively young man he called himself a a young one a young man and you know it was he was at least compared to where he's at now this is 20

years later uh this he's he's grown up and uh a lot's happened so god is going to appear to him a second time and as we'll see it starts out uh sounded pretty good god's going to talk about hearing his prayer and and sanctifying his house and putting his name there and and so on and so forth but then once we get to verse four things are going to turn around and there's going to be not even a hint there's a very strong suggestion of what is to what is to come so chapter nine verse one soon as solomon had finished building the house of the lord and the king's house and then everything else all that solomon desired to build so he didn't just wasn't just like he built these two things he did a lot of building a lot of different construction going on but the

lord appeared to solomon a second time as he had appeared to him at gibeon this is all back in first Kings chapter, chapter three. And here's what God said to him. Of course, the first time he said, what do you want? You know, you want, you want riches, you want this, you want that. And Solomon asked for a, uh, a hearing heart and God gave that to him. So he gave him this gift of wisdom. Now here, God appears and he doesn't ask for anything. He doesn't say, what do you want? He just says, listen, that prayer that you, that you offered, I heard it. I have heard your prayer, which you made before me so that's the one thing god is saying i listened and then he says i have consecrated i've sanctified this house that you have built so this is god's imprimatur as it were

he's saying yes i'm happy with this house i have sanctified it consecrated it how so he says because i put my name there and then he adds to other things says my name is there and my eyes and my heart will be there for all time which is a pretty pretty cool expression hey where's god's eyes and where's god's heart and where's god's name well it's in that it's in that structure right there that the psalm is built one of the things i think is interesting about this is that god says two things where you're like is that true where he says look i've consecrated this house that you have built by putting my name there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there for all time and now knowing what we know like is is that so is that is that like you better

rebuild you better rebuild this thing asap uh after everything gets destroyed man we should be we should be trying to get things together right now to get this thing built i mean this is where god's name is and where his eyes and his heart are going to be for all time we got to get this thing rebuilt or chad is god saying what what this temple represents what what it prefigures i promised to inhabit that to have my heart and my eyes be there forever uh if you if you don't read things like this like through through the lens of of christ becoming the tabernacle like it will things get weird yeah then you're like

you're sketching out blueprints for the next temple and you're gathering red heifers and you're you're prepping not for the end but you're prepping for that next temple yes which just you know to make things explicit would be a horrendous blasphemy

to the cross of Christ it would be saying oh that was really nice that Christ offered himself as a sacrifice as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world But what we really need are more animal sacrifices What God is saying Here's the Daniel E. Price

Commentary And interpretation of this text What God is saying When he says this My name's there forever My eyes and my heart are there for all time What he's saying And how you can read this is

That temple that you just built That's about my son That's what he's saying That's about Jesus so therefore stamp of approval for all time don't you love the incarnational aspect of this too because he he actually uses doesn't just say name but he uses parts of the body my eyes and my heart will be there for all time that's when you when you understand it as you just explained it that means you know when you when you see the eyes of christ you're seeing the eyes of god

you see the the heart of christ seeing the the heart of our yahweh that's where he's at because christ is the the temple the incarnation of god so the fulfillment of everything that we're seeing here yeah that's all good i mean that's great i've heard your prayer i've consecrated this house but verse four through the rest of god's speech to solomon doesn't sound so good because we have anytime you have if then statements in scripture where the if is requiring something of you it's probably not good yeah i always i always feel like i feel like man has never lived up to the if then no we we definitely have not as we'll see this this this one for sure has not been lived up to so god says if you'll walk before me as david your father walked with integrity of heart

and uprightness doing according to all that i've commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules I guess that part's encouraging, because I know that Solomon has lionized his father quite a bit, but since we spent a lot of time going over David, if God said, if you can just walk before me like David did, I think I could probably say with some degree of confidence, I could probably do that. so if you'll do that then i will establish your royal throne over israel forever as i promised your father david saying you shall not lack a man on the throne of israel yeah so uh if if david's the the rule then maybe so maybe solop can do that well i think i i think we've talked about this before that statement is if you've read a bunch about david which of course we have you you're saying to yourself well what i mean that dude like murdered people and stuff man like okay i i could probably manage to be similar to david i guess uh uh but what's really

being said here is that uh are you going to be a man who uh not a man who is sinless but are you going to be a a worshiper of yahweh only right because this is something that david did not engage in uh much like saul it's david wasn't going around worshiping lots of other gods he wasn't doing that uh and sinner extraordinaire uh that he be he also is man of much repentance and so i think what this is really getting at is can you worship only me and when you sin know that i'm the one that you go to with it yeah that's precisely what the precisely what this means so if you're a man of repentance and if you worship me

then we're all good and by the way this is a note about that translation you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel I wish the ESV had translated that a little more literally literally in the Hebrew it is there shall not be cut off

for you a man on the throne of Israel and the reason I say I wish they had translated it a little more literally is because there's a play on words so if you do this there shall not be cut off for you a man on the throne of israel and the play on words is in verse seven where he goes on to say if you go the path of idolatry then i will cut off israel from the land that i have given them so both in both cases the same verb in hebrews use karat so if you do

that there won't be cut off for you a man on the throne of israel it goes on to verse six but if you turn aside and by the way this is we should give this the texas translation of y'all because this is this is a you singular this is you plural so but if y'all meaning not to solomon but you and your your children but if y'all turn aside from following me you or your children and do not keep my commandments my statutes that i've said before you but and here's our idolatry but if you go and serve other gods and worship them yeah so so what does it mean to in god's mind and i know we've talked about this a ton but this is really important like in god's mind the way that you obliterate the commandments and the way that you turn aside has everything to do with worshiping

other gods it's not expressly a a morality thing he's god is not saying if there is one among you who does not honor his father and mother correctly, then I'm out. What this has to do is this has to do with the worship life of the people. And are they going to have fidelity? Are they going to hold fast to the commandments? That is, are they going to keep them in the sense that are they going to not disregard them? Are they not going to put them away in some library somewhere and never look at them again? Are they going to close their ears off to God?

and while doing that go and worship some other god this is what God says you cannot do it all gets back to the first commandment every time and I hate to leave off in the middle of this

but we are at our 40 minute mark so we will pick back up with the rest of God's speech to Solomon next week and we'll see what God will threaten to do if they do go that path. Yeah, so imagine if the people of Israel were not faithful in worship

and didn't keep the commandments close. Imagine what will happen. Well, God's going to let you know not what might happen, but what is going to happen. Yes, for sure. All right, Chad. Well, we are up in Chapter 9, and we will continue on with it next week. All right, we'll see you then.

We'll see you next time.