Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Party Before the Plunge | Historical Books | 1 Kings 10:1-13

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Who did Solomon's wealth benefit? What sin is leading your heart astray? Could you be living in the party before the plunge? In today's episode, Jeff shares how 1 Kings 10:1-13 warns us against living in awe of ourselves instead of God. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Kings 10:1-13

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Irving Fisher was a man of wisdom and wealth. He was a graduate from Yale who carried the reputation of being one of the best economists in the entire United States. In addition to his reputation for insight and intellect, Fisher amassed a great fortune throughout his career as a writer, an academic, and an inventor. In the era of the roaring, 20s, his life was rocking and rolling and just got it made. That's what you would think in September of 1929. But if you moved the calendar forward just one month and took a snapshot of his life then,

you'd see a very different picture. And that's because in October of 1929, the United States stock market began the descent into the Great Depression. The great crash of 1929 not only cost Fisher his great wealth, but his great wisdom as well. In the weeks leading up to the crash, Fisher proclaimed that stocks were at a new and permanently high plateau. And obviously, it wasn't long until his alleged insight was exposed as a misguided opinion. Irving Fisher was a man of great wealth and wisdom until he wasn't. The quick and severe loss of his reputation and his fortune. It's a cautionary tale to us in so many ways. And if you took Fisher's life out of context and only looked at his life leading up to September 1929, you would say that he

embodied an exemplary picture of the good life. I mean, his life was a party. But if you zoomed out, even just one month beyond that, you see that he was living in the party right before the plunge into the Great Depression. And you wouldn't want to emulate his life trajectory. You wouldn't want to emulate his life trajectory, you'd want to evade it. In the first 13 verses of First Kings, we kind of see a similar cautionary tale, another party before the plunge. These verses portray the unparalleled wisdom and wealth of King Solomon. And if we read these verses out of context on their own, we'll think that Solomon has it all figured out. But as we examine the content of these verses, we'll also zoom out to consider the contours of the bigger context at play and reflect on what Solomon's greatness can teach us about

our own hearts. As we get ready to approach God's word together, let's slow down and ask for his grace, his mission, his love to move through our time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath in this new day, and thank you for your word. We bring before you our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety, our excitement, our calendars and the things that we're in the things that we're that are planned, but also our contingencies and the things that aren't planned. Would you meet us in this space? Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. And Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in First Kings.

And as we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to life with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so in First Kings chapter 9, we learned about. about Solomon's extensive building projects that reflected his sense of wealth and status. I mean, his life is a party at this point. And as we get into chapter 10, the presentation of Solomon's greatness shifts from his works to his wisdom. The chapter begins with the arrival of another national leader, the Queen of Sheba. And her presence with Solomon becomes a proving ground for how great he really is in this moment of his life. Let's read verses 1 through 5 just to get a sense

for how Solomon is doing here. When the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with the very great caravan with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold and precious stones, she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

when the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built the food on his table the seating of his officials the attending servants in their robes his cupbearers and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord she was overwhelmed I just love how verse 5 ends there if the description of Solomon's wisdom and wealth wasn't enough on its own we're told that the queen of shiba is just overwhelmed by all of it and I get it she goes on in verse eight to describe how wonderful this must be for the king's wealth and wisdom how wonderful it must be for everyone living under solomon's reign she says how happy your people must be how happy your officials who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom now this seems like a genuine compliment to solomon because remember his life is a party right now it seems like his kingdom is a big party and the Queen of Sheba soaking it up. Biblical scholars note that if we zoom in on these verses

and take them out of the bigger context of First Kings, we also will think that Solomon's life is a big party. But if we zoom out and we contrast this description of Solomon's wealth and wisdom with the description that we received back in Chapter 4 of First Kings, we get a more complicated picture. Because back there in Chapter 4, the description of Solomon's wealth and his wisdom, was connected to the flourishing and the peace of his people and the world around him.

But here in chapter 10, his wealth and his wisdom are connected more to the flourishing of Solomon's royal court. So zooming out, even just to the context of the previous chapters, we see that Solomon's party here in chapter 10 is mostly a party for him and his closest friends. We get the sense that something's a little bit off. And without getting ahead of ourselves too much. If we could zoom out just a bit more into the very next chapter, chapter 11, we see the wise and the wealthy Solomon turning from the Lord, giving his heart to other women and to other gods. There's even a potential preview of that turning away from the Lord at the very end of our passage today, because in 1st Kings chapter 10 verse 13, we read how Solomon receives a bunch of gifts from

the queen of Sheba. And he responds by giving to her whatever she's. desired, whatever she asked for, he gave it away. Indeed, it wouldn't be long until Solomon gives his own heart and his own kingdom away. And knowing that, knowing where this is going, it changes how we read about Solomon's great wisdom and wealth here in chapter 10. This right here is Solomon's party before the plunge. The wealthy and the wise Solomon will mirror the wealthy and wise Irving Fisher. And like the Wall Street crash of 1929, the fall of Solomon

will create a kind of great depression in the life of God's people as they prepare to go into exile. Now, let's just think about what purpose does this moment in Solomon's life have for God's people? What difference does it make for you and for me today? In a lot of ways,

this episode in Solomon's life is like a living illustration of Proverbs 1 verse 7. What many people see is the kind of thesis statement for the wisdom of God's people. There we read, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1 is saying that the fear, the awe, the reverence of the Lord is the first step and the foundational step in the cultivation of knowledge and wisdom in God's world. And in some ways, 1 Kings chapter 10 shows us a version of Solomon who has slowly veered into living in the fear and the awe and reverence of other people, even in awe and reverence of himself. And so he became a fool who underestimated the potential distortions of his own heart and desires. Instead of giving his heart to God for the benefit of his people, he gave his hard way to other people for the benefit of himself. And so the wealthy, wise king became an impoverished and ignorant icon.

Solomon's party before the plunge is a warning sign for God's people as they navigate the terrain of faith in a world that is bent on self-centered greatness. And for me, as a recovering people pleaser, this is something that I need to pay special attention to in my own life. Because the seasons and the specific moments where I'm inclined to relevant to, in the party of my little life, my little fabricated version of greatness, those moments expose the distortions of my own heart. They confront my need to cultivate a fear, an awe, a reverence for my creator king, an awe that cuts through the noise of our world's self-aggrandizing greatness.

When you think about your own life, are there ways that you, like Solomon, might be reveling in a party of your own greatness? Maybe if someone zoomed in on your life right now, today, they'd see someone living their best life now. But if they zoomed out a little bit and they saw who you used to be, who you become and who you're becoming, who would they see?

Would they see someone living in the fear, awe, and reverence of God right now or in the future? Would they see someone living for the blessing of other people? Or would they see someone like Irving Fivor? Fisher or Solomon, someone who's in the party now, but it's really just the party before the plunge into destruction. Like Solomon, all of us have this dangerous capacity to give our hearts away to other people for the sake of our own benefit. And yet, God is good enough to convict us, to free us so that we can return to living in awe of him for the sake of blessing everyone

that we meet. Heavenly Father, would you graciously, graciously expose the ways that we live in awe of other people or in awe of ourselves instead of you? Jesus help us remain in you so that we can embody, we can embrace the shape of your life-giving, sacrificial love. Holy Spirit, bind us together so that we as a community of faith can display the greatness of your kingdom. Work through, us so that when people zoom in and out on our lives, they can see us spreading your life and your love into every corner of the world around us. We ask that you would do this by your grace, for your glory, and your bigger story. In Jesus' name, amen.