5.1 2 Chronicles 7-9

2 Chronicles 7-9

Transcript

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Hello, friends and neighbors. Welcome to the Sunny Side of Life Bible in a Year Experience. Join me each day as I read the Bible from start to finish. I'm reading from the Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, published by Tyndale House Publishers. I pray this daily reading will bless you as much as it does me. So let's get started. May 1st, 2nd Chronicles, chapters 7 through 9. When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it. When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the Lord filling the temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, He is good, his faithful love endures forever. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord. King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats, and so the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God. The priests took their assigned positions, and so did the Levites, who were singing, His faithful love endures forever. They accompanied the singing with music from the instruments King David had made for praising the Lord. Across from the Levites the priests blew the trumpets while all Israel stood. Solomon then consecrated the central area of the courtyard in front of the Lord's temple. He offered burnt offerings and the fat of peace offerings there, because the bronze altar he had built could not hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrificial fat. For the next seven days Solomon and all Israel celebrated the festival of shelters. A large congregation had gathered from as far away as Lebohamat in the north and the brook of Egypt in the south. On the eighth day they had a closing ceremony, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival of shelters for seven days. Then at the end of the celebration Solomon sent the people home. They were all joyful and glad, because the Lord had been so good to David and to Solomon and to his people Israel. So Solomon finished the temple of the Lord as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do in the construction of the temple in the palace. Then one night the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this temple as the place for making sacrifices. At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rainfalls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. Then, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open, and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place, for I have chosen this temple and set it apart to be holy, a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. As for you, if you faithfully follow me as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, then I will establish the throne of your dynasty. For I made this covenant with your father David, when I said, One of your descendants will always rule over Israel. But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the decrees and commands I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot the people from this land that I have given them, I will reject this temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make it an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations, and though this temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this temple? And the answer will be, Because his people abandoned the Lord, the god of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshipped other gods instead, and bowed down to them. That is why he has brought all these disasters on them. It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord's temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time Solomon turned his attention to rebuilding the towns that King Hiram had given him, and he settled Israelites in them. Solomon also fought against the town of Hamath Zobah and conquered it. He rebuilt Tadmor in the wilderness and built towns in the region of Hamath as supply centers. He fortified the towns of Upper Beth Haran and Lower Beth Haran, rebuilding their walls and installing barred gates. He also rebuilt Balath and other supply centers, and constructed towns where his chariots and horses could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm. There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perazites, Hives, and Jebusites. These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them for his labor force, and they serve as forced laborers to this day. But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for his labor force. Instead he assigned them to serve as fighting men, officers in his army, commanders of his chariots and charioteers. King Solomon appointed two hundred and fifty of them to supervise the people. Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh's daughter, from the city of David to the new palace he had built for her. He said, My wife must not live in King David's palace, for the ark of the Lord has been there, and it is holy ground. Then Solomon presented burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar he had built for him in front of the entry room of the temple. He offered the sacrifices for the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, and the three annual festivals, the Passover celebration, the festival of harvest, and the festival of shelters, as Moses had commanded. In assigning the priests to do their duties, Solomon followed the regulations of his father David. He also assigned the Levites to lead the people in praise and to assist the priests in their daily duties, and he assigned the gatekeepers to their gates by their divisions, following the commands of David, the man of God. Solomon did not deviate in any way from David's commands concerning the priests and Levites and the treasuries. So Solomon made sure that all the work related to building the temple of the Lord was carried out, from the day its foundation was laid to the day of its completion. Later Solomon went to Isaiah and Geber and Elath, ports along the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers and manned by experienced crews of sailors. These ships sailed to Ophir with Solomon's men and brought back to Solomon almost seventeen tons of gold. When the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She arrived with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about everything she had on her mind. Solomon had answers for all her questions. Nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. When the Queen of Sheba realized how wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built, she was overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cupbearers and their robes, and the burnt offering Solomon made at the temple of the Lord. She exclaimed to the king, everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true. I didn't believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of your great wisdom. It is far beyond what I was told. How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day listening to your wisdom. Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne as king to rule for him. Because God loves Israel and desires this kingdom to last forever, he has made you king over them so you can rule with justice and righteousness. Then she gave the king a gift of nine thousand pounds of gold, great quantities of spices and precious jewels. Never before had there been spices as fine as those the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. In addition, the crews of Hiram and Solomon brought gold from Ophir, and they also brought red sandalwood and precious jewels. The king used the sandalwood to make steps for the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and to construct lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before had such beautiful things been seen in Judah. King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba whatever she asked for, gifts of greater value than the gifts she had given him. Then she and all her attendants returned to their own land. Each year Solomon received about twenty five tons of gold. This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the provinces also brought gold and silver to Solomon. King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each weighing more than fifteen pounds. He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each weighing more than seven and a half pounds. The king placed these shields in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. Then the king made a huge throne, decorated with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. The throne had six steps with a footstool of gold. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, and the figure of a lion stood on each side of the throne. There were also twelve other lions, one standing on each end of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it. All of King Solomon's drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver, for silver was considered worthless in Solomon's day. The king had a fleet of trading ships of Tarshish manned by the sailors sent by Hiram. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth. Kings from every nation came to consult him, and to hear the wisdom God had given him. Year after year everyone who visited brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses and mules. Solomon had four thousand stalls for his horses and chariots, and he had twelve thousand horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities, and some near him in Jerusalem. He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River in the north to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt in the south. The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone. The valuable cedar timber was as common as the sycamore fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and many other countries. The rest of the events of Solomon's reign from beginning to end are recorded in the record of Nathan the Prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah from Shiloh, and also in the visions of Edu the Seer, concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat. Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. When he died, he was buried in the city of David, named for his father. Then his son Rehoboam became the next king. That's it for today, friends. Feel free to read ahead on your own. Before I go, let's share the Lord's prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, power, glory forever.