Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in First Kings chapter four. And a question that is resounding in my mind is the following. If you or I were able to get what we wanted, would God get what he wants? I think that's very interesting to think about in the life of Solomon. You might recall that Solomon is now king over all of Israel and Judah. And in the last chapter,
God was pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom and indeed God is going to give Solomon great wisdom and some of the areas we're really going to see Solomon's wisdom shine is in creating a government and creating organization in the writing of saints like Proverbs and the singing of songs and the understanding of animals he's really going to be interested in all of that and God's going to give him great wisdom he is
He is going to run a country in such a way that is so stellar and incredible that it's going to bring immense wealth and prosperity. He knows how to organize. He has the wisdom to put everything together. And people all around are going to marvel at how he runs a country and marvel at his wisdom. You know, Israel wanted to have a nation, God wanted to have
wanted them to have a nation and and every nation wouldn't you want there to be peace and prosperity and success of your nation but yet if they get what they wanted would God get what he wanted you know in some ways I feel like Solomon
and asking for wisdom and receiving it, um, you know, maybe in addition to wisdom, if you could have said, God, could I have two things? Could I have holiness? Could I have godliness? Could I run the country in a way that brought honor and glory to your name? And he, it, that did not come with his wisdom as we will see as we go through this chapter and as we go through this book. Now,
In this chapter, we're going to begin to see how Solomon organizes the kingdom and organizes his people in order to have a successful country, at least when it comes to peace and prosperity. You know, later on, and you know, we'll get to this in not too distant future here, but the Queen of Sheba in chapter 10 of 1 Kings,
She comes and visits Solomon. And I want you to see what the result of what we're going to see today in chapter four as far as how he begins to organize his country. Look at how it's reported later, chapter 10, verse one. Now the queen of Sheba heard the report about Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh. So she came to test him with riddles. She came to Jerusalem with a very glorious retinue with camels carrying spices. Everyone was bringing
They wanted to be friends with Israel and they were bringing gifts to Solomon carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones and she came to Solomon and spoke to him about all that was in her heart and Solomon declared to her the answer to all her matters. There was not a matter which was hidden from the king which she did not declare to her. He had great wisdom.
Then the queen of Shiva saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food at his table, the seating of his servants, remember the organization I'm referring to, the disposition of his attendants and their attire, his cupbears, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of Yahweh, so that there was no more spirit in her.
She looked at how everything was organized, everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing, how everyone was dressed, even their disposition. Solomon had things so fine-tuned and running in such an incredible way that it literally took the spirit on her. She didn't even have words. She's like, oh my goodness, I've never seen a country run like this. And if we were to go on in that chapter and we'll get to it in the future, it'll talk about
His wealth and his prosperity and his chariots and his horsemen and his gold and everything. It was incredible. Chapter 10 is like, look at Solomon got what he wanted.
He got wisdom. He got prosperity. He got a wonderful country. And you know, right now we have so many things moving forward in a positive direction in America. Uh, it's incredible. The early, you know, portion here of Donald Trump's second presidency and he's bringing in so much and even things that are really more in alignment with God. Things are moving in a, in a good direction, but will it end up bringing
a holy country. Will it end up bringing a godly country? How about you? If you were to get what you wanted, would God get what he wanted? Look what happens after chapter 10 and all the glory of that chapter, we will see in a week or so, listen to what happens in chapter 11 verse 1. After all the abundance of Solomon, now King Solomon loved many foreign women among, along with the daughter of Pharaoh,
From the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
Now it happened at that time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh's God as the heart of David his father had been.
Isn't that something? So despite all of Solomon's wisdom and all the abundance in the way that he ran his country, it did not turn into a holy country. It did not turn into a godly country. In a sense, God gave Israel everything they wanted, but in the end, God didn't get what he wanted.
And I fear that that could happen to us, that if the thing that we hoped for and we longed for in our lives, whether that be blessing our prosperity or an easy retirement or more wealth or whatever, would we remain focused on God? And I tell you what,
That's why it's so important to be in this word every day and to keep our eyes steadfastly upon Him. And you know what? I hope you're blessed. I hope I'm blessed. You know, don't we all want to be blessed? Don't we all want to have a peaceful life, a prosperous life? But man, get your mind in God. Get your mind in His book. Stay connected to Him and make sure that however God blesses you, you're serving Him wherever you are.
Whatever, wherever you go, may the service of the Lord go with you, may He always be our focus. Hallelujah. And sometimes you're going to have to fight for it because the blessing of this world sometimes can take us away from our devotion to God. So with all of that, let's take a look at chapter four.
So King Solomon, as he begins to set up his country, was king over all Israel. These were his officials. Azariah, the son of Zadak, was the priest. Eleroth, the Hajah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes. Jehoshaphat, the son of Elohud, was the recorder. He had everyone doing what they needed to be doing. And Ben and I, the son of Jehoida, was over the army. And Zadak and Abbiatar were priests. And Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over the deputies. And Zabad, the son of Nathan, a priest.
was the king's friend, isn't that? I marveled at that this morning and I kind of looked to see if I could find any more. That kind of shone forth to me this morning. I'm going to read it again. And Zabbid, the son of Nathan and priest, was the king's friend. You know, he chose a good friend there and a priest as a friend. And that's the only time we hear of Zabbid in the whole Bible. But how cool is that? That was his role. He was the king's friend. And I don't know.
if he was a good priest or not, or what their friendship was like, but unfortunately, Solomon's life turns wayward. So I don't know, hopefully he wasn't a compromised priest in that day, but nonetheless, what a special thing to have a friend. Zabbid, the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's friend. And Abishar was over the household, and at an iron, the son of Adba was over the men subject to forced labor.
Now Solomon had 12 deputies over all Israel who sustained the king and his household. Each man had to sustain them for one month in the year. So they divided up Israel into regions and then they put a deputy in charge of each region and in each region then under the charge of that deputy was to bring what Solomon wanted for a month's worth of provision for Solomon and his government.
And these are the names of the 12 deputies in charge of the 12 territories. Ben Hur in the Hill Country of Ephraim. And, you know, it's interesting. There's a movie about Ben Hur. I looked that up this morning as well. And this is the only time this name, Ben Hur, is mentioned in the Bible. Ben Decker in Macass, in Shalbim, in Beth Shemesh, in El-Nebeth Hanan. Ben has it in Aruba. Soka was
his and all the land of Hepford. So they're telling you what areas these deputies went in. You may have heard this, I'm going to do this briefly, but all of these names that we're reading right now and all the way to pronounce all this stuff, if you want, you know, you can go on an app like Blue Letter Bible, which I use and it'll tell you how to pronounce every one of these.
And I can tell you that almost no one pronounces them correctly. And I will tell you, I'm not now, I'm not taking the time to look up every single one of these words and pronounce it correctly. What's funny and interesting is people learn how to pronounce these things and they'll say, oh no, this is how you say it. And then when someone's reading, someone will correct someone and say, oh no, this is how they say it, just because they've heard people speak it before, but I never do that. I don't worry about,
the pronunciation because I'll tell you what, we're all wrong. If you think you know how to pronounce these words, and if you correct someone when they're reading, no, this is how you say it, I almost assure you you're wrong. And I'm not trying to pick on you right now, but we do not pronounce these words correctly. And so don't think you know how to pronounce it because you've heard someone pronounce it in the past because they're wrong. I've almost never heard these pronounced correctly. Do it yourself time, just check it out.
Anyways, that's why when we read these as a group, I don't really worry about it. Just get through it and try to pronounce it and just don't worry about it because it would take so much time to stop and learn how to pronounce every one of these words. All right, moving on. Ben Abinadab in All the Height of Door, Tafath and the Daughter of Solomon, his wife, Bana, the son of Al-Hud and Tanak and Magito,
And Beth Sheen, which is beside the xerith and below jazz reel, from Beth Sheen to Abel Mahola, as far as the other side of Joke Miam,
Probably sound right because I don't I don't stutter. I just get through it. Does it sound like I'm saying? I'm right Ben Gepper in Ramath Gilead now have Roth Jair being the son of Manasa, which is in Gilead and his the region of Argab, which is in Boschon 60 great cities with walls and bronze bars were his Just a little bit more Abinad add the son of Ido and Mannheim and
and Ahamaz in Nptali, he also married Basemath, the daughter of Solomon, Bana, the son of Hushai in Asher in Belia, Jhoshafat, the son of Perua in Isakar, Shimai, the son of Ella in Benjamin, Gebur, the son of Yurai in the land of Gilead, the country of Saihan, king of the Amorites, and of Og, the king of Bishan, he was only
deputy who was in the land. So that's how he divided up the deputies over in charge of the land. Now listen to this, this is where we see more the magnificence of Solomon's country of Israel beginning to take shape. And it's interesting how even though Solomon's in charge of it all, there's still this division between Judah and the south and Israel to the north, they still call them like two territories. And again, sin of Solomon's done, they're going to divide and be
basically at war with each other. Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. They were eating and drinking and being glad. This is where I see. You see, they're getting what they wanted. But will God get what he wants? Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life. So people all around were
bringing gifts to Solomon. They saw his empire and just wanted to have favor with Solomon. And Solomon's provision for one day was 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal, 10 fat oxen, 20 pasture fat oxen.
grass-fed, right? 100 sheep besides deer, gazelles, robux, and fat and foul. For he had dominion over everything west of the river, from Tifsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the river, and he had peace on all sides around and about him.
Man, it's going great. So Judean, Israel lived in security. Every man under his vine and his fig tree from Dan, even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. Man, peace and prosperity. Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And these deputies sustained King Solomon.
And all who came to the king's table, each in his month, they left nothing lacking. They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where it should be, each according to the legal judgment for him. So again, these people brought a month's horse of supplies and took care of everything that was needed in Solomon's government. And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breath of understanding in his heart, like the sand that is on the shishore. You can't even count it. His wisdom was so great.
And Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt, and he was wiser than all men.
then Ethan and Izzarite and Heman and Kolkal and Darda and the sons of Mehal and the renowned of his name and all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs and we have the 31 chapters of proverbs. There's a lot in those 31 chapters by the way. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs were 1,005.
the song of Solomon being one of those songs. He spoke of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall. He spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish he loved looking at God's creation and understanding it.
And men came from all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. And that's how the chapter ends. And you know, man, isn't it something to think of all the wisdom, all the way he ran his government, all the peace and prosperity. It's too bad in my mind that Solomon didn't ask for godliness or for holiness and that he did not follow the word of God the way that he could have.
and led his country in a more holy and godly way. And as a result of not doing that, all this wisdom, all this wealth and all this prosperity is not going to turn into what God wanted. You know, sometimes we were so attracted to looking at peace, prosperity and wealth and we look at, you know, what the accomplishments of man, whatever it may be, whether it be
you know, in business, in government, in sport, whatever it may be that you marvel at, and you're like, wow, look at what those people accomplished in their lives. But yet, did they love Jesus? Did they serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Because what's really going to matter in the end, you know, in my book, Altered, and you can order one at reviewingtheword.com, but
My book altered. I talked about that a little bit. You know, I'm a golfer and, you know, even though Tiger Woods, you know, he did a lot wrong in his life. When I looked at what he accomplished as a golfer, it was really quite impressive, right? His record is just unbelievable as far as his success.
And one thing I mentioned in that book is, you know what, I wish one of the greatest things that could happen for Tiger Woods was that he'd become a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. And maybe God wouldn't remove him from golfing, but maybe what he would do is take the prominence he had in golfing and
and make him be a mouthpiece of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and help people come to know him, then he'd have a worthwhile endeavor. Because you know what? Trophies end up in the garbage dump one day. You know, you can have success and rewards, but if you don't have Jesus, and if you're not serving him, it's all going to go for not. You know, think of if you've ever had to clean, and I haven't, my parents are alive, but if you ever had to go and clean out the trophies and awards of your grandpa,
You know what, they eventually that stuff ends up in a dumpster. And what really matters is do you love Jesus and are you putting up eternal treasure and heaven? And what we have here really is a travesty. We have a Solomon who was an unbelievable leader, but unfortunately he's not going to lead the country to follow Yahweh. So may we learn as we look at Solomon's life, may we learn to make our priorities about God and his kingdom.
because that's what's gonna matter in the end. Hallelujah, and God bless you all.