Bible Lessons

From: Messages of God's Love: 1927

1 Kings 5

IT was that Hiram, king of the seacoast City of Tyre, who had sent cedar trees to David, and carpenters and masons, to build his home (2 Samuel 5:11¹¹And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house. (2 Samuel 5:11)) who now sent his servants to Solomon.

The glory of the Israel of that day has long faded, and the people are scattered; the judgment of God is upon them according to His promise in Deuteronomy 28:15-68¹⁵But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: ¹⁶Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. ¹⁷Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. ¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. ¹⁹Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. ²⁰The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. ²¹The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. ²²The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. ²³And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. ²⁴The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. ²⁵The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. ²⁷The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. ²⁸The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: ²⁹And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. ³⁰Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. ³¹Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. ³²Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. ³³The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: ³⁴So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. ³⁵The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. ³⁶The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. ³⁷And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. ³⁸Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. ³⁹Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. ⁴⁰Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. ⁴¹Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. ⁴²All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. ⁴³The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. ⁴⁴He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. ⁴⁵Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: ⁴⁶And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. ⁴⁷Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; ⁴⁸Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. ⁴⁹The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; ⁵⁰A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young: ⁵¹And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. ⁵²And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. ⁵³And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: ⁵⁴So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: ⁵⁵So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. ⁵⁶The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, ⁵⁷And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. ⁵⁸If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; ⁵⁹Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. ⁶⁰Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. ⁶¹Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. ⁶²And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. ⁶³And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. ⁶⁴And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. ⁶⁵And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: ⁶⁶And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: ⁶⁷In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. ⁶⁸And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you. (Deuteronomy 28:15‑68), and upon the Jews in particular, on account of their rejection of Christ. Observe their own words in Matthew 27:25²⁵Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27:25), which are surely being fulfilled, “His blood be on us, and on our children.”

“But in the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and, people shall flow unto it, and many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He shall judge among many people;” etc. Micah 4:1-4¹But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. ²And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ³And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁴But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. (Micah 4:1‑4).

There is then a day yet future, when Israel shall he restored to their land and exceedingly blessed by God, and Solomon’s reign gives us a picture, only partial and faulty it is true, but a picture nevertheless of the coming millennial day. In David’s reign we had a forecast of the beginning of the future thousand years of the reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20, and numerous Old Testament Scriptures); then the enemies shall be put down with much bloodshed (Isaiah 26:20, 21²⁰Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. ²¹For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:20‑21); and 28:14-20; Zephaniah and elsewhere). In Solomon, however, we see the enemies gone, and the earth in peace seeking Jerusalem, as Isaiah 60. and 65:18-25 so beautifully foretell.

To return then to our chapter: Hiram learned from Solomon what was needed to build the house or temple of God, and rejoicing greatly and blessing God, he told him that he would do all his desire about furnishing timber for the house. And so the work was done and paid for. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom as He had promised.

This is a precious word to those who trust in Jesus. Ephesians 3:20, 21²⁰Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, ²¹Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20‑21), the close of a prayer of the apostle Paul, speaks to the praise of “Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,”—no doubt including the answer to every right desire, every prayer raised in faith by even the weakest believer, regarding earthly needs, as well as spiritual things.

We read of the great number of men engaged in hewing down the trees of Lebanon, and in bringing the materials to Jerusalem, among which were “great stones, costly stones, hewed stones,” for the foundation of the house. Let us think of this a moment: the great trees were living, towering high on the Lebanon hillsides, and they had to be brought down: the axes were laid to the root of the trees (Matthew 3:10¹⁰And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (Matthew 3:10)), and they were dragged down to the sea. This speaks strikingly of death, as well as of humbling the pride that is natural in us. Then the stones that were used in the building: there was no life there at all: they had to be taken out of the pit or quarry where they lay. Did they lift themselves out? O, no! They could not do that. Power which was outside themselves entirely had to be applied to them. Besides, there was no worth in them at all, except as they were hewed out, taken out of the pit, and squared by the stone squarers.

So it is with man! He may be very well satisfied with himself, never having been humbled by the Word of God, but we may praise God when at last the truth of his lost and ruined condition is brought home to him (see Romans 3:9-20⁹What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; ¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: ¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. ¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. ¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: ¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: ¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood: ¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways: ¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known: ¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes. ¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:9‑20)). Then he will learn and drink in as a thirsty soul the precious words of Romans 5:6-8⁶For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. ⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6‑8):

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And they were not only great stones (great sinners, these stones tell us of), but they were costly stones; a great price was paid for them.

1 Corinthians 6:20²⁰For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20) speaks of the believer’s having been “bought with a price,” and 1 Peter 1:18-20¹⁸Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; ¹⁹But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: ²⁰Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1 Peter 1:18‑20) names that price in the touching and forcible language of the Holy Spirit,

“Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... ..but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory that your faith and hope might be in God.”

Lastly we think of the stone squaring. There is a lot of fitting to be done by the Holy Spirit in preparing the believer for glory with Christ. Old ways, wrong thoughts, have to be wrought upon by the Spirit through the Word of God, and of this precious work we learn in so many portions of the holy Book that it would be burdensome to make a list. We will therefore just refer to Colossians 2:6⁶As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (Colossians 2:6) to 3:17, which the reader may examine with much profit.

ML 05/15/1927

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.