Address—D. Rule
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We'll begin our meeting this afternoon by singing together #4.
The hymn book air guarded.
Had built the mountains or raised the fruitful hills before he filled the fountains that feed the running wills.
In thee from everlasting the wonderful I am found pleasures never wasting.
And wisdom is thy name #4 someone started.
Right.
Turn with me to 1St Kings.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 2. First Kings. Chapter 2.
This afternoon.
We're going to look into lessons from the life of Solomon.
Solomon was perhaps one of the men that has ever lived among men that had the greatest honors.
The greatest wisdom.
Of specially Old Testament Saints.
And God has been pleased to, through Solomon, give to us three of the books of the Bible.
The book of Proverbs, in which we have Solomon the wise man. The book of Ecclesiastes, in which we have Solomon the preacher.
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The Book of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, which is Solomon the Lover.
And I believe there are some very solemn lessons and very helpful lessons that we can gain from his life.
When I had this matter before me, I was thinking particularly of the young people, but as I've meditated on it, I found it has a lot to speak to my own conscience.
And I trust that it will be a benefit to those who are older as well.
In the end, we will, by contrast, look briefly.
A little bit concerning the Apostle Paul.
But to begin, we're going to just take a few verses here and there out of Solomon's life to give ourselves a little picture of the man Solomon and his personal life. And we find that in First Kings. So here in First Kings, in chapter 2, we have Solomon's father David reaching the end of his life. And Solomon's mother goes into David at the instruction of some of the wise men, and she says.
They say to her, go talk to David and remind him that he promised that the Kingdom was to be given to my son Solomon. And she goes in and she does that in chapter 2.
And so it says.
In verse 19, Bathsheba went therefore went unto King Solomon to speak unto him.
And this is after he's already king.
Concerning added not Joe, which was 1/2 brother of Solomon's, and so he King Solomon here in the beginning of his reign, is immediately tested and he has to act, which he does for the glory and honor of the Kingdom.
And now in chapter 3 it says in verse one, and Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David.
Until he had made an end to building his own house in the House of the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Verse three. And Solomon loved the Lord walking in the statutes of David, his father.
Verse four and the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. 1000 burst offerings did Solomon offer upon the altar.
In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give thee? And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before the in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this great king, kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne.
As it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father.
And I am but a little child and I know not how to go out or to come in.
Verse 9 Give therefore thy servant and understanding heart.
To judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge?
This thy so great a people, and the speech please the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.
And.
God answers him with blessing.
Verse chapter 4 So King Solomon was king over all Israel.
And chapter 4.
Verse 29.
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomons wisdom excelled, the wisdom of all the children of the E country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezra Height, and Heman the Sheikhol, and Dara the sons of Mayhol. And his fame was in all nations roundabout.
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And he spake 3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even under the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. And he spake also a beast, and a foul, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom.
Chapter 5. Solomon begins to build the House of the Lord.
And in chapter six, he continues that building and the end of chapter 6.
It says in the very end. And so he was seven years in building it, that is the temple, the House of the Lord, Chapter 7. But Solomon was building his own house 13 years, and he finished all his house. And so we have in Chapter 7 the long description of the building of Solomon's house.
And the end of that chapter, verse 51. And so ended all the work that Solomon made for the House of the Lord. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and the vessels did he put among the treasures of the House of the Lord.
And in chapter 8, he brings together all the people of Israel for a dedication.
Of that house, and he offers a most wonderful prayer unto the Lord.
And then he speaks to the people and brings the Lord before the people.
He says to them in verse 61.
Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, and walk in His statutes and keep His commandments as this day.
In verse Chapter 9, verse one. And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the House of the Lord, and the King's house, and all Solomon's desire which he had pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.
That's when he asked for wisdom to judge the people. Now the Lord comes to him a second time in his life. And verse three, the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou St. made before me. I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.
And then?
Chapter 10. That well known portion where the Queen of Sheba comes from a far country to see the wisdom of Solomon.
Which she does, and the glory of the king and the Kingdom are found in chapter 10 and then in Chapter 11 verse one it says but King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of them all, bites and Ammonites and Edomites and Ziconians and Hittites.
Of the nations concerning which the Lord has said unto the children of Israel, you shall not go into them.
Neither shall they come into you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.
Solomon clave unto these in love.
Verse six And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.
Then did Solomon build in high place for Chimish?
And so on.
Verse 8 And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burn incense, and sacrificed unto their gods.
And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord of God, the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared to him twice, and he had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.
Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the Kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.
Notwithstanding in thy days, I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
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And that's what happens in chapter 12.
Well, here we have a very brief little bit of information concerning the personal life of Solomon, the things that characterized his life. And I want to go back and seek to get a few lessons for us from it. But before we do, let's go on, because I think the lessons are even the more remarkable when we see what God gave to him to give to us. So let's turn over to the Proverbs.
And then we'll just speak about the things we've read later.
Going over to Proverbs.
Chapter one. Verse one.
The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding.
Verse 5A. Wise man will hear and will increase learning. A man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
Verse 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.
We hear a lot today about guidance counselors.
Man seems to need a lot of guidance. And so when people start out in school, and it's not a new thing. When I was a teenager and went to high school, we had a guidance counselor and we took tests that we were given to try to determine what our aptitudes were and to help us make right choices and what kind of work and line of living we were going to get into. And people today are constantly in need of guidance and wisdom.
To me, it's an interesting thing that God has given us this book of Proverbs, which has been called the Young Man's Book.
It is a book in which God, through the Solomon, is a guidance counselor.
He is giving us.
Wisdom from himself, instruction, guidance for a life on earth and a life in which man has to live in the presence of sin. And so it's an extremely beneficial book for young people and older ones too, because who is a better, who understands better to give us counsel in our lives for living on earth than God?
Can you go to a better guidance counselor? Can you go to someone who is better suited and capable of understanding what you need for your life here on earth and how to live it?
No, and so God chose to make this wisest of all men write down for us the instructions that he gave to him. We read about his life and there were over 3000 sayings that he wrote and we have some of them in the book of Proverbs for us. And so we we study it and we get instruction as to how to live life on earth.
Instruction from God.
Perfect counsel or life on earth and we don't have time to go over all that council, but it's interesting and important that the man that gave it to us was the man. We're going to get some lessons from Solomon just to notice a couple of things that he has to say by way of introduction from this message from God. The first thing is verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Mark it well.
Young person, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Man who does not respect his creator and have a relationship with him will never ever gain true knowledge.
People spend their whole lifetime seeking to understand the creation.
But if they do not begin with the knowledge of the Creator.
The results are always imperfect.
And never results that honor God because God is the Creator. And so Solomon says, as it were, my first principle to you in guidance for life is you must have a right relationship.
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With your Creator, and not just to acknowledge him as a creator. People do that without trusting him, but it says the fear of the Lord. That is, you must be in a personal relationship with your Creator.
Before you will have the needed instruction and guidance to live your life.
That's the foundation, that's the starting point of a life on Earth that is lived.
To the honor of God and to your own benefit. And so he says, the fear of the Lord.
Is the beginning of knowledge. In Chapter 9 he goes further. He says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
You won't be able to use the knowledge which you have correctly, wisely if you will.
Unless you have the fear of the Lord, that proper attitude and respect.
Toward the one under whose eye you live and the one that controls all things that concern your life.
He then says, my son.
Hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother, my son. Proverbs has that character is the instruction is given, as it were, from a father and a mother to a son. It is a personal thing and God wants to interact with you in a personal way in your life. It's more intimate. It's closer than simply saying God.
God is.
All powerful and almighty, and people sometimes recognize the power of God, and when they're in trouble they will sometimes ask Him to do things for them, but not having a sense of a personal relationship with Him. And so it is my son.
My daughter.
You know, you can go to a guidance counselor at school and.
They're paid to give advice, or you can. After you're out of school. You can go to people that specialize in trying to help sort out the priorities of life. They're paid to help. But here's someone who lives in a relationship with you with a personal desire and knowledge for your blessing.
Go to them in that way, as Solomon did.
Let's turn over to Chapter 2.
Verse 2.
Well, verse one, my son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding. If thou cryest after knowledge and lift it up, liftest up thy voice for understanding. If thou seekest for her as silver, and searches for her as hid rubies, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
Verse 12 speaking about discretion to deliver thee from the way of the evil man.
From the man that speaketh forward things.
Verse 16. To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger, which flattereth with her words, which forsake it the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
Solomon says to us, and I wish he was here this afternoon and speaking instead of myself, but listen to what God would say through Solomon to you.
Benefit from this man's life, he says. You have to want it.
It has to be important to you.
Search for it as silver.
Search for it is something of value and importance, the wisdom of God.
For life.
And there's a promise, isn't there, given with it. It says the Lord giveth.
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In verse six and verse 5, thou shalt understand and find, and so God is at work through Solomon is saying to you, young person, if you're starting out in life or you've already started out in life, do you want the Lord's way for it? Do you want the Lord's instruction as to how to live on this earth?
Value it. Treat it as something you want to have as something that is important.
And God says if you do, you'll find it.
Sometimes we want the benefit of something without the exercise of it, without Sure, we like to be wise, but we're not willing to search for it. We're not willing to put out effort to get it.
Be practical. Did you read your Bible this morning?
You had time probably to eat. Maybe this was a busy day for some because you had to get up early to get here. But did you value?
What God has to give you enough?
To have a little food for your soul this morning.
Did you go to God to speak to Him about your needs and as He sees them for today?
That's valuing. That's putting some importance on what God has to give.
Now when you read or study Proverbs for yourself and we just have time to touch on a few things, he talks about the man and the woman.
And when you read through the Word of God, you will find that the man is characterized by a willful, I'm going to have it for myself attitude that will go to the point of violence.
I want what I want and I'm going to have it characterizes man and leads him into evil.
Adam chose to eat.
He wasn't deceived and his son Cain, who was angry for what he didn't get or wasn't accepted, committed murder and it characterizes the man. On the other hand, as we find in Proverbs and throughout the word of God, there's the woman, and the woman is characterized by deception and deceit.
She was deceived by Satan and ever since I'm Speaking of what characterizes it, not of individuals here, but she became a deceiver. She said come with me.
Let's have it.
And she speaks softly sometimes she speaks clamorously or loudly at others.
And so it was when Noah lived on the earth, it was filled with violence.
That which comes from the man and corruption that which comes from the woman.
Solemn.
And here Solomon is saying, if the Sinner man particularly says come with us, don't consent, don't go.
Because the end of the path is death.
If the woman.
Says, and I know here it also speaks of it literally morally.
About fornication and adultery and so on. But in a broader sense, she's the one that, as it were, characteristically says, come with me.
Stolen waters taken in secret are sweet. Enjoy the pleasures of sin. There's no great harm in it. There's not going to be any strong consequences to it, she says.
Solomon says don't go there.
She has no fixed foundation for her feet.
She takes hold in the end is death.
Chapter 3.
Verse one.
My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments for a length of days and long life, and peace shall they add unto thee.
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Verse.
For so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil, and it shall be held to thy neighbor, and marrow to thy bones. Honor thy honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase.
Man is, God's creature is.
Always been in a relationship in which he is to obey.
Now God gave the law to Israel as a special thing, to see whether man could live before God on the basis of a law and man could not. And no man is righteous before God on the basis of trying to keep a law. The next most important lesson to learn and we read that.
In the Word of God. And so God sets aside law as a basis on which man can be righteous with God, and substitutes for us, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his work.
Tremendous important to understand that, but at the same time it is important not to throw out because of that the fact that obedience.
Is the characteristic of the creature. He must be an obedient creature because he's a creature and so man is to be obedient always to the instructions of God.
And Solomon, who was under law, but in a broader sense, he says, my son, forget not my law, let thine heart keep my commandments. I say to you, God's word should be as a command to your heart.
Keep it with all diligence.
The way of happiness is the way of obedience, and without it you'll never find peace for your soul.
Something else he says. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Believe God.
It's an ultimate truth. Believe God.
You'll never.
Get to enjoy him, to know him without trusting him, he says.
Solomon says trust God with all your heart.
Absolutely, completely, in every circumstance of life, no matter what. Trust God.
The root of all sin.
Is unbelief.
And what's in the God's heart toward you?
That's why Adam and Eve sinned. They questioned the heart of God and the wisdom of God for their lives and brought incredible sorrow upon themselves and their children and grandchildren and so on. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding.
Young people.
It's a characteristic of the young to have all the confidence of their own ignorance.
You are not sufficiently wise to direct your life.
You do not have what it takes to find a path.
Through this life, trust not in your own understanding. That's what Solomon, the wisest of all men, would say to you if you were here this afternoon.
Trust in the Lord.
One other thing, verse 11, my son.
Despise not the chastening of the Lord.
I understand the word instruction in the book of Proverbs means.
Teaching by discipline.
Teaching by discipline.
In Hebrews chapter 12 we have the same thought. Brought out, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
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When we're children and we're being raised, we get admonition and instruction from our father and from our mother, and often it's accompanied with discipline.
Accept it, it's for your good.
Don't rebel, Solomon said. It's a foolish man, a foolish person that despises that kind of teaching who says leave me alone, I want my own way. I'll figure it out for myself and rebels against it.
Accept teaching with discipline.
Whom the Lord loveth, He corrected us.
Accept it, you need it. It's for your blessing. I was thankful the other night. I guess it was just this past Monday night. I was talking to a group of kids.
All of them.
In a detention center and when they left that room, they were going to go back and sleep in a cell.
For the night.
And we were talking and I asked him, I said, have you considered and do you accept that God in his wisdom has put you here for your good and he may keep you here until you learn what lessons he has for you? And I was very thankful. Three or four, maybe five of them immediately said, yes, I'm thankful.
Can you say thanks like that if there's chastening that's come into your life?
It's for your blessing.
Well, we could go on, but time doesn't permit I I encourage you to read.
Young man's book, The Book of Proverbs.
As that which can be your guidance counselor for life.
Here on Earth.
Turn now over to the book of Ecclesiastes and other.
Of Solomon's books to us.
Please ask these chapter one verse one the words of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What prophet hath a man and all his labour which he taketh unto the Son? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. The sun also rises, and.
The sun also goeth down, and haste it to his place, which he arose.
The wind goeth toward the South, and turneth about unto the north. It whirleth about continually.
And the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full under the place from which the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of Labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with filled with hearing. The thing that have been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done.
And there is no new thing under the sun.
Chapter 3, verse one.
To everything there is a season and a time, to every purpose under the heaven.
The time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. The time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up.
Verse 8A. Time to love, a time to hate, a time of war, a time of peace. What prophet hath he that worketh in that which he laboureth? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised by it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time also He has set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning.
To the end.
And then the end of the book, the last chapter, Chapter 11, Chapter 12.
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Verse 12 And further by these my son be admonished, for of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commands. Commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good.
Or whether it be evil.
Here Solomon is addressing us as a preacher.
He's saying young people, older people, listen, I want to preach to you. I have something to say to you that is a benefit to your soul. And so he preaches, you know, I'll be honest and.
Say, are we going to listen?
Are you going to listen? You guys sit in your seat and say this is for the guy next to me, the girl next to me, or this is for the young person and not for me and so on.
Listen to what the preacher has to say to us.
It's important to recognize when he's preaching to us, he's speaking as a man.
Who knows God?
He's not speaking to us the word Lord.
Doesn't appear in the book except maybe one time.
In Proverbs, the knowledge, the counsel is given from a father to a son. It's given from a Lord in which there is a known relationship. Here it's just God, and it's a man in the world.
That can understand the way God made him like we have in Romans chapter. One man knows his God.
And then after that, God says, I'm going to judge you because you know me. I made you so that you know me, and then because you know me and you have not honored or glorified me.
I'm going to bring your work into judgment. Well, here, Solomon speaking as a preacher, it's God.
And man.
And he looks at the whole of things and he says, what's the purpose to everything?
What's going on?
I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to find out the secrets of life.
And he goes out to learn the secrets of life without God giving them to him, but he's trying to find them out himself. God doesn't reveal anything to him except he seeks according to the way God made him as a creature.
And here's his conclusion. He says everything goes on the same.
Nothing changes. Life has a cycle to it. The cycle comes and the cycle goes, he says. For every man, if you will, here's the passage of time, and each person has a little bit in it and they're born at a certain time and they die at a certain time. And during their little period of time. The sun comes up in the morning and it goes down at night and the rain comes down and it comes down. And man lives his little piece of life on the stage, if you will, and it kind comes and it's over.
Then the cycle repeats itself. Another generation comes along and man is born and man lives and man goes on and the next generation forgets him and he lives his life. And there are great questions that man can't understand. He says a man dies. We learn of a little child in the prayer meeting that died nine years of age. And if you had asked Solomon, according to what he knew from Ecclesiastes and Uganda, Solomon with all his human.
Ability.
And said Solomon, why he says I don't know, I haven't got a clue. He said some evil people seem to live for a long time and some good people don't live very long. And I don't know.
I don't know.
Don't live your life.
As it were, with only the knowledge that you can get.
Like this?
I want to reflect for just a couple of minutes on my own life for you young people.
I hope it's not because of me that I say it, but I hope you'll at least listen. Learn a little bit.
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I was once where you are.
Maybe you're in farming, maybe you're in medicine.
Maybe you work in an auto shop?
Dentist office I don't know my life will be different than yours, but when my life started out.
It was right at the infancy, really, of computers.
Exciting stuff.
I can remember the very first day that I saw my first computer and immediately was attracted to it.
It was exciting stuff.
And the Lord allowed in my life to be exposed to a lot of development in the beginning of the computer era.
I worked with Bob Beamer.
He's calm, he's gone. You may not know who he is.
He's one of the founders of ASCII, the very foundation of the coding of all computers used today, ASCII code.
I spent time talking with Bill Gates more than once.
About the future of computing.
And I assume you know who he is.
I worked on equipment.
That today is in the Smithsonian Institute.
As a remembrance of the history of computing.
Company I work for was involved with ARPA.
Which is the foundation of today's Internet.
And in the development of it.
I used to go on very exciting business trips.
With people who are on the very forefront of computing and the development of what we have today.
And I am thankful that not one of the people I interacted with ever tried to entice me into sin.
Or anything on that side of things, but this is my whole point.
Sometimes I come back from a trip.
And we talked about the future of where computers were going and how to get there, and we were going to be part of it and all that and the planning of it. And I'd come home from such a trip and I'd get in my house and I'd shut the door.
And I felt flat.
Flat.
It didn't satisfy.
The cravings of the heart and it never will.
If there's something in this life that you treat as exciting and you're going to go after it and you're going to spend your life to get it, the result is what Solomon, the preacher, said. The eye is not satisfied with seeing. The ear is not satisfied with hearing.
You will, Solomon says. Never find.
Satisfaction for your life in anything that you can go after in this world.
Market. Don't waste your life. Don't say I'm different. Solomon learned it. He passed it on. Anybody that's older in this room to some extent has experienced what he was talking about. No, but it's like people say.
Who say the lottery won't make you happy? And man always says well let me win it and I'll try.
Don't be a fool.
It will not be successful.
The end of the preacher saying was.
Dear God.
Keep his commandments.
When he gave more revelation and more light in the Proverbs, he says Fear God my son, keep his commandments.
The next book, and we won't take the time to look at it, is the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.
Tremendous.
Probably.
The greatest love song that's ever been written by mankind, from creation to today.
Written by Solomon, he wrote over 1000 thousand.
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And five did it say songs? And God has preserved this one for us, which he calls the song of Songs. And it's an incredible expression of love between two people.
You can't get a higher one, at least among men.
Mark it now.
Think about this.
We read the personal life of Solomon.
And we studied it and how did it pass?
When his father was almost to die, he becomes the king.
They actually Co range I believe in history for a little bit but.
Solomon starts right out at the top.
Beginning of his life and it says he loved the Lord.
And he went after the Lords things in his life and in his reign. He spent the first seven years of his life building a temple for God to dwell in. He didn't have much light. He says God's going to dwell in the darkness.
But nonetheless, his heart was toward God, and he builds it. He looked after the things of the Lord, if you will, in his life for those first seven years.
And then the next 13 years of his life, he looked after, you might say, family things. He built a house for himself.
For his family and raised them. He spent 20 years, the 1St 20 years of his life in a rather exemplary way.
But God, who sees the all seeing God tells us little things along the way about Solomon.
And right in the beginning, when he first became king, it says he joined affinity with the king of Egypt.
And took Pharaoh's daughter, the daughter of Pharaoh, to be his wife.
And he loved her.
There was a corner of Solomon's heart.
The Joint.