Solomon: His Leaders, Land, and Life

Turn with me in your Bible to 1 Kings chapter 4. 1 Kings chapter 4 These are one of the most exciting chapters in Scripture As we begin to understand that God is sovereign and God makes no mistakes, and the things He puts in Scripture are there for a particular purpose It's our job to realize why they are there and what God wants us to learn about Him, primarily, and secondarily, how we live in light of who He is My job as your pastor is to show you how these particular Passages of scripture become extremely exciting for you as you live for the Lord

Okay? Having said that, let me read to you the 34 verses of 1 Kings chapter. 4 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel These are his officials Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest Elihoreph and Ahia, the sons of Shisha, were secretaries Jehoshaph, the son of Ahil. was the recorder and Ben the son of Yehoid was over the army and Zadok and Abi were priests and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies And Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king's friend And Ahish was over the household And Ad, the son of Abdah, was over the men subject to forced labor

Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided for the king and his household Each man had to provide for a month in the year These are their names, Ben-Hur in the hill country of Ephraim Ben De in Mach, and Sh'ab, and Beth Shemesh in Elan Beth Hanan, Ben Hesed in Arub, Sukko was his in all the land of He, Ben Aben in all the height of Dor Taph, the daughter of Solomon, was his wife Ba'an, the son of Ah, in Ta'an and Megiddo, in all Beth She, which is beside Zer, below Jezreel. from Bethshe to Abel Mah, as far as the other side of Jach

Ben Geber, in Ram Gile, the towns of Ya, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gile, were his. the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars for his Ahinadab, the son of Id, in Mah, Ahimaz, in Napht He also married Bas. the daughter of Solomon, Ba the son of Hus in Asher and Be, Jehoshaphat the son of Per, in Ish Shem the son of Elah in Benjamin Gab the son of Uri in the land of Gile, the country of Sah king of the Am, and of Og king of Bashan, and he was the only deputy who was in the land

Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seas in abundance They were eating and drinking and rejoicing 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 Solomon's provision for one day was thirty cores of fine flour and sixty cores of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, and a hundred sheep beside deer, gazelles, ro, and fattened fowl

For he had dominion over everything west of the river, and Tifsah, even to Gaz, over all the kings west of the river, and he had peace on all sides around about him So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beers, and all the days, or all the days of Solomon Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen Those deputies provided for King Solomon and all who came to King Solomon's table each in his month They left nothing lacking

They also brought barley and straw for the horses, sift steeds to the place. swift seeds to the place where it should be, each according to his charge Now God gave Solomon wisdom, and very great discernment, and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the sea sh Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt For he was wise, wiser than all men. then Ethan, the Ezrahite, and Hem, Khalk, and Gard, the sons of Mah His fame was known in all the surrounding nations He also spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand five

He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even to the hyssop that grows on the wall He spoke also of the animals and birds and creeping things and f Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon From all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom So the question comes. I drove an hour to hear that. I spent time in traffic to realize all that was said in 1 Kings chapter 4 Why am I here? Why do we spend time discussing this? Simply because it tells us a lot about our God and how we live in the light of who He is You must understand that Solomon

Was a master administrator He was a terrific leader He was a man who was highly organ We serve a God Who is the God of order? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, verse number 40: that all things be done decently and in order Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse number 33, it says, God is not the author of Confusion If your life is disorganized, it's not God's fault If your life is in disarray, it's not God's fault because God is a God of order He wants everything done a partic way And so when we read 1 Kings chapter 4, we realize the orderliness of God

We realize how it was passed down to Solomon, and how Solomon, in his leadership, was able to administrate the king The kingdom of Israel in such a way, twice as much land as his father had, twice as much responsibility as his father had, so he had to have a lot of people to do the work And of course, he organized it all because he was a master administrator And so when we look at our lives, We have to ask ourselves similar questions about how orderly we are In fact, in 1 Timothy 3, verse number 2, it tells that a qualification for those who lead in the church They must have a well-ord life

In other words, if you're going to be an elder in the church, you must be highly organized Because if not, you will cause disarray among the people you lead You will cause disorganization in the church in which you serve So God expects that those who are elders in the church, those who lead in the church, be well ordered in their private lives as well as in their public lives because it's going to translate into the people they lead and the people they serve Solomon is the king of Israel If he is in disarray, the people will be in disarray

It's not like Solomon would ride down the streets of Jerusalem and people would say, Hey, Mr Solomon, how are you doing today? What's on the agenda for today? I have no idea. I don't know what's going on. I mean, your guess is as good as mine No, he knew exactly what was happening He was in charge He was the king He was organized He'd have to administrate the nation God had called him to lead So, in order to lead, there had to be a certain order in Jerusalem, a certain order in the land of Israel

So that everybody knew what was happening, everybody understood what was going on, so that there was no confusion among the people Interesting to note that if you read 2 Samuel, you realize that David was also high on administration He was well organized David was well organized when it came to strategy in battle He was a warrior, so he knew how to organize his men for war He was highly administrative when it came to fighting battles Solomon was not a warrior, but interesting, the administrative technique was passed down to Solomon He became well versed in organization

That organization skill passed down to his son He was able to observe his father, able to observe his skill set, able to sit back and see what was happening, and that was passed down to his son, which is a good lesson for all of us to see Because we as fathers, we as leaders, want to pass down to our children the opportunity to be highly organized, to make sure that we are disciplined, to make sure that we lead properly, that we are administrative at home, at work Work, at the office, wherever we may be, because that is a symbol of an orderly life Well, that's the way Solomon was

He learned from his father Except his responsibility was greater than his father's because of the land and the number of people had grown beyond where King David was And so God was going to use him in a great way And as impeccable as his leadership was, Solomon was not a perfect leader There were flaws There were chinks in his armor There were things he would have to deal with No one is a perfect leader And Solomon wasn't a perfect leader But what we see in the man's life is order What we see is the opportunity to dire people properly

To make sure that everybody had a responsibility and that the people in charge fulfilled those responsibilities There was accountability in the structure And so 1 Kings 4 begins to lay that out for us So I just want to make a few comments looking at the leaders, the land The life of Solomon, and then some lessons for you and me to take home so we can Make sure that it was well worth the effort to come in the middle of the week Okay? Let's first of all look at the leaders Notice what it said first You know, the principle of observation in Scripture is very important

So many times we read the Bible and we think we want to jump right to interpretation or jump right to application without ever utilizing the tools of observation The tools of observation will min the tools of interpretation. and maximize the principles of application But you must be able to observe what it is you're reading And at the very outset, you begin to observe something in verse number 1 of 1 Kings chapter 4 Now King Solomon was king over all Israel Remember, Solomon is a type of Christ Remember that? And so from the loins of David will come the Messiah

Who won't just be king over Israel, but will be king over the entire world And so, in Solomon being a type of Christ, he is king over this land, he is king over this people, he is king over Judah He is king over Israel That's his area of responsibility But one day there is coming a king, King Messiah, who will be king not just over Israel but over the entire world

So, this Solomon, a type of Christ, begins to point out for us how it is the Messiah one day will rule in the land that will be filled with not only provisions and prosperity. but complete and total peace, because there would be peace in the land for the forty years of Solomon's rule But notice what it says It says, Now King Solomon was king over all Israel These are his officials And the first official he names is Azariah Now if you compare that with how David named his officials, if you go back into the Chronicles of King David, he always listed his commanders first

Because he was a man of war, right? Solomon is not a man of war Solomon is the king of Israel His name means peace He is bel of the Lord But who 's mentioned first? The first person mentioned is Azariah Azariah was, def article, the priest, meaning he was the chief priest or he was the high priest Why do you think that's important? It's important simply because, in order to have order in the land, There must be a spiritual emphasis in the land, and the spiritual emphasis must be the priority in the land

So he mentions the priest first because of the significance of the spiritual responsibility of the priesthood To guide and direct the nation in the ways of God Is that not true in your life and my life? If there's ever going to be order in your life and mine, it's a spiritual issue. J as a word of caution, do you know an undisciplined life is more a spiritual issue than anything else? A disorderly life is a spiritual issue, not a leadership issue necessarily, or the opportunity to have a good skill set in a particular area No, it all deals with the spiritual heart of a person

The spiritual person wants to be disciplined He wants to be set in order He wants to be able to manage things well That's why the elders in the church have to have men who are well ordered. 1 Timothy 3, verse number 2 Why? Because they are the spiritual leaders If they are disorganized, if they are in disarray, they will lead the People in that direction, but because it is a spiritual qualification for those who lead in the church, it's a spiritual issue Sol knows that And so, in the list of his officials, in the list of his leaders, he lists the priest

First, simply because there must be a spiritual tone set for the kingdom Is it not true that when the Messiah reigns as king, his emphasis will be on the spiritual, not the physical? But spiritual Will he provide physically? Yes Did Solomon provide physically? Yes But the emphasis was on the spiritual condition of the people of the land And so just by way of observation, you realize in verse number one, there's a certain tone that's been set, a certain emphasis given, and it's given on the spiritual tone of the nation The same should be true for you and me

When we want to set our life in order, it becomes a spiritual issue, more so than anything else Solomon knew that Throughout the book of Proverbs, he talks about discipline He talks about diligence Remember Proverbs 12:2? Man 's most precious possession is what? His diligence To live a disciplined life That is his prized possession He says it this way in Proverbs 12, verse number 27 He says it this way: The lazy man does not roast his s Prey Can't roast his prey Doesn have any, right? He hasn't gone hunting He hasn't done his due diligence He has no prey to roast

The lazy man does not roast his prey, but the precious possession of a man is his diligence He says then on chapter 13, verse Number four, the soul of the sluggard craves but gets nothing The soul of the sluggard wants so much but it gets nothing But the soul of the diligent, oh, that one, that one is made fat Why? Because he has done what is necessary Well, everything about discipline is a spiritual issue And so Solomon sets the tone in 1 Kings 4 And the Spirit of God never puts anything in there by accident and never puts anything out of order

You ever notice that? When God writes things in Scripture, makes sure that you and I read them and study them, He never puts them out of order They're always in the order that He wants them to be Right? So, who does he mention second? Well, it says he mentions Elihoreth and Ahiyah The sons of Sh You're saying who cares? Well, we 're waiting for someone in our church to name their sons Elihore and Ahi But no, that's not why we do it

It's simply because these two individuals are those Who are the ones who take care of the government finances? Do you know that the kingdom cannot be set in order financially if it's not set in order spiritually? Right? The order is significant You see that? God doesn't put these things in here haphaz He doesn 't throw things out on the page for us to read and say, well, I hope you can pronounce the names. I hope you can spell the names. I hope you can figure out what the names mean and what they're about You can figure out what the order is No, no, there is a particular order here

The spiritual things are mentioned first because the priest is the leader of the land The people's spiritual lives must be taken care of first That's the first order of priority Because if you're going to handle the finances of the land, it is a spiritual issue It's not a money issue It is a spiritual issue, just like for you and me Your financial issue is a spiritual issue How you view finances, how you spend your money, it is a spiritual issue It's not a money issue And so he names it in that order Interesting to note that Shisha was the secretary in David's kingdom

Okay? Now his sons are the secretary in Solomon's kingdom Solomon has two of them David only had one because the arena in which Solomon existed was a much larger arena than the one that King David existed in There was much more money, there were much more opportunities, and so there needed two to give an account, two to make sure the finances were taken care of But isn't it interesting? That it was passed down to their sons, as David passed down to his son Solomon administrative skills. leadership skills So Shish would pass down to his sons financial skills

To let you understand something, that every one of us in our families are passing on to our children certain character qualities, certain skill set Every one of us does Okay? Some of them our children follow, others they don't, right? But the main thing is we are passing something down And the order here is very unique because all throughout Scripture we find, unfortunately, more the bad qualities pass down than the good qualities But in the text, we have a lot of good qualities being passed down from generation to generation

Because, as leaders of our home, we want to pass down to our children some of the unique skill set that we ourselves have developed over the years, that they in turn would be Able to learn them, you see, because the next person mentioned is Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat is the rec That is, he would record the historical aspects of the kingdom, what took place throughout history, so that each succeeding generation would know what was happening from the previous generation But note, Jehoshaphat was the same recorder in David's kingdom

In other words, he was able to live his life and to do his job, do his ministry in such a way that Solomon Wanted to keep him on That's a hallmark of praise You would want that your children would go to work one day and that they would get a new boss, and the new boss coming in would want to keep them on because he did such a good job for the previous boss, right? That's the way we want to live our lives That's what Jos did He was such an expert at keeping records of the history of Israel That Solomon recognized that and said, I want you to continue on doing the same thing in my kingdom

That's a great thing And then the fourth person mentioned is Banea And there's not much mentioned here He's the son of Jehoidah Was over the army, okay? So, to find out about Banea, you got to turn with me to First Chronicles So, turn with me if you would, if you would, to First Chronicles chapter 11, and let me show you something about Banea because he was the commander of the army, okay He was the commander of the army He would take Joab's spot Joab was the commander of David's army. B'na would end up killing

Joab, because of his rebellion against the Lord and against Solomon, and because of the murderous acts he committed under David's Rule And so now B'na becomes the commander of the army But notice what it says in verse 22 of 1 Chronicles 11: B'nea, the son of Yehoid Why is that important? Because, are you ready for this? Yeh is a priest Ban is the only person in scripture Who is in the line of the priesthood, who becomes a warrior Only one Did you know that? I bet you didn't know that Of course, you didn't know that. I didn't even know that

All right? He became the first person in the priesthood to become a warrior Now, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Jeremiah They were in the priesthood, and they didn't become priests They became what? Prophets, right? So those three didn't follow their father in the priesthood, but they became prophets But Banea was raised in the priestly tribe, raised by a priest, raised in a priestly family, but became a commander in the army He became a warrior Now note what it says It says, B'naia, the son of Yehoidah, the son of a valiant man of K That is, Yehoid was a priest But he was a valiant man

He was a noble man He was a courageous man So listen, it's not so much that your kids follow you and do the job you do It's that your kids follow you and adopt the same character that you have, right? And Ban had the same kind of valiant, noble character His father had Just because he wasn't a priest but a commander in the army doesn't mean he couldn't glorify and honor the Lord He did He was used by God in a mighty way And so the bottom line is, you want your children to adopt the character qualities that you yourself have

That's why it's so imperative that we live lives that honor the Lord, that glorify the name of Christ Because we want our children to adopt those things. B'na was that kind of person He too was a valiant man He was mighty in deeds, struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab He also went down and killed the lion inside a pit on a snowy day What? Why is that in Scripture? Who cares that it killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day? Does anybody really care? I mean, if the lion's in a pit, why do you have to kill him? Let them alone

And who cares if it's snowing, rainy, or sunny? Ah, but you see, it's in the scripture to show us the thoroughness of the individual To show you the valiant character of the person It's there to show us the courage of this guy There's a lion, the lion's in a pit He's going to jump in the pit with the lion, whether it be snowing, rainy, or sunny What's he gonna do? He's gonna slay the lion The guy's a beast He's an absolute beast And so you of course you want this guy to be the commander of your army But it goes further Look what it says

It says, He killed an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall That is, he's over seven feet tall Now, in the Egyptian's hand was a spear, like a weaver's beam But he went down to him with a club and snatched a spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear Wow, the guy's a stud Then it says, These things, B'nia, the son of Yehoid Did and had a name as well as the three might men Who are the three mighty men? Well, if you go over to verses 11 and 12, you see where Yas is one of them, Ele is another, and over in 2 Samuel 2 Three, Sham was the third

There were three mighty men in David's regime Okay? And Ban had a name, had a character like those three mighty men Okay, so this becomes the ruler, the leader, the commander of the armies of Israel Don't you want your commander to be a man of high character? A man who's courageous, filled with zeal and passion, loyal, driven That was B'n And so you see, at the very outset, you can begin to go through each and every name and begin to understand more and more about what God is doing as He sets in line the leaders for the nation, men of character

Men who were quality men, men who would be able to be held accountable and hold others accountable, men who would follow in the footsteps of their fathers and be able to lead in a way that would honor the Lord God of Israel But it began with the priesthood And that's why it begins there And you can go on and you can begin to read about Azariah, the son of Nathan, the overseeing deputies, Zad and Ab They too are Abi, excuse me, they were priests

You can go on and read about Solomon's 12 deputies that he gives them, and two of them were married to his daughters, and they would oversee different functions of the land, as well as be responsible for the king's palace one month out of the year All that being said is that as wise as Solomon was, he couldn't do this on his own He had to have men around him that were men of character Men who were quality men, men who could be counted on, men that would be able to lead others He couldn't do it on his own

As wise as Solomon was, he had more wisdom than anybody else, he needed others around him to fun. A leader is only as great as the people who surround him And so Solomon made sure that he surrounded himself with men of great character, men who would live To inspire others Because Solomon was a man who would inspire others and inspire confidence in others Listen, if you got the right leaders in place, you're going to bring confidence in your people And that confidence is only going to breed security in your people And the nation needed that And the nation received that For forty years

That's the kind of leader that Solomon was Solomon is not mentioned much about his leader We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, about his leadership There are no books written on Solomon's leadership, but Solomon was probably one of the greatest leaders in the scriptures Because of the things he was able to accomplish and the things that he did Let me move on with you, if I can, to the land down at verse number 20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance Isn't that great? That's a fulfillment of a thousand-year-old prophecy

That God gave to Abraham Way back in Genesis chapter 13, verse number 16, where he said that Abraham, your descendants, will be as the dust on the ground In Genesis chapter 15, verse number 5, they will be as the stars in the sky Genesis chapter 22, verse number 17, they will be as the s on the seashore God made a promise to Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant, that you will have descendants that will be In And now Solomon is reigning over Judah and Israel, and it is exactly as the Lord God of Israel promised It happened When God makes a promise, God is absolutely true to His Word

We can count on our God We might not be able to count on anybody else, but we can count on God He is going to fulfill his word And this assures us that even though, after those 40 years of Solomon's reign, and the kingdom was divided, and Israel went off into captivity All right? God would bring them back And God would bring them back And then there would be the destruction in 70 A, and they'd be scattered again But God's going to bring them back, and God's going to fulfill his promise He's going to fulfill his promise to David, to Abraham, the new covenant promise

He is going to make sure that as Messiah, he reigns in Jerusalem From that city of peace, as the ruler of priests, as the prince of peace And everything that he has said for Israel will come to fruition when Messiah sits on the throne of his father David What a great thing We can count on that And so you see that God fulfills his promises They were eating, they were drinking, they were Rejoicing as never before was Israel rejoicing

And now Solomon ruled over the kingdoms from the river that is the River Euphrates to the land of the Philistines to the border of Egypt, and they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life, 800 miles And there are 38 different references in the Old Testament that give us the parameters, the borders of the land of Israel There should not be a question about that, but there is, there shouldn't be, but there is, unfortunately But the parameters are set And Israel will receive many more times what they have today when Messiah rules and reigns in the land of Israel

But it just goes to show you what was happening under Solomon's rule That what was happening was that there would be not just peace in the land, but the parameters of that land would expand way beyond When David was king over Israel So Solomon's provisions for one day were 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal, 10 fat oxen He had to feed over 4,000 people in his palace. A lot of people, right? And he had to make sure they were fed every single day All I have to say is that there were always enough provisions because God had provided

It says these words: There is peace on all sides around him So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beers, as far in the north As it is in the south, all the days of Solomon Wow There was peace in the land There was prosperity in the land There were provisions in the land Everything that God had promised them He gave them From the time he told Abraham what he was going to do, now this was all happening All Israel had to do Was follow the word of the Lord All Solomon had to do was lead the nation in following the word of the Lord

That's all that they had to do And yet there were kinks in the armor of the king Verse twenty-s Solomon had 40,000 stalls. 1 Chronicles 9 says 4,000 could be a scribal error. 40 or 4, take your pick Stall of horses and his chariots, and 12,000 Horseman Why is that a problem? Because Deuteronomy seventeen, verse number sixteen Said it very clearly so that all would understand exactly what God said: that the king was never to multiply his horses

Deuteronomy seventeen says it this way Moreover, the king shall not multiply horses for himself Nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, You shall never again re that way The king was not supposed to walk by horses Why? Because God never wanted Israel to trust in anything or anyone other than him Remember Psalm 20, verse number 7? Some trust in horses, some in chariots, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God They shall be brought down and fall, but we shall rise up and stand firm Don't trust in horses

Don't go down to Egypt and get more horses Don't do that Why? I want you trusting me Well, if the king multiplies horses, the people are going to multiply horses They're going to follow the leadership of the king And so, listen, when you begin to compromise in one area, and we've already seen where Solomon's compromised in one area, it says over in 1 Kings Chapter 3, verse number 1 Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he married his daughter Right? That's the first foreign wife

And one little crack of compromise in our character is going to lead to another crack To another crack until the whole thing comes crumbling down And that's what happens with Solomon You just read through the text He's got all these horses, all these chariots, you don't think anything about it, unless you know what Deuter 17 says He takes a foreign wife from Pharaoh in Egypt, and you don't think nothing about it You know, he's going to get married That's fine, okay Until you realize you're not supposed to multiply foreign wives, and this is where it begins

See? That's why it's so important to make sure that your character is truly honoring to the Lord above board on all instances Because once you begin to compromise, a second compromise becomes easier, doesn't it? And then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and then it just begins to multiply Keep close accounts That's why Paul tells Tim 1 Timothy: Pay close attention to yourself Pay very close attention to your character Pay close attention to what's going on the inside

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, but primarily yourself because your teaching is going to flow from the inner man What you teach is going to come from what you as a person are So make sure you keep close accounts so you live a life that honors the Lord And this is where the kinks In Solomon's armor, begin to show themselves, those cracks, because he doesn't adhere to everything that God says And for you and me, that's when our character begins to crumble as well We say, you know, it's not that big a deal It's okay God will forgive Does God forgive? Yes, He does

Is God graceful? Yes, He is Does He show loving kindness? Yes, He does Does it give you an excuse to compromise the authority of Scripture? Does it give you an excuse to sin, right? Because every time you do, it just opens the door to another sin And that's happened to Solomon So when you look at the land, the leaders, you look at the land, it leads you to his life And that was the beginning of that And it says about his deputies It says in verse 29: now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great. dis He was wiser than than all men Ethan and Hem, both individuals who wrote a psalm

Ethan wrote Psalm 8 Hem wrote Psalm Eighty-eight, and they were musicians in David's court, and yet Solomon was wiser than they were And you look at the man's life and the things that he accomplished with 3,000 Proverbs, most of them have been destroyed We have 600 of recorded in the book of Proverbs, 1,00 songs We have one of them, Song of Solomon That 's the one we know was inspired by God But this man was a zoologist, okay? He was a botanist This man had much wisdom The man knew so much God had blessed him immensely This was the man's life

And you would think that because God did so much in his life, That he would remain true to his God, you would think, right? But eventually, he doesn't because He sim forget all the things that God has done Let me give you some lessons First of all, Is your life orderly or dis? Are you organized? Have you learned to dominate your domain or does your domain dominate you? Are you in control? Are you disciplined in the arena where God has called you to live? Are you disciplined? Do you administrate well? Your ministry in the church

Do you administrate well your family at home? Do you administrate well your fin at home? Are you organ or dis? As I said to you earlier, that really is a spiritual issue It really is It deals with the heart of a person We need to be of all people as belie disciplined, organiz, ordered in our private lives And our public lives? Are you ordered privately? Are you ordered in the inner man? Is your inner man disciplined, right? Because if it is, it will manifest itself in an external discipline And you've got to ask yourself those questions

The Bible says over in 1 Corinthians 4, verse number 2, that is required of a steward, a household manager, to be found faithful, right? Do you know that you're a household manager of God's house, God's possessions? It's required of a household manager Look at it this way: you are a steward, a household manager, with God's finances Did you know that? God has given you His money You haven't earned your money God has given you his money So you are a steward, a manager of God's money

Are you organized when it comes to God's money? Are you disciplined in the expenditures of God's money, or are you undisciplined in the expenditures of God's money? Solomon, yes, had all kinds of gold, and we'll see this more with the temple next week as he builds the temple and all the money that he had He had bu bucks. I get that But it wasn't that he was unorganized or undisciplined No, he was very ordered And so should we That's what the text teaches us God lists things in order, He lists them in order of priority He wants you to know what's happening

He wants you to know how the deputies oversaw portions of the land and portions of the people, how the food was distributed How Solomon did all these different things because God is a God of order What He expects His people to be people of order, right? If we serve the living God, who is a God of order, and we are citizens in His kingdom, then we should be Kingdom citizens who have our lives in order We should be disciplined

So you have to ask yourself: is my life orderly? Or disorderly? Am I a good household manag of God's money? Am I a good household manager of God's time? How do you spend your time? Are you wasting time? Are you disciplining your time? When you get up, when you go to bed throughout the day, what do you do? Do you make the best use of your time? Do you redeem the time, right? Paul tells us the days are evil Red time, buy it back for eternity's sake We are stewards, not just of God's money We're stewards of God's time God's given us a day God's given us 24 hours in that day God's given us minutes

He's given us time to drive to work, time to drive home from work, time to spend with our kids, time to spend with our wife Time to spend with our families, time to spend in ministry at the church God has given us time to do things for His glory Are we well ordered in the time that we spend? All that has to be asked and answered As you look at an application of 1 Kings 4 to our lives, we are household managers, stewards of what God's given to us Are we wise stewards of the children God gives to us? They're his children, right? I had them for a brief time

Do I manage his children well? Do I discipline his children well? Do I teach his children well? Do I redeem the time with those children well? All that plays a major part in terms of whether our lives are ordered privately And or publicly? Questions we must ask ourselves How about this? Another lesson Not just about our life, but about our Lord The text tells us in verse number 29 that God gave Solomon wisdom Now, Solomon was a wise guy, right? But God gave him wisdom

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 4, verse number 7: What do you have? What do you have that you did not receive? Right? Answer: nothing Everything you have, you receive from the Lord St was a perfect example of that He received the kingdom from the Lord He received wisdom from the Lord The things he has, he has because God gave it to him Same for you and me We have what we have today because of what God has given to us If you want to have more, Just thank God for what He's given you Be a wise steward of what He's given you because you have what you have, because that's all God's given you

He hasn't given you any more money, any more kids He hasn't given you a bigger house, hasn given you more cars, hasn't given you more shoes, Has to give you any more of anything else Because what you have, you have received from the Lord Are you content with that? Are you satisfied with that? Solomon had to live in the realm of contentment because once he became discontented, what happened? He multiplied for himself many, many foreign wives And the more he had, guess what? The more discontent he became That's why he had 700 wives

See, do you think another wife's going to make you content? Oh, no No It's just one more wife Just one more Just give me one more and I'll be content No, that didn't do it Give me one more, Lord Give me that That'll do it No, that didn't do it Give One more Give me one More hundred Give me another hundred Maybe that'll make it Nope, none of them made it cont He had 300 concubines His wives didn't even Cause him to be cathetic because you see, if you're discontented in one area, you're discontented in every are God gave Solomon wisdom God gave Solomon the kingdom

God gave Solomon everything that he had Once he had lost that perspective about what God gave him and that he was accountable to what God gave him He became discontent and he compromised And that's what led Solomon from all of his success To all the sadness that he would experience at the end of his life, simply because he would lose perspective on what God had done for him Next week we'll see where he's going to build the house of worship He's going to build the house of the Lord

And you think, how does a guy who builds the house of the Lord, the temple of God, as wealthy as it was, as beautiful as it was, Turn his back on the Lord What happens? It happ Why? Because he forgot That God gave him everything that he had And he was responsible to God, accountable to God, for the things that the Lord God of Israel had given him One more thing Your leadership is an honoring to the Lord You know, I talk a lot about the men, but ladies, listen, the Proverbs 31 woman, she was a disciplined woman She also was a very content woman

But the text tells us that in verse 18 of Proverbs 31, her lamp never went out Okay? Do you ever hear those moms? I need a break. I need time away Right? I'm not sure that Proverbs 3 woman ever said that Her lamp never went out Text also says this That she opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue She looks well to the ways of her household, and never eats the bread of idleness The Proverbs 31 woman was a high dis, determined woman Well organized Her life was orderly She planned in advance for the winter weather She planned in advance food

She planned in advance clothes She knew exactly what her family needed before it happened Her husband was known in the marketplace because of her She was one well-organized person Put-together person She lived a life of order Her leadership was second to none Second to none, because she wanted to look well to the ways of her household Every one of us needs to ask the question about those we lead, because all of us lead somebody, right? All of us in the room are leaders to some degree

If we're not moms leading our kids or fathers leading our children, we're leading people at work, at school, at play, wherever we're at We have people following us We're leaders, and so we're leading people The question is How well are we doing at leading people God's way and leading people towards God? Which takes us back full circle to verse number one of 1 Kings 4 The reason the priests are mentioned first is because the spiritual priority is the priority It should always be your priority and mine Our walk with God, our relationship with the living God is the priority

If Solomon could have maintained that perspective throughout his ministry, maybe the cracks in his character would not have come so quickly But he could have maintained peace not just during his 40 years, but to the next kings Maybe there would not have been a divided kingdom But there was It was all part of God's sovereign plan We understand that But the lessons that we can learn are huge Maybe we learn them well Let's pray Father, thank you for today Chance to be in your word We pray that, Lord, you would teach us in the way that we should go

Help us, Lord, to live in the light of what we've learned this evening That we would be men and women of high character, committed to the spiritual development of our own inner man, that we would live orderly lives on the inside That we might live orderly lives on the outside That truly we would be organized at home, at play, wherever the arena you have called us to live out our spiritual existence for the glory of your kingdom We pray in Jesus' name.