(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I was going to dig right in here, look down at verse number 1, the Bible says, 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 was pleased to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me. I have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to put my name there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. Now, if you remember last week, we covered the dedication of the temple. The temple was all completed, and they had this great, basically like it was a big festival, big party, they offered up all these sacrifices, it lasted for a couple weeks, and Solomon had gotten on his knees and stretched his hands up to heaven, and he was raised up on that platform, and just made that great prayer unto God, saying, God, when the people are turning away from you, and you judge them, and you bring pestilence and famine, and you bring them away to other lands, Lord, when they look unto this house, hear from heaven, forgive their sins, when they turn back to you, and bless them, and be with them. And that was his big prayer, right? Well, I believe that that dedication happened pretty much right after that temple was ready to go. I don't think they waited until Solomon's house was built, you know, like 13 years later or whatever, in order to have that dedication. But the reason why I'm saying that is I want to point out here, in verse number one, where we're at in the chapter now, in the story, it says, 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 was pleased to do. So all the works, all the buildings that Solomon was involved in building, this is now when God finally answers and responds to Solomon's prayer. So it's at least, depending on how you time it, anywhere from six to 13 years after, roughly, the Solomon making that prayer unto the Lord, and asking God to hear him, and asking him, you know, all these great things. Well, the point I want to make with that, and see, that's when he gets his response. God's timing when answering a prayer is not always the same as our timing. We may go to God in humility, on our knees, reaching our hands up and just screaming out to God for help, or for whatever, whatever our supplication is, whatever our prayer is, completely from the bottom of our heart, we're praying fervently, we're praying for the right things, we're doing all the things we're supposed to be doing. But we need to remember that God will answer in his timing and not to get discouraged along the way if you don't pray to God, and he doesn't answer you immediately, or the way that you would expect and the way that you want it to be done, because we need to remember that everything is according to God's will. And we don't always understand that and have the greater picture in mind. Turn back, if you would, to Genesis chapter 25, we're going to see a perfect example of this played out in the Bible, Genesis chapter number 25. You might say, well yeah, but with Solomon, it's not like he was asking for anything critical in his life at the time, okay, he wasn't, fair enough. He was asking for God to sanctify the house and to pay respect unto it, that it could be a place, a holy place, that the children of Israel could turn to and kind of get themselves back right with God. It was still an important prayer, it was still something that had a lot of value to it, but it wasn't something necessarily pressing at that moment. Well, let's look at something that you might feel is a lot more pressing in your own life, and we'll see that in Genesis 25, we're going to start reading here in verse number 20. The Bible says, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah the wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Pate and Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian, and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him and Rebekah his wife conceived. Now, when you're reading that story, you say, okay, Isaac was 40, now I'm going to be 40 this year, even just at 40 years old, you kind of start to feel like you're getting over the hill, right, you're getting in the later stages of your life. He just got married at 40. He wanted to have children, and he's entreating God, saying, God, you know, my wife is barren, she's not having, you know, she doesn't seem to be having any children, God, please will you bless us with children. This is a prayer I know a lot of people have. There are many people today that have this very prayer. Now, they may not be even 40 years old, they may only be 20 years old, or 25, or 30, whatever, much younger, but still the pressure is there, and they feel, you know, I don't know why God's not answering my prayers, and can start to get down on themselves for not having children, especially even when they're very young. Now, we learn throughout the Bible, God is the one that opens and closes the womb. He's the one that provides us with children. Now, that being said, there are also things that we could do with just our own health and maintaining our bodies to be working the way that God intended for them to work. You know, don't get me wrong there, but what I want to point out here is, because you read this, you say, okay, Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, like it says in verse 21, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him. So, great, Isaac entrained something, God answered. Well, look at verse number 26, we'll get a little bit of an understanding of the timeline of this prayer being answered. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob, and Isaac was three score years old when she bare them. Jacob and Esau, those are Isaac's children, those are his only children. He was 60 years old when God answered that prayer. He went to God when he was 40. That's two decades of praying. But one, God was faithful, God did answer his request. He also seemed to answer in a time when Jacob might have given up on it, or I mean, not Jacob, Isaac, excuse me, might have given up on it, thinking that, hey, maybe it's just done. And you know what, maybe if that was in God's plan, and he didn't want them to have children for whatever reason, then that would be, you know, God's prerogative. I've only seen this situation, but what I want to point out is that we can't just get down, I mean, clearly the Bible is saying God hearkened unto Isaac. He answered his prayer, and he specifically listened to what Isaac had for him, but he did it in his own timing. And it's a difficult thing to do, but we need to keep that in our minds so we don't get discouraged. These stories, I believe, are even in the Bible to help us understand that and say, okay, I'm going to pray to God, I'm going to pray to God with confidence, one, because we don't want to be double-minded in our approach to God. We need to have faith. We need to ask in faith, nothing wavering, so that we know that God will hear us, and we know that God can be entreated of us, but we also just need to remember, okay, it's going to be done in God's timing, though, so whatever that's going to entail, let's not get discouraged. We have a long prayer list. Let's not get discouraged over that prayer list. There's a lot of good things. There's a lot of ways that God can answer our prayers. Sometimes God ends up answering our prayers in ways that we don't even really consider and we don't even think of. But they truly are the answer to prayer, because we have the Spirit that kind of intercedes for us and helps us to say the things that we really want, even though we may not verbalize them correctly or be asking for quite the exact thing that we want. The Holy Spirit's there saying, yeah, you know what He really wants is this, because the Spirit bears witness with us, and the Spirit knows our spirit to help us to ask for the right things. Anyways, I'm not going to get too far into all the things about prayer, but I just saw this, and when we're reading this, God answered Solomon much later in his life, much past the time that he originally went to him with, and there are a few examples where we can see specifically in the Bible where that's the case. We need to be able to remain faithful, remain true, just say, okay, even when God doesn't appear to be hearing you, He hears you. But He's going to do what's right and what's best according to His will, but He'll listen to you. Sometimes, prayers are answered immediately. I've had that happen in my life, pray for something, and it happens really quickly. But sometimes it takes a while, and sometimes you think you need it right now, and you don't. There's a lot that we could gain from trials and from difficult scenarios that you might want out of that situation immediately, and it could be the worst thing that you've ever gone through before, and you're thinking, God, just get me out of this right now. But when you end up actually, when God allows you to continue to go through that, there is a very good purpose for that, and usually those trials will end up making you much better at the end of that thing. And we could have this confidence, though, knowing that God is not going to put us through anything that we cannot handle. There's nothing that we will be going through, that He'll allow us to go through, that is going to be above what we could handle. And that is a great confidence, knowing that no matter how hard it is, no matter how much you feel like you can't do it anymore, you can. Otherwise, you wouldn't be where you're at, because God wouldn't allow it if it truly was too much for you to bear. We can get through it. So let's remember that, go back to 1 Kings 9, and keep that close to us, that God will hear us, and He can answer us, but it may take some more time than we necessarily even feel comfortable with. Let's keep reading here, verse number 4. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them, and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. And at this house which is high, everyone that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss, and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house? And they shall answer, because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them and served them, therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil. So God is reiterating, and he's done this already in the past. He told David this, he told Solomon this before, and Solomon's hearing it again, that I'm going to keep my promises, this is my covenant, this is my promise, you need to follow it though. It's going to happen as long as you remain faithful, as long as you don't go and serve other gods. Now turn if you would to Exodus chapter 20, because this is probably the biggest deal to God, one of the biggest sins that people can commit. I don't, I don't, I mean God is not any more serious about this than just about anything else in the Bible. He is more serious about this than anything else in the Bible, and that's going after other gods. There's a reason why God put commandments one and two in the number one and number two spot in the ten commandments, right? The Bible says in Exodus 20, look at verse number two, I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For Egypt was referenced in first Kings chapter 9, he's saying when you, you know, when you see basically the destruction of this stuff, the people are going to look at this and say, what happened here? Why did all of this happen to this great house and to this nation? He's going to say, and this here is going to be their answer, because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods and have worshipped them and served them, therefore the Lord brought upon them all this evil. That was from first Kings chapter 9. We need to make sure that we don't forsake the Lord. Let's keep reading this though in Exodus 20, we're looking at the first and second commandment. So it says in verse two, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, verse number three, thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. Look at this, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. The number one and number two commandment, have no other gods before God. He's God. He's Lord. There are no other gods. Don't invent some God and put that in God's place and say, this is God. No, there is one true God. And he says, don't even make any graven images, or any statutes, or any figures of things in heaven, or in things in earth, or things under the earth, and then you bow down yourselves and worship those things. Don't do it. And he says, you know what the reason why is? Because I'm a jealous God. Now, we live in a society today in a time where the word jealous is looked on as a very negative thing, as a bad thing, even as a sin. I can't tell you how many times, you know, growing up when I was much younger, people would say, oh, the jealous boyfriend, or the jealous husband, you know, it's just like this horrible thing. The Bible says that God is jealous. God himself said, look, I'm a jealous God. I don't want you going after anyone else. I don't want you putting anyone else before me. And look, that's the proper definition of jealousy, by the way, too, because today's society has a tendency to mix jealousy with envy. They're two different things. They are not the same thing. There's some similarities, maybe, but they're definitely very different. Envy is when you envy someone else or you want something that doesn't belong to you. It's basically covetousness. When you're looking on something that someone else has and you want that, that's envy. That's not jealousy. Jealousy is watching out for your own stuff, for your own things, and not wanting other people, you know, coming in between that or something that's deserved unto you and someone else coming in between. So, like, the best example is with a relationship, with a husband and a wife, with spouses that, you know, it is not a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with having a jealous husband or a jealous wife. Starting with Exodus 34. We're going to see a little bit more here about, first of all, about how God is jealous. It's an attribute of God. God says, look, I don't want any other gods before me because I'm a jealous God. And just one more point on this, too. It's not in my notes, but, you know, it came to my mind. The first two commandments are talking about not having any other gods before him and we see throughout the Bible when God really brings down his judgment on a nation, it's when they go after other gods. He puts up with so much sin, all of these other things, but when he finally just says, that's it. I've had enough with you. And when a nation becomes reprobate, it's when they go after other gods. Isn't it interesting how in Romans chapter one when it talks about the individual reprobate is someone who worships and serves the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. And as someone who goes after and builds up these idolatries, they reject God. They know who God is. They reject God and then they make their own gods and build their own idols of men's hands. Well, the same thing that makes an individual reprobate is when the whole people start going after other gods. God says, I'm done with you and that's enough. That's it. I've had enough. It's interesting. I mean, that's the way it works. But it shows you, it shows you how God is serious about that and saying, and if you think about it, it makes sense. God that made this magnificent creation of the earth and the heavens and everything that is and your life and your existence when you were formed in fashion in your mother's womb and God made you and he created you and he gave you all this stuff and he gave you the ability to know him and he gave you all these things to you just to say, who is God or I'm just going to make up my own. I don't like the way God is. I'm just gonna come up with my own God. It makes him angry. He's jealous over his own creation. Look at Exodus 34 verse number 11. Exodus 34 verse 11, Observe thou that which I command thee this day, behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where thou goest, lest it be a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images and cut down their groves. For thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord, look at this, whose name is jealous is a jealous God. God's name, one of God's names is jealous. So when the Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door and they say, do you even know what God's name is? You could say jealous and that is a biblically accurate name. His name is jealous. That's one of his names. The reason why his name is jealous, because he is a jealous God. Because he doesn't want any of their gods before him, he doesn't want any competition for someone worshipping and serving anyone else but him, the true God, the Creator. Verse 15, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they go a whoring after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. Turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter 5. You say, well that's how God is, it doesn't mean it's necessarily right for us. Well, we're made in God's image but even more, we're going to look at Numbers chapter 5 and I'm going to prove to you that jealousy is not wrong or a sin. There's actually an allowance for jealous husbands in the Bible, in the law. And we're going to find that in Numbers chapter 5. And I'm going to explain to you, in case you're not familiar with, or if it's kind of a shock, what do you mean it's okay to be jealous, to have a jealousy? I thought that was always a bad thing. I watch these Lifetime movies and they have these jealous husbands and they don't ever want them to do anything and that's horrible. Jealousy, why is it not wrong? Well, why would I want my wife, as a husband and a wife, because this is the context I'm going to put it in. When you make a vow to be solely unto one another, you have a special relationship with that person. You expect them to be just as committed as you are and to observe that relationship. Why would I want another man in my wife's life to start getting some of the affection and the attention that I get from my wife? And I'm not even talking about necessarily a physical relationship, but there's a lot more to a marriage and to a couple's life together than just having a physical relationship. You have a bond that you connect and you care for one another and you love each other in a certain way that you don't want to see them exhibit that same affection or love for someone else that you get at home. There is nothing wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with me not wanting another man to have my wife. She's my wife and there's nothing wrong with my wife wanting another woman to have me in any of that regard either. That is completely justified as well for her to be a jealous wife. It's perfectly fine for her not to want some women chatting me up, calling me on the phone and talking to me and having this relationship with people that's just like, you know, it's one thing to have acquaintances and we're all in public and we're all, you know, like you talk to me, my friends, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about we're going to go out to eat. We're going to go sit down. We're going to have a real personal connection, a real personal relationship, you know, one on one. That's when you start getting into the jealous zone and that's where I think it starts to be just fine because you don't want that to build into anything further to where you end up where it does become something physical. Now, let's look at what the Bible says here and we're going to gain some wisdom from this chapter in Numbers chapter 5. This was part of God's law. If jealousy was a sin or jealousy was wrong, then this would not be in the law the way it is right here. He would say he would be punishing the husband for being jealous if that was wrong as opposed to what happens here in an instance where a husband does become jealous. Verse number 12 we're going to start reading. Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him and a man lie with her carnally and it be hid from the eyes of her husband and be kept close and she be defiled and there be no witness against her neither she be taken with the manner and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be defiled or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be not defiled. So it starts off saying the wife has gone and committed adultery. She's gone and cheated on her husband. She had an affair. She had this relationship with another man. But the husband didn't know about it. He has no evidence of it. There's no witnesses to say this happened and she didn't become pregnant or something so that there's some type of evidence that he knows about it. It's basically this feeling that he has because of their relationship, maybe because of how much time she's spending, she's talking to someone else and this jealousy comes over the husband. Say, what do you do in this situation? Because it says, it starts off saying that she did this but then it says, you know in verse 14, it says the spirit of jealousy come upon him and she be defiled or the spirit of jealousy came upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be not defiled. Verse 15, then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest and he shall bring her offering for her the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil upon it nor put frankincense thereon for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial bringing iniquity to remembrance. Then the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take and put it into the water and the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head and put the offering of memorial in her hands which is the jealousy offering and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse and the priest shall charge her by an oath and say unto the woman if no man have lain with thee and if thou has not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse but if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband and if thou be defiled and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing and the priest shall say unto the woman the Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot and the woman shall say Amen Amen and the priest shall write these curses in a book and he shall blot them out with the bitter water and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand and shall waive the offering before the Lord and offer it upon the altar and the priest shall take a handful of the offering even the memorial thereof and burn it upon the altar and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water and when he hath made her to drink the water then it shall come to pass that if she be defiled and have done trespass against her husband that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter and her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot and the woman shall be a curse among her people and if the woman be not defiled but be clean then she shall be free and shall conceive seed this is the law of jealousies when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband and is defiled or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him and he be jealous over his wife and shall set the woman before the Lord and the priest shall execute upon her all this law then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity and this woman shall bear her iniquity so by the man becoming jealous it's basically he's suspicious that something has happened and there's no witnesses and he's jealous over his wife obviously no husband wants this to happen to his wife right and that's called being jealous because someone else now has come in your place and received the affection and attention that you deserve so when the husband becomes jealous of this this is the way that the Lord and this is a pretty cool thing I mean I think it's really interesting and really neat this is like as far as I can tell this is completely supernatural I mean this is something that would happen because God knows the truth and that when he brings her in and she drinks of this bitter water or whatever and and her belly begins to swell and her thigh begins to rot it's because she she laid with another man and was guilty of committing adultery as opposed to then but see when this happens there's a there's a good side of it too because if she was faithful and there is no reason for him to become jealous that there was nothing that she had done no infidelity then it says she's going to conceive so that's a blessing that you receive as a result of this but either way what I want to point out is that in no case is the man that that is jealous is that looked at as a sin at all it's just a matter of settling this issue so that you don't have this strife and conflict within your marriage because when you're jealous of someone because of a because of you know you think there's impropriety going on you think there's infidelity going on that's a big strain on the relationship this was a good way to settle and just say okay ones and for all we're going to figure this out either you did it or you didn't and if you didn't do it you're going to be blessed and if you did do it you're going to be cursed and there are very good reasons to become jealous many times there are situations where it's just it's too suspicious and you don't necessarily have all the evidence but see the thing is jealousy is actually a sign of someone who really loves you because if someone didn't love you they wouldn't care right if I didn't love my wife I wouldn't care necessarily what she did go ahead have a relationship with another man you know whatever that's if I just if I just treated her like who cares if I'm flipping about it I don't love her but when you love her of course I don't want her to be with someone else because you're my you know like like you're for me I love you I want you and I don't want you going to anyone else and it's you know vice versa there's nothing wrong with that Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 23 the bible reads take heed unto yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire even a jealous God now I only have a few references here to God being called a jealous God but there are many references in the bible of God being called a jealous God this is some this is an attribute of God that is is not just some minute thing or some small thing like I said it's commandments one and two the reason why they're there is because he's a jealous God he doesn't want any gods before him we see the the severe dealing with the children of Israel when they did go after strange gods because God's a jealous God because he's a consuming fire because there's that rat there in fact I mean the the whole way to get to heaven as opposed to going to hell is recognizing that Jesus Christ is our savior recognizing the Lord putting your faith in God because if you don't do that you've got some other God before you whether it's yourself whether it's whatever your whatever idol is that you have it's going to cause you to go to hell and it really is that simple Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 14 says you shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth so it's one more example of God being called jealous God like I said there's many places turn if you want to second Corinthians chapter 11 because we're going to see this you say pastor persons that's just in the Old Testament though what about the New Testament well second Corinthians chapter 11 we're going to see another example of a godly jealousy of something that it's not wrong it's not bad to have a godly jealousy second Corinthians chapter 11 verse number 2 we're going to see this is the apostle Paul talking about the people of Corinth for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ he said I'm I'm jealous over you I don't want you going after other gods I don't want you go getting deceived into false religion I have espoused you to one husband unto God right when he got him saved he said I brought you to Christ that I may present you as a chaste virgin I want you following all the commandments so that you can be this chaste virgin that you can be faithful and a good wife you know metaphorically speaking for your husband I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy godly jealousy is when you really care for someone and you don't want someone else defiling that let's go back to first Kings chapter 9 pick up where we left off I you know again I was wanting to point that out because God is giving this warning and this isn't the first time we've come across it just in first Kings chapter 9 and we know the history we read the Bible we know what ends up happening to the children of Israel but God continues to warn them they've got the Ten Commandments they've got the Mosaic Law they've got all of Exodus they've got all of Leviticus they've got all of Deuteronomy they understand the importance that God has put on this and saying look you know if nothing else God wants us just obey God wants us to recognize him and obey him I mean that's really not setting the standard very high either as far as you know ultimately what God really wants is just look I mean for salvation just believe just have faith like like how much lower can you set the bar can you at least just have faith can you just believe that Christ paid for your sins can you believe that that's it that's what I'm asking you that's the stats that's what I want you to do to be saved and spend eternity in heaven so you could kind of understand how he could get so angry then and be so jealous when when you can't even do that first Kings chapter 9 so let's see where we left off there in verse number 9 I believe let's pick up in verse number 10 and it came to pass at the end of 20 years when Solomon had built the two houses the house of the Lord and the king's house now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees and with gold according to all his desire that then King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee so as part of the payment as part of giving thanks after after everything was said and done because remember Hiram had helped you know do the work and he gave some of his laborers and they were you know working together and building all this stuff that Solomon wanted to have built that Solomon says okay here's you know as a gift to you I'm going to give you 20 cities they're yours you know you you control them you get all the resources you get out all the production everything out of those cities they're for you and it says it was in the land of Galilee and Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him and they pleased him not and he said what cities are these which thou has given me my brother and he called them the land of Kabul unto this day so Hiram wasn't really he wasn't too satisfied with with what Solomon had given now the one thing that I take out of this is like and and I know it's not exactly the same but they were in the land of Galilee and that's basically where Jesus and his disciples came out so it really was you know prophetically speaking a very good land to have and to be over those cities was a good thing but Hiram couldn't see it at that time and I'm sure obviously he's not thinking about Jesus Christ coming way down the road but but that's what is where he came out of was out of Galilee and these were the cities that he gave him but we don't read we don't see a whole lot more about Hiram after this so don't know if it completely tainted the relationship or not but Hiram was a good friend he was a good friend of David's and a good friend of Solomon's and actually we do see though that Hiram still ends up giving Solomon a whole bunch of gold like at the end of this chapter so it didn't just completely spoil it and we don't know if Solomon might have given him some other things than to try to make it right but let's keep reading here that was a it's kind of a side note yeah excuse me in verse 14 says and Hiram sent to the king six score talents of gold so he wasn't super happy about it but he still gave him you know quite a quite a bit of gold there are 120 talents of gold verse number 15 and this is the reason of the levee which King Solomon raised for to build the house of the Lord and his own house and Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer for Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city and given it for a present unto his daughter Solomon's wife and Solomon built Gezer and Bethhorah on the nether and Balaath and Tadmor in the wilderness in the land and all the cities of store that Solomon had and cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and all the land of his dominion and all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites which were not of the children of Israel their children that were left after them in the land whom the children of Israel also were not able to utterly to destroy upon those that Solomon levy a tribute of bond service unto this day but of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen but they were men of war and his servants and his princes and his captains and rulers of his chariots and his horsemen. These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work 550 which bear rule over the people that wrought in the work so I already covered this before when Solomon raised this levy to begin the work but it's just being reiterated here that he basically used the heathen that were still left in the land the Canaanites that were supposed to have been driven out and completely wiped out that they remained in the land he used them to do the bond service he used them to do all the hard work and the labor but he and that was really who the levy of tribute was upon was upon the stranger not among those that were born in the land but I covered all that just a couple a few weeks ago so I don't want to get into all that let's keep reading here verse number 24. But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her then did he build Millo so you know we see here not only did he build the king's house and the house of the Lord he also built all these you know these other cities and a few other things that he wanted done with all the the work and all the supplies that were sent unto him and one of those that he built here was Millo for Pharaoh's daughter when he he married Pharaoh's daughter so he joined affinity with Pharaoh by by marrying his daughter and he had this this place built for her turn if you would to second chronicles chapter eight if you remember there's parallel passages between first kings and second chronicles and there's another just one more little bit of piece of information that we get from second chronicles chapter eight that I just kind of want to point out most of this is very very so I mean you look at word for word a lot of times very similar but there's there's differences between the two chapters second chronicles chapter eight verse number eleven we get one more little bit of information it says in Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her for he said my wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel because the places are holy where unto the ark of the Lord hath come now what I want to say is that why did you marry her in the first place if you're worried about her being in the place where the ark was because that's a holy place and you don't want your Egyptian wife to be there the daughter of Pharaoh why did you do in the first place obviously married her for the wrong reasons if you're all of a sudden now worried 20 years later oh yeah I don't want her in this house because it's holy because the ark of the covenant was there then why did you marry her in the first place and why did he marry her when it was already warned we already read this chapter earlier in Exodus 34 but I'll reread it for you Exodus 34 verse 15 says well you know when I was talking about God being a jealous God he said lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they go a whoring after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods and one call thee and now eat of his sacrifice and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons and their daughters go a whoring after their gods and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods God was warning the children of Israel when he gave the commandments saying look I don't want you know first of all they need to be wiped out but when the people of the land remain because he knew that they would don't go and join marriages with them they're worshiping and serving other gods what's gonna happen is when your great you know your son that you raised up to be a godly son and a godly man and to serve the Lord when he marries one of these women that doesn't believe in the Lord that believes in Baal that believes in some other God you know what's gonna happen she's gonna pull his heart away from the Lord to serve these other gods and that is exactly what happened to Solomon his wives turned his heart because even in this chapter Solomon's doing what's right we see we're gonna get to that in just a minute he's still offering up the sacrifices three times a year just like he's supposed to he is still keeping and he even cares he's still saying that well I don't want my my Egyptian wife to be there because that place is holy because that's the Lord so I'm gonna build this extra this separate place for her to be at where she can be here in this house which is separate from the Lord you may be able to put up with it for a while but in the end it's gonna get you and this is this is the same advice that this advice has not changed throughout time it was part of God's law before where they were not supposed to take of the daughters of the land to be their wives but even in the New Testament the Bible says that we're not supposed to be yoked up with not with unbelievers that that you know when a widow's husband dies or whatever that she may marry who she will only in the Lord so we as Christians are supposed to find someone else who's saved to be our spouse so when you're looking for someone to marry a husband or a wife you need to be looking for somebody else that's a believer that is the requirement you're free to marry who you want the Bible isn't for never has been for these arranged marriages and stuff people like to look at the old doesn't say oh well you know you have to have everything planned out and women couldn't have any say in the matter anything that's not true you see even the examples you see when Rebecca went to be Isaac's wife she had a choice she didn't have to go they said well wait are you G are you ready to go with this man and go bead you know Isaac's wife and she accepted she said yes I am and she did it women in the Bible and godly and especially under a godly example I'm not saying that every woman always had a choice in every situation but the biblical or godly example is they do have the choice and that can be proven from scripture that you are not forced to marry anybody you can marry who you will but only in the Lord that is the requirement that's the restriction that's put on that and it's for very good purpose I mean think about it even as humanly speaking if it's not even in God's Word think about a person's religion is is about as close to being who they are as you can get what they believe about God and these things it's such a tightly held belief when you marry someone you ought to know what that person believes because the more time you know yeah you can get along just fine talking about all these things that don't matter for years but there's gonna come a point in your relationship where what you really believe and feel is coming out and it's part of who you are and in order to get along with the spouse that you're married to you want to be on the same page in that regard you don't want to be marrying some Muslim girl or some Hindu man or whatever and just say yeah but we have so much in common and we love spending time together and we have so much fun don't get yoked up because it's only gonna end up bad for you in the long run and don't say oh well I'll get him saved down the road after we get married don't no no no no no you get make sure they're saved right now and if they're not that should not be an option for you to for marriage let's let's finish up this chapter though we're almost done let's see where did we leave off verse number 25 see and we see this and three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the Lord so he finished the house and King Solomon made a navy of ships and easy on Geburgh which is beside Eloh on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom and Hiram sent in the navy his servants shipmen that had knowledge of the sea with the servants of Solomon and they came to Ophir and fetched from thence gold 420 talents and brought it to King Solomon so Solomon made this navy of ships for them to go out and go to Ophir and get that great gold of Ophir to come back and he was working with Hiram in that endeavor also and that finishes up chapter 9 let's have a word of prayer dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for the wisdom we can learn from the bible god I pray for that you would please help us all to understand more god help us to not be swayed by this world and be brainwashed against what the truth really is dear lord help us not to have such a negative view of jealousy when it's a godly jealousy when it's something that we ought to be looking out for our spouses and not and being justified in not wanting our spouses to get too close or too involved with someone of the opposite gender dear lord in a private way in a personal way that that type of affection should only be reserved for their husband or for their wife dear god I pray to you please help us not to be so brainwashed literally by the permissive attitude of our culture which I mean if we're going to be getting our morals or morality from this world dear lord god help us because the world's so twisted and screwed up on everything else god help us not to you know help us to have the godly view the right view of everything in our life from from all the all the details that we have to work out all the decisions we have to make dear lord please grant us that wisdom help us to have the faith to know that you hear our prayers and that we wouldn't get discouraged even if something takes a longer amount of time than than we might like to see it be answered in but help us to have the faith to know that that you do hear our prayers and that you will answer in your time dear lord we pray all these things in Jesus name amen