And I didn't do separate notes this morning, but there are some things I'm going to add in here, but probably not anything you can't fit in there if you'd like to. Or just flip it over on the back side if you want to write something down. But this chapter in your lesson is entitled The Character of Solomon's Kingdom. When you talk about the character of a kingdom, it's a little different than personal character, if you will. Of course, that is reflected in the kingdom, but I believe what you're seeing here is the character of this kingdom as an evidence of the wisdom that God gave to Solomon. There's a, as I look at this, a couple of things I recognize, and that is that there are a lot of things about Solomon's life, especially, there are a lot of things about it that we don't want to follow, but there's some tremendous things that God shows us about the wisdom of God that God did give to Solomon, and that we can learn in a positive way. And this chapter reflects a lot of that. And so I believe it, one of the things we always have to keep in mind is that in David and Solomon both, we have types of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think, I believe that's what's reflected in this chapter. So if you look at the first six verses here, the chapter covers a general view. I don't think it's, and it's there in your outline as well in the introduction there, but I don't believe it's It's a chapter that gives you any sequence of events. It's an overall general description of how Solomon, in the wisdom of God, set up his kingdom and the people that he put in different positions. For instance, if you look in verse 11, you can kind of get this from the gist of it as you read through, but in verse 11 it says, the son of Abinadab in the region of Dor, which had Taphith, the daughter of Solomon, to wife." Well now, Solomon set up his kingdom from the start, put different people in different positions. And when he started reigning, you remember it was about four years, after his first marriage. And so he didn't have any daughters old enough to marry, I guess is what is obvious. So this one, and also in verse 15, mentions another man, Ahimaaz, was in Naphtali, and he took also Basmath, the daughter of Solomon, to wife. So two of these men had one of Solomon's daughters, for their wife. Well, that had, of course, happened quite a bit later. So it shows that they were men whom he had set up in their positions, and as they showed themselves to be good at what they did and prosperous to the kingdom and so forth, then he gave them one of his daughters to wife. And in verse 32, as a matter of fact, You see this. It says he spake 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. So now that's obviously talking about throughout his life. So this chapter is an overview of just how the kingdom was established, how he organized things. It has to do with the administration of the kingdom. One of the things that I mentioned, when Solomon asked God for wisdom, one of those things that is involved in that is not only how to exercise judgment, we see an example of that at the end of chapter three, but another thing that's involved in that, intrinsically involved in that, is how to order the kingdom, how to administer things. The king is, I won't say like our president, but that's one of his responsibilities, is administration. And so it takes wisdom to do that. And so there's a summary of his life here that involves how these things were set in place. He organized the kingdom this way. Now, the first six verses give us the princes of the kingdom. One of the things you can do with this, if we're not careful, We just read through this, and this is just kind of a boring list of names. But it's more than that. If you look at who some of these people were, we can learn some things from this. We can also see, if we look into the terms that are used here, we can see the organization of things. For instance, you'll notice in the first verses there, let's read down, it says in verse one, so King Solomon, was king over all Israel that he had." Now, notice the terms that are used here. These are the princes that he had. Azariah, the son of Zadok, the priest. So this is a man who was in the priestly line also. He was a prince in the kingdom. He was also in the priestly line. When you come down to verse 4, it says, the son of Jehoiada. Now, we've seen his name mentioned already in 1 Kings. So it says, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host. So remember, he's the one that took Joab's place as the captain of the host. And it says, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests. The indication is possibly Benaiah as well, but at least for sure you have Zadok and Abiathar that were under him. It's listing these people that were with him. In other words, they were under him. So you have, and you follow down through your, it's a pretty good organization of things as far as what it's talking about here in your outline then. Ezariah, evidently Solomon's highest official. The princes and the priests are seen together in this kingdom in many cases, if not most of them. On my outline, I crossed out Isaiah 48, verse 23. I'm not sure which verse that's supposed to be because that one has absolutely nothing to do with it. So evidently the wrong reference got put down and I couldn't find a combination of numbers that matched. So you can just cross that out. But the points made plenty well enough in the text. When you look at that in Israel many times, not always, but sometimes princes were because they were in the king's line. Other times they were in the priestly line. And sometimes there's an overlap of that as far as not necessarily the king's line, but as far as even military people is concerned. Then the second thing you have there is the cabinet of Azariah. So these are people that are under him. Now Azariah tells us here, well if you look back in 1 Chronicles chapter 6 and verse 8. 1 Chronicles chapter 6 and verse 8. And Ahitab begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ahimaaz. So this Ahimaaz, excuse me, Ahimaaz, and then, let me see here. I think it's verse, I wrote this, oh, six, oh, verse eight, yeah, down through verse eight. Verse seven says that Mariah begat Amariah, and Mariah begat Ahitab, and Ahitab begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Ahimaaz. So you have a secondary priest, if you will. When you look at, well, just a second, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me get back up to this Azariah. He was a grandson of Zadok. So there's a relationship there. And then you find out Zadok, as you go on down a little bit further in our text, you find Zadok was also was the priest at the time. Verse 4 says, And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host, and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests. So you have a grandfather as a priest, his grandson that is also in this cabinet with Azariah. And then you have Elahoref and Ahaiah. Look down here at verse 3. It mentions these two men, the sons of Shysha, scribes. I looked up Shysha. Shysha held this office, this same office as a scribe, under David. Now, there's more to that than just a historic fact. Okay, that would just be like a genealogy. But I want you to keep that in mind. So David had this man's father as his scribe. And then you have a son that Solomon uses. Now, you look at Jehoshaphat as recorders. And then it says Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahitab, the recorder. A scribe is someone who takes notes, if you will, but they were also people that copied the scriptures. That was their biggest responsibility, was the copying of the scriptures. Jehoshaphat, it says, was a recorder. That word recorder means a chronicler. So in other words, this man would write down the major events that happened in the kingdom. So this is like the man who kept the records of what went on in Jerusalem as far as the kingdom and what the king did and all of those things and the records that we have. Like when you look at the book of First and Second Chronicles. That's what that word means. It's the records of the kingdom. So then you have Benaiah, a man that we've already seen, was the man that went in and slew Joab. and was made the captain of the host. And so he's over the host, and you have Zadok and Abiathar that are under him, not as military people, but they're priests that serve under him in this same cabinet. And then you have, when you come down a little bit further, you have more of the bureaucracy under the cabinet. It's the way it's describing this. Let's see, where does it mention him here? Let's just read down from verse 5. And Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers, and Zabod the son of Nathan was principal officer and the king's friend. You have two men then that are sons of Nathan. Nathan was not only a prophet, but when you look at his life, he's a I don't have time this morning to go in. If you would do a search on this and all the times that Nathan shows up, he was not only a prophet to David, but he was probably David's closest friend. And he's a man that was a friend to David in the good times and in the bad times. When David was doing things well, but when David sinned against God, this is the man that came in and rebuked him, that God used to come in and rebuke him. But he did it in a firm way. He didn't beat around the bush, but he was gracious as well. He just simply delivered the message of God, said, thou art the man. And God's the one that smote his heart with it. Now, a couple of things I want you to notice then about these people. Most of these were either priests Or they were related to a prophet. Whether they were prophets themselves or not, we don't know. But they were either priests, or they were related to a prophet. So what does that tell you about the emphasis of Solomon in setting up his kingdom? The people that he had under him in political places, appointed places, were all men that had spiritual character. They were either in the priestly office, serving God that or they were the prophets of God, or sons of a prophet that was also his closest friend. Now let me tell you something about this as well. It shows the wisdom of this man. We're going to see Solomon was noted as the wisest man in the earth. And the wisest man in the earth produced the dumbest man on the earth. The most foolish son. His son was a foolish man. He was a knucklehead. And when we get to him, just keep that in mind. I'll spend time on that because I won't get through this lesson. But you keep something in mind that Solomon did that his son did just the opposite of what his dad did. Solomon had great respect for his father's friends. And he had great respect for the men who were faithful to his father. Now that's a wise son. When you can recognize the wisdom of your dad, the things that he did right, and the book of Proverbs mentions this. It's a wise son. that is friends of his father's friends. Makes friends of his father's friends. Now, when they're good friends, that's a really good idea. You know, if you got a father that's a fool, and a lot of people do, then you don't want those kind of friends. But when you have a father that is God's man and serves God, Then sons do well to take a look at who their friends are. I mean their close friends, not everybody they're friendly with. I'm not talking about that, but the people that are actually their close friends. There are a lot of young people, a lot of young men, that make this dumb mistake of thinking, now, careful what I say here. It's a good thing when a young man becomes a man to be who he is and not try to be what somebody else is, including his dad. But the danger is when that is, and there's kind of a natural tendency to do that, and the danger in that is to go to the point of rejecting things just for the sake of rejecting what your dad held to or what your dad did because you're making your own thing. Solomon was not foolish enough to think that this kingdom's mine and I need to have everybody flushed out that was in the kingdom before and start from scratch. I need to replace people just to replace people. He wasn't foolish enough to do that. He was wise to recognize those who were his father's faithful friends and build his kingdom around those men. He didn't try to just knock it all down and start from scratch. He realized the kingdom of Israel, look at what he prayed. This is God's kingdom and they're God's children. And he looked at it that way. He didn't look at it as, well, this is mine. I have to make it reflect me. No, it's God's and it needs to reflect him. And what my dad did right, I'm going to build on that. And so that's what he did. A wise son does that. His son didn't. And we'll look at that when we get to his son. Now, the second thing you'll notice here, those things I just mentioned, you can summarize that. That's something you can write that down and take it to the banquet. Now, the officers of a kingdom and their provisions. In verse 7 through 19, I just want to read through this. And then summarize what it's talking about here. And Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel. Well, there were 12 tribes, weren't there? He followed the order, the governmental order that God established for Israel. He didn't try to change what God established. He ordered his kingdom the way God had ordered the nation in the first place. It's true. People do things differently, but when they change God's order, they're doing things wrong. Solomon didn't do that. And Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household. Each man his month in a year made provisions. Well, there's 12 tribes and 12 months. God's the one that set that up. And these are their names, the son of Hur in Mount Ephraim, the son of Dekir in Mazak and in Sheolbim, and Beth-shemesh and Elan-beth-henan, the son of Hesod and Arubbeth. To him pertained Sukkoth and all the land of Hefur. and the son of Abinadab, and all the region of Dor, which hath Tapheth, the daughter of Solomon, the wife. Baanah, the son of Nahaihad, to him pertain Tanak, and Megiddo, and all Bethshan, which is by Zardana, beneath Jezreel, and Bethshan to Abelmeah, Meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokanaan. The son of Geber in Ramoth-Gilead, to him pertain the towns of Jeir, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, to him also pertain the region of Argab, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars. And in Benadab, the son of Iddo, had Mahanaim, Ahimaaz was in Naphtali. He also took Basmath, the daughter of Solomon, the wife. Bainah, the son of Hushai, was in Asher and Aloth. Jehoshaphat, the son of Beruah and Issachar. Shimei, the son of Elah and Benjamin. Geber, the son of Uriah, was in the country of Gilead in the country of Sion, king of the Amorites. Navag King of Bashan, and he was the only officer which was in the land. And so he divided it up, and I realize not all those were necessarily exactly the size of each tribe, but he divided it up that way. So they all had a region, and no one had more than one person to get handled. No one was going to get wealthier from their position than anybody else. They were divided up basically equally, the way he saw it, and with equal responsibilities. The taxes, if you want to call it that, that they gathered were to provide for Solomon's household, the people that sat at his kingdom. And it shows the extent of his kingdom. In chapter 4 and verse 24 it says, for he had dominion over all the region on this side of the river from Tifsa even to Eza over all the kingdoms on this side of the river and he had peace on all sides round about him. You know when I look at that I see the organization according to regions and the burden that he put on each one and all of that. But he had the kingdom divided up so that these people, they had local government. They did not have, certainly you had a kingdom. And we're in First Kings chapter four. But certainly you have a kingdom and it's set up, it's all has its center in Jerusalem. But he had the whole kingdom then divided up to where the people that were Governing the different areas lived in the area where they govern. That's very important. They lived with the people that they governed. I'll give you an example of this. This hasn't happened in this country for, I don't know, when. That our bureaucracies, and of course many of them we shouldn't even have, regardless. One of the things that happened when Trump was in office the first time is he put the agriculture department in Colorado. He got it out of Washington, D.C. and put it into Colorado. Now why would he do that? Because nobody in Washington, D.C. knows anything about cows and food. They get everything at the store. They don't know anything about farming and ranching. They haven't got a clue. They've been living in a city. I'm telling you, some of those people that are in government, I'm talking about the people that are in government. They've been there and in their positions for a long time. Some of them have been doing something else in Washington, D.C., and now they just switched jobs and they're doing something else. They don't know anything about Colorado's an agriculture area. Get the people that, and the offices that are doing those things where people actually do that. You know, we got people making decisions that don't know the, they don't know one end of a cow from the other end. They couldn't raise a garden if they had to, much less run a farm. They don't know how to run a ranch because they've never done it. When you have people actually living with what they're dealing with, they'll have a little better idea about the decisions they're making. That's what was going on here. He had these people. They had it divided up into localities, to regions. And they were over the region where they lived. had great wisdom. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 9. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I want you to see this about the word of God tells us here about Solomon. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 9. Because you see you have not only the people that he set it up with, but you have also how he dealt with these people. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 9, these people and the kingdom as a whole. Verse 9 says, and moreover, so now the book of Ecclesiastes, it's the preacher, okay? Now moreover, because the preacher was wise, and let's talk about Solomon, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs, because he was wise." Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, he again and again shows the vanity of everything under the sun. But having seen all of that, he didn't do what a lot of people do. They look out at the way the world is and the offenses against people and abuses and all those things. And they see the vanity of chasing after a good life, if you will, and fun and frivolity. They see the emptiness of that. They get all involved in the successes of all the different things that Solomon did. And it just leaves, there's an emptiness to all of that. If all it is is what happens under the sun, there's an emptiness to it. And they just wash their hands of it. and close out their life a drunk or something. You know, you just look at prosperous people in the world so many times. They got all kinds of money, but they haven't got any cents. And life's empty. But Solomon didn't do that. Because he was wise, he still taught the people. Solomon, because of the wisdom of God, still cared that his people be a wise people. Now how do foolish tyrants operate? They want people to be dumb. Keep them ignorant. If you keep them ignorant, they won't know any better. You can tell them anything you want to and they won't know any better. How does totalitarian religion operate? Well, let's see. Roman Catholicism It didn't take very long, not too long after the 600s, they began to tell people, you can't study the Bible yourself. You'll misinterpret it, and it'll cause you to sin. Eventually, they just confiscated all the Bibles from the people. They couldn't have one. The only thing they could do is go to the priest and find out what the priest has to say. That's the way totalitarian people operate. They have to keep people in the dark so that all they can do is do what they're told. Solomon did not do that. I had a preacher tell me one time. I knew him very well. It surprised me when he said this. He said, you have to be careful that you don't teach people too much doctrine, too much theology. They'll just start questioning everything and challenging you on everything. And I thought, wow. That's not what my Bible teaches me I'm supposed to do. If I don't have any more confidence that what I'm preaching I can defend, I should shut up and sit down. And they need to get a pastor that can defend what he believes or be willing to change when he's wrong. And so Solomon did not do that. He was a wise king in this part of his life and throughout most of his life. I believe it's another instance of where Solomon is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He certainly will reign, when he's here on this earth, he will reign in righteousness. And there won't be any ifs, ands, or buts about it. But he will also be a king who teaches his people, and he still is. He is right now. When he was getting ready to depart, he sent the Spirit of God in his place to make sure that his people get taught. God's Son does not have a kingdom that he rules keeping people in ignorance. As a matter of fact, the primary character of his kingdom is holiness, and truth, truth. And He wants His people to know the truth. So now when you look at this in verse 22, starting there, well, it tells you the sphere of His reign, verse 20 to verse 21. He reigned over all, verse 21, He reigned over all the kingdoms of the river under the land of the Philistines. to the border of Egypt and brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life. That is, they did. Then it gives us provision in verses 22 and following that he had for all of his servants at his tables. You come to verse 26. And Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers provided biksha for the king Solomon for all that came under the king Solomon's table. Every man in his month, they lacked nothing. Barley also, and straw for the horses, and dromedaries brought they into the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge." Notice verse 29 down to the end. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart as a sand that is on the seashore. This term, largeness of heart, involves a couple of things. First of all, largeness of heart. We speak of people that are very benevolent, that have sympathy and empathy for people. They have a big heart. Solomon was a king that had a big heart for his nation. He had a big heart for the people because he had a big heart toward God. When the Bible speaks of this, he had a large heart. It means, first of all, towards God. It's reflected in what his main desire was, for the kingdom first and the wisdom to rule this kingdom first and rule over God's people. And so he had a large heart. And it means also that he had, and this is used in the Old Testament, it often has to do with the heart as it's tied to the mind. So he had extremely, extreme capacity to understand things. When I look at Solomon, I look at the Ecclesiastes, again, the things he understood as far as just the way things, what happens in the world. Anything from oppressions, but it starts out, he sought wisdom, and God gave him that. Then that was You know, and then he went after music and all of those things. And God made him—there was nothing that man can do that he didn't excel in. You think about that. Music, songs, writing. Look at what the Word of God told us. We read there how much he wrote. More than we have recorded in the Word of God, way more. You count up the number of Proverbs that are in the Book of Proverbs, and yet he wrote like over 3,000. And there's, I think, like 900 and some that we have in the Book of Proverbs. Tremendous amount. Where does a guy do all that? When does a guy do all that and run a kingdom at the same time? He had tremendous ability. Musical ability, farming ability, animals, just everything. Everything he looked into, He understood it better than anybody as far as men are concerned. Well, there's none like him except the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus himself referred to Solomon's wisdom in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 42. And that the queen of Sheba came to him and the other kings of the earth came to him to ask him questions. But here he said, is a greater than Solomon. It's amazing to think about all that Solomon was enabled to do and the wisdom God gave him, the prosperity that he gave him, and there's a greater than Solomon that is here. We have one that's greater than Solomon to draw from. That's amazing to think about. I mean, you can just chew on that for a long time. and it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Solomon didn't have that. That's in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right.