Reading: 2 Chronicles 1-2.

Daily-Devotion:

“Solomon son of David established himself in his kingdom; the LORD his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.”

Solomon gathered all Israel, the commanders of thousands and hundreds, the judges, the leaders of all Israel, and the heads of families. Then the whole assembly went up to Gibeon. The tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness was there. It had the bronze altar where they inquired of the LORD, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

However, after the ark of the covenant of God was returned to Israel by the Philistines, David eventually brought it to Jerusalem from Kiriath-jearim to a tent David prepared for it.

That night, God came to Solomon in a dream and said “Ask what I shall give you.”

Solomon said, “Give me wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of Yours.”

This pleased God, who said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, the life of your enemies, or long life for yourself, I will grant you wisdom and knowledge. I will also give you riches and honor such as not kings had before you, and none after you shall have the like.”

Solomon gathered chariots and horses, stationed them in chariot cities, with the king in Jerusalem. He had 14 hundred chariots and 12 thousand horses, purchased from Egypt, though Moses had ruled that a king should not have many horses or go to Egypt to acquire more horses.

Solomon prepared to build the Temple for the Lord and a house for himself. He conscripted 70 thousand laborers, 80 thousand stonecutters, and 3,600 to oversee them. These were taken from the aliens living in Israel, remnants of the nations Joshua and David had defeated with the help of the LORD.

Solomon also made an alliance with King Huram (or Hiram) of Tyre, who cut cedar, brought the logs to the Mediterranean, and rafted it down to Joppa where the Israelites would bring the logs to Jerusalem to put into the Temple. Huram also sent Huran-Abi, a son of a Danite mother and Tyrian father. He was able to work in gold,  silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen He could also execute and design all sorts of engraving.

Solomon provided food for both his and Huram’s workers and began to build the Temple on the 2^nd day of the 2^nd month of the 4^th year of Solomon’s reign.

This was in the 480^th year after Israel came out of Egypt. This date is important because many ‘scholars’ want to date the Exodus in the 1200’s B.C. Solomon’s 4^th year is known to have been about 960 B.C. Adding 480 years to this gives a date of 1440 B.C. for the Exodus, or 400+ years earlier than the ‘scholars’ want to allow. Israel was in Egypt 430 years. Jacob was 130 years old when he came into Egypt. Issac was 60 when Jacob was born. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Adding these together we find Isaac was born 2160 B.C. and Abraham was born 100 years before that or about 2260 B.C. It is strange that they allow billions of years for evolution but shorten the known history of the Bible following the flood and tower of Babal.