1st Kings 9 26 and King Solomon
made a navy of ships in easier and Gieber which is beside Eloth
on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom and Hiram sent
in the Navy his servants Shipman that had knowledge of the sea
with the servants of Solomon and they came to offer a and
fetched from this gold 420 talents and brought it to King Solomon. Now look at chapter 10, verse
11. And the navy also of Haram that
brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of
almong trees and precious stones And the king made of the almond
trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's
house harps also, and psalteries for singers. There came no such
almond trees, nor were seen unto this day." Now you see the continuation
there, speaking of the Navy and what all they had explored and
discovered and brought back. Solomon to the kingdom and in
between there in the first part of chapter 10 Is the story of
the Queen of Sheba and we'll look at that separately, but
I wanted to look at this Navy and what all was brought back
and how it was used and why and So, in verse 13, King Solomon
gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she
asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty.
So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 603
score and six talents of gold. Beside that he had of the merchantmen
and of the traffic of the spice merchants, of all the kings of
Arabia and of the governors of the country and King Solomon
made 200 targets of beaten gold 600 shekels of gold Went to one
target, and he made 300 shields of beaten gold three pound of
gold went to one shield and the king put them in the house of
the forest of Lebanon and Moreover, the king made a great throne
of ivory and overlaid it with the best of gold. The throne
had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind,
and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat,
and the two lines stood beside the stays, and twelve lines stood
there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps.
There was not the like made in any kingdom. And all King Solomon's
drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house
of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. It was nothing accounted of in
the days of Solomon. For the king had at sea a navy
of Tarshish with the navy of Haram. Once in three years came
the navy of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes
and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all
the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth
sought Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.
And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver and
vessels of gold and garments and armor and spices, horses
and mules arrayed year by year. Solomon gathered together chariots
and horsemen and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots twelve
thousand horsemen whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots and
With the king at Jerusalem and the king made silver to be in
Jerusalem as stones and cedars made he to be as the sycamore
trees that are in the veil for abundance and Solomon had horses
brought out of Egypt and linen yarn the king's merchants received
the linen yarn at a price of Chariot came up and went out
of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150 and so For
all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria Did
they bring them out by their means? Now verse 23 of chapter
10 is a key verse in this passage what all the rest of the passage
is about is the glory of Solomon and which is expressed in this
one verse. So King Solomon exceeded all
the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. You could read
every verse that we just read and then read that verse and
it would make perfect sense, every one of them. The point
of all of that is the glory of Solomon. And how many times did
it say there were none like it? Nothing was like it said. When
you're talking about the Lord, you'd have to say that. When
you're talking about his glory, there's nothing like it. The
lions that represent power, they have no predators. There's no predator for a lion. Power, none like it. There was none like them ever
made before. Those trees that they made the pillars for the
temple out of, nobody had ever seen trees like that before,
and they never saw them again. the foundation of the temple
We'll look into that a little bit. There was nothing else like
it And so Solomon's glory here consisted
in riches and Wisdom and this is Christ our Savior in picture
and type the riches of his glory and his wisdom in the gospel
and On display in this passage of scripture, and I want us to
see how that Solomon's glory permeated everything in the kingdom
Those things that represented his glory That gold and those
precious stones and that certain type of wood that they found
that they built so many things out of Everything in the kingdom it
seems that was important and put on display those things that
represented his glory. May that be true in the Lord's
house. Three things are mentioned in verse 11 of chapter 10. The navy also of Hiram that brought
gold from Ophir brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees
and precious stones. So there was gold, the almug
trees, and then jewels, precious stones. look at verse 12 and
The king made of the Alma trees pillars for the house of the
Lord and for the king's house harps also and psalteries for
singers There came no such Alma trees nor were seen to this day
Nothing like those they never did see any again and so This
stuff it wasn't just for looks the very foundation of the Lord's
house consisted of of the glory of Solomon. When I refer to the
glory of Solomon, it's these things that represented that.
Everywhere everybody looked, it was, they thought, look how
great Solomon is. His navy has brought all these
things back and enriched the whole kingdom. But this is also
true in God's kingdom. God's house, his worship, his
kingdom has a foundation. And you know which scripture
I'm gonna go to, but I want us to look at some context of it.
Look at first Corinthians chapter three with me, if you would,
please. Look at the context of this.
You know the scripture we're going to, other foundation can
no man lay. Then that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. He's the foundation of God's
house, of his church, of his temple, of his worship, of his
glory. But look at 1 Corinthians 3.10.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise
master builder. That's how Solomon is pictured
here. He had all these things built out of these things that
displayed his glory in the kingdom of Solomon and the kingdom of
God. That was the Lord's kingdom. So as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation. I had the pillars carved out
and put in place. And another builded their own,
but let every man take heed how he buildeth their own. For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid. We're all builders,
we're all made to be wise master builders as the people of God. But we all build in the same
thing. There ain't but one foundation. We don't add anything. We don't
get any wild idea, any big idea. We just do what the Lord says,
which is always to lay the foundation of Jesus Christ. No other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid. which is Jesus Christ. Now, if
any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so
as by fire. Know you not that you are the
temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you So you
see what's happening in our text is there's building the building
of the temple and all the instruments of music and the the drinking
vessels and all of that was built to display the glory of Solomon
and That's how it is in God's house everything That which will
not be burned up is that which honors him that which glorifies
him that doesn't ever go away That's never destroyed So we're
talking about the glory of God and Christ is the glory of God
Listen to Hebrews 1 1 you're very familiar with this passage,
but I want to read a little bit of its context as well God, who
at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory. That's not an exaggeration. It's not just a saying of some
kind. Christ is the brightness of the
glory of God. That which, brightness, it speaks
of a visual reference there, brightness. That which can be
seen of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God in human flesh
and he is the very glory of God. It shines from his face, it says
there in that scripture that we all know so well. God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high. How is the glory of God displayed
in this world by Christ? Does he just come and has a shiny
face? No, he purged our sins with his
precious blood. There's the glory of God right
there in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is the
person of Christ himself the brightness of God's glory, but
when it speaks of him by himself purging our sins, We know what
that is also from his word. We know what that is. Listen
to John 17 one. These words speak Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour is come. We
know what hour he's talking about. Often they had tried to kill
the savior at different times for speaking the truth, but it
says that he passed through the midst of them because his hour
had not yet come. Now the Lord says to the father,
the hour has come, and you know what the next word is? Glorify. That's what it is. That's what
Christ crucified is. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may also glorify thee. That's the purpose of it. It
just so happens, and very happily for us, The way God glorifies
himself is by saving us Well, I like that method don't you
John 13 30 oh What a beautiful thing this is John 13 30 Judas then having received the
sop went immediately out and it was night and therefore when
Judas was gone out Jesus said now is the Son of Man and Crucified? Yes, but that's not what he said.
Now is the son of man humiliated? Yes, but that's not what he said. Now is the son of man killed? Yes, but that's not what he said. When Judas went out to betray
him, he said, now is the son of man glorified. Now is the
son of man glorified. Solomon is Christ. The pillars
are Christ. The gold and the precious stones
and the almond trees are Christ. The glory of our Solomon. Notice what it says about those
trees in verse 12. The trees that the pillars were
made of. Nobody had seen any before, nor
did they after that see any more. That's odd, isn't it? That's
strange. Doesn't happen every day you
find a new kind of tree and never see one again That's the glory
of Christ, there's nothing like it. There's nothing like him
There's nothing else that can Be the foundation of God's Church
of his worship of his glory nothing else This is what the Lord said
in Isaiah 45, 21. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there's no God else beside
me, a just God and a savior. There is none beside me. Only our God can be just and
yet justify sinners in the person of his son. And this is exactly
what he accomplished on Calvary. That was God being just. If he
put every sinner that ever lived in hell, he would not be just. That would not be punishment
enough. That's not our just desserts. But he put his son on the cursed
tree. He poured out his wrath upon
his son. And God was just that day in
the case of the sins of his people. And yet he justified sinners
like us. No God like that. The God of
this religious world ain't like that. No, he's not just. the God of the churches of the
so-called churches of this world, he's not just. He would punish
the Lord Jesus Christ and then punish you too if you don't do
the right thing. For the same sin. Supposedly he died for sinners
that were already in hell the day that he died. That's not
just. There's no God like our God.
A just God and a savior. All who are outside of Christ
must suffer eternally and God's wrath will be filled up throughout
eternity. And those for whom Christ died
must be saved. They have no sin. He took their
sins in his own body on the tree and suffered the wrath of God
for them. God can't demand anything from
them. And whenever I say God can't,
remember that's not a limitation of God, that's part of his glory.
that he can't lie, that he can't be unjust. No God else beside him. And this is exactly, that's what
he did on Calvary. He satisfied God's justice and
redeemed sinners. He was just and justifier. That's the picture that these
elements put forth. Notice all the musical instruments
were made of God's glory, of Solomon's glory, the glory of
God. The only way to praise God in
his kingdom is to show forth his glory in Christ. That's how
he's praised, by showing who he is and what he did. Show forth
his death till he come by this very ordinance. May we do that
in every song we sing. May every sermon preached show
forth his death until he come. We just display his glory. That's
what happened with these instruments of praise and worship. They showed
forth the glory of Solomon. And our Solomon is worthy A far
greater glory. There's greater than Solomon
here tonight with us. Whenever we sing hymns, it may
be a song that you're sick of. You know, there ain't that many
songs in the hymn book that we can stand. Most of them are stupid. And you know that as well as
I do. So we sing the same songs a lot sometimes until somebody
writes something. And we can sing something a little
bit different. We try not to sing them all in
the same song in a row over and over. Maybe you're tired of that
hymn or maybe you're tired and you don't much feel like singing
tonight. It's not about our talent. It's not about our entertainment.
It's about his glory. Look what those instruments are
made out of. Our voice is an instrument too.
It's made out of the glory of God in Christ. Verse 15, besides that, he had
of the merchant men and of the traffic of the spice merchants
and of all the kings of Arabia and of the governors of the country,
there was all this business being conducted all the time in the
kingdom. And what was that all about?
The glory of the king. That's what it was about. It
was about exalting Solomon, making Solomon richer. Making Solomon,
the queen of Sheba said, I've never seen anything like it.
Not even the half of it was told me. What was she looking at?
All of this stuff. She saw Solomon's glory in those
things. And that's what it pictures,
the glory of our savior. And it doesn't matter what business
we're conducting. That's what verse 15 is talking
about. All the different business conducted in the kingdom. If
we vacuum the floor in the Lord's house or cook a dish or repair
something or improve something, it's not just business as usual
like it is in this world. There's more to it. It's for
the glory of the Savior. I'm not sure we always get that. Not sure we get that. Notice that even our dealings
with people outside the kingdom, the governors of the kings of
Arabia and all that he had business, even our dealings with people
outside of the church are about the kingdom and glory of our
king. Everything redounds to the glory
of our king. Verses 16 and 17, look at these
two together. And King Solomon made 200 targets
of beaten gold. Now that word targets means to
pierce. So I'm not sure why they translated
it target, but it means spear, I believe. That would make sense
too in the context. He made 200 spears of beaten
gold, 600 shekels of gold went to one target or spear. and he
made 300 shields of beaten gold. Three pound of gold went to one
shield. And apparently the gold was inlaid. You wouldn't make a shield out
of gold because a gold is not, it's pretty soft really. But
only three pounds of gold was in the shield. So even a wooden
shield probably weighs 15 or 20 pounds. So it wasn't the whole
gold, the whole shield made out of gold. They had inlaid gold
into the shield and made it glorious. Can you imagine how beautiful
that thing was? And the king put them in the
house of the forest of Lebanon. The spears and shields reflected
the glory of the king. We always got to remember that
we're in a warfare. We just are. It doesn't look
like it. Our enemies are not flesh and
blood. They're spiritual enemies. Our biggest enemy is ourself. We're fighting constantly against
our own pride and self-righteousness and fleshly foolishness. That's
a fight that rages on constantly. And we just act like that's not
even happening most of the time. We get to be engaged in that
fight, but it's all for the glory of the Lord, the weapons of our
warfare. are not like the weapons used
in the wars of this world. God's glory now is not in question. It doesn't mean that there's
a war between good and evil and we're waiting to see what's gonna
happen. God's glory is never in question. But it is at stake
in this, isn't it? I hope I'm saying that right.
Does that make sense? The Lord's glory is gonna be
done, but that's what this is about. That's what the war is
about, his glory. No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier. What pleases God is glory to
his name, glory for his son. As I said, the word target means
piercing, We're soldiers in God's army,
but the victory is won by the piercing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it amazing that the Lord, how like him to
win the victory, not with an offensive blow, but by himself
having the blow dealt to him for our sins in our place. And then shields are mentioned
here. What is a shield for? Well, it's for protection, it's
for defense, it's for protection. How does it do that though? Well,
the sword that would have killed you strikes the shield instead
of you. And you're saved. Our Lord took the
penalty of our sin and we never will. And that of course shines
with his glory. Verses 18 and 19 and 20 together,
listen to these. Moreover, the king made a great
throne of ivory and overlaid it with the best gold. The throne,
this is the best gold. What shows forth the glory of
God like his sovereignty? Oh man, this is the best gold.
The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round
behind, and there were stays on either side of the place of
the seat, and two lines stood beside the stays, and 12 lines
stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps.
There was not the like of maid in any kingdom. There's no rival
throne. God's glory is seen in His sovereignty. You can't glorify God without
acknowledging, declaring, and rejoicing in His sovereignty. You can't do it. You deny the
sovereignty of God, you ain't never glorified God one time.
Not one time. God made everything for His glory. God rules and runs everything
for his glory. God saves who he wants to save
for his glory. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. And the Lord said, I'll have
mercy on whom I will. That's the best goal right there.
That's God sovereignly saving sinners as he pleases. There
ain't no better goal than that. The lions signify, of course,
power, the power of his throne. Not only is he sovereign in authority,
hence the throne, but he's sovereign in power to accomplish what he
pleases. Now think about that. For someone
to do literally as they please, they've got to have the authority,
first of all. Who authorized you? to do anything. Well, God
the Father gave all authority to his son in heaven and in earth. All power is given unto me, he
said. All authority. But also, they've gotta be able
to get it done. They can't just have the right.
You can give somebody all the authority that you want and all
the authority That's given is given by God, but if that person
is weak and stupid They're not going to get anything done Current affairs will tell us
that Christ has all authority from God the father that he should
give eternal life to as many as the father has given him That's
his right because he's the one Who is life for the sinner? He
gave himself to save us, and he's almighty to save. He gets
the job done. He not only has the authority, but if he will, he can. If he will, he can. The six steps,
I don't like to, over speculate about what different
things signify in the scripture. Sometimes when you're dealing
with types and pictures, it's not always crystal clear what's
being set forth, but we know that six is the number of a man
in the scriptures. As far as I know, it always is.
Six signifies the number of man. And I know this, Whether this
signifies that or not, our brother is on the throne of glory. A
man, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the throne of the universe,
the throne of glory, the throne of grace is occupied by the man
Christ Jesus. And then verse 21, and all King
Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels
of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, none
were of silver. It was nothing accounted of in
the days of Solomon. Silver was nothing accounted
of. There's no glory like the glory of God. Everything else
pales. I'd like to have had a lot of
silver, but it didn't mean anything compared to that which represented
the glory of Solomon. there's no There's no rival to his glory
or his throne Drinking vessels Refreshment and the quenching
of thirst and the quenching of hunger because it talks about
all the vessels the receptacles the dishes All for the glory
of God in his in his kingdom in his house David said my cup
runneth over A drinking vessel is a picture of faith. The cup
itself can show forth the glory of God, but the cup won't quench
your thirst. The cup is a picture of faith,
but faith, true faith, God-given, saving faith, glorifies him. It doesn't glorify the one who
has the faith. It glorifies him, like these
cups glorified the king. The cup merely receives that
which is needed to quench thirst or refresh the soul. God gives
the cup, faith, he fills the cup, and he gave the thirst to
begin with. He's the reason we drink. So
the Lord Jesus fulfills every bit of it. Nothing was silver. Silver is
beautiful. Silver is useful. But everything
short of God's glory is of no account in his kingdom. It's
of no account. And he doesn't have great glory
and little glory. All of it is about his glory.
And everything else, though, we might count it as useful.
It may not be useful in the glory of the Lord, in glorifying Him. And we gotta be careful about
that. Something that we might think
is valuable, we might consider to be of great use. If it doesn't glorify Him, it ain't coming in. Christ outshines everything and
everybody in His kingdom. You might be tempted to love
and admire a man. The Lord says, see she from man
whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted
of? It doesn't mean don't love the
man that God sends, but a man that God sends is gonna do like
John the Baptist and say, I'm not worthy to unlatch his sandals. He must increase, and I must
decrease. Look to the Lamb that takes away
sin. Peter and John said, why are
you looking at us as though we did something? Jesus of Nazareth,
whom you crucified, he hath wrought this miracle here today. In verse 23, so King Solomon exceeded
all the kings of the earth, for riches and for wisdom. Listen to Isaiah 46, nine, in
connection to that. Solomon exceeded all the kings
of the earth for two things, riches and wisdom. Isaiah 46, nine, remember the
former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I
am God. And there's none like me, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
And what he's saying there is he will use everything at his
disposal to bring it to pass. A bird, a man, it doesn't matter.
He'll use everything at his disposal to bring his purposes to pass.
And everything is at his disposal. Everything and everybody. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Harken unto me, you stout-hearted,
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off." You've
put yourself far from his righteousness, but he brings it near. You don't
draw near to it. He brings it to you. He said,
it's not going to be far off. That wasn't the sinner that decided
that. That was the Lord that declared
that. and my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation
in Zion for Israel, my glory. Everything has to do with the
glory of God. And in verse 24 in our text,
all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God
had put in his heart. Make Mary come help me. Martha,
Martha, you're cumbered about many things,
but Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken
away from her. For one thing is needful. You didn't come here tonight
to hear from me. You came to hear his wisdom,
the wisdom of the king. Nothing shunts forth the glory
of God like the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ The gospel
is able to make you wise and the salvation It's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone else