Names these ones who were made
officers over the land their names signify the way God runs
things And saw the beautiful gospel in that here in verse
22 Let's start with verses 22 and 23 together and Solomon's
provision for one day was 30 measures of fine flour three
score measures of meal ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the
pastures and a hundred sheep besides hearts and roebucks and
fallow deer and fatted fowl Now what's interesting is in the
first Three words here. It's called Solomon's provision
clearly Solomon wasn't consuming all of this every day, but his
household is those who he had charge over
and was responsible for, hundreds and hundreds of sheep
and a lot of oxen and other game. And clearly these numbers are
impressive really at any age. So the idea is to show how much
Solomon had responsibility over. And don't forget this simple
truth from this. Notice it's Solomon's provision,
though others were partaking of it. It was his. He was responsible
for it. He's the one that provided it.
He's the one that made sure that everybody had what they needed.
And we just need to simply remember this. Everything we have is from
God's hand. Everything. Every single day.
Remember those words, one day. One day. Every day is one day,
and every single day, God gives us all that we need for how many
years? How many years? I've mentioned
to you before how sad that I know folks that I care
about, that God has given them everything they've needed for
decades and decades and decades, and they're still worried about
how they're gonna make ends meet. And I don't want to be that way.
I do not want to be that way. Let's not murmur against him
like the Israelites did. He provided them food where there
could not have been food any other way. They murmured against
him. God give us grace to trust in him and all spiritual blessings
are ours in Christ, even down to the clothes that we have on
tonight. Whatever will be on our dinner
tables tonight will be from his hand. Spiritual blessings, Ephesians
1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. And your imagination can just
run with that. We don't have to imagine a lot
of it, because we know what much of that is, but man, every way
God can bless you spiritually, he has done so. Christ And then
he said in Matthew 6 therefore take no thought saying what shall
we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek For your heavenly
father knoweth that you have need of all these things But
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness And
all these things shall be added unto you Solomon verse 24, you had dominion
over all the region on this side of the river, from Tifsa even
to Asa, over all the kings on this side of the river. And he
had peace on all sides around about him. Solomon was responsible
for all these people. And that's why it says it this
way, for he had dominion over them. So he provided for them. Listen to what our Lord Jesus
Christ is called, and turn over there with me if you would, 1
Peter 2. Solomon picturing our Savior
in beautiful ways in this. 1 Peter 2.22. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when
he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes you were healed. For you were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Most people have never heard
the word bishop unless it's used in a profane way in this world.
But that word bishop means overseer, guardian, superintendent, one
who watches over the welfare of others. That's how Solomon
is described in our verse. He had dominion over them, and
so all of these provisions were made. And this is a beautiful
truth in the scriptures. The Father gave his beloved people
to the Son, and Christ Jesus is responsible for us. That's
what a surety is. He's the surety for our souls.
In offering his own soul for our sins and shedding his precious
blood to redeem us, The Lord Jesus provided all that was necessary
for us. That's what's pictured there
in our text. His provision for us is ample
because he has dominion over us. He's our bishop. Shepherd and bishop go well together.
And we say, well, that he himself is our salvation because what
he provides for us is himself. That's the provision. He gave
himself an offering for our sins. And our verse tells us that not
only did he provide richly for us all things necessary, but
he made peace. He had peace on all sides, Solomon
did. And it's the same reason we have
no need, no lack of anything is the reason we have peace,
the precious blood of Christ. Through the blood of his cross,
he made peace with God for all of his elect. And peace all around,
it said, all around, because those from every kindred, tribe,
people, and tongue are reconciled unto God in one body by the cross,
Christ having slain the enmity thereby. So no enmity equals peace. And safety, look at verse 25
of our text, safety. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely. They not only had no enemies
bothering them, and no lack of anything to eat or drink, but
they were safe. That's a necessity, isn't it,
for happiness? You can't hardly make merry if
you're not safe. Every man under his vine and
under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days
of Solomon. What a beautiful picture. I don't
believe that it means literally that every property up throughout
all of Israel had a vine and a fig tree on it. One vine and
one fig tree. That's not what it's saying.
It's symbolic of a restful, peaceful, safe, Abundant homestead, comfortable
homestead. Everybody had a place to live
in safety and prosperity. Every man had his vine and his
fig tree. And we talk that way. It says
his vine and his fig tree. The provision was called Solomon's
provisions to remind us that everything we have is from the
Lord. from the son of David as Solomon was, but as our Lord
was that greater Solomon, we have everything from his hand.
But here also, it just uses common language. Everybody had their
own vine and fig tree. And that's fine, we talk that
way. We talk about, you know, have you seen my garden? But
we understand when we say things like that, that everything belongs
to the Lord. And he's just given us what he's
pleased to give us. And notice it says all the days
of Solomon. That's how long everybody had
their vine and their fig tree. Everything was fine, everything
was peaceful and safe. It wasn't that way after Solomon.
And as I've said, not so much before, there was a lot of war
under David. But boy, Solomon, his name means
peace. What a picture he is of our savior.
I like this passage in Deuteronomy 8. Let me, you can turn over
there. By the time I get into this good,
you'll be over there. It's a pretty long passage, but
I wanna read it and remind us again of this. Deuteronomy 8, 11. Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments
and his statutes, which I command thee this day, lest when thou
hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt
therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy
silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied,
Then thine heart be lifted up. If you like those under Solomon's
reign, you just have everything. You just have everything you
need and everything you could want. Don't let your heart be
lifted up and don't forget the Lord your God, verse 14, which
brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt. It hadn't been
that long ago, you weren't so prosperous. From the house of
bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness
wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where
there was no water, who brought you forth water out of the rock
of Flint, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which
thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he
might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end. And thou say
in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten
me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that
he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers
as it is this day. David said, I've never seen the
Lord's seed begging bread now. In all of his years, Of course, the spiritual truth,
we have everything we need, period. In any sense, because of him,
it's easy to forget. He reminds us faithfully. Verse
26, back in our text, and Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for
his chariots. 12,000 horsemen. And so, In earthly sense, we get a sense
of why it was so peaceful during Solomon's reign, in great part
because he had a massive army. It was peace through strength.
And I know where Jesus Christ protects us and provides us peace
by his great power, by his ability to overcome enemies. That's what
this picture's here. Our Lord did battle on Calvary.
It's called the death he accomplished on Calvary. He won a great victory
in securing for us all that we have in him. And so here we see
that picture. Solomon didn't need to fight
anybody because everybody saw themselves beaten before they
ever even fought. It wouldn't be real hard to figure
out this isn't gonna work out. I think we better stay home.
40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots
and 12,000 horsemen. And that's just the horsemen
though. There's no use messing with Solomon.
Our Lord did have to fight, but he's pictured by Solomon here
because the victory for our Lord was never in question. Never,
never in question, not at all, not in any way. It was already
foreordained. And just knowing who Christ is
would never permit anyone to think there was any question
as to his victory over sin and Satan and every enemy. He said
to Simon in Matthew 26, 53, the Lord said, thinkest thou that
I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me?
more than 12 legions of angels? He doesn't need, there's no question
about it. He says to our enemies in Matthew
18, six, but who so shall offend one of these little ones, which
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea. What a terrible, terrible way
to die. But our Lord made it real clear
that it wasn't wise to toy with him, to oppose him or his little
ones. Remember what Gamaliel said in
Acts 5.38. He said, refrain from these men.
They were trying to decide what to do with these disciples that
were preaching the gospel and bothering them. He said, refrain
from them and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work
be of men, it'll come to nothing. But if it be of God, you can't
overthrow it. That's pretty good advice, isn't
it? If God is in this, you can't do anything about it. What are
you gonna do? Lest happily ye be found even to fight against
God. That man was wise. In verse 27
back in our text, those officers provided victual for King Solomon. And for all that came unto King
Solomon's table, every man in his month, they lacked nothing. They lacked nothing. And made
these, I thought about this. This verse is so clear on the
surface of it. I don't need to expound that.
Those who could come to Solomon's table, there was nothing they
could have wanted that wasn't provided. But I thought about
this, may this be the thought of our heart when we come to
the Lord's table. When we come and we partake of
the bread that pictures his broken body for us and we drink the
cup of the new covenant in his blood, he called it. This cup
is the new covenant in my blood. And when we think about that,
may that be our thought, we lack nothing. The Lord Jesus came
where we were and gave himself for us. We lack nothing. We may feel like we lack much
at times. We lack worthiness, we lack righteousness,
we're insufficient in every way, but in Christ, we lack nothing. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. And then verse 29, and God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even
as the sand that is on the seashore. I thought about some passages
of scripture here. God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding
exceeding much. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 1,
where is the wise? How many people would you consider
to be wise people? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? I've had people tell me that
a certain person is so smart and I don't see it. I don't see
it. If everything you believe in
and stand for is contrary to all that's good, And you you wouldn't have you
wouldn't give two cents to hear the gospel of Christ. You're
not a smart person You are not smart Anyway God's made foolish the
wisdom of this world Don't you idiots that's what this world
is full of I For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Man in all
of his wisdom can't learn the first thing about God. But God
has chosen the foolish to proclaim the wisdom of God and thereby
Give sinners wisdom in Christ. Wisdom to know everything. That's
meaningful. For the Jews require a sign. Greeks seek after wisdom. But
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and
unto the Greeks foolishness. The Jews want to see something
spectacular. They're still waiting on the
Messiah to come because it wasn't good enough for, you know, the
Lord to be born of a virgin and go around healing blind people
and raising the dead and things like that. That wasn't good enough.
They're looking for something spectacular. And the only thing
that's ever happened in this horrible world that could ever
be called that happened right before their noses. And they had no idea, they hated
him. And cried crucify him, crucify. And the Greeks are trying, boy,
they're trying to figure everything out. I think therefore I am,
you know, have you ever thought about that? How stupid that is? Maybe you just think you're thinking.
You know, that's the way they hash things out in these philosophical,
Attempts that men make Do we really exist or do we just
think we exist oh wait we think so therefore we do exist That's
pretty stupid I Can refute that and I've got
a IQ of about seven from I'm from Pasadena, Texas I Seeking after wisdom and the
very wisdom of God stood before them And they despised him and rejected
him And we don't give either one
what they want the Jews won't assign the Greeks won't you know
Some big thing they want to be able to say man. Our pastor is
so smart. We can't even understand what he's saying We don't give
them either one what they want. We just preach Christ We preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto those which belong to
Christ, them which are called according to his purpose, whether they're Jews or Greeks,
either one, Christ, the power of God, they see all they need
to see in him. and the wisdom of God. They know
all they need to know in him. And make Mary. Christ himself is the wisdom
of God. To know him is the wisdom of
men. Listen to Ephesians 1.15. Wherefore,
I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers, that the God," here's what I'm
praying for you, Paul said, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation. May he make you wise. only in
the heart and reveal his word to you, the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's where it is. That's where wisdom is. That's
where revelation is. The reason people don't know
what God said is because they don't know his son. Christ is
the key. And he had largeness of heart
as the sand on the seashore." Boy, what a picture of Christ.
Everywhere we go in this book, we see Christ in picture, in
type, in illustration, in story after story. Largeness of heart. Let's look at some scripture
together that I thought of. Largeness of heart. I think about
that in several different ways. And I'll let you ponder that
on your own. What is it to have a big heart,
a large heart? I think it's to love deeply. And of course, in our Lord's
case, it's to love perfectly, but also to love a lot, to love
broadly too. When you see that in our Lord,
and where else are you gonna see that? You could give an example
of this maybe and relatively to other people, but largeness
of heart, listen, turn with me to Luke chapter six and verse
17, largeness of heart. Luke 6, 17, and he came down
with them and stood in the plain in the company of his disciples
and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem
and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear
him and to be healed of their diseases. Can you imagine out
of those great cities? How many people would come out
if somebody really wasn't just a joke, wasn't just play acting,
was actually making sick people, was healing incurable diseases.
Can you imagine the mass of people that would come out under him?
And they that were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were
healed. And the whole multitude sought
to touch him. for there went virtue out of
him. And here's, I believe this has
something to do with largeness of heart. He healed them all.
Isn't that incredible? How's that even possible? He
healed them all. Multitudes of people came, sick
and diseased, and other people were probably going, you know,
I don't really want to be here. Everybody was, what a pathetic group that must
have been. and he healed them all. Look
at Luke chapter four, just go back a couple of pages there
to Luke chapter four, verse 38. And he arose out of the synagogue
and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was
taken with a great fever and they besought him for her. Boy, what a gospel picture this is.
She was real sick, and they said, Lord, Lord, help her, help her. We can do that this very night
now. We know some people that are real sick, real sick spiritually. They besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked
the fever, and he left her. And immediately she arose and
ministered unto them, Now, when the sun was setting, I probably shouldn't say everything
that pops into my head about that, but this is what we talked
about this morning. She arose and ministered unto them. She
didn't say, make your own sandwich. She got up and ministered unto
them. That's male and female. Once Christ has, he came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister. He teaches us something
about being servants that we've seen recently in our studies.
How that being a servant is the ultimate, even in glory, that's
what we're gonna be. Servants, his servants shall
serve him because there's nothing greater than that. It don't get
better than that. And he gives us that spirit here
of service. I saw something recently that,
I forgot what it was. Somebody in a servile position.
They're not our servants. They're people just trying to
make a living with it. They're trying to make a living as servants.
Is there something wrong with that? You're a servant. I'm a servant. Everybody's serving
somebody now. I hate the idea that people take
the most precious things and make them into something bad.
I'm over that, I'm done with that. I'm not gonna hear it anymore
without saying something about it. She rose up and ministered unto
them. And when the sun was setting,
all that they had, all they that had any sick with diverse diseases,
can you imagine? Brought them unto Him. And he
laid his hands on every one of them and healed them on every
one of them. Largeness of heart. Come unto me all ye, all of you,
come to me. If you're laboring or heavy laden, I will give you rest. How dare those who despise the
doctrine of election say we have a hard God, a cold callous God. God Almighty is large of heart. He's plenteous in mercy. He delights
to show mercy. And you're not gonna come before
him in the end and say, well, I guess you didn't choose me.
You're gonna come just like you are now in your sins. And you're gonna know, I believe
that's probably one of the worst parts of hell is you're gonna
know, why will you die? Why will you die? You're gonna
know you died for no reason except you wanted to be God. And that's
what a fool's Aaron that is anyway. And devils came out of many crying
out and saying, thou art Christ, the son of God. And he rebuking
them, suffered them not to speak. Oh, I'm thankful for that. He suffers many not to speak.
I'm thankful for that. They knew that he was Christ. And when it was day, He departed
and went into a desert place and the people sought him and
came unto him and stayed him that he should not depart from
them. What a beautiful thing that is. Maybe some that he healed,
they just wanted to be with him. Others that needed to be healed,
they said, don't leave, don't leave us. And he said unto them, I must
preach the kingdom of God to other cities also. You see, that's
what this is all about. He healed people and did miracles
to show everybody this is God speaking, not just a man. This gospel I preach is the gospel
of God. He didn't say, I need to go heal
other people too. He said, I need to go preach
to other people too. That's what he was doing in that
place, and that's what he was gonna go do in the next place,
and that's what he did everywhere he went. He preached the gospel
of the forgiveness of sins by the blood of the spotless sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus. I must preach the kingdom of
God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. And he preached
in the synagogues of Galilee. Come unto me. Come unto me. That's the gospel call now. You
don't need to come to an altar. You don't need to come to a preacher
and confess anything before a preacher. He says, come unto me. And I love that next word. What's
the next word? All. Come. Everybody needs Christ. Everybody. Whether they know it or not,
Oh, ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I suspect that verse or that
truth will haunt those who do not come to Him throughout all
eternity. Back in our text in verse 30,
in Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children
of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt For he was wiser
than all men, than Ethan, the Ezraite, and Heman, and Shalcol,
and Darda, the sons of Mahal, and his fame was in all nations
round about. And he spake 3,000 proverbs,
and his psalms were 1,005. We've talked about his wisdom,
and we could talk about the wisdom of Christ all through the scripture, all night long, but you know
what I love? Maybe, I'll tell you what caught
my attention by God's grace in this passage. They knew how many
Proverbs and how many songs that Solomon had come up with, because
he wrote them down. The way they knew how he's wiser
than anybody. How do you know? Look at all
these songs and Proverbs that he's written. Did you read him? He's wiser than anybody. You
know old Heman. He's a pretty smart guy. Not
even close. It's not even close. Look at
these Proverbs he wrote. In all of the wisdom of God in
Christ Jesus, thank God the Lord wrote them down. He wrote it
down. Oh, may we be thankful if we
forget everything else tonight as we go to bed tonight, let's
be thankful. God wrote it. And nothing or nobody in this
world can say nay to one word of this. I'm sure these other men probably
wrote books too. But Solomon was wiser than all
of them. And a lot of men have written
books about God that aren't worth the pages they're written on.
It seems like an understatement
to even say that Christ is wiser than men. May God give us grace
to just continue to look into his word and learn of him. Let your doctrine be the word
of God and not the writings of men. Verse 33, and he spake of trees. From the cedar tree that is in
Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.
He spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and
of fishes. If you're gonna hear the wisdom
of God, If you're gonna hear from God
and hear what God said, the gospel, you're gonna have to hear about
trees, aren't you? You need to know what happened
at the tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. You need to know what happened
on the tree at Calvary where our Lord Jesus gave himself.
and was under the curse, was made a curse that he might redeem
them that were under the curse that took place at the other
tree. You and I and all of mankind
became so evil at that first tree and sinning against God.
We're killed spiritually and we're so evil that anything we
do about it is evil. You ever think about that? That's
a pretty bad place to be in. When you're in a terrible place
and everything you do about it, to try to remedy that, just digs
you deeper and deeper and deeper into trouble. The more you do,
the more you sin, whether you do it at the front of a church
or in a bar somewhere. The more you do, the more you
sin. The gospel is not you need to do. The gospel is look what
Christ has done and believe on him. When you sin, you're rebelling
against God, just what happened in the garden. And then when
you do something, anything about your sin, you're trampling underfoot
the precious blood of Christ. But at Calvary's tree, the elect
of God, those represented by the last Adam, all those for
whom Christ shed his precious blood are saved. And by him,
we are so saved that we can't mess it up, no matter what we
do. So lost without Christ that we
can't be found. And so saved by him that we can't
be lost. He talked about trees. The cedar
is symbolic of strength. This is what the temple was made
of. the cedars of Lebanon and the hyssop. It's what was used,
the branches of the hyssop tree were used to splash the blood
on the door at the Passover and upon the mercy seat. And in closing, you know, he
spoke of other things too. Mentioned their fish and other
things. And let me say this again. I believe I said this recently
in a message. I'm not sure who was here, wasn't here. He spoke
of other things too, because if you're going to know anything,
you've got to hear it from Solomon. You got to hear it from Christ.
You got to learn what Christ says to know anything. You know, that might be hard
to understand. You might say, well, I'm an auto
mechanic and I didn't use the Bible at all in school to learn
about auto mechanics. Well, I'll tell you this, if
you're not fixing cars in gratitude in your heart to God, seeking
to glorify Him in it, then you don't know the first thing about
auto mechanics. Not the first thing. And you need the Bible for that.
You need to hear from Solomon. The primary and preeminent is
the trees. Everything follows that. Everything
else is everything else. You can't know anything right
until you know about the trees and what our Savior did for us
on the tree. And verse 34, there came of all
people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the
earth, which had heard of his wisdom. You know, what a comfort
that is to know we can come and hear the wisdom of God. We can
hear the wisdom of Christ. We don't know anything, but we
know who does. If not what you know, it's who
you know. That really is the truth. And so we come to hear. And notice that those who had
heard of the wisdom of Solomon, they'd heard of the wisdom of
Solomon. And so they went to hear Solomon.
They didn't say to those they heard it from, well, just tell
me what he said, save me a trip. They went to get it from Solomon. And you and I need to hear from
God. You need to hear from God. And he's taught us clearly how
that happens. Though they were kings, says
all the kings of the earth, I'm sure they were very busy as kings, and quite proud, being the preeminent
one in their nations, but they came anyway to hear Psalm. That's because the wisdom of
Christ is the principle thing. It is the principle thing. Listen
to Proverbs 4, 7. Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore get wisdom, and with
all thy getting, get understanding. Just think about this verse in
closing. 1 John 5, 20, and we know that the Son of God has
come and given us an understanding. What has God, think about that.
God sent his Son into this world to give us an understanding about
something. About what? Well, you need to,
you know, be better custodians of the earth. You're destroying
the earth with your SUVs. People are actually that stupid.
We're actually that stupid, aren't we? Things like that. God sent his son to this world
to say something, to teach something. What? He has given us an understanding
that we may know him. Turn over there with me. Let's
look at that in closing. 1 John 5, 20. 1 John 5, 20. And we know that the Son of God
is come. And as I said, think about the
ramifications of that. Think about, we read over Unbelievable
things, just as though it was just, okay, yeah, God in human
flesh came to this earth. And to what end? To give us an
understanding. Of what? That we may know Him. That's it. These are written
that you may know Him. that we may know Him that is
true. And we are in Him that is true, in case you're wondering
who that is, Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, an eternal
life. Those He gives an understanding
of Christ, He puts in Christ. It's not your understanding of
Him that saves you, it's Him that saves you. but you've got
to know Him. And thank God we know Him. We always end on that, don't
we? With one final word, Him. That we may know Him. May He give us the grace to know
Him more and more. Paul, after he had known the
Lord for he knows how many years, said, oh, that I may know Him.
If you ever know him, all you're gonna wanna do is know him. Let's
pray.