1 Kings 9. I'm going to read
the last few verses of chapter 9 and several verses out of chapter
10. This is about Solomon's navy. 1 Kings 9, and King Solomon made
a navy of ships in Ezion-Geber, which is beside Eloth. on the
shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent into
the Navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea,
and with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir and fetched
from thence gold, 420 talons, and brought it to King Solomon.
We have the story of the Queen of Sheba next. We're going to
look at that next week. But let's pick up reading in verse 11.
of chapter 10. And the navy also of Hiram that
brought gold from Ophir brought in from Ophir a great plenty
of almond trees and precious stones. And the king made of
the almond trees pillars, props, foundations, all the support
for the house of the Lord and for the king's house. Harps also
and psalteries for singers, musical instruments for praise. There
came no such almond trees, nor were seen unto this day. And
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 spies, merchants. and
all of the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country.
And King Solomon made 200 targets or spears of beaten gold. 600 shekels of gold went into
one target. Now, gold won't make much of
a spear. It's a soft metal and these are
symbolic. They're given to teach us something
because you don't make spears out of gold, it's a soft metal.
Verse 17, and he made 300 shields of beaten gold. Once again, gold
wouldn't make much of a shield, would it? It's soft, but this
represents something, and it's not actually going to be used
in battle. Three pounds of gold went to
one shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest
of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory.
and overlaid it with the best 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 lions stood
beside the stays. And 12 lions stood there on one
side and on the other side of the six steps. There was not
lack made in any kingdom. This was the most glorious throne
in the world. And all King Solomon's drinking
vessels were of gold. And all the vessels of the house
of the force of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. It was nothing accounted of in
the days of Solomon. Silver was worthless. It wasn't
any big deal. Verse 22, for the king had at
sea a Navy of Tarshish with a Navy of Hiram. 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. At this time,
he was the greatest man and Israel was the greatest nation in all
the world. It's reached the zenith of its
power. Verse 24, and all the earth sought
to 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 are raped year by year. And Solomon gathered together
chariots and horsemen. And he had a thousand and 400
chariots and 12,000 horsemen who needs bestowed in the cities
for chariots with the King of 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 vale for abundance.
And Solomon had horses and brought out of Egypt linen, yarn. The
king's merchants received the linen, yarn at a price. And a
chariot came up and went out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver
and a horse for 150. So for all the kings of the Hittites
and the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we would be enabled to worship. We ask that we might be enabled
to hear from you. We ask that you would deliver
us from hearing the thoughts and opinions of a man, but that
we might hear from thee, the living God through thy word.
Lord, that we might know thee, that we might know the power
of the resurrection of thy son. that we might be enabled to trust
him only as everything in our salvation. Lord, we ask that
you would cause us to be kind, merciful, gracious, lowly people. We ask that you would cause us
to walk with thy son. We ask that you would give us
grace to love you more and love one another more. Lord, we Confess
our sins. We can't come into your presence
without an awareness of our sinfulness and our sins. And we pray for
forgiveness and cleansing. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Lord, accept our thanksgiving
by thy son. In his name we pray. Amen. Now
in this passage of scripture, we read of the Navy of King Solomon. And this Navy, as we read, brought
so much gold. into Israel. They'd go to this
place called Ophir, and there was just a lot of gold there,
and they would come back with loads of gold. And this shows the wealth, the
power of Solomon, and he became the most impressive man alive. We read where kings, other nations
would come to hear of his wisdom, They were enamored with him,
and he had an army that could not be defeated, and he was deemed
the wisest man on the earth. Now this is about Solomon's glory. Israel has reached its zenith
at this time. Israel, that little nation of
Israel that started out a bunch of slaves in Egypt, has become
at this time what the I want to say this reverently, but I
guess what the United States is in the world, the most powerful
country in the world. I know somebody might debate
that, but I don't debate it. We are by the mercy of God. And Israel at this time was the
most powerful nation in the world, the most prosperous nation in
the world. And this is about Solomon, but
we know that every passage of scripture
is given to teach the gospel, isn't it? Do you believe that?
Every passage, without exception. The Lord said, you search the
scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me. So this passage of scripture,
while somebody might say, well, you're going to get the gospel
out of that, it is the gospel. We know that ahead of time. And
remember that. Don't think, well, the preacher's
just reading things into this. I don't want to do that. I pray
the Lord would deliver me from that. But this is a clear passage
of scripture regarding the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you pray for me. And remember, that's where we begin everything,
isn't it? They are they, the scriptures, they are they which
testify of me. Every single one of them in this
passage of scripture tells us of our great Solomon, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now go back to 1 Kings 9, and Solomon made a navy of ships
in Ezion-Geber. Ezion-Geber. Now what that word
means is backbone. Backbone. What a name. Backbone. And what do we think of when
we think of backbone? We think of strength. We think of that
which holds us up. We think of power. What do we
think of when we think of no backbone? We think of weakness. We think of instability, something
that's not standing up. But this navy of ships was made
in the backbone. And here from the gold that's
brought in, we're going to learn something about what the backbone
of the gospel is. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this gold was used for everything. Look in verse 11, this gold that
was brought in of chapter 10. And the Navy also of Hyrum brought
gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir, great plenty of almond
trees and precious stones. This is what the Navy brought
in. And the king, made of the almond tree pillars, supports
for the house of the Lord. And for the king's house, harps
also, and psalterers for singers. And there came no such almond
trees, nor were seen unto this day." Now, what did he make?
Supports. All the weight of the temple
rested on these supports. This is the backbone of the gospel
and the things he mentioned are going to give us something of
the backbone of the gospel. Now, the first thing that was
made with these pillars, these supports, the foundation, what
all the weight of the building rested on. I bet you know what
I'm going to say. All the weight of our salvation
rests upon the eternal covenant that God made with Christ. Amen. David said, although my
house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me. Now he
made that covenant with Christ and in making it with Christ,
he made it with me. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. ordered in all things and sure,
and this is all my salvation and it's all my desire, though
he makes it not to grow." Now that is the foundation. That
is the strength of salvation. Nothing in me, but the everlasting
covenant that God made with Christ and me in Christ and every other
believer in Christ that's ordered in all things and it's sure because
of the blood of the everlasting covenant. That's why it's sure.
The sureness of this covenant is found in the person and work
of Christ. And David said, this is all my
salvation. Now, is this all your salvation?
Is this the pillar of your salvation? Is this what all weight is upon? What God promised to Christ and
what Christ accomplished. That's the pillar of our salvation. And notice also these musical
instruments were made, these psalteries and harps. This is
the foundation behind our praise. What do we praise God for from
the depths of our heart? Oh, we praise Him that salvation
is of the Lord. We praise Him that salvation
is all of grace. It's not of works. It's all by
what He did. Verse 13, And King Solomon gave
unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked."
Now here is why we get what we desire, mercy, grace. That's
what I'm asking for. Lord, don't give me what I deserve. Give me grace, give me mercy.
Now the reason we get what we ask for is because of the pillars
of our salvation, the everlasting covenant made with Christ. Now let's go on reading. Verse
14, now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was
603,006 towns of gold. That's an indescribable number
of wealth. And he got this every year coming
in from these ships. Verse 15, Beside that, he had of the merchant
men, of the traffic of the spice, merchants and all the kings of
Arabia and the governments of the country. He controlled commerce. He controlled all the merchants
activity. And this is a reminder to us
that the Lord Jesus controls everything. He controls everything. There's nothing outside of his
absolute sovereign control. Verse 16. And King Solomon made 200 targets
of beaten gold and 600 shekels of gold went into one target.
Now, a target, the word means literally a piercing, a piercing,
a spear. And the fact that he made the
spear out of gold lets us know that this is symbolic. You don't
have a golden spear to fight your enemies, you get defeated.
This was to teach us something. And he put these spears and shields
up in a house. But what is the foundation of
the covenant? The piercing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The holes that went into his
hands and his feet. The piercing, the piercing of
his side. He said, they pierced my hands
and feet. They pierced his side. And what came out of his side
when he was pierced? Blood and water. Christ, our
justification. Christ, our sanctification. This is the pillar of our salvation,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the piercing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And let's go on reading, verse
17. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold. Three pounds of
gold went to one shield, and the king put them in the house
of the force for Lebanon. Now notice, these were not to
be used for battle. They, once again, are symbolic.
You don't have a shield of gold because that won't protect you,
but gold always represents deity. Remember how in the tabernacle,
everything was covered with pure gold? Who is our shield? What is a shield for? A shield
takes the blows so I don't have to. Once again, we have the gospel
of Christ. He said, I am thy shield. and
by exceeding great reward. Christ Jesus is the shield. He
took the blows of God's wrath. He took what I deserve. He took
what was coming to me. And how did he do that? By taking
my sin to himself and making it his and actually being punished
in my place. And I don't have to take the
blows because I'm now not guilty. He became guilty that I might
be not guilty. He is our shield. Now, isn't
this the foundation of our salvation? Him being our shield and exceeding
great reward. Let's go on reading verse 18.
Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid
it with the best 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 two lions stood beside
the stays and 12 lions stood there on the one side and on
the other side upon the six steps. There was not the like made in
any kingdom. Now this was the greatest throne
ever made. Now you know that the throne
represents the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love the
way this throne was made of ivory. You know what ivory is, it came
from elephants. The elephant tusk, I imagine people would
have a hard time with that today, but the way elephants have been
abused for their tusks, but this throne was made of the mightiest
animal on the planet. The elephant is able to Be strong
and powerful. And it doesn't have any enemies.
No natural enemies. Now, covered with gold. This
talks about the strength of his humanity and his deity. The throne of the Lord Jesus
Christ, an absolute sovereign control. And notice it has six
steps. What does six steps represent?
Six steps represent six, the number six. What is number six?
The number of man. The number of man. Adam was created
on the sixth day. And these six steps represent
a man. So this tells us that there is
a man sitting upon this throne. The king of glory. The Lord Jesus
Christ. It speaks of the kingship, the
sovereignty of Jesus Christ. And this is the foundation of
our salvation. It's the very foundation. Who he is in his
royal kingship, because of who he is, is what we believe concerning
what he accomplished. kingship of Christ. And you know,
every believer believes the kingship of Christ. Take the thief on
the cross. He had not been saved very long,
had he? Just maybe a few seconds. And what did he say? Lord, you're
not going to stay dead. Remember me when you come in
your kingdom as a mighty reigning king. Now this is the very foundation
of our salvation, the kingship, the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how we love his kingship.
Now let's go on reading verse 21. And all of King Solomon's drinking
vessels were of gold. And all the vessels of the house
of the force of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver,
it was a kind of nothing in the days of Solomon. Nobody, silver's
worthless. Now a drinking vessel made of
pure gold. Now I think that a drinking vessel
is one of the great examples of what faith is. I don't, my thirst is not quenched
by my faith, by my faith, the drinking vessel. You can't get
your thirst quenched from the cup you're drinking from, but
what's in the cup. And faith receives what's in
the cup. If you have faith, you receive
what's being said. Now it's not the faith that gives
you your quench from the thirst. You receive that in the cup and
this cup is a pure gold. That means it's a divine gift.
Don't you know that your faith is a divine gift? If you believe,
God gave you that faith. You know that, don't you? If
you believe, God gave you that faith. And it's that faith that
receives all the blessings of the gospel, of his kingship,
of his piercing, of him being my shield, of him being all in
my salvation. This gold cup receives this. This is faith. 22, for the king had at sea a navy
of Tarshish with a navy of Hiram. Once in three years came the
navy of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and
peacocks. They brought everything. So King
Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for
wisdom. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know who that's speaking
of. He exceeds, nobody can be compared with him. He's infinitely
great. Fairer is he than all the fair
who fill the heavenly train. Oh, he exceeds all for greatness
and infinite wisdom. And when I was talking about
his wisdom, I thought about this. What's the first reference to
the wisdom of Solomon? First Kings three, where he wouldn't
let the child be divided. Now, wisdom is not suffering
the truth to be divided. This is so important. The gospel
is made of many truths. The character of God, predestination,
election, Christ redeeming, work on the cross where the elect
were redeemed, the covenant of grace, justification by faith,
sanctification, perseverance, go on and on. The gospel is made
of many truths. All of which make the truth. Somebody says you have to believe
all that to be saved. Yep. Yep. You have to believe that
to be saved. You do. You do. You see God's people
bow to what God says in every way. That's what the gospel is.
It's bowing to what God says. in every way. And we see Christ
as the wisdom of God and the power of God, and we receive
him as he is in his word. Verse 23, so King Solomon exceeded
all the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom. And all the
earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put
in his heart. And they brought every man his present. Everybody
brought gifts. They brought every man his present.
Vessels of silver and vessels of gold and garments and armor
and spices, horses, mules, array year by year. You know, when
you come into God's presence, you bring what he has given you
to bring. And you've got something to bring.
You've got faith. You've got repentance. You come empty handed,
but you only in coming empty handed, you bring that which
he requires. All God requires he provides. And every man was able to bring
his presence. We come looking to Christ only. Verse 26, and Solomon gathered
together chariots and horsemen and had a thousand four hundred
chariots, 12,000 horsemen whom he bestowed in the cities for
chariots with the king of Jerusalem. This is talking about his army.
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 vale for
abundance. And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen
yarn, the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price. And
the 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, they did bring them out
by their means. These countries were dependent
upon Israel for all they had. We see a vast army, although
Solomon's time was a time of peace. The reason it was a time
of peace is everybody's afraid to attack them. They had an army
that could not be defeated. Now, Solomon, we've seen how
he's a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ, but you know, every
type, here's the deal. Every type falters. A type is just a type and every
type falters because everything Solomon did, now remember this
goes into chapter 11 where he went backwards and went after
many strange gods and strange women and so on and every type
falters. What do I mean by that? Solomon's
way of amassing his wealth was all forbidden in scripture. The
kings of the earth or the kings of Israel were forbidden to multiply
to themselves wives, silver and gold, or horses. They were forbidden
to. And Solomon did all these things. Now, why were they forbidden
to? Because they would end up trusting those things instead
of the Lord. That's why they were forbidden. You're not to
have a bunch of wives. You're not to amass gold. I mean,
the kings were not supposed to do that. You're not supposed
to get armies of horses to protect you. You're to trust me to protect
you. So Solomon disobeyed God and
Solomon proved what always happens to men. Power corrupts. Happens every time. There's only
one of whom it can be said power does not corrupt. He who has
all power. He has all power and he's utterly
perfect and glorious. But Solomon is a reminder to
us, even in this beautiful type, that man at his best state, and
that's Solomon. He's the wisest man, the most
brilliant man to ever live. God blessed him in such an unusual
way. He's man at his best state. God
made that testimony of him. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. You know what Solomon is? Altogether
vanity. And he proved that in first Kings
chapter 11. We're going to get to that in
a couple of weeks, but even in Solomon being vanity here, he
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, how so? Christ, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery, thought it not to be a thing
to be grasped for, to be equal with God, because he was God,
he was equal with God. And what did he do? He made himself
of no reputation. You know what that word means? He made himself vanity. He made himself nothing. He became what we are. So even Solomon in his tragic rise to power all against the
scriptures, the way he multiplied to himself, wives and silver
and gold and horses, which the Kings of Israel forbidden to
do. He became so high that he fell so low, he made himself
vanity. And the Lord Jesus Christ made
himself vanity on Calvary's tree. He made himself what we are,
that we might be who he is. What a gospel.