Solomon

Go at once to King David and say, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your maidservant, “Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’

Nathan's plan turns on a promise David had made and not yet kept.

I will carry out this very day exactly what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”

David keeps his word on the very day an older son is feasting as if already crowned.

And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,

The first charge laid on the new king is obedience, before any building or wisdom.

Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. Thus the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon.

The chapter that opens with that charge closes with Shimei's death, the last of the executions.

And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in. Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number. Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

His request comes out of a confession that he is not equal to the throne.

Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal. So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”

Only one part of the gift is conditional, and it is the length of his life.

Then King Solomon conscripted a labor force of 30,000 men from all Israel. He sent them to Lebanon in monthly shifts of 10,000 men, so that they would spend one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers.

The splendour of the building had a cost in men, and Kings writes down the count.

“As for this temple you are building, if you walk in My statutes, carry out My ordinances, and keep all My commandments by walking in them, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father David. And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not abandon My people Israel.”

In the middle of the work, God makes His presence in the house depend on obedience.

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

The house is accepted before a word of the prayer is spoken.

But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

The builder confesses on the day of dedication that no building can hold the One it is for.

And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name— for they will hear of Your great name and mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.

The prayer reaches past Israel to people of every nation.

When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near, and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name, then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, their prayer and petition, and may You uphold their cause. May You forgive Your people who have sinned against You and all the transgressions they have committed against You, and may You grant them compassion in the eyes of their captors to show them mercy.

Solomon foresees the exile and asks mercy for it in advance.

And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

The promise of a lasting dynasty is tied to his own obedience.

But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

The warning names the exact sin that 1 Kings 11 will record.

Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.

What drew her was a report tied to the name of the LORD.

Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

A foreign ruler praises Israel's God, the hope of 1 Kings 8:43 met in one visitor.

And Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

A prophet acts out the division of the kingdom before it happens.

Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, where he remained until the death of Solomon.

Told of the judgment, the king turns his sword on the man named in it.

Throughout the days of Solomon, Judah and Israel dwelt securely from Dan to Beersheba, each man under his own vine and his own fig tree.

Kings pictures the peace of his reign as a family at rest in its own garden.

And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken.

Micah takes the picture of Solomon's reign for the age to come.