After all the building and furniture had been completed, and Solomon had finished praying, the LORD appeared to him as He had before. He had appeared at the beginning of his reign and now, some twenty years or more later, He appeared to him again. The LORD said that He had heard his prayer and consecrated the house, put His name there and would be present (v1-5). However, there was a condition for his throne to be established. Solomon was to walk before the LORD as his father David had done, in integrity and uprightness in obedience to God and to keep His laws. If he did, the LORD would fulfil His promise to David that they would always have a man on the throne of Israel.
Solomon could build the house but only the LORD could consecrate it. Solomon was told to walk in obedience to the LORD and, if he did, God would bless him and his descendants. David, his father, certainly wasn’t without sin, so, God wasn’t demanding perfection, but David sought to walk before God even though he failed at times.
However, the LORD warned Solomon that if he or his sons did not walk before the LORD but served other gods, Israel would become cut off from the land God had given to them, the house of the LORD would be cast out by Him, and Israel will become a mockery. A word of derision and people will ask why the LORD had done this to Israel, all this preparation and work only for the LORD to abandon them. They would know very clearly that was because Israel had disobeyed God and worshiped other gods, thus He brought calamity upon them (v6-9).
What a comedown that would be, after all that effort, and God, Himself consecrating it, for God to abandon them and make them a laughingstock. We cannot do as we like where God is concerned. God would honour them if they obeyed, but He would abandon them if they didn’t. Either way the nations would see it and be astonished at God’s presence with them or His chastisement if they worshiped other gods. The Living Bible paraphrases it as, “Israel will become a joke to the nations and an example and proverb of sudden disaster.” (v7)
After twenty years when Solomon had built the LORD’S house and the king’s house, he gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. Hiram was king of Tyre (modern Lebanon) who had provided Solomon with as much cedar, cypress and gold as he wanted (v10,11).
This gift was not a good move on Solomon’s part. The land was given to Israel and not for giving in exchange for wood and gold even though it was for building the amazing temple.
Hiram, then went to see the cities which Solomon had given him; however, he wasn’t pleased with them (v12), and he labelled them as Cabul (Kabul) which literally means ‘Good for nothing’. Even though he was not impressed by the gift, he still went ahead and gave Solomon 120 talents of gold, probably worth more than £100million in todays money (v13,14).
In verses 15-24 we have a record of a rebuilding program by Solomon and a labour force which he set up. Solomon had married one of pharaoh’s daughters and taken the city of Gezer, burned it with fire and given it to him as a dowry for her. Pharaoh had also killed the Canaanites who had lived there. Solomon had built Gezer, Lower Beth Horam, Baalath and Tadmor in the wilderness. He also built The Millo, Hazor, Megiddo and the wall of Jerusalem. Therefore, it would seem that Pharaoh had taken one of the cities built by Solomon and given it back to as a dowry for his daughter. Some of the cities were used as storage places for Solomon’s chariots and cavalry, and he built what he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon and all his dominion. He used forced labour from all the inhabitants which he had not completely destroyed of the lands, the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. No Israelites were made forced labourers, because they were men of war and his servants: his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry. Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work. But Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo, which was probably a fortress near the temple.
God had commanded them to drive all the inhabitants out of the land, but they had not. They really compromised by making them slaves instead.
Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings three times a year on the altar he had built and burned incense on the altar (v25-28). He had finished building the temple and he then built a fleet of ships at Ezion Gezer on the Red Sea in the land of Edom. Hiram sent some of his experienced seamen to sail with Solomon’s men. They sailed to Ophir for gold and brought 420 talents of gold to Solomon. We do not know for certain where Ophir was.
