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Speaker 1: How to their friends and faithful listeners, Welcome to the

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Speaker 1: Bible explained on this lovely Monday morning. Grab your cup

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Speaker 1: of coffee or a cup of tea, because we're going

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Speaker 1: to finish up talking about King Solomon and his reign

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Speaker 1: and how he falls away at the end of his life,

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Speaker 1: right before his death. So faithful listeners, don't forget the

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Speaker 1: Advent starts on Sunday, So if you haven't gotten your

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Speaker 1: Advent devotional for teenage girls yet, you definitely should. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you have any teenage girl in your life right now,

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Speaker 1: you should check out the Adore teen Girl's Guide to Advent,

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Speaker 1: which I wrote myself, and it is available on Amazon.

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Speaker 1: So just click the link that says books and you'll

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Speaker 1: be able to get it before Advent if you order

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Speaker 1: today or within the next few days, and make sure

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Speaker 1: you give it to a teen girl that you know

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Speaker 1: before today. Let's go ahead and read Second Chronicles nine

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Speaker 1: thirteen through thirty one. I don't even know where we

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Speaker 1: are today, so let's go ahead and read this as usual.

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Speaker 1: I'll be reading from the we B version of the Bible,

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Speaker 1: but please feel free to grab your version of Scripture,

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Speaker 1: whatever that may be. Then also go ahead and grab

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Speaker 1: your cup of coffee or your cup of tea this

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Speaker 1: morning for you crazy tea drinkers, and let's enjoy reading

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Speaker 1: God's word together as we learn about the life and

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Speaker 1: death of Solomon. Now, the weight of the gold that

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Speaker 1: came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty

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Speaker 1: six talents of gold, in addition to that which the

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Speaker 1: traders and merchants brought. All the kings of Arabia and

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Speaker 1: the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

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Speaker 1: King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold.

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Speaker 1: Six hundred shekels of beaten gold went into one large shield.

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Speaker 1: He made three hundred shields of beaten gold. Three hundred

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Speaker 1: shekels of gold went into one shield. The king put

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Speaker 1: them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon. Moreover,

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Speaker 1: the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid

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Speaker 1: it with pure gold. There were six steps to the throne,

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Speaker 1: with a footstool of gold which were fastened to the throne,

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Speaker 1: and armrests on either side by the place of the seat,

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Speaker 1: and two lions standing beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood

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Speaker 1: there on one side, and on the other on the

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Speaker 1: six steps. There was nothing like it made in any

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Speaker 1: other kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold,

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Speaker 1: and all the vessels of the House of the Forest

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Speaker 1: of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered

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Speaker 1: valuable in the days of Solomon, for the king had

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Speaker 1: ships that went to Tarsish with Hiram's servants. Once every

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Speaker 1: three years. The ships of Tarsish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes,

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Speaker 1: and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of

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Speaker 1: the earth in riches and wisdom. All the kings of

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Speaker 1: the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his

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Speaker 1: wisdom which God had put in his heart. They each

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Speaker 1: brought tribute vessels of silver, vessels of gold, clothing, armor, spices,

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Speaker 1: horses and mules. Every year, Solomon had four thousand stalls

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Speaker 1: for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen that he

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Speaker 1: stationed in the chariot cities. And with the king at Jerusalem,

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Speaker 1: he ruled over all the kings from the river even

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Speaker 1: to the land of the Philistines and to the border

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Speaker 1: of Egypt. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem

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Speaker 1: as stones and he made cedars to be as abundant

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Speaker 1: as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland. They

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Speaker 1: brought horses for Solomon out of Egypt and out of

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Speaker 1: all lands. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon

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Speaker 1: first and last, aren't they written in the history of

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Speaker 1: Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shylenite,

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Speaker 1: and in the visions of Idoh the Seer concerning Jereboam,

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Speaker 1: the son of Abat. Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all

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Speaker 1: Israel forty years. Solomon slept with his fathers, and he

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Speaker 1: was buried in his father David's city, and rae Boam,

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Speaker 1: his son, reigned in his place. So this portion talks

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Speaker 1: about the end of King Solomon's reign. It says in

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Speaker 1: verse thirteen that the weight of the gold that came

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Speaker 1: to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: six talents of gold. So this would have been all

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Speaker 1: of the tribute gold that kings from around the world

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Speaker 1: actually paid to Solomon. This actually shows that King Solomon

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Speaker 1: was extremely powerful that all of these kings and all

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Speaker 1: of these nations were actually sending that amount of gold

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Speaker 1: to King Solomon. In a year, because six hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty six talents of gold would be about twenty metric

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Speaker 1: tons every single year. That amount of gold coming in

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Speaker 1: is just preposterous in my opinion, But that is how

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Speaker 1: powerful King Solomon actually was. Now I also should mention

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Speaker 1: here it says six hundred and sixty six talents. When

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Speaker 1: you hear the word six sixty six, you usually think

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Speaker 1: of the Antichrist, right but this right here is proof

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Speaker 1: that not everything labeled six sixty six is necessarily the Antichrist.

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Speaker 1: Just to throw that out there, because it's pretty clear

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Speaker 1: that Solomon was not the Antichrist. Now, he might have

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Speaker 1: done some things that were against God, but he was

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Speaker 1: definitely not the Antichrist. But a lot of people have

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Speaker 1: some superstition around that number. I actually had this one

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Speaker 1: woman years ago when I was a hairdresser. She was

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Speaker 1: a client who would come in for the ten dollars

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Speaker 1: haircuts that we would offer, and so she handed me

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Speaker 1: the coupon which said nine ninety nine for the haircut,

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Speaker 1: and I was just kind of joking around with her,

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Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I was like, you handed

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Speaker 1: it to me upside down, so it looks like this

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Speaker 1: haircut is going to be six dollars and sixty six cents,

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Speaker 1: and she like freaked out. She's like, I never say

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Speaker 1: that number. And I was like, oh, okay, Like it

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Speaker 1: was just a joke, lady, Like I was not trying

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Speaker 1: to cast a spell on you or anything, I promise.

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Speaker 1: But there's a lot of superstition around the number. But

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Speaker 1: we should watch out, you know, like if we see

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Speaker 1: some guy gaining power, and I don't know, somehow the

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Speaker 1: number six sixty six comes up while this guy is

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Speaker 1: gaining power, maybe we should watch out for that. But

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Speaker 1: generally the number six sixty six is just a number,

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Speaker 1: as it is right here in Second Chronicles. So in

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Speaker 1: addition to all of that gold King Solomon receives, he

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Speaker 1: also received gold from the traders and merchants. So Solomon,

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Speaker 1: as we know, did a lot of business. He traded

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Speaker 1: with a lot of different nations, a lot of different people,

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Speaker 1: and so in addition to what the king's tribute would be,

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Speaker 1: the merchants brought in even more gold to Solomon. So

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Speaker 1: Solomon was an extremely wealthy man. And Solomon actually writes

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Speaker 1: about this in Ecclesiastes too, when he's discussing all of

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Speaker 1: the things he did in his life. He says, I

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Speaker 1: hoarded great sums of silver and gold. Solomon was an

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Speaker 1: extremely rich king. And with all of this gold that

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Speaker 1: was brought to King Solomon, it says in verse fifteen

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Speaker 1: that Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold.

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Speaker 1: Six hundred shekels of beaten gold went into one large shield,

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Speaker 1: and he also made smaller buckler type shields as well,

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Speaker 1: and three hundred shekels of gold went into those shields,

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Speaker 1: and it says he put them in the House of

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Speaker 1: the Forest of Lebanon. So the House of the Forest

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Speaker 1: of Lebanon is talked about more in first Kings than

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Speaker 1: it is in second chronicles. Essentially, the House of the

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Speaker 1: Forest of Lebanon was this big, beautiful ballroom that had

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Speaker 1: so many cedars in it that they ended up naming

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Speaker 1: it the Forest of Lebanon because of all of the

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Speaker 1: cedar beams in this giant room. And so Solomon put

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Speaker 1: all of the shields that he made in that room,

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Speaker 1: which makes a lot of people speculate if the Forest

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Speaker 1: of Lebanon wasn't an armory of some sort, though there

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Speaker 1: is some debate as to whether it was an armory

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Speaker 1: or if it was just attached to Solomon's house, and

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Speaker 1: the shields were probably more of a decoration than used

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Speaker 1: for actual battle, because, as you know, gold is a

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Speaker 1: little bit soft, So it's very likely that the shields

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Speaker 1: were more for decorative purposes than for actual combat. But

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Speaker 1: on top of that, he also in verse seventeen, made

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Speaker 1: this great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. Now,

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Speaker 1: my guess is not that this throne was made of

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Speaker 1: pure ivory overlaid with gold, though it could have been.

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Speaker 1: My guess is that it was made of wood overlaid

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Speaker 1: with gold and then had ivory filigree or something, because

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Speaker 1: other things that have been found from this time period

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Speaker 1: kind of followed that similar fashion where something was wooden

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Speaker 1: overlaid with gold and then had this like filigree of

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Speaker 1: ivory in it. Solomon made a giant throne for himself,

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Speaker 1: and this throne was beautiful. It was amazing. There was

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Speaker 1: nothing else like it ever in the entire world, is

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Speaker 1: what it says. This throne had six steps going up

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Speaker 1: to it. It had a footstool of gold which was

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Speaker 1: fastened to the throne, and armrests on either side by

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Speaker 1: the place of the seat. Two lions standing beside the armrests.

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Speaker 1: Twelve lions stood there on the one side and on

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Speaker 1: the other on the six steps. So if you're thinking

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Speaker 1: of this throne, going up to it, you had to

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Speaker 1: walk up these steps, and on either side of the

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Speaker 1: steps were these cast golden lions that probably represented the

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Speaker 1: twelve tribes of Israel. And so you'd walk up these

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Speaker 1: golden steps, past these golden lions, and then you'd get

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Speaker 1: to the throne, which was gigantic. It had this beautiful

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Speaker 1: footrest that was attached to the throne, and then on

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Speaker 1: either side of the throne were two larger golden lions,

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Speaker 1: and it had inlays of ivory as well. Nothing else

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Speaker 1: was like this throne. That's what it says in verse nineteen.

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Speaker 1: There was nothing like it made in any other kingdom.

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Speaker 1: All King Solomon's drinking vessels were made of gold, and

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Speaker 1: all the vessels of the House of the Forest of

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Speaker 1: Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered valuable

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Speaker 1: in the days of Solomon, for the king had ships

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Speaker 1: that to Tarsish with Hurum's servants. Once every three years.

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Speaker 1: The ships of Tarsish came back bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes,

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Speaker 1: and peacocks. So don't forget. Israel had become a seafaring

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Speaker 1: nation under King Solomon, and so they were trading with

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Speaker 1: all sorts of different nations. They were going everywhere. They

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Speaker 1: came back from Tarsish every three years with extremely valuable

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Speaker 1: things for King Solomon and for Israel, just things that

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Speaker 1: weren't in Israel. For example, peacocks are not native to Israel,

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Speaker 1: and neither are apes. So Solomon made Israel extremely wealthy.

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Speaker 1: If you jumped down to verse twenty seven, the king

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Speaker 1: made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he

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Speaker 1: made cedars to be as abundant as the sycamore trees

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Speaker 1: that are in the Lowland. So silver wasn't even considered

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Speaker 1: valuable in the days of Solomon. If you had a

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Speaker 1: big chunk of silver, it would have been worth almost

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Speaker 1: nothing because of how common silver actually was. So it

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Speaker 1: says in verse twenty two King Solomon exceeds all the

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Speaker 1: kings of the earth in riches and wisdom, And that

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Speaker 1: is exactly what God said Solomon would do. All the

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Speaker 1: kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to

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Speaker 1: hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

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Speaker 1: They each brought tribute vessels of silver, vessels of gold, clothing, armor, spices,

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Speaker 1: horses and mules every year. Solomon had four thousand stalls

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Speaker 1: for horses and chariots and twelve thousand horsemen that he

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Speaker 1: stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

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Speaker 1: So we talked the other day about these storage cities

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Speaker 1: that Solomon built, and essentially it was like a garage,

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Speaker 1: you know, like an average person's garage where you just

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Speaker 1: throw all your stuff that you don't know what to

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Speaker 1: do with in your garage. That was these cities for Solomon.

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Speaker 1: He had so much stuff that he actually made storage

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Speaker 1: cities that people would live in to take care of

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Speaker 1: all of the excess that Solomon had. One of these

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Speaker 1: cities was specifically four horses, is what it says. And

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Speaker 1: this city had four thousand stalls for all of these

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Speaker 1: horses and chariots, not to mention there was a place

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Speaker 1: for the horsemen as well. It says that twelve thousand

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Speaker 1: horsemen were stationed in the chariot cities and with the

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Speaker 1: king at Jerusalem. He ruled over all the kings from

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Speaker 1: the river even to the land of the Philistines and

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Speaker 1: to the border of Egypt. The king made silver as

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Speaker 1: common in Jerusalem as stones. He made cedars to be

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Speaker 1: as abundant as the sycamore trees that are in the Lowland.

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Speaker 1: They brought horses for Solomon out of Egypt and out

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Speaker 1: of all lands. So Solomon was an extremely impressive king.

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Speaker 1: People from all over the world wanted to give him gifts.

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Speaker 1: He was insanely wealthy. He had these storage cities for

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Speaker 1: horses and horsemen and chariots and everything else. He made

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Speaker 1: beautiful things. He also hosted these like ted talks where

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Speaker 1: people would come and listen to the wisdom of Solomon.

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Speaker 1: And he wouldn't just talk about spiritual things, talked about

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Speaker 1: you know, farming and fishing and just practical day to

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Speaker 1: day things that people could learn more about. He was

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Speaker 1: extremely knowledgeable, very studied, and he talks about all of

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Speaker 1: this in his memoir, which is Ecclesiastes. He discusses how

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Speaker 1: much wisdom he actually gained for himself and how in

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Speaker 1: the end it was all worthless to him. Because Solomon

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Speaker 1: wrote the book of Ecclesiastes at the end of his life,

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Speaker 1: he kind of seems very very depressed, quite honestly. In

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Speaker 1: the Book of Ecclesiastes. It's a really fantastic book. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I'm going through it myself right now, and it's just

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Speaker 1: been really cool to read Ecclesiastes alongside studying the life

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Speaker 1: of Solomon for the podcast. It really opens up a

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Speaker 1: lot about Solomon's life, So I highly recommend if you're

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Speaker 1: interested in Solomon going in reading the Book of Ecclesiastes.

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Speaker 1: It's really eye opening. But then Second Chronicles nine ends

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Speaker 1: with Solomon's death. Jumping down to verse thirty, it says

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Speaker 1: Solomon reigned in Jerusalem overall Israel for forty years. Solomon

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Speaker 1: slept with his father's and he was buried in his

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Speaker 1: father david city and Reya Boham, his son reigned in

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Speaker 1: his place. Now, if you only read Second Chronicles without

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Speaker 1: reading First Kings, you might be like, oh, Solomon was

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Speaker 1: a fantastic king to the very last days. He did

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Speaker 1: pretty much nothing wrong, only built Israel up, even seemed

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Speaker 1: like a spiritually great king. But if you read First

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Speaker 1: King's eleven, it talks about a different story at the

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Speaker 1: end of Solomon's life that Second Chronicles does not talk about.

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Speaker 1: And probably the reason Second Chronicles doesn't talk about it

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Speaker 1: is because Second Chronicles focused on the temple, specifically because

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Speaker 1: the author of Second Chronicles was likely Ezra, who would

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Speaker 1: have been the high priest of Israel after after the

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Speaker 1: Israelite nation came back from the Babylonian captivity. So Ezra

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Speaker 1: just had a different goal when he was talking about

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Speaker 1: Solomon's life. But let's turn to First Kings eleven and

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Speaker 1: read about some of the bad things that Solomon did

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Speaker 1: at the end of his life. Now, King Solomon loved

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Speaker 1: many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women

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Speaker 1: of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and the Hittites, of

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Speaker 1: the nations, concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel,

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Speaker 1: you shall not go among them, neither shall they come

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Speaker 1: among you, for surely they will turn your heart after

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Speaker 1: their gods. Solomon joined to these in love. He had

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Speaker 1: seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines. His wives

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Speaker 1: turned his heart away. When Solomon was old, his wives

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Speaker 1: turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was

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Speaker 1: not perfect with Yahweh, his God, as the heart of David,

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Speaker 1: his father was. For Solomon went after Asterith, the goddess

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Speaker 1: of the Sidonians, after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

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Speaker 1: Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and

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Speaker 1: didn't go fully after Yahweh as David his father did.

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Speaker 1: Then Solomon built a high place for Chemish, the abomination

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Speaker 1: of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and

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Speaker 1: for Molik, the abomination of the children of Amen. So

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Speaker 1: he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense

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Speaker 1: and sacrifice to their gods. Yahweh was angry with Solomon

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Speaker 1: because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God

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Speaker 1: of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had

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Speaker 1: commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go

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Speaker 1: after other gods. But he didn't keep that which Yahweh commanded. Therefore,

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Speaker 1: Yahweh said Solomon, because this is done by you, and

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Speaker 1: you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which

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Speaker 1: I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom

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Speaker 1: from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I

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Speaker 1: will not do it in your days for David, your

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Speaker 1: father's sake, but I will tear it out of your

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Speaker 1: son's hand. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom,

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Speaker 1: but I will get we give one tribe to your

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Speaker 1: son for David, my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake,

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Speaker 1: which I have chosen. So that shows a very different

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Speaker 1: story as to what happened at the end of Solomon's life.

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Speaker 1: Solomon had so many wives that it said he actually

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Speaker 1: loved them. I don't know how you can love them

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Speaker 1: many people at one time, but he had seven hundred

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Speaker 1: wives and then three hundred concubines. And of these thousand

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Speaker 1: women that he married, they started turning his heart away

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Speaker 1: after all of their foreign gods, because they came from

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Speaker 1: Moab and Ammon and Edom, and they worshiped these terrible

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Speaker 1: gods like Chemish and Molik. Those idols were ones that

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Speaker 1: people would burn their children to. Those were child sacrifice idols,

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Speaker 1: and Solomon set up pillars for them, is what it says,

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Speaker 1: and altars to them, and he actually went with his

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Speaker 1: wives and started burning incense to these gods and goddesses.

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Speaker 1: He also followed after the Asterith as well, which was

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Speaker 1: one of the main gods that Israel always fell prey to,

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Speaker 1: was the ast cult because it was a sex cult.

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Speaker 1: And you can see that Solomon certainly has his problems

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Speaker 1: when it comes to sex, right, because of the amount

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Speaker 1: of women that he married. And here's the thing about leaders,

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Speaker 1: they control a lot. They kind of set the stage

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Speaker 1: for everybody else. And so Solomon setting up these altars

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Speaker 1: and these idols and these pillars to these different gods,

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Speaker 1: that's showing the people of Israel, Hey, it's okay to

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Speaker 1: do this. It's okay to go and burn incense to

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Speaker 1: these gods. It's okay to worship them along with worshiping Yahweh.

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Speaker 1: Because probably Solomon didn't ever stop his religiosity when it

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Speaker 1: came to going to the temple either. It did say

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Speaker 1: in Second Chronicles that Solomon was quite religious with that

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Speaker 1: every single morning he would burn a sacrifice to God

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Speaker 1: and go to the temple. But he was doing that

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Speaker 1: along with worshiping these other idols, and God became angry

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Speaker 1: with him and said, you know what, Solomon, I appeared

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Speaker 1: to you twice. I warned you twice, do not follow

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Speaker 1: after these other gods, be like David, your father. But

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Speaker 1: you didn't do it. And so now I'm going to

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Speaker 1: rip the kingdom away from your son and give it

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Speaker 1: to somebody else, not the entire kingdom. Your son will

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Speaker 1: still have control of one tribe, but the rest of

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Speaker 1: the tribes of Israel are going to go to another

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Speaker 1: man who is going to be one of your servants.

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Speaker 1: You know what. I think, Solomon's life really shows that

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Speaker 1: no matter how wise you are, you can still fall

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Speaker 1: into sin. You know, if Solomon, who is like the

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Speaker 1: wisest guy on the planet, could turn away from yahweh,

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Speaker 1: then certainly each one of us could do the same

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Speaker 1: exact thing. So we need to be very careful, you know.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Solomon's life is truly a warning to all

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Speaker 1: of us, I think, and like I said, read the

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Speaker 1: Book of Ecclesiastes because it is so eye opening as

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Speaker 1: to what Solomon was thinking, how even his wisdom still

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Speaker 1: caused him to sin and fall astray, because that's essentially

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Speaker 1: what the Book of Ecclesiastes is all about. But faithful listeners,

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's episode. In finishing up Second

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Speaker 1: Chronicles nine and the life of Solomon, we're gonna now

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Speaker 1: get into the other lesser known kings of Second Chronicles,

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Speaker 1: which I always enjoy talking about because it's history and

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Speaker 1: it's just fun to discuss. So I hope to see

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Speaker 1: all of you guys on Wednesday for another episode from

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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles where we will talk about the reign of

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Speaker 1: Jereboam and how it starts out out quite rocky. We'll

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Speaker 1: get into that, but also tune in tomorrow for an

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Speaker 1: episode from one Timothy on the New Testament side of stuff,

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Speaker 1: because don't forget on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm in the

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Speaker 1: New Testament, and Mondays and Wednesdays, I'm in the Old Testament.

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Speaker 1: So I hope to see all of you guys tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for a great episode as well. Happy listening and God

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Speaker 1: bless