10 June – Additional Notes

1 KINGS 10: THE CENTER OF TRADE AGREEMENTS

I started this post with the mention of an unstable world today and a focus on prosperity. Nothing appears to have changed in the 3,000+/- years since King Solomon reigned of Israel. Even in our unstable family relationships or relationships with our neighbors, it seems that prosperity is the outward sign and key for being liked, included, and in a position for winning friends and influencing people. If you question what I am saying, list the friends you have who live in poorer neighborhoods than your own. How many people do you regularly visit with dysfunctional personal lives in underprivileged lifestyles. Conversely, someone who is both clever and wealthy like Solomon in today’s chapter, appear to be magnets for popularity. And if you question this, think about your school years and the kids who, like bees to a honey pot, were always liked and wanted. People aspired to be as clever and as wealthy as them.

But v1 in today’s chapter reveals something cast iron at the center of Solomon’s prosperity that led to extensive trade agreements. However, unless you put it fully into practice today, you’ll never be able to test my words for the truth found in it. The Queen of Sheva (Sheba) had heard about Solomon’s fame -but- “…that is was for the Shem Hashem” (the Name of The Name – The LORD).  Logically and rightfully she, a national leader, may have been questioning if divine connections exist at all and if so, would such a divine connection be positive and therefore worth pursuing. Or, is it just as the modern rumor has it today: that there is no god and religion is humanity’s greatest downfall.

I googled “negative quotes about religion” and found some harrowing and vehement constructions. Albert Einstein’s disparaging quote about religion: The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, stood out as the most shocking of all since he was a Jew and therefore had this written record from his own nation’s history! It seems that he discarded his own reason in order to make his rational statement! King Solomon was “the Albert Einstein” of his day.[a] Yet far from an “expression or product of human weakness”, it was openly recorded in their nation’s royal records that he achieved the strength of his international acclaim, power, and military capabilities [v23-26] through “wisdom, exceedingly great discernment, understanding, insight, and breadth of mind” that had been received from his Creator God. [v24] In fact, none of the negative quotes that I found on the internet today, match even a splinter of what was seen and experienced then preserved 3000 years in today’s chapter. Events that had been directly due to ‘religion’ – or more accurately, precisely because a national leader and his government were speaking out, governing, and experiencing Life within a working relationship with their Creator God.

That true, then everything laid out in today’s chapter (when all the puzzle pieces come together) is indeed possible even today. Yet this is not true because Solomon proved it to be true, then kept a record of the proof for us to read today. Instead, it’s true for us today because it was promised in writing by our Creator God centuries earlier.[b] Solomon just so happened to be the only one in the interim years (or indeed in the centuries since then) who managed to attain to the level of global influence where the covenant/agreement promise was seen to be true.

Now when the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon – without the BBC World Service, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or anything else, this opening statement in today’s chapter is incredibly significant – she heard, and she came to test him. [v1] It was his fame that was for (concerning) the name of The LORD (his relationship to the Lord, his reputation with the Lord, regarding his knowledge concerning the name of The LORD ) that she came to test him (prove him) with hard, doubtful, questions/riddles. If the Queen of Sheva (Sheba) was from the Kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia (the lower Nile), she would have travelled as much as 2,600 miles. If the Queen of the East and from the Kingdom of Saba in Yemen, then 1,500 miles. Either way, it is very clear from her efforts that she was responding to information about a God-connection found in a human, and what that would look like – not just in his answers [v3] but in his environment, and the effect on his subjects most especially. [v4-7]

She travelled this distance with 4 metric tons of gold, a great amount of spices, and precious stones and gave it Solomon. [v10] If someone wanted to write lies, they would be so detailed with ridiculous levels of information. The truth is clear in the telling, and never again did such abundance of spices come in as that which the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. The location of Ophir and the almug trees [v11-12] continues to be a matter of speculation to this day, but my book THIRST for various reasons indicates Australia – the vast supply of Australian gold still being mined today, eucalyptus gum trees, and Australian opals.

Solomon’s trade agreements [v13] amounted to 23 metric tons a year in gold. In addition to what his ships brought back, besides that from the traders and the wares of the merchants, a sizable portion of this no doubt received in gifts from the kings of the earth, for acquiring information. [v15] The gold shields and his throne [v16-20] was on display to the foreign envoys were like nothing found in any other kingdom. The fact that the ships brought back peacocks shows that his trading around 1000BC reached India and Sri Lanka. [v22] All the earth was seeking a presence with the King [v24]; and, yes, we can be confident that with the silk road connecting China to Egypt, along with the rise of the Greek empire on the west (who were later known for their Areopagus with their Epicurean and Stoic philosophers fixated with the acquisition of knowledge[c]), Solomon’s influence took in the known world at that time. Each royal envoy brought gifts such that Solomon’s wealth accumulated exponentially [v23] along with his military power. [v26]

With silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, Solomon’s trade agreements spread in all directions on the compass. [v27-29] With that said though, here’s the catch… None of this is possible for putting to the test on a national scale again without the national leader and his entire team putting the Creator’s promises to the test for 40 years. That national leader has to have the humility of a little child unable to know how to carry out my duties, with full dependance of the Creator God and a desperate desire for a discerning heart to govern and to distinguish between right and wrong.[d] This is exactly opposite to the starting blocks of every country leader, CEO, or global influencer in our modern day world. In this respect, Einstein was right – “the expression or product of human weakness” is to be distained and rejected and a religion or relationship with our Father God is the cause of such a vile position.

And so, we wake up today in our unstable world governed by liberal leaders who don’t believe in a Father of Creation at all and wonder why Life is so darn hard! Harder still is ‘getting ahead’, advancing, and prospering whether individually or as a nation. Yet if our Father God is trading an agreement at all with us, it’s His written contract (covenant) promises that He has sworn on oath[e] to those He created in His own image (originally blueprinted to live and designed to rule over our environment in His likeness[f]), before miraculously preserved His oaths in two covenant contracts for us the read today. If you want to read His extensive agreement as we trade our sin for His goodness, You’ll see it written down 3,500+ years ago in Deuteronomy 28. At the center of this trade agreement however, is one task for us. We’re simply to accept the trade and enter into the agreement with our Maker  …or not….

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[a] 1 Kings 4:29-34

[b] Deuteronomy 28:1-14

[c] Acts 17:18-21

[d] 1 Kings 3:7-9

[e] Deuteronomy 29:14-15

[f] Genesis 1:26-28