 The class is recorded. Good morning everyone. So glad to meet you all today. So how was your weekend? How was your weekend? It was good, Pastor. Thank you. How was yours? It was good. It was a blessing. Thank you. We had a good break. Yeah So as the others join in, I'll just project the notes and the presentation to the class. I said Hello, ma'am. I'm just presenting the notes. Everyone able to see the screen, right? It's presenting. Okay, even before we can begin with our class, can I request one of us to please lead us in prayer? Sid, would you lead us in prayer? Father God, we come to the throne of grace. We thank you for the day you have given us. We thank you for the opportunity. We thank you for whatever we are going to learn here a lot that should be abiding in our hearts and we should practice it in our daily life, Lord. The opportunity you have given us, Lord, you should enable us to let all the students should be used as a vessel which was used in the King's table, Lord. We need you. We need you. You are our portal. We are your play, Lord. You should touch us. You should touch us, Lord. You should break us. You should make us in the way, Lord, which is preferable to you, Lord. Not our will, Lord. Your will be done, Lord. Whatever you have planned for us, Lord, it shall be done in your will, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Yeah. So, today, last class, we studied on the book of Samuel and today we will study on the book of Kings, like how we saw Samuel. It was like first and second Samuel were the one single book. In the same way, the first and second Kings are not two books originally, but it was only one book in the Hebrew Bible. And the origin title was Melchim, known as Kings, taken from the first word from chapter one verse one, Wehmele, now King. So, the Septigent artificially divided the book of Kings in the middle of the story of Asakaya into two books. As, you know, it called the books of Samuel and first and second Kingdom and the books of the Kings, third and fourth Kingdom. So, that's how it was called in the Septigent. So, the Kings begin with King David. So, the story, you know, starts with King David and it ends with the King of Babylon. And it also opens with the building of the temple in this book. And we see the second King ends with the burning of the temple. And we also see it opens with David's first successor, that is Solomon, and ends with David's last successor, Zedekiah. Kings, this book Kings opens with Solomon's glory and his reign in Israel and ends with Jehochim's shame. King begins with the blessing of the obedience and ends with the curse of disobedience. So, the period of prophets also introduced in this book. And we see the great prophetic ministry of the prophet of Elijah. And even before this prophet were there, there were other prophets like, you know, we studied on Abraham Moses and Samuel, but the prophetic ministry, the office of prophet was especially introduced in this period of Kings. We see first and second Kings originally were one document and it was interprets the history, it's report showing how Israel's spiritual decline led to the decline in its political fortune. And we also see the author. Author is uncertain in this book as per the Jewish tradition. The scholars say that Jeremiah would have recorded this book. And some say after Jeremiah's time added second Kings from chapter 25. It was after Jeremiah, which was a record event occurred later in the captivity. So the variety of sources used by the authors compiling in first and second King includes the Acts of Solomon, the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the book of Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. And the theme of this book, the first book of division of the kingdom. And in the second Kings we see the dispersement of the kingdom, the complete scatter of the kingdom. And major events we see the beginning of Solomon's reign is divided in kingdom and the temple is built and it's been dedicated the visit of Queen of Sheba. And then we see the decline of King Solomon. We will go in detail when we study on the life of Solomon. Well, the kingdom has been divided as Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. The kingdom of Israel has been divided by two. One is the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. For the Northern Kingdom, the capital would be Samaria and for the Southern Kingdom, the capital is Jerusalem. And, you know, later part we will study that the Northern Kingdom was captivated, was captured by the Assyrians and they took captive and the Southern Kingdom was captured by the Babylonians and we'll see how did the people of Israel react and how did they keep up the worship of God. We will study at the later part of this book. And then, yes, we see the start of Elijah, the prophetic office in the book of first Kings. And the second Kings we also see through him is follower, Elijah takes place this office. Yes, this book was basically recorded in 630 to 600 BC. The very purpose of this book is to know the history of Israel from David's death to Ahab's death to show the most of the King turned their back upon God in spite of the covenant. They were well aware of, you know, how they need to worship God and what are the covenant promise that they need to keep but knowingly they sin against God. We see that to trace the history of the prophetic moment, especially that of Elijah. And we also see the purpose of this book is the prophetic principle applied to all the Israelites as well with the lives of the Kings serving as example. And with many of the reports of the fulfillment of specific prophecies, first and second Kings as reminded believers down through the ages of the power and truth of God's word. You see that the unique feature of this book is it records a great tragedy as Solomon who was wiser than anyone else gave himself over to the temptation of wealth and women. It records the building and the dedication of Israel's first temple which lasted nearly four centuries. And we also see during Solomon's reign Israel attended its largest size ever. And they also say that even much larger than the present day Israel and Solomon not only solidified but also expanded the gains made by David. And yeah, so there are some of the outline theme that we see from this book and we will see we will as we study the life of Solomon, we will also study the shadow of Christ comparing it with Solomon. So though this book has many instances to study and discuss on but we will focus on two things. One, Solomon's temple, second the life of Solomon. About Elijah and Elisha we will study in tomorrow's class. So for today we will look at the Solomon's temple and life of King Solomon. So I will just share a video which has which gives us the detail of Solomon's temple and also it covers the the tabernacle which Moses had built. So it is a good comparison that's the reason we didn't cover the tabernacle of Moses before because we can we can study on it together now. So I'll just project a video regarding that. Give me a minute while I share the screen on Solomon's temple. Solomon's temple stood in Jerusalem for almost 400 years. It was the crown jewel of Jerusalem and the center of worship to the Lord. Almost half of the Old Testament writings took place during the time when Solomon's temple was still standing. Everyone can hear, right? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I'll just continue the video. Understanding the significance of its location, history and design can greatly add to one's reverence for one of the most holy places in the world. The city of Jerusalem is located in an area of three major valleys, the Hinnom, the central or Tyropian and the Kidron Valley. The mountain range between the central and Kidron Valley is called Mount Moriah. The peak of the mountain is a large protruding flat rock, which is now located under the Dome of the Rock. According to Genesis 22, Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac in the region of Moriah, connecting the Temple Mount with this significance event. At the time of King David, the area of Jerusalem was controlled by the Jebusites, the city only occupying the southern part of the Central Ridge. When David captured the city in about 1000 BC, he made Jerusalem his capital. David then moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and began preparations for building a permanent structure to replace the portable tabernacle of Moses that had been used for over 400 years. With the ancient city of Jerusalem being fairly small, David purchased the threshing floor of a Rhone of the Jebusite so he could expand the size of the city. Being higher than the city of David, the hilltop would make a beautiful place to build the Temple of the Lord. Under the reign of David's son, King Solomon, the temple construction began. After seven years of construction in about 960 BC, Solomon finished building the Temple, most likely built over the same protruding rock of Mount Moriah. Solomon also built himself a new palace just south of the Temple and expanded the walls of the city up towards the peak of Mount Moriah. The Temple of Solomon was modeled after the Tabernacle of Moses. Because of the many similarities between the Tabernacle and the Garden of Eden, many scholars believe that the Garden of Eden was the prototype for the Tabernacle and thus later temples. According to Jewish tradition, Eden was located on a hill with the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil at the center of the hill. The Bible teaches that when Adam and Eve transgressed and partook of the forbidden fruit, they were cast out towards the east. Cherubim and a flaming sword were then placed at the east entrance to prevent them from partaking of the Tree of Life as they would then live forever in their sin. In order to return back into the presence of God, Israel had to symbolically retrace the steps of Adam and Eve, pack the cherubim and re-entering the Garden in a westward direction. The Tabernacle was set up in the same east to west progression, seeming to replicate the Garden of Eden. The Tabernacle was divided into three main courts, the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The Outer Court represented the fallen world, while the Inner Courts represented a more sacred and holier way of life. In essence, as the priest, who represented all of Israel, progressed through the Tabernacle or Temple, he left the world to enter a more holy state and then was enabled to re-enter the presence of the Lord, passing the angels or cherubim who were embroidered on the veil. Solomon's Temple replicated the same three-level progression, doubling the floor plan size of the Tabernacle sanctuary for the Temple structure. As one approached the Temple of Solomon, the first thing noticed was the brazen altar of sacrifice. The altar was 20 cubits long and wide and 10 cubits high, a cubit being the length from the elbow to the tip of the longest finger, or about one and a half feet. On the four corners of the altar were four horns, horns often representing power. This is where the sacrificial animals were burned, representing the future sacrifice of the Savior Jesus Christ. On the southeast side of the Temple was the molten or brazen sea, which rested on the backs of 12 oxen, three pointing in each of the cardinal directions. In ancient times, oxen represented strength and the number 12 often represented the 12 tribes of Israel. Water from the larger brazen sea was poured into 10 bronze water basins on both sides of the Temple, which could then be wheeled around the outer court for various washing and cleansing rituals by the priests. Around the southwest and north sides of the Temple were three floors of chambers or storage rooms. The inside wall of the chambers was stepped, so as to create a ledge where the timbers of the floors could rest. The storage rooms were accessed by a door on the south side of the Temple, with wooden ladders going up into each of the floors. At the front of the Temple were two large bronze pillars that flanked the porch. The pillar on the left was named Boaz, and the pillar on the right was named Joachim. The tops were decorated with lily flower petals and pomegranates. Pomegranates were a sign of prosperity and posterity because of their many seeds, and were also found on the bottom hem of the clothing of the High Priest. The main Temple doors were made of two large bifolding doors covered in gold, with cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. The Bible describes the door frame as being a fourth part of the wall, which most scholars believe means that the door had four stepped frames. The interior doorway of the Holy of Holies was similar, except having five frames instead of four. The priests who represented Israel were the only ones allowed into the inner Temple. This means that Israel only could enter through being represented by the priests. Once you entered the main doors, you entered the Holy Place, a large room 40 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits tall. The room was overlaid with gold and decorated with cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, possibly alluding to the beauty of the Garden of Eden. The room was lit by 10 large menorahs, five on each side of the room, that were constantly burning, and narrow windows on each side of the top of the room. On the right side of the room was located the table of showbread, which had 12 large, flat, pita-like loaves. The priests ate and then replaced the showbread every Sabbath, similar to our weekly partaking of the communion or sacramental bread. Breaking bread and sharing a meal with someone in ancient times represented that you were at peace with them, and was a sign of brotherhood, love, and forgiveness. Directly in front of the Holy Polys was the altar of incense. The altar was similar to the altar of sacrifice in that it had a square footprint, and also had four horns, one on each of the corners. However, on the altar of sacrifice was burned the flesh of animals, while upon the altar of incense burned a sweet combination of incenses. The incense burning before the veil of the temple represented the prayers of the saints ascending to God before the veil. A reminder that before we can enter God's presence, our lives, prayers, and actions must become a sweet savor unto the Lord. Only the High Priest was able to enter the Holy Polys, and only on one day a year, the day of atonement, before entering the High Priest passed through a beautifully embroidered veil woven from purple, red, blue, and white threads. The colors were the same as used in the affod and breastplate of the clothing of the High Priest, minus the gold thread. Embroidered on the veil were cherubah, who symbolically guarded the dwelling place of God. As the High Priest passed through the veil, he had to pass these angels, who like in the Garden of Eden, guarded the way back to the presence of the Lord. Upon entering the Holy of Holies, you would find that the room is in the shape of a perfect cube, being 20 cubits wide, long, and tall. The walls were likewise overlaid with gold and decorated with cherubah, palm trees, and open flowers. Two large cherubah flanked the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the center of the room, with their wings stretching from one side of the room to the other. This room is where the presence of the Lord would dwell, and represented the final goal and destiny of all Israel. Solomon's Temple was not only a landmark for the city of Jerusalem, but more importantly, the dwelling place of the Lord. The layout represented Israel's progression back into God's presence, and was designed to teach Israel that it was only through the infinite sacrifice of the sinless Messiah that they could once again enjoy the presence of the Lord. A sacrifice that would be performed on a cross, only a short distance from this holy mountain. I'll share the link of this presentation in the chat with us so that we can also watch it later. Maybe the person who designed this video would have designed it that way said, but then actually we don't know how exactly the cherubah looked. It has gone with the design of the person who has created this video, so we don't have to actually go exactly of what it is, but we may have to go with what the Word of God says. Is that fine? Yes, mom. Okay, and yeah, I will also share some of the link towards the video which we didn't cover about, you know, the garment of the high priest. Okay, so you can watch that video as well about the high priest Jesus has the high priest. Please give me a minute while I share that link with you. Okay, these are some of the useful videos we can study, we can learn about, you know, the significance, one second please, significance of the priestly garment and, you know, and how it's been compared, the high priest has been compared with Jesus. Pastor, the first link is showing unavailable actually, the Solomon's temple one. Sorry, I didn't get you. The first link that you put, right? Yes, yes. And when I tried it showing for me, video unavailable. Can anyone else try? Yes, ma'am. It's unavailable. Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll get the link again. Thanks, Divya, for letting us know. I'm sharing the link again. Can you try this link, the recent link? Yeah, it's it's available. Yes, it's available. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, we'll just study on the life of Solomon and I will also recommend us to go through each and every chapter so that, you know, we don't miss on any of the stories or evens that happen first and second kings because we may not be able to cover everything in the class, but then I would recommend you to go through each and every chapter of this book. I'll just present the presentation. Yeah, the presentation is here. Okay, let's study on the King Solomon. So Solomon was David and Betsheba's second son. It's been recorded in the book of Samuel. We saw that how Samuel was Solomon was born and Israel's third king. He reigned 40 years from 971 BC to 931 BC. The name Solomon in Hebrew, it is called a sholomon, sholmon, comes from the word shalom, which means peace, completeness and wholeness. This is reflected in the fact that Solomon's kingdom enjoyed great peace and compassion under Israel. The Bible mentions that God loved Solomon in particular and therefore gave him a special name, Jedia, which means beloved. We see that in the book of Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 25, you know, God himself telling him, he is my beloved. It was amazing to know that God wanted Solomon to always know how much his creator loved him so much so that God even declared, you know, in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 14, we see that God declaring, I will be his father and he will be my son. King Solomon, you know, he was the wisest man who ever lived and also one of the most foolish. God gifted him with unsurpassed wisdom but Solomon squandered by disobeying God's commandments. Some of Solomon's most famous achievements were his building project, particularly the temple of Jerusalem, which we just saw. Some of the achievements of King Solomon was that he was a third king over Israel and Solomon ruled with wisdom over Israel for about 40 years, securing the stability through treaties with the foreign power. He also celebrated for his wisdom and for building up the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and this building was also one of the wonders in those days, considered as one of the wonders in the ancient time. Solomon wrote much of the book of Proverbs, the song of Solomon, the book of Ecclesiastes and two Psalms, that is chapter 72 and chapter 127. Solomon was the second son, was the second son of King David and Bathsheba. His name means peace, which we just shared. His alternative, his alternate name was Jedia, meaning beloved of the Lord, which was given by God, even as a baby. Solomon was loved by God. A conspiracy by Solomon, our brother, Adonija, tried to rob Solomon of the throne. We see that in the early chapters of First King that, you know, to take the kingship, but Solomon had to kill Adonija and Joab David's general so that there is no conflict later. When Solomon's kingship was firmly established, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and promised him anything he can ask and it shall be given to him and Solomon chose to ask understanding and discernment, understanding and discernment. So, asking God to help him govern the people well and wisely and God was so pleased with the request that he made, so he grants him and along with wisdom, God also grants him the great riches, honors and long life. We see that in chapter 3. Yeah, so Solomon downfall began when he married the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh to seal a political alliance. He could not control his lust. This was one of the weakness that Solomon was battling with. Among Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines were many foreigners which, you know, which angered God. This evitable and the evitable happened. They lured King Solomon away from God into the worship of false gods and idols. That was the main reason why God again and again had warned David not to do so. Who is 40 year reign, Solomon did many great things but he's come to the temptation of lesser men. The peace, a united Israel, enjoyed the massive building project he headed and the successful commerce he developed became meaningless when Solomon stopped pursuing God. Some of the accomplishment that we see about King Solomon was set up, organized state in Israel with many officials to assist him. The country was divided into 12 major districts and each district provided for the King's court during one month each year. The system was fair and it was just and distributing the tax burden evenly over the entire country. Solomon built the first temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and a seven year task that became one of the wonders of the ancient world. He also built a majestic palace and, you know, the gardens, roads and government buildings. He accumulated thousands of horses and chariots after securing peace with his neighbors. He built up trade and became the wealthiest King of his time. And we also see the Queen of Sheba. She heard about Solomon's fame and she wanted to know more so she visited him to test his wisdom with some hard questions and after seeing with her own eyes all that Solomon had built in Jerusalem and hearing his wisdom, the Queen blessed the God of Israel saying, the report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom but I did not believe the report until I came and my own eyes had seen it and behold, half was not told to me your wisdom and prosperity surpasses the report that I heard. We see that in chapter 10. And Solomon, a prophetic writer, poet, scientist is credited with writing much of the books of Proverbs, the song of Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastas and Toussaint. And the, you know, first King chapter 4 verse 32 tells us that he also wrote 3,000 Proverbs and 105 songs. So what were Solomon's major strength? King Solomon, greatest strength was his unsurpassed wisdom that was granted to him by God. Solomon and all his wisdom realized he needed, you know, we see in chapter 3, God gave him the wisdom and in chapter 4, we see that he has some generals and advocates around his table. He was surrounded himself with the people who could feed him, feed his intelligence and wisdom. He was surrounded with wise people. So this reminds us of Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 talks about he who walks with wise men will be wise but the companions of the fools will experience him. So, you know, Solomon had wise people elders around his table and one of the biblical episode that we see here is used to judge righteously and people around him, the judges and other leaders marveled at the wisdom of Solomon. One such instant that happened here we see in chapter 3 is we see when two women who came to Solomon both claiming to be the mother of a baby boy and he gave them the order to cut the to cut the living baby and give after each mother because both of them were claiming their child is theirs. We read the whole story so we get to know so long shorty cut short the women who falsely claim to be the mother eagerly desire to see this order is carried out. However, the real mother is crying out saying don't kill him, don't kill the baby, instead let him live. And with this very cry out, you know, we see how Solomon could make the decision of knowing who's the real mother was and we see people who were present they marveled at this judgment and feared him as they saw the wisdom of God was upon him to administer the justice and King Solomon was also scaled in the architecture and management turned Israel into the show place of the Middle East as a diplomat he made treaties and alliance that brought peace to his kingdom. So one of the things that we need to remember was not that he brought peace but God intended to have peace in Solomon's role because it was also promised much before to David and the weakness of Solomon to satisfy his curious mind, Solomon turned to worldly pleasures instead of the pursuit of God though these pleasures were they even with David but for David God was his priority but in case of his son Solomon you know he never pursued God much later he collected all sorts of treasures and surrounded himself with luxury which led him to break the rules of God. Some things that we see that Solomon broke God's rule was after Solomon dedicated the the dedication of the temple happens very beautifully we see that just turning to Solomon's other buildings okay. Yeah dedication of the temple is in chapter eight verse 62 then King and all Israel with the offered sacrifice before the Lord can one of us please read from 63 to 66 please. Solomon then Solomon dedicates the temple then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord and Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings which he offered to the Lord 22,000 volts and 120,000 sheep so the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. On the same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord but there he offered burnt offerings grain offerings and the fact of the peace offerings because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings the grain offerings and the fact of the peace offerings at that time Solomon held a feast in all Israel with him a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt before the Lord our God seven days and seven more days fourteen days on the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the Lord had done for his servant David and for Israel his people can you also please read from 54 to 61 same chapter chapter 8 54 to 61 please shall I read yes yes and so it was when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord that he arose from before the altar of the Lord from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised there has not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised through his servant moses may the Lord God be with us as he was with our fathers may he not leave us no forsakers that he may incline our hearts to himself to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments which he command commanded our fathers and may these words of mine with which I have made supplication before the Lord be near the Lord our God day and night that he may maintain the cost of his servant and the cost of his people Israel as each day may require that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God there is no other that your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments as at this day amen thank you thank you and in chapter 9 verse 3 we see that you know the Lord said to him I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me I have consecrated this house which you have failed to put my name there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually now if you walk before me verse 4 as your father David walked in integrity of heart and in upright justness to do according to all that I've commanded you and if you keep my statutes and my judgment then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever as I promised David your father saying you shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel but if you or your sons at all turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have said before you but go and serve other gods and worship them then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them and this house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight Israel will be a proverb and a by word among all people so very clearly very clearly we see when Solomon Solomon dedicated the temple to God and also second time God is appearing to him and giving him certain instructions to Solomon what to do and what not to do not to worship other gods and he also says do not marry any foreign foreign women because they may lead him to worship other gods but it's despite all these instructions that he received from God Solomon goes away and that's the thing which what what he was not supposed to do and we know these commandments are there but still he goes away and you know he marries he takes many foreign women to be his wife and they force him to worship their God and then later part we see how Solomon builds altars for their God in the city and you know and their wives have been offering sacrifice and incenses to their God and this led Solomon away from the true God and here are the few gods ruled that Solomon had trouble following them the king must not acquire great number of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them for the Lord has told you for you are not to go back that way again but then but then are you able to hear me no because I could see my voice echoing that's why nevertheless Solomon horses were imported from Egypt we see in chapter 10 that the horses were imported from Egypt and he had lot of them which he kept in in store cities that he built and we also see king must not accumulate large amount of silver and gold but in the life of Solomon we see that he accumulated great amount of wealth that even queen of Sheba was astonished the problem was accumulating much wealth is that over time God want you know say to yourself like my power and strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me you know he may tell to himself that so but but remember the Lord our God for it is even gives us the ability to produce wealth in the book of Deuteronomy 8 we see that God telling us it is God who gives us the wealth and not it is our own wisdom that we accumulate but it is God who teaches us to make well we need to give all the glory to God and not take it to ourself and and Bible doesn't say that Solomon had issues with pride but then he does show a pattern of violating God's rule he may have thought that he was getting away with breaking them but then until he disobeyed one of God's most important rule was that you know by taking many wives from the foreign land with all his wisdom and wealth Solomon had one dangerous and very common weakness was women and in this case because he took many foreign women he landed up worshipping the other gods and you know he also married a egyptian daughter from where this downhill started because that very act displeased God and and which led Solomon to you know build many altars to other gods and you know put incense and encourage his foreign wives he didn't encourage but then they actually had influenced him to build their altar to burn incense and offer sacrifice to their God and this displeased God this is completely it completely made God to be angry on David but then and that's the reason where this kingdom was toned we also seen the later part how God prophesies through Abija the prophet Abija we see that in chapter 11 verse 26 or was Jeroboam was a Solomon's servant Jeroboam the son of Nebuch and Iframi from his mother's name was zero widow and he rebelled against the king well we see that he was appointed on the he was appointed as the labor force officer over all the labor force of the house of Joseph and later when he was going prophet Abija met him on the way and you know Jeroboam was wearing a new garment he tears that it to two and make 12 pieces and he says 12 pieces he tells Jeroboam take 12 pieces and you know he takes and he says this is how God is going to give 12 tribes into your hand to rule and later when Solomon hears this he gets to know about the Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam because he knows the fall of his kingdom and it has been now God has given Jeroboam the part of his kingdom so Jeroboam runs to save his life to Egypt and Solomon has been given the two of the kingdom that is Judah and Benjamin because of the very promise that God made with David even now you see the mercy and promise keeping we see that in chapter 11 verse 12 we see God telling Solomon nevertheless I will not do it to your days for the sake of your father David I will tear it out of the hand of your son however I will not tear away the whole kingdom I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of myself and David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen you know though Solomon rebelled and sinned against God but even at this point you see the mercy of God we see the kindness of God we see that God is a promise keeper because he promised King David he's trying to retain that promise by giving him part of the kingdom that's the heart of God we have and later part we see the scripture does not record that Solomon repented for his sin but but Solomon says in the book of he asked us chapter 2 verse 10 and 11 we see that everything though you have much of wisdom but everything becomes meaningless chasing after the wind nothing was gained under the sun though he had so much of wealth he considered everything as vanity meaningless so that very end of this book he leaves us with the same exhortation that God has been saying to Solomon and all people throughout the scripture saying fear God and keep his commandments for this is the duty of all mankind for God will bring every deed every action of the mankind into judgment including every hidden things whether it is good or evil maybe not only understand the wisdom but also pray to develop the self discipline and or in that prosperity when we are prospering we need to live a life with humility we would like to compare Solomon with Jesus we see that someone greater than Solomon is here that is Jesus for he was the righteous descendant of David who's while Solomon was a Solomon name means peace and Jesus was the prince of peace God said to Solomon that I will be his father and he will be my son but Solomon did not uphold that standard of being a true son of God of Israel for Solomon loved other gods but nearly thousand years later we see God sent his only begotten son Jesus who was with God from the beginning and he truly followed God he did he did everything on earth that pleases God in fact he also mentions that I do everything what my father do and God also named Solomon beloved of God Jeddah means beloved of God and we see in scripture in two instances God telling Jesus the beloved he is the most this is my son in home I am well pleased listen to him you know God the father telling us about Jesus and we also see in the book of Matthew chapter 12 verse 42 we see it's been recorded that he is saying the queen of south will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom and now something greater than Solomon is here that is Jesus himself who is a source of all wisdom Jesus is the perfect son of God who offered us the perfect wisdom no earthly king can ever give so with this what is the life lesson that we can learn from the life of King Solomon anyone in the class can we say what are the life lessons that we can learn from King Solomon what do you think were the reasons for the downfall of these nation two nations yes the first son died due to the consequence of the sin of David and Bershiba and the second son was Solomon whom God blessed anyone else what are the life lessons that we can learn from the life of Solomon yes please Lubica please go ahead I think Solomon put the needs of society first before his own we look at the way he asked for wisdom and he would have asked for other things like riches like whatever he might just God gave it to him but you see that his love for how to govern God his people led him to ask for wisdom before putting his own needs number two also learned that he built his own life for good for instance we see how much when you read in other sources and you see how much it costed him to construct the temple which I think lasted for over 400 years you see he's always doing things for generations to come other than his own life that was not going to be more than eight years thank you so much thank you anyone else would like to add to it yes can I say yes please go ahead ma'am I want to add like in the so in Solomon's life the the major reason of his downfall was even though he was doing the idol worship he was doing all this like all these malpractices which was against the law of the Lord Lord was still God was still trying to talk to him or God was still trying to counsel him and talk to him through prophets God also in the in the Bible it is also written in Old Testament like a God a kind of he appeared in front of the Solomon but still he was not given ear to what God wanted to say if he would have given ear to the God's word or he have listened to the prophets this thing would not have happened yes and the second thing like in the Bible itself it is written that Solomon was having wisdom like no one has that kind of wisdom the accesses of wisdom in Indian in Indian tradition our elder says whatever is in excessive it is dangerous for ourselves only he was having excessive of money he was having excesses of wealth and power that thing also I think like it was a reason for his downfall yes yes thank you thank you said you made a point right so we see is material possession and and and and you know is fame the material what the material position what he had and the culture that he lived in and also marrying foreign women led him to sin led him away from God and his priority he didn't seek for the first love for God like how his father did like David said it is better for me to be in the courts of the Lord than to be thousand days elsewhere you know that was not there the priority God is looking at our heart where is our heart is the love the first love to God was not there so when Christians marry an unbeliever they can we can also expect some of this kind of trouble in our life and it especially comes to God and God wanted us to give the first love to him and we should not let nothing come before him so this is one thing that we can learn from Solomon's life is despite the wisdom that he had but he lost the source of wisdom who was God himself so in all our gaining we need to gain wisdom and understanding yes that's there but then our heart should be centered towards God our heart to be centered with God yes along with wisdom the blessing of God follows the blessing of God that is the wealth and honor and fame all that comes along but one thing we should remember the source of all that is God and we should not take the credit of our own self saying that you know I gained them or I accumulated them with my own wisdom but forgetting who is the source of that wisdom who was the giver of that wisdom it is God we need to give glory to God and that all our life lead our life pleasing to God one thing I leave today that I personally learned from this chapter is yes as a human we may fail we cannot give assurance of a life that we will do but one thing that we can do is we can pray we can ask God God help me to stay humble all the days help me to seek you never go astray even if I fail Lord bring me back and God hears our prayer God is our prayer answering God you will never leave us no forsakers even when we go astray God can you know correct us so that we can repent and come back to him because he is a God of merciful and God of forgiveness there's nothing in this world that Jesus cannot forgive us no matter how far we have gone or we may go but when we pray Lord today yes you are my priority but we don't know Lord at all times we need to seek you keep our heart in such a way that we always seek you and our life will be pleasing to you this should be our prayer when we get our heart conditioned right with God no matter even at the beginning stage when we go astray God holds us back God brings us back to him God prunes us corrects us disciplines us and he will bring us back to him okay anyone else I see some comments there glory to God as well yes Divya Divya says his failure to attribute the glory to God yes and then Rosalind we see wisdom of Solomon but he was not humble before God he did not repent like the father David yes very true we need to repent and God been the merciful God he forgives us and restores us back is the God of restoration God of second chance yes okay as we are times up can we end the session with the word of prayer anyone in the class okay dear Lord we thank you for this time and it has to learn from your word Lord Jesus thank you for all the lessons that we have taken today Lord Jesus we pray God that we will be able to apply this in our lives and help us to honor you above all the blessings that you are giving us Lord help us to keep you as a priority over every everything that we receive from you Lord Jesus help us to have that intimate relationship with you yes of our lives of God we thank you for first time and we thank you for all of us who are able to listen to your word Lord Jesus we bless each one of us we thank you Lord in Jesus most precious amen amen thank you so much God bless you all tomorrow good bless thank you