I liked 1 Kings. It was an interesting read. David becomes old and ill in the beginning. It mentions that no matter how much cover they put on him, he couldn't be warm. They brought a beautiful woman to lay with him and keep him warm, but he didn't "know her" in the Biblical sense...pardon the pun. Adonijah, one of David's sons, couldn't let his father die in peace - to the contrary, he decided to demand his right to be the next king. David was bedridden by this point, and Joab and Bathsheba confronted David about it. David had Solomon summoned and anointed him as king. Such was the people's celebration over Solomon's anointing, that apparently the "earth split" with all the noise they made. Adonijah fears for his life, but Solomon swears not to kill him, so long as he departs from wickedness.
Now David is about to die, and he has some words with Solomon. He tells him to be strong, obey God, and then...hehehe.....mentions a few names of people who need to be "taken care of" whom he had promised that he (himself) would not kill...Joab and Shimei.
Adonijah seems to buck up a bit and removes his tail from between his legs. He goes and visits Bathsheba and asks her to go to Solomon and secure Abishag the Shunnamite for him as his wife. This is the beautiful girl who was hired to keep David warm. Solomon responds by having Adonijah killed. I didn't understand this, initially, but after some study, it seems that Adonijah's actions would have been correctly interpreted as challenging the throne. Also, Solomon has Adonijah's supporters dealt with - Abiathar the priest is banished, and Joab is killed (inside the tabernacle no less!). So Joab (who was the commander of Israel's army) is replaced by a guy named Benaiah, and Zadok took the place of Abiathar.
Solomon puts Shimei under house arrest, which is, in my opinion, a test which Solomon knows Shimei will fail. He does, and Solomon has him killed.
Solomon marries the daughter of Egypt's Pharoah, as some kind of political alliance. Solomon loves the Lord, and offers lots of sacrifices. God asks Solomon what he would like God to give him, and he asks for wisdom. God grants him wisdom, and gives him also honor and wealth, though he didn't ask for those things. Solomon shows his wisdom to the people when two prostitutes come to him arguing over a baby. The prostitutes live together, and each one had a baby. One of the babies died, and now they both claim the living baby as their own. Solomon orders that the baby be cut in half with a sword, and one half given to each lady. Then one of them says, "No, let the other lady take the child, but don't harm him..." And so Solomon perceives that she is the child's true mother and gives the baby (unharmed) to her. The people marvel at this.
There's some mention of all Solomon's officials, and then a long description of food privisions, which seems to show that Israel was not wanting for food. Solomon's wisdom, the Bible says, was beyond that of anyone "of the east and from all Egypt, " and he became quite famous for it.
Now Solomon prepares to build the temple. He gets some help with receiving the lumber from Hirum, king of Tyre, who was an ally. Solomon drafts thousands of workers to help build. It's 60 cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits tall. A cubit is around 18 inches. I was kind of surprised, actually, at how small it would be. I thought the temple would have been enormous, like the size of a large shopping mall. On the other hand, I suppose it didn't necessarily have to be, so long as it was large enough to have the necessary rooms. I imagine the surrounding grounds and gates and whatnot probably encompassed a large area..... So there's a really long description of how Solomon built this temple. What's interesting to me, and please, if I am incorrect in this or bypassing a verse, do feel free to correct me, but I don't recall reading anywhere that God gave instructions as to every little detail of the temple like He did with the tabernacle. It doesn't seem to say, "And Solomon built the walls like such & such as God commanded", or "And Solomon covered these floors with gold as God commanded him to..." In other words, it seems that while Solomon clearly obeyed God's design for specific rooms & usage of the temple (it has a Holy of Holies, and the altars and basins and such like the tabernacle), he may have actually been able to do alot of the design himself. That's not to say that he wasn't under any divine inspiration in the process. What I think is cool about all that is - if you remember from the chapter in 2 Samuel, David wanted to build a house for God as a gift to God... It wasn't a command from God. So it seems kind of fitting that Solomon should be able to add some of his own special touches, because this whole temple thing got started as a "gift" from David/Solomon to God. It talks about walls being made with wood ornately carved into the shapes of flowers, and then covered with gold. I cannot begin to imagine what this must have looked like! It took seven years to build... And I really believe that most of the time spent was probably on workmanship, not necessarily erecting the building itself. If you read the entire description of it, it's chapters 5 & 6, and it's pretty phenomenal. The beauty of the interior would probably rival the Taj Mahal.
He also has his own palace built, and there's a lengthy description of it. It's mentioned he builds a house for Pharoah's daughter (his wife) as well.
Solomon has the Ark of the Covenant brought into the temple and put in the Most Holy Place, under the wings of two large cherubim figures which are covered in gold. When the priests came out of the Most Holy Place, a cloud filled the temple, and they had to leave, because the glory of the Lord just overwhelmed the place.
Solomon speaks to Israel, and reiterates to them the covenant about the temple between himself, his father, and God. He dedicates the temple, asking in prayer for Israel to turn to the temple to come back to God's fellowship whenever they are led astray, afflicted, and charges the people to walk uprightly before God. Then Solomon offers 22 thousand oxen and 120 thousand sheep as peace offerings to the Lord. The people had a great feast, and everyone went home joyful.
What do you do with the blood of 120 thousand sheep and 22 thousand oxen? Does it all just evaporate while it's being burned? The average ox has almost 6 gallons of blood in it's body.That's 132 thousand gallons of blood pouring out on this altar, without even considering the 120 thousand sheep. That's another 480 thousand gallons of blood. So we're talking over 600 thousand gallons, and that much blood can fill an Olympic size swimming pool.
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