My Daily Bible Blog

Solomon's Officials

This is a listing of Solomon's primary officials he has designated to reign over the various functions of his kingdom. He appointed 12 "District Governors" who also supplied provisions for the king and his household on a monthly basis- essentially on a rotation that took care of food, animals, and taxation.

Thoughts:

• Solomon has been blessed with wisdom and discernment as we have seen before in chapter 3. He was also blessed with the amazing abilities of a resource manager. (I could only hope to be this organized!)
  I believe this gives us an insight into the mind of Solomon and really an idea of just how God gives us natural talents and abilities that can be used in different areas of our life. For me, it is interesting to hear these stories of how Solomon handles situations both creatively and practically (such as his method of determining the correct mother of the child in 1 Kings 3:16-28.)
  
• If you were ever curious where the name "Ben-Hur" came from look in v 8.
  

*We see that some time has passed through the completion of this list as in v 11 and 15 show that two of his officials are his sons-in-laws and that Solomon has a daughter.

• Although there were many people in Judah and Isreal- "as numerous as the sand", they ate, drank, and were happy! v 20-21. people from all over brought tribute and were his subjects for years and years to come.
• The man had 4,000 stalls for chariot horses and 12,000 horses!

In verses 29 through 34 we see the amazing depths of knowledge Solomon was blessed with and that truly he was one of the wisest men to ever live.

• God gave Solomon "Wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the sea shore." v 29
• He was a man of many talents and of wisdom of every kind- from composing 3000 proverbs to a 1005 (1000 + 5 bonus?) songs, he described plant life and described all the animals and the birds. v 30-33
  
• Men from all over came from all over the world to listen to his wisdom. v 34
  

• However, does living by biblical wisdom assure us of prosperity?

I would say no based on the fact that we have seen numerous people of God who were said to have knowledge fall short on many occasions. From David from 1 and 2nd Samuel all the way back to Moses. Granted, we have not seen Solomon fall yet in the readings, we almost certainly know it is on the way. God gives us resources, talents, and gifts that we can use to either further his kingdom or ourselves.

He blesses some of us with charisma and an amazing speaking ability, some of us with administrative skills, other with the ability to create wonderful works of art, and still some with a heart that simply lends itself to those that just need someone to listen to them. It is up to us to choose how we use those gifts as we were created with free will.