What Went Wrong With Solomon on Mount Zion? AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast BibleProject

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Episode: What Went Wrong With Solomon on Mount Zion?

Author: BibleProject Podcast
Duration: 00:53:49

Episode Shownotes

The Mountain E7 — After King David's failures, we hope that his son Solomon will fare better on the cosmic mountain of Mount Zion. And initially, he does! In a cosmic mountain moment when God offers to give him anything he wants, he humbly asks only for wisdom to discern

good from bad. In response, God gives him wisdom plus material blessing, leading to an era of unparalleled abundance and peace in the cosmic mountain city of Jerusalem. During this time, the king builds a splendorous temple on Mount Zion. But with no limits on his power or resources, Solomon soon compromises. Slave labor, hundreds of wives, foreign gods—what happened here? In this episode, Jon and Tim discuss Solomon’s highs and lows, exploring how too much good can corrupt even the wisest of leaders.View more resources on our website →TimestampsChapter 1: Wisdom and Great Abundance (0:00-20:56)Chapter 2: Prosperity and Compromise (20:56-39:42)Chapter 3: Further Compromise and Downfall (39:42-53:49)Official Episode TranscriptView this episode’s official transcript.Referenced ResourcesCheck out Tim’s library here.You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music“The Turnaround” by UpsiDown“Astér” by KissamiléBibleProject theme song by TENTSShow CreditsProduction of today's episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer. Frank Garza and Aaron Olsen edited today’s episode. Aaron Olsen also provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Full Transcript

00:00:04 Speaker_04
Welcome to Bible Project Podcast. We're about halfway through this series on the theme of the mountain. We've seen that in the Bible, mountains represent an overlap between heaven and earth, where God's presence, wisdom, and blessing can be found.

00:00:20 Speaker_04
And through several stories, we've seen that certain people surrender what they think is life and ascend the mountain and learn to trust God's voice. And when they do, the blessings of heaven can flow down the mountain to the land.

00:00:33 Speaker_04
These are stories of Noah, Abraham, and Moses as intercessors and stories like David on his best day.

00:00:40 Speaker_04
Now, in today's episode, we're going to look at a real bright spot when David's son, Solomon, has the opportunity on a mountain to ask God for anything he wants.

00:00:50 Speaker_03
And Solomon said, I don't know how to lead. So give your servant a listening heart so I can discern between good and bad. It's so beautiful. We're supposed to cheer at this moment.

00:01:05 Speaker_03
Solomon's request to not take from knowing good or bad for himself, but to ask God, that is good in the eyes of God.

00:01:13 Speaker_04
God promises to give Solomon more wisdom than any other human. And he promises so much more. Things he didn't ask for. Long life, riches, protection from his enemies. And this leads to an era of great abundance and peace.

00:01:27 Speaker_04
And it leads to the construction of a temple on Mount Zion. And this is all really great, but things break bad. With no limits on Solomon's power, Solomon begins to make compromises.

00:01:39 Speaker_03
So what follows next is just the huge amounts of wealth and all the stuff he did with his wealth. He's just immersed in sex, money, and power. And it's all happening on the cosmic mountain.

00:01:50 Speaker_03
How could Solomon, the wisest human in the Hebrew Bible, screw this all up? So you're like, what else would this guy want? It turns out that the human heart can't handle too much abundance.

00:02:04 Speaker_04
Today, we'll look at Solomon's highs and lows, and we'll talk about how too much abundance can corrupt even the wisest of leaders. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. It's him. Hey, John.

00:02:22 Speaker_03
Hi. Hi. OK, we're in the thick of it. We are. Cosmic Mountain. Cosmic Mountain. Turns out it's brambly, thick and brambly up at the top of the mountain. It's hard to find our way around. Yeah. We're looking at stories that take place on the Cosmic Mountain.

00:02:37 Speaker_03
Today we're talking about Solomon and how he builds a new Garden of Eden temple on top of a cosmic mountain. And so we're going to turn to the Book of First Kings, and that's where we are.

00:02:49 Speaker_03
So David's on his deathbed in 1 Kings chapters 1 and 2, and he appoints Solomon to be the king among his sons who will reign. And that's a whole fascinating thing that we've actually looked at before. It's kind of like a mafia story.

00:03:03 Speaker_03
David orders the assassination of all these former enemies. It's really interesting. So Solomon becomes king and he's appointed king in Jerusalem. But chapter one told us that it happened by a place in the vicinity of Jerusalem, just called Gihon.

00:03:22 Speaker_03
It takes place where he becomes king? Where he becomes king. He's supposed to ride his dad's donkey into the city, but some part of the city called Gihon. And that's where they're supposed to blow a trumpet and announce him as king.

00:03:35 Speaker_03
So what's fascinating is the word Gihon, it's the word gusher. Oh yeah, it's one of the rivers. And it's only used two times in the Hebrew Bible to describe a water source. Here, a spring near Jerusalem.

00:03:48 Speaker_03
And then in the Garden of Eden story to describe one of those break off rivers that came flowing out of the river. that float out of the top of the Cosmic Mountain where the Garden of Eden was.

00:04:02 Speaker_04
The Eden River breaks off into four rivers, and one of those is Gihon. That's right. Tegush, the gushing... Tegush, yeah, that's right, yeah.

00:04:10 Speaker_03
So Solomon is announced and crowned king by the gusher in the city of Jerusalem. Not the high place, actually the spring was down the hill from the high place, but it's just a little Cosmic Mountain Eden echo there.

00:04:26 Speaker_03
So when King David finally dies, Solomon becomes king, the end of chapter two. So the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon. All right, Solomon's turn. First thing Solomon does, chapter three, verse one.

00:04:42 Speaker_03
So Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. took Pharaoh's daughter and he brought her into the city of David.

00:04:52 Speaker_04
Yeah, now you're on the good side with Pharaoh.

00:04:54 Speaker_03
Until he had finished building his own house and the house of Yahweh and the wall around Jerusalem.

00:05:02 Speaker_04
Cool. Building project.

00:05:03 Speaker_03
That's right. So this is just put in front of the reader. He married the king of Pharaoh's daughter. Which is what kings do. Yeah, to make alliances. In the ancient world. Yeah, you make alliances.

00:05:16 Speaker_03
And then also connected to that is usually adopting the family deities that are worshipped. So part of the alliance is hey, I worship whatever Ra or some Egyptian deity down here.

00:05:33 Speaker_03
And if you're taking my daughter into your home, then she'll be bringing some statues and you'll incorporate those into your growing collection of shrines and put that alongside.

00:05:44 Speaker_03
Like this is what intermarriage between Israelites and non-Israelites is always really connected to in the Hebrew Bible. It's about, the adoption of other people's gods. So the narrator doesn't say it's problematic here, just plant it there.

00:06:00 Speaker_03
You just got to sit and wait for it to sprout.

00:06:03 Speaker_04
Yeah, that's buried because at a surface reading, it's a smart strategic move.

00:06:09 Speaker_03
That's right. It's the most powerful regional player, right? It's your southern neighbor.

00:06:14 Speaker_04
Yeah. But you're saying in the biblical literature. Yeah.

00:06:17 Speaker_03
You're already supposed to know it's problematic. You're supposed to know it's problematic. And it'll become explicitly problematic in chapter 11. So next thing you're told,

00:06:27 Speaker_03
Now the people, you should know, were still offering sacrifices to Yahweh on the high places because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh. until those days. Let's just stop right there. So we're told they're sacrificing on high places.

00:06:48 Speaker_03
This is fascinating. This is going to pop up all over Kings. Oh yes. In fact, here, let me just, the high places are mentioned. Yeah. How often in Kings? The high places are mentioned 41 times. In the scroll of Kings. Big deal. Yeah.

00:07:03 Speaker_03
And the first time they're mentioned is right here. And what you're told is, Well, it's, you can't really blame the people because there was no centralized altar or temple. Now there was still the tent.

00:07:18 Speaker_03
David moved the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, but you're just told there. So it's kind of this, is this bad? Is this good? Or is this just kind of, and Yahweh's working with it. So the word high place, it's the Hebrew word bama.

00:07:33 Speaker_03
And there's lots of scholarly debate about the origin of the word and what it means.

00:07:39 Speaker_03
In a cousin Semitic language of Akkadian, it means like the side, topmost ridge of a mountain, of a mountain that has, you know, multiple sides, that highest ridge, you call it the Bama. So people are offering sacrifices to gods on high hills.

00:07:57 Speaker_03
And this is a very cross-cultural, not always universal, but cross-cultural activity because mountains are cross-culturally perceived as sacred places because they're close to the heavens. So the Israelites are just offering sacrifices all over. Yeah.

00:08:12 Speaker_03
Because there was no temple. Now, you should know this. Solomon loved Yahweh. He walked in the statutes of his father David. Well, okay, he did sacrifice and burn incense on those high places.

00:08:25 Speaker_03
In fact, the king one day went to Giv'on, or Gibeon, and then the Hebrew word Gibeon means a high hill. So he went to a high hill called High Hill. He went to a high hill called High Hill. So Giv'on or hilly place. Yeah, exactly.

00:08:45 Speaker_03
So he went to Hilltown to sacrifice there for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand offerings.

00:08:56 Speaker_04
Yeah, that's a big day.

00:09:00 Speaker_03
He must have had like 20 or 30 priests and he's like, everybody, round one, go! Yeah. And then like line them all up. He goes to the great high place to offer offerings up to God.

00:09:16 Speaker_03
So we should be thinking, well, the places where this happens is in front of the tabernacle, which is a symbolic cosmic mountain.

00:09:27 Speaker_03
And then also at the foot of Mount Sinai, when Moses brokered the covenant relationship, he built an altar at the foot of the mountain. And then he went up onto the mountain and offered himself. That's a whole other thing.

00:09:40 Speaker_03
But all of those point back to Eden, where Adam and Eve failed to surrender to God. And so they get exiled past the cherubim and the fiery sword. And that's where Cain and Abel offer the first offerings in Genesis 4.

00:09:57 Speaker_03
At the base of the mountain of sorts. So there's a king who was appointed king at Gusher, which is the name of one of the rivers that flowed out of Eden, and then he's going to high places. at Hilltown to offer sacrifices to Yahweh.

00:10:12 Speaker_04
Now, later in the Scroll of Kings, sacrificing in high places is explicitly bad. Explicitly prohibited. Because the temple exists. Because the temple exists.

00:10:22 Speaker_03
And notice all these little concessions. They're like, well, they were sacrificing in a high place, but there wasn't a temple.

00:10:28 Speaker_04
Because I thought the high places were always associated with other gods, like the Asherah poles and stuff.

00:10:33 Speaker_03
Yeah, not here. That's right. So here it's just recognizing there's this little unique era where Yahweh will accept the worship of Israel on the high places because the temple didn't exist yet. And Solomon went to town.

00:10:50 Speaker_03
And so Solomon went there one day with a thousand animals. And at Hilltown, Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. Wow. This is like, this is cool. A lot like Adam fell asleep in the garden. Yeah.

00:11:07 Speaker_03
And Yahweh gave him the fulfillment of his dreams, which was his better half, literally metaphorically. And God said to Solomon, Ask what you want me to give you. What do you desire? What do you want? Yeah, ask.

00:11:26 Speaker_03
And Solomon said, you have shown great loyal love to your servant, David, my dad. And he walked before you in truth and righteousness with an upright heart. Except when he didn't. Except for the murder and the selfishness.

00:11:44 Speaker_03
But other than that, you reserved for him great loyal love And you gave him me, a son to sit on his throne as it is today. He's feeling pretty good about himself. He's feeling pretty good talking about himself in third person. This is so rad.

00:12:04 Speaker_03
Now, Yahweh, my Elohim. So you are my dad's Elohim. Yahweh, you're my Elohim. You have made your servant a king in the place of your father, David. Yet here's the thing. I'm just, I'm a little boy.

00:12:19 Speaker_03
I don't know how to go out or how to come in, which is a shorthand phrase, literally to go in and out, but it was used to both David and Joshua for leading armies in and out to battle. I don't know how to lead. I don't know how to lead.

00:12:35 Speaker_03
Your servant is in the middle of your people, the people you've chosen. There are great people, too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant a listening heart, a heart that listens, meaning listens to your voice.

00:12:54 Speaker_03
This is the word Shema here. It's the word Shema. Yes. That's exactly right. Shema. So give your servant a heart that listens so I can discern between good and bad, because who's able to render just, bring justice, rule this great people of yours.

00:13:12 Speaker_04
Yeah. Solomon's shown a lot of humility here.

00:13:14 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:13:15 Speaker_04
He's pretty stoked on himself. Gave the thousand sacrifices. That's a big day. Yeah. You know, that's a hero day. And then God's like, I give you anything. And it just turns and he's like, you know what? I actually don't know what I'm doing.

00:13:30 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:13:30 Speaker_04
I'm like, I'm basically a kid. I'm like a kid. I don't know how to lead. There's a lot of people to lead. You want me to be the leader. And so then when he asks for it, it's so beautiful.

00:13:41 Speaker_03
It's so beautiful.

00:13:43 Speaker_04
We're supposed to cheer at this moment. This is a great moment. He asks for a heart that listens, a Shema heart. I want to listen to your voice, not just my own. I want to be connected to your desires. Yeah, my heart. My heart connected to your heart.

00:13:57 Speaker_04
And I want to know good from bad. Discerning between. Which, and we've talked about this, is like the most obvious hyperlink back to the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

00:14:08 Speaker_03
He's at high place. He's in hill town, on the high place, asking for God to teach him the knowledge of good and bad.

00:14:16 Speaker_04
I love this story because You know, in the story of Genesis 2, where God says, don't eat of the tree, and that's the riddle, you get here Solomon going, can you let me eat of that tree? I want the tree.

00:14:32 Speaker_04
And you're like, well, that's the tree that God said don't eat of. And now God's telling Solomon, ask of anything. And Solomon's like, you know what I want? Yeah. That thing you told Adam and Eve not to eat.

00:14:41 Speaker_03
That's what I want. Yeah. I want, yeah, that's right. Which again, it's hard for us because the tree of knowing good and bad, we think of it as a bad thing because God said, don't eat of it.

00:14:51 Speaker_03
But the whole premise of that riddle in the Eden story is that it's a good thing. But how are you going to get it? Do you send out your hand and take what is good in your eyes? Or will you listen?

00:15:04 Speaker_03
Have a heart that listens to Yahweh's voice and allow Him to teach you how to discern good from bad. The problem is not a desire to know good and bad. The problem is how you will define good and bad and whose wisdom will you rely on.

00:15:21 Speaker_03
Yeah, and He says, I want to listen to your voice. Oh, also notice this is happening while he's asleep. Oh, that's right. This is a dream. Yeah.

00:15:29 Speaker_03
And actually that's important both because it is an allusion back to the deep sleep of the human in Genesis 2, but also that human perception of the overlap of heaven and earth in the Bible is usually connected to some modified altered state of consciousness.

00:15:49 Speaker_03
The biblical authors take it for granted that dream states or higher levels of consciousness, visions, states of prayer are when the, what do you say, more dimensions of reality become perceivable. Isn't that interesting? Yeah.

00:16:07 Speaker_03
That's their assumption. That are normal modes of consciousness. Keep us from seeing. Keep us from seeing what's right there. What's right there. Yeah. Anyway. So this all happened in a dream. This thing was good in the eyes of Yahweh.

00:16:24 Speaker_03
Solomon asked what was good. Yeah. Notice the Eden language. In the Eden story, the tree was good in the eyes of Eve. And so she took and gave to her husband. and he ate.

00:16:36 Speaker_03
Here, Solomon's request to not take from knowing good and bad for himself, but to ask God, that is good in the eyes of God. It's like a twist. So God said to them, because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life,

00:16:54 Speaker_03
Think eternal life? No, it's not eternal. Eternal life is what humans lose from the garden. We're outside of Eden here. So eternal life outside Eden is not really on the table, but long life, it's Eden-like life. So you didn't ask for long life.

00:17:08 Speaker_03
You didn't ask for riches, nor did you ask for the life of your enemies. You've asked for discernment and to understand justice. So I have done according to your word. Look, I give you a wise, it's our word from the book of Proverbs.

00:17:28 Speaker_03
So know-how, I'm gonna give you know-how and a heart that can discern between.

00:17:34 Speaker_03
So that there will be no one like you ever, in fact, and there has never been anyone who's gonna be as wise as you and there never will be anyone as wise as you into the future. New Adam, I've also given you what you didn't ask for.

00:17:52 Speaker_03
Riches and honor, there won't be anyone like you among the kings in your days. If. Notice the if, he like delayed. This is sort of like the fine print. You name the benefits and then you're like, if.

00:18:13 Speaker_03
You walk in my ways, keep my statutes and commandments as your father David walked, then I will make long your days. So basically this is the shorthand in Kings for the covenant terms revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai, the terms of the covenant.

00:18:30 Speaker_03
Keep the covenant.

00:18:31 Speaker_04
Okay. This is a side note. This happens a lot where it's twice now in this story. God's like, just like your father, David, who lived upright, walked in my ways. And it's like, well, yeah, sometimes, but like a lot of times he didn't. Yeah, exactly.

00:18:47 Speaker_04
Are we just kind of whitewashing over all that?

00:18:49 Speaker_03
Like, what's the, like, why has this become the summary? Yeah. It seems that God allows his early trust and faithfulness to have laid a foundation that really is the bedrock of his relationship to David. And that's what determines.

00:19:07 Speaker_03
That's what's calling back to how David started. Yeah, totally. Okay. Yeah. Similar to Abraham. When Abraham has looked back to in his moment of faith and trust, Abraham trusted God and God reckoned it to him as righteousness.

00:19:20 Speaker_03
That moment for later generations overshadows. And then his trusting God with Isaac overshadows

00:19:28 Speaker_03
all of his failures, which doesn't mean his failures aren't important, but it does mean God relates to Abraham's descendants and to David's descendants, not based on... He doesn't treat him as his sins deserve. He, oh, this is interesting.

00:19:46 Speaker_03
He relates to Abraham and David's children according to what Abraham and David did on their best day.

00:19:53 Speaker_04
Yeah. And let's that determine the relationship. So when Solomon hears that, does he know like, okay, I just need to have a good day. That's a good question.

00:20:04 Speaker_03
Or is he thinking like, I got a straight and narrow my whole life? Yeah, that's a good point. I think in the moment, it's definitely like, stay on this right path. Yeah. Yep.

00:20:13 Speaker_02
Yeah, that's right. Okay.

00:20:15 Speaker_03
That's a fascinating dynamic. The biblical characters are portrayed as flawed, yet often their high points are treated as if that was the only thing they did. That's what you're saying. Yeah, it is. The same thing has bothered me since the first time I

00:20:31 Speaker_03
Read the story of David too, I totally get it. And so he came to Jerusalem and there he stood before the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh. And there... That's what the high priest does.

00:21:09 Speaker_03
He offered up his burnt offerings, peace offerings, and he made a feast. He went into the Holy of Holies. Because he hasn't built it yet. Well, okay. He stood before the Ark of the Covenant. It could be that means he's standing in front of the tent. Oh.

00:21:23 Speaker_03
But it's suggestive because it makes it sound like he goes right in front of it. But you don't offer burnt offerings right in front of it. You do that in the courtyard.

00:21:33 Speaker_03
But now this raises the question of like, oh man, what are those people doing on the high places? Oh yeah, you can go here. Why didn't he come here first? Isn't that interesting?

00:21:42 Speaker_04
That is interesting.

00:21:43 Speaker_03
So the high places are kind of not really, it's not really okay. but Yahweh will allow it. He'll make the concession because the temple doesn't exist yet, even though the Ark of the Covenant's there.

00:21:56 Speaker_03
And so knowledge of good and bad to the King to rule and length of days on high place and food for everybody. Hooray. And he passes the test. And you're like, this is going to go great. He is married to Pharaoh's daughter.

00:22:12 Speaker_03
I wonder how that's going to play out, but this is going great. So then the story gets even more wonderful. There's a quick display. The Mediaphus is a display of his wisdom, the story of the two women who each had a child. One of the children dies.

00:22:29 Speaker_03
The one like steals the other and replaces them at night. And I guess they look so similar. And then they come before Solomon because there's a dispute and Solomon famously says, Oh, this is simple. Cut the child in half.

00:22:44 Speaker_03
And one lady's like, yeah, that's fine. And then the other mom's, the real mom is like, no, don't do that. It's fascinating. It's so hyperlinked to all kinds of things, but we don't have time.

00:22:58 Speaker_03
What I want to notice then is the narrative starts feeding us all kinds of details about Solomon simultaneously building his kingdom and his house. and then Yahweh's house and Yahweh's kingdom in tandem with each other.

00:23:13 Speaker_03
And we've actually looked at this multiple times throughout the years, that when you work through this story, there'll be things where you're like, oh, that feels neutral to me.

00:23:24 Speaker_03
So for example, chapter four, Solomon was king over Israel, and here are his officials. And you get a long list of officials. He had, for example, verse 7, 12 deputies over all Israel who provided for the king and his household.

00:23:41 Speaker_03
Every man provided food for one month of the year. Then it names 12 of them. So you have a rotating like chef, head chef for the king. I guess there's a lot of food. Cool.

00:23:59 Speaker_03
Verse 20, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand in the sea in multiplication, eating and drinking and rejoicing.

00:24:07 Speaker_04
That's great. Awesome.

00:24:09 Speaker_03
Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River up in the north the land of Philistines down to the border of Egypt. And by kingdoms, we're talking about Israel kingdoms or? And the neighboring kingdoms. Yeah.

00:24:23 Speaker_03
So like the Phoenicians, the Moabites. This is the golden age. This is the biggest Israel's borders ever were. And people are bringing tribute to Solomon. That is people pay Solomon to be the Bishop of the region. We're the mafia boss.

00:24:43 Speaker_04
Well, yeah, in a negative way, you think of it as like the mafia boss, right? Like, yeah, give tribute. So we don't have to come and beat you up, but we'll protect you.

00:24:51 Speaker_03
Yeah. It's really more like a regional mayor or something like that.

00:24:54 Speaker_04
Yeah. Yeah. But I guess in like a beautiful way, it could be like, man, you're creating so much prosperity. We're honoring you. Yeah. Keep going.

00:25:04 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:25:04 Speaker_04
Let's keep doing this.

00:25:05 Speaker_03
Totally. Yeah. The provision for Solomon's house for one day. was 30 cores of fine flour, 60 cores of meal. Apparently a core is like 10 bushels. I think it's a lot. It's a lot.

00:25:19 Speaker_03
10 oxen, 20 pasture-fed oxen, 100 sheep, not to mention the deer, the gazelles, the roebucks, and the fat chickens. This is what it takes to feed Solomon's corn or whatever. Wow. Abundance. We're turning up the volume on the abundance.

00:25:38 Speaker_03
Verse 25, Judah and Israel lived in safety. Every man under his own vine and his own fig tree. Everyone had their little garden. Everyone has a little garden of Eden. Remember the fig trees from the garden of Eden? That's what Adam and Eve cover up.

00:25:54 Speaker_03
Their nakedness. Yeah, totally. So you're just like, this is great. This is great. Ah, Solomon had 40,000 stalls or perhaps 4,000 stalls. There's manuscript variant here.

00:26:10 Speaker_03
Either way, thousands of stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 cavalry riders. Now, wait a minute. That just took a turn. Did it? Well, we were just like, food for everybody. Yeah, we've been feasting, but now we got horses.

00:26:29 Speaker_03
Partnership and friendship with the kingdoms all around him.

00:26:32 Speaker_04
Now, all my friends who want horses... They just want to like ride in meadows, right? Be connected to beast and land. Yeah.

00:26:42 Speaker_03
I see. Yeah. No, this is, these are tanks. Yeah.

00:26:46 Speaker_04
These are war tanks.

00:26:47 Speaker_03
Yeah. Yeah. So this is the first little, what? So I remember what God said through Moses, Deuteronomy 17, the King is not to amass great wealth and he's not to build a huge standing army and definitely Don't try and build a big cavalry.

00:27:05 Speaker_03
Now God gave Solomon wisdom and great discernment, wideness of mind like the sand on the sea. His wisdom surpassed the wisdom of the sons of the east and of Egypt. So notice it's just back and forth. It's like a little hint.

00:27:18 Speaker_03
building the tanks, the tank like fleet, and then we're back to the wisdom. And this is how it works. He spoke 3,000, this is so great, man. He spoke 3,000 proverbs, wrote 1,005 songs. He spoke about the trees. He has wisdom about trees.

00:27:37 Speaker_03
Come on, that's Garden of Eden. from the cedars up in Lebanon to like the little vegetative hyssop shrubs that grow out of the cracks in the wall. He spoke about animals, birds, creeping things, and fish.

00:27:54 Speaker_04
Yeah, these are the creatures from Genesis 1.

00:27:56 Speaker_03
He knows the whole cosmic wisdom. Cosmic wisdom. Living on the cosmic mountain. So that list is interesting. It's mostly positive. And then you get this little note about his tanks.

00:28:09 Speaker_03
What follows in chapters six, seven, and eight is all about the building of the temple. And it feels like reading the tabernacle blueprints from Exodus, except everything's scaled by multiples of like five and 10, a lot more gold. Everything's bigger.

00:28:28 Speaker_04
Sorry, this is total tangent. These ancient temples were often zirats or mountain shaped. Oh, okay.

00:28:35 Speaker_03
Yes, this was not. This is not. This follows a different tradition. Okay. Yeah. Solomon's temple was built by an architectural tradition that was really popular in Canaan and Syria at the time.

00:28:50 Speaker_03
Many shrines or temples that follow the rough design of Solomon's building have been excavated from the same period. That's really interesting. Yeah. So there's like a whole rabbit hole of the architectural similarities.

00:29:06 Speaker_04
But if I can recall correctly, it's not like a pyramid shape. It's more of like a big, big rectangle.

00:29:13 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's like a scaled brick-and-mortar version of the tabernacle. So it has a two-part shape. Think of it in a long rectangle, and two-thirds of it is this big antechamber. A long rectangle. Think of it as a rectangle. Like, is it on its side, or?

00:29:30 Speaker_03
Like, think of it as if it's sitting in front of you. Like a skyscraper. Yeah, like a skyscraper. So a tall rectangle. Two-thirds of it is this big antechamber rim. Two-thirds of it mean the bottom two-thirds?

00:29:43 Speaker_03
The bottom two-thirds, and then the top one-third is where the Holy of Holies and the Ark is.

00:29:48 Speaker_04
Oh, you gotta go up to it.

00:29:50 Speaker_03
Well, actually, yes, he does make stairs. So you have stairs that go from the courtyard out up into the first set of doors that take you into the opening chamber. The antechamber. Which is two thirds. Okay.

00:30:01 Speaker_03
And then you go up another set of stairs through. So in the tabernacle, it was just kind of rooms within rooms. It was just, yep, two rooms again, but two thirds, one third. Yeah. With curtains in front of both. And he swaps those out for gigantic doors.

00:30:15 Speaker_03
And he stacks them.

00:30:16 Speaker_04
Yeah, you're going higher and higher as you go up to the Holy of Holies, where the Ark is. So it's got kind of a mountain type of vibe, but it's not a mountain shape.

00:30:26 Speaker_03
No, it's using the symbolism is to go deeper in is to be going up to heaven. Because the altar of incense is still right in front of the doors. that connect the two chambers to each other.

00:30:39 Speaker_03
So you're passing through a heavenly cloud up to the high place. And you're going up. And you're literally going up, yeah, inside. So the cherubim are huge, these huge cherubim overshadowing the ark that itself has cherubim on the top of the lid.

00:30:56 Speaker_04
But you're going up a staircase then to then get to these massive cherubim where the incense is going. Yeah, that's right.

00:31:03 Speaker_03
So if you are standing Imagine you're standing in the courtyard right in front of the altar that has a fire burning on it. And you can stand there with the priest. And that's as far as you're going to go if you're average Israelite.

00:31:19 Speaker_03
And you're looking through the fire of the altar. up the stairs at the first door, and there's two cherubim at the first door engraved on them. And let's say the door is open for a moment and through the antechamber to the Holy of Holies.

00:31:33 Speaker_03
And you're looking up and in, you're looking through fire and then a foggy smoke. And then you see two more cherubim.

00:31:41 Speaker_03
So everything about it is meant to recreate the boundary of the Garden of Eden, the cherubim at the door and also the fire, the fiery sword. that is in between the cherubim.

00:31:53 Speaker_04
So the Anna chamber is like, you're looking in and then there's stairs up and it's almost like a loft. Is that what I'm picturing?

00:32:01 Speaker_03
I forget how many steps it is. I think it's a multiple of seven, of course.

00:32:06 Speaker_04
And so the like Holy of Holies is up these stairs on the loft up in this tower. Okay.

00:32:15 Speaker_03
Yeah, that's it. Further up and further in. That's exactly it. So all of the Eden imagery of the tabernacle itself is being reactivated in the design of the temple, but the scaled, like just bigger. It takes so long to describe it.

00:32:36 Speaker_03
It takes all of chapters six and seven. What you are told at the end of chapter 6 was he was 7 years in building the house of Yahweh. Next sentence. Now he went about building his own house for 13 years. And chapter seven begins.

00:32:57 Speaker_03
He also built this house that's like a garden forest. It's where he keeps all of his weapons. You find out later. It's like the Royal Armory. Okay. Called the House of the Forest of Lebanon and the Hall of Pillars, the Hall of a Throne.

00:33:13 Speaker_03
He has a huge throne, big throne. You learn about that later. Oh, also he made a house for Pharaoh's daughter, who he had married. And oh man, he loved to use costly stones for his house and the foundations, these great courts.

00:33:30 Speaker_03
And you're like, okay, this is interesting. So costly stones are connected to Eden. But now he's using them to build his own house. And there's part of it you think, I guess this is okay. And then another part of it is, Feels a little uncomfortable?

00:33:44 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's like, I think he's making it fancier than Yahweh's house. And he's putting his house right next to Yahweh's house.

00:33:51 Speaker_04
And he's building multiple houses, and he's spending more time on them.

00:33:54 Speaker_03
Yeah, and way more time. That's exactly right. Yep. So there's nothing explicit. It's all implicit. But you're just supposed to know at this point that... Is there anything explicit? Doesn't he do some things? You're just like, yep, that's a problem.

00:34:08 Speaker_03
Well, it starts growing. Let's see. At the end of chapter eight, all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of Yahweh was finished. Just like on the seventh day, Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father, David, silver and gold.

00:34:24 Speaker_03
He loaded the house of Yahweh with treasuries. Ancient temples were also the equivalent of banks.

00:34:31 Speaker_04
Storehouses. Yes. Yeah.

00:34:32 Speaker_03
Yeah. For the Royal. Chapter eight, he gives a seven part prayer that culminates in a feast of seven days plus seven more days.

00:34:43 Speaker_03
And at the end of this seven-part prayer, after seven plus seven days, this is all Genesis 1 imagery, verse 54 of chapter 8, when Solomon finished praying this prayer, he arose from his altar,

00:34:57 Speaker_03
from kneeling with his knees with his hands spread towards heaven. He blessed the assembly of Israel. He blessed Yahweh. They offered, okay, you thought a thousand offerings was a lot. They offered peace offering sacrifices, 22,000 oxen, 120,000 sheep.

00:35:15 Speaker_03
Oh, this is next level. He consecrated the middle of the courtyard in front of the house of Yahweh. The peace offering, they get to eat that, right? Yes. Yeah, totally. Yeah. It was a feast. Yeah. Huge. Yeah. Everyone's eating. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Right.

00:35:33 Speaker_03
For seven days, plus seven days. And on the eighth day, the first day of the new week, he sent the people away, blessed, joyful, glad. This is like, this is Eden, man. Yeah. This is Eden. Party. Chapter nine.

00:35:49 Speaker_03
So Yahweh appeared a second time, just like he had at Hilltown saying, okay, I've heard your prayer. And I've consecrated a house by putting my name there, and my eyes and my heart will be on that house. You want me to come live in your house?

00:36:06 Speaker_03
I'll come live in your house.

00:36:08 Speaker_04
You're making it sound like he's a little reluctant.

00:36:11 Speaker_03
Just meh. That's for you. Walk before me like your father David did, in integrity, doing according to what I've commanded you. If you do, I'll establish your throne forever. Like we're golden, just like I promised to David, which he blew that promise.

00:36:28 Speaker_03
If you and your sons turn away from following me, don't keep my commandments and go serve other gods. I will cut Israel off from the land that I gave them and I'll cut off this house. So you always got this ambivalent relationship to the house.

00:36:42 Speaker_03
Like I'll come live in your house. But if you don't fulfill your end of the deal, this house doesn't matter to me. Yep. Yep. I'll cast the house away from my eyes.

00:36:53 Speaker_03
In fact, Israel will become a proverb among the nations, like a bad proverb, like a warning, like a warning. The house will become a heap of ruins.

00:37:04 Speaker_03
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished saying, whoa, why would Yahweh destroy this land and this house?

00:37:12 Speaker_04
Now this is all foreshadowing.

00:37:14 Speaker_03
It's all foreshadowing, but it's also the inauguration day. I mean, can you just imagine the speech?

00:37:20 Speaker_04
Well, this is, yeah, this doesn't sound like the speech you would have written for Yahweh on the inauguration day.

00:37:26 Speaker_04
But it sounds like the speech you would have put into the scroll when you are looking back from the point of view of Israel failing, of the temple being destroyed.

00:37:37 Speaker_03
That's right. And remember, this whole building is built on the spot. where this guy's dad went and offered sacrifices for all of his, like all the decades of failure. And you're like, yeah, this is, so that's the deal.

00:37:55 Speaker_03
And that reminds us that this is all conditional. This could all go away like very quickly if his heart doesn't listen. But he has a listening heart. But he has a listening heart. I mean, if anyone's going to succeed. Yeah, that's right.

00:38:08 Speaker_03
So what follows next in the rest of chapter nine, we go back to recording just the huge amounts of wealth and all the stuff he did with his wealth. So he starts building all kinds of cities around them.

00:38:21 Speaker_03
What you're told is that, you know, all these building projects are happening through slave labor. Yeah. Is that a problem? Well, yes. Yeah. It's the same vocabulary used for Pharaoh enslaving the Israelites. Solomon's pulling a Pharaoh move.

00:38:43 Speaker_03
Oh, speaking of, Pharaoh's daughter came up from Jerusalem and finally came to live in that house. that he built for her. Also, he had a fleet of ships. He's a seagoing king. And they went to Ophir and brought huge amounts of gold. But the ships did.

00:39:03 Speaker_03
The ships did, yeah. He's amassing huge amounts of gold. You're just like, whoa. And then chapter 10 is the Queen of Sheba comes and visits. And that's a fantastic story that we don't have time to read, but she can see that he's wise.

00:39:17 Speaker_03
So that's the last positive thing. Chapter 11, verse 1. King Solomon actually loved many non-Israelite women in addition to the daughter of Pharaoh.

00:39:54 Speaker_03
Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite women from all the nations concerning which Yahweh said to Israel, don't intermarry with them. and don't let them intermarry with you because they will turn your hearts away after their gods.

00:40:12 Speaker_03
Solomon clung to them in love.

00:40:16 Speaker_04
So that's not a move you would make if you have a discerning heart. What's going on here?

00:40:23 Speaker_03
What's going on here? The word cling is from the Garden of Eden story. Oh really? A man will leave his father and mother be joined, cling to his wife.

00:40:33 Speaker_04
He clings to these wives. And in the Garden of Eden, it's a man clinging to a woman.

00:40:37 Speaker_03
And here it's a man clinging to many women. Many women. That's right. This is like Lamech from Genesis 4.

00:40:45 Speaker_04
who takes multiple wives, takes two wives.

00:40:47 Speaker_03
Yep, he's the first polygamist, so he's the first one to violate the Eden ideal, one man and one woman. And now here's Solomon holding fast to many women and to their gods. He had 700 wives. He goes big. Solomon goes big. Unbelievable.

00:41:09 Speaker_03
It's really hard to fathom. That's really hard to fathom. You wouldn't know all their names. Yep. Yep. And then just 300, like reproductive partners, concubines. This is not for relationship building for a political alliance.

00:41:24 Speaker_03
This is just- Yeah, 700 is a max for relationship building. Yeah. Some sort of relational law. So, I mean, 300 women that he controls them. Yeah. And they're available for sex.

00:41:38 Speaker_04
Yeah. I mean, it's a type of slave.

00:41:40 Speaker_03
Yep. And his wives turned his heart away. So what's fascinating is we're describing him as the active figure here towards these women. And then they're the reciprocity back there towards him as they turn his heart away. But the Lemic

00:41:58 Speaker_03
And the polygamy thing is really significant here because that's the first time you see a man accumulating women, ruling them like they're animals. Like you accumulate, like animals, flocks, possessions, yeah.

00:42:12 Speaker_03
And instead of ruling alongside, like Genesis 1. Co-rulers. Yep, male and female, let them rule. You have this portrait of just excessive, Unnecessary, excessive accumulation of other humans.

00:42:29 Speaker_04
But what's the deal? I mean, we went out of our way. I know. To be like, this guy gets it.

00:42:35 Speaker_03
Yeah. He gets it. Yeah.

00:42:37 Speaker_04
No one's going to get it more than him. Yeah. And that's interesting.

00:42:40 Speaker_03
And it's all happening on the cosmic mountain. Yeah.

00:42:43 Speaker_04
And then just like, you get these little hints, you get these little like tastes of like, is this excessive? And then you get to chapter 11, it's like, actually, His wisdom made him decide. You know what would be good? Not one wife, not two wives.

00:43:01 Speaker_03
700. Seven times a hundred. Yeah. And actually here, let me just, I'll just finish reading the paragraph. Solomon was old. When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away. His heart was not fully devoted to Yahweh as his father David had been.

00:43:15 Speaker_03
One thing true of David, he'd never gave his allegiance to another God. He was selfish, violent. So turned his heart away from what?

00:43:23 Speaker_04
from Yahweh. Oh, but not towards another God, just... Correct. Okay.

00:43:28 Speaker_03
In other words, David never gave his allegiance to another deity. Okay. Whereas Solomon did. Solomon went after Ashtoreth. Oh, Solomon did. The goddess of the Sidonians. Oh. Solomon went after Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites.

00:43:42 Speaker_03
He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. He didn't follow Yahweh. In fact, even Solomon built a high place For Chemosh, the idol of Moab, on the mountain, just on the east side of Jerusalem. And for Molech, the idol of the sons of Ammon.

00:44:03 Speaker_03
And you should know for Molech, it's not told that he sacrificed children, but that is the sacrifice associated. And so it goes on. You broke bad real fast. Yeah. So I like your question.

00:44:16 Speaker_03
Why is the narrative turning up the volume on like, this is the best. wisest, wealthiest human we've met in the biblical story.

00:44:27 Speaker_04
And it goes great for a while. There's feasting and the Queen of Sheba is like, this is awesome.

00:44:31 Speaker_03
He builds the temple. It's a new Eden. Feasts, prayers.

00:44:36 Speaker_04
Everyone has their own vine. Yes.

00:44:37 Speaker_03
Yeah. But with little seeds of like, I think this is going to his head. He builds his fleet of tanks. He imports horses from Egypt. Lot of money. Yeah.

00:44:50 Speaker_03
And then the next sentence, and all these marriage alliances, he's just immersed in sex, money, and power. And in the end, it ruined his heart. In the end, it ruined his heart. The point where he's building, like... The high places.

00:45:05 Speaker_03
So these become false Edens.

00:45:08 Speaker_04
This is the, like, the thing that God was like, that's the line. Yeah. That's my line.

00:45:12 Speaker_03
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Once the temple exists, no more high places. And especially no other gods. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. So if the Eden ideal is you're in union with Yahweh, and then with Adam and Eve, you're in union with this other human.

00:45:28 Speaker_03
with all the food and security you could ever want. Surely that would be enough. Surely that's enough. Isn't that interesting portrait here? So you're like, what else would this guy want? Yahweh's with him. He appears in his dreams.

00:45:42 Speaker_03
They have conversations. That's interesting. He got to marry Pharaoh's daughter, right? He got to build the temple. What more could he want?

00:45:54 Speaker_04
It's like a meditation on how we just don't know how to deal with abundance.

00:45:59 Speaker_03
Somehow we are fixated on the thing we don't have. Right now I'm thinking of how the snake gets Eve and Adam to ignore the abundance and think about the one thing that at least at this moment, God's put off limits.

00:46:17 Speaker_03
And this is like the inverse where this guy has everything. He doesn't need another wife, much less 699. He doesn't need four houses, but he's just like, well, one more high place.

00:46:33 Speaker_03
There's something about the human brain that just gets unhinged from reality when we don't know what to do with too much tov.

00:46:43 Speaker_04
Yeah, too much tov. You know, what's really interesting about that is, We've been talking about the danger of being in this corrupt state, climbing the mountain, that danger.

00:46:55 Speaker_04
And now we're meditating on the danger of having this beautiful discerning heart and now being in the abundance on the cosmic mountain. We're flipping the portrait again. Yeah. And there's a danger there.

00:47:07 Speaker_03
Wow. Okay. So the danger, yeah, with David is like he was just a ruthless, He's a ruthless king. And he was willing to hurt and damage people, kill people to preserve his life. And he wants to be with God on the holy mountain.

00:47:24 Speaker_03
And so God forces him to go through all these acts of surrender.

00:47:28 Speaker_04
Here, you have a guy who- He's made it to the cosmic mountain. Yes. He's eating from the tree of knowing good and bad, but on God's terms.

00:47:37 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:47:37 Speaker_04
So he's doing it. Doing it. He's doing it.

00:47:39 Speaker_03
And so in that sense, he's the opposite of his dad.

00:47:41 Speaker_04
He's opposite his dad and he's like done the thing that Adam and Eve couldn't figure out. And God gave him a discerning heart. So now his heart can align with God and there's abundance. And so you think game over. You think this is it.

00:47:53 Speaker_03
This is it. But then it turns out that the human heart also can't handle too much abundance. Can't handle too much abundance. It just starts to get morally lazy. And then that abundance, right, skews his view of himself and of other people.

00:48:11 Speaker_03
So you can just start accumulating other humans.

00:48:13 Speaker_04
I guess his heart was not that discerning. Right?

00:48:16 Speaker_03
There's something like, there's still something missing. After years of overabundance.

00:48:21 Speaker_04
After years of overabundance.

00:48:23 Speaker_03
That's really, yeah, that's the flip here. And so he loses his kingdom. God takes it away. He does exactly what he said he would do.

00:48:33 Speaker_03
I'll cut off Israel from this land, I'll cut off this house and cast it from my eyes, and your family and your house won't endure." So what happens is that Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam takes the throne. This is in 1 Kings 12, and his son's an idiot.

00:48:52 Speaker_03
He doesn't know how to rule either. And he listens to bad advice, and he raises taxes, and the tribes split, and there's almost a civil war, and everything goes downhill.

00:49:06 Speaker_03
And then Solomon's dynasty lasts five centuries, which is longer than the country you and I live in has existed.

00:49:14 Speaker_04
When you say his dynasty lasts five centuries, that's until Babylon?

00:49:17 Speaker_03
Until Babylon comes to town. And actually, sorry, the royal line still exists, but they're taken out of power and taken into captivity.

00:49:25 Speaker_04
And that's what Kings is all about, is all the kids. The long, slow decline. There's two kingdoms. Most of them are still building high places and worshiping high places.

00:49:36 Speaker_03
Actually, every king to follow from here

00:49:40 Speaker_03
is one of the main criteria for whether or not they're with Yahweh is whether they worship at the high places or not, whether they get rid of the high places, or whether they allow the people to still worship other gods or worship Yahweh on them.

00:49:56 Speaker_03
So these high places, these little mini mountains, become like the temperature gauge for Israel's covenant loyalty. Will they meet God on the cosmic mountain where he's allowed himself to be accessible in Jerusalem?

00:50:11 Speaker_03
But doing that will usually force a crisis. or will people worship a domesticated Yahweh on their own self-made cosmic mountains?

00:50:19 Speaker_04
Which is another way to think about taking of the truth, no good and bad. It's like, it's the right thing, but from the wrong strategy.

00:50:26 Speaker_03
Yeah, yeah. So it's like, oh, good, yeah.

00:50:29 Speaker_04
God wants us on the cosmic mountain. We're like, well, maybe we can make the cosmic mountain this way. Yeah, totally, yeah.

00:50:35 Speaker_03
And then we're good. Yeah, so the high places represent- Cosmic mountain on my own terms. Pseudo cosmic mountains, but made on our own terms.

00:50:44 Speaker_02
Yep, that's right.

00:50:45 Speaker_03
So that's the story of Solomon's rise and fall on the cosmic mountain that is Jerusalem.

00:50:52 Speaker_03
So where we're going to go from here is a pretty important climactic cosmic mountain moment in a prophet that God raises up to challenge the kings of Israel to stop following other gods and to follow Yahweh alone. A showdown at the high place.

00:51:08 Speaker_03
Yeah, the guy's name is Yahweh is my God, otherwise known as Elijah. So we'll look at his story on two cosmic mountains next.

00:51:22 Speaker_04
Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week, we'll look at Elijah, a faithful prophet who challenges the false prophets of Baal to a cosmic mountain showdown on Mount Carmel.

00:51:34 Speaker_04
And he does this to get Israel to decide who are they gonna trust, Yahweh or Baal?

00:51:40 Speaker_03
And Elijah's gonna force this to a test. Let's get two bowls and build two altars. The God who answers with fire from heaven, that's God. Pretty simple test. But notice the test is for the people.

00:51:53 Speaker_03
They are wavering between two opinions about who is the true God.

00:51:58 Speaker_04
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