Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 194
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 2:39–3:11
But three years later two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to King Achish son
of Maacah of Gath. When Shimei learned where they were, he saddled
his donkey and went to Gath to search for them. When he found them, he
brought them back to Jerusalem.
Solomon heard that Shimei had left Jerusalem and had gone to Gath and
returned. So the king sent for Shimei and demanded, “Didn’t I make you
swear by the Lord and warn you not to go anywhere else or you would
surely die? And you replied, ‘The sentence is fair; I will do as you say.’ Then
why haven’t you kept your oath to the Lord and obeyed my command?”
The king also said to Shimei, “You certainly remember all the wicked
things you did to my father, David. May the Lord now bring that evil on
your own head. But may I, King Solomon, receive the Lord’s blessings,
and may one of David’s descendants always sit on this throne in the presence of the Lord.” Then, at the king’s command, Benaiah son of Jehoiada
took Shimei outside and killed him.
So the kingdom was now firmly in Solomon’s grip.
Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married
one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he
could finish building his palace and the Temple of the Lord and the wall
around the city. At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings
at local places of worship, for a temple honoring the name of the Lord
had not yet been built.
Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, Da
vid, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the
local places of worship. The most important of these places of worship
was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings. That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said,
“What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant
my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And
you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by
giving him a son to sit on his throne.
“Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father,
David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And
here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and
numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart so
that I can govern your people well and know the difference between
right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people
of yours?”
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. So God
replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with