20140522 Thursday, May 22 2014
1 Kings 09: The Kingdom Of Freedom

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"IF thou wilt walk before Me"

The LORD created everything and everyone (see Colossians: By Him Were All Things Created and What Makes Physical Life Possible?). True freedom, with respect to the God-given life and property rights of all others, versus malignant "freedom" that claims the Satanic "right" to go anywhere and do anything to anyone (if cancer could talk, one of its favorite words would be that wrong kind of "freedom"), was an integral element of the Creation - and the fall of humanity when they freely chose to cross the line from one to the other (see also How Did Adam And Eve Sin Differently?).

"2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17 KJV)

"3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." (Genesis 3:4-6 KJV)

The people of Israel (see The Origin Of Israel) were created by the LORD from the "foreign" nations of the Middle East - from Iraq (see A Biography Of Abraham: The Genealogy Of Abram and The LORD's Seed Covenants With The Two Men Of Iraq), Syria (see A Biography Of Jacob: The Jacobites Of Syria and The Syrian Tongue Of Jesus), Moab (today, the Kingdom of Jordan; see Ruth: Building The House Of Israel), Egypt (see The Adoption Of Ephraim and Manasseh), Canaan (see The First Jews and Rahab Of Jericho) and others.

The kingdom of Israel was also created by the LORD - as an object-lesson prophecy of the coming Kingdom of God, in which people are called from all of the nations of the world ("church" means called out ones; see Can You See The Church? and The Church: Mission Accomplished) - all of which are "foreign" to the spiritual Kingdom of God (see The Constitution Of The Kingdom Of God, Revelation: Thy Kingdom Come and Repent, For The Kingdom Of Heaven Is At Hand).

No one has to obey the LORD because no one has the "right" to salvation (see Who Can Be Saved?). Those who choose to go their own dead-end way are completely free to do so, while only those who choose to obey the LORD will be in the LORD's Kingdom (see What Was The Lesson Of John 3:16?). That freedom of choice was plainly stated to the first humans. It was repeated to King Solomon. The LORD emphasized the consequences of the "if" in "if thou wilt walk before Me" versus "if ye shall at all turn from following Me." The warning to them was the warning to everyone.

"9:1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, 9:2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. 9:3 And the LORD said unto him,

I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

9:4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

9:6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: 9:7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: 9:8 And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? 9:9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil." (1 Kings 9:1-9 KJV)

So Solomon began with the choice of the right kind of freedom - true freedom. He later chose the wrong kind of freedom - Satan's way of losers (see Judah From Solomon To Babylon and Who Lights Your Walk?).

"9:10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house, 9:11 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 9:12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not. 9:13 And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. 9:14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

9:15 And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 9:16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. 9:17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether, 9:18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, 9:19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

9:20 And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, 9:21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day. 9:22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen. 9:23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

9:24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

9:25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

9:26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. 9:27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. 9:28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon." (1 Kings 9:10-28 KJV)

Fact Finder: Is true freedom a responsibility?
See Freedom - Or Free Ride?, Laws Of Freedom and Trespass and When Freedom Crosses The Line