Reflections on 2 Chronicles 8

 2 Chronicles 08(Contemporary English Version)

1. It took twenty years for the LORD's temple and Solomon's palace to be built.
   
2. After that, Solomon had his workers rebuild the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.
   
3. Solomon attacked and captured the town of Hamath-Zobah.
   
4. He had his workers build the town of Tadmor in the desert and some towns in Hamath where he could keep his supplies.
   
5. He strengthened Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon by adding walls and gates that could be locked.
   
6. He did the same thing to the town of Baalath and to the cities where he kept supplies, chariots, and horses. Solomon had his workers build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere else in his kingdom.
   
7. Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. Instead, they were his soldiers, officers, army commanders, and cavalry troops. But he did make slaves of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites did not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.
   
8. (SEE 8:7)
   
9. (SEE 8:7)
   
10. Solomon appointed two hundred fifty officers to be in charge of his workers.
    
11. Solomon's wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from the part of Jerusalem called David's City to her new palace that Solomon had built. The sacred chest had been kept in David's City, which made his palace sacred, and so Solomon's wife could no longer live there.
    
12. Solomon offered sacrifices to the LORD on the altar he had built in front of the temple.
    
13. He followed the requirements that Moses had given for sacrifices offered on the Sabbath, on the first day of each month, the Festival of Thin Bread, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters.
    
14. Solomon then assigned the priests and the Levites their duties at the temple, and he followed the instructions that his father David had given him. Some of the Levites were to lead music and help the priests in their duties, and others were to guard the temple gates
    
15. and the storage rooms. The priests and Levites followed these instructions exactly.
    
16. Everything Solomon had planned to do was now finished--from the laying of the temple's foundation to its completion.
    
17. Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and Eloth, two Edomite towns on the Red Sea.
    
18. Hiram sent him ships and some of his experienced sailors. They went with Solomon's own sailors to the country of Ophir and brought back about seventeen tons of gold for Solomon.

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In chapter 8, the chronicler reviews the first 20 years of Solomon's reign. It was all very grand. He had built or rebuilt a number of cities, some as fortified cities to strength his defenses and others as storage cities as well as chariot cities and cavalry cities. He did all of this with forced labor from among the various Canaanite tribes who remained in the land, using his own people as supervisors over the labor. Israelites also served as soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry as well as rulers over the people.

Solomon's greatest achievement, however, was considered to be the building of the temple which he completed just as the Lord had instructed his father, David. Along with being faithful to the designs of the temple he also maintained the divisions of priests and Levites as his father had established through the Lord's instructions. Plus, he observed all of the sacrifices and offerings connected with the religious calendar.

By most appearances, Solomon maintained his religious fervor throughout these first 20 years of his reign. That is, by most appearances, but not all. A brief reference is made by the chronicler, however, in verse 11 about the wife he had acquired who was the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Though he had married her, he recognized that as a foreigner and a pagan it was not appropriate for her to live in the palace he had inherited from his father because of its proximity to the ark of the Lord. Therefore, he built a house for her in which to live. It was as if he had come to faithfully observe all of the proper religious practices but his heart was not in it as it should have been.

It seems that Solomon's heart had wondered to other desires. Though the Lord had given him great wisdom he did not allow it to guide him in all of his affairs, particularly his affairs with foreign women of whom the Lord had strictly instructed the kings of Israel to stay away from. Why? Because foreign wives would lead them to foreign gods which is exactly what happened with Solomon. God is not a cruel God who wants to restrict our pleasure, but a loving God who wishes to give us what is best and help us avoid what will keep us from the best.