2 Ch. 9: Solomon Dies

2 Chronicles 9:30 "Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years."

Interesting. The rest of Solomon's reign...his life is summed up in the 30 or so verses of chapter 9. It is a review, I suppose. So we're briefened up. The visit from Sheba, a description of his wealth, and then his death. That's all we got here.

I did not know that the queen of Sheba (unnamed here) left with more crap than what she came and gave to Solomon. 1 Kings 10 did not mention that. What an amazing thing. Bringing something that is your best to someone, only to have that someone give you far more.

And Solomon is rich. Richer than anyone you can think of. Richer than Joel Osteen, as hard as that maybe to believe.

1 Ki. 10: She's All Heart

1 Kings 10:7 "But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard."

The Queen of Sheba (yeah, apparently there is such a broad...er...woman. Just lost half my female readership. Well, sad to lose you both.) visits Solomon, out of curiosity. She heard the stories, but just had to see for herself. She believed the hype. And hype was something Solomon lived up to and more. Solomon took the time to sit with the queen and answer all of her questions. What she had heard about Solomon wasn't even the half of what she experienced. And this is very interesting to me. In all that I know about God, I wonder if I only know the half...have only heard a fraction...and someday when I am gathered to my forefathers, and meet him, I will be blown away like the Queen of Sheba was with Solomon...aren't you curious?

Solomon received 666 talents of gold per year as tribute. OK. 666 talents translates to 25 tons. Gold's value right now is $827.00 per ounce. That translates to a yearly tribute of $661,600,000.00. Which is mind numbing. Adjusted for inflation...thats...I don't have a calculator big enough....roughly $297,720,000,000,000.00 according to the consumer price index. Yeah, that's almost 300 trillion dollars. A year. That's a lot. Hokey toots. How does that number exist? Solomon's wealth was incomprehensible. Compare that to his wisdom. Equally as incomprehensible. Think of the wisest person you know. For me that's Phil Long. Obviously. What if you couldn't comprehend that person's wisdom?

Solomon was so rich, silver was tossed on the refuse heap. He had no time for that junk. Can you believe being that wealthy? He must have followed God's commands and turned neither to the right nor the left.