1 Kings, Chapter 5 - What Will We Build? | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom Jeremy. It is good to have you back in the land of Israel. [music] You are in Ashkelon right now. I am >> I am in Ashkelon now and all everyone that's listening, welcome to the Prophets of Israel Daily. Ari and I are so committed [music] that I'm finally back in Israel and we are finally on vacation. And we're doing Prophets of Israel Daily one way or another. >> Yeah, but the truth is I can't go on vacation without the prophets coming with us. I have my own little my youngest boy's name is Samson. We're here in Ashkelon where Samson killed how many 30 Philistines after the riddle? Like everywhere you look in this land, the Prophets of Israel are with us. And this journey has definitely brought the experience for me much deeper and more beautiful. So thank you for that Jeremy and thank you everybody that has encouraged us on this journey. And now we are here in the Book of Kings chapter 5, of course brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. Um one quick note for those following in English, some of today's material may sit at the end of chapter 4 in your Tanakhs. We're following the Hebrew Jewish division, same words, same story. Now I want to start with a line we say constantly and almost never stop to think about. We say it every time we return the Torah scroll to the ark and we read it just just a few weeks ago. We read it on the Book of Lamentations on Tisha B'Av when we're sitting on the floor in the in the dark. Chapter 5, Hashivenu Adonai Hadash Yamenu Kekedem, return us to you Hashem and we shall return. Renew our days of old. Hashivenu Hashivenu, return us Venashuva and we will return. That's Teshuvah, turning back. We're in the days of Teshuvah right now. I know that these are evergreen and people can listen to them anytime, but right now when we're recording this, these are the days of Elul. This is the leading up to Rosh Hashanah and then what do we have there? Hadash Yamenu Kekedem, renew our days as of old. And so years ago, Tehilla Gimpel asked a question about that line that I've never forgotten. I don't know if you remember this, Jeremy, but she said, "Which days exactly are we talking about here? When we ask God to bring back the days of old, which days are we asking for? Not the wilderness, not the conquest under Yeshua, not the years of the judges. What are we talking about? When were these wonderful days? Like our whole entire history has been rife with conflict and challenges and struggle." And I think we're asking for this chapter. 1 Kings chapter 5. There aren't many other places, at least not that I can think of, where there was peace and tranquility in any real way. It seems like it's just this chapter. And it turns out that having peace and tranquility comes with its own set of challenges, cuz we know what to do with war. War is clarifying. It strips away everything that isn't essential. It tells you who your friends are and what you're willing to die for and how much you actually believe. Anyone who has lived through these last years in Israel knows exactly what I'm talking about. But peace, I think sometimes peace can be an even harder test, because peace doesn't tell you who you are. Peace asks you who you want to become. And chapter 5 gives us something, um, rare, I think, in the Tanakh. Israel is at peace on every side. So now what? Right? In Judges, we read three times that "Vatishkot ha'aretz", the land was quiet for 40 years. But but quiet is what happens between rounds. What or King Solomon, has here is it appears it feels like it's something else altogether. Right? Verse 1. "Ushlomo hayah moshel b'chol hamamlachot min hanahar 'eretz Plishtim v'ad gvul Mitzrayim." And Solomon ruled over all the kingdom all the kingdoms from the river and the land of the Philistines up to the border of Egypt. Did you hear that, Jeremy? Right? I mean, you're the you're the geography guy. If I have a geography question about the biblical borders I I call you. Right? It says it's from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt. Those aren't Solomon's borders. Those are Abraham's borders. Right? Genesis 15. Bayom on that day Hashem made a covenant with Avram saying to your seed I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. That is the map that Hashem drew when he first cut the covenant with a man who owned none of it and had no children to inherit it. Right? Avraham, my own namesake, whose name I carry. Right? Abramowitz, Ari Abramowitz means son of Abraham. That's what it means. And and let's let's take a moment and look at the Hebrew here. was Moshel ruling over these kingdoms. Some of that is vassalage and tribute, not outright possession, but Israel's political horizon now comes very close to the geographic horizon first shown to Abraham. And verses 4 and 5 tell us what it felt like. V'Shlomo mikol avav Yehuda v'Yisrael avetach ish tachas gafno v'tachas te'enato. And he had peace on all sides, and Judah and Israel dwelt in security. Every man under his vine tree and under his fig tree from Dan to Beersheba all the days of Solomon. It's it's hard to imagine. This isn't the Gaza border was quiet this month or there's a fragile ceasefire in the north. Right? The text uses the word shalom. Shalom. Every man under his own vine and his own fig tree. Not a ceasefire, real peace. And I'll tell you that verse really hits differently when you actually have fig trees and a vineyard right outside my window that I eat my Sabbath dinner at. Our figs, there's a fig tree right there, grapes I planted when we first got up into our mountains and there was nothing but thorns and thistles. My kids eat off of those trees. That's not a metaphor to me. That's an afternoon activity and you know exactly what I'm talking about, Jeremy. Just this week, my kids made their own grape juice jumping up and down on a bucket full of grapes. >> You know, that's right, Ari. What you just described isn't just poetry. The prophets, centuries later, reach for the exact picture when they describe the end of days, every man under his vine and under his fig tree. That becomes the shorthand for the Messianic era. And which means that Shlomo's kingdom was a rehearsal or a prophetic window into the Messianic era. So, for a few decades, the Jewish people got to live inside the promise, to walk the land, work it, eat from it, taste of the final redemption. And that matters because the Messianic vision was never an abstract idea. Redemption looks like a family at their Shabbat table, like a family in the shade of their trees that they planted themselves on the land that belongs to them with nobody coming to take it. And so, when somebody plants a vineyard in these hills in Israel today, they're not just farming. They're building a pathway toward that prophecy and toward that destiny. >> That's totally right. And you know, and now the text turns from talking about the land to talking about the king. Right, verse nine. Vayiten Elohim hochma l'Shlomo u'tvuna harbeh me'od. And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and breadth of heart like the sand on the seashore. Right, rochav lev, breadth of heart. And listen to the measurement. Like the sand on the seashore. I'm now in Ashkelon on the beach. There's a lot of it. Most of it is on on floor of where we're staying right now, brought in by my children's feet. But that's what it says, la- like the sand on the seashore. Where have we heard that before? That's the promise to Abraham. Your descendants will be like the sand of the sea. And here, the image used for the size of Avram's family is used for the size of Solomon's heart. With Abraham, the sand described the vastness the vastness of the family. With it's the vastness of his heart. And I think that's telling us that the covenant wasn't only meant to produce a great nation. It was meant to produce greatness of heart. Because you can have a big nation full of small people, and you can have one man whose heart is wide enough that everybody can find a place inside it. Right? And what did do with a heart that wide? Verse 13. And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that comes out of the wall. Right? The wisest man who ever lived, and the text tells us he talked about plants. From the cedar, right? The majestic wood of of palaces, um in the temple itself, down to the azov, traditionally associated with the hyssop or zatar, uh growing from cracks in stone walls. I don't even know whether I should include this, but it just seemed important to to to really make this clear. You know, even at our farm, Jeremy, you go there we have the terraces everywhere, all of Judea's terraces. And that which grows between the cracks, I think that's hyssop. And then nobody really plants it. Nobody waters it. It just grows. Um I I I I actually want to Google Lens it, but there's never like reception there. I can't remember. But either way, whether it is or it isn't, there's no question that the hyssop has nowhere near the grandeur of or importance as a cedar does. And that's the point, I think. A heart as wide as Solomon's doesn't only have room for cedars. It has room for the little things growing out of a crack in the wall that most people just grow walk right past. So, looked at that, too. Um nothing was too small, you know, and irrelevant when you have that much wisdom and insight. There's There's nothing that is irrelevant to to him. Anyways, verse 14 tells us the nations came from everywhere to hear him, not to negotiate or surrender, but to learn. I mean, it really feels like redemption. You know, has peace, borders, wisdom. And now he tells us what it was for. He sends word to Hiram to Hiram, king of Tyre, verses 17 and 18. Atah yada ata David avdi, you knew my father David that he could not build a house for the name of Hashem because of the war that surrounded him. And now Hashem, my God, has given me rest on every side. There's no adversary and no evil occurrence. He has given me rest, menucha, right? Quiet, stillness. And therefore, verse 19, now I intend to build a house for the name of Hashem. Do you hear what he's saying? That the peace wasn't the goal. The peace was what made the real work possible. You know, it's just important because I really want to say this. First, King Solomon, recognizes his father David, and then he gives all of the credit to Hashem. The shalom in his home, in his kingdom, is from his father on Earth and his father in heaven. And wants to honor David, who wanted to build that house more than he wanted anything in his life. He gathered the materials. He prayed, meditated, sacrificed, and searched for the place Hashem chose, and then he bought the ground that he conquered in Jerusalem. He wrote the prayers and songs that would be sung in it. And then, Solomon was told, "All right, you're up. Now it's you." And really, you get two callings split across two generations. One generation fights so that the land can exist, the next generation builds so the land can have meaning. It can mean something. And so, neither one is more important, they're both critical. And for me, it's hard to read that in Israel today without it hitting really hard. I mean, we've come through years of war. We've buried people. We've sent our sons out to the battlefield. We didn't choose this assignment, but the peace and quiet will arrive, and the question is what happens then? Do we build? Or do we just exhale, go shopping, and let the moment pass because the tragedy wouldn't be losing a war, the tragedy would be surviving the war and building nothing with the peace. >> And Billy, right. That would be the most tragic part. What we've sacrificed during these times. And by the way, notice, going back to the building, notice who he builds it with. Hiram, Hiram, king of Tyre, a Gentile king, a Phoenician, becomes a partner in building the house of the God of Israel. Right, verse 21, "Baruch Hashem hayom asher natan l'David ben chacham. Blessed is Hashem this day who has given David a wise son over this great people." Right? Keep this in mind that it's a foreign king blessing the God of Israel. And then in verse 26, the two of them cut a covenant together. So, the cedar of the Beit Hamikdash, the beams holding up the house of God came from Lebanon, cut by Phoenician hands because a Gentile king recognized what Israel was doing, and he wanted in. >> And Ari, look on what you just said and how it hits. The nations came to learn, and then one of them shows up with timber. And we've seen this pattern before. Rahab in Jericho. Jethro in the wilderness before the revelation at Sinai. Ruth, the Moabite that brings David into the world. Now, Hiram, whose cedar becomes the temple. Again and again, at the great threshold of Israel's story, a righteous person from the nations appears. And it's That's the thing our whole network and fellowship is built on. The prophets say the house of God was always meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. >> [snorts] >> So, raw materials coming from outside the Jewish people isn't a compromise. That is the vision. We build it together. And when I look at thousands of people from countries all over the world, cuz we have the stats, they're learning these chapters together with us. Most of them are not Jewish. Many of them paying a social price for loving Israel out loud, I see Hiram in those people. I see the Land of Israel fellowship. I see people sending cedar and building the house of Hashem right by our side. But I've seen this pattern with individuals a lot throughout the Tanakh. But I want to take this prophecy in the Book of Kings to another level entirely. I haven't read this anywhere by anyone that I can find. If someone can find me the source of this, I would love to say it in their name. But right now, this is going to have to be a prophet of Israel daily hidush, a new insight that's just here. I'm saying that Hiram isn't just a person, he's a king of a nation, Tyre. So, there was a country separated by water to the west of the land of Israel, a nation who was an economic superpower in the world, and was the nation who first recognized David as king when he was chosen as king over Israel, and later that nation in this chapter helps Solomon build the temple. And so, I would like to posit that Hiram and the nation of Tyre is a template, a prophecy for our generation, the last generation. When Israel declared independence in 1948, there was a country to the west separated by water, an economic superpower. It was the first country who recognized Israel. There was a nation who helped Israel build Israel into the marvelous country it is today, and so far as countries go, has been a pretty steadfast best friend that Israel has ever had kind of country. Do you know where I'm taking this? Hiram blesses God, and if you look on the dollar bill, what does it say? In God we trust. Secular people say Israel would never have been able to survive or in thrive without American support, and a lot of religious people say God brought Israel into being. America deserves none of the credit. All of the credit should go to God. I would say they're both right. God gets all of the credit. But God chose America just as God used another nation to build the temple in Jerusalem, God used another nation to build his country in our generation. And now it's up to America. God chose America. Will America choose God? >> That's a great question, Jeremy. That's a great question, and I think I know what a lot of the comments are going to be addressing. That question exactly. So, I'll leave that up to to the comments there. But anyways, the chapter ends with logistics. Solomon raises 30,000 men to go up to Lebanon, 10,000 at a time. One month there, two months home. It's a rotation. And Jeremy, think about it, what does that sound like? Miluim. Sounds like reserve duty. That's every one of us kissing our kids goodbye going up to the north for a month. You know, a nation builds the same way it fights, with ordinary people leaving home in shifts, coming back to their families, and going again. The temple wasn't built by giants. It was built by farmers on rotation. And remember this labor draft, right? Later, Israel will tell Solomon's son that the burden has become too heavy. Even the holiest building project can go wrong when the people carrying the stones at least feel less important than the building itself. I I I I think that may have begun happening later on. You know, and and then the final verses. Great stones, precious stones, hewn and dressed and shaped at the quarry, miles from Jerusalem, out of sight. Right? The most beautiful building in human history is being formed in a dusty pit nobody was even looking at. And my friends, if you want to know where we are right now in history, in this story, I really believe that's it. We're not in chapter six yet. We're still in the quarry. Right? The temple isn't standing. We've come through the days of mourning what we lost into these weeks of consolation, and this is the chapter where the building begins. We've been given the land back. We've earned We fought the land back. We've been given the land back by Hashem. We've been given borders, an army, a language, vineyards, children who dream in Hebrew. We've been given the the scaffolding. Right? And every one of us is in one of those stones being shaped where nobody's watching. A father called up to reserves for the fifth time leaving his job and his family to defend the nation and not uttering a word of complaint. The hostage who came up out of the tunnels and told us that in the dark, when there was nothing left, he held onto Hashem and inspired the whole country with that, and Hashem gave him his strength. The families who have given what they will never get back and still keep building. Every act of chuva nobody applauds is another brick. Mesirut nefesh, the giving over of the soul, that's where the stones take shape. So, "Hadash yameinu kekedem." Renew our days of old. Now, we know which days we're asking for. Not the miracles, not the victories. we're asking for a nation finally at rest that decides to build something with that rest. A nation that refuses to settle into the comfort of its own homes while the God who carried us through the exile, brought us back to this land, and redeemed us again and again still has no house among us in this world. David spent his life preparing a house that he would never see. took what his father gathered and built it. And now the question has come back to us. And Shlomo's question is waiting right there. When Hashem finally gives us quiet, what will we build with it? Because those days are coming soon, I feel it in my heart. Chazak u'baruch u'matz, my friends. Be strong and courageous. You know, verse 14 says that the nations came from everywhere to hear not to negotiate, but to learn. And that is still happening, and it's happening every single week. The Judaean Academy is our Yeshiva. Powered by the Land of Israel Network, we sit down together, we're going to be opening the text, we ask each other, we No constraints, there's no question you're not allowed to bring, just loving open hearts in a room where you can say where you can [music] say the thing out loud. So, pull up a chair at the landofisrael.com, sign up, join us. Bezrat Hashem, [music] we'll see you tomorrow, Jeremy, for chapter six, when the house of Hashem finally begins to [music] rise.