Prosperity and Peace


1 Kings 4:20-28
20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy.
21 Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
22 Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal,
23 ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.
24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him.
25 And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.
26 Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen.
27 And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking.
28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty.

After more than 1,000 years after Abraham is promised that his descendants would comprise a mighty nation, it finally happened. David brought stability to the Children of Israel and Solomon brings peace and prosperity. Israel is finally settled in the land God gave them. All of the nations around them bring tribute to the mighty King Solomon and there are no significant wars. Verse 20 tells it all – “Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy.” The list that follows in the next few verses describes the rather heavy load the people were required to carry in order to support their king, his household, his vast army, and their animals. But, they were happy. Apparently the price of peace and bounty was one they were willing to pay.

In reading this passage, one cannot help but remember what God told his children 100 years earlier when they first demanded a king. (See 1 Samuel 8  http://www.esvbible.org/1 Samuel 8:1-22) God warns that a king will demand their sons serve in the army and their daughters work as servants. A king would require a portion of what their land produced and a percentage of their animals. While all of that was true during the reigns of Saul and David, it is doubly true during the reign of Saul. 

Whenever we think our ideas are better than God’s we are not thinking clearly. When peace comes at a price, it is no peace at all. The peace and prosperity of Israel will last until Solomon’s death, then struggle and war break out and the people are shattered once again. God’s peace is the only peace you can trust, and it is free.

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