November 1, 2013 – 2 Chronicles 9

You read about all the treasure the Solomon collected and many times you think that treasure was collected by conquering, but not here.  It reads like people just gave treasure to him because he was so great.  Maybe they got good advice or he helped them out of some issue, but none of that is mentioned.  All it really says is that all these nations just gave and gave these large amounts of valuables to Solomon.  Keep in mind that gathering all of these valuables lead to Israel’s downfall.  People from other nations come to visit Jerusalem and whoever the king is at the time shows off all this massive amount of gold and treasure and that spurs the nations to go after Jerusalem.   If you didn’t know how the story ended, you would think all these great gifts would be a great benefit to them.  It makes me think of those lottery winners that windup going into bankruptcy because they don’t know what to do with such a windfall.  That is like what happens here, with a great and bountiful gift ultimately becoming the instrument of ruin.