God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 8:12-18 God’s word overseas
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, October 23, 2024
12 Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the porch, 13 according to the daily requirement for offerings commanded by Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. 14 In keeping with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their duties, and the Levites to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day’s requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers by divisions at each of the gates, because this was what David the man of God had ordered. 15 They did not deviate from the king’s commands to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries. 16 So all Solomon’s work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid until its completion. So the house of the LORD was finished.
What was done in the new temple was in keeping with God’s commands. Solomon did not abolish anything that was recorded in the Law of Moses, nor did he abolish the regulations that his father David had made about the new divisions of the priests and musicians, in keeping with the spirit of the Word of God and the Law of Moses. The daily sacrifices were made, and the three annual feasts were kept.
Were the annual feasts always kept in earlier times in Israel? Perhaps, perhaps not. Even Solomon’s passover celebrations were simply ordinary compared with the amazing dedication ceremonies. We can make this statement because of what our author of Chronicles says about King Josiah centuries later: “The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel (that is, like that one Josiah observed) since the days of the prophet Samuel, and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah” (2 Chronicles 35:18). The annual feasts were certainly observed in Solomon’s time, but he did not break every record. Not that worship is ever done with an eye on records, achievements, or spectacle.
17 Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elat on the coast of the land of Edom. 18 And Hiram sent him ships crewed by men who knew the sea. They were commanded by his own officers. With Solomon’s men, they sailed to Ophir and took out four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.
Solomon also made a merchant navy for Israel. These two places, Ezion Geber and Elat, are sometimes thought to be the same location. The Hebrew particle we often translated as “and” can also mean “that is,” meaning that this is a possible understanding of the passage. For our purposes, whether this was one place or two does not affect our understanding of the passage, since they would have been on the extreme northern arm of the Gulf of Aqaba, and today the whole distance across from the east end (modern “Fortress of Aqaba”) to the modern city of Eilat (Elat) on the west side is about two miles. There is no deep water access anywhere along the shoreline, making storms a problem (see 2 Chronicles 20:36).
A glance at a map or even a small globe will show that these ports led into the Indian Ocean and the east coast of Africa rather than the Mediterranean. A remarkable statement here is that “Hiram sent him ships and crews.” How did a Lebanese king, with ships stationed in the Mediterranean, give Solomon ships and experienced crews in the northwest corner of the Indian Ocean? There are only two possibilities, and one of these is so unlikely as to be virtually impossible. First, Hiram may already have had trade going on with eastern Africa and the Far East with ships he either acquired or built in the Red Sea. If this were the case, he evidently gave up this monopoly of this trade when Solomon’s arm reached the Red Sea, and he sold or leased some merchant ships to Solomon that were already there in the Gulf of Aqaba. If Hiram was trading from those ports, he would need Solomon’s permission to transport goods all the way to Tyre in Lebanon, and so an agreement with Israel was in his best interests.
Alternatively, Hiram might have sailed an entire fleet down around the cape south of the African Continent. However, this feat seems improbable, and it is more likely that the first possibility is the correct one. Three hundred years later, the first reported circumnavigation of Africa was accomplished by Phoenician sailors commissioned by Pharaoh Neco II (around 600 BC).
There is access to the lower Red Sea through the narrow Straits of Tirin at the southern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, and we do not know if these straits were more or less narrow now than they were three thousand years ago. But Solomon’s merchant fleet sailed south or east to find the mysterious land of Ophir (unknown to us), thought by some to have been in Indonesia beyond the Sunda Straits, or perhaps along the coastlines of India or Africa. What cannot be disputed is that the sailors took out four hundred and fifty talents of gold, or about sixteen tons of gold. The verb “take” is the usual word for working a mine (Job 28:2).
The end of the chapter shows the reader that Solomon did not only spend money, but he was also concerned with the income side of the ledger as well. Through trade, mining and other means, he supplied his nation with what they needed, humanly speaking, for the welfare of the country. This contact with the outside world was also an opportunity for the word of God to travel and become known to people far and wide. Surely the gospel found doors opening all around the Arabian Sea, and perhaps such places as the Maldives, the Seychelles, and the Indian coast. The time would come when Jews would find themselves flung into many of these places on account of the reach of the Persian empire, which stretched “from India to Cush” (Esther 1:1, 8:9).
The word of God goes where God’s people go, for whatever reason that they travel. The word of God spreads, and the number of disciples of Jesus will increase (Acts 6:7, 12:24). Sometimes opponents to the word will follow (Acts 17:13), but some of them will be turned to the truth, coming trembling out of their holes on account of the truth of the gospel (Micah 7:17). They will beg forgiveness in terror of their sins, and it will be given to them. They will hear gentle words that they did not expect, and they will be brought into God’s family.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.