Tuesday - 2nd Chronicles 8 - Half-Way Done & Hardly Started

At this point in 2^nd Chronicles, we are told that Solomon had been king for 20 years (2^nd Chronicles 8:1). This is significant, since in the next chapter we will be reminded of the fact that he ruled and reigned for 40 years total (2^nd Chronicles 9:30).  So, by chapter 8, Solomon was only half-way through.  Yet, there is a long list of things (both good and bad) that have NOT been brought up yet in 2^nd Chronicles.  As such, in this chapter we find an index of some of Solomon's other accomplishments.  And, in the next chapter there is a little more information about some of his other great acts, including the account of Solomon's famous interaction with the queen of Sheba.

Of course, conspicuously missing is the stuff about Solomon's 1000 lovers and his idolatrous diversions (1^st Kings 11:3). But so too is the fact that he wrote 3 books of the Bible (including the Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes).

Truly Solomon was a man of many talents and of extensive experience. Perhaps there has never been a man whose life was as varied as Solomon's was. In architecture, religion, agriculture, literature, politics, fame, education, pleasure and wealth; he knew no real rival in his day, and very few are his peers even in all of history. And yet, his conclusion draws a line that all of us can see clearly enough. One doesn't have to be a royal aristocrat with privilege and position in order to see the necessity for respect, devotion and obedience to the one and only great God of heaven and earth. Of all of Solomon's accomplishments, that summation of life (in Ecclesiastes 12:13) was among his greatest accomplishments.