“…this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ʻLook, I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomonʼs hand and I will give ten tribes to you. He will retain one tribe, for my servant Davidʼs sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. I am taking the kingdom from him because they have abandoned me and worshiped the Sidonian goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom. They have not followed my instructions by doing what I approve and obeying my rules and regulations, like Solomonʼs father David did. I will not take the whole kingdom from his hand. I will allow him to be ruler for the rest of his life for the sake of my chosen servant David who kept my commandments and rules. I will take the kingdom from the hand of his son and give ten tribes to you. I will leave his son one tribe so my servant Davidʼs dynasty may continue to serve me in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as my home. I will select you; you will rule over all you desire to have and you will be king over Israel. You must obey all I command you to do, follow my instructions, do what I approve, and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David; I will give you Israel. I will humiliate Davidʼs descendants because of this, but not forever.” Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam escaped to Egypt and found refuge with King Shishak of Egypt. He stayed in Egypt until Solomon died.” 1 Kings 11:31-40

David reigned over Israel for forty years, and so did his son Solomon. That number forty has such significance for Judaism, that it must represent a perfect or special number. Today we think of thirty or forty years as encompassing a generation. Solomon began the construction of the Temple four years after he assumed the reign over Israel, and it was completed in seven years. The numbers of individuals forced into labor on the Temple are astounding – seventy thousand laborers, eighty thousand stonecutters, one hundred and eighty thousand in total. The exacting numbers that are given in the biblical accounts, from all of the numbers given to us in the book of Numbers, to the exacting details of the construction of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10 – 22), to the Temple built by Solomon, the exacting details give us a sense of the importance and the significance of Israel’s religious life.

We are still a people fascinated by numbers. In sports, we track records and times and at bats and running yards and the number of major wins. In all aspects of business, we worry about numbers – the bottom line, income verses expenses, sales numbers, etc. In the church, we look at how many people worship each week, how many bulletins to run, how many children attend Sunday school, etc. Numbers allow us to measure progress, trends, and statistics, but can they truly measure the significance of our religious life? Is it right to measure the church by the number of people on the membership roles in a church, or how many people the church is ministering to in the community? Shouldn’t the most important number be how many people hear about the Good News of Jesus Christ first – and then how many needs are being met through the church’s ministries? Something for us all to ponder….

Pastor Dave