2 Chronicles 8

It seems that this chapter lists the other activities that consumed Solomon during his reign. At the end of the 20 years, his palace and the temple was completed. He also built towns for the Israelites to live. as store cities and a few places as fortified cities with gates and bars. The non-Israelites were used as his slave force for the manual labor while the Israelites were not - they became his army and chief officials. Apparently, Solomon intermarried with an Egyptian (Pharaoh's daughter) and built her a palace since the places that his father David made were holy. It seemed like she and her entourage didn't worship God but rather her own and thus could not live in those places. However, Solomon adhered to the sacrifices and the feast via Levittical law and it seems that the balance of the chapter states that his reign thrived (particularly in commerce).

Pretty decent day yesterday, teaching HS class was a little rough since someone tossed my lesson and I had to "wing" it. Still I think it went well. Drives to and from NYC weren't bad and also down to Delly as well. Quiet evening and got my ironing done. Should be a relaxing week at work and now looking forward to the church picnic on Sat and praying for decent weather. The heat wave has taken a break this week so thankful for that. Saw the new Spidey movie with the fam (less GG) and went out for  a cheap dinner on Sat. - still another $100 day after the smoke cleared.

Praise for today: With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng I will praise him. Psalm 109:30.

I have decided that while the morning my time is limited to read and comment on the passage when I can, I will add to the posts as the Lord gives me more understanding. One of the facts that I seemed to gloss over has been that it took Solomon 7+ years to build the temple for the Lord but after it was done, it took 13 years to build his palace. His intermarriage has some points to consider as far as why the Lord allowed it and didn't hold it against him. According to the commentary:

This wife brought her own maids and servants with her from Egypt. She and they probably did not worship the LORD. They had their own gods. Perhaps that is why Solomon kept them away from David’s palace and from the LORD’s temple. There is a tradition that gives her name as Bithiah. That name means ‘a daughter of the LORD who worships him’. So if the tradition is correct, this wife did worship the LORD. But we do know that many of Solomon’s later wives worshipped false gods.

Again the problem of purity both as nation is compromised especially when condoned and practiced by the leader. Still overall, the Lord did bless the marriage and his reign up to this chapter.