2 Chronicles 8:1 - Meaning and Application

This was already mentioned in 1 Kings 9:10-24, so only a few points need to be noted here.

Solomon was a man of great learning and understanding, but he did not spend his life in quiet thought. He spent it in action. He did not stay in his study, but went out into the land, building cities and strengthening them. In a time of peace, he prepared for a time of war. That is part of a ruler’s duty, just as it is wise in summer to store food for winter.

Solomon was not only active himself, he also put many people to work. He kept large numbers of workers busy. It is good for a nation to support hard work in every possible way and to keep people from idleness. There were many foreigners in Israel, including many of the remaining Canaanites, and they were welcome to live there, but not to live without useful labor. The men of Laish, who had no work, were easy victims when enemies came against them (Judges 18:7).

After Solomon began by building the house of God, and did that work well and quickly, he prospered in all his other plans. He built everything he wanted to build (2 Chronicles 8:6). People who love building often find that one project leads to another, and each new work may improve what came before it. God’s providence was kind to Solomon’s honest desires and gave him success, not only in what he needed to build, but also in what he simply wanted to build. God is sometimes very generous to the innocent desires of his children who serve him faithfully. In the same way, Jacob was comforted by the promise, “Joseph shall put his hand on your eyes.”

Solomon also knew how to limit his own wishes. He was not someone who kept wanting more and more and never found satisfaction. He knew when to stop. He finished all he wanted to build, and then he wanted no more. He did not sit and complain that he had no more cities to build, as Alexander later grieved that he had no more worlds to conquer (Habakkuk 2:5).

One reason Solomon built a special palace for Pharaoh’s daughter, the Egyptian princess, and moved her and her court there, was that he thought it was not fitting for her to live in the house of David (2 Chronicles 8:11). That house had been a place marked by great devotion to God, while her own home may have been a place of pride and worldliness. She likely had accepted the Jewish faith, but it is uncertain whether all her servants had done the same. They may still have had Egyptian idols among them, along with much ungodliness and loose behavior.

Solomon did not have enough zeal or courage to stop all this evil, but he did care about his father’s honor. He would not allow that house to be profaned, the house where the ark of God had once rested and where David had prayed many good prayers and sung many beautiful psalms. This does not mean every place where the ark had ever been stayed forever holy and could never be used for ordinary purposes. If that were so, then the houses of Abinadab and Obed-edom would also have had to remain that way. But the place where the ark had stayed for such a long time, and where public worship had been offered, was so honored that it was not fit for so much celebration, and perhaps even sin, as may have been found in Pharaoh’s daughter’s court. The old boundaries between holy things and common things ought to be respected. The outer court of the temple was later called the court of the women.