To guarantee peace with Egypt, Solomon persuaded Pharaoh to let him marry the princess of Egypt. To accommodate his and her retinues, a large extension was built onto the royal palace. Later he married many other kings' daughters to establish peace with those nations. This seemed a good idea at the time but, to keep the wives happy, he had to allow them to pursue their own religions, which eventually resulted in many people turning away from the Almighty to worship pagan Gods and sowed seeds of destruction in the nation.

Once he had dealt with those bits of left-over business, Solomon made a tour of the kingdom, offering sacrifices to God at various important religious centres in the country. At Gibeon, after the sacrifices and worship, the Almighty spoke to Solomon in a dream to offer him a gift to help him rule the people. Solomon humbly turned down wealth and asked for wisdom. This brought the applause of the angels who were looking on, and the Almighty expressed His pleasure by promising Solomon both wisdom and wealth. Jumping forward in your time, I note that by the end of his reign Solomon had become very wealthy indeed, mainly by taking control of the trade-routes and taxing the merchandise passing through.

One of the things which King David had wanted to do was to convert the Tabernacle tent into a magnificent stone-built temple in order to house the Ark of the Covenant. However, the Almighty would not allow this because of David's history as a War Lord, and it fell to Solomon to be the one to oversee the building. This Solomon did, working to instructions revealed through the prophets and priests. The Temple was to be a place of peace and worship, so all the stone was cut to exact size in the quarry to prevent the noise of hammer-blows being heard at the Temple site. The interior was lined with Cedar boards and, in preparation for this, David had made an arrangement with Hiram, king of Lebanon, for the best cedar from that country to be made available. Solomon reminded Hiram of this agreement and after a bit of haggling about price, Hiram agreed to supply what was needed.

Actually it made a nice profit for Lebanon. The Temple took 7 years to build and was built to the same basic design as the Tabernacle but much larger and more elaborate. Built on the highest point of the hill of Zion it made an impressive sight, particularly when viewed from across one of the valleys which surrounded the city. The Ark of the Covenant was re?sited in the Temple but the other furnishings from the Tabernacle were remade in a larger size to suit the new building. Gold was used for all furnishings inside the holy place and bronze for those in the courtyards.

When the Temple was finished and everything in place except the Ark, Solomon assembled all the Israelites, had the priest perform a great number of sacrifices, then formed the priests and Levites into a procession to carry the Ark into the Temple. It was an awesome time. Even we, the angels, were impressed and silent as the Shekinah, the cloud of the Almighty's presence, lifted from the tabernacle and hovered in the air as the Ark was lifted by the appointed Levites and carried across to the Temple. When the Ark was deposited in the new Holy of Holies and the Levites had trooped out, the Shekinah descended back onto the Ark and spread from there throughout the Temple, right out to the edge of the court of the priests. All the priests and Levites who were ministering in this court fell to the ground in the presence of the Almighty and had to cease their activities. This did not matter as all eyes were focussed on that wonderful cloud.

After a while, Solomon went and stood on the steps to the court of the priests, just in front of the altar. He could not go any further in as he too would have fallen when touched by the Shekinah. On the steps he made a speech of thanksgiving then turned and made a dedicatory prayer, asking that the Almighty would accept the Temple as the place for people to meet Him and bring their petitions, whether it be personal or national. Finally, Solomon called on all the people to commit their hearts fully to the Almighty, and to honour the Temple as His home on earth. The event finished with a great celebration lasting 14 days.

After the ecstasy of the dedication had died down, the Almighty appeared to Solomon in a dream and confirmed He had heard and accepted the prayers of dedication. He also confirmed the covenant with David that there would always be a descendant of David to sit on the throne, and that if Solomon followed the ways decreed by the Almighty then he too would be blessed as David was. Solomon was also warned that if he, or his sons, departed from these ways then disaster would strike the nation.

Solomon was a peaceful king, but he was wise enough to recognise that peace could only be preserved through strength, so he set about fortifying strategic cities and areas of the kingdom. He built up the army, bought horses and chariots, and established a strong navy and trading port at Ezion Geber on the Red Sea. To do all this he had to tax the people heavily, and this was another of the causes of developing unrest among the people, which overflowed when Solomon died.

Meanwhile the king and nation grew very rich and beautiful buildings abounded, so much so that Jerusalem became a great tourist attraction. One noteworthy visitor was the Queen of Sheba, a country in the south of Arabia. She had heard of Solomon's wealth and wisdom and came on a state visit. She was entranced as he showed her all round the palace and Temple, and all the wealth in his treasuries. This was another mistake the king made because, as news of the riches spread abroad, people began to get envious. However, Solomon reigned in peace for 40 years and died and was buried in Jerusalem.

Solomon inherited some of his father David's literary skill and took to writing. He compiled books of proverbs, and wrote many songs and plays. Finally, towards the end of his life he reviewed all he had done and wrote a book (Ecclesiastes) in which he came to the conclusion that all the building, marriages of alliance, all the wealth and pomp and circumstance had really achieved nothing of lasting value. It could all be blown away by a change in the (spiritual) wind. The only thing of lasting value, he said, was