The disciples came to Him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:"Though seeing, they do not see; though hear...  Read More

Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.   . . . All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the provinces also brought gold and silver to Solomon.  . . . The King made a huge throne, decorated with ivory and overlaid with pure gold.           . . . No other throne in the world could be compared with it!All of King Solomon's drinking cups were solid gold as were all the utensils in the P...  Read More

As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.'But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,...  Read More

When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said:"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices."When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the ...  Read More

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, a...  Read More

When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated -- the silver and gold and all the furnishings -- and he placed them in the treasuries of God's temple.  . . . The priests then brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings ...  Read More