In First Kings 4, we read about the heads of territories who were in charge of providing for Solomon’s household. Each tribe provided for the king for one month. It was a big task. We’re talking 3000 sheep, 900 cows, nearly 20,000 liters of flour and more for a single month.

This is just for Solomon’s household. We’ll learn later that eventually amounted to a thousand women and all the children he had with them. He had a big family.

And, this was our wise man. His wisdom seemed to be focused in certain areas, especially biology and botany and observing human behavior. He didn’t make great inventions and he certainly didn’t have the wisdom to not take in all those wives even though God’s law forbad the king from “multiplying wives to himself,” which we read in Deuteronomy 17.

I’m sure we’ll see more about Solomon and all his wives in the future. In this lesson, I wanted to look at some of these names.

We have the names of those who are in charge of providing for Solomon and the names of their territories. Then we have the names of those who were famous for being wise. I’m interested to know who these men are who are recorded in the Bible as being really smart!

The names of the Israeli leaders all start with the word “Ben.” That means son of. These men are each listed by their father’s name. Several of the territories they were over started with the word “Beth,” which means house. My husband would be something like Son of John overseeing the gift to the king from the House of David.

We should be known by the name of our Father and by the House we represent.

Deuteronomy 28:9-10  The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

That’s your identity. That’s what you should be known as. That’s what and who you represent. Your Father in heaven and the whole Church, the Body of Christ.