I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast. The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand the test of scrutiny. As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people in the right direction.

For this episode, I wanted to spend some time talking about Christ through the lens of the greater than Solomon. Christ through the lens of the greater than Solomon. I stated in episode 1 that every now and then I will be taking portions of the scriptures and using these portions as the substantive material for the episode.

My reasoning behind that is simple. The scriptures are the crown jewel of all thought and life, or as it's stated in 2 Peter 1.3, "For his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence." Depending on the episode, it will be because of the design of the previous episodes that makes it necessary and/or these portions of the scriptures have made a particularly indelible mark and/or I just very plainly find them particularly fascinating.

In this episode, I'm going to be reading large swaths of the scriptures. You're going to have to wait a bit as I connect them together, but I assure you they indeed do connect together. The first two swaths come from Matthew 6 24-34 and Matthew 6 24-34 and Matthew 6 24-34 and Matthew 12 30-42.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink, not for your body, as to what you will put on.

Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow nor reap nor gather crops into the barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his lifespan?

And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor, nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

Do not worry then, saying, "Where are we to eat?" or "What are we to drink?" or "What are we to wear for clothing?" For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.

So, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 12, 30-42 says this, "The one who is not with me is against me, and the one who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.

And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.

You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. The good person brings out of his good treasure good things, and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things. But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.

For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.' But he answered and said to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign, and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

For just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here." In these two passages, the common theme you see here is the comparison to Solomon.

In the first passage, not even Solomon was comparable in all his glory to just the lilies of the field. In the second passage I read to you, the inference and context is that not even Solomon's wisdom was comparable to the wisdom of Christ. So you have glory and wisdom, you have wisdom and glory.

It would appear then that Solomon was the gold standard, and in fact he was, and the epitome of both of these given the way these passages are read. Why else would Solomon be used as a standard bearer in the words of Christ? This is corroborated by what we see historically and what we see in the Old Testament Scriptures.

Up until that time and since the coming of Jesus Christ, nobody had exceeded Solomon's glory and nobody was even heard to have had such wisdom. In the first passage I read to you, Matthew 6, 24-34, Jesus is encouraging his hearers to do something remarkable and something that requires an incredible amount of trust.

He's telling his hearers not to worry. As he tells his hearers not to worry, Christ begins to rationalize why they should not worry by reeling examples that are clear and contemporaneous. Christ not only gives examples, but employs bulletproof logic and reason to his argument. Look at the birds of the air.

They are fed and they are fine. You, being a human being, being made in the image of God, are more important than a bird. Birds are not made in the image of God. So if the birds are taken care of and they are not made in the image of God, by science of necessary inference, you would also be taken care of.

That is bulletproof logic. Here's more bulletproof logic and reasoning. He goes on to state, Christ goes on to state, "And even if you do worry, what does worrying do? Does it add to your life? The answer is a resounding no. It does nothing anyway. Worrying doesn't do a thing.

So consider the lilies of the field. You accept them to be beautiful, and objectively they are. They are beautiful and they are glorious. But even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not like one of these lilies. And if there was one human being throughout history, not just in the history of Israel, but throughout the history of mankind up to that point, that would have shown as human majesty, it would have been Solomon.

Yet even Solomon, in terms of appearance, could not compare to a lily. The lilies do nothing, yet are all the more glorious than Solomon with respect to outward appearance. If all of these things are indeed true, and they are, then does it stand to reason that we kill ourselves worrying about circumstances we cannot control anyway, and does not really add anything positive to our lives?" Again, bullet-proof logic.

In the second passage, Matthew 12, 30-42, Jesus has just implicitly called out the Pharisees for being bad fruit. Challenged by this seeming new teacher who had crowds following him out of hunger and curiosity, the jealous Pharisees ask Jesus to prove who he says he is. They ask him to perform a sign, but at their own whim.

Jesus had already been performing many signs to verify who he was and had already fulfilled much of the prophecies concerning who the Messiah would be. Jesus had already been preaching to the crowds as well. He had been spending his life exercising power and speaking truth, healing the masses physically, but more importantly, spiritually.

Concerning Jonah, since Jonah is explicitly alluded to here, Jonah was a reluctant prophet who had been begrudgingly sent to Nineveh. He hated the Ninevites because of who they were and what they had done. So when he gets there, his sermon to the people of Nineveh is merely the following, and that's in Jonah 3-4.

This is Jonah's sermon to the Ninevites, the reluctant prophet. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. There's nothing else recorded except those words. Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And the Ninevites repented at that preaching. So Jesus states that the Ninevites, who had repented when they were given much less, that there will be a time and a place in the future where the Ninevites, who had repented at the preaching of Jonah, will actually condemn the generation that saw and heard Jesus preach, but not repent.

In the same way, the queen of the south will rise up with that same generation, who heard and saw the preaching of Christ, and also condemn it because she acknowledged God via Solomon and Christ was much greater than Solomon. What you have to understand here is that this isn't some imaginary pie in the sky, by and by.

Jesus is talking about an actual, future, real, definite event that will occur. It will absolutely come to fruition. The Ninevites that repented at Jonah's preaching, the queen of the south that acknowledged God because she saw Solomon, they will rebuke the generation that saw and heard Jesus' preaching, but not repent, because Jesus was so much greater than Jonah or Solomon.

Regarding the queen of the south and Solomon, I want to read to you 1 Kings 10 verses 1-10. 1 Kings 10 verses 1-10. Now when the queen of Sheba, that's the queen of the south, now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon in relation to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with riddles.

So she came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels carrying balsam oil, and a very large quantity of gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke to him about everything that was in her heart. And Solomon answered all her questions, nothing was concealed from the king, which he did not explain to her.

And the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters in their attire, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the Lord.

She was breathless. Then she said to the king, "It was a true story that I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. But I did not believe the stories until I came and my own eyes saw it all. And behold, the half of it was not reported to me.

You have exceeded in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. Blessed are your men, and blessed are the servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you to put you on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loves Israel forever.

He made you king to do justice and righteousness." Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold and a very large amount of balsam oil and precious stones. Never again did such a large quantity of balsam oil come in as that which the Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba was most likely the Queen of Ethiopia or the Queen of Yemen. Either kingdom would have been a relatively strong and influential kingdom. Even an extremely powerful international female figure coming to test to see if this so-called new ruler is everything people have stated him to be.

Solomon during this time built a kingdom and in terms of sheer international power and influence was greater than any other kingdom this world had ever seen or has seen. His wealth and his wisdom had reached legendary status. During Solomon's own lifetime, the Queen of Sheba hearing about this decides to test for herself if all the reports people saying about him are true.

Is it perhaps one of those rumor mill stories that end up just getting exaggerated as more people speak about him or are the rumors based on objective facts? When she sees for herself and tests Solomon for herself, not only is everything said about him true, Solomon far exceeds everything the Queen of Sheba had heard about him.

Notice also that she was keen in understanding that the wisdom Solomon had wasn't because he himself was inherently special, rather she gave God all the glory. She stated that it was God who put Solomon on the throne of Israel because the Lord loves Israel forever. It was apparent in Solomon's life that his wisdom and glory came supernaturally.

This echoes Matthew 5.16, let me read it to you, it says this. Jesus says, "Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." We should do our works in a way that glorifies, who?

Us? No. We should do it in a way that brings attention, even just a little bit to ourselves, no. We should serve in such a way that glorifies our Father completely. Where people understand the root and source of strength of our good works belongs to our Father. Moreover, Solomon's kingdom was a model for justice and righteousness.

So picture this scenario. For the Jews, there was one central figure that they could relate to that showed the greatness of Israel politically and physically. This was a greatness that would one day be again achieved because of the promises of God. They were once again looking forward to a political and physical kingdom that would have Israel once again as a capital of the world.

This would be accomplished by the Messiah. The Old Testament scriptures do indeed make that clear. The Old Testament talks about the future Messiah. Once again, restoring Israel to its proper place as the political capital of the world. Indeed, Jerusalem is pictured as such. So even after Jesus' resurrection, after the apostles had spent time with the risen Lord, they believed in the same.

Acts chapter 1, 6-8 states, "So when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.'" Notice Jesus doesn't correct them about the restoration of Israel.

Rather, He says to them that it is not their place to know the exact timing of such restoration. However, the Old Testament also talks very explicitly about the Messiah coming as a suffering servant who would be rejected by His own people, which we see very poignantly in Isaiah 53.

It is within this context that Jesus comes on the scene, claiming to be that Messiah. People are confused because if He is indeed the Messiah, then when is He going to set up the kingdom, politically? What they didn't understand was prior to setting up the kingdom, the Messiah would fulfill man's greatest need, and man's greatest need is the need for a Savior.

A Savior who could bring sinful man into a right posture with a holy God. So as man looks on the outside, God cares about us so much more deeply, and cares for us on the inside. People were looking at the long-promised and prophesied greatness of the Messiah, and as they were looking at the face of God, His goodness, His beauty, and His truth, they didn't recognize Him.

Isaiah 53, 1-6 states, "Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of great pain and familiar with sickness, and like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, and our pains that He carried, yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated.

And He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings, the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him." He was greater than Solomon in glory, but wasn't recognized.

He was greater than Solomon in wisdom, but wasn't recognized. The question is now personal to every individual who has walked this earth. Will you recognize Him? Do you recognize Him? Listen to what Zechariah says in Zechariah 14. This is a passage that trips up many people, so listen to it in full.

Zechariah 14, "Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoils taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.

Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. On that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west, forming a very large valley.

Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and the other half toward the south, and you will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel, yes, you will flee just as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him. On that day there will be no light, the luminaries will die out, for it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at the time of evening there will be light.

And on that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea, it will be in summer as well as in winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth, and on that day the Lord will be the only one and His name the only one.

All the land will change into a plain from Geba to Rimen south of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin's gate as far as the place of the first gate to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will live in security.

Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. And it will come about on that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them, and they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be raised against the hand of another.

Judah also will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. And just like this plague, there will be a plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and all the cattle that will be in those camps.

Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of armies, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of armies, there will be no rain on them.

And if the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them. It will be the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

On that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the Lord." And the cooking pots in the Lord's houses will be like the bowls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of armies. And all whose sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them, and there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of the armies on that day.

So the Messiah will come when there seems to be absolutely no hope for the nation of Israel. The Messiah will literally touch down on the Mount of Olives with His Holy Ones. The Messiah will physically touch down on the Mount of Olives with His Holy Ones. They're going to touch down and take care of business.

It's interesting because it seems like the manner in which He comes parallels lightning. It would seem like He comes at an extremely dark time, not only in terms of the context, but also celestially. Then with a flash of bright light, He comes and He takes care of business. After that, Jerusalem will once again be the capital of the world.

And the nations will be required to come and pay tribute. And if you don't, there will be consequences. This is what we know as the millennial kingdom of Christ. This is the millennial kingdom of Christ. Towards the end of the tribulation, as Israel is being devastated and ransacked, when there is absolutely seemingly no human hope, Christ will come after the luminaries, after the sky gives up its light.

And you're going to see His bright light. He's going to physically touch down and it's going to cause a great, great shattering of the earth. And He's going to appear with His Holy Ones, vanquish Israel by killing Israel's enemies. And they will see Him as plain as day and they will know who their Messiah is.

I want to read to you Matthew 24 verses 1 through 28. Jesus left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. But He responded and said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down." And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in My name saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will mislead many people. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place. But that is not yet the end, for nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Then they will hand you over to the tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved.

The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand that those who are on Judaea must flee to the mountains.

Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out of his house, and whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee it will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath, for there will be a great tribulation as such has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will again.

And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, "Behold, here is the Christ," or "He is over here," do not believe him; for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Behold, I have told you in advance, so if they say to you, "Behold, he is in the wilderness," do not go out; or "Behold, he is in the inner rooms," do not believe them; for just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather. Jesus is here looking at the very place he will touch down upon in the future. And he is telling his disciples about a future event that is to occur. His coming is real. His second coming is an absolutely real and certain event.

And let me tell you, even if we never see it in our lifetime, we all die. The death rate for all human beings is one hundred percent. Nobody has survived death itself. We will all see the Lord one way or another. You are not Enoch and you are certainly not Elijah.

The question is, do you recognize him? Do you recognize him? Or will you be someone who should have recognized him, only to be condemned by those who did? Thanks for making it to the end. I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it. To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion, James Hongel.

God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)