The Sacrifices of Solomon

In late December I got an alert on my Bible app that a friend had completed Day “x” of their “Read through the Bible in a year” plan.

I must admit, I don’t believe in all my 37+ years I haven’t read all the way through the Bible, cover to cover. So this notification piqued my interest.

The nice thing about this plan is that it splits the days into a Psalm or Proverb, a New Testament passage or two and an Old Testament passage or two.

This especially nice when you’re working your way through Leviticus and Deuteronomy 🙂

One thing I’ve learned about living in the OT was that it must have been a HUGE mess. There were sacrifices upon sacrifices upon sacrifices. Sacrifices for so many different things.

But, Solomon takes the cake for sacrifices made. Let’s take a look at this passage (1 Kings 8:62-63)

62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the Lord: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the Lord.

That’s right. Almost 150 THOUSAND animals were sacrificed for the dedication of the temple. Can you even imagine what that must have been like? An absolute mess is what it seems like it would have been like to me.

However, Solomon was one of the wisest man in all of history, so I’m sure he had a good reason for the amount of sacrifices that were made.

Just an interesting thing I came across in my reading.

I encourage you to get into the Bible and read it as often as you can. The app (found here) has been super helpful for me, and maybe it would be for you too!

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