Day 167.
All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destructiont—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. (1 Kings 9:20-21)
I wanted to write more about a point of interest than a devotional this morning. Solomon was given wisdom and wealth and his kingdom grew and grew. The people in the land that were not of Israel, who had given Israel fits throughout the period of the Judges and even to a degree during the reigns of Saul and David, were fully subdued under Solomon and made to serve as slaves. What is interesting is to look way back to Genesis 9 to the time of Noah. Following a sin of his son, Ham (see Ge 9:20-27), Noah said,
“Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”
Canaan was the son of Ham and his descendants are listed in Genesis 10,
Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.
The drafting of servants by Solomon fulfilled the curse that Noah invoked upon his son more than a 1000 years earlier. It just amazes me how even the little details of Scripture point us to the continuity of the story that unfolds in the Bible.
