“‘Azaryah the son of Natan, chief administrator;
Zavud the son of Natan, the king’s trusted counselor;
Achishar, in charge of the palace;
Adoniram the son of ‘Avda, in charge of forced labor.”
-1 Kings 4:5-6
So in verse 5, a dude named Natan is mentioned.
This is NOT the same homie who was David’s prophet Natan.
Ya feel me here?
Also, the name Azaryah pops up again.
This is NOT the same Azaryah who was mentioned in verse 2 (Solomon’s right-hand man).
Keep in mind that in ancient times, the usage of certain names repeated itself in cycles based on ebbs and flows of popularity.
So don’t be getting all bent outta shape if you see the same name pop up in a different era, and think you’ve just discovered a contradiction or something.
In fact, during Yeshua’s time, “Yeshua” was one of the most popular names in that era.
Now, the name Adoniram is interesting.
In Hebrew, we’re told he was in charge of MAC.
No, I ain’t talking about a burger you can purchase at a fast-food restaurant.
MAC is the Hebrew word for “tribute.”
But that’s still ambiguous as all hell.
So what does it really mean?
In the Biblical era, tribute basically boiled down to two things.
It was either “crops” or “human labor.”
During Solomon’s time, hard labor was usually provided by gentile slaves or Hebrews who were being punished for crimes.
To be clear, Adoniram was not a tax collector.
He was more of an overseer of hard labor.
You can imagine that someone in that position was not well-liked…
Especially if he was forcing his fellow Hebrew brethren to do detested forced labor that was meant for the Gentiles.
Unfortunately, during his reign, Solomon became enamored with all of these grand building projects.
As a result, he began forcing average Hebrew citizens to show up and do hard labor to achieve his construction aspirations.
This leads to an important takeaway.
The Lord has not created nor saved us to do miserable, back-breaking work.
Recall that while in Egypt, the Israelites were forced to do hard labor.
“And the Egyptians put the Israelites to work at crushing labor, and they made their lives bitter with hard work with mortar and bricks and every work in the field…all the crushing work that they performed.”-Exodus 1:13-14
This is the very type of work the Lord saved the Israelites from during the Exodus.
So in a sense, Solomon, by forcing his own people to do crushing labor for him for his building projects, was kind of like “going back to Egypt.”
This is something we are not to do.
In fact, whenever we break God’s commands or wander away from His Will for our lives…
We are, in a sense, returning to Egypt.
Ya feel me here?
Done.
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