The example of Solomon
He was the King during the golden age of the unified kingdom of Israel. He expanded the kingdom back to its former glory. He was wiser than any man alive. He was richer than any man alive. He was the greatest lover his kingdom had ever known. He was a ruler, a philosopher, and a poet. He was Plato's “Philosopher King”. All of these things make King Solomon a mythical figure in our imaginations. A hero held up as the highest standard of success who should be imitating. We seek out the many proverbs which he wrote and compiled when we desire to learn how to succeed as he did. Yet how often do we stop to think of the actual role he played in the scriptural narrative? Is he the example of a wise and righteous king whom all should seek to imitate? Or does he play another, very different role?
In the scriptural narrative God foresaw that the nation of Israel would one day desire a king of their own, just like the surrounding nations did. Just before entering the Promised Land, Moses recounted the law of the Lord to the people. This recounting is the book of Deuteronomy. A small section of these laws concern the appointment of this foreseen king. They provide eligibility requirements, warnings against certain actions, and instructions for how this king should seek the heart of God. Now the warnings against certain actions are rather important to know and remember as you read the Solomon story. They are as follows:
Deuteronomy 17:16–17
Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. (ESV)
All three of these actions would be politically savvy moves for a king and a nation. It is best to have massive imports from your neighboring countries, because if they are making money from you they will be less likely to attack you for economic reasons. Horses are the ancient equivalent of the tank. The more you have, the more dominant you are militarily. Additionally the marriages of princesses were often done for political alliances with neighboring countries or influential noblemen within their own. So for a king to have many wives would be for a king to have many alliances. These marriages benefit both sides and create the opportunity for these nations and families to influence each other. Lastly Gold and Silver were the means of a nation to establish financial security. If another nation did attack, they could afford to go to war and even hire other armies. Each of these actions create a sense of self reliance and security, yet the nation of Israel was called to rely on God and become a blessing to the nations (Genesis 12, 22) not a superpower who conquers them. Now, I want to briefly touch on one additional instruction given in the passage about how a king should act. That instruction is:
Deuteronomy 17:18–19
“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, (ESV)
So as we continue looking at king Solomon we will keep in mind the rest of the law which he should be familiar with. There is one command within the law that I wish to highlight. This is the law concerning foreigners and how they are to be treated. The command is as follows:
Deuteronomy 10:18–19
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (ESV)
This law not only states what the people and king are supposed to do, but it also gives the reason why they are supposed to act this way. Having been a people who were sojourners in the land of Egypt and, having been subjugated, oppressed, and forced to do hard manual labor for them, they are called to establish and perpetuate a society that does not repeat those acts. God's desire is that the nation of Israel would be a representative to the nations of the kind of kingdom that God desires. These rules are not only forms of trust in God, but a means to create a just and equitable society.
In the book of 1 Kings we find a recounting of the reign of Solomon over the nation of Israel. Solomon is regarded as the wisest man to ever live and he had an exemplary start to his kingship. God offered to give him anything in the world, and Solomon asked for the wisdom to lead the Lord's people well. As a reader of the narrative of the sons of Abraham, this is a great moment. We have seen leader after leader rely on their own wisdom and strength to lead the people and now it seems we have a leader who will rely on God to guide him. Throughout the Biblical narrative our hope for a righteous and godly leader is ever present and fluctuating, but Solomon has our hopes up. Though not without any hesitation, for it also says (1 Kings 3:1) Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem. Since these marriage alliances are meant for the purpose of having sway and influence over one another we should feel a slight caution. Before us is a man who has asked to know the way that God wants to run things, yet has also allied with the nation they came out of. We see a tension within him right from the start.
As the story progressed we see how the building projects of Solomon's house and the temple were accomplished. We see the Ark of the covenant brought back into the temple which would be the next high hopes moment. The presence of God was back in the midst of the nation and the people. The scenes of the smoke of the Lord filling the temple was reminiscent of the presence of the Lord leading the people in a pillar of smoke out of Egypt and through the wilderness as well as the cloud descending on the mountain at the giving of the commandments. This was truly a hope filled moment for the people, and hope filled moment for the reader. After this Solomon gives many prayers and offers many sacrifices to the Lord. then the Lord appeared to Solomon and says:
1 Kings 9:3–9
And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.’” (ESV)
This mixture of blessing and warning has been constant throughout the major narrative moments and with the major characters to this point. This goes all the way back to Adam whom the Lord blessed to rule everything then, after his rebellion, cursed to labor over the ground for the rest of his days. This is the “will he, won’t he” moment in the story of Solomon. We have seen a mixture of great characteristics and concerning ones. He is a character whom we feel both great hopes for, and caution about.
Directly following this speech from God we get an account of the acts of Solomon during his lifetime. Pay attention to the key details in the following description and both remember the laws concerning kings and the nation which the people of Israel were brought out of.
1 Kings 9:10–28
At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold. And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 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—their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen. These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work. But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo. Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the LORD, making offerings with it before the LORD. So he finished the house. King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. (ESV)
1 Kings 10:14–29
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and the throne had a round top, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. (ESV)
1 Kings 11:1–8
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. (ESV)
Although Solomon’s start was promising and hopeful, his deeds and legacy were that he was the very best there ever was at doing the things he should not do. The themes and story arc of Solomon is nothing new to one who has been reading through the Biblical narrative. Time after time we have seen a promising character receive a blessing from God only to increase their power and influence, ultimately misusing that very blessing to the detriment of others. In the case of Solomon we get an artful picture of this Biblical trope. There is something we skipped however.
1 Kings 5:13–17
King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft. Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. At the king’s command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. (ESV)
Where else in the past Biblical narrative do we see the people of Israel drafted for forced labor to make and move material to build great buildings? And who is it that has some sway over Solomon by means of a marriage alliance?
Solomon received the wisdom of God and, using it in an attempt to rebuild Israel into a kind of eden, ultimately and rebuilt Egypt and became Pharaoh. A land of great kings, many chariots and horses, and a plethora of subjugated forced laborers to build it all. Solomos house, his walls, and even his temple were built by the hands of slaves. Not only did he become Pharaoh, but he also caused such a rift and divide between Judah and Israel that a civil war ensued immediately after his death. Solomon’s kingdom was prosperous, but not for all. His kingdom was only prosperous for his own people.
1 Kings 12:4
“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” (ESV)
1 Kings 12:16–18
And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. (ESV)
The Solomon story is still alive and well today. Many of us have felt our hope rise as we see leaders show great promise. Maybe our hope is that our new boss will make a great work environment. Maybe it is that our Pastor, or spiritual leader, will be a godly example for us. Maybe it's that this president, or political leader, will restore the nation, or fix the injustice. We can become fatigued by hoping again and again for a leader who will put all things right. Yet that is our faith. We believe that there is a King who is still to come. A king who will make all things right. A king who is righteous and good. A king who will not succumb to the temptations and vices that we have seen every other leader fall to at some point.
Our hope is in Jesus! The one who did not love his own life unto death. The one who passed through the wilderness of temptation and did not succumb to it. The one who sets the captive free, who opens the eyes of the blind, and saves the lost. The one who sees the broken, redeems the sinner, and scorns the proud. Jesus is the King we are hoping for.
Revelation 21:3–5
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (ESV)