"King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth....Year after year, everyone who came [to speak with him] brought a gift-articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules." (1 Kgs.10:23-25)
Solomon is a fantastic scriptural example of a man (born in wealth, actually literally the benchmark of wealth by any standard) whose riches did not impede or counter God's purposes. Actually, before Solomon was even born God spoke of him to David: "I will raise your offspring up to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son....my love will never be taken away from him." (2 Sam.7:12-14) And the scriptures go on to say: "The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah." (12:25)
To the LORD's choice of Solomon we owe the temple, the perpetuity of David's royal line, the golden age of Israel, and in equal importance WISDOM. "Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and search out and set in order many proverbs." (Ecc.12:9)
These scriptural evidences speak for themselves.
3 comments:
Hi Mark,
I don't don't have time at present to go into too much detail, but I recently preached a sermon on 1 Kings.
While I was researching, I realized that the writer of 1 Kings is actually very* disapproving of King Solomon. All of the positive statements about his rulership are undercut by certain ironies in the text, and by events the of Solomon's life, (see esp. 1 Kings chapter 3, 5, 10, and 11). We can look to Deuteronomy 17 (almost certainly composed long after Solomon's reign, and even the book of 1 Kings) for certain resonances, which contains vituperative condemnations of Solomon's reign.
“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one (R)from among your [l]countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your [m]countryman. 16 (S)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he (T)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since (U)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 (V)He shall not multiply wives for himself, [n]or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll [o](W)in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It shall be with him and he shall read it (X)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, [p]by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his [q]countrymen (Y)and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel."
Solomon breaches all of these Deuteronomic commands and more.
I could go into a very elaborate argument about the differences between King Josiah's reign and Solomon's, and this analysis could actually say a lot about "financial impartiality." The narrator insists that Josiah paid all of his laborers: not so, at all, with Solomon, of whom the narrators speaks of many forced laborers.
The 2 Samuel text you cite is very interesting, though. I think it is quite obvious that 1 Kings and 2 Samuel have different authors (both inspired by the Holy Spirit). I don't want to give too monolithic of a picture, but I don't think we can even get close to making a statement such as, "If Solomon did it, it's all good in the hood."
Blessings,
Richy.
Hi Mark,
I don't don't have time at present to go into too much detail, but I recently preached a sermon on 1 Kings.
While I was researching, I realized that the writer of 1 Kings is actually very* disapproving of King Solomon. All of the positive statements about his rulership are undercut by certain ironies in the text, and by events the of Solomon's life, (see esp. 1 Kings chapter 3, 5, 10, and 11). We can look to Deuteronomy 17 (almost certainly composed long after Solomon's reign, and even the book of 1 Kings) for certain resonances, which contains vituperative condemnations of Solomon's reign.
“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one (R)from among your [l]countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your [m]countryman. 16 (S)Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he (T)cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since (U)the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 (V)He shall not multiply wives for himself, [n]or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll [o](W)in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 It shall be with him and he shall read it (X)all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, [p]by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his [q]countrymen (Y)and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel."
Solomon breaches all of these Deuteronomic commands and more.
I could go into a very elaborate argument about the differences between King Josiah's reign and Solomon's, and this analysis could actually say a lot about "financial impartiality." The narrator insists that Josiah paid all of his laborers: not so, at all, with Solomon, of whom the narrators speaks of many forced laborers.
The 2 Samuel text you cite is very interesting, though. I think it is quite obvious that 1 Kings and 2 Samuel have different authors (both inspired by the Holy Spirit). I don't want to give too monolithic of a picture, but I don't think we can even get close to making a statement such as, "If Solomon did it, it's all good in the hood."
Blessings,
Richy.
Hey Richy,
Thanks for the thoughts my best friend! I'm particularly interested in the temporal relationship between the kingly text in Deuteronomy and the chronicles of Solomon's reign, although I have different conclusions which would be better discussed in person.
As for the matter of Solomon's riches, the point at hand is not whether he abused his wealth or was sinful for having it in the first place, but whether having a shit load of money "impedes" the purposes of God's grace. It doesn't. My points stand quite well. Your demonstrations of Solomon's culpability yet prove them further. God chose the richest man on earth as a centerpiece for his Covenant; Solomon even figures in the psalms as a type of the Christ to come (cf. esp. 72), wealth, power, beauty, wisdom and all.
Furthermore, however "disapproving" of King Solomon the text of 1 Kings actually is, it still puts ON THE LIPS OF GOD the saying, "Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for- both riches and honor- so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings" (3:13).
I detect not an ounce of irony in the LORD's Word there. It is god's prerogative to dispose of wealth as He will, and no one may find fault with Him should he choose to give it.
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