Solomon

Falling in love

Nine years ago I was blessed with the experience of falling in love with a wonderful man. I met Rick while I was on a business trip in another state. Ours was truly a whirlwind romance. On our second date, Rick took me to meet his family. Afterwards, it felt like my dream of finding a man that would love me had come true. I was so in love with Rick that when it came time to go home at the end of my trip, I could hardly think of anything but spending the rest of my life with him.

The Song of Solomon is the story of a woman that falls in love with king Solomon. The woman’s name is not given. Solomon refers to her as my love and says of her beauty, “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair” (Solomon 1:15). After being introduced to Solomon’s household, Solomon’s lover states, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick with love” (Solomon 2:4-5). And then she gives this advice, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please” (Solomon 2:7).

Falling in love in not only an intense emotional experience, it is similar to coming down with a bad case of the flu, if you have to be separated from the one you love. You become weak. You can’t eat or sleep and your heart aches to be in his arms again. My long distance relationship with Rick was torture. It was all I could do to just get through each day. My only hope of survival was the thought of seeing him again on my next business trip.

For my son, the Messiah

David’s last psalm was dedicated to his son Solomon and was probably given to him after his death. David reveals his expectation that his son would be Israel’s savior. In his prayer, David said, “He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

One of the points that Paul the Apostle made about Jesus was that he was “of the seed of David” (2 Timothy 2:8). Paul connected Jesus with David because it was known at that time that Israel’s Messiah would be a descendant of David. The thing that distinguished Jesus from Solomon was that Jesus was raised from the dead, a qualification for eternal life. God’s promise to David was that his son or seed would rule over God’s kingdom for ever (2 Samuel 7:13). Therefore, Solomon could not be the Messiah.

I can understand why David thought Solomon was the promised eternal king of Israel, but I wonder if David realized the pressure he was putting on his son Solomon. Solomon most likely asked God for wisdom and knowledge because there was no way he could be the Messiah without it, but if Solomon thought he could take God’s place in ruling over the people of Israel, he was mistaken. God never intended for a merely mortal man to be Israel’s eternal king. Only God himself could handle that kind of responsibility.

Paul said, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8). What was so profound about Paul’s gospel was not that a man was raised from the dead, but an eternal God became a man. This was the point I believe Paul was trying to make. God’s promise to David was not that his son would live forever, but that the God who lives forever would become David’s son.

Many times in the Bible, the gospel is referred to as a mystery. The Greek word translated mystery, musterion does not mean mystery as we think of it, “but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illumined by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense a ‘mystery’ implies knowledge withheld” (3466). I believe psalm 72 should have been titled for Jesus, not Solomon.

And

When God answered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom and knowledge, God did not just give him wisdom and knowledge, God gave Solomon wisdom, knowledge, and wealth.

And God said to Solomon, because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life, but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyselft that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king: wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. (2 Chronicles:11-12)

Typically, God only gives us what we ask for. It says in James 4:2, “ye have not, because ye ask not.” In general, we understand that we need to ask God for what we want, but in Solomon’s case, God gave Solomon something he didn’t ask for… and maybe didn’t want. It is not clear whether Solomon wanted wealth, but didn’t ask for it or God decided to give Solomon wealth even though or because he didn’t want it.

It’s hard to imagine that Solomon, or anyone else for that matter, would not want to be wealthy. It could have been that Solomon was not interested in material possessions, but more than likely, Solomon already had everything he wanted as far as material possessions go. King David was a rich man and probably gave his son everything he asked for. The one thing David couldn’t give his son was wisdom because wisdom only comes from God.

Prior to Solomon, people relied on casting lots to determine the will of God. It may not have occurred to them that they could possess wisdom and be able to discern the will of God without having to ask every time a new situation came up. Knowing the will of God was probably important to Solomon because he didn’t want to make mistakes like his father David had. King David’s affair with Bath-sheba and murder of her husband Uriah caused his family a great deal of pain and suffering. When Nathan the prophet confronted David with his sin, he used a story of greed to depict David’s actions.

In spite of his youth, I believe Solomon was already a wise man when he asked God to give him wisdom and knowledge. Only a wise man would realize that wealth was not the answer to success. I think God gave Solomon wealth because God knew he was wise enough to not abuse it. Solomon was not concerned with impressing other people and was content with what he already had.

An understanding heart

“In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon’s prayer for wisdom resulted in God making him the wisest man to ever live (1 Kings 3:12). Solomon’s request was for an understanding heart that would enable him to “discern between good and bad (1 Kings 3:9). The word translated understanding, shâma‘ (shaw – mah´) means to hear intelligently and also to give undivided attention (8085). The word shama appears frequently in the Psalms in reference to God hearing the prayers of David. God gave Solomon a supernatural ability that made it possible for Solomon to achieve mental excellence without studying a single subject or experiencing anything himself.

An example of Solomon’s wise decision-making is recorded in 1 Kings 3:16-27. In this particular case, two women are claiming to be the mother of the same child. After hearing their story, Solomon orders the child to be divided into two and half given to each of the women. His shocking decree prompts the real mother to give up her half so that the child can live (1 Kings 3:25-26). What is clear from this example is that Solomon is an expert in human behavior. Solomon understood that a mother’s love for her child should prompt her to sacrifice her own well being for that of her child. Most likely, Solomon knew from the beginning which of the two women was the real mother based on her facial expressions and demeanor, but he chose to let the real mother decide the outcome. It was the real mother’s unselfishness that allowed her to keep her child. If she had agreed to divide the child, rather than give him up, both of the women would have left empty handed.

Solomon was endowed with special abilities given to him by God, not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of the people he ruled over. As the king of Israel, Solomon had the power to decide people’s fate. If he made good decisions, the people would thrive and prosper. If he made bad decisions, the people would become corrupt and dishonesty would ruin relationships. In the case of the two women claiming to be the mother of the same child, one of the women was lying. Because her lie was discovered, she was no longer able to take advantage of the women she lived with. As they both went back home, the real mother and her child reunited, the woman that lied probably wondered to herself, How did Solomon figure it out? I thought for sure I could convince him that I was the real mother.

Before and after

Before something is established, it may exist in the form of a thought, an idea, or even a promise. The covenant that God established with David and his descendants existed in the form of a promise until Solomon sat upon the throne of his father (1 Kings 2:12). After Solomon began his reign, God’s promise was conditional based on Israel’s kings obeying the laws set forth by Moses. Both Solomon and his descendants fell short of their covenant obligations, therefore God was not able to bless Israel as he had intended to (see note on 1 Kings 2:4).

Before he died, David hoped that God would fulfill his promise through his son Solomon. The promise recorded in 2 Samuel 7:11-16 had to do with the building of God’s house and the establishment of his kingdom. David thought that God’s house or his temple being built would establish God’s kingdom on earth. David did everything he could to ensure that the temple would be built after he died, but it was up to Solomon to perform the task, so David died not knowing the outcome of God’s promise.

Before David’s death, he instructed his son Solomon to keep the charge of the LORD thy God, “that the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me” (1 Kings 2:3-4). The phrase “continue his word” has to do with prophetic revelation. David believed that what happened to him after he died was dependent on Solomon’s performance of the Mosaic law. What David may or may not have understood was that the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth was not dependent on the temple being built, but dependent on a man being able to keep the Mosaic law, to live a sinless life.

Before Jesus was born, God’s kingdom only existed in Heaven. Jesus told many parables about the kingdom of God to help the Israelites understand that the temple of God was not a building, but something that existed within the heart of man. On one occasion, Jesus told the story of a man with two sons, one obedient and the other disobedient (Matthew 21:28-30) in order to illustrate that keeping the law was a matter of doing God’s will, not following a bunch of rules and regulations.

When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor that would decide his fate, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36). The Greek word translated hence is enteuthen (ent – yoo´ – then) which literally means on both sides or on either side. After Jesus was born, God’s kingdom existed in Heaven and was established on earth. Before Jesus’ crucifixion, the kingdom of God was established on earth because Christ was physically living here. After Jesus’ resurrection, God’s kingdom continued on earth because Christ began living in our hearts.

David’s heritage

The title of Psalm 127, “A song of degrees for Solomon” indicates it was written for Solomon, but does not tell us who the author is. The topic of the psalm is family and it states, “children are an heritage of the LORD and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3). It is possible that David wrote this psalm for his son Solomon shortly before his death.

The primary message conveyed in Psalm 127 is that there is a purpose for having children, which is to strengthen our walk with the LORD and to make us less vulnerable to attacks from our enemy, the devil. If you think of your walk with the LORD, or the development of your relationship with him, as being similar to building a city, then having children is like putting up a wall and fortifying the gates so that you cannot easily be attacked.

The basis of David’s relationship with the LOR was the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. There were many things that David did to make God’s kingdom a reality, but toward the end of his life, David realized there was much left to done. If David did not have a son to carry on the work he had started, then he might have given up and felt that his effort was useless.

David’s son Solomon was actually in a much better position to do some of the things David wanted to, like build the temple of God, therefore, David was assured that progress would continue even after he died. In spite of his sin with Bath-sheba, Solomon was born to David through their marriage. Solomon was a testimony to God’s forgiveness and a sign that David’s relationship with the LORD had been fully restored.

In Psalm 127, children are compared to arrows in the hand of a mighty man and it says that the man that has his quiver full of them will not be ashamed (Psalm 127:4-5). The word translated ashamed “has overtones of being or feeling worthless” (954). When Absalom took over David’s kingdom, David may have wondered what would become of Israel after he was gone. The fighting among his sons was a problem for maintaining peace inside and outside the nation.

It says in 1 Chronicles 29:24-25, “And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all thee sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as has not been on any king before him in Israel.” Solomon was David’s heritage of the LORD and by measure of his stature, he was a great reward to his father.