THE commanding theme of Holy Scripture―of Scripture in its every part, is Christ. He is everything to God, and His Spirit delights to make known to us the glories of His person, the perfection of His work, and the Father’s eternal counsels respecting Him. Our principal interest in Solomon lies in the fact that he was a foreshadow of Christ. The peace of his reign, his righteous and wise administration, the prosperity of the people, and the homage of all the kings round about, all suggest conditions that will be true on a larger and more glorious scale when God’s true Anointed sits upon His holy hill of Zion (Psa. 2:6). Solomon’s administration, alas, finished badly, due to his own unfaithfulness. Far otherwise will it be with Christ. At the end of His long reign, “He will deliver up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.... Then shall the Son Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:24, 28). He who was faithful when here in poverty and humiliation will also be faithful in the day of His Kingdom exaltation.
When Solomon was born his father named him Solomon, which means “Peaceable” (2 Sam. 12:24). Jehovah thus named him before his birth (1 Chron. 22:9). But when he was born He sent Nathan the prophet to David with a second name for the child―Jedidiah, which means “beloved of Jehovah” (2 Sam. 12:25). It is added, “Jehovah loved him.” Another has remarked, “Nathan, with a marked reference to the meaning of the King’s own name (David=the darling, the beloved one), calls the infant Jedidiah (Jedid-yah), that is, the darling of the Lord.” Loved by God; chosen by God; preferred by Him above all others for the throne—what an expressive type of our blessed Lord! He is God’s true beloved (Isa. 42:1), who in His due time “will Speak peace to the nations, and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Zech. 9:10).
The inspired historian―Moses, we doubt not―tells us in Genesis 36:31 That “kings reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.” He who Wrote the Chronicles after the return of the remnant from the. Babylonian captivity repeats the statement (1 Chron. 1:43). Edom as a people was very nearly related to Israel; but although not God’s chosen for supremacy in the earth Edom had kings (an honor, as men judge) before Israel. Kings developed rapidly after the break-up of the human family into nations. Nimrod came first as founder of the dominion of Babylon (Gen. 10:8-10); Egypt comes next in the sacred record as ruled by a king (Gen. 12:15); and in Genesis 14 we read of two confederacies of kings at war with each other. Unhappy foreshadow of worse things to come!
But why was Israel so long without a monarch? God certainly spoke of a king for the nation while they were still in the wilderness, and gave instructions and warnings as to his conduct. He must not multiply horses, nor wives, nor silver and gold; but he must write out for himself a copy of the law, which he was to read all the days of his life that all might be well (Deut. 17:14-20). Balaam, when constrained by the Spirit of God to say against his will good things about the people he hated, declared: “Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.” Further, “His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted” (Num. 23:21; 24:7). Hannah in her prophetic song was led to say, “Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed” (1 Sam. 2:10).
Why, then, was Israel several centuries in the land of promise before kingship was established? For the very blessed reason, if the people could have appreciated it, Jehovah was their king.
It was their glory to be living under a theocracy. Jehovah Himself personally directed their affairs. No nation has ever been thus honored, and no nation will ever have such an honor until the seventh trumpet is sounded in Heaven, and great voices say, “The Kingdom of the world of our Lord and of His Christ is come, and He shall reign to the ages of ages” (Rev. 11:15; J.N.D.). Then all the nations (not Israel only) will come under direct divine rule. This will be the final solution of all earth’s difficulties and sorrows, Israel, as the people of Jehovah’s gracious choice, was meant to be different in every respect to all others, and to be Jehovah’s witness to them. Balaam, in his first utterance said, “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned amongst the nations” (Num. 23:9). It was therefore deplorable when the people demanded of Samuel, “Make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8:5).
Let us pause here and take account of ourselves. The Church is a company divinely called out and separated from the world. It is the body of the absent Christ (here to represent Him), and the house of God, the Assembly of the living God (Acts 15:14; 1 Cor. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:15). Do we appreciate the inestimable honor and privilege of being a people separated to God? The history of the Church since the days of the Apostles reveals the grossest unfaithfulness in this respect. The Church and the world have long been friends, to the Lord’s dishonor, and to the spiritual injury of the saints. Further, the Church has been distinguished from the beginning as having its Head in Heaven, with the Holy Spirit dwelling on earth to act for Him. With respect to these great realities we have also been long unfaithful. Faith in the invisible Head in Heaven, and in the invisible Spirit on earth has lapsed; hence the hordes of Popes, Bishops, clergy, chairmen, etc. The Church, like Israel before her, has wished to be “like all the nations.” It is not even yet too late for some at least to recover themselves, and return repentantly to the right ways of God.
Israel’s willful descent from the high level upon which Jehovah in His grace placed them at the beginning of their national history has been recorded as instruction for us today (Rom. 15:4). For as surely as the people of Israel were divinely intended to be the aristocracy of the earth, those who are now being blessed and who compose the Church are the aristocracy of the universe. Our conduct should be consistent with our dignity.
Samuel felt deeply the people’s demand for a king “like all the nations,” but Jehovah said to His servant, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Sam. 8:7). The theocracy was thus at an end until the day of the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit’s words through Balaam and Hannah make it certain that Jehovah always had it in His mind to give Israel a king. Ultimately the king of His choice is Christ, but it was His intention that men typical of Him should occupy the throne meantime. Both David and Solomon, each in his own way, typify Him. But the impatience of the people could not wait for God to act; they would have a king forthwith. God knew where to find the sort of man that they wanted; thus Saul was anointed first king of Israel with disastrous consequences for all concerned.
Scripture numerals are instructive. Forty is the number of full trial (Psa. 95:10; Matt. 4:2). For forty years Saul reigned. The trial ended with the dead bodies of the king and his sons nailed to the wall of Bethshan by the insolent foe, and the people scattered as sheep having no shepherd (1 Sam. 31). What confidence dare we have in flesh?