WHILE Israel was yet in the wilderness, Jehovah anticipated the time when the people would have a king, and He caused instructions and warnings to be written for his guidance. The king was commanded to write out for himself a copy of the divine law; and he was to read therein daily that he might learn to fear Jehovah and be in all things an example to his subjects whom he must always regard as “his brethren.” Israel being the special people of God must not be ruled after the pattern of Oriental despots. The king was warned not to multiply horses to himself, nor wives, nor gold (Deut. 17:14-20). In all these particulars Solomon signally failed. As the years passed, the childlike simplicity which marked him at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 3) faded away, and he became important and self-willed. Have we not seen something like it in the Church of God? The prosperity so graciously granted to Solomon was too much for his slender faith. The invisible and the eternal were never to him what they were to his father; but then he never had his father’s training in the school of affliction. The thought is humiliating that we need affliction and sorrow to keep us right.
Solomon’s Egyptian wife may have suggested horses to Solomon, for her father’s kingdom appears to have been a land of horses (Isa. 31:3). In David’s day we read of mules and asses; but these humble animals seem to have had no place with Solomon, if we except the day when he rode upon David’s mule to be anointed at Gihon (1 Kings 1:38). Solomon himself tells us in Proverbs 21:31 That “the horse is prepared for the day of battle”; and he adds, what he afterward quite forgot, “but safety is of Jehovah.” Horses were thus used in his time for military purposes, oxen being employed in agriculture (2 Kings 19: 19); but David wrote before Solomon began to reign, “A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any, by his great strength”. (Psa. 33:17), and again, Jehovah “delighteth not in the strength of the horse” (Psa. 147:10). In days of peril Jehovah is worth more to His people than regiments of cavalry, and concerning the enemies of His own, “at Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep” (Psa. 76:6).
But Solomon gradually drifted away from these wholesome truths. Let us beware of drifting away from what we have, learned from God. The painful repetition of the words “Know ye not?” in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians should suffice to bring home to our hearts the danger of doing so.
Solomon appears to have established a considerable business in horse-dealing. “The exportation of horses that Solomon had was from Egypt: a caravan of the king’s merchants fetched a drove at a price” (1 Kings 10:28 J. N. D.). The next verse tells us that he sold horses to the kings of the Hittites and of Syria.
This trading may have been profitable, but Jehovah was not pleased with His servant for it. What a testimony to the heathen around, who should have learned from him that to trust in God is better than to trust in horses!
When Israel entered Canaan which was full of horses and chariots, Jehovah said, “Thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire” (Josh. 11:6), for Israel’s God objected to the methods of The nations being employed in His work. His people’s confidence must be in Himself alone.
At one period of Solomon’s life he perceived the danger of riches. “Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain” (Prov. 30:7-9). As we follow the history of his reign we find the love of riches growing upon Solomon. God was too kind to His frail servant, and it cost him his soul. He had fleets at sea which brought him gold and silver in abundance. Gold was so common that he “made 200 targets of beaten gold: boo shekels of gold went to one target. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold: three pounds of gold went to one shield” (1 Kings 10:16-17). Surely these were not for use in war; just ornaments! But these costly ornaments were lost in war by Rehoboam, who in his vanity made shields of brass in their stead, and caused them to be brought out in display when he went into the house of Jehovah (1 Kings 14:25-28). Oh, the pitiful vanity of poor flesh; appearances must be kept up even after the reality has departed! Blessed contrast when God restores His people in grace! “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thy rulers righteousness” (Isa. 60:17). All sham will be banished, and repentant Israel will enjoy God’s exceeding grace.
The exercised reader should pause here and read the last chapter of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. With reference to riches, two classes are indicated; those who are not rich, but who wish to be (vss. 9-52); and those who are rich already (vss. 17-59). The first class are warned that the pursuit of wealth leads to temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men who know not God in destruction and perdition. Such a course is unworthy of those who are in union with Christ and blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. Money is not evil in itself, but the love of it is a root from which every evil may spring. The Apostle had observed some who, by their covetousness, had erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. He who would be a man of God (and there is great need of such) must flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. If earthly pursuits leave no time for the cultivation of these seven divine graces all that the Christian may acquire is not gain but loss.
Those who are already rich are then wisely counseled. Mark the words “rich in this world,” more correctly “in the present age.” This is the time of Christ’s rejection. Self-indulgence in a scene where He had no resting-place for His head, and where all His rights are still denied Him is most unsuitable for those who own Him as their Saviour and Lord. Elisha’s words to the grasping Gehazi may well ring in our ears and in our hearts (2 Kings 5:26). Wealthy believers are reminded that riches are uncertain, and that their confidence should be in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. These last words assure us that up to a point God would have His own enjoy His bounty. Monasticism is not Christianity. But good works must abound; with liberality should we assist the needy, “laying up for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come.” The unjust steward of Luke 16 is an example of this. His dishonesty our Lord did not approve, but He did approve his prudence. While the opportunity was with him, be used it with reference to the future; the Christian should do the same; but with this difference, the steward had before him the coming dread days of unemployment, the Christian should keep in view the judgment-seat of Christ, where all our doings will be manifested in the light of God. The passage in 1 Timothy 6:19 should be read in the Revised Version. In vs. 12 we are indeed exhorted to “lay hold on eternal life”; but in vs. 19 we should read “that they may lay hold on what is really life.” Thus a life spent in good works and in gracious consideration for others is life indeed, in contrast with the words in 1 Timothy vs. 6, “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
Ten times in 1 Kings 10 we meet with the word “gold.” Solomon loved it. But “that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Let us remember this in our walk in the Assembly. To flatter the rich is a great offense, and to allow men to rule simply because they have more money than their fellows is disastrous; for a spiritually minded tinker is worth more to God and to his brethren than an unspiritually minded millionaire. Even to handle the Assembly’s money in Jerusalem men were looked out who were “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3).
Solomon’s interest in horses was bad; his love of gold was dangerous; but his lust for women was a tragedy. All these things were forbidden by the God of Israel, as we have seen; but as opportunities for acquisition crowded upon him the once-wise king became increasingly reckless, and so degenerated into the greatest fool of all time. He is a beacon, set in the sacred page for the warning of men in all ages. He began badly. While yet in his teens he married an Ammonitess, and had a son―Rehoboam―before he ascended the throne. Then he took an Egyptian, and later, he gathered pagan women around him in hordes. Nehemiah spoke of this when he reproved the returned remnant for their unholy alliances. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to sin” (Neh. 12:26).
The contrast between the opening words of chapter 10 and 11 of the first book of Kings is deeply solemn. Chapter 10 tells us of the visit of the Queen of Sheba with her spiritual difficulties, which Solomon was enabled to clear up by the grace of God given to him. His majesty, wisdom, the Temple and the King’s ascent to it, and the happiness of all his servants overwhelmed her. She acknowledged the hand of God in it all and attributed it to His love for His people Israel. “But” ―terrible word!― chapter 11 tells us of Solomon’s, host of unholy women, drawn from Moab, Ammon, Edom, etc.― “700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” The man who prayed so humbly to. Jehovah at the dedication of the Temple became a worshipper of Ashtaroth, Milcom, and other heathen abominations. He who built the Temple for Jehovah’s name sank so low as to “build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem (Olivet), and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods? Jehovah’s loved Zion was girdled with all that was hateful in His sight. Jerusalem center of spiritual light in 1 Kings 10, in chapter 11 hotbed of the grossest idolatries! Unhappy Solomon― “How are the mighty fallen!” (2 Sam. 1:27). “And Jehovah was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice” (1 Kings 11:9).
Let us not read the humiliating story in vain. It is written for our learning. The companionship of a holy woman, selected under the guidance of God, is an immense help and comfort to the Christian; but the influence of an unholy woman is sufficient to wreck the spiritual life and testimony of the very best. “The head of the woman is the man” (1 Cor. 11:3), and the woman taught of God acknowledges it, and accepts the leadership of her husband; but the woman who knows not God too often rejects this, and gets control over the man. Solomon, in spite of his rich endowments, fell under this evil spell, to his own undoing, and to the ruin of his people.
Proverbs 31―presumably written by Solomon―describes with much detail the ideal woman, whose “price is far above rubies,” but he never succeeded in finding her. “One man among a thousand I have found: but a woman among all those have I not found” (Eccl. 7:28). But God could have found one for him!