2 Chronicles 1
One cannot sufficiently emphasize, at the beginning of this book, that Solomon's reign in Chronicles has an entirely different character than that of Solomon in the book of Kings. His righteousness exercised in judgment on his father's enemies Adonijah who had opposed David, Shimei who had insulted and mocked him, Joab whose acts of violence and unrighteousness he had tolerated without being able to rebuke them all this is omitted in Chronicles (cf. 1 Kings 1-2). The incident of the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-28) is also passed over in complete silence, for if this scene shows us Solomon's wisdom, it shows us his wisdom in the service of righteousness in order to rule equitably. The king does not pursue the investigation further, and does not rebuke or cut off even the most guilty of these prostitutes. Chronicles does not present Solomon's reign according to the character we have just mentioned. It is above all a reign of peace, presided over by wisdom. It is no less true that during the millennium "every morning [He] will destroy all the wicked of the land," and that prostitution will be neither tolerated nor even mentioned; but peace will reign. It is this that constitutes the subject of the first chapters of this book.
From the very first words of our chapter (2 Chron. 1:1), Solomon is presented to us as strengthening himself in his kingdom, whereas in 1 Kings 2:46 the kingdom was established in his hand after the judgment of all the personal enemies of David. Solomon strengthens himself here with his full personal authority, but nonetheless he remains the dependent man, for if he were not, he would not be the type of the True King according to God's counsels. "Ask of me," He is urged in Psalm 2, "and I will give Thee... for Thy possession the ends of the earth." This is why in our passage we find: "And Jehovah his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly." So too, as long as He retains the kingdom, the Lord remains the dependent Man; when He shall have concluded its administration, He will faithfully give it up into the hands of the One who entrusted it to Him and "then the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him" (1 Cor. 15:28). Will any earthly kingdom ever resemble this marvelous reign during which for a period of a thousand years without a single shortcoming, without one denial of justice, without any decrease of peace Christ will reign over His earthly people and over all the nations?
Dear Christian reader, let's get used to considering the Lord in this way for His own sake, and not only for the resources which He gives to meet our needs. This is the most lofty form of contemplation to which we are called, for we are set, so to say, in the company of our God to take delight in the perfections of this adorable Person. How numerous are those passages of Scripture that reveal, not what we possess in virtue of the work of Christ, but rather, what Christ is for God in virtue of His own perfections. God opens heaven on this Man and says: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight." And when He was obliged to close heaven to Him at the moment when He was making propitiation for our sins, He says: "But Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end." And again: "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Thy kingdom: Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions." In virtue of the perfection of His obedience and His humiliation, God "highly exalted Him, and granted Him a name, that which is above every name." This Man is "the Firstborn of all creation"; He has all glory and all supremacy (Col. 1:15-20). It is because He laid down His life that He might take it again that the Father loves Him. In all this we find nothing of that which He has done for us. But in virtue of His accomplished work we are made capable of taking an interest in His Person and all His perfections. Let us cultivate this intimacy. Doubtless for our souls the outstanding trait of this adorable character is summed up in these words: "He loved me, and gave Himself for me"; whatever knowledge I may gain about Him, it always brings me back to His love. Thus, when He is presented to us as "the Prince of the kings of the earth," we cry out: "To Him who loves us!" But what I want to say is that what He is in Himself is an unfailing source of joy for the believer. Nothing else so effectively takes him out of his natural egoism and out of the petty preoccupations of earth; he has found the source of his eternal bliss in a perfect Object, with whom he is in intimate and direct relationship.
In 2 Chron. 1:2-6, we have the scene at Gibeon, but without the imperfections which spoil its beauty in 1 Kings 3:1-4. In our passage the "only" which denotes a fault has disappeared: "Only the people sacrificed in high places"; "Only he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places." Here the scene is legitimate, if I may so express myself, and Gibeon is no longer "the great high place" (1 Kings 3:4); on the contrary, it is the place where "was God's tent of meeting which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness... and the brazen altar that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of Jehovah" (2 Chron. 1:3-5). Not a shadow of anything that would discredit! Solomon sacrifices on the altar, the token of atonement, where the people could meet their God. Was there anything that could be reproached in that? Not at all. No, doubtless the place was only provisional while awaiting the construction of the temple; doubtless also, God's throne, the ark, was not to be found there, for from this time on it was established in the city of David; but in Chronicles Solomon comes to Gibeon with his people to inaugurate the reign of peace which God could introduce on the basis of sacrifice. Indeed, Second Chronicles, as we have already seen, speaks to us much more of the reign of peace than of the reign of righteousness.
In 2 Chron. 1:7-12, Solomon asks God for wisdom, and here again our account differs significantly from that in Kings (1 Kings 3:5-15). In our passage, Solomon is not "a little child" who "know[s] not to go out and to come in." There is no question that First Chronicles refers to him as a little child, but as we have noted in studying that book, from a typical point of view his youth corresponds to the position Christ occupies in heaven on His Father's throne before the inauguration of His earthly kingdom. In Kings, Solomon is ignorant and lacks discernment "between good and bad" (1 Kings 3:9). In Chronicles this flaw has totally disappeared: the king says that he needs wisdom to go out and come in before the people and to govern them. For this he addresses the One who has made him king and upon whom he is entirely dependent; this will also be Christ's relationship as Man and King with His God. But what is still more striking is that in our passage the question of responsibility is completely omitted, in contrast to 1 Kings 3:14: "If thou wilt walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments," says God, "then I will prolong thy days." In Chronicles, Solomon's responsibility is mentioned only once (1 Chron. 28:7-10), to depict Christ's dependence as Man, and not in any way to suppose that he might be found at fault. The book of Kings is completely different (see 1 Kings 3:14; 2:2, 6, 9; 6:11). Again, let us note that in 1 Kings God said to Solomon: "Because thou hast asked this thing... behold, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart" (1 Kings 3:11,12). In 2 Chronicles God gives him wisdom and understanding "because this was in thy heart." A type of Christ, he receives these things as man, but his heart did not need to be fashioned to receive them.
We shall not fail to see new proofs at every step of the marvelous precision with which the inspired Word pursues its object.
2 Chron. 1:14-17. In the fact that Solomon accumulated much silver and gold at Jerusalem, and that his merchants brought him horses from Egypt, "and so they brought them by their means, for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria," some have thought to see proof of Solomon's unfaithfulness to the prescriptions of the law in Deuteronomy 17:16-17. The study of Chronicles causes us to reject such an interpretation. Here, Egypt is tributary to Solomon who treats it equitably. He lets foreign nations profit from the same advantages, and so it shall be under Christ's future reign. The same remark applies, as we shall see in 2 Chron. 8:11, to Pharaoh's daughter.