Solomon's Prosperity Test; 1 Kings
10:1-29
There was a principle for the
rule of kings in Deuteronomy 17. Remember, when Deuteronomy was given by Moses
it was a rehearsal, as it were, of the Law, a reminder of the Mosaic covenant,
and what God had promised to do in terms of blessing them and it terms of
judgment if they were disobedient. Within the structure of the Mosaic Law in
Deuteronomy was a provision for a king, yet when it was given there was no king
in Israel. God was the King. So we see from Deuteronomy that
God clearly envisioned giving them a human king but it would not be right away.
Deuteronomy 17:14, 15 NASB
“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,’ you shall surely
set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, {one} from among your countrymen
you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over
yourselves who is not your countryman.” Then starting in verse 16 there are
prohibitions, things that the king should not do, warnings. And these warnings
have an application to anyone in a position of executive power in any nation.
It is basically a warning not to confuse the prestige of the office with
personal prestige and not to use a position of power and authority to accrue to
one’s self wealth and riches and power.
Deuteronomy 17:16 NASB
“Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the
people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to
you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ [17] He shall not
multiply wives for himself, 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 in the presence of the Levitical priests.
[19] It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that
he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this
law and these statutes, [20] that his heart may not be lifted up
above his countrymen 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.”
Part of the backdrop to
what we are studying is understanding that command because
Solomon is going to illustrate by the things he does and the way he violates
these prohibitions why those prohibitions are there. The next thing we have to
understand is what happened when God appeared to Solomon the first time to give
him whatever he requests. We are told as a backdrop to that first appearance
Solomon’s spiritual status. His focus was on the Lord completely. There is the
emphasis on his obedience, knowing the Lord’s statutes, knowing and obeying the
Word. This isn’t legalism.
1 Kings 3:11-14 NASB
“God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for
yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for
the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand
justice, behold, I have done
according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart,
so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise
after you. I have also given
you what you have not asked, both riches and honor,
so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.
If you walk in My ways,
keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will
prolong your days.”
The test that is going to
come Solomon’s way is the test of prosperity. It is the test that he is going
to fail and is the test that very few people have ever passed, and it is the
test that no nation has ever passed. It is important to think through the test
of prosperity in terms of where we are as a nation because as a nation we have
failed the prosperity test. No nation in history has had the prosperity and
blessing from God that the United States of America has had over the last 100 years. And yet in the midst
of that prosperity and that provision from God there have been elements within
our culture that had their roots even back into the 19th century eroding
the foundation. The termites of Darwinism, secularism and materialism were
already eating away at the inner structure in our society.
In 1 Kings 10 we come to
find one of the most interesting little episodes in the Old Testament: the
visit to Israel of a personage who has some wealth and power and
prestige in the ancient world but we are not given her name. She is identified
as the Queen of Sheba and even today there is a lot of debate over the exact
location of Sheba. The predominant opinion is that it was located at
the southern tip of the Saudi peninsula, what is now modern Yemen. With what she brought with her as tribute to Solomon
it is obvious that she was a person who came from a nation which had tremendous
wealth. She was very well educated and very intelligent. She had heard the
reputation of Solomon that he was the most brilliant, intelligent man in the
ancient world, so she thought that she could come and challenge him and test
his brilliance. That tells us something about her mentality. The way she is
presented in just these few verses seems to be that she has a measure of
humility so she is not coming out of arrogance, she would want to learn perhaps.
But she apparently has a tremendous education and intelligence of her own to be
able to come and quiz and test someone of Solomon’s stature. That tells us that
she is not just some Bedouin princes coming in off the desert but that she
represented a culture that valued education and intelligence.
1 Kings 10:1 NASB
“Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name
of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.” That tells us a lot
about her character and her own ability and intelligence. The focus of this passage
is on what she observes and what she says in verses 4-9, and this tells us
about the magnificence of Solomon and the way God has so richly blessed him and
the Jewish nation during this time. The prosperity they had at that time
compared to the rest of the world was unparalleled. This was the closest Israel came to fulfilling God’s purpose for them as a
missionary nation in the ancient world.
1 Kings 10:2 NASB
“So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels carrying
spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she
spoke with him about all that was in her heart.” This indicates
that there was a level of intimacy between them, not in a sexual or romantic
way, but that he had allowed her to come and sit and discuss with him. These
discussions would have gone on over a long period of time. And we see the grace
of Solomon in this. [3] “Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden
from the king which he did not explain to her.” As a result of
this she learns about God and she becomes a believer during this particular time.
Then we see her
observations. 1 Kings 10:4 NASB “When the queen of Sheba perceived
all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, [5] the
food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his waiters
and their attire, his cupbearers, and his stairway by which he went up to the
house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.” She
is overwhelmed with the provision and blessing of God for Solomon. [6] “Then
she said to the king, ‘It was a true report which I heard in my own land about
your words and your wisdom. [7] Nevertheless I did not believe the
reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not
told me. You exceed {in} wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard.
[8] How blessed are your men, how blessed are these your servants who stand
before you continually {and} hear your wisdom. [9] Blessed be the LORD your God
who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice
and righteousness’.” That shows the divine viewpoint that she has picked up.
She has described all of the blessings and the glory of Solomon and this fits within
the flow of what is being said and described in Kings at this time, i.e. to
emphasise to us the tremendous prosperity and blessing that God had given to
Solomon.
But when we look at what
he says in Ecclesiastes and what is coming up in chapter eleven we see that the
erosion is already there. His heart is already being distracted from the Lord
because, like so many, is already failing the prosperity test by getting his
eyes on what God has given him rather than on the Lord.
This is all we know about
the Queen of Sheba apart from one statement by Jesus in Matthew 12:42 NASB
“{The} Queen of {the} South will rise up with this generation at the judgment
and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” This
emphasises her positive volition and how far she was willing to go in order to
get the answers to her question. That is real positive volition. Unfortunately
we live in a world today where people have access to more doctrine and more
truth than they’ve ever had in history and yet more rejection of it, more
people ignoring it, more people just complacent about it; and that is what
happens when a nation of people and the church fail the prosperity test. We
take doctrine for granted. Once we become complacent about the truth then there
is this gradual erosion that takes place inside the soul and eventually the
Word of God isn’t as important to us as it once was.
Beginning in verse 11 we
continue to read about the way God has prospered Solomon. 1 Kings 10:11 NASB
“Also the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir,
brought in from Ophir a very great {number of} almug trees and precious stones. [12] The king made of the almug trees supports for the house of the LORD and for the
king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers; such almug
trees have not come in {again} nor have they been seen to this day. [13] King
Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested, besides what he
gave her according to his royal bounty. Then she turned and went to her own
land together with her servants.”
In verse 14 we see again
an emphasis on God’s blessing and the wealth of the nation,
and that is the focus of the remainder of this chapter. 1 Kings 10:14 NASB “Now
the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold”—roughly
equivalent to $500-million at the present value of gold. [15] “besides {that}
from the traders and the wares of the merchants and all the kings of the Arabs
and the governors of the country.”
1 Kings 10:18 NASB
“Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with refined
gold.” He has this extremely ornate throne designed and built for himself which, of course, is bringing more and more glory to
himself and less to the Lord. The verses which follow show the tremendous
wealth and prosperity that God gave to the kingdom.
Conclusion: 1 Kings
10:23 NASB “So King Solomon became greater than all the
kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. [24] All the earth was seeking the
presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.” The
knowledge of Solomon goes out throughout the ancient world, and along with that
would be knowledge of God. [25] “They brought every man his gift, articles of
silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by
year. [26] Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had 1,400
chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and
with the king in Jerusalem.” What did Deuteronomy 17 say? Don’t multiply to
yourself horses. The problem with all this is that he is accumulating wealth
and as he built up his army the temptation is now to trust in his own resources
for security rather than trusting in God. That is the same thing we do when we
fail the prosperity test. [27] “The king made silver {as common} as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees
that are in the lowland. [28] Also Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, {and} the king’s
merchants procured {them} from Kue for a price.” What
the writer is saying here is that he imported horses from south in Egypt and
north in Silecia and God had prohibited this because
what he is doing is just accumulating his own wealth and doing it for his own
glory and prestige. As we will see when he dies there is going to be one of the
early tax revolts in history and the ten northern tribes will leave because his
son is going to increase what is an already burdensome tax system. So this is
not accumulating wealth to the nation but Solomon is expanding his own glory.
1 Kings 10:29 NASB
“A chariot was imported from Egypt for 600 {shekels} of silver, and a horse for 150; and
by the same means they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to
the kings of the Arameans.” So what we see when we go
through this is that Solomon is failing the prosperity test and this is the
backdrop for the book of Ecclesiastes.