“THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.”
-1 KINGS
3:14,15.-DECEMBER 6.-
SOLOMON began to
reign when he was twenty years of age, and under unfavorable conditions in
several respects. His elder brothers were ambitious for the throne, and the
chief General of King David’s army, Joab, had been deflected from the course of
fidelity to the King. So had Abiathar, one of the chief priests, so that the
young King had not a path of roses before him. The loyalty of his heart to the
Lord and to the duties imposed upon him by his divine appointment to the
kingship are remarkable for one so young. They clearly indicate the good
training he enjoyed, and his father’s wisdom in putting him under the tuition
of the Prophet Nathan. Amongst the earliest acts of Solomon’s reign was the
calling of a religious convention, to which was assembled the chief men of the
nation at Gibeon. Solomon realized the importance of religion to himself and
to the people-that God must be first; and this assemblage was doubtless
intended to stir up the religious enthusiasm of the nation, as well as to
convince all that Solomon acknowledged the Lord, and that the course of the new
kingdom would be after the same pattern as that of his father-loyalty to the
Lord as the great King, and recognition of himself as merely his servant and
representative.
It is generally understood that the thousand burnt offerings sacrificed on
this occasion were burnt offerings only in the sense that they were offered in
connection with a religious ceremony in acknowledgment of God, that certain of
the inward parts were burned upon the altar, and that the shoulder of each was
devoted to the priesthood. It is generally understood that the multitudes
feasted upon the remainder of the flesh of these sacrificed animals. This
custom was not only recognized in Israel but in various heathen nations, each
acknowledging its own gods. Thus Croesus, King of Lydia, “offered up three
thousand of every kind of sacrificial beasts,” to the god of the Delphian
oracle, as Herodotus relates. Xerxes, according to the same authority, “made
an offering of a thousand oxen to the Trojan Minerva.” Whether the heathen
nations copied these sacrifices from the Jews or not cannot be positively
stated, but the earliest and most authentic histories seem to so indicate.
It was while Solomon’s mind was active in religious matters at Gibeon that
the Lord appeared to him in a dream and asked him to choose what he would of
any gift. We are not from this to infer that all dreams are of the Lord, but
simply to understand that God is able to use dreams when he so chooses to
convey lessons and instructions to his people. Many illustrations of this
might be sighted-for instance, Joseph’s dream Nebuchadnezzar’s, Daniel’s,
Paul’s, Peter’s. We have the best of inspired assurance that these were really
messages from the Lord, and hence are justified in attaching importance to
them, believing in their fulfilment, etc. It is well to remember, however,
that many dreams are simply operations of nature; that by reason of
indigestion, or some other abnormal condition, one department of the brain
seems to be awake while other departments are benumbed with sleep. Such dreams
are apt to be inconsistent and unseasonable, because the judgment and
counterpoise of reason from various standpoints and various sides are lacking.
Such dreams are inconsistent and meaningless. Another kind of dream or vision
should be mentioned, namely, those which are quite evidently inspired by evil
spirits and which not infrequently represent the Lord as speaking to the
individual, directing, commanding, etc.; these are in line with trance-medium
development of spiritualism. The authorship of dreams being so much in doubt, as
well as the fact that with the death of the apostles plenary inspiration ceased
and the inspired class canonized, should make us very dubious, very skeptical,
in respect to dreams that might come to any of us. Hence every dream and the
lesson which it would seem to inculcate should be considered quite subordinate
to the written Word of God. If they speak not in harmony with this Word, it is
because there is no light in them. Those who are misled by dreams ascribe to
them authority of a special revelation, and in so doing are not wise, but are
greatly in danger of being side-tracked by our wily Adversary.
Solomon was living in a time before the Scriptures were completed, at a
time when it could not be said that the Scriptures are able to make wise, sufficient
that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished. (2 Tim. 3:17.) Besides, the
declaration is that his dream or vision was from the Lord. Even then we see
that the Lord was not operating contrary to the freedom of Solomon’s will,
because had the young King’s mind been full of ambition for power, for
victories over his enemies or for great riches, undoubtedly in the dream he
would have responded by asking the things uppermost in his heart. His reply
shows us that he was full of appreciation of the great work which God had
committed to his care, that he recognized that his father’s success had been of
the Lord and not of his own power, and that whatever others thought of his
father’s real sentiments. Solomon recognized his loyalty to God, to truth, to
righteousness, to uprightness of heart. In acknowledging the Lord’s kindness
in raising him to the throne he was acknowledging that God was the real King,
that he merely sat upon “the throne of the kingdom of the Lord.” This is
further evidenced by the words, “God, thou hast made thy servant King instead
of David my father.” What a strength it gave this young man to realize that he
was in God’s hands; that it was not merely to his father’s foresight and wisdom
that he came to the throne, nor by the superior prestige of his father’s
influence over the army and the majority of the people, but of the Lord’s
providences.
Similarly, this should give strength to all of
the Lord’s consecrated people who realize that they have come into the present
grace and Truth not by their own wisdom nor by the wisdom of others, but
through the wisdom and grace of the Lord. The same thought should be
entertained by all who serve the Church of God as ministers, servants in any
department, in any manner responsible to the Lord for their position in the
household of faith, and their opportunities to serve as the Lord’s mouthpieces
should be felt and confessed. But failure to confess it even implies a failure
rightly to appreciate it.
The humility of the king is beautifully indicated by his
declaration, “I am but a little child and know not how to order my course in
life, my outgoings and incomings,” and yet he was in the midst of the Lord’s
people, the center or head of the nation-though he felt himself incapable of
the proper management of these high and responsible duties. He did not say “my
people,” but “thy people which thou hast chosen.” We feel like suggesting a
lesson here to some of the elders of the Lord’s flock, who, after the manner of
the Babylonians, are inclined to speak of the congregations to whom they
minister, as “my people,” “my flock,” “my church.” They probably do not
realize how inappropriate are such expressions; that if natural Israel was the
Lord’s people, whom he had chosen, how much more the antitypical Israel should
be thought of and spoken of as the Lord’s people, the Lord’s flock. The very
fact that any one would speak of the congregation of the Lord’s people as his
own indicates a dangerous condition of mind and a tendency to be heady, high-minded,
injurious, detrimental to the interests of spiritual Zion. Those who have had
such a tendency of mind should correct themselves with fasting and prayer,
peradventure their wrongdoing may be forgiven of the Lord and they may be kept
from stumbling into further self-assurance. And the Lord’s flock everywhere
should be quick to resent any such human ownership or control. A failure to
quickly discern and properly resent such self-assurance on the part of leaders
is an indication that the flocks to whom they minister are not fully
appreciating and enjoying the liberty with which Christ is pleased to make free
all who are truly his sheep and who acknowledge him as their chief Shepherd.
In speaking of the numbers of Israel, Solomon used a form of expression
common in his day for a large multitude-namely, a great people that cannot be
numbered or counted for multitude. It is estimated that the numbers at this
time were about 6,000,000, and probably without the conveniences at hand for
taking an enumeration it was actually impossible to determine the number of
people-the facilities for keeping track of births and deaths being much less
convenient and much less accurate than at the present time.
With this preamble as showing his estimate of his own incapacity and of
the greatness of the work, and that the people were the Lord’s people, and that
he himself was the Lord’s appointment to be the King, Solomon now comes to the
expression of his choice, namely, “an understanding heart to judge thy people,
that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this thy
great people?” Solomon recognized that the most necessary thing for the
welfare of the nation was righteous judgment of the various questions
pertaining to the nation’s welfare as well as those affecting individual
matters. Doubtless he had come to realize, as his subsequent written proverbs
clearly indicate, that selfishness is a foe to justice, and that the very
wisest and best of governments need to be carefully guarded lest the selfish
interests of some should work injury to others-to many. The whole world
realizes this today, and if we would ask civilized humanity in general what is
the one great need of the world, the answer unquestionably would be, We need to
have righteousness established between nations, between individuals, and we
need wisdom to discern the right from the wrong, the false from the true, the
pure from the evil. Many of the wisest people of the world, although realizing
the needs of the present time, have reached the conclusion that it is useless
to attempt to secure evenhanded justice in all particulars, amongst all
classes; and those who are best informed respecting the teachings of the divine
Word have been led to pray with greater earnestness than ever before, “Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” They realize that
earthly beings are all more or less fallen, more or less selfish, and that a
crying need of the world today is for a perfect government, backed up by full
power to enact, and to execute as well, laws of righteousness which shall
control the whole world, subduing evil, exalting good. The antitype of
Solomon, the Prince of Peace, Messiah, is to accomplish this in the world in
the Father’s good time, in the Millennial age.
The Lord was pleased with Solomon’s choice; he could not have chosen
better. Some have suggested that he might have chosen spiritual things, and
thus have made a still wiser, better choice; but such forget that the spiritual
things were not open to be understood or to be chosen or to be acquired in
Solomon’s day, nor until the great atonement for sin had been made-until the
call went forth inviting believers who had fled from sin and who had laid hold
on the hopes set before them in Christ to become self-sacrificers with him,
joint-participators with him in the holy Spirit of adoption and ultimately to
be joint-heirs with him in the kingdom. Solomon, therefore, chose as wisely as
was possible for him to choose of the things that were known to him and
attainable in his day.
It was just like our heavenly Father to give Solomon the riches and honors
which he had not asked as a reward of his appreciation of wisdom. Indeed it is
Solomon himself who expresses the thought that riches and honors are in the
right hand of wisdom as her reward. It is thus implied that the Lord in giving
to anyone wisdom, grants also the rewards which wisdom brings-namely, riches
and honor. Some one then may inquire, How comes it that those who now seek the
wisdom from above, the highest of all wisdom, first pure, then peaceable, easy
to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits-how is it that such very
rarely get earthly riches and honors? We reply, that in Solomon’s time the
Lord was dealing with natural fleshly Israel, and his promises were along
natural fleshly lines, but that during this Gospel dispensation he is dealing
with spiritual Israel and his promises and blessings are along spiritual
lines. The wisdom that his people are to seek and to enjoy, the wisdom that
cometh from above, is not the wisdom of this world, as the Apostle clearly
points out that the riches and honors which are in the hands of this heavenly
wisdom, which comes to the Lord’s consecrated Church, are spiritual riches and
spiritual honors which the world sees not and appreciates not in this present
time-which, like the wisdom itself, can be appreciated only by those whose eyes
of understanding have been opened and who can and do thus discern the riches of
God’s grace toward his elect Church, which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither hath entered into the heart of [the] natural man, but which God hath
revealed unto us by his Spirit.”- 1 Cor. 2:9,10.
The riches and honors which came to Solomon incidentally with his wisdom
are world-renowned, and the blessing of long life which was made conditional
was partly fulfilled. Solomon lived to be sixty, whereas, we believe, under
this promise he would have lived until eighty had he been more obedient to the
divine will, but with him as with many others, prosperity was much more
difficult to stand than adversity.
When Solomon awoke and realized that these things had been a dream, a
visitation of the lord, he returned to Jerusalem, the Capital city where the
ark was located, and presented himself as a sacrificer, offering burnt
offerings and peace offerings and making a feast for his servants, and
realizing that the Lord was prospering him in the matter to which he had called
him, he evidently was full of joy and satisfaction and peace. So it should be
with all the Lord’s people who have been called to be heirs of God, joint-heirs
with Jesus Christ their Lord, for “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept through faith and by
the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” They,
too, should realize that the proper way to show their appreciation of the
Lord’s promised blessings is by a manifestation of faith in him, confidently
trusting and rejoicing in these. Wherever we find fear, trepidation, unrest,
we may know that these are symptoms of some spiritual malady; because whatever
may be the outward disturbances, troubles, vexations, it is the privilege of
those who are the Lord’s to have the peace of God which passeth all
understanding continually ruling in their hearts. It is their privilege to
realize fully, thoroughly that all things are working together for good to them
because they love the Lord, and with this thought of their call to the Kingdom
and of the Lord’s willingness that they should serve therein, and with the
assurance that he will give grace and glory and no good thing withhold from
those who walk uprightly, we certainly have reason for thankfulness and
heart-rejoicing before him.