To think, Solomon was one of the greatest leaders in the Bible. Certainly in his time he experienced a prosperity unmatched in the biblical record. Not only was he blessed but under his wisdom and leadership all of Israel were blessed.
He had fleets of trade ships bringing in all sorts of gold and silver and exotic animals. The value of silver plummeted, but only because gold was so prevalent and common. He had cities to keep his chariots. Cities for his chariots… And a reputation of great renown.
I read all of this as I flip through the book of Chronicles. But I have to consider the context of the book. Chronicles is written after the exile and the return of the people of Israel to their land. The discipline of the Lord regarding their unfaithfulness is in the immediate foreground.
So now as I ponder the rule and majesty of Solomon, I can’t help but read it in the context of the exile which chronologically is yet to come, and which in the experience of the chronicler (the author) has occurred. This is a unique perspective and offers a special moment of reflection. These kinds of narratives and stories don’t explicitly spell out the purposes. Rather it is implicit within the story itself. It makes me consider our own time particularly. Much like Solomon’s, broadly speaking, we have a time of great prosperity in the West. Again, broadly speaking, we have a time of general peace. We are not currently engaged in a war (unless you think we are in the midst of Cold War 2 with China). But these times come and then leave with varying degrees of drama.
In the biblical material we are told why Israel suffered military conquest and exile. It is because of their unfaithfulness (1 Chronicles 9:1). But we can’t say the same for our lives. The Bible is special revelation given to especially explain what happened to Israel (among other events). We can’t claim to have the same kind of special revelation for our own time. Is the West experiencing great prosperity because we are somehow more faithful to God’s laws or morally better people? You’d be mad to think so. Our sins are great and many! But does that mean that war and famine are coming our way very soon? Not necessarily (Although natural disasters seem to abound around us the past few years). Are they God’s judgement? We cannot say, at least not in regards to the specifics, but we can comment more generally – we live in a cursed world. We are not provided with any special revelation except with that of the Bible (which speaks about its own historical time).
However, what I do see as I read Chronicles is the way a nation can go from prosperity to (eventually) destitution through the road of division (which is superficially the cause but ultimately it was due to unfaithfulness to God). The King who succeeded Solomon divided the nation completely. The wisdom of Solomon was not at all present in his son Rehoboam. Wisdom such as, “a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”(Prov. 15:1). For this lack of wisdom a prosperous nation experiences a division so deep it never heals. Could there be a lesson from this for our day and age? Surely.
But this is really important to understand, it’s not a political lesson. It’s a spiritual lesson. It’s a lesson for the church primarily, for God’s people. That is because the people of God are no longer a ‘nation’ but rather people from every nation gathered and united in Christ our king. The lesson then?
Instead of thinking of earthly rulers, leaders or kings, let’s think of the heavenly king, King Jesus. One of the greatest Old Testament kings, King Solomon, is merely a shadow of Jesus who is the very wisdom of God. In time, even Solomon failed. However Jesus is always faithful. The unity of the people of God is secured in our union with Jesus, one who never lets us down.
Unlike the unfaithfulness of the king leading the people astray in Israel, it’s the people of God living unfaithfully to their King Jesus that causes such strife among them. But when we put outselves under his wise leadership again we experience greater spiritual blessings, peace and growth.
That being said, there is an example in the matter. We still have leaders over us, pastors, elders, etc. Much like Solomon and his son after him, all it can take is a foolish word, or decision, or unfaithfulness to God and suddenly the people under their care are scattered like sheep without a shepherd, hurt, divided, led astray or fallen away. There is also warning in the story.
However, remember that when earthly rulers fail, our heavenly ruler will not.
Bigvai and Shiphrah 