1 and 2 Kings - Lesson 3

Dr. John Oswalt
1 & 2 Kings
th630-03
Two Fateful Decisions
Lesson Transcript

We're continuing our study of the Books of Kings. In the previous lecture we talked about settling the kingdom or securing the kingdom. Those two chapters explaining how it is that Solomon, who is anything but the oldest son, ends up on the throne. We turn now to chapter three, which I have labeled two fateful decisions. There has been a great deal of attention, rightly given to Solomon's request for wisdom that appears in this chapter. But not enough attention in my judgment has been given to what precedes that request in Chapter 2-1 one and then in 2-4. See if you can understand my concern.

"Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh King of Egypt and married his daughter and brought her to the city of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the Lord and the Wall all around. The people however, were still sacrificing at the high places because a temple had not yet been built for the name of the Lord. Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places." Here is our narrator again, simply telling us this is what happened. Yes, this is what happened. Here right at the beginning of his reign. Solomon married a woman outside the faith, and if you know the story, you know that this is where the story ends in Chapter 11.

On the surface, what a deal? I mean, there are former slave master is allowing one of his daughters to be married to the former slaves. Such a deal, and we're going to find out later that the Pharaoh gives as a wedding present to Solomon the great city of Gezer, which stood on the international highway between Egypt and Babylon. Such a deal. Who could be troubled by that? Well, as a matter of fact, it was not such a wonderful deal. Why had God said at the outset, "Do not marry an unbeliever," especially an unbelieving woman? Well, the answer is pretty clear when you think about it because in fact, it is the belief system of the mother that largely dictates what the belief system of the child will be. We know this from our own experience, don't we?

Rarely, if the Father is a believer and the mother is an unbeliever to the children become believers. On the other hand, if the Father is an unbeliever and the mother is a believer, it's not out of the ordinary for the children to be believers as well. As you perhaps know in Israel today, you cannot become an Israeli citizen unless your mother is Jewish. It's pretty clear that religious chaos followed the Philistine capture of the ark and the destruction of the tabernacle at Shiloh. You say, why do you bring that up? Because of that interesting statement in verse 2, the people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places because the temple had not yet been built for the name of the Lord.

High places were not necessarily high. The Canaanites tended to worship God on hilltops, and so those were high places, but any place where a shrine was built came to be called a high place. Presumably the people are worshiping Yahweh on these high places. But what had happened? Remember the story, the Philistines were attacking coming up the valley toward where the tabernacle was located at Shiloh and they seemed to be being victorious. So the people said, "We need a rabbit's foot. We need something magic. Oh good, let's get the arc of the covenant. Let's take the arc of the covenant out onto the battlefield." Well, the Philistines saw that and said, "Oh my goodness, they brought their God out here. We better really get at this thing." And God quite typically said, "Come on, take it. I don't care. It's not magic. There's no magic in this box." And so the Philistines took it.

Now Samuel does not tell us, but in Jeremiah, God says to Jeremiah, "Don't you think I could do the same thing to this temple that I did to the tabernacle at Shiloh?" So it looks as though the Philistines having conquered the arc, came on up the valley and destroyed the Mosaic tabernacle. There's some evidence of that in the fact that we have a tabernacle at Nob. We have another tabernacle at Gibeon and it appears that David built a tent for the ark when he brought it to Jerusalem. It's also interesting that the Ark spent 20 years ears outside of any tabernacle anywhere after it came back from the Philistines. So you have a religious chaos going on. It's interesting that David didn't take the ark to the tabernacle at Gibeon. He didn't take the ark to the tabernacle at Nob.

It looks to me as though you had a situation where it was every person for himself and my tabernacle is as good as your tabernacle, et cetera. In that situation, the people have taken to worshiping Yahweh wherever, and Solomon doesn't put a stop to that. In fact, we're told that Solomon went to the high place at Gibeon to worship the Lord. Now the ark is in Jerusalem. It's been there since David's day, but he goes to this high place where a tabernacle is located at Gibeon. So you've got this syncretism going on and our narrator, he doesn't tell us that Solomon should have stopped it or that he could have stopped it. He just said it was going on.

So here we are in this situation where Solomon has lent his support to this practice by offering sacrifices at the high place. Now, he went back and offered them before the arc as well. So again, we have this situation where religious chaos is being tolerated in spite of the fact that God had clearly said in Deuteronomy, "You must worship me at the place where I place my name." I think people could say, "Well, we don't know where God wants to put his name now since Shiloh is not the place any longer." So compromise is written in at the start of Solomon's Kingdom on at least two levels, in her marriage and worship on the high places.

Balanced against that is what may clearly be called Solomon's shining hour. How many times have we heard it quoted? How many times has it been called to our memory when Solomon said, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day." Now, I happen to be using the new international version here and it uses the word kindness. That is the Hebrew word hesed. This is a word that basically cannot be translated by any single English word. The new international version uses 21 different English words and phrases to translate this single Hebrew word. I have suggested that in fact the only way you can translate it is with a sentence. It is the passionate undying devotion of a superior to an inferior, especially when undeserved. The passionate undying devotion of a superior to an inferior, especially when undeserved.

That word occurs some 275 times in the Old Testament and about three quarters of them refer to God. So here, Solomon says, "You have done such hesed to my father. David did not deserve what you've done for him and now you've continued that hesed by keeping your promise to him and putting me on the throne." What an amazing God. Personally, I find it very significant that this word has no cognate in any other Semitic language. That's unusual. Most Hebrew words have a cognate in Assyrian or Acadian or Babylonian or Arabic or or Ethiopic or Aramaic, not this one. I think that the Hebrews had to coin a word to express what they found in the character of their God.

Now, let me call to your attention what I said in the first lecture. What is the Book of Kings about? The Book of Kings is a revelation of God in the context of human historical events. What we're seeing here is a revelation of the character of God in connection with the kingship of David. And Solomon understands this and we say, good for you. So he goes on. Now, "Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, but I'm only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people to numerous count or number." He remembers Abraham, doesn't he? "So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and distinguish between right and wrong for who is able to govern this great people of yours."

We want to give Solomon an applause here. Yes, yes. You are not able to do this in your own strength, and they're not your people. They're God's people. So we see him in this light as he says, "Help me to walk in your ways." Here we are with walk Again. Does he remember what his father had prayed for him many years before? So then what we see here is the relationship that God is seeking for from all of us. He's seeking that self-denial, but a self-denial born out of a gracious understanding of God and of his character and of our ability to depend upon him. God does not ask us merely to trust me. He asks us in the light of who I am as demonstrated in human life, trust me and walk with me. And Solomon, it seems has very clearly gotten that lesson. So we have these two fateful decisions put back to back and we ask ourselves, which is going to triumph? Which one can be obliterated by the other?

And I say, again, I'm afraid you're going to become bored with my saying this. But I say again, this is the power of the narrator. He doesn't say what a dumb thing Solomon did in marrying a Pagan woman and what a wonderful thing he did in making that decision to ask for wisdom rather than wealth. But I think if we are careful readers, we understand. Oh my goodness, a seed has been sown, which if not rooted out is going to raise problems for the other issue. So immediately on Solomon's return to the city, he's faced with an issue.

Now, again, in terms of what the narrator is doing, he's putting these together to make his point. He did receive the gift of wisdom. He did receive divine wisdom as illustrated here. So it's possible that in fact this event did not immediately occur but he's put them together. But as the narration is developed, that's what happens. Solomon is called upon to make a decision, which is unbelievably difficult.

We have two women and one baby and they're prostitutes, that point is made. Again, how interesting. She had a baby, I had a baby, she laid on hers and killed it, and now she wants my baby. What are we going to do here? And what Solomon displays is not shrewdness, and I want to follow up on that in a moment. He doesn't display just shrewdness. He displays an understanding of human nature. He understands mother love and he understands what price a woman will go to preserve the life of her child. She would even give the child away to keep the child alive rather than risk its death. So that wisdom in this sense is different from knowledge. Knowledge is knowing how, wisdom is knowing why and what we see here is and understanding on that deepest level.

So with these two defining decisions in place, we're ready to move on to the section Chapters 4-10 that are dealing with Solomon's Kingdom. We begin with Solomon's administration. We see here an illustration of Solomon's wisdom in knowing how structures need to be put in place in order for this efficient functioning of the kingdom that he is wanting to see happen. In the process we'll see some places where wisdom appears to be overruled by knowledge and once again with the narrator adopting this somewhat neutral stance, your understanding of what might be good action and mine might be different, but that's exactly what the narrator's wanting us to do. He's wanting us to wrestle with these issues. Was that a wise decision or was it a smart decision?

So we begin with the cabinet, if you will, the priest, Azariah son of Zadok, the secretaries, the recorders, the commander in Chief. Benaiah is now the general of the Army. Zadok and Abiathar are priests. Azariah son of Nathan in charge of the district governors. Zabud son of Nathan, priest and advisor to the king. Ahijah palace administrator. Adoniram in charge of forced labor. When we look at that cabinet, I want to point out a couple of things. First of all, no profit is named. Now there was none in David's cabinet, which was spelled out in 2nd Samuel 8:13-16. Perhaps we could say it's not a paid position and therefore is not named here or in David's. But in David's story, Nathan, the prophet plays a significant part. There is no prophet named in Solomon's Kingdom, and we wonder about that.

The second thing to notice is a director of forced labor. Now again, such a position appears in David's cabinet, but it's reasonably clear that in David's cabinet, the only forced labor was from the Canaanites. In Solomon's Kingdom, that's going to change. Solomon has pretensions that are far above what the Canaanite laborers could provide. We're going to have to have Israelites engaged in forced labor as well. And what I want you to see here is just a progression. We move from Saul who is not much other than a chieftain who can call the people together for some crisis moment. Not much more than a judge, but a perpetual judge, if you will, to David who has the beginnings of an organized kingdom and now to Saul.

This is the picture that Samuel painted back in Chapter 8 of 1st Samuel. He said, "You want a king? Let me tell you about the king you're going to get. The king who's going to take your sons into his army. The king who's going to take your daughters into his court to be his courtiers. The king who's going to take your crops and your land. The king who's going to build an opulent structure." We're seeing the beginning of that here. Once again, our narrator does not tell us that was a bad thing. But if we're sensitive to what the scripture is saying, I think we cannot help but say, "Oh dear, is this the right road?" But it's the road that Solomon has chosen and is taking. What comes next then beginning in verse 7 of Chapter 4 is the district governors of Israel, 12 of them. And what is the task? To supply provisions for the king and the royal household. Each one had to provide supplies for one month in the year.

Again, careful organization. How is this enlarging court to be cared for? We've got to organize the nation in appropriate ways to provide for those needs. We can't just go to one area and say, "Okay. Shall out. No, it's got to be organized." And administratively, this seems to have been a very wise choice, but I want you to notice a phrase there in verse 7 of Chapter 4, "He had 12 district governors over all Israel." If we look back at the text earlier, we find some places where the phrase Judah and all Israel shows up. I'll have occasion to talk with you about specifics on that a bit later, but I want to flag it here at this moment. Judah and all Israel, isn't Judah part of all Israel? There are clearly places where that's true, where it's clear that Judah is being understood as part of Israel. But it is also very clear that there were times before the division after Solomon, when Judah was understood as one area and all Israel being the other tribes.

And it looks very clearly as though that is being talked about here. When we look at the regions that are detailed here in the north and on the east, the east of Jordan, the districts pretty much coincide with the territories given to the tribes in those areas, those six. But then Ephraim and Manassa, which are in the core of the land, they're divided into six as well. I think reflecting the greater agricultural capacity of Ephraim and Manassa. But there is no administrator over Judah. Wise? I don't think so. Wise, developing the areas into administrative sections with each being responsible for known tasks? Very wise. Leaving Judah out, not wise.

Scholars have wrestled with this. Some have said, "Well, it's assumed, but that's then a 13th province." What's that 13th province responsible for? And why is it not named? It looks as though Solomon is favoring this territory of his own and it doesn't look good. Here is the seed of revolt. Now remember, revolt has already been in the books. David was king of Judah for seven years while all Israel was ruled by Saul's son, Ishbosheth. But after Ishbosheth was assassinated, then all Israel came to David and said, "Why shouldn't you be king of us too?" So in the person of David, Judah and all Israel were united. But how tenuous was that union? In Absalom's Revolt, it is the Judeans who had crowned Absalom. And after Absalom is dead, all Israel wants to renew David's kingship. And David has to send a message to the Judean saying, "Hey, what about you? Why are you not bringing back your king?"

So what I'm saying here is the wisest decision would be to do whatever you could to integrate Judah and all. Israel and Solomon hasn't done it. Once again, knowledge and wisdom. Now, we may ask ourselves, where in the world is all this wealth coming from? How is it that Solomon could build such a kingdom and such a court that requires the whole nation basically to supply the needs of the court? The answer is in the location of Judah and Israel.

You will see that I'm not a professional cartographer. Here's the Mediterranean, here's the Sea of Galilee, here's the Dead Sea. Out here is the desert. All of the trade between Mesopotamia to the east and Egypt to the west, the two great commercial centers of the ancient world. All of that trade is funneled through this territory. It's as though you had the only toll booth on any of the interstates that you're aware of. The great highway came down from Damascus. You have a ridge which runs from Beersheba to just north of Jerusalem. After that, the ridge line still persists, but it's somewhat broken. Here you've got easy access and that in effect unites Judah.

Once you get north of Jerusalem, the ridge line is much more difficult to follow. It continues on out to Mount Carmel that we know very well and we'll talk about later in these lectures. My drawing here needs to be corrected a bit. This spot through the ridge is at the great city of Megiddo, and the valley here is called the Valley of Jezreel. You may know from the New Testament that in the book of Revelation, it is said that there will be a great battle fought between the enemies of Yahweh and Yahweh's armies at Armageddon.

The Hebrew word for hill is Ha, but Greek doesn't have a consonant Ha. It reflects this with what's called a rough breathing. So this would be pronounced Harmageddon, and this is a case ending at the end. The last great battle will be fought here at Megiddo. How important is that place? Extremely important. So here's the Great Highway. There was another highway then that came from the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea up to Damascus. This one was called the King's Highway. This one is called The Way of the Sea. So here you have all the trade of the ancient world on those two highways and Solomon's Kingdom controlled them both. So you've got a situation where the wealth of the world is available for Solomon and his people to use. W.

Hat you have here is a God-given opportunity to evangelize the world and Solomon used it to become very, very rich. Again, does the narrator say this? Does the narrator invite us to make these decisions? Not necessarily. But he surely is inviting us to think about these things and in the end, to make some decisions about them as we look at what's being said here. As I said in the opening lecture, I don't think this is two authors, one who's only positive about Solomon, one who only raises questions. I don't think that's true at all. I think we have an extremely capable narrator who is simply giving us the picture and saying, "What do you think?" So then we see the beginnings of Solomon's Kingdom here in Chapter 4.

When you talked about the wealth of the world passing through Israel and how that made Solomon wealthy, and then his responsibility of how he would use that. What does that say about a biblical understanding of wealth overall?

It is very significant to that question. As we know, God made a promise to Abraham that you will be a blessing to the nations. And this opportunity where all the world is passing by is a great opportunity to carry that out to be a blessing to the nations. But as far as we can see, Solomon used it to aggrandize himself. And that's where the Bible is quite ambivalent about wealth. On the one hand, it is a blessing from God, but in most cases it has been acquired by graft.

So what the Bible wants to say is if you have it, then it is a gift from God to be used for his people. And if you don't use it that way, it's going to be a curse that will ultimately destroy you. So that there's the opportunity. There's nothing wrong with wealth. Bible is very clear that it is a blessing from God. But the question is, do you think you got it yourself or do you give God the glory? And how do you use it? Do you use it to fulfill that Abrahamic promise or not?