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.
Illustrations