One day he went up to the high place at Gibeon to sacrifice to the Lord
there; and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar. And
the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream; and God said:
"Ask what I shall give thee!"
Then Solomon thanked God for the great kindness which He had shown
David his father, in giving him a son to sit on his throne; and
acknowledged how David had walked before the Lord in uprightness of
heart. And then he added: "O Lord my God . . . I am but a little
child . . . give me therefore an understanding heart to judge Thy
people; for who is able to judge so great a people?"
And the Lord was pleased with Solomon's request, and He told him that
because he had asked this thing, and not asked for himself riches or
honour or long life, God would grant his prayer for an understanding
heart, and would add besides riches and honour, so that there should be
no king like Solomon in all the world, nor ever would be again.
And then, after these gracious and wonderful assurances, the Lord God
added this warning—and it seems to me that the warning comes home to
every one of us now: "If thou wilt walk in My ways to keep My statutes
and My commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen
thy days."
Then Solomon awoke from his dream, and he came to Jerusalem and offered
burnt offerings unto the Lord there.
He at once set about ruling his kingdom and exercising the wonderful
wisdom which God had given him.
And this was why, when he had built cities and palaces, and gathered
gold and silver and spices in abundance; when he had been permitted to
build a magnificent Temple for the Lord, the Queen of Sheba heard of
his fame, concerning the Name of the Lord, and travelled many hundreds
of miles from the south below Egypt, to prove Solomon with hard
questions and to see the glories of his kingdom.
[Illustration: She gave Solomon gold, and a very great store of spices.]
And Solomon answered all her questions, and showed her all his work and
his riches. When she had seen the house he had built and the food daily
spread on his table, and the number of his servants, and the ascent
which he had built to go up to the House of the Lord, the queen seemed
to have no more strength in her, and she exclaimed:
"It was a true report that I heard in mine own country, but the half
was not told me!"
"Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand
continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom."
"Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee
on the throne of Israel . . . to do judgment and justice."
And she gave King Solomon gold, and a very great store of spices and
precious stones, which she had brought on her camels from afar.
And Solomon gave her whatever she asked of him, besides the royal
presents which, as a great king, he bestowed upon her unasked.
There is a verse in Isaiah and another in the Psalms which I love to
read, which seem to remind us not only of the Queen of Sheba, but of
that glorious day which is coming by and by for those who are the
children of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:—
"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived
by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath
prepared for him that waiteth for Him."
"Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of
joy: at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
[Illustration]
XIV. THREE COMMANDMENTS
ABOUT EARTHLY THINGS
_V. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long
upon the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee."_
OUR best and most beautiful example of this loving, dutiful obedience
is given us in the early days of our Lord's life on earth.
We read of it in the second chapter of Luke.
Jesus was twelve years old, and He knew that His Heavenly Father had
given Him a great work to do here in this world. One day in Jerusalem
He had stayed in the Temple talking to the learned Doctors of the
Law, and Joseph and His mother missed Him from among the company who
were journeying homewards to Nazareth; and when they found Him in the
Temple, His mother said, "Thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing!"
And His gentle answer is a pattern to all of us: "Wist ye not—" (Did
you not know)—"that I must be about My Father's business?" He was
reminding her then of God, Who had sent Him, His only begotten Son,
into the world to save sinners.
But with all that in His heart, the Bible goes on to tell us, "Jesus
went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." That means
that He was perfectly obedient in His earthly home.
Then we have the sweet example of Ruth the Moabitess.
Her husband was dead. But Ruth was devoted to her mother-in-law, and
when Naomi wished to return to the land of Israel, though all Ruth's
friends lived in Moab, she entreated to be allowed to take that long
journey with Naomi, and to stay with her always.
And as you can read for yourselves in the Book of Ruth, she was
wonderfully blessed through her goodness to her mother-in-law. God
watched her sweet and dutiful behaviour, and He gave her the great
honour of being one of the ancestors of King David, and then, through
him, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born at David's city, Bethlehem,
thirteen hundred years afterwards.
Thus the Commandment that contained a promise of blessing was fulfilled.
_VI. "Thou shalt do no murder."_
What is murder? It is hatred in the heart, cherished and unpardoned,
unconfessed to God, which ends in a cruel deed.
If we find in our own hearts an unforgiving spirit—a grudge against any
one—a wish, perhaps, to do them harm or pay them back—let us beware!
Our Lord says: "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught
against any one!"
Now I am going to tell you about a murder, which was a very sad one.
David, as you know, loved God very much; but he had grown very rich
and powerful, and he had begun to value earthly things more than God's
Commandments.
[Illustration: Uriah, in the forefront of the battle.]
He wanted to get rid of one of his soldiers, who was at the war
fighting for him. Why did he want to get rid of him? Because David had
taken from him something which that soldier valued beyond all other
things! I will tell you what that thing was afterwards.
So David told his great captain, Joab, to set this soldier, called
Uriah, in the forefront of the battle, and then to retire from him,
so that he should get killed. So Joab, who was an unscrupulous,
untrustworthy man, did as the king commanded him. Then he sent back
word to David at Jerusalem about the great battle, and mentioned that
Uriah was killed.
"But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord."
The precious possession which David had taken for himself, while Uriah
was at the war, was Uriah's dearly loved wife: and David had broken two
of God's direct commands—one was, "Thou shalt do no murder," the other
was:
_VII. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."_
—Which is taking another man's wife away from him.
Then there came another messenger to David. Not from the battlefield,
where Uriah lay dead, but a message from God Himself, sent by the
Prophet Nathan to the king.
And the Prophet told David this story: "There were two men in one city:
one was rich, and the other poor."
"The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: the poor man had
only one little ewe lamb, that he had brought up at home, and that
played with his children and drank out of his own cup."
"And a traveller came to see that rich man; and the rich man grudged to
take any out of his own flocks to feed the traveller, but took the poor
man's ewe lamb!"
When David heard this story he was very angry with the rich man, and
told Nathan he ought to be punished.