(1033-975 B.C.)
[Footnote 4: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
[Illustration: A town. [TN]]
Looking down the vista of the past ages we see standing conspicuous
among men David, the father of Solomon. In David's case it is as if the
all-wise God had constructed in one human being an organ with all the
keys and stops possible to humanity, and as if the Holy Ghost had on
that organ with those keys and stops played every tune of every song
that all humanity may need to sing in life or death, or carry in memory
from earth to heaven. When we remember who Solomon's father was we are
helped to grasp the significance of the life and character of the son,
who, narrower indeed than his father, was yet more brilliant and more
intense.
In 1033 B.C., shortly after the death of David's first child by
Bathsheba, which was begotten in sin, a second child was born, whom
David called "Solomon," or "peaceful," probably with reference to the
peace between God and David brought about by the latter's deep penitence
for his sin against Uriah. But the Prophet Nathan, to whose wise and
tender care he was early committed, called him "Jedediah," or, "The
beloved of the Lord." If, as the best authorities are agreed, Solomon
wrote the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, he had still another name,
"Lemuel," which means, "to God," or "dedicated to God."
The great number and variety of traditions about Solomon extant in
Persia, Arabia, Abyssinia, and among the Jews and other peoples, is a
proof of the profound impression which he made on his age, and an
evidence of his greatness; for only the great among men beget many
traditions. Before taking up the authentic and credible history of
Solomon a few specimens of these traditions may well receive our
attention.
The Abyssinians claim that a son given to the Queen of Sheba by Solomon
was the founder of their imperial dynasty! In Persian literature Solomon
is a favorite character. With nothing to say of David, it has countless
stories of his gifted son. One alone, called "Solomon-Nameh," fills
eighty books. Arabia also claims Solomon as the Father of her kings, and
to this day, under the eastern sky dusky Arabs sit around the lonely
tent-fire and tell weird and wonderful tales of the wit, wisdom, and
wealth of Solomon. Legends of which he is the hero are also preserved
not only in Asia and Africa, but also in the remotest corners of Europe.
According to these stories he could interpret the language of birds and
beasts, was acquainted with the mysterious virtues of herbs and gems,
knew spells for casting out demons and charms for curing diseases,
possessed a ring which revealed to him the past, present, and future,
was acquainted with the arts of magic and by them made evil spirits his
slaves, who helped him with his vast buildings and other great
enterprises. It was with the assistance of demons called Jinns that he
built the gorgeous city of Persepolis; while other evil spirits,
rebelling, he conquered after a long and fierce struggle and immured in
dark depths and caves of the sea. But let us return to sober history.
The only trustworthy account of the wise king available, is that which
is written in the Bible and in the crumbling ruins of his great
buildings and public and private works in the East, especially in and
around Jerusalem.
He was ten years of age when the rebellion of his older brother,
Absalom, fell almost like a death-blow upon the brow and heart of his
aged father David, with whom he shared the perils of flight and a brief
exile. Not many years later Adonijah, another brother, with the
connivance of Joab, David's rugged old general, and Abiathar, the elder
high priest, attempting to steal the throne, Zadok the high priest,
Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the most famous and heroic of Israel's
captains after Joab, together with Bathsheba, the beautiful and
ambitious mother of Solomon, succeeded in thwarting Adonijah's base
designs and roused in David for a short time his old-time energy.
Whereupon he placed Solomon upon the throne while yet a young man only
fifteen or twenty years of age.
Upon taking up his sceptre Solomon first of all, removed his father's
enemies and the heads of the conspiracies which had been made against
the throne, not even hesitating to cut off Joab, whose deeds of prowess
had added a marvellous lustre to the military fame of Israel. Solomon
now sat secure upon his throne, the undisputed monarch of the wide
territory secured by the conquests of his great father. About this time,
in order to strengthen his kingdom, he married a daughter of the
Pharaoh of Northern Egypt, an alliance which pleased the people, for it
showed that their king was a king among kings. The end of this political
alliance, however, was not as brilliant as its beginning promised;
because, although Egypt was at that time the most mighty nation of the
world, because the most wealthy and civilized, yet it was divided into
two kingdoms, and after the lapse of years, the Pharaoh of the united
kingdom did not hesitate to become Solomon's foe because one of his
wives had been an Egyptian princess.
After removing the enemies of the throne, and marrying the daughter of
Pharaoh, Solomon repaired to the heights of Gibeon, six miles north of
Jerusalem, a spot far-famed as the home of the Tabernacle of the
Congregation, which was the original Tent of the wanderings. On the
brazen altar in front of the Tabernacle the young king offered to
Jehovah a holocaust of a thousand victims.
It was on the night after this magnificent sacrifice that the Lord
offered to Solomon, dreaming, his heart's chief desire. The wise and as
yet pious young king asking for wisdom, the Lord was so pleased that He
promised him not only wisdom, but also wealth, honor, and long life. He
had already been endowed with extreme personal beauty.
Immediately following this vision the wisdom of the king was tested in a
way which showed that his God was a faithful promiser. Into the royal
presence two women of bad character were ushered by the authorities,
bringing two babes, the one living and the other cold in death. In the
night the latter's mother had by accident smothered it, whereupon she
had stolen the living babe from its mother's side. In the morning a
bitter conflict was waged by the two women over the living child, each
wildly claiming it as her own. When the officers of the law were
appealed to they brought the case before their king, whose wisdom and
fitness to judge a great kingdom were now to be tried. As the spectators
of the dramatic scene looked on, it was with anxious curiosity, which in
a moment was turned into horror as Solomon ordered a stalwart attendant
to take a keen sword and cut the living little one into two parts and
give to each mother a half. One of the women appeared stolidly satisfied
with this arrangement, but the other sprang between the babe and its
executioner, and, weeping, pleaded that its life might be spared and her
rival be permitted to have the whole child. In this pity and tenderness
Solomon discovered the true mother heart, and to her gave the babe,
while the news of the marvellous wisdom of the new king spread like
wild-fire through Jerusalem and all Israel.
Solomon had now secured an assured place in the hearts of his subjects,
and was firmly seated on a throne from which for forty years he governed
Israel with a rule whose wisdom was surpassed only by its magnificence.
As it is impossible at this date to get at the exact chronological order
of the events of his life from the time that he ascended the throne, and
as it was remarkable for the fruits of peace rather than war, we may
best study it by considering his government, household, buildings,
riches, and writings.
[Illustration: Judgment of Solomon.]
Solomon's rule extended over a wide territory and over many peoples, for
it had been the glory of David that he fought successfully with and
subdued the enemies of Israel on every side. From the Mediterranean
Sea to the Euphrates, and from the Red Sea to the northern bounds of
Syria, the great son of David held sway, and thus was God's ancient
promise to Abraham fulfilled. (Gen. xv. 18.)
Solomon's government was Asiatic, that is it was an absolutism, marked
by luxury, display, and taxation so heavy as to amount almost to
oppression. Its luxuriousness and display are illustrated by his
seraglio, which included seven hundred wives (1 Kings xi. 3); and its
despotic nature is seen in such acts as his summary and severe
punishment of Adonijah, Joab, and Abiathar.
For the first time in the history of Israel, alliances were entered into
with other nations. We have already seen how Solomon had married an
Egyptian princess. Then he made a treaty with his neighbor on the
Mediterranean coast, Hiram, king of Tyre, who in exchange for corn
agreed to supply Solomon with timber for building the Temple and his own
magnificent palace. The timber was floated down from Tyre to Joppa
whence it was transported to Jerusalem or wherever needed.
At peace with surrounding nations, and with a thoroughly systematized
and centralized government, Solomon sat on his throne of ivory and gold
and looked around on his people, to see an astonishing increase of
population and a tremendous growth in business and wealth, especially
during the first half of his reign.
Entering his court and his household, one saw all things in keeping with
his Asiatic government: magnificent palaces, surrounded by beautiful
gardens; multitudes of slaves, each one having his work and doing it
with swiftness and precision; troops of courtiers, and a harem of seven
hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Around his gorgeous throne
stood his officers and attendants, in his stables were forty thousand
horses, and chariots in proportion. Whenever he went forth before his
people it was to dazzle them with his splendor. But, fond as he was of
display and of women, he nevertheless did not neglect the business of
his kingdom, a large part of each day being spent either in his
throne-room with his officials, or superintending his great public and
private works. Besides this no inconsiderable part of his time in his
home was given to study, meditation, and writing.
The king was one of the greatest builders of the ages. Among the
structures erected by him, easily first in splendor was the Temple. In
Solomon's Temple lies Solomon's true greatness and glory rather than in
his songs, his proverbs, his riches, and his outward splendor. It was
the bud whose blooming was in Christ and Christianity. Around it was to
be preserved the people chosen to save the true knowledge of their God
for the human race and produce the human nature of Jesus Christ,
humanity's incarnate God and Saviour.
The conception of a fitting, permanent, earthly abode for Jehovah, and
for the ark and the sacred symbols therein, was David's. He it was who
took the ark to Jerusalem and placed it in a temporary tabernacle or
tent while he collected money and materials for a great shrine. To aid
him in his great work David had already secured the friendship of Hiram,
king of Tyre, with whom, as we have seen, Solomon made a treaty, and
from whom he procured both workmen and materials for his great
enterprise.
The Temple was begun four hundred and eighty years after the exodus from
Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, or 1012 B.C., and was
completed in the twelfth year of his reign. Its site was Mount Moriah at
the point where Araunah's threshing-floor had been, and where the angel
met David at the time the plague was stayed.
The house of the Lord finished, Solomon built his gorgeous palaces. And
thirteen years after the completion of the Temple (991 B.C.) the people
of Israel assembled on the occasion of its dedication. This occurred at
the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, when a magnificent festival of two
weeks' duration was held. The priests bore the ark into the "Holy of
Holies" and deposited it under the wings of the cherubim. When they had
retired the cloud of glory filled the whole edifice, and thus proclaimed
the approving presence of Jehovah. Thereupon Solomon stood upon the
brazen platform which had been built for him and made his memorable
prayer. He thanked God for helping him to build the Temple; and prayed
that He would hear the prayers that should there be made. Scarcely was
his prayer ended when fire came down from heaven and consumed the
sacrifice which had been laid on the altar, and the awe-stricken
multitude bowed with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and
worshipped and adored the Lord, saying, "For He is good; for His mercy
endureth forever." (2 Chron. vii. 3.)
In keeping with the Temple were the gorgeous palaces on which for
thirteen years Solomon lavished time and toil and money. In the "Tower
of the House of David," as one of these was called, hung a thousand
golden bucklers; while in the great judgment-hall stood the far-famed
throne of the great king. (1 Kings x. 18-20.) Solomon's other buildings
were beautiful gardens and pools, and aqueducts and a luxurious summer
resort. He moreover, either established or built many important towns or
fortresses, among others being Tadmor in the wilderness, afterward
celebrated in history as Palmyra. Countless workmen and inestimable
wealth were involved in the building enterprises of the great king,
which included at the last, to his shame, rival temples to Moloch, and
the other false gods of his heathen wives.
Of course, Solomon's government, household, and buildings, as we have
considered them, involved the accumulation and expenditure of vast sums
of money. But the king's ambition, energy, industry, and business talent
rose to the height of these demands. From two sources he drew his vast
wealth, namely, taxation and commerce. He received large revenues in the
way of tributes from subject peoples, in addition to the increasingly
heavy taxes which he imposed on the people of Israel. Besides taxation,
the king increased his wealth by means of his great commercial
operations in the desert, which was the highway between the Orient and
the Occident, and by means of his two fleets, one on the Mediterranean
and the other on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, which provided a
waterway to both Southern Asia and Western Africa. So rich did Solomon
become from these sources that it is said that he "made silver and gold
at Jerusalem as plentiful as stones." (2 Chron. i. 15.) There was,
however, one fatal fault in Solomon's commercial policy: all the gain
went to the palace and the government. Herein lay one of the secrets of
the division and fall of the nation immediately upon the close of his
career.
Naturally, Solomon's commercial greatness, together with the pomp and
splendor of his court and government, carried his fame to all parts of
the earth. But that for which he received the greatest respect from
surrounding nations was his wisdom, manifested in many ways but chiefly
in his writings. One of the marked effects of David's long and vigorous
reign was to stimulate mental activity in the Hebrew mind. The great
foreign wars with the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Sabeans, and the
surrounding nations, who were more or less advanced in a knowledge of
the arts and sciences, had the effect of widening the range of knowledge
of Israel as a nation, and of stirring her up to an ambition to excel
her neighbors in affairs of peace as well as in those of war. Solomon's
peaceful and wise reign, characterized as it was by commercial
prosperity, gave the people both the time and means for cultivating the
arts. In study and in wisdom the king was the leader of his day and
generation. He was learned in political economy, a great king. He was
learned in music and poetry, having composed some of the most beautiful
of the Psalms, such as the second. But in cultivating the fine arts he
did not neglect the physical sciences, for he was a botanist, writing of
all kinds of trees and plants; and he was a natural historian, writing
works on beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes. It would be most
interesting to see these science primers prepared by Solomon, and
compare them with what we see on the same subjects in our own day. But
the Bible has not preserved them, and they have long centuries ago
passed into oblivion. Solomon's knowledge was not of that shallow sort
which is limited to the sphere of earthly material, "seen things;" for
he was wise with that deeper knowledge which has for its object God and
the human soul, and their natures and movements in their natural
relations. This wisdom is illustrated and handed down to us in his
Proverbs of which we are told he spoke three thousand. A portion of
these is in the Book of Proverbs, the others are lost to us.
In his poetry also was crystallized much of his wisdom. This consisted
of one thousand and five songs, all of which have gone down in the flood
of years, with the exception of the Song of Solomon, which is an
epithalamium, in which pure wedded love is incarnated. It is a sort of
poetry of the family relations, and, therefore, worthy a place in the
sacred canon. Taken literally and read with a pure heart, it is
eminently fitted to spiritualize the family relations. This theory of
this much discussed portion of Solomon's writings by no means shuts out
the more spiritual use of the book, wherein we see in it the Church
represented by the bride and God by the bridegroom.
In Ecclesiastes we have the latest conclusions of Solomon's moral
wisdom. Read in the light of its general scope rather than the dim light
of detached portions, it appears as the confessions of a humbled,
penitent, believing, godly man, who, after piety followed by apostasy,
comes back to piety with the conclusion that after all, "the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Through his writings and sayings Solomon's genius flashed from Jerusalem
into the surrounding darkness of the heathen nations, and lighted by its
rays, as mariners by the beacon in the light-house tower, there came of
all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth,
which had heard of his wisdom, (1 Kings x. 1-10.) The celebrated visit
of the Queen of Sheba is a deeply interesting illustration of these
royal visits to the court of Israel's splendid king.
Such was King Solomon the magnificent, and such the life of one of
earth's most famous men. But, after all, he is a striking illustration
of Plato's saying, that "Princes are never without flatterers to seduce
them, ambition to deprave them, and desires to corrupt them." So,
forgetting that as a king he was God's vicegerent, he lived more and
more to gratify his lusts and ambitions, and to please his flatterers,
especially his heathen wives. These finally seduced him into permitting
temples to be built to Moloch and their other false gods. This ended in
Solomon's becoming idolatrous himself. Then his wealth gradually melted
away, his allies plotted against him, and, in the midst of life, being
about fifty-eight years old, he died in the year 975 B.C., leaving a
terrible legacy to his sons: a corrupted religion, a depleted treasury,
and a discontented and broken people.
Although there is every reason to believe that Solomon died a penitent
man, yet his sins and the consequent wretchedness of soul, and the ruin
of his kingdom, teach most emphatically the weakness of human nature,
even when accompanied by the greatest genius, the perils of material
prosperity, and the real insufficiency of all possible earthly good to
satisfy the wants of the soul of man.
[Signature of the author.]