1. The Golden Age of Israel
Week 6 • Day 1
Last week, we met Israel in their “honeymoon” phase! They were excited to renew their devotion to God’s powerful rule as the new generation of God’s people entering God’s promised place. Yet as they settled into this promised place, the chosen people of Israel began to drift away from the rule of God as they used their own delegated rule to bow their knee to the serpent kingdom by adopting the customs of the neighboring Canaanites. As a result of the ensuing chaos caused by this progressive drift, Israel grew a desire to become like their neighbors and inaugurate a king to unify their nation to bring law and order to their society.
We then walked alongside Israel as they rebelled against the rule of God in favor of anointing their very own king. Saul, the first anointed king of Israel, would eventually succumb to his own pride. In response, God would eventually choose a humble ruddy shepherd boy named David. YHWH worked through David in mighty ways and elevated him from a position of humility to become one of the most prominent figures in Israel’s history. At the height of his reign, God promised David that one of his offspring would rule forever as king over God’s people who would be planted securely in the promised place!
Yet even David was a willing participant of the serpent kingdom. The opening scene of the book of Kings reminds us of David’s “good” desire to follow God’s rule as well as David’s “evil” desire to use his own delegated rule to secure his throne by sending his successor to murder his opponents.
“I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies
Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace…Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” - 1 Kings 2:1-3, 6, 9
If not David, then who would be able to use their delegated rule to follow God’s rule 100% faithfully? If not David, then who would be the seed of the woman, the king of Israel from the tribe of Judah, and the descendant of David who would FINALLY crush the serpent and his kingdom?!?
The search for this messiah (“anointed one”) begins with David’s immediate offspring!
SOLOMON: THE SERPENT CRUSHER?
When Solomon (son of Bathsheba) was inaugurated as king, one of his first moves was to humbly ask God for His wisdom and discernment to rule the people of Israel based on YHWH’s understanding of good and evil!
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” - 1 Kings 3:9-14
King Solomon’s wisdom would become legendary around the world. Under Solomon’s reign, Israel grew a powerful army, increased their wealth, and created alliances with other kingdoms to ensure the shalom of the God’s kingdom people.
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.
And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom. - 1 Kings 4:29-30, 34
Solomon’s greatest achievement, however, was the construction of the temple. No longer would God’s presence need to be transported in a portable tabernacle. Instead, The city of David would become God’s kingdom place forever!
The Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made. For I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” - 1 Kings 8:15-21
Israel has a permanent place to host God’s presence in the promised land, God is granting wisdom to Solomon to rule over His people, and God is immeasurably blessing His people with wealth so the whole earth would be blessed!
Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. - 1 Kings 10:23-25
God’s powerful rule, over God’s family of people, in God’s kingdom place!
Could Solomon – an offspring of Eve, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah and from the royal line of David – be the Messiah (“anointed one”) that Israel and all of humanity was looking for to take the scepter and crush the serpent?
SOLOMON: THE SERPENT KING?
Even though the book of Kings highlights the gospel of the kingdom breaking through in tremendous ways under Solomon, it also highlights Solomon’s serpent-like actions. Watch how Nathan and Bathsheba scheme to make Solomon king over Adonijah and how Solomon actually follows through with David’s “hit list”.
Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king and David our lord does not know it? Now therefore come, let me give you advice, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then is Adonijah king?’ Then while you are still speaking with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words.” - 1 Kings 1:11–14
The king [Solomon] replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause….Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and put him to death. And he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in place of Joab, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar. - 1 Kings 2:31, 34–35.
The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your own heart all the harm that you did to David my father. So the Lord will bring back your harm on your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.” Then the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck him down, and he died. So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. - 1 Kings 2:44–46.
Unfortunately, even King Solomon’s success and wisdom would not be enough to defeat the serpent and his kingdom of sin. The book of Kings showcases that Solomon completely failed to live up to Moses’ standards for Israel’s king.
(Law in Question) Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.” - Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. - 1 Kings 3:1
King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. - 1 Kings 5:13
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. - 1 Kings 10:14-15
And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. - 1 Kings 10:28-29
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. - 1 Kings 11:1-8
Even though Solomon seems to be the closest candidate we’ve seen to the great “serpent-crusher”, he is simultaneously the closest image of the “serpent-king” we’ve seen since Pharaoh in Egypt.
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. - 1 Kings 11:1-8
However, just like we received a glimpse of the gospel of the kingdom through David’s life, we now receive a fuller picture of what the kingdom of God might look like when we reflect on Israel’s golden age under the reign of king Solomon. Notice how God’s rule was firmly established when king Solomon surrendered his own delegated rule in favor of trusting God’s definition of “good” and “evil”. This led to tremendous blessings. Notice how God’s people had been rescued as they experienced these blessings of peace and fortune which spread the glory of YHWH to the surrounding nations. Finally, notice how God made the temple of Jerusalem and the promised land of Canaan into His unique kingdom place on earth!
All the pieces are right there! Yet all of humanity up to this point have used their delegated rule to bend the knee to the serpent and His kingdom of sin. Thus, God tears the kingdom away from Solomon and foreshadows what is to come.
If you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever…But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the
land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. - 1 Kings 11:1-8
Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”- 1 Kings 11:11-13
If not David or Solomon, then who? Who would be the descendant whose heart is perfectly aligned with the rule of God? Who would be the successor who would usher forth a reign of God’s prosperity, wisdom, and blessing amongst His people in the promised place? Would this messiah come soon to crush the kingdom of the serpent before God’s people would be divided and vulnerable? Or will we see yet another free-falling spiral deeper and deeper into the kingdom of sin?
Share the Gospel: Even though Solomon seems to be the closest candidate we’ve seen to the great “serpent-crusher”, he is simultaneously the closest image of the “serpent-king” we’ve seen since Pharaoh in Egypt. However, just like we received a glimpse of the gospel of the kingdom through David’s life, we now receive a fuller picture of what the kingdom of God might look like when we reflect on Israel’s golden age under the reign of king Solomon.
