St. Cecilia Bible Study Lesson 12:
The Glory and the Shame of Solomon
1st Kings
-Solomon’s name means ‘the peaceful one’, from shalom; he is the original ‘prince of peace’ (as opposed to his brothers)
-Bathsheba means ‘daughter of the oath’
-for the sake of what she went through with David, God allowed Solomon to reign
Chapter 1- Abishag the Shunamite is brought to David to care for
-Adonijah gets a chariot and 50 horseman to ride with him (the equivalent of a stretch limo, cruising through town for an image)
-King David says nothing; not disciplining him (sound familiar?)
-Adonijah plans a coup, gathers military, priest
-sacrifices at the ‘Serpent’s Stone’- SNAKES ARE NEVER GOOD!
-Bathsheba brings this to David, who is unaware; Nathan confirms it
-vs 33-Liturgical enactment of Solomon’s coronation
Solomon is placed on a mule throughout the kingdom to announce him being made as king, anointed at Gihon river by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
Typology
-He is the son of David, anointed by the prophet and the priest at a source of sacred water (Gihon-the water source of Jerusalem, coming out of Mt. Zion-one of the 4 rivers of Eden mentioned in Genesis 2)
-This is typological of the Baptism and Palm Sunday: Christ is baptized at the Jordan (sacred river) by John (prophet and …priest [son of Zechariah the priest])
-Adonijah and Solomon entered the city very differently, Solomon with humility and peace (on a mule), Adonijah with pride and power
-Jesus entered Jerusalem as the new “prince of peace” in the same manner as Solomon
-Solomon at the beginning of his life is a type of Christ, but at the end he becomes more of an anti-Christ figure
How do types work then?
-they give glimpses of Jesus from a certain angle to make us think it is Christ, and then we see other things in their lives which bring us back to reality until the real Christ comes in the New Testament.
Chapter 2
-‘keeping his statutes, commandments, ordinances and testimonies’ is Deuteronomic language. David is charging Solomon to obey the book of Deuteronomy, especially Deut 17- in other words, don’t collect gold, wives, or chariots
How does Solomon do?
-collects 666 golden talents (uh oh!)
-gathered chariots and horses-(40,000) imported from EGYPT, violating a direct command of Deuteronomy
-has many wives from all nations
-These things are Money, Sex, and Power: a recurring theme throughout history (renouncing them through vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience qualify you for rulership in the kingdom of God)
vs 29- David is the suffering king- those who share in his sufferings (Gileadites) share in his glory
-To those who are loyal to David, he grants them the privilege of ‘eating at his table’: in the same way, we are allowed access to “eating at the table” of the king if we “share in His sufferings”
-he passes the kingdom on to Solomon by an oath
Luke 22:29- Jesus gives the kingdom to his disciples at the Last Supper: “I ‘covenant’ to you, as my father covenanted to me a kingdom”
Typology for Christ (Continued)
-Both Jesus and Solomon are anointed near sacred water
-immediately after baptism, Jesus goes into the desert and is tempted 3 times: he upholds, all three times, the book of Deuteronomy; Solomon during his rule fails in three ways (Gold, women, horses) because he is ignorant of the book of Deuteronomy
-Vs. 17: Adonijah asking for Abishag the Shunamite
-we’ve seen this in Reuben and Absalom: he’s trying to get the throne through marriage
-why does he go to Bathsheba?
Role of Queen Mother and Marian Intercession
-Adonijah knows that whatever the queen mother asks, she will get
-The king rose to meet her out of honor and bows down to her, and brings a throne for her and she sits on his right
A) there is here the precedent for Marian intercession; she is the mother of the Son of David and whatever she asks is granted
B) there is also the precedent for Marian reverence; this can be taken too far but he does show deference to her
C) There is also the precedent for Marian coronation; a throne is brought for her, sitting on it is the equivalent to having a crown
-All queen mothers are recorded for the kingdom of Judah; often listed as 2nd to the king
-like all typology, this one falls short because Solomon does not grant the request; however, this is done out of wisdom…to grant it would have meant death for Bathsheba and himself probably (due to a coup by Adonijah)
-as much as Bathsheba is like Mary, she is still a sinner—Mary would never ask for something that was against God’s will.
-God, then, always acts in our best interest
-Solomon spares Abiathar the priest because he ‘shared in the affliction of my father’
-Solomon prays for wisdom and shows it in the case of the two women
Chapter 4: Solomon’s officers
-Ahishar was in charge of the palace- literally ‘over the house’ (The prime minister…steward). In time, this office becomes the prime minister -He had 12 officers over all Israel
-Keys of the palace were tied to his shoulder (prime minister) showing his authority (Role of prime minister-key of the kingdom- Is 22:16-22)
-Mt 16:18-19 “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven”
vs. 20-22: Judah and Israel were as many as the ‘sand by the sea’ (provisional Abrahamic fulfillment-Gen 22)
-He Ruled from Euphrates to the border of Egypt (land promised to Abraham)
-Solomon’s wisdom surpassed all the peoples, they came from all over to hear his wisdom (provisional world-wide blessing)
-pouring out wisdom from Mt. Zion is typological for Christ pouring out the Holy Spirit (water from His heart) from Mt. Calvary
-Solomon uttered 3,000 proverbs (translated parables) spoke of trees, birds, reptiles, and fish [who else spoke in parables of natural phenomena? I.e. ‘the kingdom of heaven is like a net which brings up…fish’]
Chapters 5-8: Solomon builds the Temple
-flowers, palm trees, gold, water (bronze sea), cherubim…all the decorations of Eden
-The temple is meant to be a NEW EDEN-the cosmos in miniature, the place where God dwells
-there are 7 requests in Solomon’s prayer for the dedication of the temple
This is the HIGH POINT of Israel’s history: All of God’s promises are fulfilled (provisionally)
The Temple is the embodiment of all the covenants:
1) Gihon river and Temple—Adamic/Eden
2) The Ark is present--Mosaic (some say that the entire tent was taken inside with it-all the furnishings) and Noahic covenant
3) Temple is built on Mt. Moriah, Abrahamic covenant
4) The Temple and Solomon are both elements of the Davidic covenant
-When Jesus cleanses the temple in John 2 He says: “destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.” He is saying that His Body is the NEW TEMPLE. By doing this, with a Jewish understanding, He is saying that He is the embodiment of all of Salvation History!
-The Eucharist therefore, as the body of Christ, “embodies” all of salvation history—and we are allowed to receive it!!
-Not only that, but in receiving it, we “become what we eat”--incorporated into the Body of Christ—WE BECOME THE NEW TEMPLE IN CHRIST! We receive all of God’s saving promises that He has ever made, for all is contained in the Body of Christ—This is why the Eucharist is called the “Summit and source” of our faith!!
-Signs of trouble: Solomon spends 7 years on the temple, but 13 on his own palace
Chapter 11: Because of Solomon’s infidelity, Jeroboam is raised up as an enemy of Solomon:
-he is an Ephraimite- under Joseph’s line-had a princely blessing from Abraham
-He flees to Egypt (remember that Ephraim was born to an Egyptian wife of Joseph)
Chapter 12- The split of the Kingdom
Rehoboam was made king and the people requested he lift the heavy yoke on the people
-The elders tell him to lighten the taxes, his buddies tell him to increase the burden (‘I am more manly than my father’--locker room remarks ‘my little finger is bigger than my father’s loins’)
-He decides to go with his buddies, excluding the comment about his father’s loins
*Jesus makes reference to this when he says, ‘my yoke is easy and my burden light’ because this event (in 1 Kings 12) brought about a divorce in the kingdom of God (David). Jesus came to restore unity to the kingdom: ‘a kingdom divided against itself can not stand’
The Sin of Jeroboam
-He did not commit sin by separating the kingdom, he had authority from God to do this
-He DID set up 2 GOLDEN CALVES and told the people to worship them
Why? He went down to Egypt and remembered the old religion
-it was also a rebellion against Moses, implying that in the times of the calves, we didn’t have fancy literature and priests and complicated laws—lets throw it all out
-One calf was in Dan and the other was in Bethel
-In a sense, this is a type of Old Testament Protestantism!!
- The Pope represents the Davidic hierarchy
-The religious program of Luther and others succeeded because it had political authority backing it (Henry VIII, princes of Germany)
From here on, you have really good prophets in the Northern Kingdom, but there is little continuity between rulers because they have established a precedent against holding fast to traditions (they aren’t worried about killing the Lord’s anointed as David was-many kings are assassinated)
-There are two kings of note in Judah: Hezekiah (715-687 BC) and Josiah (640-609 BC)
-they lead reform, and the high point of both of their reigns is celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem feeding all the people at their own expense (types of Christ-feeding the 5000, celebrating the Passover with the 12 ‘new tribes’)
Unfortunately because of time, we won’t be covering Elijah and Elisha and the other kings in detail